Chapter 9
The house in Millwrights Walk (in Hemel
Hempstead, UK) was a very special house.
It was where Shivon grew up for ten years so at least she had some kind
of stability in her life. In comparison
to my own upbringing, when I was Shivon’s age, the longest I’d stayed at any
given place was a maximum of two years.
It was a very special house in the fact
that our lives seemed settled before interference from extended family members
in New Zealand, although the friction with the ex-family in Hemel Hempstead was
never ending. The neighbour who’d
repeatedly told me to “fuck off back to your own country” and kicked the soccer
ball against the house and against Shivon’s head for fun had moved and things
seemed to be working out for the better.
I spent a lot of time in the sanctuary of my
award winning Chelsea Garden from the Chelsea Garden Show that I’d won. It was a very bio diverse garden full of
flora and fauna including pillars. Stephen Anderton (2010) writes:
“Michelle Johnstone
has her favourites in her award-winning garden.
“There are alliums, and my trees and my ferns, and those little yellow
things with wings. I’m getting an education
here,” says the winner of the Times competition to have the £20,000 Chelsea
show garden – the Bradstone Biodiversity Garden designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes
– installed in her home. There were
hundreds of entrants in the competition; launched in March, to find the garden
in the sorriest state, but the judges decided that Michelle’s was the most
deserving.”
There was also a tree out the front where
the top looked like the shape of the character ‘Mad Hatter’ from ‘Alice in
Wonderland’. It was equipped with the
hat and the feather poking out from the hat.
I didn’t so much talk to the plants however I did nurture them the best
I could and took pride in nurturing them.
When it was all in bloom and green, the calming effects you get from a
garden is like no other drug. My photo
collection included pictures of ferns (representing New Zealand) and thistles (representing
Scotland). It was a very private garden,
a sanctuary, birds were a permanent fixture.
Robins would get very friendly and come into the house.
During the 2012 London Olympics a couple
of Chinooks flew over the house along with a few dozen private jets. It was very much a metaphor for ‘Star Wars’. The real deal vs. the land of make believe where
money isn’t an issue. The deception ‘game’,
where they (media and ‘friends’) portray fake as real and real as fake (thus
ultimately leading to mass confusion) was very popular amongst celebrities and
political figures etc.
When I was working on a television
programme as an extra there happened to be an onset lawyer there. I asked him if they (tv/film industry,
Hollywood, movie execs) care about who they rob and the answer was “no.” They do not care who they pillage. If the movie execs decide to make a movie
about a massacre or catastrophic event the victim/s get no say in the matter
and are ultimately discarded.
While I was in the process of writing a
victim impact statement I included a little bit about the ‘Johnstone’ history
such as Gilbert Johnstone and the connection with the Battle of Bannockburn. I don’t know much about the ‘Neil’ side of
the family. All I know is our Dad worked
in the RAAF. At the same time I found
myself in a situation where people who worked on different ‘entertainment’ productions
were attempting to portray something as being ‘real’ to their viewers. Working as an extra was a bit patronising as there’d
be actors who attempted to portray real life victims but take the piss out of
the victim in real life. When I was
working as an extra on ‘Mr Selfridge’ the makeup lady said of the actors “some
of them are like Gods.”
Being bullied wasn’t anything ‘new’. When I was younger it became part of everyday
life. I had also been on the receiving
end of bullies throughout adult life as well.
Both Russell and I were abused as kids - bullied to the extent of cowering
every time the bellow of our mother’s voice when she would go into one. We weren’t allowed in the house very much
therefore spent most of our time outside, playing sport and away from the house. It had its bonus’ being away from the house
rather than in it. I remember one
morning mum woke us up to tell us that the NASA space shuttle blew up (in 1986,
I was 12). I remember watching it on the
television and being slightly amused by the ‘need another seven astronauts’
jokes afterwards.
I was just three years old when Elvis
Presley died. I remember the funeral
they had for Elvis. They had a statue in
a tree and everyone was expressing grief by crying and wailing. I was three years old. I thought having a statue in a tree was
slightly odd; our mother was a fan of Elvis and had one of his books.
The only trouble with being so young and
easily exploitable with a mother that always wanted no kids in the house (out
of sight and out of mind) is that it paves the way for predators. We went to David’s house when we got kicked
out of mum’s house. Our mother decided
for Justin to live with David at a young age.
Even though he was our half brother he went to live with his dad and
never lived with us again and thus the separation commenced. By separation there was even a point where
our mother wouldn’t let Justin in the house.
He had done nothing wrong except want to know his mother. There were many times that our mother
wouldn’t let Russell or me in the house either.
