James O'Brien

As I left for work this morning I noticed the overnight emergence of some political billboards on telegraph poles around my neighbourhood. They weren’t there yesterday, so obviously someone’s been busy, as there’s quite a few down my end of Crown Street.

I’ve been through a few federal elections in the seat of Sydney (96, 98, 2001, 2004, 2007), and there’s usually always been a good showing by both the Liberals and the Greens on both street signs and in my letterbox. But in the letterbox so far there’s only been two flyers: both from Tanya Plibersek, the local Labor Member for Sydney. The first was one of those general flyers about how to make a postal vote, the second was more overtly political. So far, I’ve received nothing from either the Liberals or the Greens. And so far, it’s only Labor with street-signs.

I actually had to go searching online the other night to see who the other candidates were. As I recall at the last election “there was just a lone-Liberal in an overwhelmingly Green-Labor conflagration of people offering how to vote cards” at my local school. Also back then, “A sausage with the lot at my local school’s sausage sizzle meant a regular breakfast sausage on a bed of hommous, onion, BBQ sauce and some middle-eastern flat bread.” I’m hoping the sausage sizzle people will be out in force again on August 21.

Speaking of food. Having bought a return ticket to China last night, it was only fitting that I had “Chinese take-away” for dinner this evening: braised pork dumplings from my favourite noodle and dumpling shop in the Burlington Centre in Chinatown. I’ve been going there for almost as long as I’ve lived in Sydney. And whenever someone visits me from the country, and we’re looking for somewhere cheap, cheerful and interesting, I inevitably take them there. It’s one of those great Sydney experiences for people visiting from the bush, along with a visit to the Opera House, to the Blue Mountains, to Manly, and to Bondi. It’s one of those tiny restaurants you find in Chinatown where the food is cheap and tasty, and where the customers are packed in like sixteen dumplings in a plastic takeaway container.

The night ended on a political note, just as it started with #qanda. Tonight it was Julia’s turn to answer questions. Next week it will be Tony’s.

And the posters? Late tonight, and quite a few of them have been removed, and one is now hanging upside-down. No sign of any other parties yet though.