So we both have a long day at work, and Shane went up to the house site straight from work to jack-hammer some pier-holes for the shed, so by the time we both got home, we were not in the mood for cooking and decided to go to the pub for dinner (and a beer or two). Now I've mentioned before - we live in a small Australian country town... the 'blink and you'll miss it' sized country town... and our pub is a typical Aussie country pub that's operated since 1872, and is full of great Aussie characters and great Aussie beer... and to this day still looks like this:
The great thing about living in a small country town is the 'bush-telegraph' - where stories of village life, and sometimes villagers themselves get passed along from one person to the next. Sometimes the Bush Telegraph can rival RQ... but not in this case. So imagine our surprise when we got to the pub, to be told by one of the locals - our friend - LP - that the village had a very important visitor today...
None other than China's President - Hu Jintao was in our village. Seriously. Here. IN OUR VILLAGE. Too cool huh? Of course it was a stop off on his way to Sydney to participate in APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation).
Don't believe me? You can read about it here. Apparently he came to visit a working sheep station near the border of the ACT and NSW, where he watched a sheep dog demonstration at a nearby Bywong property. Then came and had lunch at 'Grazing' - our village's award winning restaurant.
Like I said... so close.... Kinda... It was just a nice feeling - even if by 6 (or probably 100) degrees of separation - there was - for an instance - a close connection to China - here at home.