Day 35 (Saturday)

Election Day. Finally. What is it they used to say in the "olden days"? Yes, that's right - "vote early and often". It still is possible to do that ... when we lined up to have our names crossed off at the polling station, in this case the Nerang High School, the attendant asked "have you voted already today". No. I/we had not. She then checked my name and address in the book she had, and drew a little line next to my name with a little ruler and a pen. A pen, hey? None of those for the voters - and no chance of making off with the pencil that was in the cardboard voting booths either, because it was tied on with a piece of string. Luckily I had remembered to bring my pen - and not one of the erasable ones either. S, seeing this, told me that she had once worked as an scrutineer and there was no tampering with votes. Hmmmm. I know she's right, but somehow, deep down it just doesn't seem right that we exercise our constitutional right and legal responsibility to vote with nothing but a pencil. I also discovered as I numbered my ballot paper from 1 to 5 (as you needed to, even though the Greens "how to vote" illustration was slightly misleading and suggested you only needed to put a "1" next to the name of the Greens candidate) that despite my best intention to put a certain party last, I was unable to because I wanted more than anything for the Family First party not to stand a chance. I can't help but wonder how many other people folded their Senate ballot paper in the shape of an airplane.

It was strange to think that three electorates converge on the Gold Coast. At the School, votes were being taken for Moncrieff, Fadden and Wright. We were grateful that someone had thought of this in the planning for the day - as we'd just joined the end of the very long queue - from the hall to the gate of the school - when a woman came up asking if anyone was in Fadden or Wright ("pick me, pick me") to go to the head of the queue and then to the end and right in the hall. In that moment we had saved at least half an hour.

This gave us time to set out in search (again) of the lost suburb of Worongary and the nearby pie centre of Mudgeeraba. Both were found and conquered and we have left a breadcrumb trail so we can find them again as needed. Can't help but think though that we still haven't found the shortest way there. Hmmmm.

Wikipedia: a bellwether is any entity in a given arena that serves to create or influence trends or to presage future happenings.

8.16pm. Booths have been closed on the East Coast for over two hours and the election results have started to come in. Eden-Monara, the bellwether seat, has gone to Labor. However, elsewhere, 16 seats which had previously been held by Labor look to have gone to the Liberal National Party. Counting continues as, across the nation, people hold Election Evenings waiting to see who will govern and whether they will govern in their own right. Here at Latimers, S is glued to the television set while I watch another version of the world as we know it heading downhill rapidly ... "Knowing".

9.19pm. No decision yet. Except perhaps that at least one person we know has said they will leave the country, taking their family with them, if Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister. It is possibly not an idle threat.

But back to Latimers ... where it was mostly a reading day. Those who said the third book in the Steig Larsson series was the best were absolutely right. For a moment I even forgot about the irritation I'd felt about the two characters (the twins) introduced at the beginning of the second novel. And now that that's finished, maybe tomorrow the lawn will get done etc etc. But not before we do the markets, and some grocery shopping, and get ready for D's visit.

9:55pm. No decision yet - although with Labor people saying things like "we hope ...", we're not hopeful. At this stage it looks like a hung Parliament - Antony Green is predicting: 72 seats Labor, 73 seats Liberal National Party, 1 Green, 4 Other. It's unlikely that there will be a definitive decision this evening - and probably not until the end of next week. In the meantime, we have yet to hear from Ms JG and Mr Abbott this evening ... maybe tomorrow?