When we turned 13 that was it - we were apparently old enough to fend
for ourselves. When Russell turned 13
all his stuff was shoved into a black bin liner and thrown out of the house. David Barr picked him up, so there was: Justin,
Russell, Timothy, Matthew and Jonathan. Timothy and Matthew didn’t do much. Jonathan was a jockey and Russell started
working as a stable hand.
The nightmare situation was that David had
a paedophile friend called ‘Snow’. I was
sexually abused in an environment where it was passed off as ‘normal’ and
‘normal’ to be invited to sit on someone’s lap and feel an erection. I was between six and eight years old when
that happened, right under our mother’s nose.
I did try and tell her but it caused more resentment and it turned into a
victim blaming session along with a lecture “What are you doing to your
mother?” in an angry tone when I hadn’t done anything wrong. I remember sitting in silence watching the
Atari Tennis game, pretending to be totally engrossed watching two bars slide
up and down the tele in the hope that nobody would call me.
If our father was ‘around’ we would’ve
been shipped off a long time ago. When
our mother found out that our father was already married and had a family
living in Australia it paved the way for a childhood full of resentment and
bitterness. We were bastard kids and
being born out of wedlock made things even worse as it was not the ‘done thing’
to do back in those days as it was classed as a sin and frowned upon.
Addressing the reason why Russell changed his name from ‘Johnstone’ to
‘Neil’, the ‘family’ stabbed him in the back and discarded him. I decided one day that I wanted to see my
brother so I biked all the way to Ohai from Invercargill. It was a long bike trip to Ohai to see
Russell, it took me all day to get there.
Years later, when I was staying with foster parents (who were very
religious) in Nightcaps (just down the road from Ohai), they had guests from
Canada who spoke in ‘tongues’ (who were also very religious). The religious lady from Canada asked me to
sit down while she talked to ‘God’. I
sat there and listened to her talk gibberish.
Afterwards she declared that I am a ‘lighthouse’ and drew a picture of a
lighthouse and gave me a white bible.
Upon
learning about the ‘frank’ attitude from Trounson as well as the amount of
abuse I was receiving on social media mixed with silence (that amounts to
psychological torture) combined with the very rude, unprofessional and
appalling manner I was ‘dealt’ with by the New Zealand government and its
agencies – it was just off the grid evil.
I’d said on twitter that I’d paid £17k for someone to go and kill Trounson. All I was getting was abuse, trolled and
blocked and was even called a ‘troll’ and ‘spam’. I put one post on an expat website forum and
had an email in return saying that I was illiterate spam and was banned ‘forever’. My bank details were checked and Seth Macfarlane
wrote “You can find someone anywhere in the world and send someone to kill them”
in a speech at Harvard University. Whether
it was just a coincidence that that happened roundabout the same time I was
talking about it and not getting any feedback is another matter. Hollywood is out for revenge in regards to the
copyright war and there is also a debate regarding religion and the subject of
‘life after death’. The copyright case is
almost like a declaration of war between Hollywood and the random people who
download the odd YouTube video/s. At that
same time there was also decapitated head images of John Key (NZ PM) and Judith
Collins (NZ Justice Minister) made by people in New Zealand who had placed the
images strategically by a guillotine.
Also residing in New Zealand is a guy called
Kim Dotcom (German national) who is wanted by the US on piracy charges. He started up his own political party. So not only were there effigies of
politicians’ decapitated heads there were also effigies of John Key getting
burnt at the stake as well as National Party billboards defaced with Nazi
symbols.
Hamish McNeilly sent out a tweet attaching
a picture of John Key that had been defaced with Nazi slogans stating “Another day
in Dunedin, another Nazi picture” or something along those lines.
There was an awful lot of Nazi marketing. ‘88’ had been sprayed onto Jewish headstones
in New Zealand. Manchester United also
had a Nazi themed marketing campaign (which was merely considered as an
‘oversight’ and apparently had no intentions of being ‘offensive’). Apparently the Manchester United ‘campaign’ was
all to do with the ‘New World Order’. There was also a fitness campaign from Virgin
(Richard Branson’s business) with ’88’ and ‘freedom’ in the same marketing
slogan and of course ‘88’ is the speed that the DeLorean must attain to achieve
time travel in the movie ‘Back to the Future’.
The slogan on the gates of Auschwitz reads ‘Work sets you free’.
There is a certain percentage of English that
feel that the St George’s cross is a racist symbol. Breivik had used that particular symbol as an
excuse to slaughter and also used the Knights Templar which is the symbol of
the cross in order to resemble the battle of ‘The Crusade vs The Jihad’.
It was a case of bad timing that the World
Trade Centre memorial resembled Sir Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ ring. It paved the way for ‘Jihaddies’ to produce a
recruitment video using the ‘ring of fire’ (hula-hoop that was set on fire) as
a prop.
