Played Golf, Very Cold!

I guess this photo is a bit of an exaggeration, but yesterday I played golf and it was freeeezing! The temperature when we started was around 1 or 2 degree and by the time the sun started falling on the last holes it was around -2!

I worked out after the first hole that trying to hit with four layers of shifts and jackets is not easy, so the big jacket had to come off. Improved a little, but that is all relative to my game!

It Saturday morning now and weather man says its -4 outside!

I hate the cold!!

Freezing Seoul

One of the long standing jokes in my office every morning this winter is when I come crashing into the office covered 5 times over with clothes crying about how cold it is outside. 90% of the time, reactions are from outright laughing to lectures on the fact that -2 or -3 is not really cold! Can you believe it! They just don't understand that where I grew up where 10 degrees Celsius is cold, or when I lived in Hawaii for 8 years, where cold was 16 degrees Celsius.

Funny enough as the winter has drawn on, I have actually started to feel what is cold or what is really cold. This morning I had a breakthrough..

After stepping onto the road in front of my house I knew it was bloody cold. There was some wind also, and after a minute I actually had tears in my eyes. I quickened to Olympic sprint pace to get out of this cold, but sure enough I was caught at the main road traffic lights! I stood there absolutely dying, and as it appeared around me, so was everyone else. I contemplated crossing 10 lanes of traffic, but luckily that reality side of my brain had not frozen over yet! Finally after what seemed hours, the lights changed and I jogged the last 300 metres to work! As I entered the hotel all I could think of walking into the office, and everyone would be laughing at me complaining about the cold. As I flung open the office door three of them were standing there, they burst out laughing, but all said "its really cold..Yes??!!" Victory! Finally they agree with me... But who wouldn't when one tells me the radio man said that wit the wind chill it is -20 degrees Celsius, or for you Fahrenheit people -3! I went online and checked the weather site and it said -14 Celsius, with wind chill -19.. At 7am.

Have a warmer day!

Love Long Weekends in Seoul

Well the long weekend has hit us and we are having a wonderful relaxing time. The weather is a little warmer, hovering above zero, but that made little differance through the day yesterday as we just lazed around the house watching the last 4 episodes of LOST, on the box set for the first season. We are loving it, and now we would do almost anything to be able to start watching Season 2. Where not holding our breath though, as it seems it is not showing in Korea.

Anyway, last night with met up with some friends, and hoaxed them into coming to one of our favourite downtown restaurants that we had mentioned before i think in September post. Dintaifung is an awesome modern Chinese dumpling restaurant with open kitchen, modern design, and pretty good service. We had a fantastic meal as expected, only 75,000 won for four big eaters, and our friends were very impressed. And he is the Executive Chef at the hotel! So glad that he and his lovely wife enjoyed it.
http://www.dintaifung.co.kr/

We then decided to chance a 15 minute walk to the Downtown Lotte Department store, where hiding in the basement is a huge Krispy Kreme. http://www.krispykreme.com/
The reason we were not sure if it would be open is it is the largest holidays in Korea, but thankfully as we peered around the last corner, lights were still on, and as always with a KrispyKreme, it was busy! So we devoured a few donuts, had a coffee, then decided to walk around the streets in this area where there were hundreds of the night street vendors selling everything from fake DVD's, fake Gucci watches, to little puppies for sale (they were real!) I think this particular area is called Myondong. (Sorry for the spelling) We then caught a taxi home and had a humurous 20 minutes with out taxi driving, trying to practice our Korean on directions. He was having a great time, I think, but then again, when you have a 6foot 10 inch chef sitting next to you, you should laugh at anything he says!

Well its Sunday, time to go to the Gym, have lunch at the hotel, then heading to a function in the afternoon. Speak soon!

Its cold!

So few words over the past weeks, but happy to report that we are both back in Korea, and trying to survive the back end of the winter season. This weekend is the Chinese Lunar New Year, so a three day weekend. What does that mean for us?.. well we are just going to hang out in Seoul, eat some good food, hang out with friends, but just spend lots of time relaxing... oh yeah, and maybe go to the gym a couple of times! Hey dont laugh, I am trying to keep the weight in double digits! What to do?

At the end of this month we hit the 8 month barrier in Korea. It really is going fast, and actually we are so excited about this year. We have set some big goals, so at the end of the year we will let you know if we achieved them!

Tommorow is Australia Day. I think I will have a nice lunch with the chefs in the hotel, then in the evening Clariza has promised me she will eat a juicy aussie steak in the Australian Grill with me! Ahh, the sacrifices she has to make married to an Aussie! Aussie, aussie, aussie! Of course we will have a nice bottle of Aussie wine, (this will win her over!) and I will beg the pastry chef to make a Pavlova or even a Lamington! (In my dreams)

Still need to download our photos from the Christmas trip, so when that is done we will have a few more pics for the site.

