Freedom Camping - Day 20.
It’s the kiwi way, freedom camping, but why did this campground have such poor facilities? Definitely only a one star rating on Trip Advisor thought Chardonnay. Still she had gotten another five thousand followers, her career was taking off, she was even more well known than her dad now.
Maybe time for a wander through the camp and perhaps a Facebook live. She checked her makeup and thought goodness the gap in looks between the others and me just seems to be getting wider each day this goes on. Still it must be hard she imagined actually staying here - like for the whole night.
There was a class this morning learning to write posts about being assaulted by the police, a bit of creative writing. Chardonnay took a seat, she was feeling confident - she knew quite a bit about artistic license.
One smart-arse at the back piped up - could you blame them getting a bit aggro after we spat on them, I mean yuck. They didn’t get angry even at spittle raining on them like a punk gig in the 70s - clearly they don’t even respect their own freedom.
The instructor interrupted; if there are going to be stories of police brutality we’re going to have to use our imaginations. Heavenly Cloud had tried to edit a video to show the police attacking but then she realized her old 2G phone only did texting.
Can you believe the media described us as behaving aggressively? Said DJ High Gene Ix, then gobbed at a cardboard cut out of a policeman, those bastards - we should string them up innit. He looked to the others for approval, they pretended they couldn’t hear him and went back to their creative writing.
How do you spell “decapitated” said Freedom Fighter Five, I’m describing how the cops cut my head off, there were loads of witnesses and it was really gory. I think I saw Cindy give the order for the final blow personally.
Feeling a bit peckish Chardonnay stopped by the mess tent, there were large pans of lentil casserole on the go. She thought about real food and asked chef Saffron Dawn if they had any bacon. Saffron let out an anguished cry. We do sometimes have meat, provided we know the name of the animal so we can thank them, but we would never eat pig, some of them are smarter than us. Hard to believe thought Chardonnay, hard to believe.
Meanwhile other classes were taking place with the camp children. They were having a history lesson with Septic Steve, he wasn’t infected or anything but ran a tank emptying service on Waiheke and said he knew a lot about history.
In this lesson Septic was telling the children how “Gascinda” had developed the formula for Zyklon B during her time at the UN. So what do we have to remember asked Septic? Never shower again! yelled all the kids happily. Well done he said, that’s right.
Steve personally hadn’t showered since 1986; he liked the feeling of the natural oils but had found it difficult over the years to find a companion with the same level of enthusiasm.
Newstalk ZB played 24 hours a day across the campsite. The occupiers enjoyed the views on the government, especially from the callers. It was good to hear well informed people in the media.
Their favourite was Mike Hosking. If you listened carefully between the things he said you could hear a whisper in the background intoning again and again “they’re out to get you”. Just what these people need thought Chardonnay.
News was spreading through the camp that following the successful closure of the Harbour Bridge, the Auckland brigade had now occupied the Sky Tower. Nothing was being said about it in the media of course but apparently the different coloured lights were being used to broadcast information.
The occupiers were clearly using a secret code to communicate so the state could not intercept the messages. Their top mathematician, Dread Pirate Dave, hadn’t yet broken the code but another few cups of mushroom tea and it could only be a matter of time.
Chardonnay did worry about what would happen to her followers once the protest was over, she’d obviously be ok with her career as an influencer but some of these others didn’t seem to have much going on to go back to.
Perhaps it’ll never end, she thought. Realistically a lot of people here had gripes beyond the mandates. She wondered whether she might lose follows without coming down here everyday.
The sun was shining and she started up a chant of “get up, stand up” into the camera. Any end was something to worry about another day, especially now they had moved a bollard so that pizza delivery could get through.
Hmm an extra large Meat Lovers she thought – it’ll make a great photo to post so the normies can see we’re just like them. She did hope the driver wasn’t wearing a mask – that could go really badly.