Posts by Mike Hollywood
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A great piece of writing on seemingly innocuous subject matter ... thoroughly enjoyed. There’s another book there David.
Me? In the past I’ve probably been more sinner than sinned against when it comes to neighbourhood relations but I can’t relate any stories anywhere near as interesting as those outlined in this piece. Nowadays I just keep my head down and try not to get too friendly with neighbours. Don’t want them getting too close tbh. I had a bit of a wake-up call a few years ago on the one occasion I did attend a particularly tedious neighbourhood gathering not long after moving to the area. Basically the elderly woman across the street was able to recount my daily routine (bus schedule, general movements etc) to me with some real accuracy and she appeared to know the names of our children despite the fact that I’d never spoken to her previously. I checked when I returned home and my partner had never spoken to her either. As the kids were infants at the time, it seems unlikely they had passed on that info. A bit spooked by that, and although she may well have just been indulging in nervous small talk it told me more about her than I really wanted to know. The level of detail was quite alarming and I’ve been very wary ever since. Even today, she seems to always find reason to loiter at the end of our driveway whenever I see her passing. What an infinitely interesting life we must lead. Now, if she only knew what really goes on *in the backyard* she’d have a book of her own ... -
@ Peter .. the question originally crossed my mind because I was so spooked by her transformation but nah, let's just say her fresh zest for life has provided me with a quite different answer to that question ;-) Ahem. As I'm not sure if she reads PA or not, I'll leave it at that.
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Not a link but I suspect there's a few bassheads on here and wanted to point out that renowned UK grime and dubstep ace ‘Scuba’ is playing at SFBH in Wellington tonight ... well, 2am-4am tomorrow actually. Publicity has been unusually low key, despite his status within the genre. A whole host of local DJs provide support.
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I'm no cyclist myself but my partner took up serious cycling last year. It first I thought it would be a passing "phase" and that she'd soon be revert back to the previously unhealthy lifestyle she'd/we’d adopted years ago (and one that, to my shame, I still have) but it just hasn’t happened. What started out as semi-regular 30 min rides has become 2-3 hours daily and she’s now completely and (seemingly) irretrievably addicted to it – to the point where if she doesn’t get out on her bike daily she actually gets extremely irritable and moans like crazy about “missing out”. This is a woman, just turned 41, who never did any exercise at all – nada, no jogging, gym, just the odd beach walk – but cycling has completely transformed her into this mean, lean, fitness machine. It has been a real revelation for her (and for me, observing this rapid change in mindset). Nothing startling there I guess but wanted to share it nonetheless, as an endorsement that the whole cycling buzz does actually exist. I think environment plays a big part (Kapiti Coast, beach route) but I like to think I’ve contributed a little too by painstakingly compiling ideal mp3 soundtracks for her journeys – she’s subsequently morphed from being a lover of soulful downbeat music into a total Trance/Technohead and frequent requests for “more Armin van Buuren!” have become very concerning indeed. I can barely keep up with the requests for fresh bpms so I shudder to think what it would be like if I dared to join her on a bike one day.
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not just a drug smuggler and terrorist but also someone armed with an extraordinary sense of smell ... I mean "smoked, showered, and changed clothes" and still there's no escape from the flared nostrils of the wicked Ben ... I'd wager the only thing holding you back from a lucrative career in the police is the frank admission that you moisturize. She's a hard road finding the perfect cop and no mistake!
More seriously, as you say Ben, the whole smell/quantifiable thing seems like a real grey area and I imagine it results in more 'close calls' than it does arrests.
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Noticed that too Tim. After each comment he made there would be a long sort of sniffing noise ... or like a heavy sigh ... anyone know what that was - surely it was just too consistent to be a human-generated noise. Annoying it was.
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A couple of questions that occur to me:
Is it really possible for a warrant to be issued under the Misuse of Drugs Act if a passing off-duty cop (on an evening jog say) smells or detects the aroma of pot? I mean, if he goes to the powers-that-be the next day and tells his tale, is that one single factor sufficient for a search warrant to be issued?
Second one - if a warrant is issued solely under the Misuse of Drugs Act, does that also enable a cop to (ahem) check for stolen property while they're at the premises?
and a bonus question - what exactly is the "misuse" of drugs - is that like someone attempting to snort cannabis? (ok, as Sofie would say, coat, getting etc ...)
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Put it this way, I had my door kicked in by police in the early 90s, and my first instinct was not to pull a firearm and shoot at them ... it was to politely ask just who would be liable for damage to the door when they didn't find what they were looking for. But then I'm not a dangerous criminal. My second reaction was a sense of impending doom. Not violence. They didn't find what they thought they would, but nonetheless grilled me about a VCR which they identified as stolen via its serial number. How I grinned as I produced my Dominion TV Rentals VCR rental agreement ...
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@ Tom Semmens - To be fair, anybody who uses a firearm on Police (and dog) is a wannabe homicidal maniac first and foremost, and a pot dealer/grower a distant second. I don’t think either incident (including Napier) counts as “the cost so far of busting small-time pot growers” ... the criminal concerned, in each case, was clearly a far more dangerous animal, and I’d say the pot growing aspect of their lives was merely peripheral to a far more lethal mindset. Sooner or later *somebody* was gonna get it. But more generally, I do take your point.
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@ Peter - go on, own up, I bet you've still got Shoot! magazine's (colourful and wonderful) cardboard tabbed League tables from 1985/86 up on your wall.