No Creative title for this post just: 4 days of birthday fun. (PART 2)

Welcome back all.

I hope you had a tastey cup-o-hot-bever-age (this last bit of the dash is to be mentally pronounced like the -age bit in the medical term "gastric lavage") and a couple of biscuts... (pronounced like Sybil from "Fawlty Towers*")

*one of the greatest slapstick physical comedy shows of all time that was given to us by the dementedly brilliant minds of John Cleese and Connie Booth*

And are ready for the second dose (that is two clues as to the contents of this post - come on, keep up...) of events from my beerthday weekend.

Friday involved waking up to 74 people seeing it was my birthday via their Facebook sidebars and politely dropping me a kind birthday wish (This happend during late Thursday and early Friday because of course SA is 7 odd hours behind) and then the day faded into another school day. Then it was the evening. That was to become an entirely different beast.

The plan was ambitious: Dinner with great people at Maya's Indian restaurant followed by a night (and a morning) on the town and a day to follow that at Woobangland amusement park. Funny thing "Ambition".

You need to make the right decisions to achieve what you had hoped. On this night and morning... I failed dismally - with an absolute blast of a time the resultant consequences ;)

Dinner was fantastic. After meeting up with Alana, Alan, Lisa and Marelize at Dongdaegu Train station it was decided that Alana, Sandy and I head off and meet upwith Andrew at Maya while the other 3 will wait for the arrivalof Deb from Daejeon and with all luck a comunicationless Pedro and Kirstey. At 1st Sandy, Alana and I walked into the wrong Indian restaurant but were almost lured to stay there by the smell of decadence that engulfed us. HOWEVER - we did have guests and a booking@Maya to attend to, so we promptly found our way to the correct resaurant. Slowly but surely everyone arrived and the festivities began. I was particularly pleased that Sandy would finally get to meet so many of the awesome people I have had the pleasure to meet on my journey thus far.

Where I sat, it was Sandy, Alana, Andrew and I. our little table grouping decided to each order a difffernt thing and share it around. I had the Butter Chicken to eat and Plain Lassi to drink. Alana had a Lentil curry, Sandy a Lamb curry and Andrew I think a vegetable curry *all dishes were eaten with Naan bread. Conversation was flowing and I had particularly long chats with Deb, Andrew and Kirstey.

Front Row Left: Alana; Andrew; Marelize; Lisa; Kirstey; Pedro
Back Row: Me; Sandy; Alan; Deb

There were even 2 Birthday Cakes greatfully supplied by the Lisa (a big one) and by Pedro and Kirstey (a small one, which apparently looked a little like me, that I took home to have at my leisure). It was a great dinner made that much better by some amazing people.

After dinner we all went our separte ways and Sandy and I headed into Downtown Deagu to meet up with others who had come through to party.While looking for our room at the "Green Motel" I bumped into Jeff, Carey-Lee, Leon and Grant who had come down to Deagu from the Andong are, for the night's festivities. 2nd group of invitees accounted for. At the green motel we found Ashli with Soekie, Rachel and Krista, who were staying in rooms adjacent to us. 3rd group found.

Ashli was to be my guide for the night as she knew the spots a lot better than I did. She presented me with a T-shirt that she and Alana had made for me to wear on the night.

The Front

The Back

The night is best summed up in pictorial form so rather than try and describe something that was a "had to be there night" here are loads of pics from the differnt venues. (Courtney pops up in a lot of these photo's because that is just something she seems very good at doing and because she took my camera for a little bit)

1st port of call: Gogo Vinyl. (Well it was supposed to be but we just ordered a drink in the mini bar area and left, so we never actually got there - ominous signs)

Drinks Line-up: Mini papsak - Don't know what went into it, it was called Peach... something, something

2nd port of call Who's Bob.

Drinks Line-up: 5 shots of beer (beer-pong losses); 1 taquilla; 2 Kalua and Milk's and one Flaming Dr Pepper. This was interspersed with 3 cups of water as well

It was there where I met up with Sean, Courtney (who was well on her way when we found her as she had been drinking with friends in the 2 hours that she was waiting for me to finish dinner - Sadly Sam had the lanygitis so it was thought best she stay back in Pohang), Dirk, and eventually Ian and American Joe as well. It was hear where we stayed for the majority of the night actually.

