Baring my Seoul

New country, new blog....

2007-03-01T18:33:00.000+09:00

I am now in France, so it is time to have the final say on this blog, which is:

My new blog is called Merloi et moi and can be found at the imaginative location of: www.janerawlings2.blogspot.com

Thank you and a bientot!

It's the final count down...

2007-02-14T21:50:00.000+09:00

Yes, the time has come. Almost. Just another 12 hours before I try to haul my bags out of the apartment and get myself to the airport to come home. It's been emotional... sometimes accident prone, and often embarrassing, but my time in Korea has been an amazing opportunity, and I have not wasted the last few days in this country (and here is just another example of pavement driving, you can even see the oncoming scooter!).

After returning to Korea from China, I unfortunately went down with a nasty case of bird flu - not the avian kind, just the female equivalent of man-flu, (which is like man-flu, but much, much worse). Still, with Gemma having left for sunny Australia there was still Kev to entertain, so on Monday morning we managed to drag ourselves our of beds in time to catch the 5.30am bus to go skiing. The ski resort was very similar to the ones on the East coast of the U.S in that it was a fairly small selection of slopes on hills rather than mountains. Interestingly, they only had blue runs or black runs, and some runs which would be half and half- not very fair on a beginner!

However, having skied even the most gnarly, double diamond, "expert only" runs a few times, we concluded that in Europe they would be nothing more than a slightly shorter than usual red, as there were no large patches of ice, grit, rocks, precipices, crevasses or long trains of out of control ski-school kids nearby as with most European black runs...now where's the fun in that?!

The resort we went to was Yongpyong which is one of the candidate resorts for the 2014 Winter Olympics as advertised absolutely everywhere... but I would be very surprised if they were successful as there were no runs long enough or steep enough for a downhill ski race, the half pipe had the side profile of a plate, and the gondala lift took 17 minutes to get to the top, and about 4 minutes to ski down (would have been much quicker if the "blue" run had been steep enough that you didn't have to walk...)

However, all in all it was great for one day of skiing, and had I not felt so ill I may have gone back for a second day.

So, what to do on the last few days in Korea?! We headed off for a tour of the war museum which was really interesting (and not just because you could climb inside lots of military planes). It seems that Korea is not only one of the few countries that never appears to have tried to take over anywhere else (largely because throughout most of it's history it was defending itself against the Chinese or Japanese) but it also seems to be a place that England has not tried to own. We did turn up in the late 19th century asking for trade, and at one point occupied a small Island for a couple of years, but then it appears we wandered off elsewhere and just opened trade routes (although the history books claim that we did much unauthorised surverying...)

We visited an aquarium today which did, as I had hoped, have a Korean twist on things... namely the displaying of fish in everyday unusual items such as drinks machines, a washing machine, and yes.... a toilet bowl.

They also had a decent tank of sharks which always grabs your attention, and a huge sea turtle which I don't think I have ever seen before in an aquarium.

So, to conclude my time in Korea, we went to a restaurant called "Mad for Garlic" which seemed to pay tribute to Dracula as you would expect of a Korean Italian restaurant (?!). All good fun though and we did manage to get a decent bottle of red, and some steak, even if the garlic may stay with me for a few weeks...

And so, it is time to leave Seoul. I have had a great time here although it has been tough at times, mostly due to being quite isolated or me doing ridiculous things to embarassas myself, and I swear I never normally fall over at all! Seoul is very modern and doing extremely well for itself with an incredibly high standard of living. At the moment though, there are very few Brits out here and I could have done with a few more young females for company, but I strongly suspect that in a decade or so, Seoul will be like many of the other up and coming Asian cities and a fantastic place to live and work. I have certainly never felt safer anywhere. I have to say though, I will not miss the view from my flat too much....

Thank you to everyone who has kept up to date with my exploits... I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have amused myself in writing it (probably not I would guess) but my mum likes it so that's ok. You never know, there may just be a next chapter round the corner, who knows....

Anyong haseyo, and kamsahamnida (goodbye and thank you)...

Visitors to Korea and China

2007-02-12T20:59:00.000+09:00

Well the final week of the project went well, despite me developing a nasty case of comedy falling flat on my face whenever a flight of stairs presented itself. Pointy boots and flared suit trousers are not good for your health. I managed to go splat twice in one day, which did at least even up the scuff marks on my suit knees, and of course my bruises!

Gemma and Kev arrived here last Saturday, so I thought it was only right to take them out for some Korean food. I went for the tamest option I could; a Korean BBQ but there's no getting away from the fact that a) everywhere you go you will be served Gimchi (previously mentioned pickled, fermented and chillied cabbage) and b) it just doesn't taste great to unaccustomed palettes... and I still class myself in that category.

So, after a brief stay in Korea, we headed for Beijing - the city of high rise, bicycles and smog as it turned out. We had a brilliant guide called David, who said he had not seen an orange until the age of 11; massive changes he must have seen in twenty years as he was chatting away on a mobile phone much of the time. He was the hostess with the mostess, with the most amazing whistlestop tour I have ever been on. We managed to fit a huge amount into 3 days, partly because rather than allow us time to read the signs around the palaces etc. he gave us a summary on fast forward mode; quite difficult to understand at times.

We of course went to the great wall, which was as impressive as you would expect, and I never realised before that it was 6000km long. Did make me wonder though what purpose it actually served as there were many areas where a small ladder would have got you over the top no problem... I have perhaps missed the point. What I didn't miss though was the opportunity to get into fancy dress! I would have prefered the warrior outfit myself, but the Chinese guys were looking at us a bit wierd so I thought I would be feminine for once...

