Unit 9 / Listening 1B

Sydney

 

Tom: Inspector Colley? I'm Tom Hunter, and this is my girlf- my partner, Gina Thomson.

Colley: Oh yeah. I got a call from your boss. Max Johnson?

Tom: Yes.

Colley: The editor of… uh …

Tom: The Move and The Limit.

Colley: That's a pretty strange name for a newspaper.

Tom: No, they're two different names. They're British magazines.

Colley: Well I don't read much of that pommy* stuff. I reckon we've got what we need in Australia.

Tom: I wasn't suggesting the opposite. I was merely explaining what –

Colley: So you've come to look for that mate of yours. Ben Griffiths.

Tom: That's right.

Colley: Your boss sent us out on a wild goose chase** there. Two hours' drive to the Beautiful Babes Health Farm. Nice place, mind you. But no Ben Griffiths.

Gina: He's probably not in the health farm itself. He was kidnapped. He must be hidden nearby.

Colley: So what makes you think those guys from Beautiful Babes did the job?

Tom: When Ben escaped and managed to ring Max Johnson, their phone number was on the desk.

Colley: So? That makes them a suspect?

Tom: Listen, we've been trying to track Ben down for almost a fortnight. We've been all over the world investigating Beautiful Babes, and we know that they're criminals. We can't reveal exactly the nature of their crime. We want to get Ben back safely first.

Colley: That sounds like a pretty good story. Travelling all over the world to track someone down. You guys in the media enjoy yourselves, huh?

Gina: Actually, we're paid to get results. Like everyone else. Including the police.

Colley: Are you insinuating something, lady?

Gina: Not at all. But we'd like to know what happened when you went to the health farm.

Colley: Just as I told you. Nothing. I sent two plain clothes detectives to look around. These are guys that know what they're doing, OK? They go inside, buy a few drinks – carrot juice is about the strongest beverage in that place – and they talk to the staff. They gently bring the conversation round to Griffiths. No reaction. Nobody's ever heard of him. Investigation over. We're here to maintain law and order, OK? I only sent my men out there because your boss sounded so desperate. But you newspaper guys are capable of anything to cook up a sensational story. You don't even have any proof the guy's been kidnapped.

Gina: Tom, I don't think we're going to get much further here. Perhaps we should go out and see for ourselves.

Colley: Feel free, lady. This is a free country, and that health farm's open to anyone with the money. I'm sorry I can't help you more, but you understand I have more urgent things to see to than following up phone calls from a pommy newspaper boss.

Tom: Max Johnson's Irish, actually.

Colley: They're British magazines, you said, so he could be a Chinaman for all I care. The point is, I'll investigate a case if I have sufficient evidence that the case is there in the first place. But I do my own deciding. I don't take orders from anyone except my own superior. Your queen may still be our head of state, but that doesn't mean we don't take our own decisions. And she won't be our head of state much longer, if you want my opinion. Next time we have a referendum on the matter, Australia will become a republic.

Tom: Yes, well… We won't take any more of your time, Mr Colley. Thank you. You've been most kind.

Colley: I mean, it doesn't make sense, does it? To have the head of state 10,000 miles away on the other side of the world. What sort of system is that supposed to be? Where's the… (fade out)

 

 

* The word 'pommy' is Australian slang, and is a pejorative term for an English person. It probably arises from the practice of eating pomegranates (French: une grenade) as a source of Vitamin C to guard against scurvy (French: le scorbut) on long sea voyages. Likewise, the British were called Limeys because they ate limes for the same reason. English immigrants to Australia travelled on sailing ships and voyages often took more than three months. Another version derives from the fact that many immigrants to Australia were British convicts who had been transported there. They supposedly arrived with POHM (Prisoner of Her Majesty) printed on their clothes. Although plausible, this sounds like something invented after the event.

(Information source: http://www.phrases.org.uk/ )

 

** Idiom of the day: To go on a wild goose chase.

This means to go after something you are unlikely ever to catch, or to be engaged in some fruitless activity in pursuit of an unattainable goal. The expression was probably introduced into the English language by Shakespeare, and stems from the fact that wild geese (plural of 'goose') are notoriously difficult to catch.