There was high drama in the Melbourne CBD this morning. We were having our weekly Monday morning team meeting, when my boss took a call about the incident. A bar scuffle near the courtyard of the Rialto building had turned ugly and a man in his 20s fired several shots, killing one and critically wounding another two. It happened around 8.30am and by noon, the perpetrator was still on the run. Over lunch, I looked at the Age’s site and it said the incident had started in the bar as early as 6am. This is ridiculous – why are these people in a bar at 6am on a Monday morning? It sounded like a recipe for trouble at the very least, and a disaster as it turned out. Maybe these were shift workers who had just finished work and were having a few drinks. I still don’t get it – at 6am it was 7 deg. I know because I felt stupid in my shorts waiting in my car a few minutes before 6, begging for the gym to open so that I could dash in. The radio had announced the temperature and it was 7 degrees. In that condition, had I been a shift worker, I would have hurried home for a hot shower and bed, or maybe a hot coffee. But a bar? Even someone with a propensity for self inebriation such as yours truly, thinks this a farce.
The Rialto is on the western end of the city. I didn’t know if there were any museums in that part of the CBD so when I remembered that kiddo was supposed to be on a train a little after 9 with a group from school, heading into the city for a museum excursion, I had a momentary panic. I emailed Theresa for the details of the excursion. She didn’t know. I called the school and was put through to the principal, who assured me she has been in contact with the police, who would remain in touch with her. They were heading to the Parliament station, which is on the Spring Street – the eastern end of the CBD. I felt a little safer but the thought of an enraged and possibly intoxicated gunman on the loose in the city made me nervous throughout the day. Theresa and I kept trying to call kiddo on her mobile every half an hour or so, to no avail. At around 4pm, I had an email from Theresa saying they had actually cancelled the trip. Barely half an hour after getting into the city, they took the next train out of the city and headed back to school. The education minister had jumped in to interfere by cancelling all school excursions into the city. Curiously enough, my first reaction was that kiddo was going to be disappointed. There was another occasion when they went into the city and someone took a fall, hurt her head and the whole group had to return to school. Again, a zero risk tolerance may have caused disappointment but safety first obviously prevailed.
Ante 