The food was fairly palatable to Kev and I, although Gemma wasn't particularly keen but after the 5th meal of chicken and peanuts, it was getting a bit repetitive. It was also served to us in huge quantities, and it seemed we were often closely supervised by the waiting staff; I'm sure they were just being helpful but I did feel a bit like I was on stage.

Then we hit the dumpling restaurant. There are 180 varieties of steamed dumplings in China, but we were assured we would only be served 16 of them. However, I lost count after 25 and Kevin ate far more than I managed (I actually had to have a lie down afterwards as I was beginning to get stomach cramps). Technically speaking, I am not sure that I would have counted that many varieties as every other course seemed to be: "this wan is... Pork!".

Tip of the week: Chinese Soju and Korean Soju are very, very different...

We were given a complimentary bottle of Soju with our lunch on a few days... no problem I thought, well used to drinking the odd shot of this stuff (mere 20% in Korea). The tiny, thimble sized glasses really should have rung some alarm bells. It wasn't until we had set our gullets and insides on fire, that we read the bottle... 58%!! It cannot be good for your health!

In Beijing we got to visit Pearl factories, jade factories, silk factories, ming vase factories and found out that had the Ming dynasty in around the 1300's not been abruptly ended by Ghengis Khan, within 50 years or so they would have been very likely to have had an industrial revolution as they had the beginnings of mass production techniques. More surprisingly, back in the 600's not only did women have rights including the right to divorce, but it appears that the fashion was for dresses that started under the bust, rather than above it...

We also wondered whether they might want to change the wording on the packaging for westerners in the Silk factory...

We also had a tour of Tiananmen Square, although we were given none of the history, and although I took this picture from a distance, Gemma and Kev are convinced the soldier is blowing me a kiss. I beg to differ...

We had a tour of the Forbidden city which is fanastic - a huge expanse of palacial buildings (9,999 rooms in fact) - well, you need a lot to maintain 3,000 concubines, and then we went onto the Summer Palace which was incredible too. As incredible was our guides excitement at bumping into "the best musician in China" - he said his Daddy would be so proud of him as this man is a celebrity in China and has been on the TV. I couldn't resist a quick video, so I will leave it up to you to decide if he is set for international stardom...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BsGa2jX-tY

After a few days in Beijing, and a large amount of shopping, we flew to Xian to see the terracotta warriors, and quite a lot of smog. The story of the Terracotta warriors is fascinating.

They were only discovered in the 70's by a farmer digging a well, who would have missed the whole lot if he'd been more than a metre in the other direction (he is till in the museum every day signing autographs!). There are hundreds of them, and they were all smashed when they were discovered, so archaeologists have been painstakingly piecing them together ever since.

The emperor who ordered them to be made wanted them to be built to protect him in the afterlife, and it took 700,000 people 38 years and a third of all of the palace income to complete them and his burial tomb, which is thought to be a vast underground palace but is as yet uncovered. The Chinese know where it is, but don't think they have the technology to dig it up and preserve it all at the moment, so are leaving it until a generation does have the skills - unbelievable patience! The figures are also over 2000 years old which is staggering. What amazed me most though is that every single soldier is different, and was modelled on the actual army of the time down to the hat, uniform and moustache! Originally they were in full colour too though now most of this has worn off. They also stand in 3 different museums as they are all standing in military positions, with guards on the flanks, archers and even horses and chariots. They also had chomium plating technology which until this discovery was thought to be invented by the Germans in the 30's, and their weapon blades have stayed sharp for over 2000 years.

What isn't quite so fantastic is the fact that upon his burial, the Empress, all of the favourite concubines, all brothers and sisters and top officials were also buried with him, and therefore had to commit suicide or be tortured if they didn't.

I have never been anywhere so polluted and dusty - it was really nasty trying to breathe - Gemma and I have both developed chesty coughs since and I'm not at all surprised. Our guide was actually saying "at the top of this hill, you should be able to see a huge mountain behind it" but we couldn't because of the smog. It doesn't often rain there which doesn't help. This picture of a buddhist temple isn't just a foggy day... it's always like this apparently!

The other highlight of Xian was having a Chinese massage. We were made to wear big baggy pyjama type things and had a fantastic massage although there were a few unusual twists, such as the element where she really punched me in the back a lot, (anyone who punches me that much would not usually get away with it!) and then the punching in the head element. I think she must have just had it in for me though as the other two didn't get this wondrous treatment... perhaps it was something to do with the fact that all over China I managed to pick up so much static that anyone who touched me got a shock - not particularly friendly when some nice Chinese lady was welcoming us to a factory and shook my hand and visibly jumped back a few feet after getting a shock... oops.

I'm back!

2007-02-11T11:27:00.000+09:00

After 2 weeks of severe blogging technical difficulties, the site is finally working again. Just one problem, they have converted all the language to Korean so I am having a few issues. however, I am sure I will resolve these shortly and continue the updates - of which there is much as I have now got company out here in the form of Gemma and Kev, and as you can see, Kev is absolutely delighted to be here...

Don't try this at home...

2007-01-26T19:09:00.000+09:00

IF YOU'VE ALREADY READ THIS ENTRY... PLEASE CHECK OUT THE NEW VIDEO CLIP ADDED!!

