2010.12.12 - Birthday Bazaar

Paula's Birthday and X-mas Bazaar

Christmas is closing in and with our birthdays and mainbuilding events on the job adding to the to-do list, we have not had many quiet moments lately. We still try to keep the weekends a little clear so we can relax and be ready for the week ahead..... this weekend has been nice and homey - exactly what I needed before a couple of busy weeks ahead. Ulrik and Karine are coming up to visit us from Busan in about one hour, but that is about it for excitement this weekend.

We had big plans to go to the Tuna restaurant for Paula's birthday, but in the end we didn't go. Instead the girls came over for cake and coffee in the afternoon and Marlene, Anders and Oliver came over for the birthday cake in the afternoon.

We saved the dinner for Friday evening down in Busan. Seeing that the traffic is very heavy on Fridays, we normally stay and have dinner in Busan before heading back to Ulsan - that way we can avoid most of the traffic jams. So the Friday after Paula's birthday we went out for Vietnamese (and Cold Stone!) at the Lotte Department Store and last Friday we went to one of the Indian restaurants in Haeundae (Namaste) with the Master and Chief Engineer who are visiting our office for the upcoming Sea Trial for Christina Bulker - our first vessel from Busan. Both restaurants are nice and we quite enjoy the variety of restaurants we have because we spend so much time "in the big city" !

Last weekend we drove down to Busan for the Christmas Charity Bazaar. Some of our friends had stalls with their art work and hand craft and I had promised Oskar to give him an excuse to leave the place. He had been helping the girls from early morning and was feeling rather claustofobic by the time we got there! So he was happy to go for a stroll along the beach, where we ended up playing a short game of football in the sand. Back at the bazaar we were able to meet almost all of our friends and aquientainces in Busan. It was nice to see that they were all backing the arrangement up and at the same time helping the weaker people in the society. After the bazaar ended we brought back our Norwegian homemade jam, cakes and bread to the car and met up with Andreas and Gaby at the Thai restaurant on Haeundae Beach for some good food and a chat about vacations ! One can always dream !!!

Sunday we had a quiet day in. Well - not really ... I went for a long bike ride in the morning and after a quick shower Paula and I went walking in the mountains behind out apartment. One and a half hour later we were close to Serhiy's new apartment, so we gave him a call to see if he was up to something. He wasn't so we invited ourselves up for tea! The tea in turn developed into dinner. After having scouted the area around our apartment, we decided to head over to the Bangeojin area to a raw fish restaurant that Serhiy knew. It was in fact very nice .....