A riverside diary entry on witnessing a genuinely bizarre technical failure over the water, what it’s like living somewhere things occasionally fall out of the sky, and why the river always seems to absorb the city’s stranger moments
Five out-of-control drones crashed into each other and plunged into the River Thames during a rehearsal for a light show this week, and I happened to be standing at my kitchen window with a cup of tea at exactly the wrong, or perhaps exactly the right, moment to watch the whole thing unfold.
Why Living Directly On The River Means You Occasionally Witness Things Nobody Else Sees
There’s a specific privilege to a riverside flat that nobody warns you about when you’re signing the lease, namely that you become an accidental witness to whatever strange, unscripted thing the water happens to be doing on any given evening, and this week that meant five drones colliding mid-air before dropping, one after another, into the Thames.
What The Actual Moment Of Watching This Happen Was Genuinely Like
Confusing, mostly, in the first few seconds, a kind of “surely that’s not meant to happen” delay before my brain caught up with what I was actually seeing. Then a strange, slightly guilty amusement, watching what I assume was an expensive piece of choreographed technology simply give up entirely over the water.
How The River Seemed To Just Absorb The Whole Incident Without Fuss
Within about twenty minutes, the water had gone back to looking exactly as it always does, no trace of the drama beyond a couple of pleasure boats slowing down to have a look, and there’s something quite fitting about a river this old and this constant simply shrugging off yet another odd, modern mishap dropped into it.
Why This Felt Like A Genuinely Fitting Metaphor For This Particular Summer
Everything this year has felt slightly glitchy and overheated, the drought, the burst mains, the general sense of infrastructure straining under conditions it wasn’t quite built for, and five drones failing spectacularly over the Thames felt like a strangely apt visual summary of the whole season.
What I’m Actually Keeping An Eye Out For Next Time A Rehearsal Like This Happens Nearby
A better vantage point, mostly, and possibly my phone actually in hand rather than a cup of tea. It’s not every evening you get to watch technology fail this spectacularly over the water, and I’d rather have proper footage next time rather than just a slightly smug story to tell at dinner parties.