Last night we went out on the town Korean style, with our good friend Sangwoo. After drinking copious amounts of Dong Dong Ju (like alcoholic sweet milk, served out of a bowl with a wooden spoon) we headed off to a local seafood restaurant. Oh goodie! Still, if you don't eat seafood at all usually, then you may as well go the whole hog and try the most disgusting thing you can think of...

....LIVE OCTOPUS! To anyone who may be offended by the cruelty to Octopi, I am very, very sorry, and I can assure you it will never happen again, but when in Korea...

We even managed to get video footage, so please have a look at these clips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E2wrkoqHmY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4U-6wq8QEE

NEW CLIP I'VE FINALLY MANAGED TO UPLOAD... THE BEST OF THE LOT!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TXyYNE1bXc

I'm afraid to admit that our table manners were not all they should be... we couldn't help but play with our food, which was kindly pointed out to us when we were asked if we knew the meaning of the word "etiquette". We were however, regarded as celebrities today by some of the Koreans - people who have not spoken to us the entire time we have been here were coming up to us having heard that we not only survived a night of drinking with a Korean, but were game enough to try live Octopus. It wasn't until this point that I realised that even many Koreans wouldn't go near it!

Apparently if you go to a seaside town, you can eat live octopus whole... I can imagine I would be likely to end up with an Octopus face mask if I attempted that manouvre...

Tip of the week: Why faff around trying to pick up food with chopsticks when you can get the food to voluntarily wrap itself around your chopsticks?! That is, if you can get it before it sticks to the plate/table/your face...

Eric Clapton and Prince

2007-01-24T21:27:00.000+09:00

Last night, Stuart and I had the treat of being able to go and see Eric Clapton in Concert in Seoul. At some point last week I saw him on MTV and was very surprised when an ad flashed up to say that he was playing in Seoul this week. I didn't really expect to get tickets so last minute, but on the other hand I didn't know if he was popular in Korea or not. It seems we got the last 2 tickets, or at least the last 2 in a decent position. I know the picture isn't the best in the world, but it proves I'm not making it up!

The concert was held in the Olpmpic park in one of the halls which was a great venue, but there was no support band advertised so we were wondering who to expect. No one as it turned out... it was all very efficient - the second we sat down, the lights went down and Eric came on, played for 2 hours, and then went off.

I have to admit I don't actually have any Eric Clapton music, except for Layla (which goes without saying really?) but I would guess that many of the Korean audience wouldn't have been that up on his work either. Still, the music was incredible, his band were great, and when he finished with 3 at the end that everyone knew, there were a lot of glow sticks waved (no one actually got out of their seats until the encore) which I took to be a sign of extreme appreciation by the crowd. There was no beer or throwing things at other people, so it was the most civilised concert I've been to. It certainly got a big thumbs up from me and Stu; so bad, but I had to get a picture of this ridiculous sculpture in the Olympic park in somehow...

Thought for the week:
If you kiss a very large gold frog, does it mean that it will turn into a very rich prince?!

Which reminds me, this is a very lucky year in Korea as it is the year of the Golden Pig (and no, I am not going to start kissing pigs... golden, american or any other variety) and a year this lucky only comes around every 600 years or so. Such faith is put in this that there were a much larger amount of weddings last year than usual in preparation for the best year for a long time in which to have a baby; so a baby boom is expected this year... but fear not, I think I will be safe as I appear to be mostly attracted to an inanimate, metal amphibian.

Wandering here, stumbling there...

2007-01-20T19:03:00.000+09:00

Well, I was supposed to be going skiing today but it obviously was not meant to be, as I realised that I would need to get insurance and nobody will insure you (from the UK) if you're already abroad, at least no one I could find in a short space of time. As that involved getting up at 4.30am in the morning, I wasn't devastated to stay in bed.

So, with a day free, I decided to wander from my apartment in the vague direction of Apujeong, which I knew was supposed to be quite an affluent area of Seoul, and see what I found on the way.

I stumbled across this Cathedral which looked quite impressive, and I wondered how long it had been in Seoul (I'm not sure how long Christianity has been in Korea) so as I mulled this over I thought I would walk all around it. Using the date of the construction as an indication of the length of Christianity here though isn't really going to help..... as the next photo shows, it hasn't actually been completely built yet. I can't imagine there are many brand, spanking new Cathedrals being built in the world, but if everyone else has got one, I'm sure Seoul wants one too!

I wandered onwards through some back streets and saw a pet grooming shop which is not the obvious thing you associate with Korea, so I couldn't resist looking in the window. I did have in the back of my mind the whole eating dog thing, which does happen here although it is quite rare as it is very expensive and a delicacy (apparently....I'll pass thank you)

However, there would be little point in grooming a dog you were going to eat, so I felt these pampered pooches were probably very well looked after (if you counted having their coats dyed and decorations attached to them well looked after!) and if this one was ever going to end up on a plate, it would have to be dessert!! (ok, this is an artists impression, but it's very close to the actual Spaniel I saw with luminous pink ears... so wrong!)

