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Do We Have a Government Yet? And the rest....
The nail biting question: Does Australia have a government yet after voting last Saturday?
Well, no.
They're still counting.
For ONCE, everybody is anxiously waiting for Western Australia to finish rather than declaring it on the day before our polling places have even closed! [Time difference; two to three hours depending on whether those who have daylight saving are having it].
Ha. Ha. Suffer, Eastern States :-)
This does not, of course, include any of my personal friends who live there. Seriously, though, it's a good feeling to matter for once, whether on a personal or political level. Looks like the Liberals will get back in, but will need to negotiate a lot more than they thought they would. This is the very situation they called the double dissolution to avoid. They called it potential chaos, but all it means is, well, you'll have to talk to people to get things done. Talk and listen.
Since then, I've worked in the gulag two days; gotten another good review, but 16 words average short of a pay rise. I kid you not. Work provided a lunch on Wednesday to thank us for all the overtime and then an afternoon tea for something else, that just happened to fall on the same day for our office. I was not rostered to work but had a couple of things to do in town, so I arrived, ate lunch and chatted, went off to get a haircut and buy some groceries, came back for afternoon tea, visited the library and went home.
I'm having a bit of a rest, so took Thursday as well - they didn't ask me anyway - and today had mostly a pyjama day. Did a bit of gardening, mostly pruning, and a guerrilla gardening venture, i.e. removing a likely-looking plant from the overgrown vacant block on the corner and adding it to my front garden. Surrounding gardeners have pretty well picked it clean of the good stuff, though I think there are still poppies growing on the mounds of soil; I just don't know where until they flower again. I did score a small rosebush last summer.
I went up the road to collect my new passport from the Post Office and on the way started chatting to a lady in her front garden. Wow. All I said was, "Working hard?" after "Hello," and half an hour later I know a whole lot more about the history of this suburb, plus the personal adventures of her family and neighbours (g). I thought people like Carla were made up. Seriously, she was great and I love history, so it was fascinating to hear about her neighbours, such as the woman with a cow, who took the cow up the street to pasture every day, some 60 years ago. Bassendean was half bush then, plus fields and market gardens, and Carla seemed to know where all of them had been, within the area we could see. I kind of wish we still had all those animals around here, and the gardens. There are still some market gardens about, but not like it was.
A brief book blog note: Last read, Devoted in Death, book 41 of J.D. Robb's Death series. One of the better ones, involving two thrill killers who channel Romeo and Juliet. The book used the gambit of revealing who they were at the beginning, and then followed the police investigation. Very intriguing and full of the usual quirky black humour, such as Eve Dallas wanting to charge somebody for "Driving while stupid."
Also read, Jo Walton's My Real Children, which has made me want to go read more by this author, except it seemed to be the only one the library had. It was compared to the movie Sliding Doors, where one choice creates two very different worlds, both for the character and for, well, the world. It was slow and rather depressing to start with, dwelling on the limitations placed on the viewpoint character by her gender, society and era, but became fascinating. It made me lose sleep. I may even get myself a copy to keep.
Well, no.
They're still counting.
For ONCE, everybody is anxiously waiting for Western Australia to finish rather than declaring it on the day before our polling places have even closed! [Time difference; two to three hours depending on whether those who have daylight saving are having it].
Ha. Ha. Suffer, Eastern States :-)
This does not, of course, include any of my personal friends who live there. Seriously, though, it's a good feeling to matter for once, whether on a personal or political level. Looks like the Liberals will get back in, but will need to negotiate a lot more than they thought they would. This is the very situation they called the double dissolution to avoid. They called it potential chaos, but all it means is, well, you'll have to talk to people to get things done. Talk and listen.
Since then, I've worked in the gulag two days; gotten another good review, but 16 words average short of a pay rise. I kid you not. Work provided a lunch on Wednesday to thank us for all the overtime and then an afternoon tea for something else, that just happened to fall on the same day for our office. I was not rostered to work but had a couple of things to do in town, so I arrived, ate lunch and chatted, went off to get a haircut and buy some groceries, came back for afternoon tea, visited the library and went home.
I'm having a bit of a rest, so took Thursday as well - they didn't ask me anyway - and today had mostly a pyjama day. Did a bit of gardening, mostly pruning, and a guerrilla gardening venture, i.e. removing a likely-looking plant from the overgrown vacant block on the corner and adding it to my front garden. Surrounding gardeners have pretty well picked it clean of the good stuff, though I think there are still poppies growing on the mounds of soil; I just don't know where until they flower again. I did score a small rosebush last summer.
I went up the road to collect my new passport from the Post Office and on the way started chatting to a lady in her front garden. Wow. All I said was, "Working hard?" after "Hello," and half an hour later I know a whole lot more about the history of this suburb, plus the personal adventures of her family and neighbours (g). I thought people like Carla were made up. Seriously, she was great and I love history, so it was fascinating to hear about her neighbours, such as the woman with a cow, who took the cow up the street to pasture every day, some 60 years ago. Bassendean was half bush then, plus fields and market gardens, and Carla seemed to know where all of them had been, within the area we could see. I kind of wish we still had all those animals around here, and the gardens. There are still some market gardens about, but not like it was.
A brief book blog note: Last read, Devoted in Death, book 41 of J.D. Robb's Death series. One of the better ones, involving two thrill killers who channel Romeo and Juliet. The book used the gambit of revealing who they were at the beginning, and then followed the police investigation. Very intriguing and full of the usual quirky black humour, such as Eve Dallas wanting to charge somebody for "Driving while stupid."
Also read, Jo Walton's My Real Children, which has made me want to go read more by this author, except it seemed to be the only one the library had. It was compared to the movie Sliding Doors, where one choice creates two very different worlds, both for the character and for, well, the world. It was slow and rather depressing to start with, dwelling on the limitations placed on the viewpoint character by her gender, society and era, but became fascinating. It made me lose sleep. I may even get myself a copy to keep.
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You can't buy that kind of history - and who needs kings and battles when you can talk to old ladies who remember cows being led down the street or old gents who remember people from a photo taken in 1920?
My own suburb, Elwood, was built on a swamp. And believe there were cows too, being kept away from the canal!