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Post by Meadow on Jun 3, 2009 19:07:42 GMT
While you lot are sitting at your desks (or wherever you are during your seven-or-so working hours), I'll be manning a polling station in Battersea for 16 hours (including a couple of small breaks)  Pretty good money, but boy, it's a long day. |
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Post by ambersalamander on Jun 3, 2009 19:21:47 GMT
argh, that beats my 3 hours cycling a day! |
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Post by robotsmfc on Jun 3, 2009 20:12:29 GMT
Demain je passerai un examen sur la littérature français. Je pense que ma journée serait aussi dur que ton travail dans la salle à voter!
Out of interest, do you have to vote immediately after opening the polling station/just before closing/some other set time or can you choose to vote at any point during the day when you're not busy?
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Post by Meadow on Jun 4, 2009 4:31:22 GMT
Demain je passerai un examen sur la littérature français. Je pense que ma journée serait aussi dur que ton travail dans la salle à voter! Out of interest, do you have to vote immediately after opening the polling station/just before closing/some other set time or can you choose to vote at any point during the day when you're not busy? Translation please? My vote is counted in a different borough, so I've done a postal vote. |
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skif
Soggy Chip
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Post by skif on Jun 4, 2009 8:25:47 GMT
Much as I dislike party politics, I love the process of it all and used to volunteer to count votes when I was living in the north. I've volunteered down here but they apparently don't require volunteers in Tower Hamlets. The cash bung always sweetens the staying up late of course, but that wasn't the main inspiration, honest.
I remember when I was counting one year, we were just about to finish counting when the Green Party candidate came round to us and said - "it looks as though we may be a couple of votes short of getting our desposit back so we may need to ask for a recount."
By this point I was flagging badly and I think it was the tiredness talking when I shouted after him, "let us go home and I'll give you the £500".
Perhaps just as well I'm not doing it this year then. Retaining a proud impartiality would also be quite difficult with knuckle-dragging BNP types littering the hall.
Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent. You'll be there by now so hopefully it wasn't too stressful a day!
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Post by robotsmfc on Jun 4, 2009 20:37:45 GMT
Demain je passerai un examen sur la littérature français. Je pense que ma journée serait aussi dur que ton travail dans la salle à voter! Translation please? Tomorrow I will take an exam on French Literature. I think my day will be just as hard as your job at the polling station! How was your day? Not too stressful/tiresome/boring I hope? |
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Post by Meadow on Jun 4, 2009 22:03:08 GMT
Money for old rope.
I was a Presiding Officer so that meant lots of paperwork. Was walking out of the centre at 22:10 with all paperwork accurate.
The turn-out was less than 14%.
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Post by robotsmfc on Jun 5, 2009 12:59:26 GMT
That's surprising; at the polling stations around here there were queues and people still coming and going between 8 and 9 o'clock. The only station that didn't seem to be getting anyone through was the one in the British Legion, presumably because all of their clientele either have a postal vote or are in France.
