Canadian Politics

Who would have thought that a passing knowledge of Canadian politics would be the way to get a cute guy in a bar to ask for your number?

Well, apparently it is.

Last night I�m enjoying a mid-week drink with my Friday night drinking buddies as a farewell to two of them who are heading permanently north leaving the rest of us in our colder, greyer, southern city.

During the course of a fairly boozy evening which has left most of us at least extremely tired this morning, I got to talking to this guy. A friend of a friend, I�ve met him a few times before in pubs on Friday nights but really we�ve never had more than a passing chat and frankly I hadn�t really given him a second thought.

So last night we�re randomly chatting away about a variety of things and talk turns to politics, and he, being Canadian, mentions something the government over there is doing. On which I, totally non-Canadian, was able to comment and expand much to his surprise.

Now I do follow politics, but my knowledge that the Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chr�tien had announced his plan to retire but was determined to make life as difficult as possible for his successor Paul Martin was entirely serendipitous.

Over the weekend The Wig, a friend of the family, was visiting from Toronto. Now I haven�t seen The Wig since 1994, so the fact that I happened to be visiting Dad when he unexpectedly dropped by only a couple of hours off the plane was coincidental to say the least. In the course of the afternoon�s catch up a few of things going on with the government in Canada came up and as a result I was aware of the situation with Chretien, Martin and same sex marriage.

This was knowledge that I never expected to be able to draw on. Particularly not in a pub on a Wednesday night. But there you go.

Anyway, the conversation continued from there and we were getting along sufficiently well that some time later in the evening the friend we had in common � the one who�s leaving � advised that she�d picked up on the spark and was engineering an exchange of numbers. Cool.

Now, I�m not saying its entirely the Canadian politics responsible. Some of it may be the funky new glasses. But sounding cosmopolitan and smart can�t hurt either.

And you know, he may not call. I may not call. And if that doesn�t happen it was still a nice moment in a good evening in the pub. And if it does happen, then one would have to start to wonder about fate.

* * *

On an entirely different note, I�m starting to wonder if someone in this office has a strange obsessive compulsive disorder. In relation to changing the toilet role on the toilet role holder.

I totally understand the lazy attitude of the people who see that the toilet roll is empty and can�t be bothered taking it off the holder and replacing it with the new roll, so they just sit the new roll on top. I don�t do it myself, but I understand.

But I don�t understand the woman in this office � and I really hope it�s only one � who sits the new roll on top of the holder with the old roll still unfinished underneath. And I�m not talking only a couple of squares from being finished either. More like at least a few people away from being finished. Why the need to start the new roll? I just don�t understand. And it seems to be happening at least a couple of times a week. Strange.