gunfire gunfire gunfire...

[ben ttech]

shit

nevermnd

just realized it was the holiday

[ripper5]

I still have your # I've called once or twice.

[Butcher Bob]

Does this affect you every year around this time?

[Prawn Connery]

Only at election time. Am I right?

[ripper5]

This sounds like ptsd...not a joke.

[ben ttech]

Does this affect you every year around this time?

not really

the actual date was january first


thats when it happened
dont really have a thing about the date through

shit its been 27 years

cant place why
goes months

then it just pops up

shoots throught me head for a few seconds
leaves me standing there


i pull myself together
but when it keeps happening

fuck
try to drive home

[Butcher Bob]

I was wondering more as to if you think the fireworks are a trigger.

Growing up we had a German Shorthair that absolutely melted into terror at the sound of fireworks and loud thunder. As she aged you could see her anxiety increase as July 4th approached, even before any fireworks went off. What was supposed to be a hunting dog for Christ's sake...we never did use a gun around her.

[ben ttech]

Certainly a trigger but I’d been having theis an saucy for a couple week

Shit
Wanted to walk ice gunbattle

But who the fuck who’s the good guy

Knocked on the door of the housemate

He reminded the date

Christ
I can be a dumbasd


Think I’ve bought last neer

[ben ttech]

But shit its unrelenting

Gunfire

[Prawn Connery]

I still think you should go up bush and do some plinking. Learn to associate that sound with something better. Shooters at my club think I shouldn't like guns coz I'm a lefty. But I do. I take no pleasure in killing, but I do love to shoot.

Then again, I've never been shot. I have been shot at, though. With an M240 in Sri Lanka. It was a mistake. It was dark and my camera flash went off and they thought I was shooting at them and so they shot back. It was a stupid thing to do, but when you're young, you're invincible – right?

I ended up in a dark room when the light switched on with a 7.62mm machine gun pointed at my chest. All they said was "You're white – what are you doing here?"

Once I told them I was Australian, they loved me. They love cricket on both sides – Tamil and Sinhalese. Being an Aussie was usually the best kind of Neutral in Asia. Even in Vietnam – go figure. But they used to like us I guess because we were the nearest white folk.

That night, the Tamils and Sri Lankan army lobbed artillery shells over the town at each other and one landed in a refugee camp. It killed . . . I can't remember how many children. There were three doctors – all surgeons – from Medicine Sans Frontier based in the town and they had been up all night when I saw them the next day. They were a little surprised to see me there because hardly any foreign journalists had taken an interest in the war between the Tamil Tigers and Sri Lankan Government. But my best friend was Sri Lankan, so I had a 2personal interest.

Those guys looked burned out. One was British and he was taking over from one of the two French doctors. The French doctor looked like Freewheelin' Franklin from The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. I gave them some pot and they were thankful. We laughed but didn't smoke together, as they had a lot of work to do that day.

I still remember hearing the shells lob overhead all night. I pulled the matress off my bed and slept on the floor of the guest house in case a bullet came through the window.

It was an experience for me, but it was just life for those who lived there. The name of the town was Vavuniya. The war went for 26 years and around 100,000 were killed. My Sri Lankan guide ended up in South Korea when I was living there. We both married Koreans. Bizarre! Especially as I kinda fancied his sister at the time. But that was four years before I met my wife and I wouldn't change a thing.