Five years on

Five years ago yesterday evening, I wandered into the bedroom to turn on the TV. I can't remember now exactly what show I was expecting to watch: perhaps ER, the X-Files or The Fugitive. When greeted with the sight of the WTC on fire, I thought it must have been some attempt at Reality TV, like COPS or something. "This looks really real", I thought, "Hats off to the SFX guys."

I wandered out to the living room to, perhaps to get a beer or to see why the Mah-Jongg game had gone quiet. Four Chinese ladies frozen in the act of playing Mah-Jongg and staring at the TV indicates that an event of world-shattering proportions has occurred. I glanced at the TV showing one of the Cantonese channels, expecting to see some pop star coming out as gay, or something of that nature, but it was the same picture as on the English channels, just with a commentator shouting about airplanes, fire, and America. (There was more, but my Cantonese wasn't up to it.)

I went back to my office and started checking the news. *Nothing* was resolving. Every news website I knew was swamped. This was before I had broadband, so slow responses were to be expected, but not *nothing*.

Back in front of the TV, I flicked from channel to channel. Death and Destruction. Death and Destruction. Death and Destruction. Horse Racing. What? ATV World were still showing the horseracing from somewhere, with two frantic Aussies trying to squeeze in what news they could between the races.