Sue got sick at the week-end. She got food poisoning from eating from one of our favourite take-away places, the Chikin & Lib restaurant. We (that is, I) ordered the usual items we get either on Friday or Saturday night, portion of garlic chicken and 2 portions of "pong-lib" which is BBQ coated pork ribs, which taste delicious. I always go down to the shop in person: 1. because I still can't speak enough Korean to get my order across, and 2. I like to pay in advance, so I know how much it will cost me, and not get into an argument at the door with some moped-driver with a crash helmet on. I'd lose. Or at least, hurt my hand.
The meal duly arrived, after the requisite Ship-Oh Poon (15 minutes) and was accompanied by the usual can of coke and packs of pickled radish cubes. It was delicious. We then headed of to bed, and expected the normal heart palpitations and weird dreams which also usually accompanied the MSG rich BBQ sauce. Sue suffered around 4:00am, and was in and out of bed several times, retching and flushing, with me doing little to help, even though I offered to rub her back, as she likes to be alone in these sort of things.
The morning was little different, still retching badly, and being followed by several bouts of having to run to the loo urgently. She spent most of the day on the couch with the duvet for comfort, and the heating turned up full. Shivers and hot/cold flushes were order of the day. This carried on through into Monday, so I decided it best to take the day off and look after her the best way I could. Monday saw gradual impovements, even to the point of a piece of toast being held down, along with a couple of cups of tea. I headed off to the corner shop for bottled water and the veg man to get some makings for a nice home-made vegetable soup. We both had a nice bowl for our dinner. By early evening, all was much better, but she complained her stomach felt it had been in a couple of rounds with Mike Tyson, and lost.
It will be some time before we pluck up courage to go back to our local chikin & lib shop, and if I knew how to curse them out, I would be down there like a flash, but I suspect it would do little good, and just give them an excuse to growl at me each time I walk past the shops.
I was fine, but then there were 2 portions of "libs" and it must have been pot luck who got the dodgy one.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Whacky (sick( adverts....
Adverts on TV over here take on a complete new meaning! I mean, I just watched the recent remake of H.G. Well's Time Machine and half way through as is typical with Korean movies on sattelite TV, there is a 15 minute break which shows the same 3-4 adverts over and over again, just in case you didnt get it the first time round.
The particular advert in question would have been pulled in about 30 seconds back home, as it did nothing but promote the virtues of both orange juice drinkers,black arts and pedophiles in one fell-swoop! Imagine the scene, little kid in bath of clear water, and bum facing camera...he let's out a fart and it bubbles to the surface, the Dad get's in said bath and soaps up kids hair to look like demon horns! Cut to bottle of Del Monte orange juice...WTF!
Another advert is the animated radish in the MOO card series! One is a skit on "The Ring", but said radish is at an ATM in what looks like a dungeon, then weirdo girl from "The Ring" swipes the card down the crack of his bum hoping to get payout! I hope she had plenty of credit! Another in this series shows same radish in a taxi (Radishes take taxis now?) trying to pay with 5o,000 won note, but driver cant help him. Radish then ges out and asks Salvation Army guy with charity bucket for change! The sense of humour here is strange to say the least, but what worries me is the level of accpetability in the so-called modern society. Ah well, I'm in Korea!
Look out for the bird in yellow doing the "Eel Pal Pal Ee Ship Oh" advert!
The particular advert in question would have been pulled in about 30 seconds back home, as it did nothing but promote the virtues of both orange juice drinkers,black arts and pedophiles in one fell-swoop! Imagine the scene, little kid in bath of clear water, and bum facing camera...he let's out a fart and it bubbles to the surface, the Dad get's in said bath and soaps up kids hair to look like demon horns! Cut to bottle of Del Monte orange juice...WTF!
Another advert is the animated radish in the MOO card series! One is a skit on "The Ring", but said radish is at an ATM in what looks like a dungeon, then weirdo girl from "The Ring" swipes the card down the crack of his bum hoping to get payout! I hope she had plenty of credit! Another in this series shows same radish in a taxi (Radishes take taxis now?) trying to pay with 5o,000 won note, but driver cant help him. Radish then ges out and asks Salvation Army guy with charity bucket for change! The sense of humour here is strange to say the least, but what worries me is the level of accpetability in the so-called modern society. Ah well, I'm in Korea!
Look out for the bird in yellow doing the "Eel Pal Pal Ee Ship Oh" advert!
Monday, 18 January 2010
Working Korean styleee....
