[English Bob]

Who are you and what have you done with Beadle?


I had just got home from college, and I remembered watching it on tv thinking it was the most surreal event of my life.

[MK Chris]

I was working near Old Street in London and the IT Manager sent an email round with the initial report from the BBC News web site I think. We spent the rest of the day trying to get a grip on what was going on (and trying to get a signal on a portable telly with an indoor aerial in the office).

[lynothehammer]

I was still working in Pensions then, my manager came over to me and told me to get the Sky News website up (she knew I was always on the internet) as something big was going on in New York but didn't know what. No-one in my department could even get on the net, eventually the Sky New homepage downloaded and there must have been about 10 people stood around my desk wanting to find out what was happening.

At that moment my best mate phoned through and told me he was watching Sky News as it unfolded, that was at the point the 2nd plane hit the building, I'll never forget his exact words that day "holy shit Steve, I'm not joking it's like watching a Die Hard movie". Not long after we refreshed the Sky News homepage with and everyone just looked shell shocked at the picture of the second plane hitting the other tower.

That night I was going to Reading Vs West Ham in the Carling Cup with a few of the lads from work, we went straight from work and had the news on in the car, usually the five boys (myself included were a very loud, boisterous lot) were deadly silent.

When we got to Reading we saw a newsfeed whilst walking past Currys but other than that we never really saw anything else, we just heard lots of rumours of what happened.

We eventually got into the ground and I don't think i've ever felt such an odd feeling, usually at a game i like a beer and burger but something just didn't seem right. The match was deafly silent and I think everyone was wondering why the game was being played.

The game was so dull and even went to extra time with penalties, West Ham lost and I came away not giving a toss. Usually I'm absolutely gutted about going out of the cup.

I can vividly remember it taking ages to get home that night, and when I finally got home at around 1am I just sat there till 5 not believing what I was seeing.

It was one of the strangest days I think I'll ever experience.

[Yudster]

I was at work and someone told me they'd heard it on the radio. We went to the boardroom and put the telly on and watched the second plane hit, the first tower fall and then the second. My husband was working (in London thank goodness) for a company which occupied one of the floors that took a direct hit, I think it was the first plane but the second tower to fall. I think. Anyway, the rest of the day was spent trying to track down friends and colleagues. my best friend worked on the New York Metals Exchange at that time and I knew she had breakfast meetings at the WTC two or three times a week - I finally got hold of her at 9.30 that evening our time. Mr Yudster lost 27 colleagues that day, three of whom were good friends who had been at our house for a barbecue just a few weeks earlier, one of them, Scott Bart, with his new wife and month old baby.

Its still horrible.

[chrysostom]

i got home from school and i didn't realise what had really happened, was 13 and only cottoned on the next day

[John22]

An act of pure evil, and has done nothing but inhance the negative feelings people had towards muslims in the first place. Pricks!

Classifying all Muslims as Pricks is a bit discrimative, don't you think?

[MK Chris]

He did it for a reaction.

[thenamesarnold]

I was 10 and I came in from school and it was on BBC 1 (Breaking News Program). I didnt understand why then and to be honest I dont think anyone can understand why now ! Shocking

[richardtomlinson]

I was watching TV whilst having lunch - had just watched Neighbours on the Beeb, then switched over for Wheel Of Fortune on ITV (I was a student back then, daytime TV has a grip on me).

But during the commercial break they went to a news bulletin and that was me for the rest of the afternoon.

Never did find out who won on Wheel Of Fortune, dammit!

[Lactating Man Nips]

This is absolutely true:

I was driving back from Northampton and heard it on the car radio. The purpose of my visit was to drop off a deposit cheque for my boss who was buying a second hand Porsche.

The Porsche was a 911 of which there are many models, his was a 993 (Flight 93 was the plane that didn't crash into its target). The garage was Arlington Motors (the Pentagon is located in Arlington, Virginia). None of this clicked at all until later when the date 911 was being used to represent the events. Weird eh?

[nicowoodcock]

I would have been at school too.

[Johnny 1989]

I was at home at the time (just finished college & was unemployed), I think I had just finished watching a video (remember those long black, plastic, oblong things?) and put the TV on BBC 1, I think Diagnosis Murder was finishing (actually it was Neighbours as mentioned by richardtomlinson above). They then cut to a BBC News flash & me, not really paying attention at first, thought it was either the HSBC or Citibank tower in Canary Wharf that had been hit, before quickly realising that it obviously wasn't.

