A Political Nerd's Novella

by

John Sawyer

Title Page
Another Dollar
Fans begin to spin
The seat of power
Character building
1001 Pots - A BLOG
A very pleasant Sunday
The apprentice teaches master
Some very different people
An economic and linguistic miracle
Busker Bob
Apologies Due
A change of circumstances
Epilogue
End Piece
Outtakes
Back Cover

This is a piece of pure fiction. The characters depicted bear no relationship to anyone living or dead. It is obvious that the members of parliament and councillors described could not possibly be in the Labor Party as they would not make it through the rigorous selection process. The character Wendy is certainly not based on anyone that I know.

© John Sawyer - May/June 2007

Chapter 1 - Another Dollar

Geez, I’m crook. I shouldn’t have had those extra couple of reds last night and that late night snack is sitting pretty heavy in my guts this morning. There’s no way I can walk to work in 45 minutes. I really wish I hadn’t made such a big deal of not needing a car space when we moved office and I wish I hadn’t bragged about how quickly I walked to work that first day. It’s crazy for a bloke 10 kilos over weight, on the wrong side of 50, to get into competition with a mob of young blokes who are still wet behind the ears. They go out to discos until 4am and still front up to write the perfect piece of software 4 hours later.

Perhaps I’ll have to lie again. At least yesterday I had an excuse. Not that I’m real happy about getting angry and knocking down a builder’s barrier and throwing a section of orange fencing into the river. These bloody developers should be able to build their inner city castles without blocking pedestrian access to the river. Wendy reckons I’m too old to be taking on every issue and she’s probably right. I actually feel stupid because I got angry. “Don’t get angry. Get even.” is what the old pollies say. I should have left for a while and come back later and pretended to be angry. I could still have thrown the fence in the river and although they would not be as elegant as King’s “I have a dream.” or Keating’s Redfern speech, my comebacks would surely have been a bit wittier than “No, YOU fuck off”.

... Read the whole story here

Back Cover

1001 Pots – A BLOG

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