Early morning - new chair.

It is twenty past five in the morning and I am usually deep in my duvet. However there was an election for the Scottish Parliament yesterday and it is traditonal in our household that we stay up to see who wins/loses. This year there is a new electronic counting system and some kerfuffle about having local council elections on the same day which meant that three different voting systems were used. No surprise then that some members of the voting public got a bit confused. Add to that the fact that some people who vote by post didn't get their papers delivered in time. Some counts have been suspended, ten times more ballot papers have been 'spoiled' than usual and some people just didn't get to vote at all. Blimey. Lots of confusion and bad temper. Did I mention that a boat carrying votes broke down on the River Clyde and a helicopter with ballot boxes couldn't take off for the Western Isles. Makes hanging chads seem like a walk in the park. The birds are singing a wonderful dawn chorus, I've been up all night and I have absolutely no idea who is going to be in charge of me for the next four years!

On a much more democratic note, I have taken charge of a new chair. It arrived in the Mog house via the Freecycle network ( http://www.freecycle.org/ ). If you have never visited this site, go and have a look. Freecycle works on the principle that people who have things that they don't need offer them up for free and if you need something you can ask for it and someone will give it to you for free. Much simpler than the Scottish Parliament elections and it has a lot more scope for generosity. Not only did the lovely Kelly in Dundee give me a chair to sit on, she also gave me book to read whilst sitting on it. The Collected Works of Dorothy Parker no less. The new chair will soon be taking up residence in Knitting Headquarters but until then it is gracing the living room. Here are a couple of photos of my new chair with Magnus and Georgie battling for a place on it.

I'm off to bed!