Friday, May 30, 2008

Stevie Does It Again For England

England won quite easily against the U.S.A. on Wednesday night. Two goals. One by Terry and the other by a great move between Barry and Gerrard, with Gerrard slotting it home brilliantly.

I have been disappointed with Terry's behaviour over the last few years and think he needs to drop the arrogance and disrespectful part of his game. He is a great player and does not need to ruin his character by acting like a spoilt child. Maybe the penalty miss against Utd will calm him down in that area a little. He scored a great goal and looked a little less exuberant after the goal, going out of his way to go over and celebrate with Beckham who once again delivered a perfect free-kick.

Check out the video. I love the English commentator's voice. It always makes the game so much more exciting when the commentator is right into it and makes it known.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Mate Of Mine Sam At His Judo Tournament In Korea

This is a short video of Sam in his Judo tournament in Korea earlier last month. I met him in Seoul pub about 3 months ago. Great lad, a good laugh and he loves his judo. He is from London, England, so we have the same British sense of humour. His a great fella and a good friend. I got this video off of his facebook....hope you don't mind, Sam? Too bleedin' bad if you do.....hahaha.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Dan Lafontaine's Wedding In Ulsan


I flew to Ulsan on Saturday night. It took 45 minutes......great!

Met up with Rob, Dave and Chris when I got there. Then we met up with Gareth and Guy at The Wa Bar. We went to Tombstone then to Benchwarmers to see Troy, the owner, a friend of ours. Got home late and then the next morning got up to go to Dan's wedding.


It was held in a Catholic church and then after there was a small get together, about 15 people, at a korean restaurant. All in all a very simple wedding, but not a word was spoken in English throughout the whole service.....about one hour.....surprised all of us, actually......oh well, we are happy that Dan got married and then right after went to the Philippines for his honeymoon.


We met Dan Gauthier and his wife at the church and we hung out with them for a short while at the restaurant. Dan and his wife were nice enough to drop us off at the bus station. We all caught the bus back to Seoul. Dave took another bus to Bundang. It took 6 hours to get back to Seoul........ahhhhhh!!!!!


Dave left an hour after us and got home about the same time. There was bad traffic jams due to torrential rain and dozy drivers....haha.........


On here are some pics of the wedding and the best one I think, is the one of Dan in his traditional Korean costume. It is customary to wear it when you get married to a Korean in Korea and also to bow to the family of the bride. We called Dan, Super Mario.....haha.


Thursday, May 15, 2008

Thanks Dad Again For Another Cracker Video

This is brilliant and the email orginally said, STICK BIGOTRY UP YOUR ARSE.....watch this video and have a great laugh.

What A Dog Act This One Is!

Got this email off my Dad. What an absolutely amazing animal. People shouldn't forget the trainer, though! There was no mention of what a good job that she did with the dog.......haha.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

My Feelings About United Winning The Title Again!

My friend, Jeff, otherwise known as Jefski who lives in Seoul and watches matches at Hollywood's with me quite often, couldn't have taken a better picture to exemplify how we Scousers feel about Utd. getting another premiership title. I hope we get the next one.

Another Holiday Monday In Korea!

Monday, May 12th was the second Monday in a row that was a national holiday here in Korea. It was Buddah's Birthday. Last Monday was Children's Day. I enjoyed both of the Mondays off, but it was a little difficult to go back to work today. Although it was Tuesday, it sure did feel like a Monday.



We have a new teacher at our school. He looks Korean and has family that live here in Korea, but doesn't speak Korean very well and is a native speaker of English. He has very little experience teaching ESL (English as a Second Langugage,) but I am sure we can help him in that area. It will be nice for our Korean teacher to have a break now, as for the last month, she has done the teaching and the administration work at the same time.



Today was very frustrating at school for me. The indiscipline of the Korean children really bothers me sometimes, and today was one of those times. Many of the kids hadn't done their homework and came to class with no books or hadn't done the tasks that were asked of them before the holiday.......ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!



I spent most of the classes making the students go and see Elley and explain why they had no homework or no books. I always say to them, "How can you drive a car, if you have no key?" They laugh when they hear it, but it makes sense that if you want to study, you need a book, eh? Anyway, the Korean children in public schools are left to their own devices and have ZERO, let me say that again, ZERO discipline.



They run full out in the hallways. Scream and yell at each other while other classes are being taught. Look in the classroom windows. Jump up and down trying to look into the classrooms. Go up the wrong side or sometimes both sides as they go up and down stairs. Play in the washrooms. Wrestle with each other in the hallways. Stand on the banisters of the stairs. Shout out windows in the classrooms to other friends, even when the teacher is there. The teachers generally don't do anything to the kids and just stand by and let it happen. Lazy buggers, is what I say!



