Initially suspicious — "I told my assistant we're not going to deal with government anymore," he said; "there's no honesty there" — he relented when the mayor flew to Beijing for a personal appeal.
Initially, when I told some people about my plans for Tuesday and how I understood the concept of the Oasis, there were some rolling eyes, some furrowed brows, some "ah, riiiiiight... .. responses.
"Initially when I told them I was put on leave so I could go and get my new uniform, get my name changed and stuff like that, and in that time the warrant officer briefed the entire police flight as to what was going on.
Initially, I was told I could ask him "anything" but the increasingly nervous PR suggests I don't ask about "the past" or "too much about HIV".
Initially I was told I might have to wait up to a month until the system was upgraded with new car models that had been introduced.
"I initially felt comfortable, so I told him I had also been sexually abused by a family member," Stewart told the commission.
Havel, Janouch recalls, was initially reluctant to write: "I told him, 'It will be a fantastic announcement that you are now free and you are the same Havel.' I called a week after and he said, 'Well, the piece is ready.'" After Havel's release, Janouch served as a go-between in an exchange of letters between Beckett and his fellow playwright.
"He probably just wanted to get that machine and wasn't bothered by the sweat," friends initially told me after I told them this story, ignoring the weirdness of him needing that particular machine among dozens of free ones, not to mention the fact that he didn't seem to actually be working out.
