Chosun Bimbo

BEST of BIMBO 2005

Ladies and gentlemen, without further adue let me introduce to you the Bimbo's very best moments of 2005:
But first a bitch about the holidays.
Here in Korea everything humms along smoothly as if there was no such thing as Christmas. All the shops are open, services continue to be provided, rubbish is collected and the mail delivered. It seems that the rest of the world (barring Iraq - which is f*%$ed anyway) has shut down. No new Podcasts, no email, no nothing. Damn you all!(except Marina who emailed me this morning - It's tough having to work the week between Xmas and New Years!)
Plus everyone who I was supposed to have an engagement with today has had to cancel or reschedule - No Korean lesson until tomorrow - no piss up until Monday blah blah blah.
Oh and last night in fine holiday celebratory mood I went out with PJ and his collegues from St Pauls and got (a little) drunk now that we are all on Vacation. They get 5 weeks I get two days - And I have to start workking in the morning.
And now on with the Best of...
Best New Zealand Story 2005
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Minister of Foreign Affairs, former member for Tauranga, Son of god and next NZ Prime Minister.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs has been getting a bitt of flak for being out of Helen's cabinet, but I thought he looked the part and did quite well here at APEC
Best Korean Story 2005
Dr Hwan. Famous Stem Cell researcher. Infamous Stem Cell Fabricator
Ahh the then venerable SNU proffessor proffessed to have created patient specific stem stell lines. Last week 7 out of 11 were proved to be bullshit and this morning the remaining 4 were rubbished by a Seoul National University investi-ma-gation.
Best Stafford Moment 2005
A tie between Me mum and 'The Boss' offering me a pay rise plus paying for my holiday to NZ.
Worst Stafford Moment 2005
The Phone. How on Google Earth did I loose that little fucker? Still I have a new phone now don't I!? (review pending)
Coolest thing I bought this year
PSP - go SONY Corp. of Japan GO!!
Silliest thing I bought this year
6 PSP games - Over the couse of the year and what do I do - play only one game again and again and again - Christ Lumnes is addictive
Noteworthy stuff that happened this year
Oldboy picked in top 10 movies of the year by Salon
I started taking Korean lessons
I drank and smoked and ate too much
Mum bought a digital camera (she is slowly creeping into the 21st century - christ even the grandparents have internet!)
What I didn't quite get around to in 2005
Taking up a hobbie / sport (Golf looked quite attractive)
Saving more money. (Justified to myself that what I have saved is more than I've ever had)
Loosing some weight - Nay I only added to it
and finally what I will do next year...
Take up a hobbie / sport. (Golf is looking very attaractive)
Save more money
Loose some weight

Interestingly I have managed to keep a blog for about 8 months now bettering the resolutions of some of my compatriots. I have to say too that although thoroughly interesting and enlightening - I have a feeling of achieving very little this year so will promise to myself to find some things that I can do that are measurable in terms of success.

Best holiday wishes to y'all and I will be back next year (which is like next week)

PS here is some new phone porn:

Jingle Bimbo

Santa brought Stafford Lego for Christmas.

And that was Christmas for another year. As I have come to expect - being in Korea or at home in New Zealand - it's all a bit of an anti-climax. Especially when I know Santa isn't coming and when for Christmas Dinner I had instant noodles. I did have a lovely boysenberry cream sponge cake for dessert which was given to me by Jane (and I guess 'The Boss') I really wanted the snowman ear muffs that came as a free gift with cakes from Paris Baguette - looks like Jane got those.
I called the family on Sunday afternoon. It was good to hear everyone in high spirits (no doubt fueled by spirits) and all of them very happy to hear that I will be coming home for a weeks holiday in March (only 9 weeks away!)
On Friday I received a card and a letter from Nana and Pop. Mum's care package of this month's Metro, Marmite and various other Christmas goodies arrived this morning along with Dilworth Centenary registration details. - Thats 4 pieces of mail in 3 days - 'The Boss' thinks it's crazy! Interestingly there was something scrawled on the back of the Dilworth envelope by Jaq - who apparenty came across it while working at the post office - what are the odds?
Isn't tampering with the mail a federal offense?
Unfortunately It didn't snow on Christmas day - despite forecasts of snow in Daejon for Sunday. Of course it did snow on Wednesday and Thursday and there was enough snow on the ground still to give the place a Christmas like feeling about the place.
I spent the rest of Sunday trying to fix my computer (some things are still not loading when I reboot), checking my email, downloading all my podcasts, doing some marking and (yet again) taping a speech for one of the students to be delivered on Wednesday.

