No, it's not sparkling wine

What a sharp and acute change it was to do what those in power must do -- fundraise at auctions -- just after doing what those in power want to do -- drive around in a limo (or two!). Alll night, picking up random Haligonians while sipping from a few bottles of Dom Perignon.

Props to my friend Li Dong, who rented two limos, booked a table at Bish, brought us to Seven, and paid for every last bit of it, limos, wine, champagne, beer and company included. Props also to those who couldn't make it -- unfortunately Li had to cut the first portion of the evening down to a very small number of people, though we did our best to accomodate everyone we could after dumping the small limo at Bish. There's nothing quite like roaming around Halifax at 3:30 a.m. in a stretch SUV and stopping anyone who looks like they might be fun -- and inviting them in.

Oh, and while we sipped $200/bottle champagne and listened to Li's "new-new-new-money" sountrack of Hip Hop beats (with a tad of Franz Ferdinand), we barked orders at the driver: "To the Citadel!" "Stop here!" "We need to let these people in!" "We must find ice!" "Drive around some more!" Not even running The Dalhousie Gazette was this fun.

Aside from the late-night cat calling (you'd be surprised how many randoms will actually approach a moving limo and try to open the door), the best, most "this is absolutely nuts" moment of the night actually happened very early as Li and I roamed about the city looking for ice and cold beer. Imagine this: you work at a gas station, a liquor store, or Sobey's, and a limo drives up, two young gents in suits jump out in a rush, and yell/ask "Do you have ice???? We need ice!!! We have really expensive champagne and we need ice!"

The facial expressions were priceless.

So was the guy-to-girl ratio, which at my end of the Limo was about 1-5 in my favour.

:)

Check a few pictures here, or on Li Dong's facebook page.

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Additional props must be given to Jen Bond for inviting me to a Halifax-Citadel Liberal Party fundraising event, held at Halifax Curling Club. The whole event was a lot less "Liberal" than I expected, although a joke I made about an autographed copy of Bob Rae's book that was being auctioned ("What's it called? How I Ruined the Ontario Economy?") didn't go over so well. I sat directly straight across a cramped table from the ultra-friendly MLA Diana Whalen, though, which was a treat; her husband, Mount Saint Vincent University VP and former DFAIT diplomat Michael Whalen, had a number of interesting and not-exactly PC (thank God!) things to say about potential Nova Scotian university "consolidation." And I got a free meal, too. Even though I still consider myself nonpartisan and often vote across Party lines, this was an inexpensive and very informal treat.

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Last, I'm beginning work on my to-be-published thesis this week. It needs a new title, a thourough rewriting, and a completely new introduction. This sounds like a lot of work considering the original took me the better part of a month just to get down on paper, but hey, if the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies wants to stick something I wrote in its own book, hell, I'll rebuild the 38th parallel DMZ with my bare hands. I'll keep everyone updated on what happens.