Above The Law

8 September - What seemed like a promising morning with, while not a prince's ransom from a stamp makers place, at least a duke's or a baron's ransom, was collected. Turned onto King St and passed Pitt St Mall looking for No 135 - realising it was likely the next building I rode onto the footpath intending to alight my bicycle but before I had a chance a f**king flatfoot boy in blue shouted at me to get off my bike and show identification - I shrugged and went to lean my bike against a pole and he shouted at me again accusing me of trying to escape and threatening to arrest me on the spot. I tried to explain that I was just putting my bike down but he started aggressively telling me that riding on the footpath was illegal - excuses of I just got on the footpath so I could get off my bike were given short thrift and before I knew it he's telling me that an infringement notice is going to be sent to my address. 'Well, I'm going to contest that!', 'That's your right under the law' ... Perhaps my attitude could have been a bit less assertive and a bit more obsequious but my other recent encounters with police figures - specifically when being caught blowing a red in Canada and speeding in the USA - have been when i've been in the wrong. There's was no arguingthat I hadn’t actually run the red light and I knew I was in the wrong so I just apologised and admitted fault and hoped for the best - I could have aruged that it had been safe to do so but that's just going to antagonise a cop. Similarly, in Oregon I knew i'd ben going much faster than the posted speed limit and i'd also just started driving in a foreign country on the other side of the road so I was hardly confident about my place on the road. But today, I knew I was in the right and this cop was just havinga power trip and I wasn’t going to suck up to him when I had done nothing wrong (admittedly, that time). In fact, not 5m later when I went for a second drop at MLC centre a block up the road the same two cops were there hassling Chris (from Toll Fast) for the exact same issue - I think he got off better than I did. Then we both had to follow the same cops up the escalators to get in and do the drop. Pricks. That obviously put me in a slightly uneasy mood for the rest of the day and I felt really paranoid that I might have been doing somethingtechnically illegal every time I saw a policeman or police car. However, a massive swathe of expresses throughout the rest of the day includinga very profitable bridge run and a completely useless bridge run (took one trip over the bridge and nothing back). It didn’t actuallyfeel like I was run off my feet today but the dispatcher actually thanked me for doing reallywell so suppose it was a good day. I wonder if it was a Crisis good day, or a Novex good day? Also, the first day I didn’t wear my uniform is the day when I had to drop into the office and predictably got told off for not wearing my crisis jersey - of all the Crisis people I think i'm the only one who consistentlydoes wear his uniform and of course it''s me who is the one who gets into trouble for it.
Very late finish because the last two drops were closed meant riding home in the dark and then onto East Sydney for a game of texas hold'em with rowan and the boys - my first game since Vegas (Vegas, Baby, Vegas!!!) - I was a bit worried because these boys had been playing semi regularly in my year away and it had been a while for me but I shouldn’t have been because there was the exact same arguing about rules and how to play, how to bet, the ranking of the hands - it's a lot more fun to play with people who are completely not professionals (i always love when someone throws down his cards - pushing away the pot because they say they've got nothing and it turns out they have a frush). Came in a respectable second after discounting my stake and my shar of the pizza I was up $5 - hurrah. A 15m discussion on how to split up the pot was eventuallyresolved, I hope ...
Five people put in $20 to the pot.
Winner gets $70 but has to pay an increased shar of pizza and second gets $30 and pays a regular shar of pizza.
Pizza costs $40 and is paid by credit card for one person. Share of pizza cost is $20 for winner and $5 for everyone else.
Therefore, winner gets $50 back from pot (70-20 for pizza), second gets $25 (30-5 for pizza). $25 for pizza costs go back to payee (who happened to be a loser) and two other losers each pay $5 to pizza payee.
Easy? I thought so but I don’t know if it ever got resolved by the time I left ...