Kimchi 김치 for Breakfast

Bugger!!!

2010-04-14T23:30:00.003+09:00

You may notice that you can no longer see most of the photos on my blog. I accidentally made all the photos on my Flickr account private, which apparently gives them all a new URL and therefore breaks the links here...no way to correct it except go through and update all the links and probably it'll be hard to find out what the photos actually are...think I may just put this blog to sleep once and for all.

Sprang?

2010-04-14T23:12:00.005+09:00

Looking out my window it looks like Spring is here but it certainly didn't feel like it today. Even had a bit of snow!

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T23:44:00.003+09:00

Spent New Year's Eve having dinner and drinks in Itaewon with a work colleague and his wife. We got to about 11:55am without thinking about New Year's but then some revelers came in and counted down. I'd liked to have gone to Jonggak again, but frankly last night it was just too damned cold!!

2009 has not been easy. We've been pretty busy at work but very unproductive...still got a couple of irons in the fire at the moment and with a bit of luck 2010 will see us turn the corner...

How not to climb Hallasan

2009-11-19T23:42:00.002+09:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to Jeju with some guys from work to climb Hallasan. I can recommend the trip but for god's sake don't do it like I did...let me give you a brief rundown and I'm sure you'll see why.

Friday: Depart Kimpo around 7:00pm and arrive in Jeju about an hour later. Drop bags at hotel and dash to the restaurant where people who took an earlier flight are already midway through dinner. Have three shots of soju as a punishment for being late. Unfortunately, the shots are taken from the shell of some sort of shellfish and prove to be almost doubles. Have a shedload of beer/soju boilermakers with the boss and other partners and finally get to eat some raw fish to soak up some of the alcohol. Escort a couple of junior staff who have passed out back to the hoteland then head back for some whiskey/beer boilermakers. Finally make it to bed just past 2am.

Saturday: Am awoken at 5:00am by my idiot roommate who thinks we are departming for Hallasan at 5:30am. The room is spinning and I feel like crap but I can't get back to sleep. Get up and take a shower and head downstairs for our 7:30am meeting. Glad to see there are quite a few who look a lot worse than I do. Indeed one colleague is retching in the bushes outside the hotel. We get on the coach and depart for the mountain. The driver is a maniac and does nothing to settle our stomachs. We arrive at the drop-off point, which is swathed in mist and start walking. Three of my colleagues puke their way through the first 500m and then give up and go back. They will crash at the hotel for a few hours and then fly back to Seoul early...
We make steady progress up the mountain (total round trip is about 20km) and are about 2km from the summit by 10:30am. We stop for a brunch of pot noodles and soju. Had been feeling better but I am not one for hair of the dog and suffer a mini-relapse. Take a 1 hour rest at this staging point and then strike out for the summit. By the time we reach the summit it has gone from being a sunny day to being swathed in cloud and blowing a gale. Due to the wind the cloud keeps coming and going so we take a few photos and start heading down.
Get down about 5:00pm and get on the bus and go to a sauna. Spend 15 minutes in the ice bath and then go for dinner. Feel exhausted and really want some meat but end up having raw fish and soju again. Drink in the restaurant until 11pm whereupon our boss decides he'd like to go to karaoke at the Shilla 45 minutes away at the other end of the island. Pile in a taxi and drive down there. The boss walks in, orders some whiskey, lies down on the sofa and passes out. We drink a couple of boilermakers and sing a couple of songs and after about 90 minutes we get back in a taxi and head back to the hotel and go to sleep around 2:00am.

Sunday: Am awoken at 7:00am by someone asking if I want to go and eat intestine stew for breakfast. "Politely" decline and go back to sleep until 10am. Get up and head to the airport for my flight back to Seoul.

Highway to the Danger Zone...

2009-10-26T22:18:00.003+09:00

Eschewed the dangers of the Korean highway stem and took the subway down to Moran to attend the Seoul Air Show. The weather was warmer than two years ago but was kind of hazy and with a low sun it was difficult to see some of the performances...still snapped a couple of photos:

They had an A380 there and I was kind of annoyed that we contrived to miss its flying demonstration...
They had the usual assortment of fighter jets including the F15 Eagle
And the F16 Falcon
And of course an aerobatic team, the mysteriously named Black Eagles who were neither black, nor flying F15s...

I think this manoeuvre was called the Challenger...
Flying close together... Doing their signature Top Gun move..."Watch the birdie" Finally, preparing for some carpet-bombing...

Leaving on a jet plane...

2009-10-08T00:48:00.002+09:00

I dsicovered this website that lets you calcualte how many flights you've taken, how far you've flown totally and approximately how long you've spent in the air. As oyu can see I've made quite a large contribution to global warming having flown (as of today) 199 times totalling 385,601 miles. That equates to flying round the world more than 15 times, 1.6 times to the moon or just 0.011% of the distance to Mars.

Some other stats:

Journey records (Miles & Flight time)
Longest LAX↔ICN, 5977, 12:27
Shortest NAN↔PTF (Fiji domestic), 16, 00:31
Average 1923, 04:19

Airport records
Northernmost CPH (Copenhagen, Denmark) (55.62°N 12.66°E)
Southernmost CHC (Christchurch, NZ) (43.49°S 172.53°E)
Westernmost HNL (Honolulu) (21.32°N 157.92°W)
Easternmost NAN (Fiji) (17.76°S 177.44°E)

Most Frequent Routes
LHR↔AMS 9 (London - Amsterdam)
LGW↔LYS 8 (London - Lyons, France)
AMS↔GMP 7 (Amsterdam - pre-Incheon Seoul)
AMS↔ICN 7 (Amserdam - Seoul)
LHR↔ICN 7 (London - Seoul)
PUS↔GMP 6 (Busan - Gimpo)
BRS↔AMS 6 (Bristol, UK - Amsterdam)
FRA↔ICN 5 (Frankfurt - Seoul)
LAX↔ICN 4 (Los Angeles - Seoul)
CJU↔GMP 4 (Jeju - Gimpo)

Most Frequent Airports
Incheon Intl (ICN) 41
Schiphol (AMS) 34
Gatwick (LGW) 29
Gimpo (GMP) 26
Heathrow (LHR) 25
RAAF East Sale, Australia (YMES) 14
Hong Kong Intl (HKG) 10
Frankfurt Main (FRA) 10
Los Angeles Intl (LAX) 10
Melbourne Intl (MEL) 8

Most Frequent Airlines
Unknown (All european charters) 33
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 30
Royal Australian Air Force 24
Korean Air 18
Asiana Airlines 16
Lufthansa 12
China Airlines 7
Air France 5
Dan Air 4
British Airways 4

Top Routes by Cumulative Mileage
LHR↔ICN (London - Seoul) 38,514
AMS↔GMP (Amsterdam - Seoul) 37,205
AMS↔ICN (Amsterdam - Seoul) 37,170
FRA↔ICN (Frankfurt - Seoul) 26,530
LAX↔ICN (LA - Seoul) 23,908
AMS↔BKK (Amsterdam - Bangkok) 11,436
CDG↔ICN (Paris - Seoul) 11,086
LHR↔SFO (London - San Francisco) 10,700
MRU↔HKG (Mauritius - Hong Kong) 9,607
DXB↔ICN (Dubai - Seoul) 8,356

Top Airlines by Cumulative Mileage
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 83,248
Asiana Airlines 58,855
Lufthansa 34,629
Korean Air 30,773
British Airways 17,875
China Airlines (Taiwan) 17,703
Royal Australian Air Force 13,850
US Airways 12,078
Air Mauritius 9,607
Emirates 8,356

In other news...

2009-10-04T01:06:00.003+09:00

A couple of things I should probably let you know about that happened while I wasn't blogging.

1. Daeguowlet started school...he enjoys it and seems to have made friends pretty easily. He's also already transferred schools beacause...

2. We moved house. We left the tranquil tree-lined avenues of Bangbae-dong and moved north of the river to the (formerly? seedy area near Wangsimni. It's closer to work but takes longer to commute. However, it is pretty close to the river, which means...

3. I've started exercising. I bought a bike and have started bombing up and down the bicycle paths along the Han. It's good to know that Korean cyclists are way better than Korean drivers. Only about 40% of cyclists are complete muppets.

4. Shortly after we moved house, Bailey, our cat disappeared. Most people think he ran away, but frankly that doesn't make any sense to me. I believe it would be 99% impossible for him to have run away from our apartment complex. Did one of our lovely new neighbours steal him? That also doesn't seem likely, since I don't think it was widely know that we had him. Alien abduction? Who was that said "Once you hae eliminated variosu possibilities, whatever remains, no matter how implausible, must be the truth (or words to that effect)...anyhow the truth is out there!!

5. I've started experimenting with my cooking. After realising that I'm now going to be in Korea for at least the next few years, I decided that if there are things I want to eat that aren't available then I shall just have to make them myself. So with the help of the internet I've started making things that I would just buy ready-made back home such as pork pies, crumpets, lemon curd, quiches, sausages and others. The only thing remaining is to figure out how to make my beloved Wensleydale cheese...

Korean flag made of food...

2009-09-24T23:36:00.003+09:00

The Sydney International Food Festival is marketing the different cuisines with national flags designed using food representing each cuisine. Here is the Korean one:Of course they're just exploiting what I did when I first made this blog Of course their's is made of real food (presumably) and mine is just a bunch of food photos photoshopped together but I still prefer mine...

You can see the remaining flags here.

Less words, more pictures...

2009-09-23T23:50:00.002+09:00

I have been out and about a lot more since i quit blogging. Got me a fancy new camera although I still don't know most of what it does. Still I'm getting better and I'll post photos even I don't have much to rant about any more.

Explaining my lack of blogging...

2009-09-23T22:29:00.002+09:00

Recently a number of people have asked about my lack of blogging.

There are a number of reasons behind it, but mainly because once I got out of the habit of it, it was hard to get back in. I didn't want to blog new things until i'd caught up with the backlog of things that I wanted to blog about. And yet the backlog was so daunting that I never wanted to deal with it. And so I ignored it.

Frankly, ever since the evolution of Google reader, some of the shine has gone out of blogging for me. Sure it's convenient to have all the blogs that you follow in one place, but I also feel a lot less connected to the people whose blogs I follow. I mean, I've never met a lot of these guys but I used to banter with them on their blogs. But the google reader interface meant that I stopped leaving so many comments. I could just read the post and tick it off as read. It took something special to get me to click through to leave a comment...and I feel sad about that.

I also feel that the standard of blogging has gone up immensely in the past two years. Back when I first started (and I was a late develop), it tended to be a lot of personal accounts something that happened that day mixed with a link or two to something funny on the internet and was interspersed with the odd incoherent rant. Nowadays, there are people blogging extended pieces of thoughtful social commentary, photoblogs, blogs covering current affairs, and blogs that are amazingly prolific. Of course there are blogs that are pretty much the same as they always were, but they were always far more dedicated than me...
Basically, I don't have the time to match the standard of those blogs and so I kind of quit.

Some people have told me I should blog what I can, when I can and I'm going to do that. So readers, no promises about dpeth or frequency of content, but know that if you've subscribed through google reader or such, once in a while, something will drop into your feed. But please click through and leave comments and I promise I'll do the same for you!!

Saving energy...

2009-02-13T23:27:00.001+09:00

In this time of economic crisis, the mayor of Seoul has announced that we'll be using natural energy to light our streets...

Korea Sparkling Flashing

2008-12-11T23:33:00.003+09:00

Korea's altest ploy to lure foreign tourists is to open a nude beach. For me, it'd be a bit of pain to trek down to Jeju, so how about we have a unisex 목욕탕 in Seoul...

Apples and Oranges Blackberries

2008-12-11T23:27:00.003+09:00

I suspect that Stafford will be having wet dreams tonight...

Now if only they'd start importing Granny Smith's apples for me...

We are top of the league...

2008-12-10T23:36:00.003+09:00

After my last post about England lagging behind East Asia in maths and science league tables, I managed to find something else where we whip East Asia's arse...

