I've booked the trip! Finally. It only took me, oh, three months. Then again, I had a bunch of decisions to make - the US or not the US? Singapore? Portugal? Canada for how long?
It is going to be: Singapore, Hong Kong, Georgia (the country), Amalfi Coast (Italy), the UK, Portugal, the Netherlands, Canada, and then home.
There are tours for Georgia, Amalfi Coast, and part of the UK, there will be family in HK and the Netherlands, and friends in the UK and Portugal and Canada (and possibly Singapore if I can persuade her).
--
Looks like Canada is backing sanity (mostly), although I have no doubt it will be closer than anyone likes.
May it be so in Australia this weekend!
Speaking of our own elections, I've been working with the local independent campaign for the last month and wow it's tiring. I mean, one large part of it is because there's a lot of things to do and not as many people to do them as I hoped. We're running at 110% and it's going to be absolutely exhausting until Saturday, completely wrecking on Saturday, and possibly dribbling over to Sunday.
Overall, it looks like the country is likely to re-elect the present centrist govt (coloured red on our electoral maps), but the specific question of whether the independent makes it in vs the current incumbent? Yeah, we still don't know that. There's a lot of people who are interested, but the question is whether there's enough.
I'm doing what I can, but it doesn't feel like enough. B1 has been yelling at me to rest, and she's absolutely right to do so! It's a lot and it's draining me dry. Saturday will be the huge test - I'm going to be the poll booth captain for the independent candidate's volunteers. Here in Australia, we're allowed to hand out 'how to vote' flyers to people to show them how to vote for her, and yes, it's a bit of a gauntlet to run.
That said, when everyone votes, you're going to get informed voters and uninformed voters, but at least it's everyone not just the extremists who were roused by fear, anger, and hatred. Also, no "well I don't have to choose any evil at all, I'll just stay home" although a lot of younger people here appareently vote mostly to avoid a fine.
This year, though, young women are definitely leaning leftwards. Whether the candidate is leftwards enough for them? Hard to say, although both the Centrists and the Greens have put her down as their 2nd preference.
Sheesh, explaining preferences to people has been a job and a half.
It isn't helped by the way the term is used, nor that we're using one term to refer to two aspects which are enacted in very different ways.
( preferences: one word, two meanings )
Anyway, on election day, I am the booth captain for my candidate at the local booth. We are greatly stretched because we have about the same number of voters in the neighbouring electorate...but about 3x the geographical area (quite a bit of rural lands). It's a great place to live but a difficult place to electioneer in!
Anyway, I guess we'll find out how it all goes in a couple of days. There are people doing AMAZING things these last weeks - delivering flyers up and down streets, everywhere and all the time. And the prepolling locations are busy. Apparently about a quarter - perhaps as much as a third - of the nation is going to vote at pre-poll or mail ballot. And the prepoll locations have been busy. And a bit rough, too. The conservatives are going all-out on this, vicious behaviour, all kinds of pushiness, social media is full of tales of bad behaviour from the conservatives. Which, you know, it might just be social media, but...there is a platoon of conservative supporters at each booth, a handful of my indie's people, two or three Labor vollies, and often just one or two Greens. Maybe a One Nation. Haven't yet seen a volunteer for Palmer's Pissants party.
The 'Trumpet of Patriots' (it's actual name) is a newly-created party by a billionaire who spent a shitload of his wealth under a party he basically called [HisOwnName] Australia Party to get a bunch of parliamentary seats in 2022 and...he only ended up with a single seat in the Senate (IKEA absolutely skewered him: their seat only costs $80).
"Unfortunately" this year he couldn't register [HisOwnName] party due to legal issues about it. So he decided he would go with another name and thus we are stuck with Marimba of Morons in the ballot box. He's running a freaking candidate in EVERY FREAKING ELECTORATE in the freaking country.
Anyway.
Flugelhorn of Fuckwits is my preferred term for his party. May he go down in flames.
