Security

I was stopped by a policeman on the way out of Picadilly Circus station this morning, and questioned under section 44 of the Terrorism Act.

This is, unnervingly, becoming a regular sight in ticket offices, especially in the central locations I tend to have to go to. Seeing someone being questioned and their bag searched is one thing. having it happen to you is quite another.

The questioning officer was perfectly polite, assuring me that the only criteria for the search was that I happened to be the next one out of the barrier after the previous person he’d been questioning. However, I had to wonder whether the fact that I was wearing a leather jacket with the collar up, a peaked woolen cap pulled low and toting a rucksack made me a more obvious choice for questioning. Yeah, I know. Asking for it, right? I’ve been accused of being a bomber before, of course.

I was asked where I’d come from, where I was going, and the policeman got some details from my driving licence. He was chatty and amenable, spotted I had a birthday coming up, and wished me a peaceful day. That last was enough to thoroughly freak me out. Why would i not have a peaceful day? His reason for searching me had to do with ‘events over the last 24 hours in the vicinity.’ Like what? The global warming march on Saturday? Or was other shit going down that I knew nothing about?

Strangely, he didn’t ask to search my bag. Probably just as well. God only knows what he would have made of the section of “Satan’s School For Girls” that the laptop’s parked on.

If the intent, as the policeman put it , was to set people’s mind’s at rest that the police are protecting them, then frankly it failed, as the whole experience left me a little frayed and un-nerved.

Worse, I claim to be a free speech, anti-police state and freedom of information advocate. Yet, when it came down to it, I meekly handed over my driving licence for inspection without a word of protest. I certainly gave away my information freely enough. The whole thing has left me feeling foolish, and more than a little powerless.

*I was going to blog about NanoWriMo and my experiences at this year’s Frightfest allnighter, but frankly that’ll have to wait until I’m feeling a bit less angry with myself. *

Hi. It’s been a while. How you doing?

You look good. Damn nice to see you. I know, I know, I’ve not called, I’ve not written. I’m a bad, bad boy, and I need to be punished.

Look, this is hard to say, so I’m just gonna barrel on through. I’m just going through one of those phases at the moment, and things get moved aside a little. I still think about you a lot, but I just can’t be with you as much. Not for a little while anyway.

Trust me. I’ll be around. Who knows, maybe this is the thing both of us need.

Don’t think badly of me. Wish me well. It’s going to be a hard few weeks.

Observations from this year’s Reading Festival

1. You will inevitably miss at least five bands you really want to see.
2. Carling is the dullest beer in the world.
3. This year’s look for girls – flowery wellies and denim short shorts. Nice.
4. Admire this year’s look for girls too closely and you will get a slap from your wife.
5. If you dress as a superhero, you will be in good company. This year I spotted a Batman, a Flash, a Spidergirl, a couple of Supermen, and a Green Lantern. And that was without looking too hard.
6. If, however, you’re dressed as a squeezy bottle of mustard, you’re on your own. And that’s probably the point.
7. The Fall appear to have turned into a krautrock group fronted by a komodo dragon. This is not a bad thing.
8. Gogol Bordello will rise up and take over in 2007. Mind you, I said that about the Arcade Fire last year, and where the fuck were they?
9. Broken Social Scene are a poor substitute for the Arcade Fire.
10. Apparantly, you’re not allowed to get your genitals pierced at the Reading Festival. You can merrily have a bolt shoved through anything else you fancy, mind.
11. Rain is no impediment to rocking.
12. Sore feet, however, are.
13. The worst time to get a major technical hitch is two songs into your set in front of the biggest audience you’ve ever seen. It’s OK, we still love you, Brian.
14. A major technical hitch is a great time to zoom the jumbotron cameras around in search of girls willing to take their tops off in front of 25, 000 people.
15. There are a lot of girls prepared to take their tops off in front of 25,000 people.
16. What do foxes know?
17. There appear to have been a lot of bloggers there.
18. Screw the smartass music crits. Pearl Jam were the band of the festival.