Saturday, November 08, 2008

Decisions.


Sally Holmes Rose.
Life continues to be very busy - one should never complain about that as it means I am alive, fit and well and able to work and be useful.
Today is Election day in New Zealand. That means decisions. Our elections have certainly paled in significance in the shadow of USA elections. I will say I was quite delighted with the out come there and hope it changes some of the evils in the world. It is a start. That doesn't necessarily give you a clue to my political leanings - cause I don't really have any. I sit in the middle; a swinging voter ( I like that term ) because it means I am not set in my views; I am prepared to listen, read, think and consider and hence I get to polling day still undecided. (This has happened before ) I didn't sleep well last night.
2 things I dislike very much are people trying to push their political views or religious views down my throat. ( those are very personal things ) ( DH doesn't even know for sure who I vote for )
Things I have learnt about Elections.
* People think They know how you vote because of who you are or what you are or where you live or what you do.
* Spending election night when the results come out with friends can be a disturbing and risky things to do - ( hence we are staying in alone having our own wee special picnic in the lounge in front of the TV )
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I don't usually eat pastry these days but have made an exception today. I heard this idea on the radio for making food suitable for watching election results by, so I am making Picnic Pie ( or Meat Loaf Pie ). ( never made it before ! ) I will tell you how it turns out next post; but basically if you have a nice meatloaf recipe use it as the filling in a pie with savoury pastry. We will eat it with salad and new potatoes and tasty extra nibbles and a few drinks. Our picnic will not be on a rug on the floor - more our usual positions for watching TV. DH slouched in his chair; me on the couch with cushions at my back my feet up under a quilt hand sewing...... ( I will be awake; he will be snoring and missing vital parts of the commentary! )
A couple of elections ago we were invited out to friends' place for dinner and the evening watching the election results. They had friends staying from another part of the country so there were 6 of us. Dinner was yummy and fun as it always is at this home BUT later as those not driving had a few, things got interesting. ( basically I was the only driver, so possibly saw the funny side ). The 2 out of town visitors, had voted very to the left; the 2 home owners voted to the right, DH voted slightly to the right and I was in the middle - no one knew how I had voted. As the evening wore on the home owners discovered results were not going their way. Eventually they got the huff and said " We are going to bed. Good night." And off they went. (Their house guest had to meet them over breakfast. )We stayed on, then let our selves out later. Strangely we are all still friends and the evening has never been mentioned but we decided to learn from it and stay home. If we want to disagree, we will do it just the 2 of us.
Lunch time now , then we must drive down to our nearest polling booth and cast our votes! I might walk the 4 kms back.
I have continued to hand quilt fish on J's quilt most evenings. Nothing else at all.

4 comments:

molly said...

Oh, you are sooooo right about voting, and for whom one votes being a thorny subject! My in-laws are very conservative. Voted for Bush, lived to sorely regret it. But were adamant that the republicans still had the better candidate this time. Some heated discussions. I'd argue, but then I'd remember that "the only fool bigger than the one who knows everything is the one who argues with him," and then I'd sit quietly and let it wash over me! You should go check out my daughter's blog [she's blue-arsed-fly in my sidebar.]Her grandfather would be very disgruntled with her for being in the democratic camp! But I applaud her for not blindly allying herself with a party, but voting for the candidate who seems best for the country. I think that the results of our election give hope to America and the world. I hope you will be as pleased with your results as we are with ours!

Tracey Petersen said...

Elections are an exciting time, no matter how you think.

Unknown said...

I am a swinging voter too :) My mother always said that we should never judge people by their political opinion or by what political party they belonged.

meggie said...

Hi Ali, quite interesting to read about the dinner out! We had a house guest once who cried on Election night, because our local was not the flavour he liked.
I confess, I am like you. I go with what I feel would be best at the time.
BB had his vote faxed in, from here, so he would not miss out, as his flight did not arrive until 9pm your time.