Onwards, and after a long walk I thought I'd have a rest and a Jasmine tea in a nice coffee shop. However, as I walked out to leave I literally stumbled across myself - I obviously wasn't concentrating enough to take on the tricky prospect of a flight of stairs, dazzled perhaps by the chrome and glass everywhere, and as the thought crossed my mind of "I wonder if they've got any..." whoompf... my mind crossed a large distance very quickly as the floor disappeared from underneath me, and my feet connected only slightly with 2 steps out of about 10, and I caught myself, literally, by crashing full bodily against my mirrored image in a mirrored wall at the turn of the stair case. After a second it appeared that neither myself or my image was broken, so I casually (yet quite carefully) turned the corner and walked the rest of the stairs to get out of view of the entire, packed top floor who had gasped at the crash, and were probably wondering why western women insist on drinking so early in the day! The irony is, I have never fallen down a flight of stairs drunk, I hadn't had anything alcoholic to drink for a week, and I didn't even have high heels on. Skiing would have been much safer...

During my wanderings, I also came across this sign which made me chuckle (so immature...) along the lines of; have the Korean's copied the idea of Speed Dating and taken it to a whole new level....?! (apologies, I have to amuse myself out here)

Confucius say...

2007-01-15T00:19:00.000+09:00

... only a foolish woman plays around with heating before leaving apartment for 6 hours...

It's turned very cold here, and in direct comparison, my heating seemed to go down in temperature. So, not being able to read Korean, I pushed a few buttons here and there and left the dial at full blast (it had been on this setting for days to no apparent effect). Nothing seemed to happen, so I gave up and left it as it was and went out for the night.

It did seem a bit warm on my return, but I took that as just being the difference from coming in from the extremely cold outdoors. However, when I removed my boots, I quickly learnt that my earlier efforts to get the heating to work haid paid off... dividends as it turned out, as I realised I couldn't actually keep one foot on the floor longer than a couple of seconds (the joys of under-floor heating!). It was a bit like when you see people on a very hot beach trying to make it from a sun lounger to the sea in a wierd, chicken-like run.

As I have had an uneventful week from a photographic point of view, I will resort to a picture that traditionally sums up this time of year for me (when I am not the other side of the planet) and also celebrates that the Alps have indeed, finally got snow! Cheers!

Chopsticks & sprouts, bears, eels & pin ups..

2007-01-08T19:56:00.000+09:00

Christmas: Chopsticks and sprouts don't go together. Neither do peas and chopsticks. However, as I had promised my Korean colleagues, I did enforce the ban on cutlery for Christmas Dinner with my family, on the condition that no one was granted cutlery until they had picked up a sprout. Easier said than done, unless of course you adopted the stab technique favoured by my mum... I should also point out that Dad wasn't as drunk as he looks, just an unfortunate picture!

And so onto New Year! No need for chopsticks this time, but went for a very traditional English one in a small village near Chippenham. 20 of us dressed up as various tube stations, much to the delight of the local pub we descended on who had a spontaneous pub quiz created for them, as the locals tried to guess which stations we were. So, being true to my London home, I selected Ealing Broadway (well, true to my home actually would have been West Acton - couldn't think of anything for that!), so I give you... Eel in Broadway! (The Eel is the sock puppet in the hat, rather than the muppet in the hat). Also thought that it as it was my last New Year in my 20's it was about the last chance I could ever wear hotpants without getting arrested...

Paddington also made an appearance, and as we decided to walk back the 2 1/2 miles back in the pouring rain along country roads, Paddington's footwear was considerably better than Ealing's.

Also making appearances were Shepherd's Bush (the bush is not visible in this picture, fortunately) and some Blackfriars, the one visible in this picture must have been a member of that small and relatively unknown sect of elderly friars who carry tartan blankets on the back shelf of their Rovers.

New lookalike: I also have to add that to my delight, on at least 3 different occasions, people said that I looked like Zara Phillips, and although at the time I couldn't actually picture what she looked like, I decided it must definitely be a step up from Meryl Streep who must be at least 20 years older than her. Having discovered what Zara actually looks like, I can conclude that it must have been the trilby and the local ale that caused the similarities, because, alas, I look nothing like her!

And so it was back to work, and although for some this is the worst time of year with post Christmas blues, who could be sad when I got to sit next to a pin up again... sorry Forbes, couldn't resist!

Back to Korea: Just as I was congratulating myself for having no slip ups whilst in the Uk, I got to the Korean Air check in desk. Confident in the fact that I had obeyed all anti-terrorism rules by putting all liquids, cosmetics and kalashnikovs in my hold baggage (last time I inadvertantly risked terrorising the crew & passengers with a mini mascara which was binned at customs) I was foiled by the rule of week for hand luggage at Heathrow. It seems that although you can now carry cosmetics in a plastic bag, examination pencil case style, you can't have more than one item or you will be turned away from customs. I had a small handbag and an A4 case containing my laptop. Great. Carrier bag would solve the problem? No, has to be sealable. So over to the conspicuously nearby bag shop where I bought a bag that could contain both my bag and folder, and took up at least twice the size of both (am sure the check in staff are on commission). Of course, once I got to customs, every body else in the queue had bags, cases, pushchairs, bags and more bags with them with a few extra bags for good measure, and they all went through no problem. Was particularly delighted when a businessman got on the plane with a "hold all" that was so big I could have got into it, and yet a small bag with a folder was too much! I was had even in my own language!

So I arrived in Korea after a peaceful flight, and was just having a jet-lag-free nights sleep when someone managed to set fire to the building next door at 4am, which ensured fire alarms & fire engines, police cars and ambulance sirens, combined with loud hailer instructions in Korean, kept me awake for the next 2 hours (and obviously my extreme concern for the inhabitants). Was slightly concerned that the loud hailer might be warning everyone in the building next door (ie. us) to evacuate, but I figured they would have just set off our fire alarm if that was the case. Luckily it seems that I was right.

