If you ask any police officer what the worst part of the job is, they will always say breaking bad news to relatives, but this is not the truth. The worst part is staying in the room after you've broken the news, so that you're forced to be there when someone's life disintegrates around them. Some people say it doesn't bother them - such people are not to be trusted.
Ben AaronovitchThis I know for a fact: the reason African women have children is so that there's someone else to do the housework.
Ben AaronovitchNot being invited in is one of the boxes on the โsuspicious behaviorโ bingo form that every copper carries around in their head along with โstupidly overpowerful dogโ and being too quick to supply an alibi. Fill all the boxes and you too could win an all-ยญexpenses-paid visit to your local police station.
Ben AaronovitchWhat's the biggest thing you've zapped with a fireball?' I asked. 'That would be a tiger,'said Nightingale. 'Well don't tell Greenpeace,' I said. 'They're an endagered species.' 'Not that sort of tiger,' said Nightingale. 'A Panzer-kampfwagen sechs Ausf E.' I stared at him. 'You knocked out a Tiger tank with a fireball?' 'Actually I knocked out two,' said Nightingale. 'I have to admit that the first one took three shots, one to disable the tracks, one through the driver's eye slot and one down the commander's hatch - brewed up rather nicely.
Ben Aaronovitch