I was going to rant on about how working with/for Koreans can be a frustrating business! I even wrote 2 or 3 paragraphs, but on reflection, that wouldn't be a good idea. I will just resign myself to the fact that it happens, and go with the flow! 'nuff said!
Thursday, 14 January 2010
I am not alone......
I found out there are other people blogging in Korea, besides me, and some of them are actually not American! (note: I have nothing against Americans, it’s just I get called one all the time here, as it appears we all look alike!) One chap hails from what he calls the “old country” somewhere between Germany and UK, South of Belgium, and North of Spain. Geography lesson over, he writes about his exploits in Korea, is married to a Korean lady, makes his own home brew beer, drinks a lot of Baekseju, has a gorilla for a Father. He also enjoys “B” movies like Shaun of the dead, Lesbian vampire killers and the such. He also gave me a virtual teddy bear just for suggesting a gore/slash "B" movie called Black Sheep. I like his style!
Another blogger claims to be Scottish, but drinks Rum – what’s up with that? However, he has managed to brainwash into his class room rug-rats, that everyone in UK now wears the Kilt. Fantastic! (Or “pure dead brilliant by the way”, in Glaswegian vernacular) He also has a itch that needs to be scratched about some guy who writes for the Korea Times. Here was me thinking that journalists only ever wrote the truth! Lol!
There is also an “Idiot” who is married, or should that be enslaved to a Korean woman, and gets given pocket money to spend each week. He eats only chicken from what I can gather, and also drinks copious amounts of what he calls Toad Juice, made by the wonderful Jinro corporation (Original of course).
Each of these blogs are fascinating in their own right, and I wish I could just lift some of what they say in their writings and drop it straight into mine as it’s all true!
Another blogger claims to be Scottish, but drinks Rum – what’s up with that? However, he has managed to brainwash into his class room rug-rats, that everyone in UK now wears the Kilt. Fantastic! (Or “pure dead brilliant by the way”, in Glaswegian vernacular) He also has a itch that needs to be scratched about some guy who writes for the Korea Times. Here was me thinking that journalists only ever wrote the truth! Lol!
There is also an “Idiot” who is married, or should that be enslaved to a Korean woman, and gets given pocket money to spend each week. He eats only chicken from what I can gather, and also drinks copious amounts of what he calls Toad Juice, made by the wonderful Jinro corporation (Original of course).
Each of these blogs are fascinating in their own right, and I wish I could just lift some of what they say in their writings and drop it straight into mine as it’s all true!
Korean snowdays.......
It snowed in Korea on Christmas day, just a light sprinkle late in the day around where we were celebrating in the Hilton Grand. It looked lovely, and gave us all the proper feeling of a white Christmas day. When we got back to Ansan, they also had the light sprinkle, and most of it was gone the next day. New Year’s was seen in over at our Canadian friends apart-uh, and then the temperatures plummeted. We were lucky if it got any warmer than -5oC most days. What with the folks being over from back home, it was decided that venturing out onto the icy pavements and braving the Arctic conditions was best left to Polar bears and Eskimos. We hibernated. At least until the folks went back home. We used a call van service to transport them to the airport, and used said service to run us both back to our snug and warm apart-uh, but the journey was less than pleasant. The driver took us back via the new bridge and highway, which I understand is the 7th longest bridge in the world, if they count the elevated section of road leading and trailing from it at 18Km’s. Once we hit the normal highway heading back to Ansan, we came to a slow snail’s pace, as the traffic had built up quite a distance. We soon found out why. The van was travelling along at a merry 20Km/hr when we started to go sideways. In front was a typical Korean Bongo flat bed van with it’s brake lights fully lit, and also travelling perpendicular to the traffic lanes. We stopped just in time, but it was cause for concern, and a quick check for that sudden “brown trouser” moment. The rest of the journey was taken steadily, thank goodness, but towards the end of the journey, Sue looked at me and asked of the driver was nodding off! Sure enough, his eyes could be seen closing and his head nodding in the rear-view mirror. I was about to shout at him to wake up, when he seemed to feel our eyes burning into the back of his head. He soon came round, and got us home in one piece. I also decided that he should drop us off in the centre of Gojan so at least we didn’t have to negotiate the slippery back roads with a half-asleep driver. We headed into Homeplus (Tesco store) for some much needed supplies, as we hadn’t been out for a few days, then grabbed a taxi back home. We also hibernated for the next 2 days, until I had to back to work on Monday 4th January.