I did a small amount of research regarding
science and religion. There is a ‘religious’
picture called the ‘Heavenly Trinity’ joined to the ‘Earthly Trinity’ through
the Incarnation of the Son by Murillo in c. 1677 (Wikipedia, 2017). It depicts a little girl standing on what
looks to be a tree stump with a woman and a man beside her. She is looking up and above her is a big man
with a beard and also what appears to be a dove. The impression of the picture is that she is
about to take a quantum leap. Also the
artwork in Churches includes animals as well as St George. There is an array of images/artwork such as
birds, owls, letter writing ‘angels’ etc and in the Vatican there is artwork of
a Dove flying out from what can only be described as the centre of the sun.
Christchurch cathedral came down in the
earthquake however the monument that was inspired by a drawing depicting the
woman of war with a cross and sword remains.
While delving into the world of quantum
physics and realities within realities, Einstein (Wikipedia,
2016) created the quantum theory of light (in 1905). The idea that light exists as tiny packets,
or particles, which he called photons. As
far as I know no one has progressed on this theory since. It
led me to Google things called ‘auras’ which people say are different coloured
lights around a person.
If someone asked me if there is a ‘God’, I
would probably just shrug my shoulders as I do believe it is a big universe - one
of many. We’d be pretty naive to think
that there’s nothing else ‘out there’. I
also believe in a certain scientific spiritualism. Einstein (Coyne, Jerry. 2013) even said you
can’t have one without the other: “Science without religion is lame, religion
without science is blind.”
Einstein called himself an agnostic (a
view that certain metaphysical claims such as the existence of God or the
supernatural are unknown and perhaps unknowable) while disassociating himself
from the label atheist (absence of belief).
Say, for example - you see an unknown
light that seems so close but almost transparent that look like little balls
and resemble little ‘orbs’; a light so fast it beats quantum mechanics and if
you see this light it means something. I
saw a purple and yellow ‘orb’. I rubbed
my eyes as I didn’t know if there was something wrong with my eyes. These little balls of light or ‘mysterious’
lights are known as ‘auras’. There is a
vast amount of research on them. Information on Google suggests that yellow means
‘warning’ and purple interprets as ‘information’.
Much like the Aurora which is an
incredible light show caused by collisions of electrically charged particles, auras
generate a large magnetic energy field that allegedly can be sensed, felt and
even seen around the physical body. Some
people refer to it ‘instinct’. Apparently
you do not need to be psychic to feel or ‘read’ an aura. Closely combine instinct with body language
and you might well get the same ‘reading’ as if you were ‘reading’ someone’s
aura. However it has been said that when
‘aura reading’ a person, the ‘reading’ can provide insight into the spiritual,
emotional and physical aspects of the individual.
Every alien movie I’ve seen the aliens
never physically speak to each other and in some movies they have fantastic
mind reading capabilities. Is there such
a thing as ‘clairvoyant’, are there really ‘psychics’? If there are - how come there are so many
murders and no one knows what’s going on in the world today? Preventative measures like the ‘Minority
Report’ movie where they are able to predict the next act of violence and
prevent it from occurring. Why not? There are after all such things as
‘Paranormal experts’, ‘Ghost Hunters’ and the Police have been known to seek
help of a clairvoyant from time to time.
There is also a thing called ‘common sense’ although not many people
know what it is, it remains a mystery.
Russell was a Sagittarius, I am a
Gemini. His astrological sign is the
archer, mine is the twins. As far as
astrology compatibility is concerned I have no idea whether we were destined to
have a fraught relationship as we did fight like cat and dog but still enjoyed
a good giggle. Like the time when
Russell made a sound effect tape of our step father on the toilet using real
explosion noises. We used to take ages
doing the dishes due to the amount of time we spent mucking about. We’d often get told off for there being too
many soap suds up in the air.
When the Curiosity Rover landed on Mars all
the nerdy people celebrated while sceptics questioned the authenticity of the
landing. It came with truckloads of ‘conspiracy’
theories about what they had found on Mars.
Having been an extra on ‘JC’ (‘John Carter of Mars’) and dressed up in Martian
gear while pretending to be on the distant planet for a Disney movie - the
actual real life Mars exploration and landing was exciting and funny at the
same time because I had already been to Mars and am safely back on Earth.
The Mars landing seemed like the beginning
of the ‘Transformers’ movie where big giant aliens landed on a planet and it
was televised globally. The movie starts
with an image of a transformer type figure, then the aliens come to Earth to defend
against the attack of the ‘Decepticons’ – it’s pretty much how Curiosity’s
exploration to Mars began with the image of a transformer head.
There have been many conspiracy theories
about the Mars landing and the redundant items that they had supposedly found. They had found a lot of mysterious objects on
Mars such as a kiwi. Stacey Kirk (2012)
writes:
“There aren't many places intrepid
Kiwi travellers haven't set foot on in this world and now they're moving on to
others.
