Carolyn O'Donnell

I am an addict, and the police have stopped me from getting my fix.

While spending my days huffing over a computer and consuming peppermint tea and vegetables, I need something to look forward to. And that something takes the form of … Gossip Girl.

I know, it’s soap opera, but New York looks great, the food looks great, the clothes are great and the cocktails look really great. There are so many fabulous bars on that show. And the music is really clever too. Time is Running Out by Muse played by a string quartet at a stuffy faculty party is genius.

So I’ve been buying the DVDs and there are a lot of shops at dingy Prangin Mall selling these and probably not all of them are importing direct from Sony or Warner Bros.

Last night I go to get season three. I check all the discs are there, but just not thoroughly enough. When I go to watch them, I realize they’ve given me season two. I run back to the mall, but the shop is shut. If I hadn’t wasted half an hour messing about I would probably have got there in time …

Today I have to go and collect something then I return to the mall and all the shops are open except the one I want. I ask the guy next door when they will be open, and he says he doesn’t know because they’ve been raided and the police are in there. This happened in the past half hour. I wasted time making polite conversation when I went to collect these items and if I’d moved more efficiently I could have been before the police arrived. Rrrrrrrrrrr!!!

And sorry, police??? What strikes me as really bizarre is that ordinarily you never see the police here. There is a vast police station that takes up a whole block on one of the main roads, and although there are lots of stray cats out front I never see any cops.

There certainly weren’t any police around when I was getting mugged. No, they are harassing owners of DVD shops and ruining my night. Humpf.