It was rather chilling & to be honest still is, especially when you consider people were still alive at the top of the tower before the collapsed.

I also remember Chris Moyles & other stations also playing more somber music & talking about the events, as they unfolded in the aftermath. Oddly enough Kiss 100 was still playing dance music for a further 10-20 minutes after everyone else had switched over to reporting on the events that were unfolding, I think it must have been a pre-recorded show (with no DJ) & probably got forgot about at first seeing as it continued playing for at least 10 minutes.

[Nicola_Red]

I've posted it before I think. I was at home - I lived alone at the time - and listening to Mark & Lard. They stopped what they were doing to just watch the tv screens in the studio and comment on what was going on. I didn't comprehend the seriousness of the situation at all and didn't turn my tv on, in fact I recall being annoyed that they had dropped Lard's Classic Cuts! I used to go out to meet my then bf from work after M&L, so I guess I went out soon after that and didn't see any of the footage or news reports til later in the evening.

[John22]

An act of pure evil, and has done nothing but inhance the negative feelings people had towards muslims in the first place. Pricks!

Classifying all Muslims as Pricks is a bit discrimative, don't you think?

Are you discriminating against the way I express myself? I find this outrageous and will complain to as many sandler wearing tree hugers as possible. Or maybe I was referring to the pricks who flew the planes into the towers?

Well if you were only referring to them then I apologize, I mistook it for a offensive comment.

[Lactating Man Nips]

^^ Give him a big hand.

(Has that one been done yet?)

[DannyBoy]

Most * up day ever.

[jocky85]

My 1st or maybe 2nd week at a new school in a new county, year 11. Heard nothing until my mum picked us up and told us something had happened in New York and that the WTC had been hit and spent the rest of the day watching the reports.

Also tried to contact my Aunt in Florida (she used to live in New York and its where my Uncle was from) we were worried as my uncles a fireman and paramedic that he would get sent up to NY.

Just a very surreal day

[SAV1OUR]

I was a lazy bastard student who wasn't told by my fellow students living in the same house (in flats) about it til I surfaced at around 1pm.

I remember first being told by somebody that a plane had crashed into the "World Train Cente" which was weird because I had been to New York in February that year for a few days and still had the ticket to the WTC in a ticket book which I had purchased as part of my stay there, I still have it to this day.

There were rows in our student abode that night because of the surreal reactions to what people were told via people they knew. If they had been tuning into the telly that day they wouldn't have just laughed out loud and offended the person that was telling them, but happily that was all resolved - the problem being that we are used to media hype so when there genuinly is something to hype about we just laugh, that really strikes me, looking back.

I could've gone up there if I'd been bothered enough to go up it, or even understood what it was. Went up the Empire State Building though, that was cool, very very windy though. And it snowed while we were visiting the Statue of Liberty, its a cold cold city, I thought growing up in Blackpool was windy.

I can't begin to imagine the sheer horror of all those affected/killed that day.

[Munki Bhoy]

No idea. I don't remember some random day in November eight years ago.

[SAV1OUR]

Really?

[josepi]

I was still at school, I would've been 14, and didn't know about it until I arrived home. My dad was working at home that day, and did one of those runs where you don't bend your knees so you look like you are a cartoon creeping, but faster, down the stairs and said "have you heard?"

I said "about what?"

He then went on to explain, now I will be honest, I was a very ignorant and naive child and didn't actually know what the world trade centre was until that day, but afterwards, I certainly did. Like many others, I just sat and watched as bits of information dripped through on TV. Truely shocking.

[richardtomlinson]

No idea. I don't remember some random day in November eight years ago.

Really?

Catch up - he's doing the date gag - you know, Americans switch the day and month? ...

[lynothehammer]

I stayed in last night and watch 9/11 The Last Telephone Calls (well I think it was something like that) on E4+, it was based on the people that were trapped in the building above where the planes had crashed and they'd either phoned home or a mobile and left messages on the answer phones.

I sat there and honestly felt so truely sad, now I'm not one to usually get soppy about things but it was really gut wrenching. There was one lad who was a year or two older than me that phoned his mum whilst she was out at Yoga so he ended up leaving a message along the lines of, a planes hit the building but don't worry about me i'm fine, i'll call you when i get out and i love you.

At the time of seeing the events unfold I was truely shocked, hearing these messages gave you a real insight into what the people experienced and went through and i've got to admit it made me feel quite sick.

[C-Kay]

In the bookies

[Bonanzoid]

I was sitting outside my brother's RE. I definitely didn't realise quite how bad it as until I saw the news later that night.