Sydney's terrorism - the day the Lindt cafe was taken hostage.

Nearly 72 hours have passed since the gunman took the Martin Place Lindt cafe hostage on Monday morning at 9:44am.

I still don't quite know what to say about it.  It's not just close to home for me, it IS home for me and thousands of others grieving people.

On Monday morning I had planned to have lunch at the lower end of Martin Place.  Little did I know that would be a disrupted.  A workmate turned to us and said "a cafe's been taken hostage".  We were all shocked and went to the newspaper websites and 2GB.  We tried to carry on working.  Around 11am it became apparent that wasn't possible and the boss called to say we could go home.  We stayed.  Then around 1:15pm I went up to Martin Place to see what was unfolding.  There were crowds gathered outside the cordon.  When I got back another workmate said we could go home.  At that point we did end up going home, half of us anyway.  My work building is situated about 150 metres from Martin Place, and a further 100 metres from the hostage site.

I've seen cases were terrorists take public transport - stations or buses or trains hostage and I live over the bridge so I wasn't sure how I'd get home.  I wasn't sure what would be safe.  In the end I decided walking would be safer as did other people I passed on the Harbour Bridge.  I walked about six kilometers home and by the time I left the city it was becoming deserted, a stark contrast to the thousands of people you normally have to bump past on the foothpath.

When I got home i was glued to 2GB and ABC - 2GB had better coverage with Ray Hadley and Ben Fordham. 

Eventually around midnight I went to bed still in shock at what had unfolded just hours before.  I was scared so I slept with my light on and the TV on but muted.  Around 6am I woke up and saw text on the screen saying "two dead" and my heart sank, even writing this I, along with Sydney shed a tear for our city and the two innocent lives of Tori Johnston, the cafe manager and lawyer and mother Katrina Dawson at the hands of the gunman (whose name I will not be referring to in this article).

Yesterday the city gained some normalcy and routine, expect it was different.  People had it written on their faces, the grief at what had happened and at lunch time florists had queues of people wanting to buy flowers.  I went across to the post office and bought a card and a soft toy to place at the memorial.  I was asked by the staff member if I wanted it wrapped, and all I had to say was, "it's for...." and she knew.  We didn't say it was for the Martin Place memorial.  I wrote my note, sunglasses on in the post office, thinking, "this could have happened here". 

I walked up Martin Place and placed the toy and card and took a moment to remember Tori and Katrina.

Yesterday after work I went back up there, there was another memorial, at the cafe's building, as close as people could get.  Some people were crying, the mood was very sombre indeed.  It was horrible but so comforting to see an entire city unite in tragedy and show they care.  The entire city is hurting right now, we're hurting for the lives lost and we're hurting for the fact such an atrocious act could happen in our homes, a peaceful city in a peaceful country.

This afternoon I had a work meeting directly across from the Lindt Cafe and looked at it, and took a photo, still in disbelief at what happened.  It still seems very surreal to think in our city, in our country, a madman was unleashing his terror on innocent people.

The gunman was known to police and he was known to ASIO.  He slipped through the cracks and was somehow allowed to stay in Australia, somehow allowed to commit sexual offenses against women and acted as an accessory to his wife's murder.  He was also out on bail and showed disrespect to Australian soldiers lost in Afghanistan.

The only questions I have right now, because Sydney is grieving is, why is that this terrorist who wasn't a genuine refugee granted refugee status?  Why was he on Centrelink?  Why didn't Australia extradite him when Iran asked?  And why are criminals allowed to wage war on Australia, yet hard working New Zealand citizens with blood ties to this country who are patriotic to Australia have to jump through hoops to get citizenship?  Why was the border access to NZ citizens restricted yet criminals can gain entry?

Answers will of course come out in the coming weeks and months but for now, we, as Sydneysiders stand together to grieve for the lives of Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnston.  We share their pain and we offer our sympathies.