Just as I was ending the first day back in Korea, I was welcomed by my team with a Korean-Chinese meal, and a menu with English translation. It would seem, however, that my interpretation of beef is slightly different to theirs, in that I wouldn't expect my beef to come with small, curly legs with suckers...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2006-12-19T20:03:00.000+09:00

Well, it's time to go home for Christmas - yippee! Hope to see everyone soon. As a special treat for Christmas though I will leave you with one more embarrassing thing.... (thanks to Annabel for sending this to me - hours of fun!)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=60671cb21082285269f878fG06121902

I would like to take this opportunity to point out to Stu's friends and family that, whatever claims he has to the contrary, I have had absolutely nothing to do with turning him into a physical wreck in the last 6 weeks. Not one bit. I am a really good influence...

Less is more...

2006-12-17T21:25:00.000+09:00

... except when it comes to uses for Cabbage evidently. Cabbage in Korea is the King of vegetables, pickled with chilli and garlic being the favourite variety. However, I did not expect to find them used instead of flowers. Yes, I give you... Decorative Cabbages!!

Fortunately , the Christmas decorations over here tend to be a bit more tasteful, although how Seoul still manages to have power with streets that have this many Chrismas lights I don't know.

Embarrassing moment of the week: Oh yes, I didn't want to disappoint... I decided to go into a dress shop mainly for entertainment purposes as the frocks on display were beauties. I thought I'd just have a look and perhaps if they were cheap get a great fancy dress outfit. However, when I went in to the tiny shop stuffed full of dresses, I realised that I was the only customer in there, which meant I got the full attention of the lady running the shop. Much more attention that I would have liked as it turned out... I managed to get cajoled into trying on one of the less offensive items and it soon became apparent that she had a "less is more" approach to the changing room. She pulled a curtain across at the back of the shop to cover the window, but to my surpise there wasn't another curtain, so I had to get changed fully exposed in the shop, under closer supervision than I felt was strictly necessary, as she was taking my clothes from me and folding them up. I will certainly put more emphasis on underwear selection next time I go shopping! Thankfully no one walked into the shop which was particularly fortuitous as I was slap bang in the centre of the US army stomping grounds, and being caught literally with my trousers down by a load GI's would have been too much humiliation even for me!

Surreal moment of the week: Having dinner in a French restaurant in Korea with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer playing on an accordian. Excellent. I couldn't believe my luck when, having looked for a nice quiet restaurant to recover from Saturday night with a nice steak, the second I raised the fork for the first bite of steak an accordian player appeared from behind a Christmas tree and played his entire repertoire stopping only as I put my fork down, and not before reaching a crescendo with a Christmas medley of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells. So much for Peace on Earth...

Up there in terms of surreal things was wandering into the canteen and seeing a large green things (dog? rabbit? who knows?!). That would of course be the company mascot... the fairly short company mascot. I'm just surprised that the mascot isn't a giant cabbage...

Chickens, foxes and shoplifters...

2006-12-07T20:27:00.000+09:00

I have become pretty good at undestanding Konglish (apparently that's what Korean English is called, just in case you didn't get it), which manifests itself mainly in mixing l's and r's in the classic "flied lice" and "Jane Lawlings" kind of way, but also in my favourites of "Let's go to lunchie", "cake-ie" and "sandwichie". However, I really came unstuck when the team leader started talking about "chickens for the project", project "chickens" and generating "chickens". I nodded as usual and fixed my face into a "business face" whilst having hysterics on the inside. Then he wrote it down on a time plan and the light dawned.... of course he was talking about "Quick wins!". I suppose it was fortunate that it became chickens and not Quickie wins.

And so onto foxes. Was in a night club and and American guy had a dead fox which was pleasant (I guess it was an old fashioned stole). I was obviously delighted to find that it's mouth had a clip inside - great hair accessory!

Shoplifting... well it has been a while since I have done something embarrassing, so sure enough I was ready for a fall. I went into our little corner shop, which being part of a large chain of stores and having a card reader, I naturally assumed would take cards (every other place I have tried has taken cards with out the need to do the loitering, paying for other people's shopping manourve as previously mentioned). So, as she scanned, I packed... into my large handbag because they don't give you bags unless you beg for them... and then my card didn't read... so 3 different cards later, and no cash on me, I had to do the embarrassing thing of unpacking my bag (which is huge, full of assorted junk) and trying to make sure that I had found everything that I had stuffed in there, without uprooting any embarrassing items. And yes, of course there was a queue of people behind me. I'm sure people who had just walked into the shop though that this was a new western method of shoplifting. Oh the shame.

Shattered in Shanghai...

2006-12-04T23:10:00.000+09:00

Being the glamourous jet setters that we are, we popped over to Shanghai for the weekend. Such was our excitement at meeting our colleagues Clare and Tom over there, we went out. All night. Bed at 8am and up at 10.30 to go to the very Chinese... Tony & Guy. I nearly had a close shave (or cut) by managing to do the nodding off herd jerk motion whilst sat in the hair salon mid cut. Fortune and strong coffee prevailed.

We had dinner on the 89th floor of the tallest building in Shanghai, with great if nauseating views over the city. However, far more stomach churning was the view inside the hotel if you looked from the top floor down to the foyer. I have to admit, I held the camera over rather than sticking my head over - didn't want the people in the foyer to experience my dinner after me.

