coronation complete

john manley is quitting the federal liberal leadership race. wow! he held out so long but i guess the practicalities of presenting policy alternatives to the martin team and ensuring a race become too difficult when no one is willing to cough up cash for a certain loser. in some ways i hope sheila sticks it out, only because i think her policies have merit and because she presents a challenge to the centre-right vision that martin proclaims. it shouldn't be an assumption that modern liberals are historical classical liberals. on the other hand, it would be interesting to see the power dynamics if she quits and jean is forced to deal with an official "leader-in-waiting" as opposed to just a likely one.

in other news, the flippin' paper is finished. i didn't sleep last night but i think the paper is better for it. it's not everything i wanted it to be but i do think i captured some of the massive scope the paper potentially had

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trying not to say anything about the p*@#&! but really find that at 3:33 in the morning and two sections left to go, it's all i can really think about

why else would i be writing a blog entry at this time of day? the really odd thing is that i find this whole topic ridiculously interesting. watching policies twist and turn over decades, watching dramatic changes in the aims of government, seeing the winners and losers in the social security pie...

anyway, in other news, my cousin is engaged. i'm very, very pleased for her and dave. unfortunately, with a wedding in october/november, it's unlikely i'm going to be able to attend. miracles may happen but the bank balance (with a trip to canada in both september and december) isn't looking too hopeful...

house-sitting in london in unique- i've learned more about construction and contracting than i ever wanted to know. i no longer have any interest in my father's job (not that i ever did). for just a glimpse of a day in this house:

7:30: work operations men arrive
7:50: work operations foreman arrives. instructs me he has 3 deliveries
8:00: architect arrives.
8:05: two of the french tilers arrive
8:15: on an inspection of the area, we realise that the gas piping done on the weekend (which shut off all the gas for the day) was done improperly and will interfere with the tiling and therefore needs to be redone.
8:30: electrician arrives and begins to fit new plugs.
8:30: guest children awake and proceed to yell and scream while they eat their breakfast
8:45: cleaning lady arrives. breaks the vacuum and tries to ask me in half portugese/half english to fix it for her.
9:00: final french tiler arrives. proceeds to meet with architect and, sometimes, me as they lay out plans for the week

that's just the morning. over the course of the day, there are 8 deliveries including timber, stone and a massive box of drief flowers which david (the homeowner) has purchased in france and had shipped to the house). the day also includes a visit from the over repairman who doesn't follow instructions meaning our oven will be out of service for a further couple days. i yell, call the architect, who calls and yells at said repairman's boss.

and tomorrow it all starts again... now, back to the fuckin' *&$%r!

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