Don't try to be a hero

Good news: I've finally resurrected a hobby, or interest..or whatever you want to call it. I can't believe that I didn't start this earlier..considering I enjoyed it so much last time. I guess the advent of the driving license sidelined this hobby for a while :) Anyway so there I was thinking what in the world to do about my expanding waistline because I don't want to go to JPMC gym its always full. And Fitness Zone to me is just overpriced and full of posers. So what to do leh?

*looks downstairs and discovers a vaguely bicycle shaped dust mound* oh yeah lets give that a try hehe..brought it to the shop and spent an ungodly amount of money fixing it up (although it was cheaper than buying a new bike) and was 'coerced' into joining a bicycle expedition. Now lets get this clear, I hadn't been on a bike for 4 years, well out of shape due to the project of tasting every half decent restaurant in this country and I signed up for a 25km expedition!!!

I wonder what made me do that. Now I'm got sore legs, tomorrow the hamstrings will probably follow and what-not. Oh and a certificate. But you know what? I really enjoyed it. Chasing the pack, trying to keep up with the veterans (surprisingly I wasn't eating THAT much dust), all about the mental focus on a point to chase. It's all good. I might pursue this hobby along and see how far I can take it. Hopefully can get fast enough to join one of the inter-country expeditions although thats many moons away...

On Korean Food and why we should emulate them.

I just realised after being back for a week or so that we actually eat pretty unhealthily over here. I mean lets see what we have available for snacks, easily accessible kind I mean: nasi katok, deep fried stuff, fried noodles and whatnot, BBQ smoked chicken wings/fish etc. I'm talking about cheap, daily available and not those 'once in a blue occasion' kind of snacks. Thats kind of unhealthy. Consider that over in Korea, at 11pm, we were able to sit down at a roadside stall and order stewed rice cakes in spicy sauce, with soup. Or the fact that snacks for them means a 1000won (Approx B$1.70) bar of sushi (I mean huge roll, not like Excapade miniscule type of sushi roll).

Or take drinks. They sell fruit drinks and water mostly. I simply could not see any Coke, 7-up anywhere. Why? Because they were promoting their own drinks such as pine bud drink, energiser drinks, fruit sodas, chilled teas equivalent to Season's Cincau drink. They even sell milk in 350mL cartons in quantities that we in Brunei stock on Coke and Pepsi. Talk about a health conscious society.

You understand where I'm getting at. No wonder they are mostly lithe and slim. There is one downside. In an 8 day tour, by the 5th day we had eaten most of the national dishes, the ones you simply have not arrived in Korea if you have not eaten them. Korean bbq, bimimbap, steamboat, etc. Bland, mostly. Except the BBQ. That was really great.

Thats why I found myself, at 11 30pm, at Sinchon shopping area, looking at a 24hr Mc D's. Sad you might think, but for all those who have only eaten McD's in Singapore, Brunei or Malaysia, even Australia, you should really try the beef in Korea. OMG, it tastes SO much better!!! A bacon deluxe double cheeseburger, with fries and a Coke Zero. For 5500KRW, it was well worth it. Apparently the beef in Japan is better yet. I can't wait to try. And that's where I found myself at the airport, craving for a Bacon deluxe cheeseburger but no Mc D's. So what to do, go 2nd best and wallop Burger King. Problem number two was that I had run out of Korean Cash.

I can say it right now, I have never enjoyed a bacon deluxe double cheeseburger so much, especially when it was paid for using a VISACARD. Desperation knows no boundaries.

BAAACCCKKKK!!!! :D

Finally got the time to blog..after a hectic 8 day trip to Seoul..weather was raining, we encountered mild typhoon-heavy rains, oh and one other thing I learnt; try not to go shopping with such a big group. And not with shopaholics. I thought I was a shopaholic (even if its mostly window shopping) but whoa...you're in a totally different league...I mean arriving at the hotel at 9+pm then go straight out for shopping right after checking in until 1 something am, spending 300k KRW, on the 1ST night itself, getting lost !!! I also won't mention the other 4 days of shopping 'till 3 30am then waking up for morning call 7.20am for the tour. Walau, damn "keng" eh..either that or you're full of energy. I salute you. Of course *blushing* I was also quite interested with the shopping lah...hehe so its not (entirely :) ) your fault that I'm writing this blog..

It was fun, really fun, everyone was great..visited a local Korean pub/club style, visited Sub_Zero Ice Bar where outside was a darn humid 24 deg n the pub was -10 deg C..imagine using Alaskan style winter clothes to visit a bar whose interior is carved out of ice, even the stools, bartop and drinks 'cups'..Kudo's to either our socio-communication skills or maybe our tour guide really thought we were giving him an easy time, that he paid for our (6 of us) dinner, and entrance fee (KRW15,000 each!) to the Ice Bar. Cool!! Eating out in Korea is not cheap. Case in Point: McD's Bacon Double Cheeseburger Meal KRW5500~B$9.00

Oh and by the way, all that hype about Korean girls being really as beautiful as they look on TV..well its 70% true. No offense to any ladies reading this post, but we all have to understand population dynamics (??)..its simple, there's just more of them in total, therefore there is a higher percentage chance of happening across the more beautiful 'normal' local ones.
And it didnt help that our tour guide whose a guy, half Taiwanese-half Korean, brought us to his local hangout which is situated smack-bang in the middle of 3 universities, one of which is the top women's university in S. Korea. You tell me lah, how not to be able to see them leh???!!!!

