September 11th 2001

What does this date mean to you??

I am sure you feel devastated, sad and very sorry for the families who's lives are devasted by this terrible event.

I feel all of the above but let me take you back to that day (in my mind)!!

September 11th 2001 Simon and I had been living in the US for 6 months and we had said goodbye to our friends Gilli and Steve on the 9th they had been visiting us.

I awoke with the alarm clock (about 7am) and heard the radio announcers chatting, Sarah and Vinnie were a popular Alice radio presenter, I heard part of what they were saying and I initially thought they were joking about the planes and then something seemed more real,

I ran to turn on the computer to see if there was anything on the internet, (forgetting that I could just turn on the TV) I was doing this as I am terrible for gossip and news!!  As I turned on the TV one of the towers fell down while they claimed was "live" I watched the same piece of filming for about the next 12 hours until I could go back to bed.  Over and over it went the same stuff,  I watched on and off after realising it was all the same stuff, but I could go no- where, the library's, shops and even the Golden Gate bridge were all shut.

I found this really hard to take in - why, mainly I felt because all this happened New York time and in California  by the time I got up, it was over and done with and just "old news", how can you live in a country and not know what is going on till too late - the time difference across the US is so great that can happen.

So the next few days with the Americans hell bent on revenge (you can tell they are new to this) I just didnt know what to think.  You see, terrorism to me is something that I have grown up with, going on holiday and getting the car searched for bombs, bombs going off in town centers the saturday before Mothers day killing fathers and children, buildings and stations being evacuated for "bombs", some blowing up big stations at commuter times! Infact the IRA bombed pretty much anything and everything, so to me this didnt have the affect that it seemed to have on everyone else.

People who do these things are very rarely able to be stopped and the people who suffer are basically the innocent victims of our politics.

So certainly remember September 11th it was a terrible tragedy, but also spare a thought for those who also were a victim of other terrorism acts,  and be aware!!