A New Zealander following the travels
of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has unearthed possible evidence of a Kiwi hiding
on the red planet.
Ned Walker, a New Zealander living in
Australia, said he was surprised at the find, but it was unmistakable.
"I have a huge interest in the
Mars Curiosity Rover and I like to look at the raw images NASA uploads onto its
site each day from the rover's cameras.
‘‘I was amazed to find in today's raw
images what can only be described a Kiwi."
Walker thought the "monumental
find", would be of interest to all New Zealanders.
The picture shows a shadow cast by a Martian
rock that looks like the very distinctive native New Zealand bird.
The rover Curiosity landed on Mars in
August so has only just started beaming images from the surface back to Earth.
Its older brother, Opportunity, has
been on the planet since 2004.”
Other objects have been found such as a
spaceship and possibly a pyramid and even a spoon. There are lots of movies about Mars, all
fiction, such as: ‘Mars Attacks’, ‘Total Recall’ and of course ‘John Carter of
Mars’. There is even a fatwa on Mars due
to it being a suicide mission if you choose to visit. There is also a project called ‘Mars One’ and
their ‘mission’ is to establish the first human settlement on Mars which
presumably would generate a lot of clashing.
The possibility of returning to Earth in one piece or at all is
seemingly very slim.
It was such a ‘best of both worlds’
feeling having participated as an extra in a Disney movie then seeing the real
castle. Being an extra in ‘John Carter
of Mars’ and there being a real Mars landing.
All this talk of space, intergalactic travel and reaching for infinity
and beyond was sending the nerds into hysteria.
During the Mars landing a town called
Glenelg in Scotland twinned itself with Mars and it became a galactic style
celebration. Lots of astrological/astronomy
events were taking place and the fascination of intergalactic travel was pushed
to the forefront of most news bulletins and newspaper publications. In the BBC (2012):
“The small Scottish
community of Glenelg has held a ceremony to twin itself with its namesake on
Mars. Glenelg on Mars takes its name
from a particular rock found in the Northwest Territories.
Emma MacLean (BBC),
a twinning ceremony organiser, said the link with the NASA mission and the Red
Planet was a good way of keeping the community “healthy and vibrant”. She said: “Small communities such as ours are
always looking for ways to promote the wide variety of attractions that our
community has. The arrival of the Mars
rover at Glenelg will be used to showcase to the international astronomy
community the quality of the dark skies we have in Glenelg and Arnisdale. With so little light pollution the skies
above are truly spectacular, especially at the moment with the Northern Lights
activity.”
Russell had a tattoo of a sword and a
snake which he got done in Rattray Street, Dunedin. Same place where I got the heart with
wings. I also have another tattoo on my shoulder. It is the image of the High Priestess taken from
a tarot deck. Dressed in white she is
standing beside what appears to be a wishing well holding a white ‘orb’ shining
light, a swan is beside her and Stonehenge is in the background.
Stonehenge (Wikipedia, 2016) has been the
subject of many theories about its origin, ranging from the academic worlds of
archaeology to explanations from mythology and the paranormal. Although there has been a lot of research no
one really knows why it was built. The
first academic to survey and attempt to understand the monument was made around
1640 by John Aubrey. He declared that Stonehenge
was the work of druids while other early historians were influenced by
supernatural folktales in their explanations.
Some legends held that Merlin had a giant build the structure for him or
that he magically transported it from Mount Killaraus in Ireland, while others
held the Devil responsible and possibly other stuff of science fiction.
If I was to utilise science fiction with the
esoteric for an option of using computer games for ‘developmental and research
purposes’ in relation to ‘saving the world’ my avatar would be Dr. Liara T’Soni
(Mass Effect Wiki, 2016). She is from
the game ‘Mass Effect’. What strikes me
about Liara is that she is a scientist who happens to live in outer space. She seems very mystical and is all about
saving civilisation. If you were to
create a video game using all three games; ‘Assassin’s Creed’, ‘Mass Effect’
and ‘Call Of Duty: Ghosts’ in order to save the Earth from intergalactic wars
and threats - it’d be a best seller.
When extremely traumatic events occur it
seems like it’s not real. The expression
‘it was like something out of a movie’ is often used to describe the
incident/s. Sometimes a reference of being
similar to a particular movie is used as a way to allow others to ‘relate’ to
the carnage. The initial shock leaves
you emotionally frozen at the time and your brain somehow can’t comprehend the
level of extreme violence that is before you, firsthand. People react to carnage in different ways, I
froze – froze to the point of not being able to speak or scream.
The conspiracies and propaganda surrounding Mars was almost like
the conspiracy theories/propaganda surrounding the ‘secret’ Nazi base in
Antarctica.