Research suggests that British men and women are the most promiscuous in the Western world. They found that when it comes to one-night stands, numbers of partners and attitudes to casual sex, Britain leads the field, ahead of even liberal nations such as the Netherlands and the passionate Italians.

Not really something to be proud of I suppose but still first is first...

More than 14,000 people in 48 countries were asked to fill in questionnaires where they were quizzed about numbers of partners and one-night stands. Their attitudes were assessed by asking them how many people they expected to sleep with over the next five years and how comfortable they were with the idea of casual sex.

The results of the study were combined with an index of 'socio-sexuality' - a measure of how liberal people are when it comes to sex. Most people scored between four and 65, with higher scores showing more liberal approaches. In terms of countries, Finland had the highest rating with an average score of 52 and Taiwan the lowest with just 19.

Britain scored 40, placing it 11th overall, behind countries such as Latvia, Croatia and Slovenia - but it was highest among major Western industrial nations with a population of 10million or more.

No specific mention of Korea but it didn't make the top 15 of OECD nations listed in the report and I guess it's somewhere down by Taiwan...although I wonder if Korean results would be a reflection of the reality of Korean society. One might assume that female respondents may easily lie on the questionnaires and male respondents maybe visiting massage parlours but not considering it as casual sex...who knows. I did forward the article to James (it seemed right up his street) to see if he could dig up any info but I don't know whether he'll have time to get around to it.

Of course, many Koreans would have us believe that all you debauched, itinerant English teachers are doing your best to improve Korea's ranking...

To school or not to school...

2008-12-10T18:30:00.004+09:00

Our son is due to start school after Christmas. We've decided to send him to the local primary because unfortunately I don't have the kind of ridiculous benefits package that a lot of expats get. My wife says we need to send him to some hakwons for two reasons. Firstly, some of the things he needs to know will not be taught in school and secondly, every other kid will be in hakwon so he'll have no friends if he doesn't go. Now, I'm of the opinion that hakwons can be ok if the kid is having fun while attending. If the kid is not enjoying learning English he'll just grow up resenting it and he'll not learn much so you'd be better off saving your money.

So, we're currently thinking of what if anything our son should do outside of school time. My wife suggests Art and Taekwondo. I suggested Cub Scouts but I'm having trouble conveying the concept to my wife and also finding out about any packs in Seoul.

People often ask me whether I'm worried about my son attending a local school. I have to say that, apart from the potential for unwarranted corporal punishment, I'm not particularly worried. Time will tell I suppose.

Anyhow, from the looks of this report, my son will at least be more competent than his English peers in maths and science. The report says that despite slowly improving scores in maths and science, English pupils still lag far behind those of East Asia.

Mind you, the Korean education system is widely regarded as being a form of living hell for the kids and so it is a bit worrying to see the Schools Secretray saying:

We have much to learn from their success and will continue to look closely at the education systems in the best of the best Asian economies.

However, it is not clear what these tests prove.

England's high ranking comes despite failure in an alternative league table published last year. In that study, 15-year-olds slumped in both mathematics and science.
Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, insisted last year's test was more focused on the application of knowledge, while the latest study concentrated on more traditional elements, such as geometry and algebra in maths.
It raises fears that pupils are skilled in basic sums but lack the ability to apply subjects to every day situations.

And that is a common criticism of Korean university students...

For all the trumpeting of the high standards of East Asian school systems, we have seen plenty of evidence that they a\have their own problems with the number of violent incidents and sexual assaults occurring in Japanese and Korean schools. However, these figures coming out of the UK are truly mind-boggling...

Official figures show 1,540 nursery pupils in England were handed fixed term exclusions over a 12-month period.

Almost 1,000 were suspending for attacking teachers and fellow pupils, while hundreds more were barred for verbal abuse and disruptive behaviour. A small number of children aged three and four were also kicked out for racism, sexual misconduct, theft and damage. Twenty children aged just two were suspended for physical or verbal assaults, it was revealed. According to figures, pupils aged five and six were suspended 3,370 times for attacking fellow pupils or staff. Forty infants were also removed from school due to "sexual misconduct" and more than 20 were suspended for racism.

WTF?!?!? Twenty 2 year old kids suspended for physical or verbal assaults? Forty infants expelled for sexual misconduct? Is an infant even capable of sexual misconduct? Is this ultra-pcness gone crazy or is it a breakdown in society?

Boobies, bad, penis worse...

2008-12-09T21:15:00.007+09:00

Another bit of harmless fun...based on my posts in the past few weeks my blog is:

It seems to analyse the number of vowels and consonants and assigns each word and phrase a score accordingly. It then tries to derive ways of dividing each number by 7 and 13 to determine whether it is a good word or a bad word.... And it goes to the trouble of listing them all along with whether they fall on the side of 7 or 13...

Here are some examples of the innate goodness/evilness of words found on my blog:

Value of word "lao" 91 91=7x13 91=13x7
- Yikes! Better watch out for Lao-Ocean Girl, she's bad!
Value of word "birthday" 1014 1014=13x13x6
- It obviously knows that all my fun birthdays are behind me...
Value of word "fun" 356 3+5+6=14=7x2
- Someone should tell Korean mothers that fun is good...
Value of word "lefties" 355 3+5+5=13
- OK, now I think there's a bug in the programme. I mean, sure, Hitler and Stalin aren't the best examples of decent lefties but we're not all like that...
Value of word "righties" 428 4+2+8=14=7x2
- Typical...you righties will try anything to keep us down...
Value of word "swfc" 609 609=7x87
- Ah yes, the owls are almost all good...

Now what about the blades??
Value of word "sufc" 409 4+0+9=13
- Could you get any more evil than that? It's a straight 13, doesn't even need any manipulation...99% evil

Value of word "england" 147 147=7x7x3
- Well, generally good although many citizens would tell you different...
Value of word "korea" 176 1+7+6=14=7x2
- Also quite good

Of course I then used my about 4% of my evilness to scroll through and pick out rude words:

Value of phrase "hey motherfucker, move your fucking vehicle, you're blocking the fucking junction you stupid fuckwit." 9457 9457=7x7x193
- Swearing good...
Value of phrase "fuck." 329 329=7x47 3+2+9=14=7x2
- Swearing still good
Value of word "abortions" 572 5+7+2=14=7x2 572=13x44
- Abortion could be good or bad
Value of word "sexual" 1036 1036=7x148
- Sexual good (although it didn't find sex at all)

Finally I used my remaining 30% of evilness to input other rude words directly into the website using the search text function:

Value of word "Mother-in-Law" 993 9+9+3=21=7x3
- 99% Good? You've obviously never met mine...
Value of word "boobies" 238 238= 2+3+8=13
- What? How can this be? How can boobies be bad? Quick change the spelling...
Value of word "boobs" 224 224=7x32
- OK, my world view is restored...for a moment it was if someone had told me Father Christmas isn't real...

And now the last two...avoid if you're of a nervous disposition...
Firstly, the worst word in the english language
Hmmm...only 74% evil
What about a male equivalent?

What? 99% evil? It must be good for something...

A man after my own heart...

2008-12-06T23:50:00.002+09:00

The traffic in Seoul is a lot better nowadays than it used to be. However, in my opinion it could be a lot better still because I think a fair few of the traffic problems are caused by selfish drivers being caught in the middle of junctions when the lights change (ever heard of box junctions??). There are quite a few hot spots like this including the South West corner of the Express Bus Terminal (avoid the road between Seocho Station and Express Bus Terminal at all costs on the weekend). I was in the area today and noticed one of those traffic greeters working at the Songmo Hospital just beneath the Bus Terminal. His job was to enable South-bound traffic to turn left across the North-bound traffic to enter the hospital and to enable traffic leaving the hospital to turn left out of the hospital across the North-bound traffic to heard South.

Although he was not one of those ornamental greeters whose sole job is to welcome you to the store or wish you farewell, I still kind of expected him to give a nice pleasant greeting. Instead I was assailed by a stream of invective against any Northbound vehicle that was blocking the hospital junction when the lights changed.

Hey Motherfucker, move your fucking vehicle, you're blocking the fucking junction you stupid fuckwit.

It didn't half work though and he kept a good stream of sick people entering the hospital.

I still think that each junction should be a giant set of trapdoors and when the lights change the trapdoors open and any fuckwit that is still on the junction is immediately sent to a gruesome death...

Catch up: Regret of the Year...

2008-12-06T23:22:00.003+09:00

My biggest regret of this year has to be my failure to make the most of the quarterly Hi Seoul Festivals (website on the blink right now?).
I completely missed the Spring one (I forgot). The Summer one offered a rather entertaining programme, to which I took the wife and kids but which was pretty much rained off the day we went. The Autumn one I was away for and I'm not sure what the dates will be for the Winter one.
Anyway, here's a rundown of the Summer one to entice you to attend next year. The first event was the Inaugural Han River Birdman Contest (offering $100,000 to anyone managing to cross the Han River). I actually umm'd and ahh'd with some colleagues for a couple of weeks about whether to enter or not (we figured it might be relatively easy to win a prize in the first one) until we finally missed the deadline.
Hope this guy wasn't pinning his hopes on the $100k for sending his kids to college as he pretty much dropped like a stone from there...
The evening included a JCV ballet with characters such as this... and the other evening event was some kind of aerial ballet/acrobatic concert which was pretty much abandoned as it was too dangerous for the musicians to be playing electronic instruments while suspended 20 feet in the air in a thunder storm...the first few minutes looked great though...I'd advise you to bookmark the website (if it ever starts working again) and check out the wide range of events they have on each quarter.

July catch up: Dubai

2008-12-06T21:56:00.003+09:00

Towards the end of July I went to Dubai for a week on business. I managed to grab a day during the week to actually see a few of the sites. Dubai is a bit of a strange place. During the daytime it looks like a giant building site (which I suppose is in truth what it is) yet at night it looks quite pretty. During the day it is very dusty and hot (although not as bad as I expected) and at night the dust is less noticeable but the heat is not.

Dubai: like an ugly girl, not bad-looking in the pitch black...
I got to the see the original 7 star hotel...
I got to see the partially constructed tallest building in the world (note the yellow dust)...
I managed a quick dash out to the desert...
and realised that although my point and shoot camera is quite good, sometimes it just can't handle what I want to do...eg. trying to take a photo of sand blowing of the ridge of the dune...
Watch out mate!!
Finally, I even managed to squeeze in a few hours on the slopes...
Although if you're any good at skiing, then Ski Dubai is really only good for the novelty value of saying you've been...

July Catch up: Korea

2008-12-06T21:54:00.001+09:00

A review of photos taken in July reveals that we don't appear to have done much at all. The highlight was taking the kids to a collection of bouncy castles in Ilsan. This was great for me cos I could indulge my inner child while pretending that I was just being a fun dad...

Not me...
Trying out some camera trickery...

Holiday! Celebrate!

2008-12-06T01:22:00.000+09:00

Madonna once sang

If we took a holiday,
some time to celebrate,
just one day out of life,
it would be so nice

and I'm sure we all echo that sentiment. Well unfortunately we're going to be doing a lot less celebrating in 2009.
Whereas this year we enjoyed 11 mid-week bank holidays, next year we'll only have 6 as five of them (March 1 Independence Movement Day, Buddha’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day and National Foundation Day) will be on either a Saturday or Sunday in 2009. Moreover, one day each of Lunar New Year and Chuseok will be over the weekend so you miss out there if your company is not in the habit of giving you an extra day instead. Finally, Chuseok coincides with National Foundation Day although since both are on a Saturday, we're not really missing out any further. Anyhow, don't be looking to book that long weekend to South East Asia cos you probably won't have any long weekends....

Catch up: June 2008...

