The Ice Age returns to a traffic light near you (me actually)

OK, apologies for my second blog in the space of a few hours but I saw this piece of Ice on the side of the road and I thought that it was worthy of a mention. The piece of ice itself doesn't carry that much significance or substance within this blog but the message is that it's very cold here and that it stays very cold 24/7. My dear friend Giovanna made a similar comment on her blog about the weather here in Korea. She has inspired me to do the same.
I have never experienced such potent, prolonged freezing temperatures. Back in good old England it would hit -3, The Sun newspaper would announce that it's all Tony Blair's fault (global warming/extreme weather changes over the last 10 years), they would run a small front page campaign about how we should all share bath water, turn our TV's off standby, recycle bank receipts, sleep with our eyes open and never stop in a grid riddled yellow box. Then a mere 48 hours later it will be 5, 6, or 7 degrees again - panic over.
In good old Korea it hit -3 about 3 weeks ago and hasn't risen above that temperature since. OK, maybe a slight exaggeration but only a VERY slight one. This block of ice that I present to you sits calmly at a set off traffic lights on my way to work. It has been sitting there minding its own business for around 2 weeks now, which is when we had a generous falling of snow. I'm thinking of naming it. In fact I'm going to name it - I hereby name the block of ice....... Rick. I liken it to Rick as he too used to sit on the sofa minding his own business for around 2 weeks!!! Love you Rick.

'Lee's Top Three'

Some of you may have been keeping an eye or two on the Korean news. I don’t know why you would, but maybe you are concerned for my well-being and to cure your sleepless nights you have tuned onto international news sources to get your fix. For those of you who haven’t been this blog will be of interest to you.

So recently Korea had a presidential election. It was a fun time around Seoul with all nine, yes ‘9’, campaigners had their individual means of selling their political prowess. The most memorable methodology they thrust upon the nation was dancing and singing. All parties would have their own colour (standard) and their volunteers would be in their dozens singing and dancing around EVERY subway station across the capital. The dance moves sent me back to my middle school disco parties when streams and streams of girls would hit the dance floor and bust their moves to the ‘Macarena’.

Anyway, after a prolonged campaign by all parties the time came to tick your box and wait with anxiousness as the results came in and the future of the country would be that little more apparent. Lee Myung-bak won with some ease. I didn’t look into his policies all that much at the time, however I have been reading the ‘Korean Herald’ and talking to Korean friends and colleagues since his appointment and I have mustered up a top three. And for headline purposes I have titled it ‘Lee’s Top Three’ – it has a nice ring to it, I thought.

THREE – Lee wants to build a canal that will stretch the entire length of the country. It will be named the ‘Grand Korean Waterway’. It will be 500km long and wide enough to house cargo ships – so very wide. 20 km of this will be a HUGE tunnel sliding through a mountain range!!! Phenomenal construction.

TWO – I haven’t seen any news on this, but have spoken to a couple of Koreans who insist it’s a goal of Lee’s. He basically wants to connect Korea to China and Japan by underwater rail. So again a tunnel needs to be built. But isn’t Korea to Japan just a bit too far to build a tunnel – I think so. BUT wow if it happens….

ONE – By 2010 English language will be spoken in all high schools. Lee wants all standard subjects, History, Maths, Science etc, to be taught in English – NOT Korean. The thought process behind this policy is that too much money is being spent on private tutoring for English, around $15.8 Billion annually. So he thinks that this will reduce the amount spent privately. I disagree. I think it will pile on more pressure to the children and therefore resulting in them seeking private assistance to keep up with, or be at a higher level, than their fellow pupils at school.

I admire Lee’s ambition and optimism. WORLD – watch this space!!

SPURS ARE ON THEIR WAY TO WEMBLEY

What a result. Don't care who we get in the final - just happy that the new look team will get a run out together and hopefully bring home some silver!!!

Laters Arsenal - OK we have only beat you once in nine years, but the tide had to change at some point. Our boys can't wait to play you again!! Bring it on!!

Not at Natwest

I was walking through the streets of Myedong on Saturday, earlier today, and we heard some chanting and clapping. Intrigued as we were we followed the scent, turned the corner to find 30 or so immaculately dressed 'Shinhan Bank' workers lined up. Shinhan is one of the leading banks in Korea, it also happens to be the bank that I chose to manage my finances. So they were lined up and singing football style songs whilst performing non-football like dance moves. One very enthusiastic guy spotted us and came over, he spoke English and informed us that they were new employees of Shinhan Bank and they were showing their sheer delight at their new life and also that it was now 2008 and no longer 2007. I've never seen this kind of open hearted happiness anywhere in the world - ESPECIALLY from a high street bank. Imagine going into a Natwest bank on Balham High Road, Oxford Street, Wardour Street etc etc and seeing a worker just smile, let alone 30 of them singing and dancing in -3 conditions. That's the spirit I thought. Giovanna and I couldn't help but watch them for a while - they made us happy.
Apologies for the picture quality. Was an emotional moment and forgot to switch from MF to AF on the old DSLR.
P.S. we walked 5 minutes down the road and there was another 30 employees doing exactly the same thing at another branch of the 'Shinhan Bank'. So if you ever come to Korea, show your support for the 'Shinhan Bank'.

