Cracker: Welcome Home?
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I wasjust recalling what the PM said about Guy Fawkes sounding like a Kandahar warzone in her electorate.
Well I spent New Years in Istanbul, here it sounded like WW3.
Great stuff!! Lots of explosions and nobody got too badly hurt (apart from via tequila)
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I’m quite stoked with the accident of birth that sees me living here
Agree, yay verily. Just been down to Napier for five days - lovely, lovely, lovely. Fresh fruit and vege from the side of the road; gourmet bits and bobs from the Hawkes Bay Farmers' Market, and the Black Barn Market; forays to excellent local producers of fine food like the lovely Telegraph Hill Olives people.......oh, and not to forget lunches like the one we had at the very swanky Terroir restaurant, under stunning blue skies overlooking the fabulous Te Mata peak, at the very chichi Craggy Range vineyard. The Hawkes Bay might have it's problems but by god, it's a beautiful place. And I, once again, thanked the Goddesses for the kindly act of producing this very lucky place we live in.
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Re random searches. I had one after a suspicious flight pattern from Amsterdam. And to tell the truth, it was a very suspicious pattern, mainly because of the stupidities of international travel that make return tickets cheaper than one-ways. So I had a ticket home from Barcelona, but I went to Amsterdam after finishing my work in Barcelona. I thought that because the return flight came through Amsterdam, I could just pick it up there. But no. The KLM folk assured me that I would need to fly back to Barcelona, where I would board the flight that went back through Amsterdam.
On the day, I threw myself on the mercy of a Dutch check in person, pointing out that it would only cost KLM more to put me on a flight to Barcelona and back just to satisfy their ticketing system, quite aside from the fact that it inconvenienced me a great deal. She showed me a neat trick - check your own bags into the ongoing flight on the auto checkin. So I got a day in Amsterdam instead of 8 hours of international flight torture to add to the 35-odd that it was going to take to get home.
Unfortunately it became tricky to explain all this to the customs folk here - so I stuck to the story that I'd been on the scheduled flights, which actually did look pretty bloody strange. I favored that option over telling them that some Dutch official had bent the rules for me, which would certainly have got the rubber gloves.
When asked the dope question, I said that I had, at school. They also reckoned my baggage had strong traces of narcotics and explosives. "Which one is it?" I asked "Narcotics OR explosives?". "Both". Yeah right. I'm sure people usually smuggle the two in the same bag. "How do you explain that?" they asked. I suggested a moisturizer explosion had once happened in my bag due to depressurization, a glycerine based one. And as for narcotics, probably most Dutch things are covered in traces of it, depending how sensitive the machines are.
Anyway, I've never had any trouble since. So I can't confirm that once you get searched, that's it. It hasn't panned out that way for me. I suspect your targeting was mostly to do with the flight patterns, so you're probably fine for any trips which don't tour the terrorism hotspots of Central Asia.
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Welcome back Damian. Wellington needed its resident scapegoat to survive Asian war zones and the summer holidays :-)
It is good to hear people who were born here appreciate their country. But I also understand that folks have to leave to discover what is good about a place.
Over Christmas I met a number of 30 somethings who had just returned or were on their way back from longish stints overseas. "How can you not love NZ" was the justification for returning.
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But as I said, I think wishing serious burns on anyone is uncalled for, implicitly threatening, and I suggest you consider how appropriate such comments are in the future.
I guess now might not be a good time to suggest then that maybe someone that you beat to the Best Dub Dub Dubber Award might have set you up with Customs then?
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I guess now might not be a good time to suggest then that maybe someone that you beat to the Best Dub Dub Dubber Award might have set you up with Customs then?
Damn, I forgot to say thanks to everyone who voted, it was very pleasing and surprising to hear while I was away (think I was in Kabul at the time) about the win. I don't think I've ever won anything that could remotely be called a popularity contest before. :)
Is there like, a certificate, or trophy or something Joanna?
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Is there like, a certificate, or trophy or something Joanna?
I'm sure I saw Russell snaffle it on your behalf. From memory it was an umbrella.
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__Is there like, a certificate, or trophy or something Joanna?__
I'm sure I saw Russell snaffle it on your behalf. From memory it was an umbrella.
There is both a certificate and a very very sexy trophy, which is not an umbrella but rather a spinning top, designed by the lovely Dan Emery and made by our terrific sponsors Ponoko. If Russell didn't pick up your top and certificate, I have them somewhere at my house and will get them to you once DPF has given Che back his mug. And no, that's not a come-on line.
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Customs can be an interesting bunch.
I know someone who has come in with a few (work-related!) buckets of white powder. Despite a lack of labelling, once customs were clear that they didn't contain honey, there were no further questions...
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Yeah, when I lived in Japan, my mother (who is a potter) would frequently travel back from NZ with many large packets of white powder (glaze ingredients) in her suitcase. I miss having a diplomatic passport...