No wonder Korean people in general have no manners. It all starts at public school, the lack of discipline that is, and carries on right into adulthood. Today, I was walking towards the subway platform and the train had arrived about 30 seconds before I got there. All the people came off the subway and walked fully abreast of the yellow line that indicates which side to walk on. There was nowhere and no way to get through. Needless to say, I bowled some Koreans over. About a dozen, to tell the truth. This is a daily ocurrence on the subways and buses and it doesn't make me angry anymore, I bowl for fun..........haha.



Anyway, away from the bad-manners for now. I started back at the gym again as it was shut for 2 days due to the holidays. I am determined to get back to full workouts now and stop being as lazy as I have been the last little while. I am in the middle of a 72 hour fast and have completed 25 hours as this blog is posted. I always do this about 2 times a year, just to clean out everything. I am not doing it to lose weight, I am doing it to purge as doctors say. If you don't believe me, look up 'fasting' on the Internet. You might be very surprised about its benefits. Also, this is not the first time that I have done this, so I am a little bit of an expert about it now. I drink only fluids and try to just keep to water and the odd coffee here or there, nothing else.



I had a full workout tonight. Worked out chest and biceps and legs and forearms. I had lots of energy and don't feel tired, so it goes to show you that I have lots of calories still stored to use.



I have booked my trip to Manchester and paid in full. Now I have to buy presents and save some spending money.



I had a good weekend and met up with Guy, an English bloke from Ulsan on Saturday. He came to Seoul to pick up a motorbike and ride it back to Ulsan.

I will be in Ulsan next weekend for Dan Lafontaines wedding. I leave Saturday night at 8.50pm from Gimpo airport. I am flying down there, which takes about 45 mintes and costs 75 dollars! I will be getting the bus back with the other lads on the Sunday.

Chris, Dave and Rob are going down there, too. Not sure what days though. It will be fun to see Dan Gauthier and Troy and Guy and Gareth and a few other friends that I haven't seen for a long time.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

No Trip To Canada...........Monday Holiday In Korea

I went to book my trip to Canada last week and found out that it was going to cost me between 2500 and 2900 dollars, at the cheapest!!!!
The travel agent told me that the most expensive time to travel to Canada is July and August. Kind of makes sense if you think about it, just like other places due to the summer and kid's holidays and people travelling home and back.


I was not willing to pay that kind of money to spend 2 weeks in Canada, plus the double flying that I would have had to do. What I mean by that is that I would have come back from England on August 30th and then flew from there to Korea the next day on August 31st. So my decision was made up.


I will fly directly to England and will leave on August 14th and return to Korea on August 31st. That gives me 3 weekends there and also saves me a lot of money plus less time off work. I really wanted to go to Canada, but money wise, it would have been insane and I don't have that kind of money. I am a little disappointed that I won't be spending more time with my family, but we are still going to see each other.


My Mum, Dad, Sister, Nephew, Niece and Son, will all be flying together from Canada to England on August 15th, so I get to England a day before them. It will still mean that we will have about 17 days together, or thereabouts, which I think is great.


Today, Monday, was a holiday here in Korea. It is "Children's Day." Everyone has the day off and most families did something or went somewhere with their kids. I just hung out at home and went and had a sauna at the Hamilton Hotel. My gym is shut on Monday's, so I couldn't workout today.


Rob came over and did his washing at my house and we listened to some funny clips of the "Jerky Boys." If you have never heard of them, you should check them out. They used to call people up and using different character personalities, play jokes on them and have them on......so funny!!!!!


Tonight, I was supposed to go and meet Jenny, a Korean girl that I know from the UN Club. She is the bartender there and today was her birthday. I went all the way to Hongdae, but I was about 20mins late and her phone wasn't working, so I ended up not meeting her. She was with a bunch of people, so I don't know where they went. She should have called me, but probably didn't know my number due to her phone problem. Anyway, I will see her tomorrow and drop her birthday present off at the club. Hongdae is not that far from my house and only took about 10 mins in a taxi to get back home.


Not much else going on. Back to work tomorrow and next Monday is a holiday, also. It is Buddah's Birthday! Two Mondays off in a row.....kind of nice!!!!!!


All the pics of are my students, by the way!

Friday, May 02, 2008

Can You Speak Or Understand "Scouse?"

A friend of mine, Jayne, from Liverpool posted this video on Facebook for me. It is a classic. See if any of yers can understand it like, la!!!!!!!!