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11 september 2011, where were you...

For the last generation, it was when kennedy was shot; for us it's 9/11. I was interviewing for my job at the european central bank in frankfurt. As I walked into the office of my future boss, his secretary was bouncing up and down, saying that a plane had crashed into the world trade centre. I thought her slightly eccentric. When I came out half an hour later, she was semi-hysterical, saying another plane had crashed into the world trade centre. I said my goodbyes and that I hoped I'd see her again. When my taxi arrived at the airport I still had no inkling, and even when a huge slew of planes were showing up delayed or cancelled, it took a while. There were televisions dotted around though, and each had crowds in front of them, so that was the clue. Fighting my way to a payphone, I called my other half, who was sat in london with our then 3-week old child, blissfully unaware of everything; amazing how slow news travelled before proper mobile phones. I told her to turn on the tv and she asked me what film it was. When she got her head around it, she thought it was the start of the third world war. It was the thirtieth birthday of one of my friends, and last night was her 40th party, so that's where we were reminiscing, me having spent the morning accompanying that 3-week old to his first secondary school entrance exam, which was even more scary than 9/11. It was also my own birthday: 21 again, in my mind anyway, which is what counts, or so I tell myself.