Welcome Spring!

The weekend was amazing, not just because it was an enjoyable weekend, rather winter is gone and Spring has taken over. It was a beautiful sunny weekend, and finally did not have to wear a winter jacket. I sure hope this is not a tease!

Was not able to leave work on Friday until almost 8pm as we were so busy, therefore our evening was very relaxed at home on the couch watching a DVD of the first series of "24". What a great series. Clariza and I could watch it for hours, but we opt for a couple of episodes.

Anyway Saturday began as most Saturdays do for us with a fantastic sleep in followed by a great bacon and egg breakfast! Sensational! We then cleaned up around the house and around 1pm our friends came over for an hour whom we are cat sitting for. Did I ever mention this? We have had now for almost 4 weeks to lovely Siamese (spelling??) cats, named Miya, and Masai. We are not cat lovers by a long shot, but they are cool cats. Once our friends get a place to live then the cats are out.

In any case we all headed out down to the COEX Mall where we watched Brokeback Mountain at the Mega Plex.

Here are the boys! Heath Ledger (aussie aussie aussie) acts very well, but I got to say that the movie is just okay. The scenery in Wyoming & Texas is amazing, and the overall acting is good. Even the story line is somewhat interesting but it is toooooooooooo loooooong! Damm my ass was sore after sitting that long!? (No pun intended!) I just got irritated after a while and after finishing the movie realized that so many scenes just did not need to be in the film. (my expert opinion!!) But it really was a full on movie, and watching it in a cinema in Korea was kind of interesting. This country is very closed door to gays & lesbians, and suprised how many people were watching the movie. Good to see. This country has to open their eyes to the real world.

After the movie we walked around a little, had a coffee, then took a taxi to a Korean Restaurant called Samwon Garden. I have eaten at one of their locations last year with a guest in the hotel, and this time we all wanted to go and have a nice Korean meal.

It was quiet fun, but expensive and not enough! We are all not really into Korean food (besides BBQ) which is a shame as there is so much interesting food here. Our problem is we do not eat spicy food, so many of the small dishes that come with the meat we do not eat. Anyway our loss. So in any case we ordered beef kalbi, and beef bulgogi. It was extremely delicious, but not enough. Oh well, it was fun, and we drank a few beers. We left just as the rain started and headed back to the hotel.

At the hotel we decided on some wine and desserts! Great idea. We shared a couple of sampler desserts which were amazing, and I had a lovely dessert spumanti wine.

Finally home by 11pm after a great afternoon and evening.

Sunday was a lazy morning, nice lunch at home, followed by our regular subway ride to Hyewha. ( I spell it differant everytime) We went to the church for a while, then attended our Batangas Association Meeting afterwards at a Beer House. Great place to have a meeting! After the meeting we got stuck into a very large amount of fried chicken, and even more beer.

After too much beer and enough fried chicken to clog my arteries for a year, we got a taxi and headed home. 1030pm in bed after another fun weekend in Seoul!

About Me!

I was tagged by a friend, so since I have very little to write these days I thought I would go ahead and do it. I know it is supposed to be the best 4 of everything, but I just got carried away.

Jobs I’ve had in my life -

Bouncer in Night Club (Studabakers Hawaii)
Football Field Painting (University of Hawaii)
Bellman in Hotel ( Travelodge, Sydney Australia)
Pool Side Waiter (PIC Guam)
Surboard & Beach Equipment Rental staff (Waikiki Beach Hawaii)
Front Office Manager ( Al Ain, United Arab Emirates)
Executive Assistant Manager ( Seoul, Korea)

Movies I could watch over and over -

Shawshank Redemption
Le Grande Blue
Star Wars Trilogy
Rudy

Places I’ve lived -
Sydney, Australia
Honolulu, Hawaii USA
Guam, USA
Hayman Island, Queensland Australia
Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Melbourne, Australia
Seoul, South Korea

TV shows I love to watch -

LOST
Amazing Race
24
Survivor

Memorable places I’ve been on vacation -

Kauai, Hawaii
Las Vegas, USA
Santorini, Greece
Ubud, Bali
Paris, France
Rome, Italy
Rabaul, Papua New Guinea
Ayers Rock, Northern Teritory
Borocay & Tagaytay, Philippines
Koh Samui, Thailand

websites I visit daily -

Excite Email (http://www.excite.com/)
Sydney Morning Herald (http://www.smh.com.au/)
Ehotelier (http://www.ehotelier.com/)
UH Athletics (http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu/)

My favorite foods -

Good Australian Steak
Lumpia & Chicken Adobo
Pizza
Seafood


Places I’d rather be right now (Am happy in Seoul by the way)-

The two of us with family & friends in Australia
The two of us with family & friends in Philippines
The two of us traveling around Italy & France

Back in Seoul

Well as with the last few posts this will be a little short as not too much to post. Of course I will do a big one on the trip to Thailand which by the way was a fantastic trip. Last night we left Bangkok at 1am, with a 5 hour flight landing at 8am because of the time differance, and finally home around 1030am after goodbye's at the airport. I was lucky enough to get a hotel limousine into Seoul and to our house as one had done a early guest drop off and had no new pick up at the airport. Its now 530pm, have slept a few hours and watched the F1! Shit, Mark Webber out with a blown engine!

