Gav’s Blog - Gavin Hudson’s Blog

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!

Well, the time has finally come!

In… *checks time* 7 hours 32 minutes I’ll be on a plane!

So a big thanks to all those people that have helped look after me and give me a good send off, last night was my favourite day of the year (Pancake day!) so I kindly invited some people round to Jenny’s (my temporary home!) and cooked up pancakes. I’m a fair dab hand at it, if I do say so myself! Thence onto the Woodstock, and got to spend the night in bed with 2 blondes and one dark one. Sadly all fully clothed apart from the cat - but was a good night all the same! :o) I was quite pleased to see that the rain was proper pishing it down in a Manchester stylee - made me realise some of the crap stuff I’m leaving behind! Mind, Manchester’s not all bad, here’s a photo I took the other night before going to the fantastic El Rincon for a meal with my best buddy. I will miss it while I’m away, and of course all my friends and family too.

I’m all checked in and ready to go now, my flights are the 17.05 from Manchester to Heathrow with B.A. and then the 20:25 to Hong Kong! I’ve got no idea what my arrival time in Hong Kong will be - I’ll look it up! Right - here’s my itinerary for those that really want to stalk me - Gav’s Travel Itinerary. I hate flying with B.A. he hates going on planes and he’s always calling me a crazy fool etc etc… ;o)
I’ve got 4 days in Hong Kong, then down to Sydney! Whooop whoop! Right - I’d best get off as I’ve got to get home and start packing! Not done owt yet, but then there’s not much left to take.

Take care, and I’ll miss you all - a particular thanks to those of you who made the effort to come down to wish me off (probably just to check that I was really going) and for the cards etc. I’m finally getting excited about it rather than just stressing about the things I need to do before I go away!

Have a look at my Flickr photos on the right hand side for the latest photos - some rather random ones in there!

Great, so got burgled last week.

Luckily Jenny came to my rescue and let me stay at hers as being in a house with someone else’s footprints all over the chuffing place just feels a bit strange.

So, I’m stood there in the morning, the morning after waiting for my bus, it’s a really grey day, pissing it down with rain the way it can only do in Manchester, and to cop it all - the only bit of shelter was the bus stop. Alright, fine you think, but then this was the view at the bus stop on a busy road…

I took the hit and got soaked by the rain, unlike the woman in the bus stop who got soaked from the puddle by a passing minicab driver. (Intentionally, oh yes). Oh, and then Jenny’s bike was nicked from my shed too. Grr.
In some good news, Hyde United are playing Thailand on Monday! I know - mental, basically the Thai national team are over here for a few friendlies and to see Thaksin “Frank” Siniwatra over at City. Should be a good fun event anyway, so long as we don’t play the same shite as we did today. It’s a fiver to get in if anyone wants to come down, and a 7pm kick off.

Happy Christmas everyone! Eh? Oh yes - seeing as my Dad’s half of the family were scattered around the globe in December (poor Dad and Tom had to go Skiing in Whistler), Vicky was on duty on Christmas day, Amy was looking after her Mum (96 and still going strong!) and I was in bed with flu, trying my best not to argue with Mum and Tony (failing, though); we had a ‘Christmas Day’ yesterday.

I went down to London on Saturday, and went to the football at Stamford Bridge with Vicky and Tom, as a siblings day out. Chelsea beat Tottenham 2-0, so they were happy, and as a Man City fan it was good to get a glimpse of our old players Nicolas Anelka and Shaun Wright-Phillips again. My usual visits to the Bridge are usually not so happy, as they usually seem to involve City being on the wrong end of a good beating, so it was good to watch a London game with a bit of needle and just enjoy the match. Anelka looked awesome - he came on for the last 30 mins, to a tumultous reception, and it looks like Chelsea have got their money’s worth at £15m. He seems to have filled out a bit since I last saw him at City, and not in a bad way. He looked assured and full of that Gallic swagger we’ve seen before on Cantona, Zidane and Henry, to name but a few. I think that could just be the signing that keeps them in the hunt for the title.

In the end the game was won by a great Balletti 40 yd screamer in the first half and a deserved second from SWP in the second. Spurs never really had a sniff, and Alex had Berbatov in his pocket for the whole game. Anelka had two ace chances, but there was to be no fairytale debut. I must say, London’s alright - travelling through the underground with golf clubs was an ‘experience’ but real Londoners are a good bunch. THe load at Chelsea are a right laugh, plenty of ribbing for me being a City fan, and their accents do nothing but make me laugh. It’s like a bunch of Chimerney Sweeps from Mary Poppins! “Cor blimey!” “Faaaarkin’ ‘ell ref!” and “You’re ‘avin a bubble mate” were all to be heard on Saturday.

