August 30th 2009 - Bye Carlos

August 30th 2009

Maite returns and Carlos leaves ....

We started the week with a movie night at our place. This was a nice slow ease into being on our own again after Maite's visit here - having 4 friends over for dinner and a movie! We watched "Waking Ned Divine" - an older Irish comedy which went down well with the audience except for Gokhan, who only rated it 7 out of 10 (BUUUHHH).

Tuesday I worked late as I had to witness the lightweight survey of our ship number 9. Well, it's not actually our ship. It's the ship of our business partners, but we heve been contracted to do the supervision of the building process for them, so we treat them as our own ships! Maite finished her conference a few days earlier than expected, so instead of sitting all alone on her hotel room in Busan, she jumped on a bus to Ulsan and was back here just in time for Carlos' goodbye dinner at the crab restaurant. These king crabs are a serious feast. 14kg of crabs to 16 people (including 3 kids) so there was plenty for all.

Carlos had been looking forward to this week for a long time! After 3½ years here in Ulsan he was finnally on his way home to his wife and kids. He walked around all week with the biggest smile on his face and on Thursday afternoon he left a note on a (relatively) clean table saying " I wil NOT be back shortly"!!! We got up early on Friday morning and drove him to the airport. Good on ya, Carlos!

Friday evening we made a late but quick food decision and headed into town for Vietnamese. Caught in the 8 o'clock rush hour (!) it took us a little while to get there, but it was worth it. Post dinner drinks at Trevi - the German brewhouse. It didn't get too late as Maite had to get back to repack her million suitcases and I had a date with Ingo at 7 next morning.

Ingo got back from vacation this week and on Saturday morning we went out for a good long ride. I felt the G&T and the beer from the night before and I think Ingo felt the many BBQ's he had in Germany! The ride up to the pagoda behind the Motor Company was tougher than normal, but once uver it, it was all good from there. Well, almost - we had about 500m of a severely overgrown path to push through, but other than that.... (got the bruised arms to show for it!).

After a good three hours on the bike I jumped into a car with Maite and Paula and drove down to Gimhae Airport in Busan. Maite said she was leaving us, but we weren't so sure. We had heard it all before! After all, this was the second time we had driven her to Busan but she just kept coming back! haha ... But this time I think we managed to get rid of her (!) - she just send a message toPaula - she is now in Santiago Airport, waiting for the plane down to Valdivia, so I don't think she will return anytime soon. A shame really, cause we had a great time while she was here (honestly!).

After the airport Paula and I continued to the Lotte Premium Outlet. I was looking for something as simple as a pair of sports shorts, but for one reason or the other, there were none to be found. Instead I found a new pair of indoor sports shoes and Paula found two pairs of good shoes (she has plenty of shoes but very few GOOD shoes).

In the evening we relaxed at home with a good documentary from our next travel destination, Tibet. We are getting close to departure .... JUBIII!

Sunday morning and another early morning ride. Gotta get in shape for the high altitude in Tibet! The afternoon was spent in the pool at the Old Foreigners Compound, as Gokhan wants to get his diving certification and I have promised to teach him. So we did a bit of theory and then jumped in the pool for a few exercises and a swim. He did very well, but he has also been cheating a bit, as this wasn't his first time underwater!

Below you can find all the photos from this week: