Here I am. Tired having only had a night of four hours sleep. The reason: I was an election anorak until 3a.m. Here in Scotland, we had our council and Scottish Parliament elections. The Welsh Assembly also had elections, and in England there were council elections too. But it was the Scottish Elections I am most interested in. While the Executive might be the same - the Lib Dem and Labour coalition - for the next session, some changes have been made: some faces will be leaving, and new faces will be taking their place. The Election was significant for other reasons, of a more personal nature, as I managed to convince my vote-shy dad to go and vote, for the first time since the 1980's. My brother meanwhile, was given a quick how-to guide on Wednesday night; and a brief explanation of the system of regional and constituency MSPs. So all three of us headed to the polling booth, to cast our votes on great big two feet long "slips" of paper. My brother and I voted the same way. He has asked me who he ought to vote for, but I told him that was up to him. I had already decided, and at the end of the day, when we compared votes, we'd both cast identical votes. Like I said, I was up til 3 a.m. watching the results, the pundits opinions, the schwing-o-meter with Mr Snow. I even woke up early and the first thing I did was switch on the telly. I got election rage at BBC Breakfast, wishing they'd tell me the results I missed, getting impatient and running over the road and grabbing a free Metro from the newstand to read before heading out this morning. So, in with the old, and in with the new. I guess for some of the politicians, it will be business as usual. For others, it might be like a first day at school - finding their new desks, learning what happens in the mysterious Parliament, finding their feet, learning the rules, the faux pas, the who does what and why and most importantly, finding where the toilets are. So, did everyone do their bit? Cast your vote? love you-know-who __________________________________________________ Yahoo! Plus For a better Internet experience http://www.yahoo.co.uk/btoffer +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+