Dr Jarrod Gilbert Sociologist
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Wintec Press Club. The semi official record of events.

1/9/2015

6 Comments

 
PictureMihi and Annabelle the greatness before the madness.
Too early in the morning to serve beer? Humbug!

I paid a fine Maori beggar $10 to solve that problem. He walked me to a strange little bar focused on gambling instead of liquor licencing laws. The beer was under the counter and Waikato Draft. We shared a drink and I went to buy a second but my companion declined.  Drinking was a breach of his bail conditions. He went to a pokie machine. In a flash he was up over $40. Take it out, I suggested. And he did. This day was on its way to being a winner and I was on my way to Wintec Press Club.

There are few better lunches hosted anywhere. Steve Braunias pulls a fine crowd; in fact the company is arguably the defining draw card. Waikato Draft alone would not do it.

Guest speaker Mihingarangi Forbes would have been enough but she unexpectedly teamed up with Annabelle Lee in a one-two act rivalling my all time favourites: as important as Woodward and Bernstein, as easy to watch as Bert and Ernie.

The pair discussed Maori journalism and political manifestations involved in Maori television. It was an inspired talk delivered seamlessly. Even my new mate Don Brash, so far from Orewa, seemed to nod in approval on occasion. But that could have been the drink. Mine, not his.

By this time the wine was flowing sweetly. That grand lubricant of journalistic minds spurred us on to the after match function. I left my name tag on and a senior Waikato policeman recognised it. Best I be on good behaviour, I thought. I had some concerns as we were at the same place that following the last Wintec event a great investigative friend of mine turned green at the gills, lost some weight and his sense of direction home.

It is for these, and dancing reasons, that I shall not mention names from this point onwards. Except one. Russel Brown - Public Address to his friends. Russell had alerted me to M H Holcroft who in 1966 had plagiarised an idea in my last week’s New Zealand Herald column and one that would be important to my next book. In a twist of luck he found a book by Holcroft in a second hand bookstore adjacent to the bar. In my delight I thought he had purchased it for me. In the last day or two it has occurred to me that he may have been showing it, rather than giving it, to me. Nevertheless I asked him to sign it and with that quite possibly stole it.

The evening turned a little cold and so I wrapped myself in a blanket kindly shared with me by a journalist with younger bones than me. At which point I was told I looked like, excuse me for this, a vagina. When I say I was told that I mean it was posted to Twitter: the journalists’ drug of choice.

All criminals need a disguise, I thought, as I leaned down to feel the comfort of Russell’s book in my bag.

Slowly, those who were driving home or, sensing what was ahead, fearing for their lives, slipped away. A hard-core of rascals and ratbags remained. Those of such madness that Sambuca shots appear as the solution to all things real and imagined.

By this time, the wise and witty words of Braunias, Forbes and Lee were long gone, replaced by terrible madness. I looked out into the Hamilton night wistfully.  I watched a dear friend weaving down the footpath.

I wondered if that Maori beggar was about and if he could loan me $40 for a cab ride home.

6 Comments
Paul
2/9/2015 03:13:53 am

Why does the author highlight the ethnicity of the beggar (Māori), but not the other nameless characters in this story - policeman, younger journalist?

Reply
Jarrod
2/9/2015 02:05:34 pm

Good point. Yours etc the author, who doesn't always get it right - but almost always does.

Reply
Russell Brown link
2/9/2015 07:15:06 am

As we have since discussed, the book was definitely a gift. I had been kicking myself for not thinking of a wittier inscription on the spot, but I see now that my momentary inability to spell and clumsy correction has rendered the "A" in your name as an anarchy symbol. Which, if I say so myself, is quite clever.

Reply
Jarrod
2/9/2015 02:08:13 pm

I was genuinely horrified when I thought it wasn't for me. I feel better now and I'm also thinking of changing my signature to include an anarchy symbol. It might rule me out of working for the GCSB but I figure it's worth it.

Reply
Showbox link
24/3/2023 07:46:40 pm

If you want to display power or confidence, try to avoid crossing your arms, as it may make you seem more cocky than self-assured.

Reply
Kodi link
24/3/2023 07:47:08 pm

What else is their body doing? Arrogance or determination might be accompanied by bright eyes or a smirk.

Reply



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