Gav’s Blog - Gavin Hudson’s Blog

Yes, just like Tom Petty (and the Heartbreakers) today I was free falling!I’m in Franz Josef, on the beautiful West Coast of New Zealand. It’s truly, truly gob-smackingly beautiful here.

The internet connection here is a bit rubbish to say the least, so I can’t upload all me photos, but here’s a couple to keep you going.

I will say that Sky diving was worth every bit of the $299 Kiwi dollars (about £130) that I paid for it. I’m built for free fall, so I managed to build up some head of speed to say the least. Really awesome.

Got loads to say, but my head is just buzzing with adrenaline, so I’ll type it all up later. I’m off to do a glacier hike tomorrow (as you do) and then I’m down to Queenstown where I’m really cacking it about having to do a bungee jump!

Take care for now

Hello keen readers!

Well, it’s not without a tinge of regret that I’ve now left Australia, but with some optimism for New Zealand!

I’m here in Christchurch, and very quaint it is too.  Lots to see and do here, I’m especially keen to go to the Dyslexia Museum here, to see if it does indeed “celebrate the gift of dyslexia” as it claims to!

Today was fun, and went to the cricket - to see England lose, obviously.  Great day out though, we were all dressed as babies, as you do.  Photos edited out for reasons of decency, but you should get the idea in the Flickr photos!

OK, hope you are all well! Take care.

Well, it’s finally happened - India have finally put beyond doubt any questions that they are the powerhouse in international cricket.

Yesterday at a packed auction room in Bombay, the cream of the world’s cricketers were auctioned off to play in the inaugural IPL (Indian Premier League) Twenty20 competition.  With a TV deal worth $1bn to play with, the owners of the franchises weren’t afraid of splashing the cash around.  In a brash and bold move, the players put themselves forward for auction and are sold to the highest bidder with a 3 year contract to play in the competition.

There was a great article in The Age today about the bidding process.  Shane Warne was snapped up for not a penny over his reserve price of $450k, and there were mumblings of an anti-Australian conspiricy after the spat between Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds, where Harbhajan definately did *not* call Symo a “Monkey”.  As the auction progressed, even Mr Cricket himself, Michael Hussey failed to get bought (unlike his brother, David who has been scoring runs for fun for Victoria, including a brutal 60 ball ton yesterday) as well as Glenn McGrath and tounges started to wag.  Ponting - “only” $400k.  They needen’t have worried - Andrew Symonds attracted the second highest bid of the day - a massive $1.35m, surpassed only by poster boy Mahindra Singh Dhoni at $1.5m.  Unsuprisingly, Indian favourite and all round nice guy Brett Lee went for a cool $900k - if you haven’t seen his Indian Pop Video - you really should! Click here to check it out.

I can’t help but think it’s a blessing in disgiuse that English players aren’t eligible, I can’t seem many of them attracting this sort of excitement (although they might have gone nuts over KP!) but that’s no bad thing really.

Whilst traditionalists might complain that this just “isn’t cricket”, if you’re mouth doesn’t water at the thought of a packed Indian stadium in Hyderbad playing host to a batting line up that could read something like…

Gibbs, Gilchrist, Laxman, Symonds, Afridi, Styris, Silva, Vaas, Zoyza, RP Singh, Sharma then there’s something wrong with you.

Whilst on the subject of cricket, after England’s thrilling tie yesterday with NZ I’m off to Christchurch on Saturday to see if we can tie the series - should be a good one!  If you’re watching keep an eye out for my Hyde United flag, and I’ll do a whistle as the first spin bowler of each innings walks back to his mark - so you might even hear me!

I haz got Om nommed by Luna Park in Melbourne!

Also, trips to MCG, lots of sun and a BBQ at Nina’s - all going well! Check out the photos.

Hey up,

Just a quick update (rather than sending emails out!).  I’m now at the rather swanky Base Backpackers hostel in St Kilda and very nice it is too.  I’ve stayed at two nice and clean hostels so far, and two nice and fun hostels - I recommend the latter, although this one seems to be both - VERY trendy.

At the one I just checked out of, I had to use the line “Look, I can live without $35, but either you refund it [for the night I wasn't staying as the staff were irredeemably grumpy bastards], or I tell everyone I meet from Adelaide to Sydney NOT to stay here.  That’ll cost you more than $35.”  Got my money back.  Oh - and the hostel was called “Urban Central” in Melbourne - don’t stay there, it’s nice and posh, but has the atmosphere of an intensive care ward.  Melbourne seems nice - really quite different from Sydney, but I’ve only been here a few hours, so I suppose I’ll find out.

Right - plans are more subnbathing (just hiding out of the midday sun at the moment), and then onto the MCG for a tour and a trip up the Great Ocean Road here.  I’ve also got a BBQ to go to at Nina’s tomorrow night, which should be nice.  Then on Friday I fly to Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand to get to the England cricket ODI on Saturday.  This means I miss Australia vs Sri Lanka at the MCG on Friday, but there was just no way I could fit them both in

OK, well hope you’re all having a nice week at work, MUWUHAHAHAHA.