2008-12-06T00:22:00.002+09:00

June, for me, was sandwiched by a trip to the UK at either end as I flew the kids back to spend a month with the Grandparents and then went to collect them. I was lucky enough to be able to schedule a couple of meetings on the first trip to grab a couple of days break but the return trip I was out of the country for only 65 hours with 25% spent flying to England, 50% being in the UK and 25% flying back to Korea. And my 30 odd hours in the UK included 2 nights.

Anyway...some photos (click each photo for larger versions):
Somewhere over Russia and someone's in my seat!!!

Just enough time to eat a couple of meals and take in a sunset...

...then back to Korea for our monthly hike in the mountains.

Went to see Korea again and regretted it again...

and got back from England for the second time just in time to celebrate my birthday.

Vot a load of Vank...

2008-12-06T00:02:00.002+09:00

A german company has produced a map where place names are displayed in the English translation of the original etymological meaning of the name. However, they're likely to get in trouble with VANK for they have translated the sea to the East of Korea as "Sea of the Sun's Origin" and they have left Dokdo off altogether. The places from Korea that do make it to the map are Capital (Seoul), Mount Cauldron (Busan) and Land of the High Serenity for Korea itself.

I expect VANK to use the Land of the High Serenity's superfast "between mesh" to do some damage to the atlas-maker's "woven fabric place"...

Catch up part one of ??

2008-12-02T23:22:00.002+09:00

Scanning through my archives I noticed that I pretty much stopped blogging in May and so over the next few days or weeks I'll make a few posts so you can catch up with everything I've done in the past six months...

At the end of May I went to the Philippines on business. We were quite busy so I see that I only have pictures of sunsets...(click on the photo for a larger version)

Tomorrow, back to the UK.

World! Stop discriminating against me...

2008-12-02T21:53:00.002+09:00

In these days of equal opportunity and political correctness whereby everything must be done so as not to discriminate against minorities, physically handicapped and any other disadvantaged party I have often wondered why nothing is done to alleviate the plight of lefties.

Not only do we have to suffer years of taunting about being left-handed but we continually have to use equipment which is set up for right-handers. From scissors to school desks to sports equipment everything is geared for optimum use by a right-hander. I used to suck at video games when i was a kid be cause the controllers required you to hit buttons quickly for an extended period of time or in a complex combination and those buttons were always on the right-hand side. My highly tuned left hand was used for nothing more than steering. Last week I went bowling and after bowling three frames I had three crap scores and severe pain in my left hand from the awkward position my fingers had to take to bowl the damn ball.

I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the point...suffice to say that when I'm ruler of the world, you righties had better watch out.

Rough Justice...

2008-11-29T22:42:00.002+09:00

There has been outrage in the Korean blogosphere this week about the fact that a court in Cheongju gave suspended jail sentences to family members who repeatedly raped a handicapped girl in their care over a period of 7 years. There were two major points of disgust, namely that the sentences appears to have been suspended due to the advanced ages of some of the defendants but mainly because the girl cannot look after herself and will need the continuing care of her rapists.

The court acknowledged that their crime was "sinful" as they used the young girl, who is their family member, to satisfy their sexual desires. But it gave the suspended terms, saying, "The accused have fostered the girl in her parents' place. Considering her disability, she will also need their care and help in living in the future." The court added it took the accused people's old age and illness into consideration.

To my mind this beggars belief but i was also wondering if my perception of what should coincides with what actually happens in my own country...unfortunately there was a similar case that hit the news in the UK this week which enabled direct comparisons.

In this case a 56 year old man was found to have made his two daughters pregnant 19 times over a period of 25 years. Between them they gave birth to nine of his grandchildren, two of whom died at birth, and suffered five miscarriages and five abortions. He was given 25 life-sentences for his crimes, although this only translates into a minimum sentence of 19.5 years (hardly life). The case was summed up by the judge as follows:

"I can say that in nearly 40 years of dealing with criminal cases and 14 as a family judge the combination of aggravating circumstances here is the worst I have come across. I have little doubt that many members of the public hearing the facts of this case will consider either you should never be released from prison or only when you are old and infirm. I agree with that view."

Of course, my impression, from the limited media coverage of the Korean case that I've seen, is that the outcry relates to the sentencing itself, rather than the heinousness of the crime whereas in the UK, there are mutterings about a relatively light sentence and a lot of outcry about how he could have got away with it for so long and so overtly without anyone noticing; the difference I suppose between thinking that you have a decent social security system and knowing that you do not.

Mind you, before I start patting myself on the back for coming from a country with an enlightened attitude towards sentencing criminals, I feel obliged to point out this article showing the asinine treatment of a thief and his boss who made a citizen's arrest. The boss and some fellow workers who marched a thieving worker to a police station with a placard round his neck have been charged with false imprisonment. Yet the criminal himself has escaped with just a slap on the wrist in the form of a police caution. Even the thief has expressed surprise that the men had been arrested, admitting: ‘I’m the criminal here.’

So as we continue to search for the ideal criminal justice system, perhaps we should consider that of Iran.

A jealous lover who blinded a woman with acid is also to be blinded with acid under the country's Islamic law. A 27-year-old named only as Majid confessed to attacking Amenah Bahrami in 2004 to dissuade anyone from marrying the woman he loved. Wednesday's ruling was issued based on the Islamic law system of 'qisas,' or eye for an eye retribution.

Of course, if prison dramas are to be believed then the UK man will receive his own version of 'qisas' as he spends the 19.5 years of his prison sentence being raped as somebody's prison bitch...

Some sparkly new friends...

2008-11-26T21:37:00.003+09:00

Over the past year or so the majority of people whose blogs I read have stopped writing or relocated. Relocation of itself is not a problem and I'll still keep reading if they keep writing but it so happens that those that have relocated were the people that I have actually met in the flesh. Thus, my friend pool (never very deep to begin with) has been drying up and I feared becoming a fish gasping for breath in a pool 1 friend deep and possibly driving that person crazy.

So, for me, Roboseyo's Hub of Sparkle meet-up came at just the right time and i took the plunge to head north of the river (it seemed like most of the way to Pyongyang to me) and meet some new people. I had a good time although I could have done with finishing quite a way before 4am (they'll understand when they have children.)

I actually attended the last blogger meet-up held in the Wolfhound in autumn(ish) 2007. At that time I was writing this blog regularly and it was well-known (although not renowned). However, it has been a downward spiral since then and this time I found that nobody knew me or my blog. I really should make more effort.

You can read two more accounts of the night here and here and can see photos here. I share their sentiments but my British reserve compounded with relative introversion prevent me from being as effusive. Nevertheless, business trips notwithstanding I shall attend round 2...until then Carry on Sparkling...

K-League Round-up

2008-11-10T02:31:00.002+09:00

'Twas the end of the regular season for the K-League today. Seoul finished 2nd and will receive a bye for the first two rounds of the play-offs. They could have finished first but for a disappointing loss in Busan last week.

More importantly, the 10,000th goal in K-League history was scored today by Kim Tae-jin (김태진) of Busan I'Park. Unfortunately, it was an own-goal in favour of Ulsan. I think that pretty much sums up the standard of the K-League with it's petulant players, pointless over-complicated passing and lack of willingness to take responsibility (as evidenced by the top 4 goal scorers all being foreign imports).

The 10,000th goal in the English Premier League was scored by Les Ferdinand back in December 2001 (11th season). It happened in the 3,824th game, giving an average of 2.62 goals per game. I couldn't easily find out how many K-League games there have been in the past 25 years but there were an average of 2.66 goals per game in 2008 and there are a lot less gmaes per season in Korea so it seems pretty even.

City Daily Photo...

2008-11-07T23:31:00.002+09:00

Recently I've been exploring some of the blogs of members of the City Daily Photo portal . I like this site cos it gives a quick view of lots of different cities in the world so if you've ever wondered what's going on in Dhaka in Bangladesh , Sheki in Azerbaijan or numerous other cities across the world that you've probably never heard of then this is the site for you.

Anyhow, today's entry for Riga mentioned that the capital of Latvia had "won the honorable LUCI prize of second best illuminated city in the World." And which city won first prize? Well, our very own neon paradise, Seoul.

The City People Light Award, which garners a cash prize of 5,000 Euros was awarded for the lighting of Cheonggyecheon.

This is an impressive project to rehumanize this urban area. This effort to bring nature back to the city combined with an harmonious and almost entertaining landscape design gives this previously lost and forgotten place an almost fairytale night-time image. The lighting design plays with light and dark as well as with the transparency of the water. The subtle use of color adds to the overall quality of this relaxing and recreational urban environment, thus clearly improving the quality of life for those living here.

Methinks 'tis time to change the motto from Korea, Sparkling to Korea, Shining...

Under the weather...

2008-11-07T21:22:00.002+09:00

I've been feeling a bit rough since coming back from Jakarta (hope it's neither SARS nor bird flu) so I'm sticking up another low-effort post copied from Jes.

1) Who was the last person you gave up on?
The while SWFC team after they lost 3 on the trot to drop from 5th in the league to 15th

2) Have you talked to a complete asshole today?
I've been feeling rough today so i've pretty much kept myself to myself.

3) Are you comfortable answering all these personal questions?
Sure, i've not got much to hide.

4) Do you think relationships are even worth it?
Since i'm married it's too late to think not.

5) If you could pack up and move, would you?
Not right now, cos I've not long been here. But I definitely will in the future.

6) Do your parents really know you?
So-so.

7) When was the last time you laughed really hard?
This afternoon when I showed this to a colleague.

8) What are you wearing right now?
A green shirt and a pair of beige shorts.

9) What are you excited for?
Nothing much right now...my boss said there might be an upcoming business trip to Azerbaijan and Kyrghyzstan but i'm not getting my hopes up...

10) Has anyone told you lately that they would always be there for you?
Nope.

11) What do you want right now?
For someone to sort out all my photos on Flickr.

12) Are your parents divorced?
Nope.

13) What were you doing at 8 this morning?
Sleeping.

14) Do you fall for people easily?
Perhaps a certain type.

15) What is one word that you overuse?
Fuck.

16) Who was the last person to text you?
My bank to tell me that I'd used my credit card. The last real person was my wife...

17) What’s your mood?
Lethargic.

18) If you took a drug test, would you pass it?
Of course.

19) Did you enjoy your weekend?
I arrived back from SE Asia at dawn Saturday, slept about 3 hours and then looked after the children while my wife was out. I could have done with more sleep. This weekend, I'll be working...

20) Do you regret doing something today?
Nope.

21) Are you slowly drifting away from someone?
Yep, it's the nature of mine and my friends peripatetic lifestyles...

22) Last person you told a secret to?
I don't have secrets and I don't pass on other people's...

23) What’s irritating you right now?
My acute nasopharyngitis. Earlier, the guy sitting next to at work was driving me crazy cracking his knuckles, his neck and god knows what else. It was like sitting next to a bowl of rice krispies...

24) Would you ever forgive someone if they cheated on you?
Nope.

25) Tell me what one of your friends is doing.
I don't know.

26) Are you stubborn?
Yes, in a rational way (ie. don't compromise if you're not wrong)

27) What are you looking forward to?
Going to bed...

28) Is there anybody you wish you could be with right now?
정려원...

29) Are you gonna be home alone tonight?
Nope, the kids and my M-i-L are her. My wife will be home soon and my bro-i-l and his wife are supposed to be coming over too...

30) Who gave you your last compliment?
My son...

31) What is one thing you wish you had?
More drive...

33) Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
Nope although i know several other married men that do...

35) Do you still talk to the person you fell hardest for?
Well, we've been married 6 years now so not so much :)

36) Last movie you saw in theaters, with whom?
Some BBC nature documaentary about the World with my kids...

37) Would you rather go to Tokyo or Paris?
Tokyo because i've never been and it probably doesn't smell of urine like Paris does...

38) What are you allergic to?
Ripe fruit and marmite...

39) Has anyone ever complimented your eyes?
Yes...

40) Are you listening to music right now?
No. I'm watching football...

41) Who else is in the room with you?
Nobody.

42) In winter, would you rather wear jackets or hoodies?
Jackets...don't you know that a person like me wouldn't be seen dead in a hoodie...

