Gav’s Blog - Gavin Hudson’s Blog

Noel Gallagher has once again proved his credentials as the voice of the people of Manchester (well the blue half) with a well placed burst of common sense aimed at deposed former Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra who looks set to sack Manchester City manager Sven Goran Ericsson in spite of what has been one of the best seasons for the blues in a long while.

In an interview with Radio Five Live Noel (who shares a birthday with the writer of this blog) said:

“To get rid of Sven after the best season I can remember is ridiculous. It can’t be for any footballing reasons.

“For a club that’s been going nowhere fast for the last 25 years, with a manager who’s the best out there bar Jose Mourinho - he turned it around and gave us a bit of style and dignity and grace. He bought some great players. The fans have got pride back in the club - I just think it’s beyond a joke.

“We’ve got a manager who’s got style. If the owner thought they could come in and qualify for the Champions League straight away then he’s tripping. It’d be like sacking David Moyes at Everton or Martin O’Neill at Aston Villa because they didn’t qualify. It takes more than one season.

“Eriksson is a graceful and dignified man. This guy Shinawatra has come in and he seems like a bit of a nutcase. The only thing that will get him off the hook is if he’s got Mourinho lined up. Apart from Mourinho Eriksson’s the best thing out there.

“I’d be amazed and appalled if I met a City fan who thought getting rid of Eriksson was a good thing. They all love him up there. I’d give him a big kiss and say, ‘You know what, you take them to the cleaners.’”

I think Noel is spot on - as usual, and you can’t disagree with what Henry Winter says -

Manchester City’s overbearing overlord, Thaksin Shinawatra, cannot be deemed a fit and proper person to oversee a club as important as City when he has just shredded supporters’ dreams.

The Thai politician clearly has no understanding of what it means to be a City fan, of the pain they endured for so long in their neighbours’ shadow. Eriksson masterminded home and away victories over Manchester United, a feat that should bring a double-your-money contract, as well as fans’ eternal gratitude. Thaksin simply cannot appreciate the joys felt by fans at the sight of their beloved team being respected, even feared, under Eriksson’s thoughtful stewardship. Full of calm and perspective in adversity, gracious in victory, Eriksson brought dignity and credibility.

While Thaksin might pay the bills, he’s entitled to his say, but he’s so far wide of the mark on this one - there must be people around him (not to mention the fans who sing Sven’s name every game) who are telling him that he’s a bloody mentalist.

I’m genuinely gutted about this - just when things looked like they might be on the up for City, they take a turn for the worse again.  Anyway, I should’ve got to expect it!

Join the “Save Sven” campaign at the Manchester Evening News

G’day possums – I can’t believe it’s nearly a month since my last post, apologies for that – I will try and keep things a bit more up to date with some smaller updates now and then rather than saving myself for one big blog.

Well, what have I been up to? I’m still working (hooray!) and I’ve even been paid now – it all looks very impressive when you see the amount in Aussie dollars paid into your account! The Aussie dollar is getting stronger actually, which is alright for me earning it, but not so good for all the tourists; it’s up (or down depending on your POV) to AU$2.05 to the £ now. Wow, that was a thrilling intro to a posting wasn’t it? It’ll get better, stay with me! While I’m getting my apologies out of the way, my camera so enjoyed its travels around New Zealand that it went back over to NZ with Lucy who’d lost hers to do another lap with her – so I’ve not had a lot of photos lately (certainly not ones outside of a pub!) but that should be resolved shortly.

OK, well outside if work I guess the reason I’ve not done any blog posts has been the reason that I’ve just been really busy! I met a lovely young chap called Rob from Oxfordshire who is a rather talented chef (working at Claridges for Gordon F*&#@%g Ramsey when he gets back, and for Bill Grainger here, who I’m led to believe is the Aussie version of Jamie Oliver) and as we had a bit of time in hostels before he leaves and I move into my flat, we decided to try out a few hostels in Sydney rather than getting stuck in just one – I could probably write a guide to them now! Living in a hostel and working isn’t ideal, but it’s not really too bad, I’ve not been living in any of the party hostels really, and life is quite pleasant when you’ve got a bevy of nice young people all trying to make friends with you. The standard has been variable – I think Rob liked the one in Kings Cross where he could watch three hookers working from the comfort of his own bed! The only difficulty is that it’s hard to just do nothing in the evenings. You don’t have anywhere to just hang out and watch TV while you wear your PJ’s or cook your own tea – Big props to Ruth for cooking tea the other night and letting me stroke her pussy. Oh matron! I actually miss Das Missy, which is a bit sad. Indeed I’ve found myself eating out almost every night unless Rob decides to cook something tasty for us. Back at the YHA he found himself cooking for just about the entire hostel for $5 a head – and it was fab. It’s not really a problem, as there are so many places that are cheaper to eat than cooking (Sushi is really popular here) and the food is good. It’s not good for the old waistline though – I need to hit the gym again after losing some weight in New Zealand…