In Soekies hand...yes the green thing - that was what my 1st drink for the night looked like

Not only did those spec make me SUPERCOOL, next to the mercurial Courtney
but they were also lenseless ;)

Soekie looks like one "naughty" librarian/school teacher and Ashli...
I have no idea what she was trying to do but she looks stoned

 

At this point I was still well sober, as was Krista (Far left) Courtney... not so much
and Rachel (2nd Left), well that's just crazy Rachel is all

I think we stayed at Who's Bob until about 01:30-02:00. While frequenting this ever more rowdy bar, I teamed up and won with Ashli at Beer-Pong against Jeff and Carey-Lee/Leon (who seemed to be rotating their participation in the game).

That looks very Marilyn Manson/K.I.S.S. 'esque

One of many failed attempt to land the ball in a mug, as Ashli downs a glass we just lost

Who's "thumbs up" is that?

Ashli the picture of concentration before the victory shot; oh and there's Courtney again

Krista supporting the winning team

Beer Pong being set up

"Who's Bob" was certainly packed tonight

I had the most engaging conversation with Ian and Joe,going from the cricket to Zimbabwe, to Libya, to Democracy and two party states, to movies that end at in appropriate time and finally how that affected my perception fo the 1st Lord of the Rings movie. It was great. I can always count on Ian (and a lot of alcohol by this point) to toss in interesting conversation topics!

The 2... erm... our names aren't spelled the same so... Geoff and Jeff

Carey-Lee; Grant; Leon and I before the start of my downfall, get up, and down fall again, with a little Taquilla
(IT MAKES ME HAPPY...!)

 

Joe at the back and Ian with me after our insightful chat

With my 2nd Kalua Milk finished we left Who's Bob and went to...

3rd port of call: Organ Bar:

Drinks Line-up: 2 shots of B151 (AKA - "Death in a shot glass"); One glass of Coke, A glass of water

In heathier times on arrival at "Organ Bar"

I am trying (and succeeding) to teach Matt the South African handshake

 

The ladies saying their good-bye's to me before "Death in a shot glass"

I hadn't even had "Death in a shot glass" and Krista was looking less than impressed by my
complete coordination failure at having to find the straw for my coke on the 4th attempt

She then decides to show the camera (in Ashli's hands) how red my ears are

A gent by the name of Matt (I think) joined us in our travels there and this is where the night turned to the adventuous. I had a glass of Coke and was then bought my 2nd shot. It is called B 151 - or Bacardi 151.

Just after my 1st Shot of B 151 (presented to me by Ashli)

The long and the short of the "adventure" is that I had 2 of these shots and according to Wiki this alcohol has a content that is roughly equvalent to double that of standard rum.

After the 2nd shot of B 151 (presented tome by Matt)

I got back to my room@the green motel at about 03:30. Knowing that I was being optimistic about the amusement park meeting time later that morning I decided to send a couple of SMS's to people who I was meeting at what was to be between 10-10:30. I drew inspiration for the following visuals from French Cut ; Just Blog Off and Hyperbole and a Half to showcase what I thought while standing in my motel room doorway at 03:30:

This too proved fool hardy as no sooner did I enter the room and wake Sandy than I had to make my way to the bathroom and...

The written content of this portion has been censored for concern over the writer's pride

the progression of events that lead to an inevitable conclusion:

I did this ALL on MS Paint

... At 7:30 I finally got to sleep and ended up sleeping until 10:50. Luckily Sandy in her continued, star-quality, awesome wisdom had seen fit to let the revelant party's know that I would not be joining in the Amusement Park fun as I was is in to fragile a physical state to do so. Eventually at about 12:00 Sandy and I left the motel and made our way back to Yeongcheon. I got back to my flat and slept off most of the rest of the day.

The last day of my Birthday weekend proved to be just what the doctor ordered - restful and relaxed. I cleaned my place, and Sandy and I went for a nice long walk along the river side later in the afternoon. Supper was a reasonable version of Spag Bol from Mr Pizza with Colleen and Sandy in attendance and we then had some of the 2nd birthday cake for desert while watching "How To Train Your Dragon".

4 words, 6 digets, 1 mathematical and 1 gramaticle symbol:

2011: 25th Birthday in Korea = Winner

Shooo - you had enough yet? Just breath. It's all over now. I am not going to force you to read any more bad puns or look at any more pictures of me (for the time being anyway).

That is me until the next time I do something crazy cool, Yo!

Stay tuned to Geoff's Asian Adventures but until next time - Anyong!

