Penthouses and pavements

Why did the chicken cross the Mobius Strip? To get to the same side.
I had to ask my kids what that meant.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where were you when you were first asked where were you when the Twin Towers fell?
Ten years ago today...well you know what happened. And we were not even there. I was in the middle of the Everglades looking for alligators and was on the way to attend my brother's wedding in Key West a couple of days later. Seeing American grief and shock at close hand was moving and emotional but not as much as being on my own, so far away from home, and missing my wife and three very young children as they were then.
But others will not forget for other reasons. A young Malaysian girl who had never been away from home, let alone abroad, turned up in New York that morning ready to start work. She had two addresses on a piece of paper, one was for a hotel where she left her bags, the other was for Seven World Trade Centre where she was due to begin her first day for the British based bank Standard Chartered.
She got off the subway at the appointed stop and walked towards the Twin Towers when first one then the other exploded in front of her and thousands of people ran towards her.
She ran too until she reached a side street, not knowing where she was, not knowing anyone, with no police or anyone else to ask as everyone was rushing round in a panic.
Mobile phone networks had been turned off. The subway was closed and there were no taxis.
Meanwhile back in London my wife's job for the bank was ringing round every worker they employed in NY simply to check they were alive. One by one they got hold of them all. They had been evacuated, shortly before the building collapsed in approximately 6.5 seconds.
All that is, apart from the young Malaysian girl due to start work that day. No one could verify whether she had been in the building or not, it was all a bit, well, chaotic.
Her mum was ringing the bank in London to see if they had heard, because no one had rung her.
This went on all night.
But the next day the mother rang. She had heard from her daughter eventually.
What had happened was this. The young girl, bewildered and away from home for the first time ever, had stood crying in a side road without the faintest idea of what to do and where to go.
And then, like something out of It's A Wonderful Life, an American family saw her and took her back to their apartment. They then gave her food and shelter and rang her mum in Malaysia from a landline and looked after her until everything had settled down.
One small act of kindness probably changed that young woman's life forever. That's what it's all about.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Incidentally, more than 2,000 Iraqis and 200 British and American troops have died in suicide bombs since 2003 in Iraq. Around a third of all civilian casualties are children. So perhaps it's all about that too.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm not afraid to admit I don't understand rugby to any great degree but I'll watch the occasional big match. Though league seems to be a lot more exciting than union. However, the union code has the big international tournament at the moment so can anyone explain to me why England are wearing an All Black kit and why Nike can't design a rugby shirt without the numbers peeling off half way through the game.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'I'm not going to be the person I'm expected to be any more'. A great quote from a great statesman? No, some bollocks from a pouty knob in an advert for Bleu de Chanel after shave. Still makes more sense than Paolo Coelho though.
Adieu, Solly