DustyBits

Driving into Basra with my security team, message came over the radio "The ace has been caught, expect celebratory gunfire. " They weren't kidding!

Meow

Some of you are really old!

1981 (?) John Lennnon shot - on a coach coming back from a school trip to see Macbeth.

1987 hurricane - Sussex. Lost power in my house for 10 days and a very large tree missed it by inches.

Diana dying - on a yacht in a river mouth on the Isle of Wight, trying to get a shipping forecast. Spent the next week or so being amazed by what I thought were vaguely sensible adults losing it over a woman they had never met.

9/11 In my office in WI. My brother's office as just two blocks away so was very worried for hours until I heard he was okay. Vaguely knew a couple of people at Cantor. Horrible.

7/7 Had taken a day off to go to Hampton Court Flower Show so thnakfully not in London that day. Watched in horror and panicked until I had located friends.

commander

you knew Bluecat back then??

scrubbedexpat141

Diana - Was only 9, woke up looking at 'The Weekend' for TV schedule and couldn't understand why the news was on instead of Pink Panther. Was gutted, then woke Mum up.

9/11 - At school. Sailing club got cancelled. Went straight home and watched news all night / trying to ring my Gran who was in Washington.

7/7 - Ringing Mum who was in London working for the day. Panic central, until I got an email from her.

Blue Cat

quick I will give you that

Millhouse

When I heard JR had died - DuPont Circle, Washington.

Bahtatboy

9/11: driving up the M6 in the rain.

Diana: In my office in Cairo. Didn't know till I walked in, my Egyptian assistant, Ibrahim, was absolutely bursting with the news. Remember watching the swathes of flowers on the tv in the front room of our villa.

Amy: Piano bar, AD

Senna: Getting the morning papers in Clare. Devastated.

Kobe earthquake: Woke up, put the news on on the tv in our bedroom, saw the elevated highway bent over and thought, "I recognise that--that's just at the bottom of the street we lived in last year". Only the Yakuza kept the city functioning.

Moon landing: Watched it on a black and white tv in my living room.

britexpat76

Kylie and Jasons wedding - Sat at my Nans after school eating salmon sandwiches......Incidently it was 25 years ago this year - I am getting old.

spartans53

Diana woke up by wife, was very hungover as i think it was a Sunday morning.

9/11 was watching in Dubai and went off to rugby training not reaslising how serious it was. Got home and holy hell had let loose. We still flew to Doha the Friday after and played rugby.

The London Bombings was interesting. I was on Dubai Eye doing some sports radio and got to go on air and report what was happening. Think i said it would be a bunch of British Pakistanis and it seems i was right.

Bahtatboy

Oh yes, and this:



In a hotel in Alo Star, north Malaysia. Saw it on the front page of the local newspaper at breakfast--had no idea what it was coz the newspaper was in the local language. Only found out later that day.

Welivehere

9/11 - Combination of the office and then home packing to go on holiday next day. People seemed shocked we woudl fly the day following 9/11 my reponse was that I could not think of a much safer day to fly.... #crazylevelsofsecurity

Diane death - Lving in Uk, remember waking flat mates up to tell them. All fairly gobsmacked at the time

On a more psotive note:

First Children in Need - Was 9, remember being allowed to stay up to watch it....

littlejimmy

I was at boarding school in North Yorkshire watching teatime TV. John Craven's Newsround came on and they said something about "an explosion aboard the Space Shuttle". When the pictures were shown, it became obvious how serious it was.

Mogs

9/11 - just got home from a 2 week trip to Nigeria one hour before it happened.

Lady Diana - last weekend at home with parents before moving into my first flat. Her funeral was the first morning I spent in my new flat.

jam25mack

Hurricane Charlie: Was in a tent in Ambleside in the Lakes. Got woken up by a guy cutting up a massive ~100yr oak old tree with a chainsaw that had collapsed about 30m away. This was the first time my sleeping skills were recognised as being legendary!

Lady Di: Was hammered walking along the strip in Shagaluf when I was ~17

9/11: In Glasgow city centre doing the weekly restock for the night club I used to run.

Tsunami: Hungover with the family in the UK. Saw the early reports and said it would be the biggest natural disaster we would see in our lifetimes. No one believed me.

Japanese Quake: Strangely in work (it was a weekend) trying to work on my Chartership.

shiva

Diana, really? ****ing really?
This is not a significant date and when the generations alive when she died also die it will thankfully pass into the mists of history. Mass hysteria by a nation who fed the very thing that killed her. Frankly it still disgusts me.

9/11, at work in the UK, went to the corner shop for a paper and heard a report on the radio, got back to the office and watched it all online. Knew as soon as the second tower was hit that the world would change.

7/7 at work in Dubai, our London office was closed and got a lot of news throughout the day from friends of their near misses. Found out a couple of days later one friend was not so lucky and had been killed. Get chills whenever I think about it or her. RIP Helen

Al Khobar Compound Attack, my brother lived in the compound and was fortunately in the UK on leave when it happened, the stuff that never made it to the media is why i have turned down a lot of job offers in Saudi

Lockerbie bombing, was at a family pre christmas gathering, all the windows and doors rattled when it hit the ground and the fuel ignited causing the massive crater. Half the family are doctors so most were called in to Dumfries Infirmary under the emergency response plan. Think they saw about half a dozen rescuers who had burns or twisted ankles. I know a lot of the guys who went up and recovered bodies most still dont talk about it. Helen who was killed in 7/7 lived in Lockerbie and had debris hit her house that night. Everytime I go home I drive past the memorial.

Apart from 9/11 and 7/7 and Lockerbie i don't really know where i was for a lot of events, not really relevant to how my brain works but i do remember the invasion of the falklands, Mount St Helens, both recent Tsunamis, the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, Challenger and and most other big events, then again i have always been a news junkie