What a surreal event Sept 11th was. I remember it very clearly, myself and a few mates went to lunch at 12.00 in the staff canteen and as usual do the same thing, chat ****, call the boss, talk about last nights football and on the odd occasion, actually talk about something meaningful.
On this occasion I made the outrageous claim that I didn't think that there would be any more real world wars or anything like that but more like mega companies and industries going toe to toe like Microsoft vs Apple etc. 12.35 came and we all convinced ourselves that despite pinching five minutes extra at lunch we should go back to our desks.
On our way back, lots of people kept stopping me saying hurry up back to my desk, thinking the worse, onwards I rushed. Now working in a Customer Service centre over 4 floors and 400 people, being one of the only people to have Internet access at the time had it's benefits. Bear in mind syndiacted news, facebook, twitter were the twinkles of some frat kids eye. So BBC News online was the major news source into our office.
The sad thing is, WTC & The Twin Towers were words I had just heard without paying any interest to until 9/11. When I got in the office I remember a colleague saying a plane had flown into the World Trade Centre and it never really registered the enormity of the event.
We were all let home early that day. I remember the roads being the quietest in days. Myself and my wife sat there with our 8 Month old baby just watching it all role in on Sky News. I had to goto the local shopping mall to pick up a new mobile phone (Phones4U). All stores open and probably 10 people in the whole mall.
The next day I took the dog for a walk, with the enormity of 9/11 still sinking in. What struck me was that something was missing, it was only after 20 minutes or so that I realised that there was no planes overhead at all. Again the feeling of 'Have we done the right thing by bringing a child into a world like this' nagged at me and to this day I am still not 100% convinced it was the right thing.
Has 9/11 changed me ?? Yes. From the very simple things like driving into work at my job then being stopped at the gates for security checks because I worked on a chemical site. Being a frequent traveller to America and walking off a plane, through Passport control and to the car hire booth within 20 minutes prior to 9/11. Now the same journey takes an Hour and 20 minutes if we are lucky.
9/11 - Never Forget