Last weekend Rob, our American friend Alison and I went to the rather lovely (!) town of Newcastle for the weekend. I can’t really say why we went, other than it had a train station and I thought it would be funny BECAUSE IT’S ALSO SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND! HAHAHA. Ahem, but anyway, it was a good weekend – the second biggest city in New South Wales and it really rather reminded me of Newcastle back home. Then Sunday was wine tasting in the Hunter Valley – one of the major wine producing areas in Australia. I actually really enjoyed the wine tasting – it’s not something I’d done before on any real scale, but I’d picked up a bit of a taste for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc while out in New Zealand (I challenge anyone to try a glass of that and not to be reminded of fresh passionfruit juice) and was keen to give it a crack. Tex our driver picked us up bright and early at 9am, and I think the alcohol content in our blood was still fairly high from the night before – however this soon cleared at about 10am with our first tastings! You get to try loads of wines at these places, and we all chose to swallow our wines, as it’s not good form to spit really, is it? As well as some more famous places like Lindemans and Rosemount Estate there were some amazing little places among the 150 wineries. The undisputed highlight was the Brokenwood winery, a small family run place with some fantastic wines. My stand out was probably their Shiraz Viognier but I had a few glasses of their famous drop – Cricket Pitch. It’s called Cricket Pitch because the grapes are grown just outside where we were tasting on what used to be a cricket pitch. This dismayed me a bit, to lose a pitch in such a beautiful area, but I think Ian Botham would be proud to see that it wasn’t all in vain – the wines were simply fantastic (at about $20-$30 a bottle) and the lovely Mandy knew all about them, and she gave and she shared (the wine) without taking. Oh Mandy!

I’ve found it really easy to make friends out here – I don’t know why, and it’s not just me that’s found the same. Of course I haven’t really got any “best friends” as such yet, but everyone is just really friendly, and I think the whole ambiance of the place just lends itself to a friendly vibe. I think it’s a combination of the fact that almost all the expats out here are either in the same boat as you with regard to starting out in a new country, or have done so recently and know what it’s like, and the Aussies are generally a well-travelled and friendly bunch, so it’s the same for them. I’ve had a couple of calls out of the blue from people who I’ve not seen for years, but because we’re out here together, it sort of feels like you should meet up! Firstly was Matt from my old school (4reel), Skinners’ in Tunbridge Wells. I’d not seen him since I was 16, and even then we didn’t hang out that much together – he did play for Uckfield RFC, who were the bitter rivals of my old club, Crowborough, so I suppose I wasn’t suppose to fraternise with the enemy. Anyway, he is now the captain of Mosman rugby club here, a big old club with 8 teams and he’s a good man to know for getting tickets to Waratahs games, and we’ve been out for a few drinks and all that. Then as fortune might have it just as I was deciding on something to do for the weekend, Sarah from Tunbridge Wells got my number from the magic of Facebook and invited me to go and stay up at her place in Terrigal for the weekend. Bonza! She’s working out here as a doctor and we had a great weekend, she’s got a flat with an amazing sea view so after a quick bash at surfing (mainly bobbing around and then looking cool with a board on the beach) a few sundowners were called for. Well, a couple of sundowner drinks soon turned into a full-on session, taking in a restaurant, a few pubs and then a brilliantly tacky bogan nightclub and finishing with the British tradition of a 4am skinny dip in the sea. I’m glad to see that doctors are even less sensible than the rest of us! Today had a bit more surfing then catching the train back to Sydney. You know the old expression that “there’s always someone worse off than you”? Well, it’s days like these that make you realise that no matter how nice you think where you live is, there’s always someone better off than you too! I’ve pretty much decided that I’ve got to live somewhere near the beach for my next place!

OK, well that will do you for now – Friday was the rather special ANZAC day, but I’ll save that for another post. I hope all is well with you and yours, thanks for stopping by, and once again – thanks for those of you that take the time to read and sometimes even to comment or send me an email!

