Fight Day

So today we decided to get up early and dig into the hotel breakfast buffet which suprisingly we have never done together. By 9.30am when we arrived it was a little busy, but who cared about the crowds when you have such an awesome buffet in front of you. The problem is when you have a great buffet in front of you what do you eat? The body is not used to a lot of food in the morning. Anyway we ate our share and enjoyed it very much.

Next we jumped on the subway and headed for Itaewon. Our objective was to pick up a pair of golf shoes as mine were in Australia and I needed a pair anyway as I was playing golf on Monday. (Finally my first time to play in Korea) As some people would know, when you play golf in Korea you have to look the part as much as play the part! So once in Itaewon we checked out a few stores and finally found one that had my size. 150,000 Won later I had a lovely Italian pair of golf shoes! What to do!!!

We then decided to walk around a bit more and try to pick up a phone card. This is where the fun begins... so we walk into this store and these two ladies are talking away, looked like sisters, and suddenly the one on our side of the counter walks across the lane to a LG phone shop and starts arguing with the lady in that shop. Now if you can picture this the shop entrances are only 5 metres apart across this single lane so we could hear everything. All in Korean of course and lots of shouting. The lady in the shop we were in just ignored us and watched her sister argue with this lady. After a minute the sister walked out of the other shop but just as she was about to cross the lane the lady in the LG shop shouted something at here like f..k y**! I am sure. So the sister went back in and started screaming again, then the LG lady picked up some papers and threw them at the sister, then it was on!!! Wow I was loving it! Then sister in the shop we were in jumped from behind the counter, ran past us straight into the LG shop, around the counter and started swinging! Yes .. Throwing punches! It was on two sisters vs. LG lady! Clariza was a bit freaked out, but I was loving it. I even had time to flag an American guy on the side who didn't see what was going on to check out the fight! He was very thankful. After a few minutes the three each had each others' hair in their hands, a stalemate, two Korean guys jumped in, and finally it was broken up. We then left! Now that was interesting! Sorry for the long story, but I was just amazed to see it!

Anyway we headed back to Samseong, and decided by some miracle we could just walk up and buy a ticket to a movie. Sure enough Mission Impossible was available and we watched it. I won't say much, but it was pretty good. Not the best. I have history with Mission Impossible as the cast and directors lived in the hotel I worked at in Sydney back in 1999, and I got to meet them all and actually talked several times with Tom Cruise. I even got to drive Ving Rhames around Sydney! And Dougray Scott had a little too much fun in Sydney!!

So we headed home after quiet an adventurous day. Fights on the streets and fights in the movie!

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!

Busy Social Schedule

It's Saturday morning and the Seoul freeze continues. Its about -12 outside, and was a cool -18 last night when we came home around 10pm.Let me back track to Thursday evening...

Thursday evening Clariza and I went and watched Memoirs of a Geisha. Our hotel had rented out one thetre at the COEX Megabox, and we hosted about 400 of our key bookers. I had read the book several years ago, and of course the movie was differant, but some of the acting as well as the scenery was fantastic. I highly recommend that you take the time to see the movie.

Then last night (Friday) we went and watched a Live Performance called Paris Can Can. It was held at the COEX Convention Centre Auditorium, and had a cast of about 15. It was a very lively show, from tradional Can Can dancing, french classical singing, to a comendy skit that was very funny, to a few acts that reminded me a little of Circ De Soliel (spelling?) Overall the 1 1/2 live show was great, and again worth going to. We had a few tickets from our hotel, but the show would have otherwise been quiet expensive.

Then Saturday night we really actually paid to go to a performance, which was STOMP. Stomp is a great live performance doing many differant skits using everything from brooms, matchboxes, rubbish cans, to plastic bags, to make unique noises, and dance, or perfectly choreographed together. It was about 1 1/2 hours long, and was a great show.

This is how their website describes the show -

Music, Dance, Theatre, Choreography or Performance Art? All of the above! Or is it none of the above. Well, both are sort of right...In a way. Confused? read on...
STOMP is a movement, of bodies, objects, sounds - even abstract ideas. But what makes it so appealing is that the cast uses everyday objects, but in non-traditional ways.
There's no speech, no dialogue, not even a plot.
So why go see STOMP? Well, have you ever composed a symphony using only matchbooks as instruments? Or created a dance routine based around sweeping? You may have done this a little, but get a group of rhythmically gifted, extremely coordinated bodies with definitive personalities, and you have the makings for STOMP.