43) Do you wish you were somewhere else right now?
In the arms of a buxom beauty...

44) How long can you go without your mobile phone?
Personally I could do without it completely. I only use it for work and to coordinate meeting people.

45) What are you doing tomorrow?
Working...and maybe a swift half in the evening...

46) Ever kissed someone else’s boy/girlfriend?
Yes...

47) Where did you last sleep other than your room?
I've slept in my bed every night this week but last week I slept in 5 different places namely:
Friday: cat-napping on a Korean Air flight to Seoul
Thursday: Marriott Hotel in Jakarta
Tues/Weds: Furama Hotel in Singapore
Mon: Kowloon Hotel in Hong Kong
Sun: Wynn Hotel in Macau.
It was pretty tiring moving around so much...

48) What’s the worst way to say “I love you”?
As a reflex to someone else saying it...

49) Who was the last person in your room besides family?
If you mean my bedroom, it was probably the guy that delivered our wardrobe about 3 months ago. For our flat in general, someone came to upgrade the cable yesterday...

50) What is one place you would love to visit?
The girls changing room...

Congratulations...

2008-11-07T00:06:00.002+09:00

Congratulations to Torgodevil, who has destroyed the myth that geeks never get laid by announcing that he and his wife are expecting their first child...mind you after several years of marraige he hasn't got his wife overly interested in video-gaming so I'm sure this is Plan B :)

An historic day...

2008-11-05T22:00:00.002+09:00

no, I'm not talking about all that malarkey going on the other side of the pond...no, today is the day when we English gather together to burn effigies of catholics, or specifically one catholic. Yes, it's Guy Fawkes Day.

I'm not aware of any bonfire parties happening in Seoul although I'm sure there probably are (I just don't know any other Englishmen.) Perhaps the Embassy is holding one in their nice back garden. I'd like to imagine that the Ambassador has invited the Ambassadors of Italy, Ireland, Brazil, Spain, the Philippines etc. to join his little party. Perhaps for once, they forego the Ferrero Rocher and instead toast marshmallows over the flames of the bonfire as they begin to lick at Fawkes' toes...

ChosunShaolin Bimbo

2008-11-01T22:13:00.002+09:00

I've never met him in person but I wouldn't have thought that the mild unassuming persona displayed on the Chosun Bimbo would be capable of the flying athleticism captured in this photo on I Spy Shanghai (formerly Lost Seouls)...

The Gods are conspiring...

2008-10-22T23:32:00.002+09:00

...and just when I decide to make the effort to blog a post or two, I get sent abroad on business again, which tends to disrupt my rhythm.

This is going to be a killer trip too. On Sunday I fly to Hong Kong (I elected to go a day earlier than they wanted cos I haven't been to Hong Kong in ages. On Monday I shall transfer to Macau for a meeting. On Tuesday I shall fly down to Singapore. On Wednesday I shall pop over from Singapore into Indonesia before flying to Jakarta in the evening. On Thursday night I shall fly back to Seoul to arrive first thing on Friday morning ready to go back to work. Seems rather like one of those Korean see 6 countries in 4 days tours of Europe and probably won't be much fun. Except Hong Kong, where I can get some dim sum and english food....

Damn...

2008-10-21T23:05:00.002+09:00

Once you get out of the habit of blogging it's quite difficult to get back in again. I've noticed that since I switched all my blog reading from clicking on the links in my sidebar to going through a reader I have even less incentive to actually blog something...

Anyhow, in an effort to rise from the dead, here is something easy for me to do that I've stolen from Jessi (there was a time she'd punch you for calling her that...)

1. What time did you get up this morning? 8:10am at GMT +9

2. Diamonds or pearls? I don't understand the attraction of diamonds. I think pearls are very classy, though. I also like opals although my wife doesn't so it's moot.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Maybe Sex and the City?

4. What is your favorite TV show? I like Psych at the moment. Apart from that the # CSIs, Cold Case, Scrubs, NCIS and the occasional House. I've heard Monk is similar to Psych so I'm probably going to try that next.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? A piece of toast with Peanut Butter and a pint of water, 'cept when I'm on a business trip and then it's a hotel buffet...yum yum.

6. What is your middle name? Don't have one, I was a deprived child.

7. What food do you dislike? Two things I really loathe are celery and coriander because their taste cuts through everything. But I'm really more fussy about quality than specific dishes or ingredients...

8. What is your favorite CD at moment? CD? How passe...

9. What kind of car do you drive? Some kind of Hyundai...

10. Favorite sandwich? I'd say Wensleydale Cheese and Beetroot or French Saucisson and Coleslaw. Granny Smith Apple and Wensleydale is also pretty good and bacon (not the revolting american kind)and ketchup also goes down well. Can't eat any of them in Korea though...

11. What characteristic do you despise? Irrationality and hot-temperedness

12. Favorite item of clothing? Don't think I have one...

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu

14. Favorite brand of clothing? I'm don't give a crap about branding

15. Where would you retire to? Somewhere I can eat well...

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? 1998 when I turned 22 and England crashed out of the World Cup to Argentina on penalties...? I'm not a big one for birthdays

17. Favorite sport to watch? Well, I love to watch Sheffield Wednesday. From an action point of view, I love AFL, which is like playing rugby with the speed and violence of ice hockey.

18. Furthest place you are sending this? What? I guess this was originally ripped from an email?

19. Person you expect to send it back first? I'm not sure anyone still reads my blog and pretty sure no one cares enough to carry this on. Maybe Dave is the only one I can think of who might.

20. When is your birthday? June 30th....hmmm can I expect a question about bank sort codes and my mum's maiden name as well?

21. Are you a morning person or a night person? Definitely night...ideally I'd sleep from 2am to 10am so I should probably try moving about three timezones west. I envy those people who get up at 6am every morning all bright-eyed and bushy tailed although it's a pain in the arse when they have to go to bed by 10pm...

22. What is your shoe size? 9.5 or 10 UK

23. Pets? I have a Siamese cat called Bailey at home and a Siamese Fighting Fish called Benjy on my desk at work (present from a former intern)

24. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share with us? Might be going to Indonesia, Singapore, HK and Macau next week.

25. What did you want to be when you were little? A pilot

26. How are you today? Tired, it feels like they've switched the heat on at work because it's mid-October without considering that it's still quite warm out. I feel hot all day.

27. What is your favorite candy? Dark Chocolate or Cadbury's Milk Chocolate. Toffee is nice too.

28. What is your favorite flower? Lillies

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? I don't look to far forward into the future...

30. What is your full name? Daeguowl to you...

31. What are you listening to right now? My wife's watching something on tv in the background and the cat's miaowing...

32. What was the last thing you ate? An Arnott's caramel Tim Tam (which is really just a Penguin)

33. Do you wish on stars? Nope...

34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Whatever...

35. How is the weather right now? Surprisingly warm...

36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? A co-worker who asked to borrow my Bennigan's Free Dessert Membership Card

37. Favorite soft drink? I don't drink carbonated soft drinks.

38. Favorite restaurant? Depends on my mood, I prefer to cook myself.

39. Real hair color? brown

40. What was your favorite toy as a child? a football

41. Summer or winter? I like both as long as they're extreme but I suffer from hay fever in summer and cold hands in winter :(

42. Hugs or kisses? Depends who's offering...I'm neither French, Greek or upper class so I don't kiss anyone except my wife and children

43. Chocolate or Vanilla? Always chocolate

44. Coffee or tea? Neither, I don't do hot drinks apart from the occasional hot chocolate. If really pushed I'll have a green tea.

45. Do you want your friends to email you back? It'd make a change from endless offers to sell me Viagra...

46. When was the last time you cried? I find Cold Case quite depressing most of the time but the last time I produced real tears was probably when my Grandmother died in 1996.

47. What is under your bed? Some boxes of clothes that my wife doesn't wear but which for some reason are too important to dispose of...

48. What did you do last night? uploaded some photos to Flickr

49. What are you afraid of ? I'm fearful of plenty of things but there's nothing I can't deal with...

50. Salty or sweet? Mainly sweet

51. How many keys on your key ring? I don't have a key ring...all the doors I pass through are digital

52. How many years at your current job? 15 months at this location, 5 years as an accountant

53. Favorite day of the week? Saturday I guess, if only for the football

54. How many towns have you lived in? Hmmm...about 18

55. Do you make friends easily? Nope...I tend to have a handful of close friends and close friends take time to make.

56. Favorite holiday? I'd prefer to work on a holiday and have a day off when everyone else is at work.

57. What color is your cellphone? Silver

58. Do you like Man Utd? No, I bloody don't. Just because I come from England doesn't mean I support Man Utd or Chelsea. There are 92 profssional football teams in the football league in England and I suspect that a good number of the 24 teams in the football conference (5th tier of English football) are professional or semi-professional.

59. Do you have a claim to fame? I'm a distant cousin of David Beckham although the heights of my footballing career was when I played for a Korean church team in the 23rd tier of English football (that's only 22 promotions from the Premiership).

The end of the world might still come...

2008-09-19T15:07:00.001+09:00

It seems that all that fuss about the possible end of the world on September 10th was typical media over-reaction. On that day they only switched the damn machine on for the first time and didn't do any real experiments. The real end of the world will come in a few weeks when they've finished commissioning and actually start banging atoms together...the countdown is back on.

Last word on the Olympics...

2008-09-17T21:58:00.002+09:00

A tad late I know but i've been quite busy at work and not inclined to spend what little free time I have in front of the computer...

A guy in Canada has made an alternative medal table based on the number of last place finishes by athletes at the games. Korea has done slightly better in this table with a 5th place finish after 6 of their athletes came last in their respective events.

wtf!!??

2008-08-22T22:08:00.001+09:00

The same Boxing match on all four channels instead of the Athletics...Korean TV has just hit a new low...

Birdman...

2008-08-10T00:52:00.001+09:00

If you're looking for something to do tomorrow why not pop down to Yeouido and take in Day 2 of the Birdman contest?

First day of the football season...

2008-08-09T23:19:00.002+09:00

This time last year Wednesday started the season away at Ipswich and after 20 minutes or so they were 3-0 down. They went on to lose that match 4-0 and then lost the next five as well and struggled for most of the season before guaranteeing survival with a 4-1 win on the last day of the season.

After 17 minutes of the first match of this season Wdnesday are 3-1 up, is it too soon to start getting optimistic for a run at the Premiership?

Update: 21 minutes, Sodje has scored 2 goals and created the other has just pulled a muscle and been substituted. My optimism is wavering...

A catchy little tune...

2008-08-08T00:44:00.002+09:00

While others are raving about the Wondergirls, I'm loving the new dong by Jaurim (자우림), which is called 'Carnival Amour'. Mind you, listening to it I can see it's gonna be a bitch to do at the noraebang...

Bye bye Bennigans...

2008-08-04T21:27:00.002+09:00

I see in the news that Bennigans in the US has filed for bankruptcy. I hope this won't impact on the one in Korea as I have just been awarded a lifelong free desert card...a brownie bottom pie a day for life...sweet!

Win $100,000...

2008-07-22T22:11:00.002+09:00

You may or may not have noticed posters on the subway recently for the "1st Hangang Birdman Contest". I guess most people are familiar with the concept of a birdman contest but here's a video for those who are not...

Applications for the one in Seoul close this Friday so if you're interested you'd better get your arse in gear. There are prizes of up to 1 million won on the 3m ramp and 2 million won on the 8m ramp. And if you manage to fly all the way across the river you'll get $100,000.

A question...

2008-06-23T23:09:00.003+09:00

I've noticed quite a few number plates that have european country codes on them. For example there is an Infinitti in our apartment complex that has a number plate on it that has 'GB' (Great Britain) and the flag of the European Union on it. In other words it looks like a regualr Korean plate but it has the bit on the left from this picture. I 've also seen cars with 'D' for Germany and 'I' for Italy.
Wikipedia is no help at all so if any one has any ideas let me know...

