story5631.xml
Title
story5631.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-09-11
911DA Story: Story
I had just returned from my annual leave from Europe and was getting back to my business environment with full throttle--after one month of absence my desk was full and a major upcoming event on the 12th had to be prepared.
So I started my work on Monday 10 with all the energy I had.
I gathered with my team to see whether all preparations had gone according to schedule and after i realized that everything was on time I entered into the final dialogue with our Chinese business partners for a final briefing, since they were a part of the big meeting we were preparing for the 12th.
And as it goes in China, I had to invite them for dinner on the 11th. The atmosphere was very pleasant that evening especially because everybody felt that both, we as well as the Chinese had done all to their best to make the meeting a success. So we decided to continue our evening and move on to a karaoke bar.
I usually avoid these places mainly because it does not really reflect my attitude towards good entertainment and also for a simple reason: they usually don't have enough english songs for me, which makes me feel bored. But I decided to sponsor that part of the evening also, so I had to go and "give face" to my Chinese friends.
One chinese song after the other appeared on screen but mine was still not coming and I decided to leave after the the one I had chosen--it was Frank Sinatra's "My Way".
After almost one hour of waiting in that bar I could see that my song would be soon on-screen so I took over the microphone from a colleague who had just finished his song. I do not remember the exact time but it must have been between 2030 and 2100 hours local time, which is +12 hrs to New York time.
Just at the very moment I wanted to start singing my mobile phone rang and I was quite annoyed. But I picked it up and was telling to my good friend that I have no time now 'cause I was in the middle of a song. He insisted and asked me whether I heard the news about a plane accident at the WTC--appearantly that was plane number one and nobody really believed it might have been a terror strike at that moment.
I was very short with my comments and told him to call me later, I would be busy right now....So I sang my Sinatra song I had been waiting for!
Time passed by, a second call comes in-this time from a friend in Shanghai. She was telling me about a second plane that hit the WTC. Her voice was trembling. That was the time when I asked my Chinese friends to switch from the karakoe video channel to national TV...
CCTV1 was broadcasting the live pictures coming from CNN. I was looking once, twice and I looked back to the rest of the audience in the room and we thought we were in the movies. It was a mixture of disbelief and horror that shook us. The Chinese were sort of smiling, which was a clear signal to me that they were not able to cope with the situation so we quickly turned the TV back to video.
I packed my things and rushed back to my hotel and was watching the catastrophe over and over again until i finally slept from fatigue....
One year later I still feel horrified about the idea this could happen to anybody, in any city, at any time and I hope our civilizations are andvanced and mature enough to cope with the imminent threat of terror.
With my deepest respect to the mourning and equally courageous citizens of NY.
Anastasios Goudoulakis
So I started my work on Monday 10 with all the energy I had.
I gathered with my team to see whether all preparations had gone according to schedule and after i realized that everything was on time I entered into the final dialogue with our Chinese business partners for a final briefing, since they were a part of the big meeting we were preparing for the 12th.
And as it goes in China, I had to invite them for dinner on the 11th. The atmosphere was very pleasant that evening especially because everybody felt that both, we as well as the Chinese had done all to their best to make the meeting a success. So we decided to continue our evening and move on to a karaoke bar.
I usually avoid these places mainly because it does not really reflect my attitude towards good entertainment and also for a simple reason: they usually don't have enough english songs for me, which makes me feel bored. But I decided to sponsor that part of the evening also, so I had to go and "give face" to my Chinese friends.
One chinese song after the other appeared on screen but mine was still not coming and I decided to leave after the the one I had chosen--it was Frank Sinatra's "My Way".
After almost one hour of waiting in that bar I could see that my song would be soon on-screen so I took over the microphone from a colleague who had just finished his song. I do not remember the exact time but it must have been between 2030 and 2100 hours local time, which is +12 hrs to New York time.
Just at the very moment I wanted to start singing my mobile phone rang and I was quite annoyed. But I picked it up and was telling to my good friend that I have no time now 'cause I was in the middle of a song. He insisted and asked me whether I heard the news about a plane accident at the WTC--appearantly that was plane number one and nobody really believed it might have been a terror strike at that moment.
I was very short with my comments and told him to call me later, I would be busy right now....So I sang my Sinatra song I had been waiting for!
Time passed by, a second call comes in-this time from a friend in Shanghai. She was telling me about a second plane that hit the WTC. Her voice was trembling. That was the time when I asked my Chinese friends to switch from the karakoe video channel to national TV...
CCTV1 was broadcasting the live pictures coming from CNN. I was looking once, twice and I looked back to the rest of the audience in the room and we thought we were in the movies. It was a mixture of disbelief and horror that shook us. The Chinese were sort of smiling, which was a clear signal to me that they were not able to cope with the situation so we quickly turned the TV back to video.
I packed my things and rushed back to my hotel and was watching the catastrophe over and over again until i finally slept from fatigue....
One year later I still feel horrified about the idea this could happen to anybody, in any city, at any time and I hope our civilizations are andvanced and mature enough to cope with the imminent threat of terror.
With my deepest respect to the mourning and equally courageous citizens of NY.
Anastasios Goudoulakis
Collection
Citation
“story5631.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 6, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/13307.