Monday 4th January saw me waking up to about 15cm of snow dropped onto the ground overnight. A quick peek outside the window saw traffic at a complete stand-still even down the side roads from our apart-uh complex. I also saw something which never seems to fail to amaze me. There was an ambulance trying to come out from one of the complex exit roads and make it’s way onto the main road. It’s blues and two tones were going full pelt, but no-one even bothered trying to make a hole to let it in, or pass. I swear he sat there for a good 7 minutes lights flashing, and horns blaring. I pitied the poor hapless sod who must have been in the back, and needed open heart surgery or something equally urgent. I don’t understand the reckless disregard for any emergency vehicle here in Korea. I hope they don’t have to get to hospital in a hurry themselves.
I wrapped up warm and headed out to my usual spot where Johnny-cab waits for me. Odd, he hadn’t turned up! I figured that a short walk to the taxi rank would enable me to get into a cab and head off to work. It became clear that about 12 or so other people had the same idea. However, snow on ground plus lack of anything moving on the road = no way am I getting to work on time in a cab. The idea of just sitting in a cab while the fare piled up sitting in a traffic jam didn’t appeal. Both me and my Canadian chum decided that heading back to the apart-uh and a nice hot cup of coffee would do the trick. I kept watch out the window for any let-up in the traffic or conditions, whilst relaying information back and forth via mobile phone to my mate.
We decided that around 11:30, the traffic had died down enough to warrant a second try at getting to work. Usually the cab fare is around 7,000KRW, but this time it came to 20,000KRW. Traffic was at near stop all the way into work, which looked like a ghost town. Even our COO had to turn back. One of our guy’s the sales director turned in at around 3:00pm, having taken 8 hours to drive in from Seoul. I would have given up after 2 hours and headed back home – trooper that he was! Getting back home was also an issue – cabs were unwilling to make the journey, as they could easily clean-up with short trips around town. We had to call up a black cab, which is more expensive, but at least they came over to pick us up. Journey home was even trickier, as it was also dark!
Next few days has seen the snow being crunched down into sheets of ice, and blindingly low temperatures – it has dropped to around -16oC each night and when the wind blows, it feels even colder as it bites into you. Roll on Summer, and we wont even dare to criticize the humidity and sweltering temperatures!
Monday 4th January saw me waking up to about 15cm of snow dropped onto the ground overnight. A quick peek outside the window saw traffic at a complete stand-still even down the side roads from our apart-uh complex. I also saw something which never seems to fail to amaze me. There was an ambulance trying to come out from one of the complex exit roads and make it’s way onto the main road. It’s blues and two tones were going full pelt, but no-one even bothered trying to make a hole to let it in, or pass. I swear he sat there for a good 7 minutes lights flashing, and horns blaring. I pitied the poor hapless sod who must have been in the back, and needed open heart surgery or something equally urgent. I don’t understand the reckless disregard for any emergency vehicle here in Korea. I hope they don’t have to get to hospital in a hurry themselves.
I wrapped up warm and headed out to my usual spot where Johnny-cab waits for me. Odd, he hadn’t turned up! I figured that a short walk to the taxi rank would enable me to get into a cab and head off to work. It became clear that about 12 or so other people had the same idea. However, snow on ground plus lack of anything moving on the road = no way am I getting to work on time in a cab. The idea of just sitting in a cab while the fare piled up sitting in a traffic jam didn’t appeal. Both me and my Canadian chum decided that heading back to the apart-uh and a nice hot cup of coffee would do the trick. I kept watch out the window for any let-up in the traffic or conditions, whilst relaying information back and forth via mobile phone to my mate.
We decided that around 11:30, the traffic had died down enough to warrant a second try at getting to work. Usually the cab fare is around 7,000KRW, but this time it came to 20,000KRW. Traffic was at near stop all the way into work, which looked like a ghost town. Even our COO had to turn back. One of our guy’s the sales director turned in at around 3:00pm, having taken 8 hours to drive in from Seoul. I would have given up after 2 hours and headed back home – trooper that he was! Getting back home was also an issue – cabs were unwilling to make the journey, as they could easily clean-up with short trips around town. We had to call up a black cab, which is more expensive, but at least they came over to pick us up. Journey home was even trickier, as it was also dark!
Next few days has seen the snow being crunched down into sheets of ice, and blindingly low temperatures – it has dropped to around -16oC each night and when the wind blows, it feels even colder as it bites into you. Roll on Summer, and we wont even dare to criticize the humidity and sweltering temperatures!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)