So Sunday was Christmas day. Up early and a walk on the beach and a bacon butty with the family and the dogs, weather - “bracing”. A quick nine holes of golf at one of the best courses in the country, windy but sunny. I wasn’t rubbish, so that equates to being good. Then I was heartened to see that we’re all as rubbish as each other - we all went shopping for our Christmas presents for each other about 3pm on Sunday! A nice Christmas dinner, with less flu, more booze and less arguments than the real one. Oh, and I got my first taste of the amazing Mario Galaxy on the Wii with my bro - wowzers! It was really nice to see everyone, and I’ll miss ‘em while I’m away. Vicky’s back on board soon, going gallavanting around the world on the Ark Royal - she’s actually handed her notice in now so she’ll be leaving the Navy. Not soon though - her notice period is a full year!! I thought 6 weeks was bad. She’s thinking of being a copper - I’m not sure I what to think of that, but I can actually imaigine her making a good Police Officer somehow - she certainly wouldn’t take no crap from anyone!!

Right - onwards!

Thanks very much to the scumbag who broke into my house yesterday, stealing my Xbox360, Nintendo DS, digital camera and a few other bits and bobs.

He’s solved a few dilemmas for me.

1. Do I want to move back to Gorton ever? Sadly the answer is now no, I’ve fallen out of love with it lately. I’m going to rent the house out while I’m away, can’t see me moving back in, but it’s daft to get off the property ladder once you’re on it - might as let someone else pay my mortgage off for me!
2. What to do with my Xbox360? Lend it someone? Store it? Sell it? Ah no, let it get nicked by some scrote who will flog it for £50 in a pub somewhere to some other lowlife
3. I’m going to Hong Kong - land of cheap electronics, so should I stick with my pretty new, and nice digital camera, or should I buy another one in HK? Oh no, someone has stolen mine, so I need to buy one now. Any ideas for what to get, by the way?
4. Ditto DS Lite. Great. No brain training for me!

Anyway, I’ve now sorted a load of stuff out, and getting on with emptying the place. I’m getting there, but I can’t wait to go away now.

Get organising the leaving party, and buying the presents, if you’re so inclined!

—————-
Now playing: Coldcut - If There Was No Gravity - Air Liquide

Yes, it’s 28 days exactly until I go away.

I’m very excited, but starting to get a bit nervous now too - loads of things to sort out, I’m sure it will all come together…

God I hate these computers!
Anyways I seem to remember most of the points I wanted to make…
1) Thanks all the people that have emailed me! Good to hear from you, if you’ve got any questions, or want to know what’s going on then send ‘em in dammit!
2) Dad, you’re not funny. People, don’t encourage him.
3) Dan, thanks for telling everyone about Clare’s Bra size, I’m sure she’ll appreciate all the dirty emails she’ll now be getting from now on. I’m thinking Dave here. (It’s clarey30e@yahoo.com) Oh and Dan, thanks also for telling everyone that I owe you 74 quid. I’m in BRAZIL! Anyone heard of Ronnie Biggs? He owed 2 million… :op

Right last I time I left you I’d just arrived in Brazil, well I arrived on the morning of Friday the 13th (an omen?) but my connection from Rio de Janiero to Recife (Pronounced ‘hee-oh de hya-niro’ and ‘hay-see-fay’) was not until Tuesday evening. So I’m lost in Rio, all by myself and with no friends for 5 days then? Well, no. Aiesec being that wonderful global organisation that it is, I realised (well actually Bryan realised) that Lovely Lynsey from Strathclyde Uni up in Scotland(that’s the one with all the hills, James) was in Rio for 8 weeks. Woo-hoo! So despite not speaking a word of the lingo, and meeting no-one who spoke anything even resembling english I found my way across Rio to the Aiesec office. How you ask? Well you forget that I speak that internationally understood language, of pointing at an address on a scrap of paper, listing to them tell me which way to go, nodding in understanding, ignoring it completely and just following their flamboyent hand gestures. So with much huffing, puffing, bewilderment and head scratching, I eventually found my way to the office. I was met with a very excited and overjoyed reception, by a hugging Lynsey. This was for one of three reasons as far as I can tell Lynsey was very happy to to see…
a) A fellow British person (NB Not English, she likes being called that like I would like to be called Welsh or something)
b) Me, cos she likes my company so much
or,
more likely…
c) Me alive as I was over 3 hours late and she probably thought I was dead or something.

So anyway, after a brief tour we checked into a hotel Lyns had organised for us, SEPERATE beds, Rach, and all the gossip queens out there, Pras, you know
who you are…
The hotel was well, you, know, alright, in a nice sort of way. It wasn’t expensive, it wasn’t 5 star luxury, but it was nice enough, had a warm shower which is important when it’s as hot as it was, and when it is A 2 MINUTE WALK FROM COPACABANA BEACH!!!!!! Yee-haa!!

ALL TOGETHER NOW…

“Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl
With yellow feathers in her hair
and a dress cut down to there
She would merengue and do the cha-cha
And while she tried to be a star,
Tony always tended bar
Across the crowded floor, they worked from 8 ’til 4
They were young and they had each other
Who could ask for more?

