me and little johnny

little johnnie walkingI happened to catch part of the news last night and noticed that the PM had been in town yesterday, and, as is his thing, had been filmed walking along the Torrens... and the particular footage they showed happen to be taken along one of the stretches where I walk.

And judging from the angle of the sunlight, it could only have been maybe less than half an hour since I'd walked along the exact same path (albeit in the opposite direction).

Which was slightly surreal... the Prime Minister, walking along the same stretch of ground I'd been walking along, not long after I'd been there.

And then there was this morning...

I did wonder briefly if he was still in town, but I figured that the chances of actually crossing paths with him was fairly small.

But obviously the gods were either smiling or frowning on me, I'm not exactly sure which... because, yes, I crossed paths on my morning walk with the Prime Minister of Australia, Little Johnny Howard (and he actually is pretty little... I mean I knew he wasn't that tall, but seeing him in the flesh was something else entirely). Not once, but twice... once going one way, and then again on my way along the other side of the river.

It was even more surreal this morning... I could see a group of walkers headed towards me, but didn't really think very much of it, I go past lots of people on my walks... sometimes on their own, sometimes in groups... but then I went past the University Bridge, and got a proper look at the group and went "No... it's can't be... it is... that's the PM..."

And interestingly enough, the dude on the far right of the picture up the top (which I stole from some news site) was there with him too. I remember because I locked eyes with him very briefly at one point (although I think it was on the second occasion), and he was, as I'm fond of saying, fifteen seconds of interesting (at least in relation to that particular group of people). So whether he's a bodyguard (you wouldn't think so with the glasses though, would you) or just part of the PM's general entourage, or what, I don't know.

The other thing that was kind of weird was I'm sure not everyone who was walking along with the PM was actually WITH the group... I'm sure that there were different people with him the second time I crossed paths with his little posse. Just random people who were walking along and decided to join the party. Which I really don't understand... but I suppose you could go to work and say "Oh yes, I went walking with John Howard this morning"... but still... c'mon...

I'm just glad that I was on the clockwise week of my walk... if I'd been going anti-clockwise then we would have been going in the same direction (although I might not actually have run into him if that had been the case due to the whole timing issue), but I'm not sure what would have been worse... being overtaken by the PM, or overtaking him and his entourage (and possibly not even realising who the hell it was). Actually I kind of wondered that with some of the people I passed who were going in the same direction as the PM and his group... did they even know that the leader of the country was just ahead (or behind) them?

Weirdness...

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2 comments:

Volacious said...

Yes, he is shorter than you expect, isn't he?

And I would warrant that some of those people walking ahead or behind, seemingly oblivious or unconnected, are likely plain-clothes security agents, doing their best to look disconnected but ready to slap you around if you decide to make a lunge :-)

I've run across Johnny a few times now. Next time I'll have to say hello :p

Tom said...

I live a stone's throw away from him and have never seen him! Maybe I don't get up early enough! :P