"Oh, I Thought You Were Pizza Delivery."

A few hours of the past two days have been spent temporarily adorning the porches, doorsteps and driveways that comprise my local area with a large blue tag, a smile and a somewhat conversationally dangerous question. Admittedly, while I've only been canvassing, say, five or six hours in total, it's been just as interesting as I expected it do be has given me an insight into the general feel of the town. 

Meeting so many different people has had its moments. I've had one very angry Jack Russell bark at me from a side window as I stated my purpose to a resident, and a very friendly Retriever devour my hand with canine saliva as I did the same, or tried to, to another. I've had some staunch Liberal voters who refused to be persuaded otherwise, a cheerful Labour supporter that informed me, while he would not be voting for the Tories, that he appreciated the knock on his door, and a wonderfully high number of people of all ages who stated they would be voting for the Conservatives.

An interesting conversation was struck with a fellow student, a first time voter like myself, that declared her support for the Liberal Democrats. While I left the door with her still attached to dancing with the two Cs on May 6th, we had a pleasant talk and, although our political persuasions were apart, it was good to see people my age planning to vote.

There have been those that support the local council but dislike David Cameron. There have been those of the opposite. There was a woman who said she'd abstained from voting all her life, and a middle-aged man I'd interrupted during dinner who, without telling me his voting record of the past, said this time he'd be putting a cross in the box I will. There was another, rather older man who proclaimed his distaste for all things European and wished to see the United Kingdom Independence Party in power - and of course there were those that didn't care or just wanted me to naff off.

So far I have thoroughly enjoyed it, as well as the inadvertent exercise I've been giving myself. Despite my constituency's historical fully Conservative stature in Parliament, I certainly don't think it's a shoe-in. There's still nine days to go, and much to do. But we soldier on.