For my birthday I got:
- A bookmark with bunnies on
- Press Gang series 1 on DVD
- A Big Finish audio with Peter Purves narrating
- A pile of Mercedes Lackey and Chalet School books
- A referendum
- Two local council elections

People at work think I should be celebrating by going out to dinner, which is always a stressful experience. I think they're odd. I did my celebrating at the weekend. And also I got to vote - not too many people get a bank holiday and an election for their birthdays.

Voting was interesting. It was at the Arts Centre and I went around the time a childrens' ballet class was about to start, so there were all these kids around in tutus and their parents. I was on the side that didn't have a queue, as usual.

First there was the referendum one, which was grey and went in one ballot box. Then there was the district council one, which was white and I got to put two crosses on and in a different ballot box. Then there was a long green cardboardy one for the parish council, where I got to put five crosses! The bloke handing out the sheets was quite amusing because when he came to the last one he said "now you've got the hang of two crosses, you get to do five" or something along those lines.

Given the news I'm not getting up my hopes for the referendum to give me a voting system where my vote might actually count in a way that's not purely tactical. The council elections were the first ones times I've ever voted and not known who to vote for. I was going to base it on who lived in the town and that turned out to be all of them. Then I looked at where exactly they lived, but then I would have ended up voting Conservative. The parish one was easy because there were ten candidates, five from two parties, one of which I refuse to vote for. But the district one had two candidates each from three parties, so I voted for the people I didn't vote for for the parish council. At least the county council wasn't in this election too...

An on the subject of voting, here's a video that explains AV for cats.

So today is the day after my birthday aka election day. I made a slight detour on my way home and stopped off at the polling station. Which seems crazy to me because until now I've always lived less than five minutes walk away from the polling station. But this one is a bit over ten minutes walk away. It is sunny now, but I'm tired and that was a bit much of a walk for me after work.

It was quite exciting - it turns out there is a notice board inside that we could put a Rotaract poster on. It's a pity we couldn't have one up there for election day.

Oh, and I voted too. I didn't think that everywhere would have a short, blunt pencil, but it turns out they do. I got thoroughly confused by the names on the ballot paper being in alphabetic order by surname, but since I wanted to vote for the one at the top, that was fine. He was also the only one who actually lives in this constituency. And the most likely to win against the Tories. And the party I wanted to vote for, so that was handy.

I did get quite confused when I went in, showed the people at my desk my polling card, then they asked my name. At which point I paused, worked out they needed my full name and then gave them that. They were happy, but puzzled. I regularly puzzle people by pausing when asked my name because I have to work out whether they need my full name or whether I can just give them the shortened version.

There are many, many good reasons to vote and that I believe everyone who has the right to vote should vote. I know that often the best option is merely the least worst one, but if you don't vote you don't get to have an opinion about how the country is governed. My biggest reason for voting is that the Tories decided to have a general election four days before my 18th birthday when they could have hung on a few more weeks. I'm still annoyed about and won't vote for them on the basis that they screwed me over. Well, and a lot of other reasons, obviously.

Since this week I'm struggling to keep my eyes open after about 9.30pm, I'll be going to bed for a bit. The polls don't close until 10pm so there won't be any news before midnight. Doubtless I will be around on the internet at stupid o'clock, trying to keep myself awake...

It's my birthday today, so I had to open my presents this morning, before breakfast. They had been sitting around the house since Friday! I got:

• Chives (although I got those at Easter because you can't post a pot with soil and chives in it)
• Black thread (the type that's suitable for mending black clothes
• Three pairs of bright weekend socks, featuring pink and pandas
• The Bill series 1 on DVD
• Spooks series 2 on DVD
• Red Dwarf VIII - I now have them all on DVD except for Back to Earth
• The whole of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister - which is quite timely really
• How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier
• Betsy was a Junior and Betsy and Joe by Maud Hart Lovelace
• Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
• A wind up bunny - in Harry Potter wrapping paper
• A gift voucher for Waterstones for an indeterminate amount of money