26 November, 2007

Busy time

Lots of things have been happening...I almost don't know where to start. Let's start with the election.

After doing some reading, unless I could get to London I couldn't vote. For a postal vote to be valid, it would need to be witnessed by somebody else who is on the electoral roll.....not many Australians in Warrington. So basically (I did research this) I didn't have to vote, and I'm not eligible to vote in the next election. Of course, I will be re-enrolling when I come back home. 

But I am very pleased to see that the Coalition has been dumped out of power. I haven't been a fan of the government for a long time, so I'm happy to see them go. Too many of their policies I disagreed with. That's not to say they didn't have some policies I did like, as they did. But too much bad (along with the whole lying thing). I particularly like the way that Howard lost his seat..even though that's not confirmed yet, it's looking very likely.

But another sad story that I'm not sure got much coverage is that the Democrats are now no longer a political party with any representatives. Coverage over here wasn't brilliant, there was quite a bit after the election itself, so I got to see Howard's concession speech and Rudd's we've won speech. So that was good.

Moving on to other things. In the past week (or two) there have been a few firsts, notably:
a) Karaoke singing (so far 2 Rolf Harris songs, not of my choosing)
b) Speed dating
c) A blind date
d) Bike crash

A. In the order i've listed them, there is a DJ at the local pub I now frequent, and he just happens to do Karaoke. Unfortunately, I had quite a bit the first night I was there, and have now started a trend as the crazy aussie singer. Luckily for me they are now out of Rolf Harris songs, so I may now be safe. For the record, the two songs are Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport and The Court of King Caractacus. Interestingly, Lauren my room-mate tells me that there is a dance that goes with Caractacus....I can't imagine how it goes. And I'm not planning on learning it either :)

B. I (perhaps foolishly) agreed to let my other housemate Claire have control of my life for a month. Which hasn't been as bad as I thought it might. One of the things she made me do was go speed dating, which was quite fun actually. For the record, you get 3 minutes with each 'date', and at the end of the night you give your sheet with your preferences to the guy organising everything and he'll let you know what matches there are. I think the best part of the night is the whistle he used to announce that your 3 minutes are up. You wouldn't think that it would be hard to find something to talk about for 3 minutes...but trust me it was with some of them. My favourite (I'm using sarcasm there) was the one who said, not once, but twice, that she'll pray for me. Needless to say there was no tick in the yes column for her (in fact, I didn't even bother to write her name down). And yes, I am meeting up with one of the girls from the night this Wednesday. And that's about all the information I'm revealing here...

C. Due to not having control of my life, Claire set me up with one of her friends on a blind date in Manchester on Friday night. Fun night but doesn't seem like it's going to progress anywhere. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.  

D. It wasn't serious, and nothing got damaged apart from my pride. I tried to turn a little bit too quickly, and it was on some bricks on the road. So the bike slid out and ran into the traffic island. There were no cars around so it wasn't dangerous, and the bike isn't permanently damaged. The only damage to me was a bruise on my shin where the bike fell on me. So I will be a bit more cautious in future about making sharp turns on the bike. And this is why I prefer to drive then get a motor bike. Now to get a car....

So that should get most people up to date. Is that enough information for you Mick? No travelling around for 2 weeks, but I did kind of blow my budget last week so I'm trying to save a bit by not travelling. Once I get a credit card I should be able to book flights/trains and get around a bit more. Waiting to purchase long distance tickets on the day is pretty expensive, so I'm trying to avoid that. Hopefully I can get to Leeds, as that's the next stop on my travels around England. Anyway, work calls, so I better get to it.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That's a fantastic update. I am intrigued on a number of issues and am looking forward to further updates to enlighten us further.

Questions that come to mind are things like:

1) who are these two girls you're living with and how did you end up with them?

2) how did you end up losing control of your life to a housemate? lose a bet?

3) what else have you been made to do with no control? all the housework?

4) why is your blog not as cool as mine?

5) while I appreciate not wanting to go further on your date on your blog why is there not an email in my inbox with the rest of the information?

6) how many English soccer fans have you laughed at for not making Euro 2008? (see I do pay attention to soccer news sometimes!)

I am sure I can come up with more, but this will suffice for now. You will be marked on your responses.

Unknown said...

1) I'm going to take some photos and try and get some videos of the house, so I'll add more details then. Basically, Claire owns the house so I don't need a credit check done to rent a house.

2) No, I just thought it'd make life more interesting. And it has :)

3) No, just those two things mentioned so far. It helps that she's out a lot and so doesn't have time to make me do stuff

4) Phfft, we both know mine is cooler and will always remain as such. It has since our first battles back in '97 and I remain the champion.

5) Limited time mate, limited time :) I'll see what I can do.

6) None. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. They're all saying it's good for the game they're out and that it's for the best, blah blah. No sense of pride....