No Creative title for this post just: 4 days of birthday fun. (PART 1)

It would be remiss of me to not dedicate this post to someone. Two people in fact. The 1st is a classly wise lady and the 2nd... well... I just (by some inexplicable conincidence) happen to share a mother, bloodline and birthday with this philistine.

I there-by dedicate this post to you Granny Essie and Adam - my twin (but equally believable, adopted) brother.

*Admirable mention goes out to Dale Morris (who's birthday is 26 March - a date on which some of the activities (or lack there of) occured)*

It began really with a phone call on the 22nd of March. I was sitting at my desk at Yeongan Middle School (my Monday and Tuesday School),whiling away the minutes to home time, having finished my classes for the day. The phone rings and as it generally is when I get a phone call in business hours, it was my Co-Teacher at Gogyeong Middle School (My Wednesday and Friday School). The conversation went like this:


Geoff: Hello?
Co-T: Hello.
Geoff: Hello.
Co-T: Hello.
Geoff: Yes Hello. (at this piont I knew who was on the other end of the line)
Co-T: Hello. It Gogyeong Co-Teacher
Geoff: Yes, hello, what can I do for you?
Co-T: It Gogyeong Co-Teacher, Understand?
Geoff: Yes I know. I understand.
Co-T: It Gogyeong Co-Teacher, Yes, understand?
Geoff: YES! I understand.
Co-T: Yes, ok... Tomorrow school Anniversary.
Geoff: Yes,so what does that mean?
Co-T: Tomorrow school anniversary, so no class.
Geoff: Ok, so do I still come in to school?
Co-T: No class, so you be at home, take a rest. Understand?
Geoff: Yes I understand, thank-you.
Co-T: Understand?
Geoff: Yes,Understand.
Co-T: Ok, see you.


*Hangs up*


Happily I had the day beforemy birthday off. A nice early birthday present. I took the day, not even to sleep in - I woke up at 7:10, so I did a load of washing, cleaned up my place a bit, refined the lesson I was to be teaching later in the week. The biggest part of my day though - after beginning the walk to the location in question about 8 times before stopping and thinking not to do it only to get annoyed and start heading to said loccation again (7 more times) and eventually deciding - "screw it, it will warm up soon" - was going for a haircut, in anticipation of summer. I now, for the 1st time in... 5 years I think, have a nice shaven head - hairs 1cm (or thereabouts) long each.

Thursday I woke up for school and the 1st thing I see was this:

Sandy had given it to me the night before and made me promise I would not open it until my actual birthday. Once opened and read I could not help but have a lump inmy throat because of this:

Massages from all my friends in a giant card that even had this:

on the back.

Reading the 1st few messages was very satisfying and then I noticed a name at the bottom of one of them:
Stu

And then:
Car&Cand

And then:
Joe and Sarah, Bern, Hamster (Dale), Tris, Jade

All the names barring Car&Cand (who were roughly 8800km SE of me - in Melbourn Aus) which were roughly about 13500km's SW of me.

BUT HOW!

I got such a lump in my throat reading all the messages sent from so many of my special people from back home and from Korea. That was Sandy's gift to me and what a gift! Turns out, at the start of March Sandy combed through one of my "blog update emails" for the names (and thereby email addresses) of people who I had talked about, to her, adnausium (both in Korea and Back home) and strived to get as many messages, from those I care about, as possible and put it together in the most awesome birthday card!

If that was not enough I walked out my door to go to school and caught a glint of unusual colour in my eye as the door closed behind me. I turned around and this is what was revealed to me:

This was a plan between Sandy and Ashli that unfolded while I was watching the cricket the previous night. Despite Ashli's coughing and splattering and Sandy's characteristic loud foot steps I didn't notice a thing so it was quite a surprise to find a giant birthday cake and a couple of wishes traped to my front door. On the handle was a chocolate care package of cake and choc milk that was meant for school but I failed to notice that fact and put inside to be enjoyed when I got home.

School on this day, was school. I conducted a lesson on traditions and facts about birthdays in Western Culture, and came back to my flat to go out for a lovely Sushi dinner, Mango Smoothie and Gelato ice-cream with Sandy and Chris.

We chatted away for a couple of hours and then Sandy and I spent a bit of time together before I went back to my place and finished the day watching Aus lose to India in the cricket. A good, relaxing, heartfelt day on the day of my birth back in 1986 :)

Part 2 of this adventure is to follow shortly - Stay tuned to Geoff's Asian Adventure.

