of voting and stuff

Categories: life-in-general

Date: 20 March 2010 05:58:57

Voting in the Tasmanian State Election today .. second time I've voted down here ... actually, third ... first was Federal (compulsory vote), second was local (not compulsory but I did) and third was today, State (compulsory). I'm in favour of compulsory voting ... if nothing else it means that those who constantly exercise their opinion on politics actually have to put their money with their mouth is and make a decision ... even if it's to do a donkey vote so they don't get fined. Donkey vote, for those who don't know, is when you mark your paper in such a way as to be invalid .. having worked a Federal election many years ago I know these markings can be many and varied ;), and even quite creative! Some choose not to vote and taken the fine. To be blunt (as I so often am) ... if you don't vote I'm not interested in hearing your opinion ... in the case of the local elections, where it is voluntary, that's not problem, you are given an option not to vote and if you choose to take it that is fine, you have expressed your opinion in that way. In the case of the other elections where it is compulsory, well, if you choose to take the fine I guess that is a choice of a kind ... but then I stand even more firmly behind my choice to pay no attention whatsoever to your opinion ... if you choose to dip out of having any actual impact whatsoever on the political direction our country or state takes by not registering your vote, well, why on earth would I care what you think? In other news ... our stove top died last night ... which just about finished me off for the week ... luckily it's still in warranty. I have an idea the stovetop may be slightly defective because, even tho' it's an induction stove and therefore not supposed to get hot, it does get hot after cooking ... and I mean really hot, not just moderately ... and it's also hard to turn on ... so I"m wondering if things that I thought were possibly just a design fault actually were actual faults ... and it's just blown itself up finally. Anyway, we'll get the service guy out next week hopefully and he'll either fix it or order a new one. I've got no probs having it fixed if it's fixable ... but okay with a new one too . We have people coming for dinner tonight but luckily was planning a roast (which is now in the oven) anyway and roasted vegies, and the peas, which are the only non roasted part, can be done in the microwave - so it's all action stations even without a cooktop. ON thinking of it, as I have an electric frypan which I use quite a lot, and a slow cooker, as well as the double oven and microwave (an embarressment of riches now I look at it!) I'd have to say that the cooktop is probably the least used cooking item in the kitchen - why boil peas when you can microwave? I've just finished putting in 2 native creeping plants on the cliff as well as (fanfare please!) the banksia rose that JD 'killed' back in December (or whenever it was). Remember, this the one that was thrown out of it's pot and torn in half ... I honestly don't know why I put it back in the pot but I did, and it has now not only come back to life but today a little pink flower bud made it's appearance! So I thought I'd better put it in the ground while I was at it. The cliff top is starting to look quite populated now, 9 different plants up there, lots to go of course, and once it's rained a bit more and I can paper and mulch the whole thing it's going to look fantastic! We're really pleased with it.