2010.08.22 - Peo's get-away

Peo's weekend get-away

This week our Hull superintendent returned from vacation, which made me happy because then I could get a bit of time off from inspections to do my own job !! It was a tough 10 days for me .... We celebrated it by going out for bowling and dinner on Wednesday. We take turns selecting the venue and this time it was Mr. Kim's turn to pick the restaurant. He chose one of the fish restaurants down by Jagalchi Fish Market, recommended by one of the Yard Quality Assurance employees. So after two rounds of competitive bowling, we headed across the bridge to Nampo-dong and the restaurant. Mmmmm - raw fish and king crab !!

The rest of the week has been occupied by late working hours and trips to the gym. Nothing very exciting, I'm afraid. It's still sweltering hot here so we are not very active ! Come weekend it's another thing, though!

Saturday morning we packed our belongings (well - some of them), stuffed Peo in a box and headed for Dalmaji Hill - Haeundae. We would make a pit-stop at Oscar and Nalini's before heading off to Ulsan. Oscar and me had a date with out bicycles and Andreas while the girls were going to introduce our cats to each other. We figured that Peo needs some friends of her own ! While us boys were wasting away in the heat, Steel was checking Peo out and gradually accepting the presence of a stranger in his house. Peo on the other hand found it hard to accept Lilly - maybe she was jealous!

All this time Andreas, Oscar and myself were finding out the hard way how incredibly stupid we are!! Biking up 20% inclines at mid-day in August is not sane! Oscar was showing great style after having had a little preview last weekend, but Andreas, who was out with me for the first time, was suffering. His had spent his drinking water even before we hit the mountain!! But he hung in there - cooling off in any little watering hole we came across, and eventually we made it to the top. How happy we were to be cruising down a nice quick downhill road, the breeze in our hair and the smiles on our faces by the thought of a nice cold glass of ice tea at home in the couch! So imagine our disappointment when we came across a military checkpoint at the bottom of the hill. Not taking no for an answer, Oscar and Andreas pressed on to be let through but to no avail. After a bit of calling around the guards told us in their broken English: "You go and we die" followed by an pretty graphic hand movement by their heads ! It's not every day that you get to save the lives of two Korean soldiers, so we filled up our water bottles and headed up the mountain again..... somebody's worst nightmare just came true!! It took us one hour to climb back up that mountain! And then we had to walk down half of it again as the shortcut we took wasn't very bike-friendly. 4 hours hard mountainbiking in 36 degrees heat .... how stupid we are !!

After a quick shower and lunch at Oscar and Nalini's we got back on the road again, Peo, bike and everything.

We were going to stay with Jamie and Colin, so I had called Jamie to tell her that we were running a bit late. When Jamie calls us, she always tries to trick us into believing she is somebody else. So when I called her and she initially thought it was the building's handy man, I was happy to play along! For about 5 minutes we conversed - her in an increasing aggitated manner and me in broken Korenglish. It was sooo funny ! Her aircon was not functioning so she was really laying it on Mr. Choi (aka me) and I only revealed my true identity when I thought she was about to pop out of the telephone and strangle me !! hahaha .... Gotcha !!!!

I think she forgave me when I played around with the aircon and got it to cool down the apartment from 30 degrees to a livable environment. Peo got installed - I think she remembered all our old plants - and we went out for dinner at Harmony together with two other friends of J&C - Mike and Linda. Followed by the traditional drinks at Ocean View - the next-door Hotel/bar.

Everybody were so afraid that the aircon wouldn't turn on again if it stopped, so we left it running all night, resulting in frost bite in the extremities in the morning! Brvdddd (the sound you make when it is really really cold). Colin got out of bed early to escape the chill and left for work. I rolled out at 7 to go biking with my colleague Mr. Kim and the girls slept in (I guess). Just as for Andreas, it was also Mr. Kim's first ride with me. He did great but burned off his energy relatively quick. After an hour and a half he was exhausted. True to his nationality he hung in there for a another hour (Koreans don't give up!) before calling it quits. It was getting rather hot too. But great to be back in the Ulsan mountains!!!

For lunch Jamie cooked up a wicked Lhaksa, for which she had invited Jade and Jean Laurent over. Mmmmmm !

Peo had settled so well in Jamie and Colin's house that she didn't want to go back to Busan. She was crying all the way back! Poor thing - she had had such a great weekend with her friends Steel and Lilly (well - Steel at least), played in Jamie and Colin's garden and experienced a preview of the coming ice age! Some weekend!