2012.11.19 - GyeongJu

Bollywood and GyeongJu sightseeing

Two weeks of hard work lies behind me. As we were coming closer to launching of our vessel, we were seeing some late hours at the office and evening get-together with the Yard (to ease the tension!). Add to that a visit from our top management from Norway and Scotland, and you have a pretty full 14 days. I managed to do my sports anyway, aided by the fact that our CEO is a keen biker and joined us for a night-ride one evening. Weekends I ride with my Swedish friend Leif for 2-3 hours (shorter trips now that the cold weather has arrived) and play volley a couple of hours.

The remaining time is for my two girls ... Paula and Peo !

Peo ... ? she's well !!!

Telephone photos aren't best quality but still a favorite shot !

The butt of our ship in the dry dock one day before launching

This one for size reference

The moon pool - through which the drilling will take place

The 165T heave compensated crane .... it's massive.

View from the radar mast. It really is impossible to take any good shots of this ship - it's far too compact to get everything in.

Filling the dock

This is what we will look like in 14 days when our derrick (drill tower) has been installed.

Only managed to get my colleagues out on a night ride because the CEO was keen. They have been shaking their heads at me for months, but after trying it themselves they shake no more!

Ken and Rolf

Last weekend we drove up to GyeongJu for a bit of sightseeing. Unfortunately we were stuck in traffic for longer than expected, so we had to cut our sightseeing a little short. We walked around in the arty part of downtown before we found a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch, then headed back to Ulsan with a stop at one of the many many tomb-sites of this ancient capital. GyeongJu was nice as always but we are a bit disappointed that the four Korean seasons apparently have been reduces to three. This darn financial crisis is everywhere !

Paula in front of one of the arty shops in GyeongJu

And here with her name-sister, Paula Radcliffe

The big tomb-park near downtown

Autumn-colors are out

Forgot the name of this park, but Paula claims that we have been there before - I do still not recall.

A small settlement of traditional houses - closed this time so I had to sneak a peek

At this place one princess had a child with a dragon .... ???? or so the legend goes

This park also had some dignitaries to show off

Paula

In the evening we had Michael and Agniezska over for some Polish brew. Somehow we end up with all the Polish booze ...?

AnneLin, Alexander and Carolina came over for a short while on Wednesday and brought their dinner.

After 4,5 years in Korea we saw our first graffiti last weekend. I don't even think it was illegal graffiti.

Last Thursday was a long awaited day for Paula: The premier of the latest (and last, fortunately) Twilight saga. I wiggled my way out of it and sent Agniezska in my stead. According to Paula the movie was fantastic but I choose to take her word for it. No need to see for myself.

Saturday Agniezska and the belly-dancing group (except Paula) performed at the Indian Diwala festival in the clubhouse. Michael, Paula and I were there supporting them all the way (well, official photographers really). They did really well and at the end of the show Paula was well pleased that she had opted out ! The rest of us were just cold to the bone after standing out a long row of karaoke, storytelling and Bollywood dancing , waiting for the girls to come on - we had no tickets for the festival (only 80 tickets were sold and practically only to Indians), so we had to wait outside in the cold!

Bollywood performers - and not a single one of them is Indian!

They seem relaxed but I bet they were nervous before their first show ever !

This is the Indian ensemble - I don't have any photos of "our" girls as I was taking a video of their show. May post it later.

Sunday Paula and I went for a short walk around the temple at Daewangam Park. This whole area has been cleaned up massively these past couple of years but the temple remains the same.

Me and the Happy Buddha (me on the right)

I was trying to win the heart of this poor puppy, but he was proving a hard nut to crack.

It's a simple temple with some great murals

The dragons were straight out of a Japanese cartoon

After a walk around the temple his resistance had vanished - just needed a little time to think things over!

It's the time of the Chrysanthemum festival so the yard and the Department store is all flowery

It's pretty cold now (down to 2 degrees at night) but the flowers have still kept up for two weeks now.