Back in the days of Hitler it was rumoured
that the Nazis headed to Antarctica. It
was a Russian conspiracy/propaganda campaign saying that apparently the Nazi
base in Antarctica had alien visitors. At
one point Admiral Byrd supposedly claimed to have encountered aliens who warned
him about nuclear weapons before they dropped the atomic bomb.
New Zealand’s first taste of terrorism was
the blowing up of the Rainbow Warrior that resulted in the death of a camera
guy. Greenpeace originally started in New
Zealand and later morphed into a discriminatory machine where they seemed to
have forgotten the very reason they started and have ventured into a profiteering
and political organisation. At the time
of the blowing up of the Rainbow Warrior, there was a thing in New Zealand
where they were all about boycotting the French. The rift between the French and New Zealand
was left to simmer for many years.
We (Shivon and I) had just left Tahiti
before they started smashing up the airport at the beginning of the French
Moruroa Atoll protests about the nuclear testing. It was on the ‘World’s Worst Riots’ programme
- there was no airport left.
It took place in 1995 when Shivon was
three months old. We were on our way to
the UK. Tahiti is normally one of the
most untroubled island paradises; it was total shock to see the footage on TV.
France had exploded a test nuclear weapon
in Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia and everyone found themselves running to
escape French tear gas and stun grenades.
For twelve hours they bombarded the international airport at Papeete
(Tahiti’s main town) with stones and Molotov cocktails, setting fire to the
terminal and torching cars.
The French also had its hand in the
sinking of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior codenamed ‘Operation Satanique’ (Wikipedia,
2016) which was a bombing operation by the ‘action’ branch of the French
foreign intelligence service. It was a
long time ago, back in 1985. The French
agents blew up the Rainbow Warrior before it could protest about the French
nuclear testing in Moruroa Atoll.
The French denied responsibility at first;
however the French assassins/agents were caught, pleaded guilty and got 10
years. They only served two where they were
confined to the French island of Hao before being freed by the French
government.
‘Operation Satanique’ was a public
relations disaster. France, being an
ally of New Zealand, denied involvement and joined in condemning of what is
described as a terrorist act. It was one
of New Zealand’s largest investigations.
Seeing the remnants of the Moruroa Atoll riots
in Tahiti when they trashed the airport with bulldozers and set fire to the
terminal etc was very shocking - knowing that we’d missed it within the space
of less than a couple of hours.
The French are known to be very fiery
passionate people and have often clashed with ‘she’ll be right it’s not that
big of a deal’ laidback New Zealander’s.
New Zealand as a country has been wiped off so many maps and doesn’t
appear with the big picture of the world.
They are ahead of time but so backward it’s a contradiction. Tim Shadbolt (appeared in the movie ‘The
World’s Fastest Indian’, he’s only Mayor because he was in a movie once) is
still Mayor of Invercargill. He had
recently spent an obscene amount of money on a self portrait and acquired dodgy
lights from China for the Christmas street decorations. Invercargill: a town that hasn’t really
progressed in any way shape or form and was even more backward, conniving and
scheming as the days when I left it behind.
It turned out Uncle Joe attempted to punch Tim Shadbolt in a meeting once
which I find rather comical as I haven’t spoken to Uncle Joe since I was last in
Christchurch (the whole kidnapping trip).
I’ve never met Tim Shadbolt but I have been on set with Sir Anthony
Hopkins and Bruce Willis (on the set of the movie ‘Red 2’). Sir Anthony Hopkins played the role of Burt
Munro in ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’.
Meanwhile the reason why I happened to be
in England... the ex-husband still has
Dutch the dog from when they dognapped him.
The ex-husband and I were married in
Invercargill Rose Gardens at Queen’s Park.
Fiona was there - who I hadn’t spoken to for many years. The conversation with Fiona began in 2009
over Facebook. I had a completely
different life in the UK while she was over in New Zealand (Dunedin) where
Trounson is/was. She was there at the
murder trial and she was there when I was attacked but developed ‘selective
amnesia’ in recalling my own traumatic events that occurred in 1990 (Dunedin). The focus seemed to be always on herself or
playing Farmville 24/7. It’s almost like
having a double life with shit going on in New Zealand as well as in the UK.
When I was much younger Princess of Wales
& Prince Charles did their tour of New Zealand. We all went down to the Queens Park Gardens
to see Princess Diana. Both Princess
Diana and Einstein have memorable front pages.
Einstein was the cover of Time Magazine with ‘Person of the Century’ and
Princess Diana; although she had many front pages the one that I like is on the
front page of People magazine. The Sun
newspaper requested to know where the Queen was upon national mourning of the
death of Princess Diana. The headlines
read ‘The Long Goodbye’ along with ‘Where is our Queen?’ Apparently Dodi gave Diana a £130,000 ring on
the day they died. The divorce between me
and Andy in England began when Princess Diana died.
