I Have Discovered Podcasts!

Well, I have finally discovered podcasts and I must say, they are awesome. For those of you who do not know what podcasts are, you are missing out on a whole slew of information if you want to listen to things while you are on the bus, subway or other forms of transportation.

I bought myself an ipod back in December and it has been one of the best purchases ever as it has given me so much contentment and believe it or not, even more education, and all while I am on the go.

I have a whole host of podcasts on my ipod from news to sport, philosophy, language instruction, documentaries, history, discussion groups, health etc.....

It is like listening to a radio except you pick what broadcast you want to listen to, anytime of the day. There are also vodcasts, which are podcasts with video, just like tv, which you can watch on the screen of your ipod.

It is absolutely amazing and to give you an idea of how diverse the things are that I am listening to, here is an example. I listened to a BBC podcast about, "How to Capture a Castle." It was question and answer podcast between an author and an interviewer about a history book, on the history of castles and how they were sieged at different times in history. From being made out of wood and then on to stone, how the attacks differed. It was a really interesting podcast and it was about 40 minutes long. I learnt a lot and I was thoroughly entertained as I went up and down escalators and on and off buses and subways.

There is a "World Soccer Daily" podcast, which was voted the top podcast last year among many listeners. Two fellas, Steve and Howard who are English, but live in America, discuss anything to do with football. People email in questions and opinions and also people phone in during the show. It is almost 2 hours long, Monday to Friday and is very funny and at times controversial. It does not have to fit the criteria for regular radio behaviour as it is a from SIRRIUS satellite radio enterprises. They are very funny as a duo and some of the callers have great questions and insights into the football world.

If you just want to listen to the show on your pc at home, here is the link to the webpage. They have had trouble since last Tuesday, so no broadcasts were available after Tuesday, but the problems should be solved by Monday.

http://www.worldsoccerdaily.com/

There are a host of other sports programs such as; 6 minutes of The Leafs Hockey Team highlights after each game, Footy World, ESPN Soccernet Podcast and on and on.

I love the podcasts and I get so much enjoyment from them. I also have a learn Italian podcast and a Greek podcast as well as vocabulary of the day and on an on.

Sorry to go on about the podcasts, but it is an area of my life that has definitely made me feel more in touch with the western world as well as giving me more enjoyment listening to history, sports and other types of entertainment. I even get the Larry King podcast and listen to some of the people that he interviews.

Anyway, enough said about podcasts, but if you have an ipod and are on the go like my job is, you should check out podcasts and learn all about them.

If you are interested about what podcasts are, here is the link from Wikipedia, which by the way is one of the best online resources to find out about pretty well anything. It is like having the world's encyclopedia at your fingers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasts

Not much else going on at the moment. I am very busy and that is why I have not been blogging so much. I watched the Nigeria vs Mali game on Saturday morning at 4.30am with my Nigerian friend, Richard at my place. Watched the Liverpool game at Hollywood's last night and hung out with Rob and Chris and Dave.

Dave, Chris and I met up in Kangnam and had a meal there before we went to watch the Liverpool game. It ended up being 85 dollars, which by Korean standards is really, really expensive. Still only about 30 dollars each though, and we did eat a lot of bbq'd pork. Usually though, the same meal anywhere else in Seoul would cost half of that. Oh well, live and learn!

I am going to watch the Man U game online at 11 tonight and then off to bed with the start of a new week upon me. I will make my customary Sunday call to my son and then ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

A Mother's Love And Care!

I have to thank my Mum for the advice she has given me about my cold. She told me to go and get some nasal spray and some eye drops. I did just that and I already feel a little bit better.

Sometimes, all you need is some good, sound advice from a loved one.

I joined up at the old gym today and started having saunas again. I went today and it was awesome, I must say.

No more complaining for me. I am just going to get on with things. Looking forward to watching the Nigeria vs Ivory Coast game and then Liverpool vs Aston Villa. Gonna try and get a few hours shut-eye and then wake up and watch the lot.

January 20th Already!

This month seems to be just flying by. Can't believe that there are only 11 more days left in the month. It seems like yesterday that it was New Years Day!

Not a lot has been happening. I am extremely busy these days hence the drop in volume of blogging that I am doing.

I usually am done at 9.30 most nights now and then by the time I get home, it is after 10. I have not been to the gym once this week, which is bothering me somewhat.

