I voted

I voted yesterday and in the end my fonal decision was made on the way to the polling station. For a long time during the campaign I was on the No side, though as I found out more information and listened to the arguments I gradually drifted to undecided.

Both side were saying "vote for us or bad things will happen". It was like someone asking you would you rather have your left leg or your right arm cut off. Neither please. Personally I would have prefered if this constitution and treaty had never been proposed. However it was and it seemed that we were stuck with making a decision.

It came down to the people involved. Who did I trust more? The Yes campaign had the support of most mainstream groups while the No
campaign had too many groups I feel I disagree with most of the time.

Finally in a funny way it came down to Brian Cowan V's Bertie Ahern. I think Cowan is more likely to fight for Irelands interests in Europe than Ahern who always seemed to want to compromise and seemed to have one eye on a job on Europe do didnt want to upset anyone. Had Bertie still been Taoiseach I might have voted No since I would not have trusted that Bertie was not putting Europe ahead of Ireland.

So I voted yes. It felt like the best choice, the one that had fewer downsides. Its sad that my decision came down to that, though listening to the tallies I may have been in the minority.

Voting Delay

So I went to vote before work this morning. Got out of bed, shower, shave, grabbed my passport and voting card then headed off to the polling station.

I was most of the way there when I heard an advert on the radio from the referendum commission asking people to come out and vote... on Thursday, i.e. tomorrow. Duh!

Sex and the City Billboards

Went to see Sex and the City, with the girlfriend. I'll admit the story was better than I expected. The movie itself was watchable, better than the last chic flick I had to see, 27 Dresses, but afterwards I felt a little exploited, like I'd spent 20 quid to buy a book and found every second page had an advert on it.

I know part of the Sex and the City thing is the clothes and I was willing to put up with that but I dont think there was a single scene that did not have product placement, clothes, bags, books, magazines, phones and so on. That movie must have broken even just on sponsorship deals. They should have paid me to go see it.

At least now herself has to sit through Star Trek when it comes out :-)