Another new idea for the blog: Video of the week. Again, through a variety of social networks, email forwards and pure boredom, I come across a lot of videos that tickle my fancy.
The first is a viral entitled "Hatfield Hotdog Launcher Documentary" which immediately made me think of my friend Ed ...mainly because he's American and wears white socks with his sneakers.....and deep down even though he's very well educated, smart and sophisticated I know he'd be standing in the crowd screaming for a hotdog with a target painted on his T-shirt.....It's the white socks, see, they just give it away. Anyway, enjoy
Apparently July 31 2005 was a pretty cold day in Sydney, but for a Pom that had just got here (Australia) from the UK, I thought it was practically a heat wave. My mate picked me and my partner Malin up from the airport and took us for a tour of Sydney – the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Kirribilli and Bondi…. I’d never seen a beach like it in my life. Over the past (almost) four years, we have fallen in love with Australia, even got into Rugby League and developed a bit of an Aussie twang. So, it’ll come as a surprise to some that me and Malin have decided to head back to Europe.
What’s behind this decision then? Well, we have decided to expand our family and after having one kid in Australia on our own, we thought we might need a little bit more support this time around. To put this in perspective, in the two and a half years since we’ve had Freja, me and Malin have had a total of one night off as parents, now we love our little bundle of joy, but the odd grandparent’s baby sitting session wouldn’t go a miss! And that’s the other big thing, being so far away from our families.
We’re heading off at the end of the month and it’ll be both a happy and a sad moment for us, Australia has given us so much – especially our little girl Freja. My friend Ed, who also recently left Australia to return home (to America) has inspired my to post this on the blog and I’ll probably be adding a few more posts like this over the coming weeks as the clock count down – things I love about Australia and will miss. So, for the first one – State of Origin. Now, as a Pom I have been spoilt with the English Premier League and the soccer World Cup, but I can hand on heart say that I have never seen a more emotional, intense rivalry in any sporting event. Despite living in NSW for my entire time in Australia, most of my friends are from Queensland and the friend that picked me up from the airport is a born-and-breed Brisbane boy, so from the start I backed Queensland – and thank God! It’s not often that a pom backs a winner!
What's that saying? Cometh the hour, cometh the man..... It's never been truer than it is right now as the U.S. sits on the eve of history either way. I written a fair few posts on the online campaigns from both parties, but more on the Obama campaign's efforts as they seem to be doing more.
But it's not over yet, you may remember the iPhone apps story that I posted sometime ago - that'll be in full swing right now. Also, people logging on to Facebook today will have a nice little reminder to go and vote and guess which campaign uses Facebook the most...yep, you've guessed it. Looking at the Facebook updates from my friends, there seems to be such a buzz with people organising to go to parties, making sure their friends have voted...I for one am very excited and can't wait to see the results. If you want to read more from a U.S. perspective, check out my friend Ed's blog - a Washington based PR.
MyTake - I have said is before and I'll say it again - they are going to talk about this campaign for years to come and from an online perspective, they are going to teach this stuff in colleges and universities around the world. Will we see something similar from the next UK elections? Probably not, but it's nice to dream...
My name is Alan Parker and I’m a 30 year old father of 1.75 children from the UK. I was born in a town called Sutton Coldfield and spent most of my youth devising ways to escape from suburbia. The opportunity to escape came in the form of a University degree which took me as far south as Guildford. At 21 I headed to London to work in PR for the next four years. While in London I spent too much money, ate bad food and drank warm beer. The highlight was that I managed to charm a rather sweet Swedish girl called Malin, who is now my partner and the mother of my child(ren). After our stint in London, we packed-up and moved to Sydney, where we had our fist child, Freja. We spent three and a half wonderful years in Australia and got to see and experience things they don't sell in your average package holiday catalogue. But, the lure of home was too much and we headed back to the UK at the end of 2008 and I am now I am working for a multinational PR company on all things Digital PR. As I hurtle past my 30 birthday, the most inspiring people in my life are still my parents along with Malin, my bis sis Al and her husband Seb and of course, my little daughter Freja.
Apparently July 31 2005 was a pretty cold day in Sydney, but for a Pom that had just got here (Australia) from the UK, I thought it was practically a heat wave. My mate picked me and my partner Malin up from the airport and took us for a tour of Sydney – the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Kirribilli and Bondi…. I’d never seen a beach like it in my life. Over the past (almost) four years, we have fallen in love with Australia, even got into Rugby League and developed a bit of an Aussie twang. So, it’ll come as a surprise to some that me and Malin have decided to head back to Europe.
What's that saying? Cometh the hour, cometh the man..... It's never been truer than it is right now as the U.S. sits on the eve of history either way. I written a fair few posts on the online campaigns from both parties, but more on the Obama campaign's efforts as they seem to be doing more.