It has been cold as hell here in Seoul and I think that has been taking it out of me, too. I just don't feel like doing anything when it is this cold. Don't really even want to go out the door.....haha.

The Africa Cup of Nations is starting today and I am looking forward to that. They are not showing any of it on t.v, but I can get every game on line. The online site is http://www.p2p.eu/ and it is a fantastic site. Stu got me onto it and I watch all the football matches on that now.

Didn't go out on Friday night. Just stayed home and went to bed about 11, which is ridiculously early by my standards.

I am still feeling sick. Got rid of that sinus infection and know my eyes are caked every morning and my throat hurts and I have a little bit of a cough that is very dry......ah poor baby Paul, you'll be alright!!!!!!




I really am tired of being sick and hold no trust in the drugs that they give you here. It seems like the stuff never gets rid of whatever it is you have......ever. Tired of going back to the doctors and telling them to give me something stronger. They are the doctors, shouldn't they know? Dumb arses that I have no faith in.

Gonna sign of now, before I get too much more negative. Needless to say, I have the winter blues, big time! I will head out tonight and try to neutralize them.......

Identical Digits For The Fourth Time

Yes, that's right. I turned 44 on Friday. That means I have done the identical digit thing four times now; 11, 22, 33 and 44. Let's hope I can get to do it 9 times....haha.

Met Dave, Rob and Dan on Thursday night, the eve before my birthday and ended up getting home about 5am. It was a good night and we all had a good time.

Woke up about 11 am on Friday morning and then finished my work at about 8.45pm. It was a bit of a long day, but it was my birthday, so it was cool.

One of my students, Alex, turned 6 the same day as me! It was so cool. I knew this a few months before, so we decided to have Domino's Pizza and a bottle of coke during the class for 'Our Birthday!'

I bought Alex a leather football from the Korean League here and he bought me a stainless steel thermos from Starbucks Coffee with a free coupon for a coffee anysize and anykind also. We had a good lesson and just hung out. He is football mad and plays also.

I also have another student, Moonhee who turned 31 the same day. I teach her by telephone, twice a week for 30 minutes each time. I only found out it was her birthday on Monday and thought she was joking at first.

My birthday itself on Friday night was great. Dan, Rob, Dave, Ryan and I played screen golf at a place close to Dan's house. We started about 10 and finished at 1.30 in the morning. Rob and I then headed back to Itaewon where we live and ended up at a bar called 'Ole Stompers.' Duane, the fella that owns it, is a great fella and we just hung out there with a bunch of other people until about 6am. The music was great and also I met two South American fellas.

I was able to practice my Spanish with them. One fella was from Ecuador and the other from Peru. The fella from Peru plays in a band that was scheduled to appear that following night at Ole Stompers, but we never made it out to see it.

On a bad note, Rob was let go by his school. They said something about numbers, but I seriously think they are having financial troubles and are just looking for an excuse to downgrade. The only problem is they told him on Thursday that they wanted him to leave the school 4 days later, the day after he got paid.

Usually ,job etiquette here states that the school will give you at least 30 days notice if they want to lay you off. It definitely works the other way if you want to quit. They insist that you give them that much time. I was pissed off royally and will wait to see what happens with a meeting that Rob has scheduled with the school on Monday.

Remember, I work for the same company, but at a different school. I told my Korean teacher that if they screw Rob over, then I will not be resigning there at the end of April like they want me to. I will not stand by and see one of my best friends treated unfairly and then just carry on working for the same company like nothing has happened.

I have too much integrity to do that and also there are tons of jobs out there, all the time. I look after my friends and anyway, that could happen to me next.

Watched the Liverpool game last night and don't even want to go there about how bad they are!!!!!!!

Gonna watch the Sunderland vs Portsmouth game in about half an hour and then off to bed. Back to the Monday grind and see what the week has to offer.

The First Weekend Of The New Year

By all standards, it has been a quiet first weekend. Friday night, I met up with Rob and Dan and we played 'screen' golf. Rob kicked our butts and I totally sucked. I got almost double par on each hole, which is the maximum the game will give you!

I enjoyed it though. I want to go and do it again for my birthday on Friday. Hopefully, we'll have Rob, Dan, Dave and I there playing it. Chris doesn't like it, so he won't be coming, I think.