Saturday saw Sophia and I head off to Daejon to pick up a new text for winter classes coming up in January. A fairly simple task completed in time for a quick browse through the English Texts and novels available, followed by lunch at Subway and a couple of coffees at Starbucks. I was able to pick up a flavour lock of Kimodo Dragon Blend (relativly rare...can someone tell me is it a seasonal offering like in the way Christmas Blend is?) But there was no Christmas blend - which is what I really wanted.
I have decided that I may have to buy an espresso machine sooner rather than later as i am growing tired of the Americanos that the Crown Bakery is providing - they were so glorious when first discovered - but are starting to get pretty shitty. Plus I would love a Latte when I get home in the evenings.
I also picked up a neat little Starbucks diary - has a calendar etc but is more like a notebook with lots of Starbucks related pictures and terms etc. It impresses my penchant for Starbucks related paraphenalia.

So into the last week of the working year - a short week at that! i am looking forward to pay day something chronic - I have forcibly reminded myself what it's like is to be poor. And Lord I don't like it!! Word on the street is that the staff is being taken out to dinner on Wednesday night by Jung Chul. (was a bit let down I didn't get taken out for dinner on Christmas like last year.) (Follows a trend - last year I got rice cakes for Chusok and this year I only got Socks - might get a smile next year.) So stay tuned for a culiary report before the end of the year. Wednesday will also be the usual monthly pay the phone bill and also get a new phone night. Stay tuned for a new phone report. Speaking of staying tuned for reports I will investigate the Archives for a BEST OF BIMBO 2005 and post that up sometime before Saturday for all your pleasure but mostly of mine. I need to sit down and decide on some goals for the coming year and see what I have - and more importantly - What I havn't done.

Finally a (late) Merry Christmas to all who I neglected to talk to on Sunday, and A Happy New Year for those who I won't speak to until next week.

Choco Bimbo

Its freezing. So what better way to beat the winter blues than with a Bimbo Hot Chocolate?

Ingredients:
Coco, Milo or other similar chocolate drink mixture. (What I would do for some Milo!)
3 Hershey's Nuggets.
Milk
Hot water

Method:
While boiling water slice, dice and otherwise hack to pieces 3 little Hershey's nuggets with an oversize butchers knife

Leaving a pile of chocolate thus:

Add chocolate to bottom of a mug of your choice
pour in a few table spoons of boiled water to melt chocolate.
Add a shit load of chocolate drink mix to mug (I suggest 6 heaped dessert spoons)

Mix
Fill mug to desired level with Hot water
Top with foamed milk and chocolate

Optional
Add two shots of cheap Korean whisky and one shot of Creme de Menth.
Go to bed feeling a little more light headed than usual.

So the end of the week is nigh and yet again it is snowing. I'm not sure what is going on with the speeches - I thought we were going to have some sort of competition or something but nothing yet, so maybe next week.

I sent my 20K up to Seoul to James Creegan for my patented Lost Seouls 2006 calendar which arrived this morning. And it is a pretty good looking piece. Much better than the generic crap is out there. I don't know whether it is some sort of omen or just that time of year but I have got three calendars this week - One from the bakery, one from work, and the Lost Seouls one. The upshot is that I have been staring at all three constantly. It is some sort of compulsion - but I lliterally cant go a day without flicking through my diary or glncing through a calendar. Though I suppose having that sort of coompulsion is better than rolling around in my own feaces, masterbating, reading "Guns and ammo"!

It's Friday tomorrow - it feels like only a couple of days ago I was cursing the fact that it was Monday - time does indeed fly. 'The Boss' has agreed to pay for the return ticket home so I am eagerly planning my weeks holiday in New Zealand which is now only 9 weeks away. (Assah!)