By the way if you do notice at all I have this new International counter on my site. It records the country of where each person who visits the website. I know the 1 person from Thailand is me. Can you believe I have had a visitor from Malawi! What suprises me is the amount of people from the USA. Why so interested in Korea? Anyway I think it is really cool.

Ok, back to resting, and will make a nice blog on Thailand soon.

In Thailand Too Hot Too Busy

Just a real quick update to say I am alive and well. The trip has been non-stop since arriving. Last day today, and fly back to Seoul tonight. It has been a lot of fun, and of course too short. Once back will do a detailed update and I hope a lot of photos.

Korea today, Thailand tommorow!

I hate to rub it in, but tommorow I head off to Thailand with around 24 of my staff for several days of relaxing. Already lined up is a full day yacht trip with fishing, banana boats, and jet skis. Also have a day of golf on the cards, and of course lots of drinking and eating. And before you start to get funny ideas, a nice "legitimate"Thai Massage!

So I hope to return by the weekend with lots of photos.

Weekend is Over

This really was a weekend that I did not want to end. Wasnt like it was an amazing weekend or anything, it was just relaxing, and enjoyable.

Had a nice dinner Friday evening in Hakone Japanese Restaurant in the Hotel. Then headed back to our place with a few friends and drank a few beers!
Saturday morning was the usual sleep in until 1030am, and then I devoured my two eggs on toast with 4 pieces of bacon, and a cup of tea! Damm what a perfect way to start the weekend. We just lazed around the house all day, then had a fantastic dinner at Table 34 on top of the hotel. Table 34 is as close as you can get to fine dining, and the food is great. The prices .... well lets put it this way.. "it aint cheap"!! We ended up back at one of friends rooms, drank maybe a bit too much wine, and we walked home around 2am.

This morning I dragged myself out of bed around 1000am, with no headache. The same could not be said for Clariza who was suffering a lot more than me. Its ok, I made her a lovely breakfast! We left the house around 1pm for Hyewha where we went to church, did a little shopping, and of course hung out with our friends. We got back just in time for the first Grand Prix of the year which just finished. Alonso 1st, M Shuemaker 2nd, and Raikkonen 3rd. Our aussie man Webber had a very respectable race coming in 6th.

So thats the story of the weekend. No complaints, though it has got well below zero again today! Would winter please leave! 3 more days until Thailand!

New Bloody Australian TV Commercial

Australia has just released their laterst television commercial that will go all over the world. Now I think it is great, but the last sentance - "where the bloody hell are you" has created a heap of controversy. It is just Australian slang, and has no hidden meaning. Often we say how the bloody hell are you? ... for example. It just means how are you. Anyway, the funny thing is the British have banned it, but dare I say typical pompous attitude from the POMS! Oh well, be the judge for yourself. Click on the photo, and then click the appropriate buttons to watch. Would love your opinion! Heck if you asked me it is quiet refreshing, and original.

Coffee Time

I know it has been a few days since I have blogged but work has been very busy, as well as we are currently cat sitting two of our friends cats until they get an apartment. Also I just dont have that much to say. Do have 6 days left until I head to Thailand for a work / relax trip with a few rounds of golf!

Anyway below is good story to read. (Thanks Chef!)

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups.""Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change." "Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

So folks, don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee instead.

Politicians!

I wonder what all these guys are thinking!

3000 hits & still in Seoul

Well as the title says, this blog has now 3000 hits. As I have always said I started it to keep the family and friends more updated with our lives as I am not good at sending emails and letters. In any case it has become something more, but really I am enjoying it, as well as our time here in Korea.

A year ago we had no idea that we were going to be in Korea, let alone leave Australia, but as with my indutry, you could end up anywhere. Heck two years ago we were in Dubai! I really wish I knew about this blog thing back then as we had so many adventures and stories to tell.

Aside from the holiday on Wednesday, it has really been a busy week at work. But the good news is the renovation I have been dealing with for the past nine months is almost over. From April 1st (no joke), the hotels rooms will be full renovated and we will have a fantastic product! Two more weeks, and I am off to Thailand for 5 days will 25 of my staff. It is going to be a blast!

So it's now Saturday, and tonight a group of us are heading out to our favourite DimSum restuarant. I can't wait!

Only In Sudan - Married to a goat!

From a Local newspaper in Sudan, which was also put into the Australian Newspaper so must be true -

MAN FORCED TO MARRY GOAT

Goat ... identity of the victim cannot be revealed

A MAN caught "in flagrante delicto" with a goat has been forced to marry the animal.According to the local newspaper, The Juba Post, the goat's owner, a Mr Alifi, caught his neighbour, Mr Tombe, assaulting his goat and reported the man to the local council of elders for adjudication.

"It was around midnight when Tombe came to do his nonsense on my goat, and I was already in bed inside my house," Mr Alifi said.
"Suddenly I heard the goat make a loud noise. Immediately I rushed outside to find Mr Tombe was naked and engaged in a relationship with my goat. " When I asked him what are you doing there, he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up. They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife."

Mr Tombe agreed to pay a dowry of 150,000 Sudanese dinars ($125) for his new spouse
We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi told the Post.


By the way it is a national holiday in Korea today so no work, but did end up at work to go to the gym, have lunch, and I guess do this blog! Have a great day!