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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!!!!!!!!

Seoul Hard Rock Cafe And The Seoul Zoo!

The Seoul Hard Rock Cafe opened up last week in Itaewon after a year's construction, so I decided to go and check it out. It was 10 dollars to get in and you got a small glass of champagne included for that price......whipdeedooda!!!!!

Then I ordered a vodka and tonic, which is my staple drink now and has been for about the last 3 months. How much, you ask? How about 11 dollars!!!!!!! What a rip-off.

The saddest thing about the whole place was the type of music they were playing. It is "The Hard Rock Cafe" you fucken morons!!!!!!! There are pictures of Buddy Holly and Johnny Cash and Jimi Hendrix and many other memorabilia from rock 'n' roll stars etc. But wait, the Korean "Hard Rock Cafe" decided to play DANCE MUSIC and RAVE MUSIC and other unappropriate shite not related to the theme of the place.......dumb ass Koreans, let me tell you.......I was so pissed.

Needless to say, I will not be going there EVER again. It was a very well decorated place, but the music lost all the class that it had built inside........phew.....don't get me started........insulting my favourite kind of music like that!!!!!!!!!

Also went to the Seoul Zoo on Saturday, which was great. It is world class and I am going there again. They had every animal imaginable and it is HUGE. It has mini-tram cars going around, like ski-lifts. It is also very cheap and a very well designed place. An all around good visit and like I said, I am going again. Took a few pics and here they are on my blog......haha.

Other than that, not much else going on. I had to mention the smell of my aparment to the landlord. It has been stinking for about 3 months, but I thought it would pass, but not!!!! There is a problem with the drains as I also hear the drains gurgling in the morning when I am sleeping and the other houses above and next to me are taking a shower or whatever. Got to be looked at, so I went tonight and saw the landlord. He is a nice fella and speaks English well. He said he will get it looked at right away. I told him that I had waited months, but now with the summer coming, it would be unbearable.

It has stunk ever since I moved in, to tell you the truth. Paying 550 a month for a one bedroom house, it should not stink like shit!!!!!!!!! Let's see what action is taken.

If nothing is done, I will keep bugging him until something is done or I will think about moving.......seriously, it has gotten that bad now. Maybe it is partly my fault for waiting so long, but I am not going to wait much longer if nothing is done.

Still no teacher at my school. They had better get their arses in gear.....haha. I have finished one year on Wednesday, April 30th. Shit, it has flown by this last year. As I said, I signed for another year as I like the school and have it running the way I want it to now. I like the kids and they are showing improvement all the time.....job satisfaction is truly intact!

Sniffing Clone Dogs In Korea..........Interesting!

Read this very interesting article. Who would have thought?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7359242.stm

A Big Week Looming!

Tomorrow is the big match. Liverpool vs Chelsea in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final. Come on Liverpool, do us proud again and get us in the final and on our way to Moscow for the final!




The last week has been one of ups and downs. Of course the down was Isaiah's mother passing away. The up was the Duran Duran concert, which was absolutely magnificent. The group were fabulous and I was so impressed with their stage presence and their overall performance. A great light show and Simon Le Bon's voice was awesome. The musicianship was great and it was well worth going to see. They played a lot of songs from the new cd and they were great. They played a lot of the old classics as well and I was thrilled with the overall song choice.



I finally finished my 7 days of medecine for my infection, but I am not quite sure if it has completely gone! I am still sniffling and after a couple of days of no colour, it seems to have come back again. Shit!!!!!!!!!



The weather here has turned for the best into Spring weather. The nights are a little cooler still, but overall, the days are very nice and quite hot at times. I have good news at school, too. They are installing an air-conditioner in the classroom.......alleluiah, alleluiah!!!!!!!!!



The school are in the thros of finding a new teacher, which is no easy task. They even asked me if I could find a teacher. The cheeky bastards though would pay you nothing even if you found a teacher. Compare that to when they use a recruiting company who they usually pay about a thousand dollars. Cheapos I call them!!!!!! Needless to say, I will not be looking for a teacher. Number one, it is not my job and number two, it goes totally unappreciated even if you do. I am sticking to teaching and concentrating on that, nothing else.



I have been seeing a Russian girl, Olga, for the last few weeks. I have hung out with her a few times. I went for a walk around a park yesterday and then had dinner and went to a coffee shop later on. She is good company and speaks English quite well, of course. She has her own small clothing business here in Seoul. She buys clothes from here and ships them back to Russia. She has a good sense of humour and I can honestly say that I have enjoyed actually hanging out with her. Quite unusual for me, I must say.....hehe. She is also 39 years old, too, so much more within my age range than usual......again, hehehe. She looks much younger than her age, though. I thought she was about 29 or so when I first met her.

