I would like to be able to say that today was unremarkable, like most of the last few days, however today is remarkable, for a terrible reason.

I woke up about 12:30, started watching tv as usual, got out of bed to check my email, watched some more tv.

At about 3pm, I had just started to watch an episode of The Simpsons ("King of the Hill") when the phone rang. I paused the tv.

I answered the phone, it was my mate who I go to dinner with each week. He asked me if I had heard the news, "No, what news? I haven't seen the news for like 2 months". I was then asked if I was sitting down, I was. "_name withheld_'s dead. He died yesterday. His plane crashed".

I'm not sure what the conversation contained after that, I can't remember. The guy who died is the guy who I used to work with, who I just saw a couple of days ago, when I was trying to get my ADSL arranged (I'm only thinking about this now, to try to link it to earlier posts, to help me explain the guy, since I don't want to put names in here). The conversation went on for a few minutes, I agreed to go to the Internet Cafe we ran together until a few months ago tomorrow. We're going to try to work out what to do. There is a hell of a lot of stuff that only he knew.

I was stunned. I couldn't do anything. I just sat and did nothing for about an hour. Then I did a bit of cleaning in here, just pointless activity. I eventually got back to doing something, I checked my email, I started typing an email about setting up networking, routing specifically, and realised that a lot of my routing knowledge came from the guy that died.

At about 5pm, I called my mate, who I was going to start an ISP with, to tell him, since he worked for the guy for a month a few months back. He wasn't home, I left a message with his wife for him to call me. I went back to typing my email, he called me a few minutes later. I told him what had happened, he had the same reaction as I did. It's just such a shock. I don't remember that conversation either.

I went back to my email for a few minutes, and the phone rang again, it was my mate again, he wanted to explain that he had spent the day drinking and watching the cricket, and that he was fairly intoxicated, in case he came across as being insensitive when I told him what had happened. I was so out of it I didn't notice.

I finished my email, and sent it.

My mate called me back again about 5:30, told me he had just seen it on the local news. We chatted for a few minutes again, I told him that I was going up to the shop tomorrow to help out with whatever I can.

I got off the phone, and just sat around a bit more. I noticed the time was 5:53, so I put the local news on, recorded it on tivo. 2 minutes into the news, the story came on, about how "A scenic flight over the Central Coast last night changed to tragedy, when a 40 year old man was killed in an ultralight plane crash near Wyong. Police haven't ruled out mechanical failure as the cause of the accident".

The story then went on to show video from the scene last night, "about 20 to 7 last night, there was a loud crash. Police, Ambulance, and Rescue crews were sent out. The wreckage was located, but the pilot was found deceased, still in the wreckage".
It showed a Policemen investigating the crash, and detailed other factors. A witness claims he saw the plane "heading north at about 500 feet (150 metres), when the engine stopped".

Immediately I was reminded of part of the conversation I had with him on Tuesday. Apparently when the plane was out the other day, the engine stopped, but assumedly he got it started again, or was able to land it safely. He must not have done anything about the engine at the time.

The story continued, about how forensic experts where going to come in an examine the wreckage, and that mechanical failure could be the cause, but that high winds could have been a factor.

I sat and felt very shaken up again. It was starting to sink in now, after seeing the story. I went inside, I told my parents what was going on, they had heard about the crash on the radio. I cried. I ate dinner with my parents tonight, something I have not done for a long time. No conversation went on about it.

I just came back to where I live, checked my email again.

It's now 8:45pm, I've just put that episode of The Simpsons back on I started watching before. I unpaused it, and Bart said "Mum, a man just died". I decided to write this blog now, before my mind forces out all the things I don't want to remember.

I have just watched the news story again, to remind myself of the details of the story, which made me think about the conversation the other day. I cried again.

As I left the Cafe on Tuesday, I said "I'll call you in a couple of days". That was the last time I saw him, and the last thing I said to him.

I will speak to the guy that came in to replace me in the Cafe tomorrow, I think he knows a bit more about the engine failing the other day, and I will contact the Police, to let them know the details, in case it helps the investigation.

I first had dealings with the guy back in about 1998. I spoke to him over the phone a few times while I was at my first job, an ISP. I left that ISP, and I worked for CSC for 20 months, 19 of those months were spent working on the same floor of the building with him. After I left CSC, I had dealings with him when I went back to TAFE, he set me up with an ISDN connection at home, and I was signing up customers to a new ISP he had started (he already had a couple of others). For months he talked about starting an Internet Cafe.

We finally started the Cafe in January last year, almost exactly 1 year ago, it's a week or so short of a year. I worked in the Cafe up until about September, the guy had lost his job at CSC a few months earlier, needed work, so I left, so that he could do the work I was doing, fixing PCs. I went back to the job I had between leaving TAFE and starting the Cafe. I hadn't had much to do with him since then, the odd phone call, popping in to the Cafe every few weeks for a chat. I never expected this to happen.