Final prediction for Canadian Election Prediction Project

Click here for the province-by-province breakdown:

Liberals 122 seats
Conservatives 104 seats
Bloc Quebecois 52 seats
NDP 29 seats
Independent 1 (Chuck Cadman of Surrey BC)

The Bloc has already ruled out forming any official partnership to govern--nor will they scuttle the government just to be mischevious. So there cannot be a coalition majority, making for a very interesting Parliament.

So if a few (7) ridings could switch to NDP or Liberal, it'd be like an early Christmas for me!

Melbourne, moving, gaelige, sex and love

Our move to Mary Tyler Moore Park Gardens continues. The big thangs were delivered Friday morning, and this morning I helped querrelle put together the bed frame before I left for work (and he left to meet the estate agent for the Drummoyne place--need that deposit back). Aujourd'hui au bureau j'encule le chien. Body tired, dain bramaged. Too much in too short a time.

Melbourne, however, was wonderful--cold, but wonderful. We got an earlier flight Friday night and decided to attend the Southern HiBearnation Opening Party (SHOP) at the Comic's Waddjamacawlit. These boys are all about fun and not about pretentse. Nev, the Pres of VicBears has an identical twin sister named Maxi Shield, who hosted the party. Good drag, bad drag, great singing, so-so singing, comedy galore, mock TV adverts--we laughed, we cried, we ate crudite. But by midnight I couldn't talk (let alone move) so querrelle hustled me into a taxi and we headed to our accomodation.

I've never stayed in a dungeon before.

Well a dungeon of a sort. Club 80 has an annex (The Gatehouse), where rooms are mini-lofts with a sleeping area up top and a sling and -playroom below. 4 units share facilities, but mates from Newcastle (no, not Geordies Aiiiyeeee) were in 2 of the other units, so no worries there. It was quiet, comfy, well kept and good value. And yeah we used the sling--we paid for it, heh heh. The eaves come quite a ways down in the sleep area, but after bumping noggins a few times it felt like homo.

Saturday we joined the Newcastle boys and explored downtown Melbourne. For Canucks, Melbourne is somewhat analogous to Montreal (with Sydney being Toronto). Melbourne's all about being European, cultural, cafe-oriented, smooth but not stuffy. Sydney is louder and tries harder--still nice, but a bit of a "we wanna be more" edge to it, which I find a fair bit in TO as well. Perth, however, isn't Vancouver. Just for the record. But I digress . . . so we traipsed around happily, then headed back to the Dungeon for a disco nap and, you-know. Heh heh. Then went with a couple of local lads for a cheapo, very good Vietnamese dinner. querrelle and I made a cameo at the Bear Beauty contest at the Laird, but the move had knocked the Jeebus out of me, so we went home. I slept 11 hours.

Except when querrelle came home after going back out for a bit. Apparently when he came in a I yelled "where's the disinfectant? Where's my disinfectant? I can't sleep without it, what have you done with it? I know you have it!" Apparently in comatose Eganese "disinfectant" means "chapstick". Hawt man and lip balm in hand, I slept like an insane, slutty Irishman. Soundly.

Sunday we slept in, then wandered in town on our own. Bought some yummy dark chocolate, had eggs benedict with avocado (very good), browsed wedding bands, searched for trousers and a UV lamp (for psoraisis). A brief lie-down and then it was the Bear Beer Blast at the Peel. A great crowd, great music ('handbag' music: 80s and 90s club hits, radio edits except of course Venus by Bananarama), everyone shirts off hands up, singing and dancing and generally having fun. I should say that I have fun after a period of being uncomfortable and crabby--being a leprechaun in a room with several 100kg+ guys--even hawt ones--is daunting. Some of these guys never look down, so the jostling can be scary. querrelle doesn't experience this, so he can take umbridge at my umbridge. Best to leave me to find my own groove. Having a face that default to sour (regardless of mood) can be a pain. But we sorted it and had a blast. Or too. And for the record, my drug of choice was H20.

It started at 17h00 and we left shortly after 10. A mere 6 hours of sleep and we had to get up to get to the airport to fly back to Sydney. Tomorrow I'm lunching with 2 Vancouver friends who, paradoxically, are seconded to Melbourne but who came to Sydney this weekend. Sorry Alannis, it isn't ironic . . .