Look back in anger

Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of 9/11, and I saw lots of people posting on social media about what they were up to on the god awful day.

As I wrote last week, it is my my new plan to make more of an effort to document what I thought or did in times gone by.

Which brings me to 11 September 2001.

Vanessa and I were in Thailand. We’d been to Bangkok.  We’d been to Chiangmai. Later we went Ko Samet. (No, not Ko Samui. Great place Ko Samet, it’s a grower).

But when the bad stuff happened, we were in Pattaya. Awful place. Full of rich, sweaty, American men drooling over young Thai girls who they’d paid to be their “friends.” Don’t go there.

But we were there and couldn’t wait to get away. We went for a walk to kill tine as we pondered where to park ourselves for a long lunch. And I heard a familiar tune. The Sash. Really. And even better, it was coming from an Irish pub. O’Shaunessy’s if I recall, although I stand to be corrected by the local ladyboys.  (For those not in the know, The Sash is not normally on the playlist of an average Irish bar).

So we went in for one pint, just so I could write about it on my blog 17 years and one day later. 

As we took our seats, we noticed that there were a lot of uniformed American sailors amongst us. They were on shore leave. Many of them were looking very serious.

A bar man appeared behind us and pulled down a big screen. The BBC World channel was projected onto it. A plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers in New York.

Halfway through my first pint, a second plane hit the second Tower.

I turned to Vanessa and said: “Osama bin Laden.”

I don’t know much about this crazy world but, back then at least, I knew my terrorists.

We stayed for quite a while as the shock sank in. We even had tea. I went for the burger.

Then we walked back to our hotel and I cranked into “mode.” 

I texted my boss, David Trimble, then First Minister of Northern Ireland. I suggested that he fax (it was 2001) President George W. Bush and tell him that our people stood with his people in defiance of the terrorists. That’s what he did. And then we went to sleep. 

The White House said a public thank you the following day. And then we went to Ko Samet to resume our holiday.

I’ve still not heard The Sash in another Irish pub.