April 19th 2009 - Scott MTB

April 19th 2009

Bikes, babes and Baskin Robbins

Friday evening we received some very bad news: Paula's friend Irene from Germany has lost the battle against cancer and had passed away, surrounded by her family at home in Germany. Paula was of course very upset to learn this. Irene will be missed by her many friends here in Ulsan and around the world. Peace be with her.

By chance, Paula had a full medical check-up at the hospital this week - all good, no drama.

On a bit brighter note, we were invited to Mari's birthday on Thursday. Mari and Gokhan live in the Old Foreigners compound and they had made a really good job on the birthday decorations ... lots of pink trees all over!

We had plans to go to Busan together on Saturday, but with Friday's bad news, Paula didn't get much sleep at all, so we had to bail. Instead I went for a bike ride with Scott. Last time Scott came riding with us he was stuck with a heavy downhill bike, but after a few adjustments and replacements, he was now better equipped for a bit of X-country. We found a brand new trail made especially for a race which took place today, and even though we had to walk a bit from time to time, we had a really good ride.

In the afternoon Paula and I went to Ilsan Beach for a coffee and a quick run to the supermarket, before heading downtown to do a bit of "eye-shopping" (the Korean version of window shopping). In the evening we met up with our Korean friends Mr. Kim and his family for Indian dinner. We thought that spicy Indian food would appeal to them and we were right! We hadn't seen them for a long time as they had been busy caring for Mr. Kim's father, who also recently passed away.

Today, Sunday, I got up early (relatively) to go for another bike ride. As it happened, the race was on today, but I was early enough to miss the bulk of it. Just saw the riders come up the mountain as I was finishing off. Not all were fit ... some were already walking very early on in the course (admittedly, the hills are steep!)

In the afternoon we went to COSTCO. Friday is our 5th wedding anniversary, so we went to get a present to celebrate the day. Mari joined us as she hadn't been there yet. I think it was a success, as we left with a new watch for Paula, a rubber boat for me and Mari hadn't brought enough money !!!!

We were absent here on our web page last week for a reason ... my classmate from Uni in Denmark was visiting and we were busy having a good time !! But you can read about his visit here.