Update: Further research of Korean sites shows that it may just be stickers added to make your car cooler...I'll try and check the 'GB' car more closely next time I see it.

Sold my soul to the devil....

2008-06-02T23:48:00.002+09:00

I have become a puppet to the propaganda machine of the 2MB government...
(If anyone can figure out how to rip this, please let me know...

Two-nil and you fucked it up....

2008-06-02T00:42:00.002+09:00

Korean football fans aren't known for their abusive football chants. The best they ever manage is some booing. However, last night's game with Jordan was one where there was the chance to introduce them to the chant "Two-nil and you fucked it up" (repeat several times) after Jordan (54 places lower in the FIFA rankings at 104) contrived to score twice in the last 10 minutes to salvage a draw.

Korea really should have scored more goals but they persist in playing the slow and lazy poseur that is Park Ju-young up front.

Park Ji-Sung played fairly well, but looks like he's been enjoying the meat pies of Manchester a little bit too much...

Still they'll play the return fixture next week, move on to Turkmenistan the week after before returning to Seoul to play North Korea on Sunday 22nd. Tickets for that will probably go on sale this week. I'm still not sure if I'll actually be able to go cos it has been vaguely mentioned that I should go to the USA for a business trip at that time....

Sudden business trip...

2008-06-02T00:37:00.000+09:00

Sorry for the lack of posting last week. I was told on Tuesday that I would be visiting the Philippines from Wednesday onwards and we didn't have any internet. I'd love to tell you all about my trip but what happens in the Philippines stays in the Philippines.....

Really?

2008-05-27T00:35:00.002+09:00

I'm sitting here watching the League Two Play-off Final between Rochdale and Stockport (15 minutes to go and Rochdale just scored to come back to 3-2). I've left the tv on behind me hoping for something raunchy but alas it's just that programme called "커밍 아웃" where korean men announce their homosexuality to the world.

I've just noticed that the set decoration has the letters "XXY" featuring predominantly...

Stop hogging the duvet!!!

2008-05-26T23:59:00.000+09:00

From China to Korea via Denmark...

2008-05-26T23:30:00.002+09:00

I was enjoying lunch in Bennigans the other day when a song from my childhood came over the muzak. You may or may not know that I went to boarding school for secondary school and when I was 17 I was introduced to the "magic" of Jacky Cheung (장학우 張學友) including his 1993 hit Kiss Goodbye (吻別).

Now clearly there was absolutely no reason for 1993 cantopop to be playing in Bennigans and so clearly someone in the west had made a cover version...a few minutes in google and I found that Danish balladeers Michael Learns to Rock (of "25 Minutes" fame) had done the cover, calling it "Take me to your Heart".

Searching for the video on Youtube revealed that they'd also done a Korean/English hybrid version with Shin Hye-Sung of Shinwha...

Which version do you think is best?

Let them bake cake...

2008-05-26T22:25:00.003+09:00

With continuing reports about the breakdown of the traditional nuclear family leading to a breakdown in the social fabric and packs of feral youths running wild might the solution be a simple course in baking?

Baking is regarded as great family bonding time, say 59 per cent of Britons.

And more than a quarter (27 per cent) say their fondest childhood memories are baking with their parents or grandparents.

Personally, I have fond memories of learning how to make cakes from my grandaparents and enjoying licking the bowl (surely the raw egg in cake batter is risky?) or snacking on scone mix.

I still make cakes regularly about once a fortnight and for the birthdays of close friends and relatives and normally get the kids to pitch in and help. However, chances are most of you do not...

However, the survey of 1,803 people found that most don't have the time or knowledge to bake and a third are put off by the thought of washing up afterwards.

The average person bakes only 2.3 times a year, with women, at 2.9 times, more skilful in the kitchen than men, at 1.6.

More than half the nation (51 per cent) does not know what goes into a sponge cake and nearly two thirds (63 per cent) cannot put together a classic English scone, according to the research by Dr Oetker, the baking company.

To let you know what you're missing here are some pictures of cakes that I've made in the past. I'm not particularly skilled at decorating like Dave so please excuse the fact that some of them look a bit rough around the edges...

For Daeguowlet's first brithday Spot came to visit:
When he was two Nemo found him:
When he was three Thomas came into town (3d is harder than it looks!):
For his 4th birthday it was a football cake:
By the time he was 5 his tastes in birthday cakes had got very sophisticated and he wanted a Power Ranger cake, and not just any Power Ranger but the blue one from Power Rangers SPD just like his toy. Well, I tried, but I'm afraid it's just beyond me (especially without a piping set)...

For Daeguowless' first birthday she had a vase of flowers (this is a brilliant idea for littl'uns):
For her second birthday she had a chocolate hedgehog, of which for some reason there is no photo. For her 3rd birthday last year she had a fairy tale diorama (cakorama?)
My salsa-dancing friend had a birthday and I made her a cake (although it rather looks like one of the kids did it - lack of proper tools).
My speciality though is a chocolate sponge, extremely sweet and chocolatey... And here's the poster girl for family harmony through baking...

Watch out for the boom...

2008-05-26T22:16:00.002+09:00

News in that the most requested drug on cruises is actually Viagra...well, it stands to reason that if you want to make the most of the romantic tropical breezes, you'll need some help raising your mast...

WTF??

2008-05-18T23:42:00.000+09:00

Dr Beaumont believes the lizard climbed into the chicken’s bottom, perhaps to feed on an embryo, before dying and becoming cocooned in the developing egg.

Abort, abort, mission abort...

2008-05-18T22:52:00.002+09:00

One of the common criticisms of Korean society is the apparent light-hearted view towards abortion. Well, here are some statistics coming out of the UK that make pretty horrifying reading...

There has been some debate in the UK recently about whether or not the time-limit for abortions should be reduced from 24 weeks to 20 weeks or even less. The reasoning is that modern medical technology means that more and more babies born around 23-24 weeks are surviving and therefore it is effectively murder to abort such foetuses.

The statistics quoted in the article seem to me to be irrelevant to the above debate but are quite horrifying (despite my being pro-choice).

All figures relate to 2006:

193,700 abortions in the UK (Approximately 1 for every 308 people in the country or say 1 in every 100 women between the age of 15 and 64)

Of these more than 60,000 were having at least their second abortion.

Of these almost 15,000 were having at least their third abortion.

Of these 3,800 were having at least their fourth abortion.

Of these 1,500 were having at least their fifth abortion.

Of these 65 were having at least their sixth abortion despite not yet being 30.

Of these 50 were having at least their eighth abortion.

Additionally 82 were having at least their third abortion despite not yet being 18.

The thought that someone could be careless enough to have eight unwanted pregnancies is beyond belief...

Important case law for any budding lawyers...

2008-05-18T21:57:00.004+09:00

After yesterday's post about bras, it only seems right that today's post should be about the goodness that lies within said bras...

Firstly, a gratuitous picture so you know what I'm talking about...
Anyhow, back to the matter in hand.

It is perfectly legal to ogle a man's chest but not a woman's breasts, according to an unusual ruling on what constitutes voyeurism by a panel of leading judges at the Court of Appeal yesterday

The case came about when a man was caught secretly filming another man taking a shower at a public swimming pool. The man being filmed was wearing a pair of swimming trunks at the time and this became the crux of whether it was or wasn't a case of voeurism.

Apparently, a man's chest is not consideed to be a 'private part' and therefore it is not voyeuristic to stare at it. A woman however, habitually covers her chest up (perhaps with a solar bra) and therefore she has reasonable expectation that you won't be peeking at them.

I suppose that reasonable so far, but surely the definition is of voyeurism is something along the lines of "looking at something secretively for sexual gratification" and thus a gay man filming another man's chest is surely voyeurism and a gay man filming a nude woman is probably not voyeurism...

Anyhow, here is a picture of breasts that you can (possibly) look at without getting in trouble from the long arm of the law...

Get your tits out for the ladsplanet...

2008-05-17T23:41:00.004+09:00

A post today about bras (and not the French word for arm)...

Japanese bra designers have come up with a solar powered bra. It is supposed to be an environmentally-friendly product. However, the report doesn't say what you are supposed to do with the electricity you generate. It also acknowledges the fact that it may be difficult to charge up as most girls generally wear clothes over their bras (sounds rather like an Irish invention such as the chocolate teapot or the inflatable dartboard...)
Other concept bras include the one that turns into a shopping bag and the one that has metal chopsticks in it. I reckon you could probably create an Inspector Gadget-type manga character (if it hasn't been done already) who wears a bra with loads of gadgets in it...if only I was any good at drawing...

Here's a photo of said bra, I think it makes her look like a fembot...

More football...(but not much more, the season's almost over ...)

2008-05-17T22:52:00.002+09:00

I'm sitting here watching the cup final....although I'm glad that some one other than the usual suspects has got through to the final I can't decide who I want to win. Generally, I'd like the underdog to win, but Cardiff really have the most loathsome fans I've ever met (although I've never been to Millwall.) I shall just sit back and enjoy the match, which thusfar is quite entertaining.

Also congratulations to Rochdale on making the League 2 play-off final. This will be there first ever trip to Wembley and they do pretty much seem to be the least successful team. Let's hope you finally get promoted....

Crossing Jordan

2008-05-14T23:26:00.003+09:00

I found out today that my trip to LA scheduled for this Saturday has been postponed until June or maybe July. If it'll be in June, I am going to be exhausted since I'm already scheduled to be making two flying visits to the UK in June (leave Seoul at 2pm on Friday and arrive in Seoul at 5am on Monday, time on the ground approximately 32 hours including two nights).

On the one hand this means that I will be able to attend the World Cup Qualifier with Jordan on 31-May (I'll book tickets tomorrow) but on the other hand puts my attendance at the North Korean one in June in doubt....

Merry Buddhamas

2008-05-12T01:05:00.001+09:00

As it's now close to 1am, I thought I'd wish all my readers a Merry Buddhamas for today.

Football...

2008-05-11T23:18:00.002+09:00

Last day of the Premier League season today and I've got two matches playing simultaneously on my computer. I shall be watching Chelsea v Bolton and Wigan V Man Ure to determine who wins the title and I shall be keeping up with other scores to see which two of Reading, Fulham and Birmingham will be relegated.

While the season is winding down in the UK, it's in full-swing here in Korea and today I took the kids to the Seoul World Cup Stadium to see FC Seoul v Incheon United.

There were around 29,000 fans there (probably a lot more since the number of fans is presumably based on tickets sold and they were letting in juniors for free if they had a special voucher and also all under-6s go for free without any ticket at all) so the atmosphere was quite good.

Before the match started the fans rolled out the ubiquitous giant banner...
Then some chanting and fireworks to get us underway...

The match was very open with opportunities for both sides (although the strikers for both teams were decidedly average so not as many goals as there might have been). The main striker for FC Seoul is Ju-Young Park (박주영), who I think is extremely over-rated. In some ways he is like Christiano Ronaldo (think the posing and the arrogance), while in others he is not (think talent). Nevertheless, he is very popular with the FC Seoul fans judging by the number of people who have his name and number on their shirts. The great thing about watching these games, as I've mentioned before, is that the kids go in for free and my ticket is just 8,000won and therefore it doesn't stress me out if they're not foucssing on the game all the time, or if they're even distracting me from watching the game. In actual fact they quite enjoyed today and watched most of the match. They clapped along to the chants at some points and danced a little when there was music...

Football Tickets...

2008-05-10T22:38:00.002+09:00

Tickets for the World Cup Qualifier with Jordan are now on sale. It's be held at Seoul World Cup Stadium at 8:00pm on 31st May. I'd like to go, but I might be in LA at that time so I can't buy tickets yet....I'm guessing tickets for the big game with North Korea will go on sale in a week or two as well.

Visa

2008-05-09T23:30:00.002+09:00

Got the wife to guarantee me for another year....

