I was over here for a global sales meeting in Chester, having come in on the Friday for my goddaughter's 18th birthday party in London, then up to Manchester to pick up two colleagues who flew in - we had a golf match versus our ad agencies on the Sunday at the Portal.
I too watched it at lunch time and everything stopped for 90 minutes or so. Two of my staff were due to be in the Windows of the World for a conference and, in true company tradition of being late, they were saved by still being in the NY Metro and escaped that way. A client company with whom I was closely associated were also spared - they were in the North Tower and, fortuitously so, had a meeting with the DoE (White House) and the Thursday before had moved it off site, the only two in to the office being the Pres and his sec. What saved the life of thousands was that the NY schools went back that day and many stayed at home for that extra bit of time to see little Johnny and Mary off to their new schools...It's reckoned that if the attack had been a day later, the death toll could have approached 8000.
However it also hit home over there as though I knew of no one directly who died in the incident, over the next month, there were a number of friends/contacts who had lost a family member.....