Back to the present day and on the other
side of the globe in the UK - I got tickets to go to the premiere of ‘John
Carter of Mars’ as I’d won a competition - so off we went. Shivon and I trotted off to the premiere of a
movie that I’d been an extra in. I
thought it was hilarious, to Shivon however, who was the ever moody stroppy
teenager - I was the embarrassing mum.
There was a scene where I did see myself
dressed as a Martian, quite the jaw-dropper as I wasn’t expecting to recognise
myself on the big screen. I don’t think
Shivon noticed and I didn’t say anything to her. Getting a photo with Mark Strong on the red
carpet was funny. I didn’t expect him to
remember me or anything - it was just that I was ‘just an extra’ who got complimentary
tickets from Disney to go to the premiere – it was completely random and funny. On the set of ‘John Carter of Mars’ I had to
giggle to myself as when Mark Strong and Taylor Kitsch walked past all I thought
of at the time was the movie ‘Madagascar’ and the quote ‘Bring me my nuts on a
silver platter’.
I was an extra on a few movies that year. They included ‘I give it a year’ (starring
Minnie Driver and ‘Neil’ off ‘The Young Ones’) and also a movie called ‘Belle’
starring the guy off ‘RocknRolla’ (the guy who falls out of his chair when he
discovers the ‘lucky painting’ is missing).
I thought it was funny to be stood next to another actor from the movie
‘RocknRolla’ just because I’d pointed at Mark Strong and blurted out ‘RocknRolla’
on the set of ‘John Carter of Mars’.
‘Belle’ was on location at the Oxford
University and we were camped out in the Sheldonian theatre (Gadd, Ian. 2013) admiring
the painted ceiling entitled ‘Truth Decending upon the Arts and Sciences’. It was designed by Christopher Wren, completed
in Whitehall and shipped to Oxford by barge.
The building was named after Gilbert Sheldon, chancellor of the
University at the time and the project’s main financial backer. The movie ‘Belle’ was inspired from a picture
and ‘Harry Potter’ was filmed in the same area.
The ceiling looked to be little cherubs flying around with a very nasty
looking creature that had a snake at the bottom. At the top was a little cherub sitting on a
cloud with the sun behind him.
I was also an extra on ‘James Bond:
Skyfall’. It is nearly every ‘Bond’ fan’s
dream to be an extra but for me - as far as reaching for stardom it’s a tricky
situation. Just a few days before
filming ‘Skyfall’ – due to the extreme
trauma of the only response/s on social media being abuse, laughed at or
blatantly purposely ignored - I collapsed.
Shivon was at her dad’s for the weekend.
I had a vivid dream that I was scooped up but I couldn’t see the guys
face. In the dream my body was lifeless
and it was like I’d died.
I woke up in the morning exhausted; all my
energy had been zapped. My eye was
bloodshot red and I was due to work as an extra on ‘Skyfall’. One of the other extras said “looks like a
bad case of conjunctivitis.” I
remember sitting on the underground stairs in London and Daniel Craig walked up
past me; I leaned to the side thinking ‘great, famous people’. One of the takes Daniel Craig was leaping
down the escalators with his stunt double.
Rocky from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ was also working on ‘Skyfall’.
Over in New Zealand and around the same
time, John Key reported to have had ‘an out of body experience’ and the teenagers
who sprayed ‘88’ onto Jewish headstones in Auckland appeared in court. Brendan
Manning (2012) writes:
“More than 20 graves, all
more than 125 years old, were vandalised with black spray-paint between
Thursday night and Friday morning.
Fourteen had large black
swastikas sprayed on them. Another two had "f*** Israel" and
"don't f*** with us" scrawled on them.
The Israeli Embassy in
Wellington condemned "the vile desecration".
"Sixty seven years after
the liberation of the Jewish people from the death camps and ghettoes of
Europe, expressions of blind hatred for Jews and for the sole Jewish state
resurface," it said in a statement.
"This is clearly the
action of a handful of vandals, motivated by hatred and ignorance, who
certainly do not represent the opinion of New Zealanders.
"We trust in New Zealand's
law enforcement agencies to find the vandals and bring them to justice."
The attack came as official’s
planned tighter security at the cemetery on the corner of Symonds St and
Karangahape Rd.
Edward Bennett from the K Rd
Business Association said headstones were pushed over regularly.
New Zealand Jewish Council
president Stephen Goodman said there were moves to install a $250,000 security
fence around the cemetery, which has long been popular with vagrants.
Mr Goodman said it was
incredibly disappointing such an attack could occur in New Zealand.
"Normally these sort of
attacks come after some international incident that provokes it, but I can
think of nothing."
Samuel Altschul, senior rabbi
from the Auckland Hebrew Congregation, said the incident was "very
alarming".