After skiving off work and having my wife skive off work so we could go out to Mokdong togetehr and renew my visa it turns out that they didn't care about her guarantee. They still only gave me a one year extension so I'll have to repeat it all again next year. On the plus side, the visa extension and the new re-entry permit were both free...

Coming out of the Closet...

2008-05-08T22:53:00.002+09:00

I was just channel-surfing while waiting for something to download on the computer and I came across a show called "Coming Out" whereby gay Korean guys come out to their mums.

I only saw one episode but this seems to be the premise:

An extremely camp Korean chap (think any number of Korean "talents") takes his mother to a coffee shop and confesses that he is gay. Cue ten minutes of the mum crying and saying things like "You can change. If you try hard you can fix it. Please promise me you'll try hard to fix it." or "Live that way for a while and then get married so I'm not embarrassed."

They then go back to the studio and have well-known (and only?) Korean gay celebrity Hong Sok-chon analyse the reaction and give some advice.

Pretty groundbreaking for Korean TV?

My Korean sucks...

2008-05-06T00:17:00.003+09:00

Regular readers and those that know me will know that my Korean is pretty good. I could hold my own against those foreign lasses that are on tv on a Monday night. However, today I got humiliated...

Those of you who can speak even a few words of Korean have probably experienced the situation where the person you're talking to will do a double-take when you speak to them in Korean and then compliment you on how well you speak Korean even though all you've said is two words in a terrible accent.

Well today the opposite happened to me. I was in Subway to grab a sandwich and they asked me what salad I wanted. I replied that I only wanted lettuce and tomato and for lettuce I used the word 상추. The lady who was making my sandwich corrected me and said "Actually, that's not 상추, that's 양상추*". Boy she put me in my place.

* I assume the '양' is the ubiquitous prefix to designate something as being western or foreign.

So where the bloody hell are you?

2008-05-06T00:06:00.004+09:00

I've seen a video by the Tourist Authroity of Australia on Korea tv a lot in the past week or so. This was quite controversial when it first came out in the UK cos it spends a minute or so extolling the virtues of various attractions in Oz and finishes up by asking the tagline "So where the bloody hell are you?" In the UK this was considered to be swearing that might be offensive whereas the Aussies said it was not considered to be swearing down under.

In Korea, they're letting it run with the original soundtrack and they've conveyed the meaning of "bloody hell" with the Korean word "도대체", which the Naver dictionary tells me means "in the world;on earth;under the sun;in the name of God;the dickens;the heck;the hell, for the love of Pete". Mind you I suspect that it is probably milder than most of those translations and probably equivalent to saying "-ever" as in "Whatever are you doing?" or "Wherever have you gotten to?"

Football blogging...

2008-05-04T21:26:00.031+09:00

I will blog whenever anything of note happens...
Times will be UK times (+8 for Korean time)

1:27pm Listening to 5live as they announce the line-ups. Can only listen to 5live until about 2:45 though as they don't have broadcasting rights for actual commentary.

1:32pm 5Live cut-out 15 minutes early. Time to see if my brother has maintained his subscription to WednesdayWorld

1:48pm 15 minutes are wasted as I realise that at some point I have deleted realplayer which I need to listen to live commentary from the club website and download it and configure it.

1:48pm Finally get the commentary online to be greeted with an interview with the manager of United. As much as it pains me to say, I hope they beat Saints today, relegating them and make whatever we do irrelevant for our safety.

1:56pm There are about 37,000 people at Hillsboro, which means it's almost full. Teams are confirmed and Lee Bullen, who has been ropey at times this season is out but replaced by Jermaine Johnson who is a midfielder by trade. Dion Dublin makes his final appearance for Norwich, I can still remember him humiliating us when he played for Cambridge and they knocked us out of the FA cup when we were still in the Premiership and they were still in the League.

1:59pm Hi-Ho Sheffield Wednesday plays and sends shivers down my spine. 90 minutes of football to ensure Championship safety.

2:00pm Kick-off.

2:04pm News comes through that Blackpool have gone a goal up against Watford. Blackpool are outside candidates for relegation but only if Wednesday better their result.

2:05pm Charlton have gone ahead against Coventry. Coventry are also outside candidates for relgation. The live league table shows that Wednesday have now moved ahead of Coventry into 19th of 24.

2:09pm Wednesday concede another early goal and drop two places. They're now only outside of the relegation zone on goal difference from Southampton. Come on the Blades! I don't know where this habit of conceding early goals has come from but it's getting to be very costly.

2:13pm Wednesday almost concede another. Seems like they're being torn apart by a team which most pundits thought would be focussing on their summer holidays rather than today's match.

2:19pm More chances for Nowich. We have a better goal difference than Southampton by 12 goals. At this rate, that might not be enough. Even if Saints don't win.

2:20pm Penalty to Wednesday. The commentators are livid that the ref doesn't even give a yellow card. A glimmer of hope.

2:22pm Burton scores the penalty and High-Ho Sheffield Wednesday rings out around the ground. We're back up to 19th for the moment. Coventry are losing 2:1 now.

2:24pm Wednesday are still being slaughtered. It's going to be a long afternoon.

2:25pm United have gone a goal up at Southampton. That's good news for us although I feel sorry for Nigel Pearson who was an important player for Wednesday inthe early nineties.

2:32pm It's quietened down a bit but we still seem to be playing atrociously. Huckerby in particular seems to be murdering the make-shift right-back.

2:41pm A Norwich player misses after going one on one with the keeper. Apparently that's the 5th good chance Norwich have missed. Wednesday go straight down the other end and miss the first good chance they've created.

2:43pm A shout for another Wednesday penalty for handball. Norwich break but Johnson, the make-shift right-back finally makes a tackle.

2:44pm News from St Marys is that Southampton have equalised. That puts the pressure back on Wednesday. We have to match whatever Southampton do to survive.

2:46pm The half-time whistle goes. If the second half is like this, it's going to be very hairy.

3:04pm Second half underway. The game in Southampton seems to be starting a couple of minutes later. No changes in personnel and no changes in Norwich's superiority in the first 2 minutes.

3:08pm Johnson, the make-shift right-back fouls Huckerby again. He's already been booked and needs to be careful he doesn't get sent off. The commentators are emphasising that he needs tp be taken off before he either gets sent off or gives away a goal.

3:11pm Gooooaaaalllll!!!!!! Out of nowhere, Wednesday take the lead....surely we'll not concede two goals now? We move up another place into 18th above Barnsley and they're already safe.

3:12pm Spoke too soon....they gave Huckerby another one on one straight from the kick-off but he contrived to miss again.

3:14pm Charlton have scored a third against Coventry. Provided we don't lose, it looks like they'll finish below us.

3:15pm Southampton have gone ahead against Sheff Utd. They move out of the relegation zone and are replaced by Leicester. Nervous times ahead methinks.

3:16pm I've just checked the live league table and we have actually gone above Norwich as well. We're now in 17th.

3:17pm A guy called Kim has just scored for WBA. I assume that is their Korean player.

3:23pm Not much happening at the moment...back and forth. I'm worried that Dion Dublin will score a late goal to doom us but as I type this Dublin is taken off. That's something to be thankful for.

3:26pm Watford have equalised against Blackpool and Wednesday move up to 16th. But if Norwich would score twice, Wednesday will drop to 22nd just like that. That's why this division is the best, it's so close....

3:27pm United have equalised against Saints. Southampton drop back into the relegation zone.

3:30pm I can't keep up. Saints have scored again and bounce back out of the relegation zone....15 minutes or so left....I think i'm going to puke.

3:34pm Gooooooaaaaaallllll!!!!! You fucking beauty!!! Burton get's his 2nd goal and surely we'll win this now.

3:36pm McAllister commits a foul and the commentators thinks he's lucky to be on the pitch. If we lost a player now, that would make life interesting for the last 12 minutes.

3:42pm Southampton have had a man sent off. Although Wednesday look safe now I'd like every possible thing to go our way... 6 minutes to go

3:44pm Gooooaaalllllll!!!! It's 4:1 and we're safe now I think.....WE WANT FIVE!!! WE WANT FIVE!!!!!!

3:47pm We should get some full-times starting to come through now....

3:50pm Still a couple of minutes left. One more goal would take us out of negative goal difference for the season.....

3:51pm The final whistle goes....we're safe!!! After just missing a play-off place last season it has been a struggle this season. Let's start looking forward to August!!

3:55pm Southampton have won so they're safe. It's between Blackpool, Coventry and Leicester for the final relegation place.

3:57pm It's finished at Blackpool and they're safe. Coventry have lost but barring a last minute goal for Leicester they'll be safe too.

3:59pm The Leicester result is in. They've only drawn and are relegated to League for the first time in their history.

4:00pm So for all those nerves about possibly finishing 22nd and being relegated, we've actually finished 16th....

The End of the World is Nigh...

2008-05-04T21:22:00.002+09:00

Last day of the football season today for Wednesday. They've still got a good chance of being relegated so I'm in for a nervous couple of hours.

Wednesday face Norwich kwowing that if Southampton win and Leicester at least draw then, we'll be relegated. I've got all kinds of sports websites and live football websites opened and I'm planning to blog the highs (hopefully no lows) of the next 2.5 hours until it's all over.

A week in the States...

2008-05-01T23:06:00.003+09:00

While some people get to take 3 months off to swan around the USA, the rest of us have to make do with a 5 day business trip and so it was that last Monday I jetted off to LA for a week.

It almost started with a disaster at check-in when the airline announced that the only row with three seats together was a row that they weren't planning on using cos the personal monitors were broken and one of our party said we'd take it anyway (what is it with the Korean obsession with doing everything together?). Luckily common sense prevailed and we were soon distributed through out the plane and ready for our flight.

It was a 10.5 hour flight to LA with a 16 hour time difference and consequently we got there 5.5 hours before we left, although personally, I'd prefer it if it wasn't a Monday that I had to live through twice. Mind you we lost most of that 5.5 hour gain waiting to dock at the terminal, waiting to get through immigration, waiting to get our luggage, waiting to get our rental car and then driving out to our hotel in Laguna Beach. The hotel was just one of the major chains but it was quite comfortable and each room had a jacuzzi although somewhat bizarrely it was in the room rather than in the bathroom.

Anyhow, after getting ourselves settled we took a walk along Laguna Beach...It was very pleasant after the hustle and bustle of Seoul. Of course, sometimes the Californian beach lifestyle is not all it's cracked up to be.... The next morning we were up bright and early and ready to start work. But first, breakfast on the terrace among the Birds of Paradise... After that it was a day of hard work and we only just got back to the hotel in time to catch the sunset...We made good progress with our work on Tuesday and therefore we'd finished our work soon after lunch on Wednesday. Of course if you're on a business trip with Koreans you have to go and play golf... and after that we just wondered around enjoying the OC. On Thursday we chose to go wine-tasting. (Well, I was driving and the others were wine-tasting). We went to the Ponte Family Estate Winery in Temecula... My colleagues were able to choose 6 wines to taste out of the many available and of course being Koreans those six mouthfuls completely wiped them out... The grapes were still very small so there wasn't that much to see...But it was a pleasant enough way to spend a day...Driving back to Laguna Beach we were thinking how it would be very easy to get accustomed to such a lifestyle... We had just enough time to take in one last sunset...

Before it was time to head off to the airport for our flight back to Seoul... Here we are taking off for the 13 hour flight back to Seoul (why does it take 2.5 hours longer to get back to Korea than to fly from Korea?)

Lesbians, petrol and professors - News Round-up

2008-05-01T22:30:00.002+09:00

Noted in the news today...

Inhabitants of the Greek island of Lesbos are going to sue homosexual women to restrict use of the moniker Lesbian only to describe people who themselves come from Lesbos. Under EU law this may have a good chance of succeeding, after all the French successfully restrictions to say that the description Champagne could only be applied to sparkling wine actually produced in the French region of Champagne and their have been other similar cases although I can't be arsed to research them.

Korea has named the world's youngest professor by appointing a 19 year old American child prodigy to teach physics at Konkuk University (건대). One can only assume that so many other people were found to have lied on their CVs as to leave a thin field of applicants.