To the right of Clare and I in the next picture, you can see the Pearl TV tower (just behind the wine bottles!) which very obviously looks like two dragons playing with a string of pearls. Well, after a dose of Chinese wine it may do. Couldn't see it myself. Or much else by 8am...

Shanghai was incredible though... much more dramatic than Seoul as they seem to have a competition to put something bizarre on the top of every tower block, and they are much taller yet more spaced out than Seoul (the tower blocks that is, not the people). We also saw a model of what Shanghai is going to look like in the future, although most of it is there already - this picture only shows about half of the model, but it is absolutely mind boggling, and makes docklands look a little bit... little.

In addition, we popped over the river from the skyscrapers and were straight into the old town. If anyone gets any Chinese Christmas presents from me, they were really, really expensive, and I couldn't haggle them down at all. Honest.

In the old town we also saw some seriously serious statues. This red one in particular looked like I do in our offices after a whole day of extreme office heating.

I especially liked these statues in a Chinese Temple we visited (you can see the size of the real peoples heads at the bottom of the picture). They reminded me of Odd Job from James Bond, Mr Ben, and I'm sure I've seen a Ronnie Barker sketch looking like the one on the left... (for a close up you can double click on the picture)

New friends, old friends, lookalikes?

2006-12-04T22:24:00.000+09:00

High time to introduce our new celebrity friends from Busan, or so we could have the locals believe. So, from a Korean perspective we have... Meryll Streep, Summer from the OC (ok, the Korean's didn't actually say that but I think so), Anthony Hopkins and Renee Zellweger. Mmm. We're not so sure.

Not sure who Annabel looks like, Jim Carey perhaps, but she couldn't contain her excitement at visiting Seoul on a brief stop over between Brisbane and London...

Friday fun with dogs... Korean style

2006-12-01T11:58:00.000+09:00

We haven't been here yet, but rest assured we are going to try to sniff it out... well done to Stuart for finding this gem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxLs8qPQz0A

Beautiful Busan

2006-11-26T17:48:00.000+09:00

This weekend we caught the speedy train right down to the South of South Korea, to visit some of our new friends in Busan, the second biggest city in S. Korea. It looked a bit like Scotland with a load of high rise buildings dumped on top although the tour book likened it to San Francisco?!

Everyone has said great things about the beaches here so we thought we'd better go and have a look for ourselves. In Summer, these beaches are absolutely heaving and there is literally not an inch of space left anywhere. We were a little bit surprised when we reached the beach and were confronted with this spectacle that blends in so well with the scenery...

Along with Starbucks, Mexican food and drinking in Foreigners bars, we did actually manage to do some cultural stuff too, and went to visit the Temple of Haedong Yongkung. It has an motto which I will take with me wherever I go....
"The only thing must be answered by and through your heartfelt prayer whatsoever"
Glad to have cleared that one up then.

The temple itself was very impressive and quite spectacular being just by the sea, and there were some excellent stone carved lions, dragons and some other less identifiable
animals.

The statue of the female goddess backs out onto the sea and people used to come to her and make offerings and pray for rains so the crops would be successful that year.

Finally, there were a couple of these dragon heads guarding the temple which I thought were great - each one was about the size of a small dog.

Kidnapped by aliens...

2006-11-26T17:37:00.000+09:00

I have discovered that there is an unusual attitude to dealing with the emergency of a fire over here. It appears that rather than risking a miserable emergency evacuation, your last moments should be spent doubled up with laughter at the ridiculous looking emergency head gear you are encouraged to wear. How anyone would manage to pick themselves off the floor and calmly evacuate I just don't know...

Black belt with chopsticks...

2006-11-26T17:20:00.000+09:00

I am proud to present my latest achievement... picking up cucumber batons with chopsticks!

I have had a hazardous week in that I have nearly been wiped out by scooters on pavements on a number of occasions, although luckily despite people also driving cars along the pavements they tend to be going a bit slower.

We saw a great example of Korean parking outside our apartment block this week - this car was actually parked down some steps. I suppose they were actually putting an off roader in the city to good use though.

Up close and personal...

2006-11-23T19:55:00.000+09:00

As many of you know, I am quite prudish, perhaps a bit of a wallflower, so I was somewhat embarrassed in some of the positions I found myself in last night... It all started out as an innocent Bikram Yoga session... so far there has been a mixture of male, female, Korean and Western teachers. Last night's one was a bit special, he was wearing only shiny lycra hotpants for a start. I couldn't quite place his accent.. American, Canadian, possibly with a Texan slant? Couldn't tell. But he did say Meeeeeeha instead of mirror. Alot. In fact over 26 times. Hard to practice calm meditation, balance and poise when you'd rather be in kick boxing the teacher. Anyway, I digress.

I'm not sure whether it was because I was lucky, special, in need of help, good, bad or plain blonde, but he managed to give me lots of "hands on assistance". I would have thought that after an hour of hot yoga when I was drenched in sweat it would have been a pretty bad move on his part. First he decided to hold my feet down in this pose.... not too bad, but I try to avoid my feet whenever possible and I certainly wouldn't advise anyone else to go near. (excuse poor drawings... it's hard to draw in paint with a laptop mouse, and I know it's not to scale or physically correct, but I'm sure it gets the idea across...)

Secondly, I got some lower back support in the next pose pictured - my shorts were at the completely drenched stage by this time, but if it's all in the name of a good stretch then I suppose it's ok... I should point out here that my shorts were a lot bigger than the ones pictured, but his weren't far off these beauties...

