Election Fever!

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The country woke up this morning with potentially a new government. The system in Aus is slightly different to the UK. It is compulsory to vote - failure to do so results in a fine. The polling stations are not open as long, closing at 6pm, which means that most of the results are known throughout the evening of polling day. It’s not just a single vote system either - all the candidates have to be voted for in order of preference and the secondary and subsequent votes are included in the overall assessment and often make a significant difference. It was a very close run contest and is likely to end up with a hung parliament, as has recently happened in the UK. It was a virtual dead heat between the two main parties so it’ll take a few days for them to court the Greens and the Independents to determine the balance of power. Watch this space.

Today we popped over to our nephew Grant and Anna’s house in Box Hill - it was lovely to see Anna and the girls Charlotte and Amy again (we had already seen Grant as he met us at the airport). Of course the two girls had grown a lot in the six years since we had seen them last - Amy especially was just a toddler back in 2004 but now they are both lovely young ladies and it was a delight to be able to spend some time with them reminiscing about Sarah and Darryl’s numerous visits (we seem to be doing a lot of that with almost everyone we meet!!). Grant cooked us a great lunch before he had to dash off to work at the local Police Station where he is a sergeant. We met the two dogs, Daisy and Henry for the first time - Daisy especially is a lot of fun and takes everything in her stride while Henry prefers the quiet life sleeping on the sofa in the sitting room. When we last visited, Grant and Anna were still finishing off an extension but now it all looks magnificent - the large open plan kitchen, dining and lounge area is a fantastic space for a family and opens out on to the patio and swimming pool area which is great in the summer (a bit too cold for a dip in the pool at the moment!)

Sadly we needed to get back to base to finish preparing for our journey to Warwick in Queensland where we are going to spend a few weeks at my brother David’s house. We hope to be up and away early in the morning for the first leg of the trip which in total is 1539 kms. We’ve driven it before but it is still a daunting thought. David will be absent for much of our stay as he is off to Africa as part of a volunteer group from the Warwick Rotary Club. They are sponsors of a school in Tanzania and will be looking to enhance/upgrade the school while they are there. David’s skills as an electrician will no doubt be put to positive use.

More from us in a few days time.

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