Election Night

After 6 weeks of campaigning and three Prime Ministerial debates, the election was already at hand. In some ways, it seemed to have gone by far too quickly, as I was really getting into the fun of it all. I was just amazed at following the electoral process of a country where nobody talked about their religious beliefs, and where they debated issues, rather than looking at a person's personal life. Where there was no birther movement, no debates about abortion, only a serious conversation about what would be best for Britain in the future.

To watch the election results, I went over to the O&C to see what was going on there, where I ran into Doro with two male friends of hers having drinks in the bar. I got a wine glass and joined them for drinks, where we got ourselves prime seats in front of the television as we waited for the BBC election results show to start at 10 PM.

Of course, once the show started, it merely marked the closing of the polls and that the BBC was now allowed to publish its exit poll. (In the UK you cannot publish exit polls whilst the polls are still open). It was also extraordinary to realise that in the UK, since it's a country with only one time zone, the polls close everywhere at the same time, so there's no staggered reporting across the country like there is in the US.

Yet slowly, as the evening went on, more and more constituencies started reporting in. The boys bought our table another bottle of wine, and then Doro for some reason decided to buy us all gin and caraway-seed liquor drinks. Apparently they were to go with our coffee (we realised that if we didn't consume some caffeine, all of the alcohol was going to send us to bed before the night was even half over). At least it's lovely that at the club I could make coffee for everyone, and even get a hot chocolate for myself.

The results took forever to come in, but were well worth it when we finally got to the key constituencies, like Gordon Brown's and David Cameron's. When the results from Gordon Brown's constituency were read out, there was some guy standing behind Gordon Brown with his fist raised, apparently from the "British Land Rights Party" or something like that. It was just a wonderful example of the kind of bizarre political parties that there are here in the UK. Standing with David Cameron was a guy dressed as Jesus and a guy in a cowboy hat with a massive rosette from the "Monster Raving Looney Party". How I love this country and its politics!!

Yet I have to admit that as the results were read out, I was utterly shocked and horrified to realise that the BNP got over 1,000 votes in nearly every single constituency, and sometimes even over 3,000 votes. (It usually took about 19,000 votes to win a constituency). It surprises me that while there are the wonderful idealists like the Lib Dems in this country, there are also so many people who really believe and stand behind the BNP...

The club also really outdid themselves on the election party, bringing out sandwiches to put on the bar every so often. The boys then bought some beer after we were approaching the end of the gin and caraway-seed liquor, although at this point I realised if I wanted to last, I absolutely needed to switch to water!

Yet, the other thing was that it was nearly 2 AM at this point, and I had promised Emily and Toby that I would stop by their party as well. So I gave Doro £10 (since I hadn't bought any drinks at this point, just indulged in everyone else's generosity), and grabbed a cab to take me up town. Once again, demonstrating my usual failure to manage to leave by my original 11:30 target departure, but instead relying on cabs to take me to all of the places I should have been hours beforehand!

When I arrived at Emily and Toby's, their party was still going full-swing, quite a relief. I was also surprised to see another couple that looked very familiar, and after we both did a double-take, we made the connection: "Were you just at the O&C?" We totally could have shared a cab! (Although that would have been slightly awkward, calling out to the assembled crowds at the O&C, "Who is now going to Em and Toby's at 2 AM?"

I also greeted SM, a young man I've met on quite a few occasions, who I always have to consciously remind myself of how YOUNG he actually is. (About 20, I believe). On this occasion he was immaculately attired in a 3-piece suit, with not a single hair out of place, despite the fact that it was nearly 3 AM. While you might think that a 20-year old wearing suits and hanging out with so many older folks would be a lonely type, Simon is quite the opposite, simply a young man who seems to have figured it out a lot quicker than everyone else. I wasn't surprised to see him there with a girl, because he has a natural charm which is marvellous when he turns it on you. Indeed, as he greeted me, it was with slightly lingering kisses on each cheek, an arm wrapped around me just for a moment too long, and a hand-hold that stayed long enough to ensure I was feeling slightly warm and flushed by the time he finally released me. Damn, how does he DO it?

Anyway, I quickly shook all cougar-ish thoughts from my head (he violates the "half-your-age-plus-seven" rule) and let Toby pour me a drink and show me their sleeping little daughter. Absolutely adorable! Yet truly extraordinary that they would decide to host a party and have so many people over when they have a four-month old asleep in the next room! Although admittedly, Em and Toby have never exactly seemed like very normal parents...

I ended up talking to quite a few other people, watching more results come in, and when I realised that the Tube was nearly open again, stayed until about 5:45 AM, when I just couldn't handle the indoor smoking anymore (with a 4-month old, I know!) finally departed to head home. Got back to my own bed around 7 AM, and crashed into bed, for some rest at last!!