The last bit of assistance was too much, but I really wasn't in any position to argue (literally, it's a thyroid compressing pose so I actually couldn't breathe, swear, or tell him to go and have a look in the Meeeha and have a word with himself about wearing miniscule lycra hotpants...). He held my feet in the "rabbit pose" - so called because I guess Mr Bikram thought "arse in air pose" wasn't very eloquent!

I've been to North Korea...

2006-11-19T20:13:00.000+09:00

Yesterday we went to the DMZ (de-militarised Zone) that separates North and South Korea, and it was an amazing trip.

The first picture shows the South Korea soldiers squaring up to their North Korean counterpart, (can't see him but he's at the top of the steps) with the middle of the line of the DMZ running straight through the middle of the huts, which have doors at either end and are used for peace talks. There was one N. Korean on the steps, and at least one watching through the window with binoculars. We weren't allowed to point, gesture, wave or do anything that could be construed as provocation, although how much of it is theatre I don't know. There is a barracks holding over 100 soldiers just down the road that apparently can be mobilised and on the scene in 90 seconds though...

The second picture is me in North Korea! The S. Korean soldier next to me stands on the exact mid point, and protects the UN flag on the table. They all wear dark glasses to intimidate the N. Koreans, and stand in that pose which is the "rock" or ready to fight pose of Taekwondo, of which all of these soldiers are black belts!

One of the more memorable stories from the area is when the US went on a mission in the 80's to trim back some branches of a tree, in order to be able to see one check point from another. A group of 3 set out, and within minutes were ambushed by 30 N. Korean's who killed 2 of them with axes, which they now have displayed in the N. Korean peace museum (?!). 3 days later, the US went in with 15 tree surgeons, 50 troops and had cover from a Battleship, fighter planes, and helicopters and the tree was successfully chopped down! The third picture shows this area, next to the Bridge of no return which used to be the only route between the two countries.

My absolute favourite stories are about the tunnels though... In the 70's, South Korea discoved the first of 4 tunnels that the N. Koreans have dug into South Korea, all aimed towards Seoul. At least 2 of them were large enough to move up to 30,000 troups and armoured vehicles through per hour. They reckon there's probably about 20 around in total but they haven't found them all. But, the best part is that when they were first discoved, the North Koreans denied digging them and said it must have been the South Koreans, despite the directions of the explosions and digging directions, in what has to be one of the best ever "it wasn't me, honest" scenarios. THEN, it get's even better! When one of the tunnels was discoved, as the N. Koreans were retreating, they painted the tunnel black with coal dust and said "we were mining for coal, honest" despite the fact the entire area is solid granite! Brilliant! We were able to walk down into one of the tunnels which runs under the DMZ underneath the ground in the picture above somewhere.

The last picture shows one of the biggest flagpoles in the world, holding the biggest flag which is about 30m long, and stands in paradise village in N. Korea. You can only see it flying in a hurricane because it is so big and heavy and was constructed to outdo the S. Korean flag pole which is a mere 150 tall and therefore 100m smaller. Ironically for Paradise village, nobody actually lives there. Possibly because they got fed up with having 6 to 8 hours of propaganda per day blasting from speakers in the direction of S. Korea to tell them how great it is and that they should defect! Not that any S. Koreans other than the army actually live within earshot anyway!

Spot the blonde...

2006-11-16T00:02:00.000+09:00

I thought it was about time to show that we have been doing the cultural thing as well as spotting unusual fish (they're sea cucumbers I've been reliably informed - still not even vaguely tempted to eat one!). So, the first photo is a spot the blonde competition outside the ancient Korean palace called Changdeokgung which is my kind of place, being the Palace of Illustrious Virtue. Very interesting to see all the glamorous Korean ladies tottering around in their high heels and skirts around the uneven paving and grit pathways, but it is important to look ones best on every occasion in Seoul. Apparently.

The palace and grounds were pretty amazing though, built originally in the 15th century but having been burnt down and rebuilt most centuries as various people invaded (mostly the Japanese!). Probably very disrespectful of me to say that the roof gables reminded me of gypsy caravan type paintings...?

Offence of the week: Stu and I decided to venture to a local restaurant on Sunday night, and to try the posh looking Japanese restaurant round the corner (ok, not entirely local Korean cuisine). After being shown to a rather posh room (with paper sliding doors) and having had a cup of green tea, we discoved after lots of pointing, gesticulating, chirades and bad Korean, that it only served Seafood, most of which was live or at best raw. So we then had to get up and leave. We offered to pay for our tea but they were having none of it. It doesn't take a cultural expert to figure out that this is probably not the done thing in Korea. Oops.

Embarrassment of the week: I ran out of cash so was trying to establish whether our local supermarket took Visa cards or not before I actually did my shop and got to the checkout, so I was loitering at the end of the checkout feebly waving my Visa card around to try to communicate this point. Unfortunately, before I could come up with suitable gestures/Korean/preventative measures, the cashier whipped my card out of my hand and swiped it to pay for somebody else's shopping, to the great surprise of both me and the customer involved. It was particularly embarrassing for all involved as all the lady was buying was some panty liners to which everyone's eyes in the queue were immediately drawn towards, to see what the commotion was about. After much apologising, signing for payment, unsigning for payment I was free to scurry off into the shop. It's quite hard to be inconspicious and blend in when you are the only blonde in a 10 mile radius though. Spot the wierd blonde who tries to pay for other people's shopping. Oops.

