6 months.......

Apologies for the lack of blog activity of late, I have no real excuse....I have just been very lazy, and for that I am sorry. However, I have not had the most exciting of months although there have been a few highlights which I will now detail.

I believe the last time I posted (barring the EasyCruise game advert....did anyone play it?) was a bit after we got back from Japan. Although the trip was great, financially it cleaned me out until I got paid last month so there was no trips anywhere during that time. I knuckled down and got on with the job. Neil also had to return home for a couple of weeks due to some issues with his school and other matters, but I still had a couple of nights with Scott and some other boys so it was still a good time. The Saturday I did get paid (23rd), myself and Scott went and played a spot of golf at my local driving range. I had not swung a golf club since August, and even then that was on the wide open expanses of the Machair on Iona, so this was a different setting altogether. You all stand in a big row with only just enough room to make a swing without hitting people around you, and I couldn't relax enough to really let rip. However, it was a good laugh and also an interesting opportunity to observe Koreans "golfing".

The Korean approach to certain activities (e.g. golf, hiking, and mountain biking) is that even if you are just going to hit a few balls, climb a Dun I size hill or cycle in your local park, you get kitted out with ALL the gear. No expense is spared. Therefore, at the driving range, we were surrounded by all the Callaway's, the Titlest's and the Nike's we could handle, whereas we had turned up with no clubs, unsuitable clothing and a 'let's have a laugh' attitude. Despite this, we were recieved warmly and no-one even said anything when I let loose with a Big Bertha and nearly put in the hole in the roof above me.

Here are a few shots from the day:

Scott letting rip

Where did it go? Probably not very far.

A classic Korean golfer. Great dress, great clubs, superb sideburns.....O.K swing.

So that was golf. Now onto another of my favourite sports- football.

It so happened that David Beckham visited Seoul 2 weekends ago, as part of his team's Asian tour. 'Becks' is playing for American MLS league side LA Galaxy these days, who are an altogether poorer outfit than Man U and Real Madrid, but when Brand Beckham rolls into town it is very difficuilt to resist the temptation to join in, so myself, Neil and Scott went along to watch him and LA play FC Seoul at the World Cup Stadium in...you've guessed it...Seoul.

I went in early to Dongdaemeun to purchase a fake LA top but rebelled by getting "Xavier" (ex Everton, Liverpool and Middlesborough player with a penchant for crazy hairstyles and failing doping tests) on the back instead of Beckham. In the end I also ended up getting an FC Seoul top too (see the following pictures).

I then headed out to the stadium where I met the boys, and we bought our tickets and beer. We ended up having seats down near one of the corners, where Beckham took the corners in the first half. I'll let the pictures/video do most of the talking from now on.

The stadium a bit before kick-off. It's got around a 60,000 capacity I think, but it was quite quiet really. I think the official attendance was around 33,000 on the day. You can see we are quite close to the corner.

"Team shot". The FC Seoul top was worn in the 1st half.

The real team shot. Beckham is the furthest left of the Galaxy players on the right. Which one do you think is Xavier?

Beckham coming to our corner to take his 1st of the match. Apologies for Neil's filthy language, it didn't seem to put David off. Good corner.

The man himself.

LA scored first, with a great ball from becks and a good finish from somebody else. But then FC Seoul were awarded a penalty, which I videoed. See if you can work out if they scored.

For the second half I changed strips.

The second half was not the best display of football with no goals being scored so with the score at 1-1 after 90mins there was a penalty shootout. Ruud Gullitt (LA's manager) had obviously skipped penalty training because Beckham was the only one to score and so FC Seoul won the game, which was quite good really as it kept the 'legions' of home fans happy. Beckham had a good game and said in the paper afterwards he thought it was some of the best football he has played since he went to Galaxy. He certainly played some pretty good balls anyway.

After it finished we met up with Canadian Colin and headed into Itaweon to continue with post-match refreshments. Unfortunately, although I made the sensible decision to leave my camera in a locker in Itaweon subway station, I forgot to pick it up on the way home so the next day I had to make another trip into Seoul to retrieve it. Silly boy.

That was 2 weekends ago, and the weekend just past I didn't do much, but still managed to spend a lot of money. My old laptop has been steadily deteroriating, so I finally took the plunge yesterday and bought a new one. It's an LG 'X-Note' and it's huge. It has a 19" screen, which is massive for a laptop. The reason for buying such a big one is I plan to use it basically as a desktop, and keep my old laptop for school use, as it does still work, albeit slowly and, at times, reluctantly. My poor credit card has borne the brunt of the damage (just under 500 pounds) but I can pay that off over a couple of months so I think it is a good purchase.

As for upcoming events, it is St.Patricks day a week today (monday) so I think next weekend we may head into Seoul for something. We are also hoping to go to our local team Incheon Utd's first home game of the new K-League season on the Sunday which should be interesting.

Then, two weeks today, mum arrives! I am busy trying to plan a few things, I have booked a trip to the DMZ (it will be my 3rd time!) and have a few other ideas so I think she will have a great time. I have booked a few days off but will have to work some of the time, however this is good in a way as it means she can come and visit me in my schools.

Talking of the schools, things are still going well, although I am a lot busier these days, especially on a tues/thu at Mansu-6-Dong (I used to call it Nam-Dong but I now know the proper name). It's good in a way but I do feel quiet tired sometimes at the end of a day. A few days off at the end of this month will be nice. And, as I said in the blog title, I have now been here over 6 months. It really has flown by. I have started to think a bit about what I want to do for my second year, I am leaning towards getting a new contract with a different school but we shall see.

I've also been looking into my travel plans after my contract finishes in August, I want to go to Beijing for the end of the Olympics and then travel to either Shanghai/Hong Kong and fly back to the UK from there. Although it is a long way away, I do need to start planning it soon (especially the Beijing bit).

So that's all for now.

Again, sorry for the delay in posting and I will try to be more prompt next time!

Neil