At the Copa, Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa, Copacabana
Music and passion were always in fashion
At the Copa….they fell in love. (Copacabana)

His name was Rico. He wore a diamond.
He was escorted to his chair, he saw Lola dancing there
And when she finished, he called her over,
But Rico went a bit too far,
Tony sailed across the bar
And then the punches flew
and chairs were smashed in two
There was blood and a single gun shot
But just who shot who?

At the Copa, Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa, Copacabana
Music and passion were always in fashion
At the Copa…. (aaahhh!) She lost her love.

Copa… Copacabana…
Copa… Copacabana…
Copacabana…

(instrumental)

Copa… Copacabana…
Like in Havana… Have a banana…
Music and passion… always the fashion…

(instrumental)

Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl,
But that was 30 years ago,
when they used to have a show.
Now it’s a disco, but not for Lola,
Still in the dress she used to wear,
Faded feathers in her hair.
She sits there so refined, and drinks herself half-blind.
She lost her youth and she lost her Tony,
Now she’s lost her mind!

At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always in fashion
At the Copa….don’t fall in love… don’t fall in love.”

Sorry, got a bit carried away there but you get the Idea! The beach there was amazing! It was mid winter there, but I think the Brazillian definition of ‘winter’ differs somewhat from my own. The only evidence of the season were a couple of dogs at a house we went to wearing coats to protect them from the 25 deg. ‘çold’????? It was still warm enough to wear a t-shirt in the evenings and still be pretty warm, so that’s fine by me! Went to the beach a few times. WOW! it’s just soo cool, you can sit back and just watch everyone go by, it’s not all blokes in speedoes and girls in thong bikinis you know. Quite a lot of it, but not all! All these dudes keep coming by trying to sell you stuff, “Agua Mineral, Coca Cola, Ooola-Ooola!” as well as shrimps “Camarão! Camarão!(for those with a steel stomach only!) Sarongs (kangas in Brazil) and loads of other stuff.

Picture this then boys and girls, so I’m sat there, in the sun, in Brazil, in Rio, on Copacobana beach, listning to the waves, looking at the amazing scenery, (Swanky hotels, with a backdrop of sugar loaf mountain at one end, and all the others behind the hotels, topped off with corcovado, the one with the huge statue of Jesus looking out over the city) and drinking from a freshly chopped coconut. All I needed was Rach and a couple of angels to play the harp and I’d've be in heaven! Aaah!

In the evenings the kids all play footy on the floodlit beach, they’re sponsored by the big rio teams, Vasco de Gama, Flamengo, Botafogo, Fluminese, etc. and they are amazing!!! Every single one of the 7 year olds we saw playing (I was supporting the team in the Liverpool kit!?!) Could’ve run rings around me, nutmegged me, chipped the ball up in the air and bicycle kicked the thing into the back of the net before I could say “Ronnie Moore’s Red and White Army”. I’m hopeing to poach one of them to boost Rotherham’s Division one campaign this season. More on football later…

Anyway, thanks to the lovely hospitality of Lyns, and all the Aiesecers in Rio, I had a great time, generally chillin’ amd soaking up the atmoshpere and the beer. We went to Ipenema one night and went into the bar where The Girl From Ipanema was written, (For lyrics look here~~ www.kbapps.com/top50/21ipanema.htm )didn’t actually get a drink cos it was full, but sat in the one opposite. Apparently this guy used to sit in this cafe and watch this girl walk home from school every day. True to form the original Brazillian lyrics are somewhat more suggestive than the english version!!!! Also went in a surprisingly authentic Mock Tudor English pub, ‘the Lord Jim’ which was rammed, mostly with locals drinking gin and playing darts!!

The highlight of my time in Rio was undoubtedly the ascent of Corcovado mountain at sunset. Standing up there as the sun fell over the mountains, the lights of Rio lighting up 800 metres beneath you was absolutley breath taking. it’s worth going to Rio just for that! Honestly, the statue of Christ the redeemer is huge and he has the best view in the world, possibly a close second to his dad’s, but pretty close all the same!!

So I left Rio on last Tuesday, what have I done since then? What’s Recife like?
Find out tomorrow with “GavInBrazil”!!!!

A cliff hanger…
On My first proper night out in Recife did I?
a) Go to a Forro club where I danced the night away to the sexy brazillian
beats ,and got home at 7?
b) Go to a Samba club where I tried to dance but made a complete ass of
myself?
c) Go to a Bossa Nova Club where I refused to dance, and went home at 2?
d) Go to a Techno Club where I got completely plastered and threw up?
e) Go to a Rock Club where I bopped my head with 16 yr olds till 5?
f) Go to a House Music club where I woke up at an after party with the sun in my eyes?
or
g) Go to a trendy modern bar where I spent the equivalent of 2 weeks wages on Capirinha’s?

Answers on an egreetings card by tommorow please!

See ya soon,
Love
Gav

PS After speaking to Rachel today I realised what I really miss about home!
:o(