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If you’ve read the last post, you know I went to see a movie yesterday afternoon. It was a mostly pleasant experience, and would have been more pleasant if the young teenage girls in the same row had stopped talking, rustling plastic bags, and using their mobile phones which lit up the area like a small sun shining in a lonely, dark universe. Are you the type of person who asks these types of offenders to please be quiet? Or are you like me and throw dirty looks in their direction, and cough to let them know There Are Other People In The Cinema, Dammit! And No!! I Don’t Want To Hear Your Story About Standing Outside The Pet Store!!! *sigh* On the way out, I did thank them for talking through the movie. I don’t think they liked that very much. What would you have done?

Luxury is leaving work at 1.00pm, browsing in a bookstore for an hour or so, snoozing in the sun on the train home, catching an afternoon movie, (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It really is a comic book come to vibrant, hilarious life. Loved it. How can you not love a movie with a character that has Vegan Superpowers?) and then having some dinner, watching some telly, then curling up on the lounge for an hour wrapped in a blankie with a Charles Lenox detective novel for some light reading before going to bed at 10.30pm. Nice.

The first hung parliament in 60 years. Who would’ve thunk it? I’m not entirely sure what this means for our country, on a local or international scale, but I am satisfied with the outcome. Democracy in action. We didn’t want either party to lead our nation. Julia and Tony can chew over that one while they wait for the AEC to work out the final count. We won’t be ‘moving forward’, or ’standing up for real action’ any time soon. On top of that, I have no problem that our first female PM wasn’t (re)-elected. No problem at all. I’m still predicting the Libs to take office in a minority government. That’s not the outcome I voted for, but I think it’s what will happen.

Turning to more important news, U2 are playing in Sydney in December. Tickets on sale September 3. Who’s interested?

The polls closed an hour ago. It’s going to be very close, but my gut feel is that the Libs will win the election, even if as a minority government wooing independents to gain the majority. In this case, I may consider moving to a lighthouse, since it is International Lighthouse Day, and I’d like to have something to celebrate.

Credit: ‘Lighthouse and shore’ by John Curley via Flickr

Here I am on the eve of Election Day, and I’m still not entirely sure who will get my primary vote for the House of Reps. I know who I’m not voting for, but even so I feel like whichever way I go, I’ll be supporting parties that I don’t really want to support. I was intending to vote NOTA, but won’t now after Mr Bull-in-a-China-Shop Latham jumped on the same band wagon. The Senate I have figured out, thanks to the info on www.belowtheline.org.au. Very interesting to see where each candidate or group directs their preferences. So yes, I will end up voting for different parties in each House. Shock, horror!

According to a TV ad I saw tonight, hundreds of evil germs are having a party on my hand wash soap pump. To save me from this irksome thought, Dettol has developed a “no touch hand wash system.” Its sensor releases just the right amount of soap into my palm so that I “never have to touch a germy soap pump again.” We’ll just overlook that fact that I’d then be washing my hands to get rid of dirt and germs anyway. So it doesn’t really matter if I touch the germ laden soap pump first, does it? Stupid company trying to get us to buy something no one actually needs. Plus it needs 4 x AA batteries. Ridiculous. This is such a dumb idea, it deserves its own category.

Tonight I almost attended a candle-light vigil to call for increased funding for mental health services.

I say almost, because I arrived at the designated place on time, early in fact, and then, despite the best of efforts, the Comedy of Errors began. (To assist you Dear Readers the key points along the Error Trail have been marked with an asterisk.)

Firstly, the vigil was difficult to find*. It was raining and the volunteers were huddled in a small booth on the mall*, with no visible signage or posters*. (Apparently there had been a mix-up and someone had forgotten to bring them?) Some of the volunteers were wearing the bright orange t-shirts associated with Get Up, except that they were mostly covered up with jackets and jumpers*, making the group that much harder to spot. Just on 5.00pm (the scheduled meeting time), the vigil crowd was more of a baker’s dozen. Some of the Commie Dinner crew came along too. We had a bit of a chat with the event organiser who said that “they could start the vigil at anytime”*, and suggested coming back at 6.30pm* when the main speaker would begin. It was now just after 5.00pm, so our group figured we would have an early dinner and return just before 6.30pm. So we did*. We enjoyed a great meal at a Chinese restaurant just around the corner out of sight of the vigil location*, and headed back at about 6.15pm. Only to find the main speaker just finishing up, and about 30 other vigilers standing around with snuffed candle stubs. We had missed the whole thing! Oh dear. In hindsight, we could have given our mobile number to the event organiser so they could alert us to the early start of the vigil.* Maybe if they’d had a microphone and speakers*, we would have heard them start. Still, we chatted with a few people, signed the Message Wall., and made it into some of the photos. So there you have it - foiled again! However, it does make for a very amusing story. John and I laughed and laughed when we realised what had happened.

If you see us in next week’s local paper, have a chuckle at our misadventure, but please remember that the reason we went to the vigil in the first place was to raise awareness about an important issue - increasing funding for mental health services. Make your vote count on Election Day.