Time For Reflection

Death is such a part of life, but always so hard to deal with. Today, I found out that Isaiah my co-worker, lost his mother, without any warning at all. It certainly puts life into perspective and the "STUFF" that we worry about, really is secondary to the actual gift of life that we are given each and every day!

I wish Isaiah all the strength and courage at this time of need and offer him and his family my deepest condolences. I cannot begin to understand how much pain he is feeling.

I had dinner with him tonight after school and we talked briefly about his mother. She was only 54 or so, but did so much for so many people in this world. She was a foster mother to literally 100's of children, as well as adopting various children throughout stages of her life. She sounded like she was a wonderful woman and the world will miss her kindness and generosity.

Isaiah told me that her hero was Mother Theresa and she had always thought about going to India and helping the less fortunate. She never had the chance to go, but Isaiah said that he might just go and do what she never had the chance to do.

Isaiah was due to have his contract finish at the same time as me, April 30th. However, he will not be re-signing now due to the circumstances and he has no idea what he is going to do in the future, but for now just has to worry about getting home for his mother's funeral service on Monday.

Also on another sad note, I will miss Jason, a friend of mine, who just left to work in China. He was a good friend and quite a character. He will be missed here in Korea, but I have already promised him that I will visit him next year in China. I have never been to China so it will give me a chance to visit him and also to see another good friend, Ben.

I am sad in my heart for Isaiah's loss and also for my friend's abscence, but feel fortunate to be alive and will try to use these life lessons as a catalyst to enjoy each and everyday a little bit more than I have been recently.

In memory of Isaiah's mother: Give to others and give often. There is no better feeling in the world!

Duran Duran Coming To Seoul Next Week!

Duran Duran are one of my favourite bands of all time.......really!

And yes, they are going to grace our presence here in Seoul next Thursday, April 17th at 8pm at the Olympic Gymnasium.

I just purchased two tickets, so I am going there. I am going to take a friend of mine, Caroline who is Korean, but speaks Spanish and that is the link between us. I get to practice my Spanish with her whenever we meet. She spent a year in Guadalajara last year. I also taught her sister, Amy, for about 6 months while she was here in Korea and even when she left for Mexico. Unfortunately, I am not teaching her sister anymore. She was too busy and going to middle-school, which is always a busy schedule for all Korean children.

I am really excited about going. I have never seen Duran Duran, but have every one of their cds and love the group. It is in a really small venue, so it should be awesome. I have started listening to Duran Duran everyday and will continue to do so until I go to the concert. I love their new album; red carpet massacre!

So much has happened since I last did a real blog. I don't know where to start really.

I have been so sick the last few months and trying to shake it off. I ended up going to the doctor on Monday in Bundang and he said I have a nasal infection, eye infection and laryngitis. I am taking medecine now for the next 7 days. I hope that the infection finally goes........ I don't feel too, too bad, but am tired of waking up with sore eyes and a sore throat. Most Fridays, I can't even speak when I first wake up. Due to the nature of my job, I am always using my voice and it has no time to rest. Never mind that I never shut up talking anyway.......hahaha.

One of my friends, Sara, nicknamed me Sir Talkalot, an apt name, I think!!!!!!

Anyway, I am hoping to feel a lot better over the next week or so. If not, then I will go back to the doctor and get more antibiotics. I will get rid of this infection, I am bound and determined, this time.

I have joined a new gym. It is closer to me and half the price of the Hamilton Hotel. It has no sauna, but I don't need the sauna now with the heat of the summer on its way.

It is on the main road close to me, so I can get off the bus and go straight there. It looks quite good and has the same as the other gym; shorts and shirt provided and towels. It has all the machines that I need as well as running machines.

Monday is the day that I get right back into the swing of things. Start going regularly again. The gym is open to 12 at night all weekdays, so I have no excuse for not going.

Liverpool made it into the semi-finals of the Champions League. This will be the third time in 4 years and we get to play Chelsea again for the 3rd time. I think the other semi with Man Utd and Barcelona will be won by Barcelona. I am hoping for a Liverpool vs Barcelona final in Moscow. That would be just dandy!!!!!!!!

Enough for now. I am off to Bundang tonight with Chris to see Dave.Then tomorrow another small city north of Seoul with Jason who is leaving for China to work on Tuesday. I met Jason on a visa run to Japan. We were sitting next to each other on the plane, going there. We have been friends since. I have been promising to go with him for 3 months and kept renegging. Not this time. We should have a blast and I am sure, a crazy weekend.........