Finally, as numerous reports detail Americans disgust as US fuel prices approach $4 a gallon they might like to spare a thought for poor motorists in the UK who are paying 1.10 pounds a litre. To make it comparable, there are approximately 3.8 litres in a US gallon and 2 pounds the dollar so that makes UK petrol about $8.20 a gallon (or 2,200 won a litre to my Korean readers). Yikes!

I'll be there for you...

2008-04-30T21:49:00.002+09:00

Sometimes it pays to leave work on time. For instance I got home by 7pm tonight and switched on the TV just in time to see the one (I think it's just the one) episode of Friends that I've never seen before...

5 day weekend!

2008-04-30T21:48:00.000+09:00

Need i say more?

Strewth mate...George Bush has got a few Kangaroos loose in the top paddock...

2008-04-29T22:40:00.004+09:00

Five to be exact........(click to make the photo a little bigger - so you can actually see something)

I saw these planes and wondered if there were really five Qantas jumbos or if someone had put a huge mirror in the middle of LAX. Anyhow, a quick check of the Qantas website shows me that there are 6 daily flights forom Australia to LAX. Here we can see QF 175 from Brisbane, QF25 and QF93 from Melbourne and QF11 and QF148 from Sydney. Don't ask me which is which. The sixth flight was QF107 , also from Sydney, but she had flown on to New York at this time and wouldn't return until the evening. Hope this doesn't make you feel homesick Dave!

I want to ride my bicycle...

2008-04-29T22:24:00.002+09:00

Our reason for being in Chamsil was to head over to Olympic Park to ride bicycles (well a quadricycle to be precise). They have bikes that will sit three adults and two kids or six adults and two kids and so we rented one of the smaller ones. I think it was about KRW15,000 for an hour. Here are the kids sitting on the bike. We spent a happy hour riding around with me doing most of the work.....
Although as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, the cherry blossoms have been and gone, plenty of other blossoms were in full bloom... Finally, after wearing ourselves out chasing around, we took the subway home...

H.I.D. Hidden Intelligence Detachment

2008-04-29T21:10:00.003+09:00

I thought it was illegal to display the North Korean flag or pictures of Kim Jong-Il in South Korea or maybe that law has been rescinded. Anyhow, while walking the streets of Chamsil a couple of weeks ago I cam across the following scene... What's that I hear you ask? Some missiles pointed at the North with Kim Jong-Il's name on them? Well, they're only inflatable missiles (in case it wasn't obvious from the photo) The chinese characters on the missile say 世界(World 세계) 平和 (Peace 평화) 威脅用 (Used to threaten 위협용).

So who is displaying such provocative items? Well, no less than the Hidden Intelligence Detachment (and also here) This sign says "What have I done for the Motherland today?" "Special Operations Against the North" and a review of their website shows that it is a group set up to commemorate agents sent to infiltrate the North on special ops that never came back. All I can say is that they're not doing a particularly good job of staying hidden here....

Butterfinger Pancakes...

2008-04-28T22:18:00.003+09:00

Once upon a time they used to have Denny's in Seoul. It was in Myongdong until the Asian Financial Crisis of '97. At various times since then there have also been various other pancake restaurants but never have I seen anywhere where people would queue up for half an hour for a table. Never that is until last weekend.

I mentioned in a previous post about our aborted attempt to eat at Butterfinger Pancakes. Well, undeterred we set off a couple of hours earlier the following week although that proved to be only just in time to beat the mid-morning rush. The place has tried to style itself as an American style diner with an open kitchen... We weren't sure what to expect, after all some places in Seoul do mock-western food with a degree of incompetence unrivalled anywhere else in the world and thus it was with some trepidation that I ordered a pancake brunch and my wife ordered a waffle brunch. Owless certainly enjoyed her orange juice... I didn't know Heinz made maple syrup..? Finally the food came but we were so hungry that wasn't any time to take any proper photos of it...Owless is looking satisfied having finished hers. An empty plate...you can't get a better restaurant recommendation than that!

Olympic Flame in Seoul...

2008-04-28T21:25:00.001+09:00

The Olympic Flame was in Seoul this weekend, I was tempted to go and see it but thought it might be a little risky. So instead of some photos of rioting Chinese students, let me instead take the chance to link to this old post regarding the design of the logo for the 2008 Beijing Olympics...

Back in Seoul...

2008-04-27T22:22:00.002+09:00

I'm back in Seoul but my body doesn't know whether it is coming or going so I'm knackered. I don't know whether it's bacause I'm getting old but my whole time in LA, I couldn't stay up past 10pm and woke up at 4am every day. Although it was a business trip to LA, we were staying in the resort town of Laguna Beach and we also finished our work a day early so we also had some fun. I'll catch up with my posting during the week.

Back to work tomorrow :(

Kim Kong...

2008-04-27T21:50:00.002+09:00

One of the great things about Seoul is all the really quirky things you come across. For example, at Hakdong Junction (학동 사거리), you can see a giant gorilla wearing a North Face backpack trying to climb a building.

California Dreamin'...

2008-04-24T01:34:00.003+09:00

Just a quick note to let y'all know I'm still alive...work up at 4am this morning (8pm korean time) and was going to catch up my posting, but it has taken me this long to figure out how to configure my work laptop to post to flickr through the Windows photo wizard (which for some reason takes hardly any bandwidth and therefore lets me upload hundreds of photos per month rather than the 40 or so through the official flickr uploader.) I will try to get on to posting tonight, but we have an official client dinner so I make no guarantees.

You really should know better...Amber Alert

2008-04-21T00:22:00.002+09:00

I've always felt that Korean parents are much more laissez-faire in regards to unsupervised play than we in the west. In fact, in the west, it has even been suggested that we are too paranoid about our children's safety, such that we cosset them and leave them unable to judge risks for themselves. (Mind you James at the Grand Narrative has also made the point that twenty-something Koreans are far more immature than their western counterparts.)

Anyhow, given a spate of high-profile child kidnappings in Korea this year, I was under the impression that Korean parents were paying more attention to the whereabouts of their kids. But then in the past two weeks I have seen three seperate scenarios that I would not dare to inflict upon my own children and so I fear we may see more kidnappings in the coming months.

Scenario 1: I was with my children at a playground in a small park in Kangnam. A father was there with his daughter (approximately 7 years old) and a whole bunch of ajeossis using exercise equipment. The father said to the daughter that she should stay in the playground while he went to the toilet. He then disappeared for 10 minutes.

Scenario 2: I was with my children at un unsupervised playground on the nth floor of a discount mart in southern Seoul. A couple came up with their 6 year old daughter, plonked her on the climbing frame and told her to stay put for half an hour while they went to do the shopping.

Scenario 3: I was with my children at a playground at a large park in south-eastern Seoul. One kid who was under the supervision of his mother had just accidentally trod on another kids fingers (both around 3 years old) causing the second kid to cry. The kid continued to cry for about 5 minutes before his mum came running up. The mother of the crying kid then had the nerve to yell at the other mum for letting him hurt her precious little Johnny.

I'd like to take those parents to one side and ask them to watch their kids more closely. I think all three of those situations were accidents waiting to happen. Personally, I don't want to be one of those parents who prevent their kids having any fun, so I let them go off and explore, but I always make sure I can see them and get to them quickly, even if they think they are off on their own.

Charity begins at home...

2008-04-21T00:14:00.002+09:00

Anyone who has kids knows that they grow out of their clothes really quickly. When clothes get too small for our kids, we tend to pass them on to a friend of ours who also has a son and daughter, each approximately a year younger than ours. They are called Chanwoo and Chanbi.

Today at bedtime my wife was supervising our children brushing their teeth. She noticed that their toothbrushes were getting a little ragged and so she said to the kids that she would get them new ones tomorrow and that they should throw these ones out as soon as they brush their teeth tomorrow morning.

Quick as a flash, my daughter replied, "I'm not going to throw it out, I'm going to give it to Chanbi". Such altruism, such charity...I only hope Chanbi will get good use from it!!

Cherry Blossom Season Update...

2008-04-19T23:20:00.002+09:00

It's over for another year. All those petals that looked so pretty on the trees last week are now browning in the gutter like confetti...

Muggins' last day...

2008-04-17T22:16:00.003+09:00

Muggins is my best friend at work but unfortunately he will be leaving next week to go to an investment bank. Last night we went out for a farewell dinner; actually Muggins has another week, but as previously mentioned I shall be in LA so I shall miss his real farewell dinner. We went for 닭갈비 (Takkalbi) which is one of my favourite things to eat in Korea. I've tried to teach him as much English slang as possible during the last nine months but despite being a devout christian, I think he only remembers the swearwords.

Funniest moment: After Muggins got a girl friend, I told him that due to his strict beliefs on sex before marriage I trusted that he would adhere to the Six inch rule. He didn't know what that was and I explained that he should stay six inches apart from his girlfriend at all times. He promptly replied (in total innocence) that he wasn't going to listen to any rules suggested by me and that he was determined to stay six inches inside his girlfriend at all times. He didn't understand why I fell about laughing.... :)

Pancakes for breakfast...

2008-04-17T22:02:00.002+09:00

I shall be in LA next week...unfortunately i'm going with a client which kind of limits "me" time...

Diversity in the workplace...

2008-04-17T21:43:00.002+09:00

Recently in the elevator at work they've been playing a video sent over from global HQ in New York. In it the Global CEO sits down to chat with some employees about what a great place my company is to work. There are five employees, 3 men and two women, 2 white, 1 oriental, 1 south asian and 1 black and one of the men is camp enough to suggest to anyone (except the typical korean) that he is probably gay; all in all I think they're trying to show that it employs a diverse bunch of people although there was no sign of any disabled people in the film. But it all seems a bit crass to have got that perfect mix. I mean sure all these different groups do work for the company but the distribution is not as implied in the film.

Anyhow, it turns out that the Korean branch of the Firm is updating its publicity brochure (or possibly its annual report - I didn't get the full details) and they wanted a photo to show the diversity of the firm. Therefore they got on the phone to my department and asked us to take a photo "of koreans and foreigners working together". We duly set up a fake meeting and took some photos...again, you can see 5 employees, 3 men and 2 women, 2 koreans, 2 whites and a japanese. Don't be fooled, there are but a handful of foreigners at my company and you can see most of them here!

People hanging on my every word. What they are actually looking at is the details of my hotel for my trip to LA next week...
You mean it's right on the beach? Are you sure you're going there for work?

Answers to questions people googled to arrive at my blog...

2008-04-16T22:47:00.005+09:00

The korean translation/word for penguin is 펜귄 which is pronounced the same as the english word....

The time in Korea is GMT +9 all year round (no summertime) which is the same as Japan and one hour more than China. This means that there is a nine hour time difference with my home in the UK in the winter and eight hours in the summer. I believe it's a further 5 hour time difference to the East Coast of the USA and this means that whatever time it is in Forida (where you were) it is (now summertime) 13 hours later in the day here in Seoul. There was a newspaper article in one of the Korean dailies a few weeks ago when the rest of the world switched to summer time calculating the economic benefit of Korea re-adopting summertime. Interestingly enough, it was proposed that the UK should drop GMT all together and be at GMT+1 for the winter and GMT+2 for the summer (which I suppose is really only CET).

More Cherry Blossoms...

2008-04-16T22:11:00.002+09:00

You don't necessarily have to go to one of the proliferation of cherry blossom festivals to see lots of pretty flowers. There are plenty of cherry blossom trees around...here you can see one of the roads in our apartment complex... View of a tree from the balcony of our apartment... I'm sure these would look better with a blue sky background... Of course, I already mentioned that I prefer magnolia blossoms so here are some pictures...please let me know which you prefer...

Oh! 명박아...! 실망이야!

2008-04-16T21:14:00.003+09:00

The other day I posted about my experience of being filmed for promotional video for 세계인의 날. I moaned about my friend coercing me into doing it, which I obviously did just for dramatic effect. (I found out she reads this, and she told me off!)