Gav

Hey everyone, thanks for all the emails and the St. Valentine’s Day greetings, very nice (Yes Jon, I still love you pet, don’t worry!) and always nice to hear about what you’re up to back home. I’m still having a great time in Sydney; I’ve moved hostels from the very clean and nice YHA (but a bit dull) to the Wake Up! Which comes highly recommended - both near central station in Sydney. Aaanyway.

Sydney’s a really good city, lots and lots of English around, but still plenty of places to go and meet locals, and the natives seem pretty friendly towards us residents of the mother country and not at all fed up with the amount of us over here. I suppose it’s a bit of a swap from them coming over to London - and yes, you do see plenty of Pommies behind bars here! Seriously though, people just seem dead friendly and happy - it’s like all the nice people from England with few of the idiots and a lot less of the aggression. People chat to you in bars, and introduce themselves rather than that awkward English thing of never asking anyone’s name. Everyone here seems to be on a working holiday visa, and few people seem to have any problem finding all sorts of work, as well as getting apartments, it just seems that sort of place where you take someone’s word that they’re clean or good at working, rather than spending 3 weeks checking out references when you could all have been doing something more useful!

On Thursday we went to Manly (We being me and a couple of Norwegian guys, Jørgen and Henrik) by taking the 45 minute ferry ride across from Sydney harbour. The ferry journey itself was great and value for money at £6 return. Manly is a really nice little town with a surfy vibe, and feels a bit like how I’d imagine 1960’s California to feel, with its wide central street, old looking art-deco houses and shops and a fantastic beach. It’s a popular place for ex-pats to stay, and I can see why.

Thursday night there was a big party – it was all good fun, but not really for public consumption! Highlights included bumping into my sister Vicky’s best friend from 8 years ago, who I probably hadn’t seen for about the same time, and another of the girls, Christina wearing a matching shirt to mine, which made me feel a bit special at the time. It was a 60’s free love party, if you’re wondering, and whilst the love wasn’t free as such, there seemed to be plenty going around and there was also a free barbeque, so everyone was happy!

Yesterday (Friday 15th Feb) I went to one of the worlds’ great cricket grounds, the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground) to watch New South Wales against Victoria in the Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup competition. This is the premier domestic competition in the world in the long form of the game, between the two best teams, and I’d say there were less than 300 people there, all told at the SCG! It’s the same everywhere where people just seem to want to watch the crash bang wallop* of one day cricket, but it seems a real shame, especially as it was only £3 to get in, and the cricket was some real top quality stuff on a nice sunny day for working on that tan! It was a great days play and I saw Brad Hodge get a fantastic 118 for Victoria, only ended by what can best be described as a shocker of an umpiring decision when he looked well set for a double ton, ably supported by David Hussey at the other end who got 87 in a 190 run partnership for the 3rd wicket. All in all a great day, helped by a few beers and also by watching England beat the Kiwi’s and Australia beat Sri Lanka, including a very emotional ton by Adam Gilchrist at his last ever game at his home ground. He’s got to be just about the greatest wicket keeper to play the game, and a true gent too – always walking when he was out rather than waiting for an umpire to make a decision. He’ll be missed and even this bloody Pom was glad to see him get his hundred.

Tonight I’ve got a rather intriguing party to go to – we’ll see how that works out! – And then tomorrow (Sunday) I’m off to Melbourne for a few days before I head over to New Zealand. I booked my flights only yesterday, and to save the 12 hour bus journey the flight only cost about £55, which is less than a late booking on a train down to London from Manchester would cost! I don’t know an awful lot about Melbourne, except that it’s where Neighbours is filmed and that it’s supposed to be a nice City – I’ll tell you in a few days I suppose!

Right, take care – as always it’s good to hear from you, so keep the emails coming, and have a look at the photos on the side there. TTFN!

Sydney and blogging

G’day boys and girls. I’m here in fine Sydney, the sun is shining (or at least was all day) and all is good.

The views on the way in to Sydney Airport (Kingsford - really rather crap as far as airports go, truth be known - cramped and loads of queues). I arrived at 8.30ish this morning, but got subjected to a rather thorough question and answer session and bag search at immigration. She put the rubber gloves on specially, though unfortunately just to check my bag rather than the full cavity search - the lady was quite a hottie (becoming quite a theme in my short time in Oz, I’ve noticed!), even my mum would’ve been proud of the amount of questions she asked me! Loads and loads of questions about my travel plans and then quizzed me further on any details “You’ve not booked accomodation? That’s a little strange isn’t it? Who do you know here? Are they meeting you at the airport? How do you know them? Why aren’t they meeting you at the airport? Where are you staying?”

