On October 1, 2005, 6:50 PM local time, I was on the 4th floor of the Kuta Square shopping mall in Bali when the bomb went off on the 1st floor. Didn't even notice it, and initially thought that the announcement broadcast over the department store PA system was some super discount sales promotion... until a security guard came to usher us away. No carnage visible outside, people milling about randomly, somebody said it was just an LPG can bursting in a restaurant, so we shrugged our shoulders and headed back to the hotel. I took a nice long shower, turned on the TV (nothing on the local channels), flipped on my phone... and only then, when the "ZOMG ZOMG R U OK!?" SMSes started coming in and I tuned into CNN, did I find out what had happened.

Funny thing is, it didn't really faze me then, and doesn't faze me now. Terrorism, like plane crashes, is just such an exceedingly unlikely and essentially random uncontrollable event that it's just not worth worrying about; instead, the top 3 things that will actually kill you are health, road accidents and yourself (suicide).