And a big -kai- to my Beta Brothers. There seems to be a bit of momentum going amongst a lot of the brothers catching up, and sharing emails, and laughs. We even have a nice blog beginning. http://epsilonrhorongo.blogspot.com/
For those that do know, or dont, in 1990, my first semester in college in Hawaii, I was dragged along to a cocktail party that ended up being a recruitment drive for the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Somehow, I made the decision to be a pledge for the Betas, and then from that day, my adult life has been shaped in part, or significantly by my days in the fraternity. I would have to say, one of the best decisions I ever made. To this day, my fraternity, and my brothers are still very much part of my life, even with the great distances that seperate us. There is almost nothing I wouldn't do for my brothers, even today, over 15 years since I joined. Enough of that stuff... but in any case great to be able to share my life with them too.

Well thats all for now. Its getting late, and I got to work early tommorow. Words and photos soon!

First Snow In Seoul

Hot of the press - "First Snow in Seoul" Yes folks, here I was complaining to everyone that I had nothing to blog about and suddenly in one day I have two blogs. We heard that it was going to snow today, but you just never know. So around 10pm we stuck our head out the window to see the snow falling. We waited a little while and with the snow still falling we went outside and took some photos! Great ha! We are so excited.



Clariza saw snow on the ground last year in Victoria, but this was the first snow fall. And of course the first time this is right outside our home!















Dont you just love my outfit! Hey there tracksuit pants are confortable! No designer clothes babe!

December is here

It has been far too long between posts, and I cant tell you how many times over the last few weeks that I have said to myself I need to update the blog! Maybe it is the cold, maybe it is work, maybe I just havent felt there was anything significant to mention! Heck, I dont know.

So let me see.. the last few weeks has seen the temperature significantly drop. I am wearing ski gloves to work every morning as this past week every morning is below zero. I seem to be the only guy wearing gloves, but I dont give a sh..t, at least I feel warmer. Last night I came home around 7.30pm from work an it was so damm cold. When I check the computer it said it was -4! Felt colder! Still waiting for snow in Seoul, but I hear there is a lot of snow in the mountains already.

Work is going great, This past week our Florist Team have been busy putting up all the Christmas decorations, and it is hard to believe but as this is my department also, I am involved in saying what looks good or not! Me and decorations??? Mmmm... is this a new creative side I have not seen before?? In any case the decorations are up around the hotel and they look fantastic. The front of the hotel in the evening looks awesome.

Sadly on Tuesday, one of my staff's mother passed away, and I attended the funeral with a dozen other staff. It was the first time I attended a Korean funeral, and it is very differant from anywhere else. Firstly his mother had passed away in the morning and from the afternoon they rent a room in the hospital where people can come and pay respect to the family. You also give some money to the family. When we arrived we entered a area which is set up as a shrine in respect to the person who has passed away, there is a small prayer, then personal condolence to the fmaily members, then you sit down on the floor in another room and eat and drink. We stayed for about 1 hour. This happens for 3 days, as the family mourns and greets family and friends who come to pay respect.

On Wednesday I ended up havinga very big night. I attend the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Le Clef's Dors Concierge Society of Korea at the Westin Chosun. It was an interesting event with several VIP's, including myself (Dont know why), and we sat and enjoyed speeches, an awards ceremony which included two of my staff receiving full induction into the Le Clef's Dor Society. I was given the honour of pinning their golden keys on their jackets. After the ceremony we had a lovely buffet dinner, then headed out with about 40 attendees including several from our hotel that forced me to go out, and we ended up at a large Kareoke bar where we all sang until almost midnight. Of course up at 630am the next morning I was not feeling that great!

Other than this, we are preparing for our trip to Philippines & Australia. Clariza leaves on Monday for Philippines, and I will leave on the Friday 16th. We will stay in Philippines until the 23rd, then have Christmas and New Year in Sydney with friends and family. We are both so excited, but maybe more excited because we will be going to warmenr places!

So thats all for now.. Will try to get some more updates on including photos. Thanks for watching...

Weekend Trip

So actually two weekends ago I went to an area called Seoraksan National Park with a friend form work and his wife. Clariza was supposed to come but unfortunantly at the 730am start she was just not feeling well at all, so I headed out for what was going to be a very long, but vey nice day.
I figure I will not do much writing in this post as the photos kind of tell a better picture than I could ever describe. But to give a summary I will hit the highlights. It was about a 4 hour drive to get there, and heading through the mountains was extremely beautiful and again I am reminded that Seoul is such a contrast to the real beauty of Korea, which lie's waiting outside the concrete jungle fo the city. I am certain so many people that visit Korea very rarely venture out of Seoul, so I hope these photos give a glimpse as to what is really out there.
When we arrived at the National Park finally we were met by thousands of others who were also taking advantage of the beautiful weather and changing of season. It was nice to have a walk around and capture a look at only a fraction of the park. I have to say if I had more time it would be wonderful to do one of the many hiking trails through the park.
After a wonderful lunch, we walked around a little more, enjoying the beauty of the surroundings, and finally got back in the car for the journey home.




Now if some of you are familiar with the traffic of Korea, then you will undestand how a 4 hour drive one way can be a 7 hour drive on the way back! Yes it took us 7 hours to get home in the worst traffic I have ever been in. At one stage we covered 2 km in 50 minutes! I was going crazy, but it was not so bad. We did stop and have a nice Korean BBQ dinner in a small town on the way back.


We finally got back to Seoul at 11pm in the evening. All I can say is that it was great to get out into the mountains, but the traffic is a killer!