While all the political turmoil has been going on in Britain, it has sort of slipped under the radar a bit that we were having a General Election in Australia. Even here on the run up, the TV news appeared to be concentrating more on Brexit than on the possible change in government of their own country as it was expected to be a close run thing.
Voting is compulsory here so election day is quite different, it is held on a Saturday and has a touch of a party atmosphere about it. Unlike in Britain, where people drift in as and when during a long day, the polling stations close at 6pm and are crowded and most have a sausage sizzle. When asked to sum up the forthcoming election in six words, more members of the public answered 'Looking forward to the sausage sizzle' than anything else. 
Mind you the electorate need sustenance when they are voting here especially as this was a double dissolution election - meaning votes had to be cast for both the upper and lower houses. Also, because there is preferential voting here you don't get to tick a box then go home, you have to number preferences on both papers and could spend all day racking your brains in your little booth. Alternatively, voters can choose to go along with the preferences of their chosen party so, for example, if you were voting for the Greens in our district of Paterson and wanted to go along with their preferences your choices would go;
1) Green Party
2) Australian Cyclists Party
3) Animal Justice Party
4) Voluntary Euthanasia Party
5) Socialist Alliance
6) Labor
The ballot paper Ian is holding up in the photo is for the Senate and the paper lists all 151 candidates for the 12 available New South Wales seats. You have to number at least 1 - 12 but can number all the way through to 151 if you so desire. I can't vote yet, otherwise we might have been there all day!
We bought our snacks for the evening ready for an all nighter watching the results pouring in and switched on the TV for the election results show only to find the programme finished at 10pm with the announcement that counting would resume on Tuesday - they were taking 2 days off!
Anyway 9 days later, the Liberal/National coalition limped over the line (don't even get me started on the fact that there is a permanent coalition) by this time it was a bit of a damp squib and most people had lost interest, as I am sure you have reading this.
Being in government limbo didn't stop us pressing on with our renovations and Ian is currently putting the finishing touches to our bike shed. We try, whenever possible to use recycled materials and this has been built almost entirely from pallets (take note Mark Pulsford). It looks rather good, I think he is taking his design influence from the opera house.