In other news
I was suprised to see Peter Jackson on the tele the other night promoting King Kong - I had heard he had lost weight, but oh my God he looks skinny. Maybe I should go and direct a blockbuster film or something?
Big ups to Kroy who sent me a nice thank you note for his wedding present.
As a testement to how bloody cold it is I have suffered some water issues this week. Because, basically, I am too cheap to turn on the floor heating some of the pipes are frozen in the mornings - ie no hot water for my shower. Secondly the washing machine, because it's out on the balcony, tends to freeze up, ie no water for filling (use a bucket) leaving things to soak allows the development of a soapy sock filled popsicle that wont drain because the outlet pipe is frozen solid.
So I took the plunge and poped the heating on this morning. Still no luck with the taps, but I have chewed through something like 10 cubic metres of gas - shite it's gonna be a bit expensive at the end of January...but it is nice and toasty in my bedroom for when I go to sleep.

Confidence

A bit of a long one after a flurry of short and somewhat sanquine posts.
On Thursday I slinked in from the cold I was suprised to find this on my desk:

Just what I need - a can of confidence. ('The Boss' will often give each of the staff a bottle of somesuch wonder drink)
Perhaps I could get a can of 'Sex Appeal' aswell?
How about a can of Common Sense?

After deciphering the can I can tell you that 'Confidence' provides me with 404% of my daily recommended intake of Vitamin C, 206% of Vitamin B2 but just 57% of my daily recommended intake of Niacin. (What the F*&^ is Niacin?)And what's this? A nicotine derivative? Assah! I'm likeing this more and more.

And what is Vitamin P?
Snow.
heeheeheehee It has snowed on and off (and at times quite heavily) since Wednesday. When I finally woke up at 2:30 on Saturday afternoon this is what I was greeted with:

I promptly turned around and went back to bed.
Earlier assertions have been proved correct in that last year it wasn't this cold in December. From memory it didn't even snow until January.
In other news
Love the fact that this years WTO meeting in Hong Kong has been marred not by rioting anarchists, tree hugging vegans, or pinko leftie whale huggers. No, instead its these Korean Farmers who have made CNN headlines 3 days in a row spraypainting the US Consulate in Hong Kong, getting sprayed by water canons etc. They get a mighty 앗싸 from the Bimbo!
Check out my new friendster friend's blog here. She tells funny jokes. See her details here.
Interstingly it seems that Doctor Hwang lied about the stem cells to everyone involved. See the Marmot's coverage here.
And this is interesting on how the DPRK makes some hard currency.
Well there we are a nice little linky blog post in lieu of any real happenings. Honestly i'm gutted about the phone and am sure there are hundreds of people out there trying to get in touch but who won't be able until I have new phone. (Which will happen in about 10 days time! - a little quicker than I originally thought as I have a few days holiday and am thus getting paid a little earlier - but still a near intolerable time to wait.).

Piss, Shit and Bugger!

So on Saturday night somewhere between work, the supermarket, a few beers and home I lost my phone.

As anyone who knows me this is totally out of character in that my phone (which ever one is in vogue at any given time) is usually plastered to my head if not being clutched in my greasy little digits.

It's a fucking catastrophe!

Adding to the crisis -  it is the middle of the month and I have been living like a refugee after sending most of my pay home so I can't afford to buy a new phone until the end of the month.

It's a fucking catastrophe!

The upshot is of course I get to go shopping for a new phone at the end of the month. I was thinking a new RAZR perhaps.

Anyway thats it for now. I'm too distraught.

It's snowing again and my washing machine froze this morning (literally. With ice and stuff.)

Big News

No snow since last weekend so suffering through the insipid and bone chilling cold has thus far been for naught. All is not lost however as I was confronted with a most exciing proposition from 'The Boss' on Thursday afternoon.
BTW I'm not being sarcastic this is great news: He not only offered me a pay rise, but I also managed to convince him to give me a week off and a return ticket to Auckland, In return for staying and working in Nonsan for another (3rd) year!!!
It solves so many problems it's not funny! I have figured out what to do next year. I can put off packing all my shit for another year, while adding more shit, plus I will get to go home (although briefly) to see everyone and go to the school thing. AND I got a pay rise.

앗싸!

