The Labor figures are looking okay at the moment - it is "hers to lose" as one paper headlined. It makes me think of that golfer - you know the one - he's always snatching defeat from the jaws of victory - but hopefully that will not be the case here. It would be interesting to see, though, if the churches (aka Religious Right) are giving their partitioners any advice about voting - and whether Ms JG's self-professed atheism is an issue. But I suppose if the US can elect Obama, there's every chance that Australia can elect a woman! (I'd go to a voting website and check out the odds but they don't make sense to me - oops, sorry, that's "old news".)
The trip to T was good. Baby M was there this time and she is just the cutest thing. She is crawling now, almost able to stand unassisted, doesn't like wearing her pink floppy hat, and loves being in her walker - she reverses better than I do! We didn't see nephew C this time as he is now working full-time at WOW and doing very well; but he wasn't working today - he was off helping one of his mates set up for his birthday party this evening. W will be minding M while the kids go - and I think she was looking forward to that ... more than Mum is looking forward to moving into W's for 10 days in a couple of weeks while W is off on retreat so there is an "adult" presence.
We called into Sprengers on the way there - wasn't sure they would be open on the way back - and secured a bag of carrots, some liquorice (who knew the actual plant has large purple flowers) allsorts, a cauliflower and some celery - and some of those roasted peanuts! We're just glad the traffic wasn't that heavy otherwise we might still be there waiting for a break in the traffic so we could cross the highway (and continue on to T).
We saw a couple of police cars with speed cameras on our travels - both "hiding" behind bushes - but we don't believe either of these will result in our getting photos of Lars in the mail. As part of the long-running dispute over pay rates for Queensland Police, the Premier has apparently suggested that civilians can person speed cameras. Revenue raising? Some think so, especially given the high rate of return from speed cameras in Victoria where a similar system operates. Here it would be about returning police people to the beat rather than having them spend hours at a time monitoring traffic. Of course there would be the added benefit of people not seeing police cars - meaning they wouldn't drive or stop as erratically - as shown by that recent research.
Define "regrettable" ... and perhaps the Liberal Party definition is not the one we should be working to because that's what they described it as when a campaigner for their youngest candidate Wyatt Roy punched a Labor campaigner in the face. It happened at Caboolture and was caught on video - not difficult since it took place over the better part of 20 minutes. If you can believe reports, Roy who was just a few metres away while this was happening, did not step in to intercede - that was left to a female LNP campaigner - who tried but was unable to stop the attack. Bad language was also involved. So, in the words of the LNP spokesperson, "The incident is regrettable."
Hopefully this will be the only incident of political fisticuffs for the weekend. Mr Rudd is due to appear on Channel 7 tomorrow night and the promos (so we've heard) suggest there is some "bitterness". Not sure if we will watch that, or Mark Latham (newest, most highly criticized political journalist for Channel 9) on 60 Minutes ... or (and this is probably the most likely), Frasier or anything on the lifestyle channel.
The Ekka finished today and we didn't make it there - so no strawberry ice creams for us - although Mr Abbott did, as it turns out, have one. It seems not to have improved his disposition. Or the quality of the LNP advertising.
The kids were very happy to have us home this evening - we were back by 6:30 but that's still past their usual dinner-time. They settled in for the night quite quickly so that was good - keeping S company as she caught up with the lifestyle programs and I did some transferring of television programs - which I will need to finish tomorrow.
