By-election Binge

Summer is over, my holidays have been taken and now my life is due to be consumed by by-elections - lucky me! The huge pile of washing on my bedroom floor tells me that either I've been really lazy lately or I've not been spending much time at home, and while ordinarily, the former would be the case, in fact it's the latter on this occasion. In quick succession I've been away in Germany, at Conference in Bournemouth and then on holiday in Poland. September has been a really fun month.

Bournemouth conference started at 3:45am on a chilly Friday morning for me. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to book some flights from Prestwick southwards, the only problem being that the early morning flight meant that departure from Edinburgh was EARLY! Starting conference with a sleep deficit is not clever. Nevertheless I admirably managed to get through the days with plenty of coffee and remain perky enough in the evenings to dutifully schmooze and network. The one reassurance in keeping to this intolerable timetable came every morning between 8:15am and 9am when Fiona and I went down to breakfast and joined John and Cheadle MP Mark Hunter, who were equally bleary-eyed!

Following a short one-day post-Bournemouth working week, I found myself again packing my things, this time for a week's holiday in Krakow with mum. Not really sure of what to expect from the city itself, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. The touristy part of the city is quite compact and made visiting the medieval squares, churches and the market hall very easy. Having said that, getting there from our hotel was a bit of a mission. Public transport in Krakow is mainly the tram network - an attractive and historical yet unreliable and downright dangerous mode of getting about! Once you've mastered the tram network however all(!) you have to master is the street names and the Polish vocab. Needless to say it took me and mum a few trips before we felt completely confident of where we'd end up.

It was no secret that the real reason I'd chosen Krakow as a holiday destination was because of my desire to visit Auschwitz. It's not everyone's first choice tourist attraction but for me, having spent so many years studying German history, the Third Reich and the Holocaust, visiting Auschwitz added another dimension to all that I'd learned during my degree at St Andrews. The experience of Auschwitz didn't disappoint.

Now i'm back from my galavanting I'm feeling refreshed, upbeat and ready to tackle the next 'term' of work until Christmas. Immediately I have the prospect of fighting a very winnable Council by-election in Forth ward where Cllr Elizabeth Maginnis died so suddenly at the start of the month. While no-one feels comfortable about fighting elections in such circumstances, I'm relishing the campaign. There's also the lure of the Glenrothes by-election, although the date of this is still uncertain. All in all, October looks set to be an exciting month of electioneering and campaigning.