--
I don't have anything on Thursday or Friday night, so I may need to make an effort to get a bit more sleep.
It is going to be: Singapore, Hong Kong, Georgia (the country), Amalfi Coast (Italy), the UK, Portugal, the Netherlands, Canada, and then home.
There are tours for Georgia, Amalfi Coast, and part of the UK, there will be family in HK and the Netherlands, and friends in the UK and Portugal and Canada (and possibly Singapore if I can persuade her).
--
Looks like Canada is backing sanity (mostly), although I have no doubt it will be closer than anyone likes.
May it be so in Australia this weekend!
Speaking of our own elections, I've been working with the local independent campaign for the last month and wow it's tiring. I mean, one large part of it is because there's a lot of things to do and not as many people to do them as I hoped. We're running at 110% and it's going to be absolutely exhausting until Saturday, completely wrecking on Saturday, and possibly dribbling over to Sunday.
Overall, it looks like the country is likely to re-elect the present centrist govt (coloured red on our electoral maps), but the specific question of whether the independent makes it in vs the current incumbent? Yeah, we still don't know that. There's a lot of people who are interested, but the question is whether there's enough.
I'm doing what I can, but it doesn't feel like enough. B1 has been yelling at me to rest, and she's absolutely right to do so! It's a lot and it's draining me dry. Saturday will be the huge test - I'm going to be the poll booth captain for the independent candidate's volunteers. Here in Australia, we're allowed to hand out 'how to vote' flyers to people to show them how to vote for her, and yes, it's a bit of a gauntlet to run.
That said, when everyone votes, you're going to get informed voters and uninformed voters, but at least it's everyone not just the extremists who were roused by fear, anger, and hatred. Also, no "well I don't have to choose any evil at all, I'll just stay home" although a lot of younger people here appareently vote mostly to avoid a fine.
This year, though, young women are definitely leaning leftwards. Whether the candidate is leftwards enough for them? Hard to say, although both the Centrists and the Greens have put her down as their 2nd preference.
Sheesh, explaining preferences to people has been a job and a half.
It isn't helped by the way the term is used, nor that we're using one term to refer to two aspects which are enacted in very different ways.
( preferences: one word, two meanings )
Anyway, on election day, I am the booth captain for my candidate at the local booth. We are greatly stretched because we have about the same number of voters in the neighbouring electorate...but about 3x the geographical area (quite a bit of rural lands). It's a great place to live but a difficult place to electioneer in!
Anyway, I guess we'll find out how it all goes in a couple of days. There are people doing AMAZING things these last weeks - delivering flyers up and down streets, everywhere and all the time. And the prepolling locations are busy. Apparently about a quarter - perhaps as much as a third - of the nation is going to vote at pre-poll or mail ballot. And the prepoll locations have been busy. And a bit rough, too. The conservatives are going all-out on this, vicious behaviour, all kinds of pushiness, social media is full of tales of bad behaviour from the conservatives. Which, you know, it might just be social media, but...there is a platoon of conservative supporters at each booth, a handful of my indie's people, two or three Labor vollies, and often just one or two Greens. Maybe a One Nation. Haven't yet seen a volunteer for Palmer's Pissants party.
The 'Trumpet of Patriots' (it's actual name) is a newly-created party by a billionaire who spent a shitload of his wealth under a party he basically called [HisOwnName] Australia Party to get a bunch of parliamentary seats in 2022 and...he only ended up with a single seat in the Senate (IKEA absolutely skewered him: their seat only costs $80).
"Unfortunately" this year he couldn't register [HisOwnName] party due to legal issues about it. So he decided he would go with another name and thus we are stuck with Marimba of Morons in the ballot box. He's running a freaking candidate in EVERY FREAKING ELECTORATE in the freaking country.
Anyway.
Flugelhorn of Fuckwits is my preferred term for his party. May he go down in flames.
--
I don't have anything on Thursday or Friday night, so I may need to make an effort to get a bit more sleep.
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