I met up with Caroline on Saturday in Bundang. She is a Korean girl that I became friends with about 2 years ago when I lived in Bundang. I ended up teaching her sister and her sister's friend for about 4 months or so.

She just returned from Mexico, where she lived and studied for a year. Her aunt lives there, so it was much cheaper to study there than any other places. She did her major in Spanish in Korea, so it was a good choice to improve her Spanish.

I took my Spanish phrase book with me and we talked for about 3 hours in Spanish. I was quite surprised how much I remembered and it was great to speak my favourite language of all!

Saturday night, I met up with Chris in Kangnam and then we headed to Itaewon again. We went to Geckos and stayed there for a while and ended up again at UN Club. Not much went on, but a good time was had by all.

Stayed home all day today. Did some lesson plans and prepared some questions for my classes at school. Other than that, I just lounged around all day.

I am going to call my son, Tyler, at midnight, as usual. At 1am, I am going to watch the Liverpool vs Luton FA Cup game on my computer. I might watch the Arsenal or another game that starts before the Liverpool game, too.

Not a bad weekend to start the New Year!

27 Hours Into A 48 Hour Fasting Session

Yep, that's right. It is that time of the year again to purge my system completely and get all the junk out of there or at least give my body a good chance to digest some of the residue out of the tank.

I am currrently into my 28 hour and I don't feel hungry at all. I have been drinking lots of water and had some juice this afternoon and some coffee.

This is not the first time that I have tried this. I have been doing this for many years now. Don't know if it helps my system in the long run, but it just feels good to do it once in a while.

I have not done any exercising other than walking while I am fasting, for obvious reasons. I will work out tomorrow and then tell you how things went.

For now, suffice to say that I am feeling good and will continue to do so unless I start to really want to eat and then I will..........

Joined A New Gym

My membership expired at The Hamilton Hotel, yesterday. I decided not to renew for several reasons.

One was the extra travelling time after I finished work. The location, although close, meant that I had to take an extra bus there and an extra bus back, in order to get home. It didn't take that long, but 25 minutes extra after having already travelled 2 hours plus on the subway and buses, is not needed.

The second reason was the hours that it was open. The Hamilton was open until 11pm Mon to Fri and 6 on a Sat and 4 on a Sunday. I needed a bit more availability at night, as I found myself rushing through my workouts a lot of the times.

Wished I looked as good as this guy. I am going to try, this year!

The new gym is a 5 minute walk from my house and I am paying for 3 months there, what I was paying for a month at The Hamilton. Also, the bus fare will save me about 10 bucks a week. Not much in the overall scheme of things, but better in my pocket.

The other thing is that the gym is open until 2.30am from Mon to Fri, which I am really pleased about. There is no sauna, but I can still go to any sauna once or twice and week for about 5 dollars a go.......much less expensive.

Plus, a change is always good, right! I joined for 3 months and got a locker, so I can leave my running shoes there and my mp3 disc player, too.

I will start working out there tomorrow. I was too tired today to do so, as I got home about 10.15pm and it was my first day back at my school in over 10 days.

Going to bed now and then setting the alarm for 5am to watch Liverpool vs Wigan. Come on boys, let's have a good result tonight.

A Pure Artist At Work And Play

This is very clever and witty.......

An Awesome Story To Start Your New Year

I wonder what their secret is and was?
I can guess it was pure happiness............

Read and enjoy this bit of glorious news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/7166713.stm

Finally The American Justice System Works!

Read this article about this 'animal.' At least the justice system worked the way it is supposed to do in this case.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/CRIME/12/31/iron.man.ap/index.html?eref=googletoolbar

Happy New Year To All Of You And Your Families And Friends

The biggest thing about the new year is always about resolutions. Do any of you have any? Of course, I do.

So in short, here they are:

1. To keep myself healthy by eating only good food and exercise more than I did last year.

2. To drink way less. Have a curfew of 2am when I am out.

3. Spend more time doing quality things such as reading, studying and sometimes just mental health time.

That is it, I am afraid. Nothing earth shattering, but all the same, very important things for me to improve on. I think they can easily be achieved, as I have already put some of them into motion before the new year got here.

I wish everyone that is reading this blog and their family and friends, the best of health for the coming year. Really without good health, we have nothing. All the best to all of you and I hope that I continue to interest you more than I have done in the past with some of my new blogs.