Bastards of the world

Last Wednesday, someone rear ended Camille. As we were taking off from lights, he wasn't paying attention and rammed into the back of me. Whiplash galore, I pulled over and so did he. Seemed a really friendly guy and we exchanged numbers. He is fully insured apparentely. My 3rd Party insurance meant I had to make a claim through his insurance, so that night I rang and left a message on his home phone and his cellphone to ring me back.

Just like that child in the Save the Children ad ... I waited.

Thursday. No contact. I rang and left a message on his home phone (which nobody answered on the three occasions I rang).

Still ... I waited.


Friday came and still no contact. This is my work vehicle. I have to borrow cars to make it to work. This is impacting my business. I ring and leave a message on his home phone saying its urgent he contact me.

I wait ...

Saturday. Nothing. I finally ring the home number again after news that I should try the Insurance Companies to search for the car or the police, and Catherine answers. I assume this is his wife. She seems pretty pissed off when I pleasantly say who I am and if Grant is home. She abruptly explained that he was away on work and would have to file the insurance himself.

Hmmm ... I was so shocked at her response I didn't have time to ask questions like, "when is he home?".

So I rang back in the afternoon to ask this and she was so rude to me. Sounding pissed off like I was some kind of telemarketer or child stalking her, she said, "And I really don't appreciate all of these phone calls either". I asked her if she appreciated that it was my work vehicle and I need it fixed as soon as possible. She went on about Grant having to do it when he's back from work. "Which is when?" I politely ask. "The end of the week". Fucking Friday?! This coming Friday! Great for my business!

I'm pretty angry by now but accordingly to Derek, I'm still polite on the phone. I apologised to her. As I put the phone down, I'm shaking with anger and yell "FUCKING COW" and "BITCH" at the top of my lungs. I don't normally call people that. She made me out to be the bad person!

Now maybe I should do a poll. If you were her, wouldn't you have phoned me back and said, "My husband is away until Friday so nothing can be done about it til then, I'm sorry." ... WOULDN'T YOU HAVE DONE THAT! What a bloody bitch to make it out that I was stalking them or annoying them. He ran into the back of me and I can't use my car!

I've done a lot of yelling. I figure I'll not send them any ill thoughts, (or good will for that matter), but just relax until he finally gets back to me. Hopefully he is just a nice guy that unfortunately forgot to get a hold of me - how you do that I don't know, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and that he just has the badluck of being married to a bitch - and they are procreating which is a bad thing for the rest of the world.

I've just thought that maybe the cellphone is shared by them so this poor woman has gotten all five messages, and Grant really is away out on business (god he might be a pilot for all I know) but the way she spoke to me was ridiculous. He hit my bloody car! She didn't even ask if I was okay. What a fucking cow.

I'm sure everything will work out and I'm just going to leave it so that Grant doesn't get an earfull from bitchlady about me being some kind of stalker, and Grant and I can settle it without whorelady interrupting and putting her delegation in. God, the poor guy is probably under her thumb. I should really try to rescue him.

And I will also say to him that I didn't appreciate the way she spoke to me. I can understand her getting annoyed with the amount of phone calls that I made to them, but why the hell didn't she do something about it? What? Did she think to herself, "Oh I know! I'll just leave her in the dark so that she thinks that my husband is screwing her over and avoiding her phonecalls". Wow .. she must have shit for brains.

I don't think Grant is horrible. I just think he forgot to contact me and hasn't been able to. Maybe he should have left instructions for his wife to let me know whats going on ... but come on. He is a male. Sorry, if anyone has a better excuse I'm willing to hear it.

___________

(This is Derek)

Beck is still being too nice about the whole ordeal. Let's point out a few things she has missed.

Last Wednesday was a beautiful day. The birds were chirping. The sun was blazing. Girls sang in the street collecting money for the cause of goodwill towards humanity. Grant, if that is indeed his real name, had his pitchfork at his side when he eyed up Camille. He saw that the lovely, innocent 1967 Morris was struggling to get into second gear - the collision didn't even happen at the lights - but he chose to ignore this. Deliberately. Wanker is an understatement.

He rocketed into Camille. Rocketed. He then acted all nice-guy like because, well, look at Camille and Beck - aren't they just the cutest things? Wouldn't you act all nice, even if you were in fact the devil himself?

Days passed.

Another important fact in this case is that, when Beck first started calling Grant - if that's his real name - on his cellphone, it actually rang. As in, he was in coverage. He should have been able to receive the messages, or the person who had the phone should have been able to. But they chose to ignore it. Deliberately. Wankers. Understatement.

Finally, let us come to the phone conversation with the whore. Beck was far too polite - she is, as you all know, adorable and incapable of ill-feeling unless completely mortified - and this woman deserved a hiding, no less. I would like to have a few words with her - and a few moments in a sound-proof room - but Beck wouldn't allow it. But, being a journo, I have my ways of finding things out and I might just pay the bastards a visit or two in the next few days. Armed with eggs. And a stink-bomb or two.

Anyone up for a clandestine mission?

World of Music Arts and Dance

WOMAD 2007 was held over 16 - 18th March at the Brooklands Park and TSB Bowl, New Plymouth.



It just so happened that that was the weekend that the entire country's weather decided to pack up and produce a large rain front with wind to rival Wellington's bad days.
Great news for the large number of WOMAD goers who were camping on the race course - us included.

Arriving on Friday, none of us had done any research into who were the bands to see except for the Gotan Project. However, the programme is organised so that you have the chance to make almost all the acts as most play twice. Friday had six hours of music, Saturday over 12 and Sunday had 12 hours of music.



Here we are enjoying coffee in our vestibule on Saturday morning. Each morning was spent lazing around, planning where to go and keeping out of the wind and rain. As other tents failed to survive the rain, ours became a place of refuge to dry off, drink coffee and warm up before facing the rain again.


Top Picks:

The Gotan Project

WOMAD was the first time The Gotan Project have played in New Zealand. On stage, there were two djs, a guitarist, vocalist, accordian player, pianist, and a strings section. The band was incredibly tight and sounded just like the cd but with a fuller and more energetic sound. There was no room to tango as the Bowl of Brooklands main stage area was packed.

Mariza

Mariza sings Fado - a song style from Portugal. The music was mournful and yearning yet has a positive spirit in it. Her stage presence was incredible, making us rush off to buy her cd and dvd and then get her to sign it ... does that make us geeky?

Salif Keita


Salif was outcast by his family as he was born white - an albino-African. His show was interesting as he didn't speak to the crowd once during the set (probably due to his inability to speak English).

Fabio & Ana's Tango Workshops

There were workshops on offer as well. Derek and I went to the first tango workshop with Fabio and Ana (who are doing a tango show called One Night In Buenos Aires coming to New Zealand in May - keep a look out) and were asked up on stage to dance with several other couples.




Pictures taken by Grant Pease www.pix2c.net

Word got around about these tango workshops and the next day there were over a hundred people dancing tango at the workshop. Derek partnered Marianna and together they braved the torrential downpour to bring you this final pose ...