Oh and by the way, I have to say this lah...I couldnt help but notice, Korean guys really do look that good lor...I mean I only notice opposite sex but yeah, Korean guys do look good. That can be verified by my female tour counterparts as well..hehe..

Anyway...before I start sounding homosexual...
The tour was well worth the money spent, there were so many places in the itenary, the studio set of Jewel in the Palace which is about twice the size of our Royal Regalia Museum, historical palaces, war/traditional Korean culture museums, the many places of shopping, Seoul Tower where one of the Korean movie scenes was shot..pity the weather didnt permit us to visit Namiseon Island, scene of Winter Sonata shooting. Trust me we were in the bus on the way when the rain just poured down, flooding the roads and blowing signboards over, I would NOT want to be on a ferry at that moment en-route to Namiseon Island. Its not fun being stuck in traffic for 4 hrs. Oh and btw, I'm really sick of looking at 3 brands of Korean made motorcar, 90% of which are either in white, black or silver.

AND I can't believe my luck!!! We just got off the bus on one of the last days when we stumbled across a film shoot..live, with cameras rolling and crew-camera trucks. And I managed to take a few photos live, up close, paparazzi style, of a Korean Film Star!!! One thing I can say is: they are really stick thin. That is the most appropriate description I can give.

Well, thats it for now, pictures will be uploaded to my friendster site( http://www.friendster.com/garyviosblogspot ) soon, when I get the time and patience to sit down n upload them...stay tuned...

Wow I can't wait to see what Korea will look like in winter, or maybe I'll just go to Japan..hehehehe..

Countdown.

The day is finally here!!! Boy I can't describe exactly how glad I am that the day is here, especially the last 5 days building up to it. All I'm going to say is I really deserve this trip. Yeah by the way I think those who read my last post should have picked up my typo. My bad :)

Man, I deserve this trip. Anyone who has been given the responsibility of coaching his colleague who takes 20 seconds to open a word document... anyway never mind. It's not my ultimate responsibility(aah the joys of being a mere employee...) so "Good luck!!" to my boss for these next 8 days in supervising & coaching him to handle the 3 sections I'm currently responsible for. I tried. May your remaining hairs remain intact. I will pray for you.

2 more days..then I'm outta here..

Whew, its been killer..just because of one phone call; "Do you want to go to ?" That was 2 weeks ago in the lead up to today. It also involved the scheduling of my night duty to *gasp* working 1st,3rd & 5th Aug. Just so I dont load up my night duty AFTER my holiday. Stupid idea. As I write my blog now, its been a record 3 nights of sleeping at 12-1am, getting woken up at 3-3.30am for work, getting 1 hrs sleep then waking up at 6am for regular office hours duty. Now what in the world possessed me to schedule THAT?

Im thinking about the cliche'd "need a holiday after my holiday" statement. Boy I hope that doesn't come true..but apart from that, I also subscribe to the statement "suffer now, enjoy later". Right. All cynics please repeat after me: "Wahlau eh, suffer so darn teruk dee, still got energy to enjoy meh?" I hope not.

Boy, Im looking forward to this break. Away from here, a few thousand kays away (5 hrs@230++kph to be exact), away from reality of life, away from normalcy, just to take a breather. Apparently I'm not the only one. So she says as well. The one who asked me to go along. It's going to be an interesting 8 days in S. Korea.

.....

Climate change!!! I have never experienced such things in my whole life here in Brunei (and that spans over 2 decades!!!) Monsoon rains I have experienced, flooding, even into the house, but never have I experienced such strong winds..mind you this is the 2nd time and I was at home! The 1st time was Friday night when I was at work..mind you I work by the sea, and its really scary to look out the windows and see total darkness illuminated by flashing lightning streaks repeatedly and seeing in those flashes the heavy and heady waves breaking ominously on the beach just 50m away from the window. And to think I parked under a tree!! I expected my car to be flattened. And tonight again, cooped up at home wondering how much stronger the winds could be, watching forlonly at my poor babe being mercilessly battered by the winds and rain..argh..

A post for the....

....due to the sensitive nature of the last post, I will be deleting it after my period of calm returns...so dont be surprised if the posts dont seem to match up..that means that it has 'expired'. Just watched Transformers, and omg that has to be the best movie I have ever watched. Period. Im getting the DVD9 when it comes out, it is so worth it.