"It's cowardly to attack
the dead. It's a very un-Kiwi thing to do and it's most saddening.
Unfortunately it happens quite frequently."
Rabbi Altschul said a new
grave was last dug at the cemetery in 1886.
"Those are the people who
helped found Auckland. Those were founding fathers."
Police are reviewing footage
from a nearby security camera.
Mr Goodman said he had
"more hope than expectation" it would yield any clues as to who was
behind the attack.
Auckland Council civic
contractor John Stevenson said the graffiti could be removed relatively easily
from the newer marble headstones, but a specialist stonemason was required to
remove it from the older "more sensitive" headstones.
Mayor Len Brown said the
attack on a special part of old Auckland was abhorrent.
"This kind of vandalism
has no place in our city. My thanks to council staff for their response. The
council and the local board are taking steps to improve the environment in this
cemetery and prevent further such attacks."
The last time a similar anti-Semitic
attack occurred in New Zealand was in August 2004, when a Jewish prayer house
was burnt down and 92 headstones were smashed in the Jewish section of
Wellington's Makara Cemetery.”
In the Times of Israel
(2012):
“New Zealand Jews invite grave vandal to
Shabbat dinner”
Judge praises
‘extraordinary’ willingness of community to help pay for education of teenager
who painted swastikas in cemetery
DNEY (JTA) – A New Zealand man who
admitted to desecrating Jewish graves at a historic cemetery in Auckland
avoided prison.
Robert
Moulden, 19, was sentenced in Auckland District Court Wednesday to 320 hours of
community service. He also was ordered to pay about $2,500 in reparations.
Moulden
pleaded guilty to a charge of wilful damage in November for scrawling
anti-Semitic graffiti on the graves. Another man, also accused of desecrating
the cemetery, is fighting the charges.
During
the sentencing, Judge Russell Collins said the community service should include
work with Auckland Council’s graffiti team.
More
than a dozen headstones in the Jewish quarter of the Symonds St. Cemetery were
vandalized on Oct. 19 with swastikas, the numbers 88 – code for “Heil Hitler” —
and anti-Israeli slogans.
The
Jewish community offered restorative justice with Moulden. One family invited
him for Shabbat dinner, and others offered financial assistance for his
education.
“To
your credit, you were willing to engage with the Jewish community and a more
extraordinary outcome is the forgiving nature of the members of the Jewish
community,” Collins said. “Their forgiveness of you needs to be admired
considering how wounding and distressing your actions were.”
The
Auckland Council has spent about $10,000 on trying to repair the vandalism, but
some is irreparable, according to local media, with the damage estimated to
cost some $23,000.”
His friend Christian Landmark
was ordered to leave New Zealand (Stuff, 2012):
“A man who desecrated Jewish graves
in Auckland with swastikas and racist slogans has been ordered to leave the
country.
Christian Landmark, 20, an Englishman
on a holiday visa, supplied the spray can and accompanied his friend Robert
Moulden when they defaced graves in the Jewish Quarter of the Symonds St
Cemetery on October 19, 2012.
Landmark later implicated his
co-accused to police then tried to sell pictures of his friend to TV news.
Moulden pleaded guilty in November
but Landmark tried unsuccessfully to defend the charge.
He was found guilty by Judge Russell
Collins who said he found the fact that Landmark had tried to profit from the
crime as a "serious aggravating factor".
At sentencing yesterday, Landmark was
not jailed but was told he had to turn back up at court in August with a plane
ticket and $3000 for reparations.
He was also ordered to undertake some
voluntary community work.
In his judgement, the judge pointed
out a telling text exchange between Landmark and a friend.
The friend texted "Saw your
handy work on the filthy Jew cemetery g it made the news" to which
Landmark replied "lmfao which news lol". His reply amounted to him
adopting the statement the friend had made, the judge said.
Landmark's lawyer Tudor Clee had
argued that the prosecution's case rested entirely on the evidence of Moulden
whose story changed a number of times.
Moulden said he did not paint all the
gravestones so he assumed Landmark had done some of them.
Crown prosecutor Catherine Gisler
said whether Landmark sprayed any paint was beside the point as he and Moulden
had formed a "common purpose" which was enough to convict him of
being a party to the offence.
The judge said Moulden's evidence was
not entirely reliable but he struck him as someone who was trying to minimise
the involvement of others. However, "he was not prepared to accept it was
he and he alone".
Landmark's police interview was
played during the trial in which he said he had "no beliefs" and that
he "wasn't anti-Semitic".
However, in text messages presented
in court he said to a friend: "I agree but f... niggers and Maoris though.
They should die."
A defence witness, Nick Rosewarne,
said he was present when Moulden bragged about defacing the graves the night
before the night in question.
He also said Moulden texted him on
Thursday and warned him not to come to court.