Calling all traffic wardens

I was eating dinner this evening and a guy jumped from his seat ran outside to find that his car was being issued with a parking ticket. The wardens (there was 2 of them) had already placed a ticket on his car and were walking away. However, the guy approached them, said a few words, and before you could say "bloody traffic wardens" they had removed the ticket, ripped it up and gone about their day.
So London traffic wardens, it's OK to be a NICE person now and then. Take this as a lesson to you all.

HEADLINE NEWS - Mock Funerals hit Koreans

Saturday was a very relaxing day. It all started off with a solitary trip to the bookstore. It’s quite an impressive bookstore – like any other impressive book store it has many levels comprising of many different genre of book. After this I went to buy some running trainers. One of my resolutions is to go to the gym more, so buying some trainers adds more substance to the resolution.

It was now about 3pm and I headed to meet up with Giovanna (Italian, English), Dan (Welsh), Kiri (Kiwi) and Rachel (Kiwi). I felt the need to introduce their nationalities to you – no reason. We had a rather pleasant lunch with some enlightening conversation. One conversation I feel I should share with you all. I was browsing the ‘The Korean Herald’ newspaper and found an article titled ‘Mock funerals in pursuit of better lives’.

Basically a new fad in Korea is to stage your own funeral, and once the mock funeral is finished you are supposed to have a better mind set to carry out your remaining years. They do this by getting into a real life coffin and having it secured by nails in the usual fashion and then they are left there for 30 minutes or so. In this time people are supposed to reflect on their lives and think about certain aspects of their lives that have a big impact on them. One person said “I felt really, really scared inside the coffin and thought a lot about my mom. I’ll live differently from now on so as not to have any regrets in my life”. This all seems a bit strange to me………..However, Chung Jaehyun, a board director at the Korean association of Thanatology, that study death related issues, is magnificently quoted as saying “Real death is totally different than this”. Oh!

I will leave you to think about the power of that quote.

The pictures are of a section of Seoul’s skyline at night.

Sunday Strolling

Sunday has just passed, Giovanna and I took ourselves into Seoul for yet another meandering Sunday stroll around some sights. We went for a spontaneous selection. We met on the platform at Oryu-dong station and upon opening our Lonely Planet Seoul guide we decided to dart into the War Museum. Well that was the plan, but we had spontaneity running through us and when we arrived at the museum we realised that we could spend a good hour or so just walking around the museum and not actually venturing inside. So that is exactly what we did.
As you can see from the picture above, It's a huge museum. The pictures below are of some of the statues, planes and other Korean war artifacts.
After the indulgence of war 'stuff' we headed into a very popular shopping area called Myeong-dong. Our first port of call was to get something to eat. A Tofu house was what we were looking for and then we got bored and just decided to walk into the next place we found - luckily enough it was a Tofu house. Delicious hot and simply spicy beef Tofu soup with a range of side dishes, including rice and dried seaweed. Then we started our march around the many clothes shops. I was looking to buy a pair of jeans. I was nearing a shop that was the place to go and then we got ransacked into a shop with a 'SALE ON' - in we went and 15 minutes later we walked out. I had purchased a very smart, sophisticated gentlemens jacket for a mere £30.00 - reduced from £120 - needless to say I was very happy. The pair of jeans will have to wait till pay day.
Monday arrived, which is now, and vacation is very much over. Next holiday is early February, when hopefully Giovanna and I will be taking ourselves to Beijing for 5 days.

MANSKI in KOREA 07/08

I must just apologise for the lack of blog submission that has happened over the last 10 or so days. I have been having far too much fun to even contemplate writing it into words, words that will only manage do demeanour the ecstatic level of fun that is true to life. On Sunday the 23^rd December, my very good friend Chris Manski arrived from London. Giovanna and I made a rather fantastic sign to welcome him at the airport. See primary image. So we sat on the bus making our way back into Seoul, Manski was to my right, as we exchanged short snappy conversation. On stepping off the bus our first port of call was to wonder where the sign had gone……. Manski had left it on the bus. Mug!! However, it seemed like such a small thing at the time – we didn’t need the sign, we had the real thing with us! All 6 foot something of it lurching its way down Oryuding High Street like some piece of cheese in the bread aisle at Sainsbury’s.

Soon we had worked our way through some food and we were singing, our hearts out to Take That, in a Noraebang – like I promised you all. Then all of a sudden it was Christmas Eve, then Christmas Day, then I was back to work on Boxing Day. Giovanna and Chris did the rounds of the various tourist traps of Seoul as I mustered up a few ingenious lesson plans to wow a few 5-13 year old South Koreans cuties. The weekend had landed and it was time for more excursions into Seoul’s finest bar and clubbing spots. News Eve arrived, passed and became New Years Day. It was now 2008 – life is going so quickly! It does when you have fun….. so why don’t we just stop having fun!!???!!

So to summarise Christmas was FANTASTIC, New Years Eve was FANTASTIC and having so many lovable people around during the festive break was ever so more than FANTASTIC. Various pics of MANKSI IN SEOUL 07/08.