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Post by Meadow on Jun 5, 2009 23:02:29 GMT
That's surprising; at the polling stations around here there were queues and people still coming and going between 8 and 9 o'clock. The only station that didn't seem to be getting anyone through was the one in the British Legion, presumably because all of their clientele either have a postal vote or are in France. The most depressing thing was that the turnout figure was based on those eligible to vote on the day, so the postal voters were excluded. Anyway, excuse my bad manners, how did the exam go? |
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votp
Steaming Bovril
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Post by votp on Jun 6, 2009 19:41:19 GMT
The turn-out was less than 14%. Outrageous! |
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Post by robotsmfc on Jun 8, 2009 19:08:37 GMT
Anyway, excuse my bad manners, how did the exam go? Très bien. Cependant je n'aime plus ni Truffaut ni Molière. I don't mind the literature at all because it's more about understanding than accuracy. Probably the one part of the French A Level that I can actually get a solid A on; for the rest I'll be scraping around for as many marks as possible. Not bad manners at all - if anything the bad manners were mine for bringing it up in a thread about your day  |
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Post by ambersalamander on Jun 8, 2009 19:37:01 GMT
I did French AS and thoroughly hated it, but the less said about that, the better  Ooh, that was a decade ago and it still rankles with me! |
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Post by Sultan of Cannock- SRFC on Jun 13, 2009 5:22:59 GMT
Très bien. Cependant je n'aime plus Molière. I'm no fan of his work, either, after we did "A" levels 1977-78. (That whole disastrous period of my life still rankles with me THREE decades later. If only i'd gone to college instead of staying on at school, blah, moan, etc, etc   ) Did you do the Molière with the blue-stocking women in it where the "hero" dumps the liberated, dominant, know-it-all for her more compliant sister? Such rot i c.b.a. remembering the title. Giradoux's " La Guerre de Troi (Trois? Troyes? Trrrwat?  -it's been 32 years) N'aura Pas Lieu." wasn't too bad. That came to mind last year because when we were travelling to Ephesus we passed through a place called Magnesia. In LGDTNPL it claimed that since their war with the Greeks "Not one stone stands upon another in Magnesia." This is in fact true.  Must admit that the deep depressions i went through at that time helped make me a fan of Guy de Maupassant's short stories. Back then i could relate to his general philosophy " life is effort wasted." |
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Post by Sultan of Cannock- SRFC on Jun 13, 2009 5:33:19 GMT
The turn-out was less than 14%. Outrageous! I must concur with that. Especially when the votes coincided with the anniversaries of D Day and Tianemen Square. People have worked bloody hard, fought and died so we could have a proper vote, a long way from the "Rotten Boroughs" where a rural constituency in Wiltshire was able to return TWO MP's despite only 11 electors (absentee landowners to a man) having the right to vote there. I just can't understand the attitude. I haven't missed a vote of any kind since i became eligible in 1978 and i was champing at the bit for 10 years before that. I'm still annoyed that i was too young for the Referendum back in 1975. What a stitch-up that was! |
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Post by robotsmfc on Jun 13, 2009 16:17:41 GMT
Did you do the Molière with the blue-stocking women in it where the "hero" dumps the liberated, dominant, know-it-all for her more compliant sister? Such rot i c.b.a. remembering the title. No, I did l'Avare which is a satire of the emerging bourgeoisie and their selfishness and the repression of women. It's not that bad, but then again I didn't actually read it all the way through; I just learned a few examples for every theme and went for the most abstract and open ended questions that came up. Giradoux's " La Guerre de Troi (Trois? Troyes? Trrrwat? -it's been 32 years) N'aura Pas Lieu." wasn't too bad. That came to mind last year because when we were travelling to Ephesus we passed through a place called Magnesia. In LGDTNPL it claimed that since their war with the Greeks "Not one stone stands upon another in Magnesia." This is in fact true. Not all classical French writers are quite such hard going, then. Must admit that the deep depressions i went through at that time helped make me a fan of Guy de Maupassant's short stories. Back then i could relate to his general philosophy " life is effort wasted." At the moment I'm into Orwell and Kafka. Thinking about it that's probably because I've not had to study them and hence they haven't had all of the life drained out of them. I don't have to worry about studying literature ever again now, though ;D I agree with you about voter turnout too; it's much better to stand and be counted than do nothing and remain dissatisfied with your life or surroundings. The trouble is that too many people are beginning to think that politics is some abstract concept that doesn't have a real impact on their lives, while others are so laid back that they don't mind which main party holds power so long as everything's going well. I do think that voting should be a right rather than a responsibility though. All of those people who faught for democracy did it so that we had the right to vote, not so that we would have to vote. |
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Ooh, that was a decade ago and it still rankles with me!
)
-it's been 32 years) N'aura Pas Lieu." wasn't too bad. That came to mind last year because when we were travelling to Ephesus we passed through a place called Magnesia. In LGDTNPL it claimed that since their war with the Greeks "Not one stone stands upon another in Magnesia." This is in fact true. 