Anyhow, I was able to glean some further information about the event....

1. It will be held on 20th May and will be called Together Day.

2. They are putting together a website for it but it's not ready.

3. There may be some special guests from 미녀의 수다 but no appearance from 이명박 who apparently is too busy to come and hob-nob with us foreigners.

To me that is a disappointment. For all his talk about making Korea an international society and talking up the contribution of foreigners, he could have made a bit of effort to come down and meet us. I mean I know he doesn't owe anything to us because we didn't vote for him but...

Anyhow, the smidgin of respect that I gained for him after he went to Ilsan to kick the cops arse after they screwed up investigating that attemped abduction of a child has been lost again. 실망이다!

Match of the Day...

2008-04-13T23:52:00.000+09:00

Some less reliable news organisations might have you believe that the Premier League clash between Man Utd and Arsenal is the big match of this weekend but any true football fan knows that today's match at Sangam between FC Seoul and Suwon Bluewings was a far bigger game.... :)

I went along with my family. Total cost for 5 adults and two children was KRW35,000 or approximately 17.5 quid, which is 4 quid cheaper than the cheapest ticket at Hillsboro. After an initial mix-up about which end of the ground we should meet each other, we got in just before kick-off.

Miss Owl unimpressed by the atmosphere... It was Klan Day at the game today with a 30% discount on tickets for Klan members... The match itself was fairly entertaining and both sides had numerous chances to score... and the fans were in fine voice.... However, only one team took their chances and thus it was the Suwon fans that went home happy after their side won 2:0... However, judging by the reaction of the Seoul fans, they were a lot more satisfied with their team's performance than I would have been... After today's results, Suwon remain top and Seoul drop one place to third.
Team PtsW D L F A GD Played
수원 13 4 1 0 11 2 9 5
성남 11 3 2 0 12 3 9 5
서울 10 3 1 1 7 5 2 5
인천 10 3 1 1 5 3 2 5
대구 9 3 0 2 12 10 2 5
울산 8 2 2 1 8 6 2 5
광주 6 1 3 1 4 3 1 5
부산 5 1 2 2 5 7 -2 5
포항 5 1 2 2 4 7 -3 5
제주 5 1 2 2 4 7 -3 5
경남 4 1 1 3 5 9 -4 5
전남 4 1 1 3 3 8 -5 5
대전 3 0 3 2 1 5 -4 5
전북 1 0 1 4 4 10 -6 5

When we came out, it took about 45 minutes to get out of the car park and so I had to snap some photos of the stadium...

All Day Brunch...

2008-04-13T23:32:00.000+09:00

After we finished filming last week we wandered through the back streets of Chongdam-Dong looking for somewhere to eat. We actually ended up eating at a nice coffee shop called Coffee Mihak (커피미학) where they had some really nice cake. However, on the way there we saw a pancake restaurant called Butter Finger Pancakes. They don't seem to have a proper website but there are plenty of blogs eulogising the place and photos like this of the food they serve and so we decided to go back this Saturday for brunch. Unfortunately, when we arrived there was a huge queue and so we ended up elsewhere. We will go back in the future and I'll blog about it then...

Instead we ended up in a place called All Day Brunch which is situated just off the main road opposite Galleria in Apkujeong pretty much opposite where Mrs Fields used to be (I'm looking forward to some Mrs Fields when I go to LA in a couple of weeks) It turned out to be a buffet of breakfast and lunch type things and cost 22,500 per adult and nothing for the children.

Master Owl tucking in.... Miss Owl tucking in... Has Miss Owl been hitting the red wine? Yours truly gets some pancakes after all... Some coffee to round off... After a big buffet brunch, what better than to go and aid your digestion with some light gymnastics... Of course, all that eating and playing is very tiring...

Who me?!?

2008-04-13T23:30:00.000+09:00

Miss Owl puts on her innocent face...

Viva L'Espana

2008-04-13T23:26:00.000+09:00

I'm not sure if this shop has a spanish theme or whether it is just decorated like a giant Spanish flag....still it stands out on its street in Chongdam

The next David Bailey?

2008-04-13T22:57:00.000+09:00

It's cherry blossom time...

2008-04-13T22:49:00.002+09:00

In the past fortnight or so Seoul has started to come back to life from the brownness that is symptomatic of the dry Korean winter and the magnolias, forsythia and more famously the cherry blossoms are coming into bloom.

This past Wednesday was a holiday for a parliamentary election and although I wasn't entitled to vote, I still got the day off. My wife had come into some coupons entitling us to up to KRW400k worth of food at the Walker Hill Cherry Blossom festival and despite the fact that the weather was cloudy with rain predicted we decided to chance it.

I've never been to the Walker Hill before. It always seems well out of the way of anywhere but actually it was only 10 mins from Gangbyon (line 2) or 5 minutes from Gwangnaru (line 5) by hotel shuttlebus. We started off with some lunch and owing to the coupons we could pig out although the food was pretty expensive if you were paying (hotel prices I guess). It was pretty tasty especially since the chefs were effectively cooking out of garden sheds. After lunch, it was time to look at the cherry blossoms. Not much to say about them, so I'll just post some photos and let them speak for themselves. It was difficult to take decent photos because it was so cloudy which made the light was so flat and difficult to see the hues of the cherry blossoms. Plus my camera is quite a basic one. Of course there were other flowers around too. Here are some cherry blossoms framed by forsythia... And some magnolias...would it be blasphemous to say that I actually prefer magnolia to cherry blossom? Shortly after that it started raining and we headed home...

세계인의 날 (People of the World Day)

2008-04-13T22:45:00.000+09:00

In mid-May (date to be confirmed) the Ministry of Justice (법무부) (is that even still its name nowadays?) will hold 세계인의 날 (People of the World Day) which I hear will be a festival held one weekday morning (don't get me started) down at me Olympic Park. Among those present will be President Lee and several thousand foreigners (assuming you can get the time off work).

As I've mentioned before, a friend of mine works at the Ministry of Justice and she helped me a lot a few weeks ago when I was trying to get a visa for my intern and thus when she needed a performing monkey for the promotional video for how sweet and rosy the expat life in Korea is, she called me. Actually, I believe I am just one of many (if I make the cut - I couldn't say the lines they wanted with any degree of seriousness so I might end up on the cutting room floor).

Anyhow, last Saturday afternoon we trundled along to the production office of the company that is making the film and my wife and I had a short interview about international marriage and they took some footage of us as a family.

Yours truly being asked about the importance of respect for your wife... The wife being prepped for her question on the difference between foreign men and korean men (I wanted to give a glib answer about penis size but they weren't interested in my opinion on the topic.) Mrs Owl thinking hard about how what it is about me that makes her so happy... Master Owl didn't have to say anything but just look photogenic...Miss Owl was supposed to do the same but she wasn't having any of it... Although my wife told me that they seemed to spend a lot of time just focusing on his iris... So while I'm not a film star like Aaron you may or not see me in upcoming Korean propaganda.

The many faces of Daeguowless...

2008-04-13T22:41:00.002+09:00

Trying to take photo of my daughter is a nightmare. She just does not co-operate and instead loves to pull funny faces...

Cheese! Kimchi! Smile!

Accountants out on the town...

2008-04-13T22:19:00.003+09:00

The same day as the mountain-climbing expedition also happened to be the 30th birthday of my close friend at work and we arranged to have dinner and drinks on Saturday night. Of course, after the exertions of Saturday morning and the inevitable boozy lunch there were some no-shows for Saturday night but we got a good turn out to Bliss (Pssst, remember it's just a regular wine bar, it's just a coincidence that there are lots of male customers, no funny business here.) Accountants ready to party!! 건배!위하여! Let the drinking commence... Let the drinking get serious, it's a Sambuca pyramid...(she only had one of those by the way, what a wimp! Finally, we'll need something to line our stomachs and absorb some of that alcohol...yep, a cake made by yours truly...

Mountain climbing...

2008-04-13T21:53:00.002+09:00

A couple of weeks ago, our boss decided that we needed a hike to blow the cobwebs of busy season away. Thus it was that the 120 or so people in my department at work found ourselves traipsing down to Chonggyesan (청계산) for 7:30am one Saturday morning. Chonggyesan is just past the outskirts of Southern Seoul near Yangjae Flower Market. We were split into 5 groups and given bandannas (hence my headgear) to mark us out and then we proceeded to climb up in a group of 120. (What was the point of groups?)

Frankly, I wouldn't recommend this for 등산. Firstly, even by the standards of controlled mountain walking that is what you normally experience in Korea, this was pretty contrived. In effect it was a giant staircase (approx. 1350 stairs) up a large hill. No fun at all and rather tiring in that my muscles were tired from the RSI of walking up stairs for one hour followed by 30 mins coming down stairs. Also there were quite a lot of people walking up when we were coming down and this caused a dust cloud reminiscent of the stampede scene in the Lion King (where Mufasa dies).

Anyhow, enough of my moaning and on to some photos. We did eventually get to the top. Despite my moaning, it was a relatively easy stroll (I only really felt it the next day) even though I don't exercise per se (apart from walking wherever possible). However, a lot of my colleagues struggled a lot, I can't believe they go to the gym as often as they say.
Yes we deserve an ice cream for making it, although I pity the poor bugger who had to lug an ice chest of ice creams up the mountain. What can we see from the top? Looking North from the top we can see a shed load of smog, the motorway heading South to Busan, and Yangjae and Kangnam. If we zoom in, we can see how murky it is trying to peer at the traffic on Highway 1. If we zoom out, unsurprisingly we can't see very much at all...just a cloudy sky and a yellowish brown layer of pollution...yikes!

A Family Wedding...

2008-04-11T23:50:00.001+09:00

My brother-in-law got married in March with Daeguowlet and Daeguowless as pageboy and bridesmaid....of course they had to go along and get fitted out a couple of weeks before the wedding...Daeguowlet's mini-tuxedo was fine but the dress shop's standard bridesmaid dress was way too big for Daeguowless... They'd have to make another one...

Come the day and for some reason the kids had to be dragged off at the usual ungodly hour to have their hair done. I would imagine they were bored stupid. Still the end result wasn't bad (to begin with)... Nevertheless a little playing around while waiting for the ceremony and it all started to come undone...Daeguowlet particularly had his jacket off, his shirt untucked and his cummerbund off. Daeguowless didn't suffer too much except pulling her hair clips out. Of course it is slightly nerve-racking being the parent of a small child being a bridesmaid or page boy. What if they have a tantrum? What if they freeze or run away crying? Here is Mrs. Owl giving Daeguowless ~~threats~~instructions about how to behave. Anyhow, the rings were delivered and the happy couple were married so all's well that ends well. My father-in-law even managed a smile this time...

Football's Coming Home...

2008-04-11T22:01:00.002+09:00

Wednesday don't play until Monday this week. I expect they'll be back in the bottom three by then and I fully expect that Paul Sturrock will come back to haunt us. Mind you we are now unbeaten in our last six, although since that was six draws we would have been off winning three and losing three. It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks until the end of the season.

In the meantime, the K-League has just started up again and we are planning to go and see FC Seoul v Suwon at Sangam this Sunday. Mind you people keep telling me that it is going to rain, so we may not go. (Yes we're very much fairweather fans for the K-League)

All this talk of football reminds me that I didn't post the photos that I took at the two games I went to at the beginning of February. Without any further ado, I present two of the coldest nights of my life...
Posing at Sangam before the game against Chile...
Under the giant and somewhat smelly 대국기 for the national anthem...
This was a poor game where Korea looked bereft of ideas in and around the penalty area. They really need a Ruud van Nistelrooy type player to just convert chances.

On to the World Cup Qualifier against and a korean player preparing to take a corner kick against Turkmenistan. Another player is substituted while waiting for a corner... Although they lost 4-0, Turkmenistan were not as bad as I expected for a team ranked in the 120s.