I was staying at my ex's student flat in Hays, West London.
Quite early that morning we had got back from our holiday in Turkey. It had been the first holiday for me that had involved getting on a plane. Before that, the furthest I'd been was France which is quite unusual for a 21-year-old Brit. As soon as we landed I had rang my dad at the airport to wish him a Happy Birthday.
We were both very tired when we got back to Hays about 9 or 10 in the morning and decided to get a little sleep. I dropped off straight away. A few hours later I was semi-aware of him getting up.
Next thing, I awoke to him rushing into the bedroom saying ''Lau, Manhattan is on fire! there's smoke everywhere. Come and see this!'' Was in a bit of a daze but followed him into the living room where BBC 24 was on the telly.
Sure enough, I saw the pictures of a building I recognised with smoke pouring from it. I was asking him what was going on and he said that he had just put it on himself and didn't know.
Remember sitting there for the next few hours seeing the same images of planes crashing into the towers, the towers falling, people in the streets in panic covered in dust. The whole world had just stopped and were glued to their screens wondering who? why? and was there more to come? Was the most shocking thing I'd ever seen and what was worse, it was actually really happening.
I also remember quite strongly that initial reports said that there were five planes involved. Now in news reports you just hear about the 4. The two into the towers, the one at the pentagon and the one that didn't quite make it. I'm sure there was another that is not mentioned now. Does anyone else recall?
After a few hours watching the reports, we needed to go out to the local supermarket to get some food in. All that we had been eating was toasted bread from the freezer. The roads and the shops were eerily quiet.
When we got back from shopping we put the news back on to see if there were any updates. As I sat there watching, I started to recall reading something as a teenager in a book about Nostradamus predictions about a disaster occurring in New York.
I still had the book at my parents house and the next time I visited, I looked it up. It was published in '93'. I had used it for a school project. It went through Nostradamus's muddled code-written predictions from 500 years ago and their translations. Sure enough, It was as I remembered (I still have this book)...
''The sky will burn at forty-five degrees, fire approaches the great New City. Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up when they want to have proof of the Normans''
the translation was:
''If this one is true then New Yorkers must fear a massive aerial bombing at some point which will destroy most of the metropolis. New York county actually lies between the 40* and 45* parallel in the USA. The last line is typically muddled and no one seems to have come up with a satisfactory explanation of his reference to 'the Normans' ''
I know its not completely accurate, but it did make me think.
Can't believe it has been nearly ten years since this has happened. The world has seemed to have changed so much during that time.
Lx
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