This reminds me of about a year ago when I was approached by a rather depressed looking young woman who began telling me the story about how she had just come out of an abusive relationship where her boyfriend had beaten her to within an inch of her life and she had been forced to flee to A&E where she had been treated (she still had what appeared to be a hospital tag). She then asked me if there was anything I could give her to help her as her family were rather far away and she would at least have to spend a few nights sleeping rough before any help was available from those close to her.

Her story did appeal to the charitable person in me as I know too many women who have suffered at the hands of evil men (my current partner has suffered particularly badly in previous relationships) and her story on the face of it did seem plausible. So I gave her some small change to put towards a meal and I also had a 500ml bottle of coke that I’d got as a BOGOF deal at a local corner shop so I gave her that for which she was very grateful and on she went on her way.

It is indeed a sad reflection on society when you have to be wary of anyone coming up to you with a sad tale to tell. I am sure many are totally sincere in their hardships however I am certain there are the odd chancers!

Further thread drift.

The name of the city since about the 1960 has been Mönchengladbach rather than Münchengladbach.

The reason is very simple, Mönchengladbach is awful far from München (Munich) and people were thinking Münchengladbach (as it was known) was a suburb of the city in Bavaria, therefore the name was duly changed to avoid confusion.

In other news, I love the colour scheme, I wonder how long it will be that shiny for!!

How many heads of state travel in sealed bullet proof vehicles, anyway?

I suppose the vast majority!

I have also heard that it has a top speed of 160 mph. However I would hate to think of the aerodynamic stress on the rear half of it driving at more than 80 mph or so.

Of course as he got off the plane at EDI he did not board the Pope mobile but a Jaguar XF with heavily tinted windows!

I always like the BUFF and always amazed at its size. I recall in 2008 travelling up to Leuchars on the Monday after the airshow to watch her depart and she did two low passes and then a touch and go before heading state-side via an air-to-air refuelling rendezvous over Orkney if I recall correctly.

It would have been great to have a look inside the KC-135, I recall both in 2008 and 2009 the B-52 crew allowing some Air Cadets into their plane to view the flight deck, I was very jealous!!

I would have thought that with it being the 9/11 anniversary they would have been very visible as a show of US military strength sort of thing!

I have been with Virgin Mobile since I first got a mobile phone about 6 years ago or so, all my immediate family are also on the Virgin network and we are very happy with it.

As for Vodafone and O2, I don’t actually know many people on Vodafone, however my friends who are on O2 seem to always speak very highly of them so I would suppose you are unlikely to run into many issues with them. You never know with these things though, so looks as if you might have to choose one and hope for the best!

I always wondered, why, with all the news helicopter up there to start with (before the lockdown) why did nobody try to evacuate anybody off the roof? Even just a few lives saved would have been better than none.

The only reason I can see is the smoke coming from the building may have greatly obscured the pilot’s view as he approached the building. Does such a roof rescue not depend on perfect all round visibility. Another reason may have been, how many more planes are coming? Would you want to be at the building evacuating from the roof and suddenly see a B757/767 hurtling toward you at full pelt?