Finally.....

......Anastacia Palaszczuk is the new Premier of Queensland. She was sworn in today after achieving the required 45 seats.Pauline Hanson missed out on the Lockyer seat by 184 votes. She requested a recount but her request was denied.

Dr Hew and the Owl called Asthma.

S0.....yesterday Dulcie dropped a knife on her foot while drying the cutlery. She was lucky. It was not as bad as it could have been but did break the skin.We bandaged it up and this morning I rang Dr Hew's surgery to make an appointment to get it checked out."Who did I speak to on the phone this morning?" Asked the receptionist when we walked in."Me," I said."Well, I could hardly hear you. You spoke very quietly. I had to put my finger in my ear to listen very carefully."I don't know her name......I shall call her Bossy!We didn't have to wait long before Dulcie was called in. Will went with her.I sat in the waiting room with an old woman who was constantly licking her thumb to flick through a magazine and an old man with his bandaged leg up on the table.I noticed a useful poster on the wall. I took a picture when Bossy wasn't looking...

Just get a gun!

Dulcie's foot was fine.

"No need for amputation then?" Said Bossy.

She was as irritating as Asthma!

Queensland Museum.

For our trip out today we went to the Queensland Museum on Southbank. It is free entry and was very interesting. We dropped our back pack off at the cloakroom and explored. There were dinosaur bones, a giant squid and a whole variety of stuffed Australian creatures to look at.We passed a small child gazing in awe at a koala bear displayed on a tree stump. The child was reaching out tentatively to touch one of it's sharp claws."It's dead, darling," said Dulcie in her no nonsense way.At one point we accidentally took the lift up to level 5 and found ourselves in a 'Staff only' area.We left the museum in search of lunch in Southbank, only I had to dash back to the museum because we had forgotten to collect the back pack.Doh!

A little less thumb twiddling.

So....Tony Abbott survived the 'spill' vote though a third of his party voted against him."We will put it behind us.....Good government starts here." He said.Er......shouldn't it have started as soon as he was elected?In other news......I had a phone call from a Magella this morning from the Princess Alexandra Hospital (the P.A) who told me in her lilting Irish voice that I had an appointment with a Dr Fanning at 9.30 am next Monday.Phew! So quick!........and such a relief to finally move slightly out of limbo.......and breathe!

Queensland waits....

So.......you may be surprised to learn that even over a week after last Saturday's State election we are still waiting to find out who has won!There are still some counts going on. I cannot get my head around this coming from the UK where pretty much, even though the polling stations do not shut until 10.00 pm at night, all the votes have been counted by breakfast time at the latest.I know Australia is big compared to the UK but it doesn't have as many people.....and yet here we are over a week later waiting for the voting in some areas still to be confirmed. Granted the counting is more complicated when you have to take into consideration people's second, third, fourth etc preferred choices....but it still seems very slow to me.As it stands the Labour Party have 42 seats, the Liberals 39......either needs 45 seats to form a Government. There are three independent candidates one of whom has come out on the side of Labour, but apart from all this 5 seats are still in doubt.Ferny Grove may need to hold a by-election since one of the candidates last week was declared bankrupt and therefore ineligible as a candidate. Lockyer, where Pauline Hanson was standing, somehow is still not decided.....(yikes, she is still in with a chance though it appears the Liberals are ahead there). Mt Ommaney and Whitsunday are still being counted, but the Liberals appear to be ahead and counting is still going on in Maryborough, but here Labour are ahead.We do have a new leader of the State Liberal Party, Lawrence Springborg, who has taken over the leadership from former Premier Campbell Newman since his defeat. Mr Springborn's seat is The Southern Downs which is the area around Stanthorpe where Frogknot is. His appointment was only decided yesterday. Annastacia Palaszczuk is still confident she will form a Government.....let's just hope her friend Elaine is not in it as Minister for Blue Care and Buffalo Wresting!As for Federal politics, the Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been under pressure and is facing a vote of confidence, originally slated for Tuesday but brought forward to tomorrow by Tony himself. I am not sure I agree with the frequency of and the way Australia seems to change leaders like football clubs change managers  but in Tony's case, his gaining office was and is a huge mistake.Life here seems to be one long thumb twiddle at the moment.