Chinese Crack Down in Lhasa Tibet

You really have to wonder. CNN was broadcasting video live from Lhasa, Tibet just now, on relay from a cable network in Hong Kong.

There was a period o exactly 14 seconds where the broadcast was blacked out, only to resume with an overlap of 14 seconds a short time later.

It makes you wonder if the Olympics will be broadcast on 14 second delay just in case a Chinese athlete doesn't win, so that history (albeit 14 seconds of it) can be re-written.

On a lighter side, the CNN correspondent in Hong Kong (John Vause) is an Australian. When speaking of the deadline just issued for protesters to give themselves up, he said "they have till midnight to dob them in". In Australia to "dob" on someone is to inform someone in authority. He immediately corrected himself for the international audience.

From an Australian's point of view it's nice to see all the Aussie bits have not left him during his overseas assignment.

In The Long Paddock

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Originally uploaded by Peter Konnecke.

This farmer was happy to stop and have a chat on my recent visit to Araluen. I was there in search of my grandmothers roots. This town happily whiles away it's days basking in the sun ... it's almost of the rest of the world is spinning around it, while Araluen takes it's time, to move on.

Araluen

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Originally uploaded by Peter Konnecke.

Of the places I've been in NSW his would have to be one of the nicest. Hidden in a quiet valley about 25 kilometres south of Braidwood NSW is the small hamlet of Araluen.

I visited there a few weeks back and found nothing of note other than peace tranquillity and a former moving his cattle along the long paddock.

The town consists of a General Store / Pub / Accommodation House / Petrol Station, a Memorial Hall (no town is complete without a hall dedicated in memory to someone or another), a Catholic Church and a few dozen houses at the most.

It's a very special part of NSW which, once crowded with diggers mining the gold in the Deua River, now spends it's days luxuriating in peace and quiet that all small country towns jealously guard from us city folk. A friendly wave usually breaks the ice and you can strike up a conversation with a local without any problem at all.

Long Live Araluen NSW.