˙˙˙oʇ dn uǝǝq ǝʌ,ı ʇɐɥʍ ʍouʞ noʎ ʇǝl oʇ ʇsnɾ ‘ʞo  ¡pɐǝɥ ʎɯ oʇ ɥsnɹ poolq ǝɥʇ llɐ ƃuıʞɐɯ sı sıɥʇ  ¡ǝɯıʇ ǝɯos ʇısıʌ puɐ ǝɯoɔ plnoɥs noʎ - ǝɹǝɥ uʍop ǝɔıu s,ʇı  ˙llǝʍ llɐ ǝɹ,noʎ ǝdoɥ ı ¡ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ ɯoɹɟ ʎɐp,ƃ

OK, phew - that’s better - play to your audience and all that!

I’m having real fun here in Sydney, settling into the swing of things and into work.  Three major updates for ya I suppose…

1.  I’ve picked up the rather swizzy account of Apple here at dgm!  I’m going to be managing all of the online affiliate and partnership activity for Apple store and iTunes in Australia and New Zealand.  It’s a really exciting client, delivering big results, but with the opportunity to do so much more.  I couldn’t be more chuffed.
2.  I’ve got myself a flat sorted out - woohoo!  I shall be living here -

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And I’m very happy about it!

3.  I’m getting on really well, and made a few good friends, so that’s nice - and work is still good.  I’m still living in the hostel for the time being, but will shortly be going into a flat.

Oh, and I’m quite pleased that I’ve managed to upgrade Wordpress to version 2.5.

Well, that’ll do you for now - it’s some hostel people’s “leaving party” tonight, so that should be fun, if a bit messy, and then it’s the Surry Hills festival tomorrow.  I promise to drink no more goon.  Maybe.

Have a good weekend yourselves, until then…

¡sɥɐlɐƃ ,uıɯɐlɟ noʎ ɹǝʇɐl noʎ ǝǝs

Hello to all/both of my regular readers!

I’ve no doubt you’re literally bursting with excitement to here how I’m getting on in Sunny Sydney™! Well, I arrived here about, 2 weeks ago, and it’s going pretty damn well to be honest. The weather’s great, the job’s fab and the city is just as good as I thought it would be. It’s not a permanent holiday place, but as a big city to live and work in my first impressions couldn’t be much more favourable.

For those of you that didn’t know, I’ve taken up a position with dgmAustralia and I’m enjoying it all immensely. They seem to be a company who are real market leaders out here and helping to grow the market as a whole too, with an enormous amount of experience between them. I thought I’d been in this online game a while, with 4 years, but there’s one guy who has been working in online since 1996 and the days of UseNet! Green writing on black screens I think… Out here dgm work in affiliates, media, search, SEO and all aspects of online, such as leveraging the social media for their clients – there’s plenty of scope even in the market of Australia where the population is relatively low, broadband penetration isn’t great and customers really don’t tend to buy online that much… yet! It’s all changing, but certainly the growth curve is a couple of years behind the UK in terms of customer behaviour, and even the rules that good old Google apply out here, so UK affiliates can make a bit of a killing if they want to operate out here (if you do, give me a shout!).

Out of work, I’ve been keeping pretty busy – I’m living in the YHA at the moment, which is all well and good, but not the best place to hang around in the evenings, and so leads me to go out a bit more than perhaps I should!

Due to a slight budgeting error, I’m a bit short on the old readies until I get paid, so any donations are much appreciated – in particular the Percy Pigs that Jenny sent out have gone down a treat!

Last weekend I had a proper Aussie weekend. On Friday we had a huge BBQ at work, which was both tasty and great fun – a real meat-fest! Then on Friday night, through the magic of Facebook I met up with a guy who used to go to my school, Matt, who I hadn’t seen for 11 years! We went to watch the Waratahs rugby team in the Super 14’s competition. Matt’s a bit of a local celebrity at the rugby, he’s Club Captain of Mosman Rugby Club (with 9 teams!), and also a teacher and coach at a secondary school in Bondi. As a result about 50% of the stadium seemed to know him which was quite funny, especially when the kids got quite excited about seeing their teacher with a tray full of beers! He got free tickets, so that freed up some beer money. Then Saturday was Coogee beach (like Bondi only a bit less tacky, 20 mins on a bus from the city centre). Sunday was my first trip to the “footy”, or Aussie Rules Football as you might call it! The Sydney Swans thrashed the Port Adelaide Power by 141 to 70, a proper drubbing – particularly as the Power finished 2^nd overall last year! I really enjoyed the game, but perhaps more as a consequence of going with about 80 other hostel residents (resplendent in our matching caps) and the fact that I basically got to sit in the burning sunshine for 2 and a half hours and watch sport! Great stuff! It seems like a good game, but how much I’d like to watch it in the winter, I don’t know… To round off the 3 code weekend, on Monday I went to an NRL game (Rugby League to you and me!) with Robbie from my new work. We went to watch his local team, the Manly Sea Eagles Vs the New Zealand Warriors. The atmosphere was great and the Sea Eagles (or the Seagulls as I dubbed them!) thrashed NZ by 52 points to 6. Three good games and three wins for Hudson! If only Hyde and City benefited from my support so much when I was back home! I’ve realised that I can afford all this sport if I cut out the beer at the games – not drinking 4 beers pays for the cost of another ticket. The logic works in my head anyway, even if I miss the alcohol!