The judge said he found it "utterly
impossible" that the graffiti could have been there for a day - in plain
view in central Auckland - without being reported.
Accordingly
he found it was committed on the night of the 18th to 19th of October when
Landmark was there with
Moulden.
Moulden.
The judge said Landmark's police
interview showed him for half an hour delivering a "complete lie" in
a "calm, articulate and measured way".
When confronted with a contrary
witness account, without changing tone, Landmark asked to restart the interview
then implicated his friend entirely.
In the interview Landmark admitted
making up the email address jewgravedisgrace@live.com and trying to sell the
photos of Moulden to TV3.
Judge Collins said the offending was
at the very top end of the range.
His case was not like Moulden's who
pleaded guilty early on, attended restorative justice and did not seek to
profit from his crime.
Meanwhile on twitter, all the feedback I
was getting back was either very antagonistic, patronising and/or abuse. I got tweeted by Hamish McNeilly, he was interrupted
by another twitter user, the replies from Hamish McNeilly were:
@mexenaj
@southernscoop wow Hamish this is one disturbed person that you are tweeting
with!!!
@mexenaj you are
talking about too many things. I don’t
follow
@mexenaj it’s a
conspiracy! Sssssssshhhhhhh
@mexenaj what’s
that got to do with the last thing you tweeted?
@mexenaj so I wrote
a parole report which is somehow connected with swastikas on Jewish graves in
Auckland?
The conversation ends. A ‘journalist’ that is not only taking the
piss out of the victim’s sister but he tends to forget about what he writes
about. Hamish McNeilly’s response was to
block me on twitter and pretend that I don’t exist.
In 2012 there was also a mass shooting that
occurred inside a Century 16 movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado. The shooter was dressed as
‘The Joker’. He set off tear gas
grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms during a midnight
screening of the movie ‘The Dark Knight Rises’.
The shooting also led into the
never-ending debate about gun control and the death penalty. The shooter
pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity while prosecutors sought the death
penalty. The visit they had from Christian Bale was incredibly contrived.
2012 was also the year Danny Boyle
directed the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. I did a ‘promo’ ad at MacDonald’s. I technically fell out with Danny Boyle (as
an extra and as a ‘fan’). I was working
on a programme called ‘Mr Selfridge’ and the hair and makeup ladies were
talking, somehow death got mentioned and she says “They all just turn into
grains of sand”, I thought... ‘okay’.
Then Danny Boyle was pictured in the Daily Mail pouring vast amounts of
sand from a teapot into a cup as well as placing a lit light bulb above his
head while talking about the security at the Olympics. Also while I was working on another ad at the
George Lucas building I was ‘randomly’ asked “Which is worse, saying ‘we’re
gunna kill it’ or saying ‘that’s so gay’?”
Somehow it turned into a political debate in relation to gay marriage
and the death penalty.
Also at the same time (sticking with the ‘RocknRolla’
theme), Gerard Butler and Bradley Cooper displayed a very animated show at the
Tennis. Gerard struck one of his ‘300’
poses behind Alex Salmond (MP) which was also at the time of the Scotland
referendum.
The first Christmas entirely on my own after
Shivon went to her dad’s was probably the most relaxing Christmas I’d ever had. I didn’t have to do anything.
A couple of things run in the Hawgood
genes, that is not talking about anything. Everything is ‘do this – or else’. Apparently when Andy’s mum (Margaret)
divorced Andy’s dad (Berkeley) all Andy said was “Good.” Nothing else.
They’ve not spoken about it since so when Andy came (with the Police) and
got Shivon after I’d slapped her I wasn’t allowed to talk to him or Shivon and
all he said was “You hit her, shut up.”
After they left I looked for Dutch (the dog
I bought from a car boot sale, half Chihuahua and half Jack Russell. Taught him how to pray, he’s like a family
member). I texted them to ask if they’ve
got him and two days later I had a text back simply stating “We’ve got Dutch” -
nothing else. They didn’t bring him
back.
Shivon phoned a couple of days later and
asked if she could spend four days at mine and three days at her dad’s. I said to her “Don’t you think now is a good
time to go to your dad’s as I can no longer have any more aggravation around me.” She was 16.
If it wasn’t for all the shit over in New Zealand, if it wasn’t for so
many people sabotaging my life and just blatantly taking the piss and if it
wasn’t for a spiteful, manipulative, revengeful ex-family everything would be tickety-boo.
I had an anxiety attack while filming a
crime drama in London. A director from
Manchester was making a crime drama series and this particular scene someone had
died on the train platform. The AD was
making a joke and one thing led to another and I had an anxiety/panic attack
and left. It was the same place where ‘James
Bond’s Skyfall’ was filmed. I couldn’t
even roll a cigarette I was shaking that much.
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