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If Russell didn't pick up your top and certificate, I have them somewhere at my house and will get them to you once DPF has given Che back his mug. And no, that's not a come-on line.
what the?
i thought i was supposed to take damien out to dinner and then give it to him?
or was it me getting it from dpf?
i'm just so damn confused.
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i thought i was supposed to take damien out to dinner and then give it to him?
Heh heh heh.
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And no, that's not a come-on line.
I never would have thought that any paragraph involving Russell, DPF, a mug and Che Tibby could have been construed as a "come-on"... now you've got me worried :)
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Worried or aroused? I was meaning the part about having your trophy at my house though.
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I never would have thought that any paragraph involving Russell, DPF, a mug and Che Tibby could have been construed as a "come-on"... now you've got me worried :)
let me show you the mug... you'll be weak at the knees.
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Just ignore Mark Graham, he's one of those Kiwis who whinge about things in public needlessly, bringing down everybody else's mood.
Although if he wants to complain about unrelated issues, he should get his own blog.(cf: Tui noise complaints in the city)
(and yes, I see the irony of complaining about people who complain ;-)
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Whoever it was that criticised the Borough Markets, I fully concur. Each time I visit I:
a. end up queueing for at least 20 minutes
b. end up queuing for something I regret each time I get to the front of said queue (like a venison burger)
c. feel faintly nauseous after I eating what I queued forSure, there's the odd interesting thing to buy (e.g. wheatgrass, but the jury's out on that still), but it all ends up disagreeing with me in one way or another.
Every sinner in London congregates there too.
Oh woah is me! Oh woah is London!
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Yeah look I kinda agree, Borough markets is overpriced and overrated. But it is A place to meet people on the weekend, have a decent coffee, eat a few half-decent scallops, oysters and what-have-you and go home with a block of cheese you'll forget you have and which will subsequently melt into an oily puddle in your man-bag.
I went to Broadway markets (off Hackney Road?) when i was there before Xmas. Likewise, good kiwi-made coffee (why is it that kiwis are the only people who make decent coffee in London, or is that because they are the only people who make the coffee we're used to drinking? And yes I know this has already been well canvassed in Hard News), yummy roast pork sammies, fresh fruit and veges, and seemingly cheaper and less rammed than Borough.
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Oh, super - just what I needed. I'm moving to London on 1 Feb. I can feel that icy fog already..
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London in February begs the question - why?
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Hey - I asked Damian if he was amongst the group who was firing off the mortar bomb skyrockets hourly through the night and it wasn't until much further down the thread that he denied being part of it. It was a natural assumption given that he's good friends with the party hosts, there were (very loud) fire crackers going off and he got injured by one, and the timing was about right for him to be passing through.
As for whing[ing] about things in public needlessly, bringing down everybody else's mood...well:
a - we all have a right to whinge
b - whatever happened to consideration for others?
c - umbrage at a bit of emotional hyperbole, Damian, is so...literal. As if I would really wish someone to be burnt by anything.
d - a few crackers at NYE and Guy Fawkes - no problem, but like I wrote earlier, when they go off every hour on the hour for the rest of the night and they're exploding outside you and your kids' bedroom windows...well, I do object to that. -
c - umbrage at a bit of emotional hyperbole, Damian, is so...literal. As if I would really wish someone to be burnt by anything.
Even if you're not being literal Mark, it's pretty hard to read the tone of your first message as anything other than nasty. Which didn't really seem in the spirit of the original post, the thread, or the season. All I'd like to say is that if you want to spit out random venom, you should go and do it somewhere else.
Moving on...
London in February is a good idea I reckon. Because then you get to see the caterpillar before it becomes a butterfly (or at least an interesting moth). I was in England from January until early April a couple of years back, and March was positively delightful after Jan and Feb...
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London in February is a good idea I reckon. Because then you get to see the caterpillar before it becomes a butterfly
There is that, Damian, there is that. I first arrived at Gatwick in February, 1987, and it was something I will never forget. I left in November 1990 for the last time, and I won't ever forget that either. It wasn't as dismal as when I first arrived, or maybe I had gotten used to it. And welcome home, by the way. Watching the news about Pakistan in the last couple of weeks, I have thought that you got out at a really good time.
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A sympathetic customs officer (some of them are very nice, fortunately) informed me the 'little note' on my file that causes the alert is about my 'suspicious travel pattern.' It may have been the trip to Bosnia, or the one to North Korea...whichever, Ive been doomed for a while now to have those little heartwarming chats about my 'activities' and to unpack my laundry for someone to rifle through.
I worked with a guy who had exactly the same problem. Travel patterns were suspicious, and he always did the same trip two or three times a year for academic reasons. Every time, he got pulled out and bag searched.
Eventually the customs guys agreed to flag his record as not needing such close attention as his business was valid, and nothing was ever found.
Not that this would help Damian, Mr Class C Drug. You might as well go shopping for a nice pair of rubber gloves now, at least then you can find a pair that... er, feels comfortable for next time.
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Damian, you're right. I went back and reread it and I have to apologise. I promise, next time I'll ask first before shooting ([my mouth off]
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