Election Day and St. Bart's Day

So Australia had its general elections over the weekend, and the outcome is a hung parliament with the governing majority could go either way. It would be weeks before we find out the result.

This would be my second time experiencing the elections in Australia. I'm not eligible to vote here. But I am a registered voter in Malaysia, although I have missed out on the last general election back home. I hope I'm not one of those phantom voters, hahhah.

On Sunday, my workplace, St. Bartholomew's House had its annual celebration of St. Bart's day. I brought Li-Ann as extra hands to help. We had the usual church service in the morning, followed by the traditional serving of soup and bread.

This time, instead of having it in our hostel, we served the refreshments at City Farm. This year's event was a bit special, as we had the ground breaking ceremony for our new building, expected to commence construction in a couple months time.

Our WA premier, Colin Barnett was one of the dignitaries. Also present was Labour MP Alannah Mactiernan. It was pretty cool seeing members of the media hijacking the VIPs and the bodyguards with sunglasses and earpieces standing by our premier.

Also, as I was taking pictures, it was pretty funny overhearing Colin giving Alanah sarcastic condolescences for losing her seat the day before. Ah, politicians... Here's a picture where everyone's a lot friendlier.

After the ground breaking ceremony, the Spirit of The Streets Choir performed. It was made up of people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness due to different issues - work, personal, mental or physical disability. Some of them used to be residents of St. Bart's. Many of them are the elderly, which is pretty sad that they haven't got anyone else to take care of them, but themselves.

It is through experiences like these, that I feel my work here is a lot more meaningful.