HEY! That was MY idea, now what am I supposed to do for my birthday, HMMMMM?

Salutations fellow travellers!

It is the month of March, a month in which birthdays abound. As a result I dedicate all my blogs posted or performed in March to the following Birthday babes/bros:

Sandy Lam, My Aunt Anthea, My Grandmothers, Adam, Dale Morris, Joe Spring, Lauren Davis, Andrea Muller and ... ME!

Seeing how it is a bithday month, what better way than to (more or less) kick it off with a Birthday. It was Sandy's birthday on the 8th. It was difficult to celebrate on the day as such but have no fear, Sandy - Purveyor of the clipboard, Dictator of direction, Empress of excitement - was there.

Now, you won't know much about Sandy so here is a little insight:

When it comes to timeliness, conscientiousness, and precision planning - Sandy is your gal (Sorry Jade - Sandy has a clipboard...

... ergo - you are trumped ;) ). For her birthday she had gone to pains to ensure that there was a reservation at Holy Grill...

... For around 14 people. She also spent 40min in the Tourist information centre outside DongDeagu Train Station co-ordinating her post day-of-birth party with the helpful staff within. Following our day of activites, on the bus back into Deagu Sandy even asked us to look at the menu of Holy Grill that she had printed out and decide and write down what we were eating and drinking so that she could hand the order into the manager when we arrived so as not to overwhelm and backlog the small kitchen! OR-GA-NIZED EK SE!

1st on the list was...

Well first we actually had to get to the centre of activity , the hive of entertainment. After arrival in Deagu we all climbed on the Subway and made our way to Seongdangmot Subway station and bus terminal where we purchaced ticket to Hap-ga (about a 50min drive away) The bus was departing at 13:05 so from 12:40 we hung around to await all attnding guests, the list was as follows:

Sandy, Me (Both back row), Ashli, Colleen (2nd row left), Courtney and Sam (Second row right), The Klug Twins (Pips and Jacquie-front left), Dan and his lady friend (3rd row right), Melinde (To Sandy's Left) and Sandy's friend from the States Liz and her friend Jacquie (The very front Left).

On arrival at the cultural village where we were doing all our activities, we were all a bunch of confused foreigners who were blindly wondering around like lost sheep.

Luckily for us, Dan's girlfriend was from Korea so her language and communication skills came in super handy and we were all very grateful. We mad our way into the village eventually and 1st on the lists of activities was...

Traditional Korean Hard Candy making.

It took a while but Sandy and I eventully got our rhythm to make the stuff however and Ajima (Korean Old Lady) seemed to disagree and shuffled me aside while she continued and finished the project with Sandy (Can anyone say D.U.N.C.E)

I was given back my pride when I was allowed to break the toffee type candy into pieces using a little stick.

Following candy making it was off to Strawberry Picking (which had been my idea for my birthday, oh well - off to Woobangland instead :-D)...

Rewind back to 2007... Strawberry Picking in George

Geoff's Asian Adventure featuring special guests: Joseph Spring and Geoff of 2007

Well, this was Strawberry picking, The Korean Way.

Courtney having a picking good time

This was a lot of fun and brought back a lot of memories if GEORGE 2007, but the highlight for me was our last activity before heading back into Deagu - traditional Kite making. For the 2nd activity out of 3 where some of us proved to be challenged kite makers but we all got it done in the end.

We were even given the opportunity to fly them before getting back on our bus for Deagu. It was great because the wind had really picked up so it was a great kite flying day, though not for some challenged kite flyers...

Ashli only got her Kite off the ground with about 5min left before we had to catch our bus.

Sadly Sandy's kite was taken out by a rouge attack from a telephone post - who has yet to be caught and brought to justice. I had a more sucessful time even if Courtney tried to knock me out the sky alla Red Baron vs the US.

Back in Deagu for dinner and it was off to The Holy Grill for supper. Here we were joined by Joe and his Girlfriend as well as Michael and Emily (None of whom could make it for the activity day). Much food and merriment was had and I got to have a nice getting yo know you chat with Sandy's good friend Liz and her friend Jacquie. To cap off the evening Sam, Dan, Courtney and Ashli arranged a cheese cake and a chocolate cake with a "26" candle, party hat and party poppers for Sandy.

It was a great day with great people - I hope my birthday weekend is as good :)



Stay tuned for more right here on Geoff's Asian Adventure!

Geoff out...