Dunne & Dusted

As it happens, September 17 was my birthday... and fate did not entirely gift me a lemon for Election Day. Not entirely.

We had a bunch of people of mixed party preference around for drinks & grits (that's food to the unenlightened). I set up a TV in our dining room & through a painstaking process of trial & error managed to tune it with rabbit ears satisfactorily to both TV1 & TV3.

And of course, in our lounge was the usual TV, with pretty much every other channel available too, and strict instructions to the children present not to change it to the Nickelodious channel. A laptop was assembled in the spare bedroom in case children (and there were a few) bored of election results & were free to go & watch inappropriately violent dvds. As it happened, the 12 years & older girls commandeered this option & watched Legally Blonde.

The day had been busy. Netball's over, so we were able to sleep in until it was deemed time for me to open my prezzies. After that it was a rush to get the house ready for guests. With interruptions coming as the rep netball team breakup party (rescheduled from last Saturday after we rearranged our entire weekend to accommodate it & were informed by phone at 4pm, 2 hours before kickoff, that it would be the following week instead), continued to suffer from changes in plan...

Actually, this deserves its own paragraph. So. We changed all our plans last weekend to allow M to attend a sleepover with the rep team. Said sleepover was cancelled late in the day, prompting a last minute change of plans for the parents (that's us). Then this weekend, election day, was slated for the rescheduled sleepover. Seems no-one told the girl who was hosting the sleepover & so that was off. But the girls were resolved to go to the movies & dinner, then M was to come home. Just before the movie though, we got a phone call to say there'd be a gap between movie & dinner & so the girls were to come home first. A few of the girls made arrangements to come to our place. And M decided not to carry a wad of cash into town as she'd be able to pick it up later.

Except that we got a phone call from town saying they'd changed their minds (quelle surprise!) and would be going directly to dinner after the movie. Fine. And then the inevitable phone call pre dinner to say that none of the kids had taken money for dinner, and I was forced along with other parents to make a last minute run into town with $50 cash (of which she only spent $5, and writing this reminds me, where is my $45 change?)

The crowd began to assemble at around 7.30pm. We had a truck load of food & wine, and as the results rolled in about half of the guests were upbeat, the other half undeniably surly.

Only one of our guests was resolute though "No need to worry yet, these are the rural seats coming in, the tide will turn". And holy shit, he was right! The latter half of proceedings was amusing because the upbeat guests became surly & the dour became jubilant.

It was mighty fine to see Winston kind of concede his seat - did he congratulate Bob? I don't think he did! And let's give a long & loud one to Rodney, who'd have thought? There are worse things that could happen than having Hide in parliament.

Which brings me to the pompous, delude me with grandeur, Dunne. I see he's ruled out working with the Greens because amongst other things, they're "anti-energy". Which suggests nothing more than he doesn't know what he's talking about. I invite you to read this analysis of the different parties enrgy policies to judge who is talking through their arse & who isn't.

Anyway, I figure if anyone is going to default on a bottom line in order to get a cabinet posting (he's got his gold plated super scheme to protect), it'll be him. We shall see.

Um... I got the straight talking vote for the night when someone asked "United Future have lost a lot of their votes this time, why is that?" and I replied "Because last time they proved they were a bunch of flakey, inneffectual twats."

I was pretty sure there were no UF voters in the house when I said that & I'm pleased to say my comment delighted the young boys in the room. Mrs Llew was torn between being embarrassed for any UF supporters (no-one owned up) and highly amused.

Sunday came & we were much less lethargic & hungover than I expected. And it was tipping down with rain (If this is the sort of weather we can expect from a new government....!!"), which was good, because it meant I wouldn't have to take part in the parents vs the girls at the school netball breakup.

Instead we huddled in the school hall while the girls got certificates, medals, school blues, statues, and a cup. M was the major cup winner, having lived & breathed netball for the last 5 years, and been a representative for the last 2 years... and having desired that cup for all of those 5 years.

There followed an inane netball quiz - one question was "What are the dimensions of a netball court?" No-one knew, but one upstanding lady (she's a judge as it happens, & they're obviously very pragmatic), sneaked outside to pace out the dimensions on the court next to the hall in the pouring rain. Even more pragmatic folk like local bloggers, leaned on the windowsill inside, watching & counting her steps... - and some pretty silly games to keep us occupied (How many adults to get a hula hoop around them.... turns out it was an unbelievable 11!! But I declined that one, being a little more stocky than the job required. Also, I begged off saying that I do nothing to bring myself into such intimate contact with netball mothers unless it follows several tequilas.

The rest of the day was quiet as we all pitched in to make a scale model of London's Cleopatra's needle (long story).

And now we wait to see what happens...