The book has finally arrived!

After waiting nearly a month, my text book, Health Promotion: principles and practice in an Australian setting, has arrived. I ordered it a month ago through Fishpond.com.au and it was supposed to arrive on the 10th. It certainly wasn't quick. I received books from the UK that I ordered after this one, before it arrived. Still, at least I can start my uni (or at the very least look for another excuse).

Counting the votes

Today was the day of the Federal Election for 2010. Currently I’m sitting in the Lingiari electorate. The sitting member is currently Warren Snowdon. I met old Warren on one occasion when I attended one of their fundraisers (after being strongly requested to by my housemate). He appeared to me to be your typical politician. Kind of slimy, only really interested in making you like him. That was enough for me not to vote for him and so today when I cast my vote, I didn’t. Apparently I’m sitting in a strong Labor seat with a large enough margin not to worry him. The Liberals candidate was surrounded in controversy with him allegedly breaching a restraining order. Currently across Australia the Liberals have about 43% of the primary vote with Labor at around 38%. Labour is still expected to win however on preferences. The Greens have around 11% of the primary vote.

Voting signs out the front of Gillen Primary School where I cast my ballot.

I voted for the Greens for both the House of Representatives and the Senate. My preferences around the independents and other minor parties. Neither of the major parties were going to get my vote as I believe that both the major parties are out of touch with the real world. Across Australia it looks like the final result will be pretty close although currently the ALP is in the lead (ALP – 64 and L/NP 56 with 3 independents). We’ll have to see how it goes. Julia or Tony?

Uni by distance

The third week of uni has now been and gone. It went so fast I hardly even realised. Things start being due at the end of next week so I've got quite a bit to do to catch up. If I wasn't working then it would be so much easier as I don't seem to have any time at the moment. This weekend my plan was to work on my stakeholder plan and my EH governance exercise this weekend. In the end I managed to get quite a bit done on the governance exercise (even though I'm still not too sure what I'm really supposed to be doing). I've still got to choose an organisation to do my stakeholder analysis but I'm going to get that done by Friday. Hopefully...

New Bike

Last week I became the proud owner of a new Southern Star 'Apogee' 18 speed mountain bike. It has all the trimmings including 'grip shift' gears and front fork suspension. I was in two minds whether to get it or go for a more expensive one from a proper bike shop. This one I actually bought from K-Mart. It was a bargain price of $99 or around $350 for another one through a proper bike shop. I've ridden the bike once and already I'm thinking I should have spend a bit more. That one ride flattened the front tyre, the seat (despite being too thin for my bum) won't stay in place and keeps slipping forward or back, no matter how tight I tighten it. I could go on about the stiff gears, the unaligned brakes and gears, etc, etc. But I won't. Well, not any more than that anyway. Of course I can quite easily fix these things with a spanner and a bit of money but that's just it. I wouldn't have had to do these things if I just bought one from a proper bike shop rather than just a shop that sells bikes. Of course, all things considered I've still saved myself about $200 so I guess I can't complain. I'll just have to see how it does in the future. I'm looking forward to getting out in it and going for a ride again.

I'm an uncle, again!

I’ve just heard some great news. I had a text from Lewis not 10 minutes ago saying that Naomi has just had a “full term female infant by caesarean section at 2105 hours”. With those no nonsense words a smile spread across my face. I’m an uncle again!

Lewis, Naomi and their new little girl.