World of Chig   

5.5.06
40 in 1 day: 2005

One day until I'm 40 and what a day it's been, after staying awake(ish) until goodness knows what time, watching the local election results in bed. I wasn't bothered about being up late, as the weather today was supposed to be awful: thunderstorms. But what do you know? The weather people were completely wrong AGAIN and it's been a glorious day here in Brum. The local mood is great too, as Salma Yaqoob won our council seat for Respect, shoving out a useless Labour duffer who was restanding. Last time round it was a Lib Dem here who won one of our 'safe' Labour seat, this time round it's Respect. We really are very good at tactical voting round here; voting for the best candidate. Don't worry, I haven't suddenly become a big fan of George Galloway, but Salma Yaqoob is a superb candidate and will be a great councillor, as anyone who's seen one of her many TV appearances will know. She nearly became our MP last year, reducing a massive Labour majority to a marginal, so it's no surprise that she has become our councillor. And it means I have a clear concience as I voted Green yesterday. I really wanted two votes as I wanted Salma to win, but to vote Green and that's exactly what happened. The Greens came fifth of six in our ward, but nearly beat the Tory into fourth place, and the BNP vote here was possibly the lowest in Brum (where they stood in all seats). I'm proud of Balsall Heath and Sparkbrook today!

Here are some photos of last year. At 10:40am tomorrow, I will be forty. At 10.40pm tomorrow, I will hopefully be very drunk, at my own birthday party. Until then...


Sunday in the beer garden of a very nice Bristol pub, the day after Bristol Pride. This is an early picture. We were there all day. What a weekend that was!


Another one for the Athena collection.


I've never actually seen Clare's face, as it always has a glass or a bottle attached like this. See you two tomorrow!

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