Another interesting weekend, which was full of surprises- as always! The weekend really began on Saturday evening as we prepared for the journey to Ulsan.



It takes about 4 hours more or less to get there from Seoul. Dave, Rob and I met up at Seollung Station and walked to where Dave's car was parked. We got on the highway about 8.15 and arrived in Ulsan about 12.30.

We stopped a couple of times on the way for a beverage. Don't worry, they don't sell alcohol at any of the service stations! It was a good ride and as always, Dave's 'old faithful' never sputtered once.

It has been a very good car to him and continues to be that way. Only one problem though; Dave's stereo doesn't work, so all the way was more or less conversational beginnings and talking about more shite than we are usually used to.....lol.



He needs to get a new car stereo that can play mp3's also. He just hasn't looked at it as a priority, but I think he has re-thought that now after another weekend driving so far and no tunes.........right, Dave?



Once we got to Ulsan, we checked into a motel and left our stuff there and took a cab to "Benchwarmers." That is Troy's bar, who by the way, is trying to sell it after a few years of ownership. His wife, Sharon, just had a baby and Troy is busy with all the other stuff in his life including teaching and running a family.



We stayed at the Bench for about an hour or so and then headed to the second stalworth of Ulsan, "Tombstone." Lots of the foreigners that are at both places now, I don't recognize or even know. The constant shifting of the sands, as I call it, allows there to be a very transient population among the foreign communities all over Korea.



Oh yeah, in between shooting the shit with Troy and a few others, I met my ex-girlfriend there at the Bench. It was good to see her and she looked as good as ever, but I really am not in the relationship mode at all anymore and I felt a little 'trapped' even having to entertain her while my friends were around and stuff. I didn't over-do it though. I hung out with my friends and let her mingle with a few people that she knew from me. Foreigners of course! She sat at a table with a couple of girls; Janie and Hope were very good hosts......haha.

The biggest surprise of the weekend was at Tombstone. We all knew that Janie was coming back to Korea sometime soon. Janie is Gareth's girlfriend for any of you that can remember him from my blog. He is a good friend and a fellow Brit. He was the manager of the Wonshots, our football team and gave us many weekends of good fun and he organized things brilliantly. He is definitely a manager by nature, that is for sure.

He had embarked on a trip of Canada, England, France, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile. His whereabouts as such were unknown. That is until Saturday night!!!! Guess who was standing there next to Janie in the middle of Tombstone? Yes, you guessed it right.........Gareth!!!!!!! He never told anyone that he was coming back to Korea!!!



He decided to come back with Janie as she needed to make a little money so decided to come here for one more year. He is madly in love with her and couldn't bear to think about being away from her for a whole year. So he decided to come back and signed a one year contract to work here again. Great news for me! That gives me an excuse to go back to Ulsan more often now........just to see Gareth.

Gareth, by the way, is an awesome photographer and he has his own website full of his pics from his travels around the world. Check it out and when you get to his website click on where it says "Portfolio" across the top of his page. That will take you to all of his pics.

He told me that he sold two of his pictures in the U.K. while he was back there. Some of the pics are absolutely magnificent. I will not spoil them for you. Just go and check them out at: http://www.garethcopley.com/

Sunday, midday, Kyoung Hee and I went for some 'galbi,' which is low fat pork and very thinly sliced. Dave met up with us and a little afterwards, Kyoung Hee went home. I sensed that she doesn't like Dave and that made me feel very uncomfortable and reminded me of one of the reasons that she used to annoy me; she is a bit of a drama queen. Anyway, I said my goodbyes and Dave and I decided to go and visit a good friend of ours, Dan Gauthier.

In between all of this, Rob had managed to not get back to the hotel room that he was sharing with Dave. He stayed at a friend's house. He managed to meet up with us about 8pm that night and got a ride back with another fella called Dan who lives in Seoul and of course, we all know him as well.

We got to Dan's house about 3pm or so and as always, Dan and his wife were the gracious hosts. She was going golfing, so that left Dave, Dan and I to have a boys hangout day. Dave ate, went for a nap, woke up and ate again.......something that Dan and I took the piss out of him for.....haha.

Dan and I had a great chat and we were drinking beer steadily all afternoon. It wasn't until later on that we realized we were pleasantly pissed..........oh, again, Paul!!!!!!!

Dave and I were brought here by Dan and we have been friends with him ever since. He recruited us to Korea back in 2000.....wow, doesn't seem like that long ago that we came!!!!!!

Dan, Dave and I had a good chat about pretty well everything in life and had a good laugh. Dan and his wife had just gotten back from a tour of Australia, New Zealand and countless other places. I think they were gone a little over 2 months. This was all a little while ago and it was the first time we had seen him since he got back.

He went into his room and got out his 'digeridoo,' not sure if that is how you spell it. It was priceless when he tried to play it and I was in bulk when between breaths, he turned to us and said, "It's been a while since I played it!" I was hysterical when he said that. It was just the way he said it and with his Aussie hat on as well and his Aussie accent, it was priceless. He actually told us that it cost him about 500 dollars, believe it or not. Each one is hand-made and one of a kind.

We all decided that we are going to have a 'boys' weekend at the end of this month. Dave is off that whole weekend and I start my two weeks vacation, slash shutdown at my school. So it should be a blast.

We are going to rent a condo and just hangout there and have a barbecue and a good laugh and of course some alcohol.

NO WOMEN WILL BE THERE!!!!!!!! That is a rule that we have made before we organized this whole thing. No going to town to chase women or anything like that. Just tunes, conversation, laughs, food and beverages.

I can't wait to tell you the truth. It will be the first time that we will hangout with Dan in that kind of environment and he is a funny guy with some great stories and some great laughs.