In-between all this I’ve been furiously hunting for a flat, ideally in a house share type scenario. To say it’s been difficult would be an understatement – there’s an incredible scarcity of rental accommodation at the moment in Australia in general, and Sydney in particular. For my £110 a week, I’m hopeful of getting a room in a 3 bed apartment in Pyrmont, near work, near the City Centre and near Darling Harbour. However, there seem to be about 10 applicants for every room! As a bloody Pom, I seem to be on the back foot; however I’m sure my natural charm (and access to rental income and the deposit) will win through in the end! I’ve been subjected to the rather galling process of a full interview with the householders and open house scenarios where you all have to wait outside until you’re called in for an interview – all very scary! The questions you get asked are daft, and I’ve not been successful so far, so I’ve put together what I believe the perfect answers should be in a flat hunting interview, all questions I’ve been asked!

Q: Are you a tidy person?
A: Yes – I’m really tidy; I love cleaning and always do my dishes. However, I don’t get uptight at all if you’re not tidy, I don’t mind what you do, so don’t go thinking I’m a neat freak. Indeed I’m quite likely just to do your cleaning for you!

Q: Do you like music?
A: Oh yes, I love music, I like [Insert name of band that is similar but a bit cooler than the posters you’ve seen around the house, or just guess. Not heavy metal or Drum n’ Bass]. However I only ever tend to listen to it very quietly or generally through headphones. Actually, the only time I will turn my $5000 stereo above volume number 1 is when we have a house party, and it’s then loud enough to make your ears bleed when you turn it up to 11.

Q: Do you like going out?
A: Oh yes, I love going out as well as staying in with my flatmates and cooking. I go out all the time ‘cos I’m great fun me, and I’d probably invite you. However I rarely get in after 11pm and am very very quiet when I do get in.

Q: Do you drive?
A: I’ve got a nice car, but I rarely use it. Due to this I’m more than happy for people to borrow it and indeed would relish the opportunity to drive people places at the weekend as I don’t drive much in the week.

Q: Do you have many friends in Sydney?
A: Yes, I’ve got exactly the right amount of friends to make you think that I’m popular, but not so many that would make you think that I don’t want to be your mate too.

Q: So this is Bruno who you would be sharing the room with…
A: Er… TAXI!!!

Q: Do you have a telly or anything we can use in the lounge?
A: Actually I was thinking my Harry Potter sized room was a bit small for my plasma screen and projector – I’d probably put them in the lounge. Also I’ve got a PS3 and an Xbox360 for you all to use, I never play them because I’m not a geek.

Q: How much do you earn?
A: Enough to make you think I can comfortably pay the rent and get the odd round in, but not so much to make you feel inferior. Definitely a salary and not commission that could make you think I’d struggle with rent some months, oh no.

Q: How do you feel about vegetarians?
A: Meat is murder/they’re fucking wimps and deserve to be shot (Requires a big judgement call).

Q: What about having guests over?
A: Well, so long as you keep the noise down and wear a cond… Oh, er, yes, I’m cool with that, but I rarely if ever bring friends back as I tend to stay at theirs.

Q: So, if we were to select you, would you want to move in?
A: Yes, definitely, but I’m not desperate or owt, honest. Please take me. Please.

Q: Do you like Celine Dion?
A: Fuck off and die. Painfully.

Right, I’ll find somewhere I’m sure – it’s just that when I see an advert with “Looking 4 1 person share flat with. im tidy an honest 4 mins chinatown and share 2 ppl” a little bit of me dies inside. Everything else is going fine and dandy, and the hostel is cheap enough and good really (free brekko!) so I shouldn’t complain!

Ok, that’s enough for now folks – ta ta!

PS I can highly recommend the new Will Farrell flick – “Semi-Pro”, made me really chuckle!