[Misc] I was there

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

Da Nang evacuation and bricking it

I was in Nam in 73.








Chippenam

Coat.

 

[El Presidente]

I lived just outside of Belfast when;

1) the three terrorists were put out of their misery by the SAS in Gibraltar,
2) when Michael Stone (?) threw grenades at their funerals in West Belfast,
3) when the two squaddies were beaten to death at the following funeral in the Falls Road.

I didn't see the two Belfast incidents thankfully, but was only living some 8-10 miles away.

I lived just outside of Manchester when the Berlin Wall was dismantled.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I lived just outside of Manchester when the Berlin Wall was dismantled.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Fortunately a hoax but I was in Millbank Tower during a bomb threat when Labour had the 1st floor. Rather than being evacuated, we were told to move to the Westminster side of the building as the lift shaft would protect us, apparently. Was also in Florida during the infamous hanging chads debacle in 2000. So no, not really.

 

[El Presidente]

I was there outside the Courtlands Hotel in Hove when Ian Botham was told he’d been picked for the first time by England. He ran straight into Viv Richards’ arms shouting ‘I’m in, I’m in’ to which Sir Viv replied “It’s raining man, you’re ruining my threads’

 

[Gregory2Smith1]

On a happier note I was also at school in Dover when this started and saw most of the cars on their way to the cross channel ferry. Awesome experience for a young lad and how jealous was I.

Probably hard to believe these days but this was a massive adventure at the time, have a look at the cars that took part, some absolute classics along with well prepared run of the mill cars of the day

https://www.uniquecarsandparts.com/london_sydney_marathon.htm


Got to love the old school British news reels

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpwrdv

shame that DS21 never made it to the end and won
such a beautiful car,would have been great to see it in some museum today

reading up on the driver Bianchi,had a feeling he'd be related to Jules
he'd won Le Mans that same year and finished 3rd at the Monaco GP
then sadly killed the following year testing at Le Mans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Bianchi

 

[Pogue Mahone]

By contrast, the furthest "removed" I've ever been from a major event was 9/11. I spent the entire day sailing on the Solent, and had absolutely no idea that it had happened, and that the entire world was in shock, until getting back into harbour late that evening.

Yes, an interesting sub-thread.

On Boxing day 2004 we took our then 6 and 7 year olds for their first skiing holiday - to Bulgaria. We were there for a week and saw no newspapers, TV or internet (incredible how different things were just 15 years ago).

On the plane on the way back there was an announcement that the cabin crew were making a collection for 'all the victims of the tsunami'. One week after one of humankind's worst ever natural disasters and that was the first we had heard about it. Surreal and shocking, catching up with the news when we got home.

 

[Taybha]

Grand Hotel Bombing we had been in a night club then decided to have a stroll with a few pals under the subway tunnel to the beach, we heard the bang probably made louder by the fact we were in the tunnel but bloody hell it was loud, funny thing was we just carried on walking to the beach and didn't even know what had actually happened until we came up steps by the west pier.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Travelling into work in Central London at the moment the 7/7 bombs went off.
Just getting onto the escalator at Old street tube, the power went off and I had to walk up them.

A colleague was on the bus that had the roof blown off.
He was in shock and phoned in to say there were some problems with travel and he would be in late.
He eventually turned up at 17:15 and started logging on as if nothing had happened.
He had also been working in the docklands when the IRA bomb went off. Retired off to live in Scotland shortly after.

Walking back home after work was weird, very few people were using the tubes or buses. everyone was just walking to the various mainline stations.

 

[Icy Gull]

I was at Imola in '94 the weekend Senna and Ratzenberger lost their lives. At that time I was working for a team in one of the support races.
A surreal weekend that affected me for a very long time.
I was at Variante Bassa on the Friday watching practice when Barrichello had his huge accident. The noise was sickening. He was a lucky boy that day

An I remember where I was moment. I was genuinely shocked, he seemed immortal at the time. Following so close to Roland’s death it was indeed totally surreal. Really affected me more than it should have, considering it was someone I had never met.

 

[Madafwo]

I was working on a Brighton to West Worthing service on the day the crash happened at Shoreham. We were at Southwick just as it came down.

 

[London Pompous]

I was working behind the counter at McDonalds on exactly the same day that Jeremy Clarkson came in and ordered a Big Mac that contained four different fresh deposits of semen.

 

[Triggaaar]

You've already said that you weren't actually there for any of those incidents though.

I heard the bomb go off at The Grand and saw the aftermath the next day. Doesn't mean I experienced what happened there. At all.

To be fair, I don't think anyone else had matched the requirements of the OP either (up to your post). General sporting events and music concerts don't really count.

Personally I can join in with 'nearly there'. IRA bomb went off at the end of my road in Ealing.

 

[Frutos]

Yes, an interesting sub-thread.

On Boxing day 2004 we took our then 6 and 7 year olds for their first skiing holiday - to Bulgaria. We were there for a week and saw no newspapers, TV or internet (incredible how different things were just 15 years ago).

On the plane on the way back there was an announcement that the cabin crew were making a collection for 'all the victims of the tsunami'. One week after one of humankind's worst ever natural disasters and that was the first we had heard about it. Surreal and shocking, catching up with the news when we got home.

When the London bombings happened I was staying with my Grandad while recovering from some time in hospital, we hadn't had the TV/radio on that morning and so had no idea what had happened.

My mum called to see how I was and said "have you heard about London?", which I took to refer to the news about London being awarded the 2012 Olympics (announced the day before) and so started to say how wonderful I thought it was and so on - she stopped me pretty quickly and explained what she actually meant.

 

[Triggaaar]

I was there when that flag was raised in Port Stanley.

The Argentinian one?

 

[LlcoolJ]

Haha. That’s probably the closest thing for me. I lived just off Preston Circus at the time and when my dad rang me in the morning, he didn’t believe I hadn’t heard the fire engines all leaving.

I also slept through the “hurricane” and thought I was just late for work when I woke up and it was daylight already.

Lol. I slept through the hurricane as well, aged 12. Despite the fact that the flat roof on our landing was ripped off and three massive trees across the road were felled.

Got up for school and my Mum said, "you're not going today, it's closed, have a look outside....". Absolute carnage.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Wasn’t asking you nob head. You stick to slating UK politicians

No, I will stick to slating you, you sad *****tain. You think that having an image of someone with blood on their portrait as your avatar makes you a rebel. In reality you are a neo liberal **** with the balls of a mouse.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Wasn’t asking you nob head. You stick to slating UK politicians

No, I will stick to slating you, you sad *****tain. You think that having an image of someone with blood on their portrait as your avatar makes you a rebel. In reality you are a neo liberal **** with the balls of a mouse.

 

[Baldseagull]

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when Phil Oakey walked in.

My Sister has a list of incidents she was close to, Paris Metro Bombing, Downing Street Mortar bombed, 7/7 bombings, Madrid Bombings, and when she lived in Amsterdam a Jumbo Jet crashed into the block of flats next to her block. It's quite suspicious actually.

 

[ManOfSussex]

Lol. I slept through the hurricane as well, aged 12. Despite the fact that the flat roof on our landing was ripped off and three massive trees across the road were felled.

Got up for school and my Mum said, "you're not going today, it's closed, have a look outside....". Absolute carnage.

I slept through it as well and my Dad through came into my bedroom and woke me up and pretty much said the same thing your Mum did, and I remember before getting out of bed to look out of the window I pressed play on my ghetto blaster by my bed to listen to my A-ha cassette, but it didn't come on because there was also a power cut - It was only then when A-ha didn't come on that I realised the enormity of what must have occurred during the night.