Luckily we have found an Irish bar that to make us feel like at home. I'm not totally convinced of the authenticity of the outfits or the staff though...

Tough competition...

2006-11-13T13:01:00.000+09:00

How are we suppose to compete in Noraebang against this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oCTkwpSgnY

Why I don't eat fish...

2006-11-12T08:52:00.000+09:00

Having got over robo-crabs, I wandered over to have a look at some crates of live fish at the side of the road and had a bit of a surprise when I saw these beauties... and they were moving about. Absolutely no idea what they are called over here, but am open to any suggestions anyone might have?!

Stu and I hit our local nightlife on Friday night in Gangnam Gu, and discoved a heady mix of glamourous cocktails and complete nerds, one of which is my new best friend... and going back to fish, I was delighted when they brought us a complementary snack of strips of dried fish which they then set fire to. The result was something that was crispy as you put it in your mouth, but as it got wet would get more like salty, fishy strips of rubber. Incredibly effective method of getting you to down your cocktail.

Comedy work moment of the week: having an off the record work chat with Duck Ki the manager out here in a small, windowless office and being plunged into complete darkness with "I want to break free" blaring out from nowhere due to the policy of trying to get people out of the office at 6pm on a Friday by making it impossible to keep working! Brilliant policy!

I should tell them that if they simply build an overcrowded, overpriced bar with not enough seating and call it the North Star it will be far more effective at emptying the office on a Friday night.

I'm so happy...

2006-11-09T23:23:00.000+09:00

... what an absolutely ridiculous grin. I'm smiling so much my face may actually split.

My place or yours?!

2006-11-08T23:05:00.000+09:00

Thought a few pics of my place might be interesting... especially as we were invited to hold a house warming party at our apartments. Was in a bit of a dilemma as to what food to serve as it is well known that the Korean's don't like cheese (except in their Karaoke). Well, if I've got to eat fermented, pickled cabbage then it's only fair to offer curdled milk really... managed to find some Camembert, and also did some pasta in a red wine and tomato sauce, backed up with a few Korean delicacies... and... they loved it! Or at least they all politely ate it, but there was also a definite case of a few of the team really tucking into the pasta, so I think I got away with it.

Result of the day: a local who I have not had lunch with before said that I use chopsticks very well, if not better than him, and I don't actually think he was being sarcastic as I had perfomed admirably over lunch, without firing anything across the table or dropping anything down myself or anyone else.

It does of course help enormously over here that slurping is expected and celebrated and that you just pile as much as you can into your mouth whenever you can. Apologies in advance to anyone who has to eat with me when I first return to the UK, although there is one bonus, I have considerably speeded up eating over here... if I like it, I am so delighted I shovel it down, and if I don't, I find the best way to deal with it is to shovel it down! Managed to avoid eating whelks last night, but felt obliged to eat the fish eggs... mmm mmm.

Offence of the week: luckily not actually me, but Stuart mentioned that we were planning a tour to the DMZ (de-militarised zone /border between North Korea and South Korea). Not really a place they like talking about, or consider a particularly appealing tourist area. I can see their point... a day spent with a bunch of US squaddies is probably worse than a large portion of Gimchi.

It's a hardy's life...

2006-11-06T22:57:00.000+09:00

Well would you believe it, my nearest shop is an off licence selling not only a large selection of wine (some of it even at a reasonable price) but cheese too! I am ver ver pleeessdd..

Warning of the week: you don't want to go catching crabs out here, they're Robo-crabs...

So far, Soju.... 5th Nov 2006

2006-11-05T22:57:00.000+09:00

It's now Sunday, and I have survived my first few days and a weekend in Seoul and am really impressed with the place so far.

It's far more Westernised than I thought, and has a Starbucks every 50 yards. There are literally 9 of them if you walk for 15 mins away from here.

I have a nice, if small studio apartment which has the advantage of being able to make your dinner without having to get out of your bed, more or less. Does have a huge TV though and is about 3 mins walk from work so really can't complain, and we are staying in an area which is the equivalent of Bank, so it's pretty posh for Seoul round here.

So far, the food has been pretty good, and if desperate, there is always rice or noodles to cling to(although this is somewhat tricky to do with metal chopsticks!) . Unfortunately, the national food of Gimchi (pickled, fermented cabbage with garlic and chilli) is even worse than I could have imagined - and our fridges absolutely reek of the stuff, so have had to cover the fridge in coffee granules in an attempt to get rid of the smell.

High points so far have been the Seoul Tower where this picture was taken from (it's really, really high - ha ha), Noraebang (Korean Karaoke) which was hilarious - have never heard Dancing Queen so brilliantly murdered and I was even able to accompany with a tambourine, and watching some really good live music in Itaewon, the foreigners area of nightlife. Oh, and seeing Matt having to wear an apron to prevent noodle spillage which looked like a B&Q uniform as pictured.

The reference to Soju is the spirit they drink here in vast quantities... have had to drink every night since arriving so far with the exception of Sunday.

As I am bound to offend someone every week, I thought I would have an offence of the week spot... This week's is a battle between:

1. Asking the Marketing Director if he could sing.
He looked at me in a horrifed way and said of course (everyone sings here - talent is gauged on volume rather than tone I suspect)
2. Us telling every Korean we met how excited we are to be visiting Korea as we thought that it would be polite, whereas it translates as being excited in a rather different way. Oh good.

Thought of the week:
If J-walking is illegal, why is it ok to drive motorbikes and cars (oh yes!) on pavements?!