Anyway, all good - I declared my Percy Pigs (which are fine to take through, you’ll be pleased to know, oh, and their pals too!) and got on my way. I’m staying at the Railway Central YHA, attracted to it by the pool. Like a typical Pommie, I’m currently sunburnt, tired jet-lagged and dehydrated. Nice. Obviously I wore my Man City top today for a walk around Darling Harbour, and somehow managed to get my shoulders properly burnt *through* my top!! Did I mention that Man City beat the MU Rowdies 2-1 at the Glazerbowl? I didn’t? Oh…

Anyway, “why is Gav doing all this blogging?” I hear you ask, though it could just be the voices in my head! Well, it’s partly to see how these things work, it’s the sort of thing I work in, and I need to know how you get on in it, where your traffic comes from etc. It’s partly as a record for me of the stuff I’ve done once I’m back, to some extent it’s something for me to do and make me focus on the things I’ve done, make sure I get photos of things rather than just try to remember and forget, there is an aspect that it is to let friends and family back home know what I’m up to, but mostly it’s just a bit of fun and a creative output - once you leave uni you seem to do virtually no writing, and it’s something I’ve come to enjoy - so here we are! Hopefully you’re having fun reading things, I appreciate it’s all a bit random at the moment but hopefully it’ll settle down! As I said before I’d appreciate some input if there’s anything you’d like me to do or blog about - what should I do for the next few days in Sydney?

On Friday I’ve got a Pura cup cricket game to go to - New South Wales Blues Vs Victoria Bushrangers, so that should be good, and I’ve got a bit of a party to go to on Saturday - I won’t spoil the details about this now, but it all sounds really rather intrigueing! OK, ttfn - there’s beer to be drunK!

Hi Ya’ll.

Well, in 9 hours I’ll be on a plane to Sydney (I fly with Quantas) and I can’t wait.

Hong Kong has been fun, if a little cold. The highlights have to be the horse racing (where I really did rather well for myself)

and generally hanging around at New Year

I’d probably say that 5 days here was plenty, but I’ve had fun, eaten lots of Noodles and taken some HILLARIOUS (honest) photos too. As I said before, I’m genuinely impressed by the friendliness of the people here, not at all what I expected and the city just feels so safe and a nice place to live. The standard of English speaking is generally much lower than you would’ve expected, but it didn’t stop me blowing most of my winnings on some ridiculously overpriced trainers from A Bathing Ape, mainly because they were displayed on a Sushi style conveyor belt, and it looked cool!Right, I’d better get off and pack - the plan for the day is to get a massage before I leave - hopefully not one with “extras” but you never know - whatever I can get for the £12 it costs basically!I also went to see Hadjuk Split get beaten by Hong Kong in the final of their annual football tournament (photos in to the right), so that’s another country to tick off my football watching list!

Oh, and you thought you were going to get away with it? COME ON CITY! I was delighted to see that we put one over on Manyoo last night, obviously I watched it in a real reds pub in Hong Kong, whilst wearing my shirt. I was maybe a bit harsh with the amount of shit I gave the Manyoo supporting locals, but fück ‘em, they might not be able to place Manchester on a map, but they made a choice in life, and I stand by my decision to rip it out of them. Went to a bar later where I saw a Thai prostitute cry as she had to go with a big fat Western man (no, not me), which was quite sad really! I met the air hostesses from a KLM 747, which was nice.

See you in Sydney!

Happy New year everyone! What? Oh, it’s Chinese New year here, so Kung Hei Fat Choi to you!

All going very nicely here, they say a picture paints a thousand words and all that, so here’s, erm, 14,000 words for you, without making my fingers ache!

Chinese New Year is excellent, loads of packed markets and people about, the fireworks were something else, and the people here are really friendly, not at all what I expected to be honest. The food is good, and it’s an easy place to get about, I really like it! Hong Kong also has the advantage of making me at 5′10” feel really tall - I was a good head above most of the crowd yesterday!  The one bad side is that lots of the shops aren’t open, still, it keeps my wallet in my pocket.

Met some mental Irish lads which was good fun - they were from Wexford so god knows what they thought of HK - it even surprised me! They decided that the best thing to do if you’re going to shout obnoxious comments at attractive ladies was to say it in an English accent so that “You lot get the bad reputation”!!

Here’s a classic exchange from James with a nice Northern Irish girl we bumped into…

“To be sure, it’s not quite how I thought it would be… have you travelled much?”
“Well, I went to bible camp in California”
“Oh, were there many knocking shops there too?!”

Right, I’m off to test my luck at the races today at the Sha Tin racecourse - here we go!

Here I am, In in Hong Kong just waiting for my train to arrive to take me to Kowloon!

Journey was fine, think I impressed my fellow passengers with my taking advantage of the system… #1 ask if you can move to a free seat before everyone else does it. #2 if you don’t ask for booze, they give you one drink, if you ask nicely you

get as much as you like. Ah, just missed train - another in 12 mins. Anyway, a few bottles of wine, beer and a dark rum and coke certainly helped while the hours away on the plane.

Right, for all you worriers, I’m here and all is well - ttfn!