I slept like a log, and in a novel break with tradition was
the last one up today. I made toast and had a look at the Internet. There was
quite a bit of political talk today what with it being election day. I
particularly sniggered at one friend’s left-wing rantings. For many years the
chap had been a staunch Conservative supporter. From what I could work out that
was because at that time in Ashford, Conservatives were most likely to win.
However he eventually set up with a girlfriend who was very anti-Tory and
pro-loony-lefties, so now that is his political stance…
As I scoffed toast so Treacle came and stared at me. And
then started dabbing me. She really was telling me she wanted to go for a walk.
So I got organized and drove the dogs up to Kings Wood. We parked in the lower
car park and had a rather good walk of about four miles putting out the pots
for my current Wherigo project.
As we walked I could smell something… Something foul.
Treacle was absolutely smothered in fox poo. Whilst I’d been looking elsewhere
she’d rubbed the stuff right into her fur. Foul dog.
And then there was a worrying episode. I watched a huge
bird of prey fly out of the trees. I could be wrong but I think it was a Red
Kite (you don’t see many of those in Kent!). It flew low and close and
was obviously circling us. Or (more precisely) circling Bailey. I
shouted swear words at it and it flew off. Was it considering having Bailey?
We came home, had a *serious* scrub, and I popped up
the road to the voting station. Who did you vote for today? I had the choice of
four candidates…
The Labour candidate has been the Labour councilor in an
adjacent ward having won the last election there. So I found myself wondering
why has he changed to a ward that doesn’t have a Labour majority?
The independent candidate was until very recently the
town’s Conservative mayor. Leaving aside the question of what the story behind
her split with the Conservative party is, over the years I’ve contacted her
about a range of issues. There wasn’t a single one she actually did anything
about. No matter what I asked her about, it was never anything to do with her.
She would refer me to another councilor, or the county council or to absolutely
anyone at all except herself.
The Local Conservative candidate runs the grim pub down the
road where bare-foot chavs play pool (they really don’t have shoes), and
locals have been known to carry their own bar stool down from home rather than
use the pub’s furniture. And the chap doesn’t know what a bottle conditioned
beer is all about.
The Green candidate was possibly the best of a bad lot, but
I had to wonder why she kept her address secret when no other candidate had
done so.
Gripped by indecision for some weeks, I felt I had a
toss-up between either a reluctant cross for the Greens or just drawing a great
big cock & balls on the ballot paper… it’s not as though I haven’t done that
before…
As I went off to vote, “er indoors TM” said
I wasn’t allowed to draw a great big cock & balls on the ballot paper.
As I have said before, it is easy to throw rocks. I should
really stand for office myself if I’m going to criticize. But I’ve done public
office (to a much smaller extent) a few times before. It really is an
example of the two hundred and eighty fifth Rule of Acquisition in action. No
good deed ever goes unpunished.
The Snake Club was one huge argument. The kiting got rather
(very) nasty. You wouldn’t believe the bile spewed at me during my time
on the committee of the Astro club. Being a scout leader was (at best) a
very thankless task.
Mind you reading the posts on a friend’s Facebook page I
can’t help but wonder if the way we as a society run local councils needs to be
re-thought. The chap posting was talking about his local council with which he
had a lot of dealings as he was the Town Crier. The fellow claimed that in the
last council only two out of fourteen elected councilors served the entire
length of time for which they’d been voted in.
It is a rather thankless task.
I then sat on the sofa and rather than cracking on with no
end of gardening I deliberately took it easy. I spent a few hours putting the
final touches to the Crystal Maze Wherigo project then looked at two more
Wherigos to which I might give a new lease of life.
We then drove down to Folkestone. “er indoors TM”
and “Daddy’s Little Angel TM”
had tickets to see Ivo Graham,
and I was to supervise “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction TM”
and “Darcie Waa Waa TM”. Smallest grandchild slept for
much of the evening, and me and “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction TM”
watched all sorts of nonsense on You-Tube.
I am reliably informed that by not going to see Iwo Graham I had
the better evening…
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