Blog Again Real Soon

To those of you that follow my blog regularly, I apologize.
I have been so busy of late that it has been really hard to blog anything as I am here there and everywhere. My computer at school cannot access any blog sites or post anything, so I can't even do things on my breaks there.

I will put a blog on soon, but until then, I hope you are all well and getting ready for a glorious summer. Liverpool made it into the semi-final of the biggest club competition in Europe for the 3rd time in 4 years.........unbelievable, really!!!!!!!

Blind Religious Thinking!

Check out this story. They think she is a reborn goddess.......wow! Get a life!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/08/baby.heads.ap/index.html?eref=googletoolbar

Beckham Posh Ali G

A Better Iraq According To An Iraqi!

There is a young man, Hammar who is about 30 that plays on the same pool team as Rob here in Itaewon, Korea. He is married to an American girl and has been in Korea since about 2006.

We were talking to him tonight and Rob asked him what he thought about Iraq now and before under Saddam Hussein's rule. Rob felt a little arkward asking Hammar, but he really wanted to know.

What ensued was truly unbelievable. He told us stories of rape, murder, torture and absolute terror that happened to anybody at anytime and anyplace under Hussein's rule. It can be described only as absolutely shocking.

I had an idea that things were bad, but my god! I sat there and just listened to what Hammar was saying. He was a doctor in Iraq and is a doctor here. He was working for 2 dollars a month!!!!!!

He spent 7 days one time in jail because one of Hussein's private policemen came to the hospital drunk and was insulting everyone at the hospital while being cared for. Hammar said something to him and he ended up being in jail for 7 days. He said that he was lucky to get out and that he wasn't killed. The fact that he was a doctor, may have saved his life.

So, to all the people around the world that say Iraq was better under Hussein, you need to talk to someone like Hammar and understand the animals that Hussein and his entourage were. They controlled the country by pure terror. In Hammar's own words, " Holy fuck, Iraq today is so much better off, but we as a people have no idea what democracy or freedom is. Everything is new to us and it will take us a while to figure out what to do with these new things. Other countries don't want us to succeed and it is in their best interests to try and get us to fail."

An unbelievable night's conversation that taught me a lot and made me realize how lucky I am to be able to live free and without fear. Anyone else reading this blog should feel that way, too.

To all the people that want America out of Iraq. Shame on you!!!!!! Maybe the results are not happening as fast and as smooth as expected, but America had and has the right idea about bringing democracy and freedom to that part of the world, where there are lots of countries that rule their people by pure terror and that needs to be changed, even if it takes force at times.

Enough said. Thank you Hammar for educating me about your life and your country and restoring some faith in the American ideal, be it right or wrong in anyone's opinion.

A Promise To Blog More Often

I have been so busy of late that it really has been a task to blog as often as I used to. Given the fact that I can't blog on my breaks in work as the computer there is an absolute relic, then it is quite a task to keep up with my old rating of blogging so often.

I had a good weekend. Went out with the lads on Friday night, Saturday night and met them for dinner at Marakesh, the Morrocan Buffet on Sunday afternoon. We were all pretty shattered and ended up going home about 11pm, which is early by our standards.

Rob starts a new job tomorrow and for everyone else, it is the Monday blues, as such!

Nothing much happened over the weekend. Watched some football at Hollywoods and most places were packed to the rafters due to the St. Pat's Day celebrations and the combination of 6 Nations Rugby being on. We banged up the Irish 33-10, which was great to see.......haha.

As I said, I have been working hard. We started a new semester and am getting used to new kids and new challenges. I got my visa renewed for one more year, so I am safe and happy at the same school until April 30th, 2009. Not sure what I will do then, but we shall see, shall we not!

The plan right now is to take 5 weeks off in August/September to go to Canada and then take my son to England along with all the family for our Jonathan's wedding. We found out that our David's wife, Carmel is due in September, too.Congratulations Carmel and David and with our Jonathan's soon to be wife, Sarah having had a baby boy, Willy, both lads will be Uncles and Husbands within the same year.....haha.

Great news all around and I am looking forward to seeing everyone and hanging out with family and friends in Canada and England while I am there.

Enough for now, as I am off to bed. The new queen size bed is great and although I still have my insomnia, the quality of mini-sleeping has improved!!!!!!

Not Included In Liverpool's Poster For The 2008 City Of Culture!!!!