2012.02.11 - Anveig Øyvind

Visitors from Busan

Last weekend we received visitors from the south. Anveig, Øyvind, Eiril and Iselin packed the girls' scooters in the car and drove up to see us for the weekend. They arrived Saturday and immediately the girls searched the apartment for Peo. Unfortunately the girls were more fond of her than she was of them ... she's not really a family cat. To get out of her hair, we went down to the club house for a cup of coffee and a pit-stop at the playground. The clubhouse doesn't serve any alcohol any longer (nor do they serve food) - instead they serve free coffee and tea. So where before it was the neighboring bars who were complaining about the clubhouse, it is now the cafés who suffer. Can't make everybody happy. Speaking of dissatisfaction, all the expats are complaining and want to bring back the food and alcohol. Rumor has it that something will happen soon. In the meantime, the clubhouse remains semi-deserted unfortunately. So the renovation didn't really work out.

After the clubhouse we walked down to the food court at Hyundai Department store for dinner. It's a little easier to eat at a food court when you have two small girls with you. These are things we learn when our friends come to visit !

Then home to snacks and two excellent bottles of wine in good company !

Next day we went for a walk around Daewangan Park and Ulgi Lighthouse. Having the scooters were a bonus half of the time and a pain the other ! But we made it all the way out to the island and back without trouble. Although the girls sometimes were more interested in the ditches than the paths!

Iselin with Ulsan's whale mascot

Eiril on the rocks.

Iselin was pretty happy in the ditch!

But we made it there and back without trouble.

Daewangan Park as seen from the rocks past the lighthouse

They are pretty cool kids!

Lunch was at Lavazza before they returned to Busan. It was really nice to have visitors !

Our container is scheduled to arrive to Busan tomorrow. 5 days should be enough to get it through customs, which means that we will have it here by next weekend ... we hope ! I miss my bike and Paula misses her pillow. Both of us miss our bed ! We'll see if the arrival of our bed will change our exercise scheme. You see - at the moment, sleeping in a rather hard bed, it is not a big sacrifice to get up at 6 in the morning to go to the gym. But with a nice comfy bed .... who knows ! Øyvind was cruel enough to put the idea of a 10km run in Busan in March into my head, so now I am trying to train up my ankle (and lungs, heart, muscles and whatever else it takes) in order to join him. I am impressed that Paula joins me for these early morning sessions, but she hasn't failed once. Although she may only be there in body and not in mind !

I have also joined Pietro to the pool a few times. Need more training as I am shite !!

Let's see ... we also went bowling with Agnieszka and Michael. Scrabble with Asle and Erkan. Full Moon festival (first full moon after the Lunar New Year, i.e. 14 days into the new year) at Ilsan Beach. Dinner at Peitro's on Friday together with his South African friend David. Late days at work (and a work Sunday tomorrow), as I am very very much behind on all fronts (steel cutting was advanced 1 month so less time for design approval). Dinner with the Yard one day and dinner with the site team (which including wives and kids means about 30 persons) another. Pretty busy actually.

Paula has also kept herself busy with the other girls from our site team and her friends from before. She has picked up painting again and added wood painting to her repertoire, so every week now we have new boxes, trays, key holders etc:! But nice ones :-)

Today - Saturday - we went to town with some of my colleagues to sniff around the city's mountain bike shops. They are looking to buy and I'm happy to just tag along. Paula and I stopped by at the Hyundai Dept store, and as she was getting the battery of her watch changed, I sneaked over to the wine section and went away with 6 bottles of prime Chilean wine ! Wine and mountain bikes - what a day !!