A potpourri of a title and a brief outline of the last seven weeks in my life.
It seems strange waking up this morning and looking at my event calendar and not seeing anything of note to do.
As most of you who have been following this blog know I spend five weeks training as a bike escort volunteer for the Vancouver Marathon, spend three days last week scrutineering for the BC Liberals in the riding of Vancouver False Creek, volunteered for the Pacific Spirit run last Saturday, found 12 volunteers for a work party assignment at Yellowpoint Lodge, found time for a stiff hike on Sunday and somehow still have my body in one piece and my mind still functioning.
After working 13 hours as an BC Elections official at the Cascadia Hotel a block from my condo I headed to the party headquarters of Mary McNeil - the Liberal candidate in my riding of Vancouver - False Creek.
I had been following the results on my Blackberry so I knew that the Liberals were ahead and just after arriving at the party - getting a name tag and a cold Molson Canadian it was announced that the Liberals had a majority - this was expected but there was some concern that if our voters stayed home the NDP could lose the popular vote but win the most seats.
Prior to the election I posted my prediction as 48 Liberals, 37 NDP - as it stands right now it is 49 Liberals 36 NDP with two seats that could still change sides in a couple of weeks when all of the absentee ballots are counted.
Not long after arriving our candidate is declared elected - while we are in a new riding carved out of the old Vancouver Burrard riding - this part of the city favours the Liberals based previous voting patterns.
The beer is free and flowing and I am doing my best to put a dent in the large cooler full of the golden amber.
The office is alive with supporters as Mary addresses and thanks us for our support - she then leaves for the main celebration at the Convention center - a large group of us stay to enjoy the beer and watch the final returns come in.
As the cooler became empty Cris and Diane are slowly getting the supporters to leave - I finish up one last beer talking to a street person outside the Hq'ers - terrible stroke of luck for the guy but he appears to be on the road to recovery and re-employment in the construction industry.
I make it home feeling no pain from all the beer that I drank.
Wednesday I spent trying to sober up and heading for the gym for a steam etc - that made me feel somewhat better.
The next major volunteer event for me is in a month time with the Dragon Boat races - until then it is more of a normal set of life moments.
I do have a couple of short trips planned over the next month - a brief weekend over on the Island to coincide with a Director's meeting with the Friends of Yellowpoint and a weekend in Kelowna with Jim and some of his language student friends.
Also can now start looking more seriously about what to do at the port of call on my Alaska cruise at the end of September.
Cheers
D
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