"I THOUGHT IT WAS CATS THAT WENT MISSING........"

Oh my feet are so painful! I don't think I have ever before walked in 9 hours even 25% of the distance I have walked today.

At the end of my last posting I was asking whether any one would be coming to my rescue to help get these second leaflets out. The fact is that I was actually expecting three people to call by during the morning and had lined up three distribution routes [about 600 leaflets] for them along with carefully drawn maps. The three were actually my local MP and two of his friends and they were due at 9am for a 90 minute slot. At 9.10am one person turned up and informed me that our MP had been held up at Westminster until 4am on a three-line whip. He would need to rest before being fit to drive out to Suffolk. That would be later in the day's timetable than my bit! So three became one and the mountains of leaflets suddenly seemed overwhelming. The two of us took a round each and got those out by 10.45am at which point I bade a thanks and farewell to my helper. I then got on with another round before lunch. I met up with my wife after she had finished work at 2pm for an 'all day breakfast' at a great cafe by a local fishing lake. I needed a big calorie input. Then whilst she went to collect our son from school I went off to blitz Henley and then Barham Green. Later whilst our son was having his football training we both put in a further hour's stint each and got a load more leaflets out.

Basically I just kept going through the pain barrier. My legs became so weary and my feet stung. But I found an almost evangelical zeal giving out these second leaflets. Someone I knew shouted across to me "I loved your leaflet!" and someone told my wife when she collected our son from school that "John's leaflet was really good". After football training this evening a parent told me "your leaflet was fantastic". Its not very often that political leaflets are described in such terms! But then it was a bit different to your typical leaflet.

The most surreal comment though came yesterday. A lady had just finished puting her child into her car seat as I walked up her drive and handed her my leaflet. She looked at it, exclaimed "Missing?!?!?" - a combination of exclamation and question marks in her voice before uttering the memorable phrase "I thought it was cats that went missing, not councillors". Priceless! The bold heading across the top of the leaflet was "MISSING!!" and it was a joy to hand it to people with a teasing "you'll find some interesting information in there!"

But there are no prizes for leaflets. Its the vote tomorrow that counts. And I really don't know how to call it. The Conservatives came bottom - fourth out of four last time (2007). This time there are eight candidates chasing two seats. The local pressure group "Suffolk Together" that took Tory votes back in the 2009 County elections have a candidate standing in this election and that is not at all helpful to my cause - although this time everyone has two votes (for the two seats).

Well I've given it my best shot. I learnt a lot standing in the 2009 County election which meant I hit the ground running this time. Short of having more helpers with canvassing and the fact I lost two days to illness, I'm not sure what more I could have done.

My house is being used as a "Area Headquarters" on polling day. That will be a whole new experience for me (and the family). I may blog about that tomorrow otherwise I'll be back with the result on Friday afternoon.

PS: This evening after football practice, one parent saw my 'No to AV' sticker and asked "What is AV?"