I've made it Part 2

Check out this post from Russell Brown's Hard News

Let it snow

Couple of emails from the inbox: "Staf, where are you mate? Are you OK? Are you still in Korea?" Well I'm here, I'm OK and yes I'm still in Korea.

How to cover the last two weeks in a single post? A difficult task at the best of times. (especially since I've done nothing of note) But stuff it - it's December 4 and it snowed last night!!!! As someone who usually lives in more balmy, antipodean climes being outside when snow begins to fall always brings a giant grin to my face.

So by chance I happened to be awake at half past one this morning as the snow began to fall so I ran outside and mucked about in the snow for 20 minutes before coming back to the apartment and sneaking off to a warm bed.As I write it has begun to snow again and I find myself just staring out the window at it. - I can't even look at the TV for more than a minute without loosing concentration.

In other news: The 2005 Jung Chul speech contest is underway. It could arguably be the most important and influential event that Sophia has come up with in terms of a) the kids learning English and b) upping the profile of the school as a whole with parents. Students have to write a speech on one of a series of topics developed for their level. First in Korean. Then they have to translate, The Korean staff will then correct and edit, and finally I will record each speech for the kids to listen to and memorise before delivering the speech near the end of December.

Over all I think it is a very good idea, and a little more fun for the kids than the usual listen -repeat-memorise routine that they go through. The fact that I will have to read and record upward of thirty speeches varying in length from 1 to 4 minutes in length is mitigated by the fact that the majority of kids are forgoing tapes and requesting their recording in mp3 format meaning I don't have to piss about with a tape recorder etc and can do it fully digital. It reflects where Korea is going - I think you'd be hard pressed to find kids in NZ wanting mp3's let alone having mp3 players.

Speaking of school there was a bit of a brewhaa at school concerning speaking assesment for the Fantasy class (i.e. the little, LITTLE kids). Personally I don't think there is much use in grading these kids. I think at this stage the whole purpose is to get them interested in English rather than freaking them out with tests. Thats why all I do is let them run around singing songs and get them to colour in their books etc. But after all, I am only the over-paid, under-worked foreign teacher so I do as I am told. Now for the gossip: Apparently Sophia asked Clair to make up an evaluation form and she turned around and bit her head off and Sophia was all like crying and stuff!!! Anyway that night Sophia and I went out for a drink and she told me all the gossip so I came up with a form and did the testing on the little ones myself. The results of which were pleasantly suprising - the kids ARE able to string together at least a basic sentence. (They must have a good english teacher aye.)

The big drama at the end of last week was I thought I had lost my NZ mobile number as I had forgotten to get mum to top it up with some credit. A few furtive emails back and forth between Vodafone New Zealand, Mum and myself and all was sorted. I now have $30 credit that won't expire until November next year.

End of the month, Payday came and went. A large portion of which (2/3) ended up going to New Zealand, so I am again pretty proud of myself for not spending it. Thursday did present an opportunity to go shopping. Call it what you want but Nonsan is at least a large enough city to warrent a Nike store and so I bought a new jacket, finally. More out of necessity, as the snow has proved, than anything else. And Nike was having a 30% off sale. I picked up a particularly nice jacket that is particularly warm. I was going to go for the Manchester United one but anything vaguly related to the team is sold at a premium now in Korea after the recent inclusion of former PSV Eindhoven player J S Park into the Manchester line up. So I settled for an Arsenal jacket instead. "Go the Gunners!" And it cost me less than the Asics jacket I bought last year and subsequently destroyed recently.

The first of the month also has brought about a change of habit in terms of what I eat. Ladies and Gentlemen I have gone on a diet which, apart from one lapse on Saturday night (Can you say chocolate chip?) I am doing relativly well in. Salads, lots of water and limiting my carbs intake. Did you know that Diet coke (Or Coke lite as it is refered to here) provides absolutly no nutritional sustenance what so ever?! Giving up food is like giving up crack! All I want to do is sit down and eat 8 blocks of chocolate. But fuck me if I won't. I need to look a little thinner for March. So stay tuned for (not so) regular reports on how the diet thing is going. It's gonna be hard - especially since I promised I would buy my 6pm class tomorrow pizza.

And finally, I've got a date tonight. hahaha

It's been a long hard two weeks my friends. No post as of yet - will try something tomorrow and fill you in.