Chosun Bimbo

Movement

The Chosun Bimbo has moved!
Direct your browser to:
www.stafford.net.nz

this and that

It struck me today that it was almost half way through the month of April. I can't believe it! Spring is definately in the air, and It has rained at regular intervals since the weekend. I notice too blossoms are pushing out into the still somewhat cold spring air.
With spring comes the general spring cleaning and I have decided to move the Bimbo, especially on the back of the new obnoxious ads that appear below the first post of the front page and in the banner above. On top of that I have been whining for sometime about the inability to customise the Friendster blog all that much in terms of HTML.
Thus I have picked up an account at Blogger - further fueling my Googleization. At present you can see The Chosun Bimbo v2.0 Beta here. I have also taken the plunge and purchased a domain and found somewhere that will host it all at a pretty decent price, so don't go changing your bookmarks until I have finalised everything and got it all up.
At present I'm going blind looking at all this HTML, but from the page I point to above you can see my general design ethic. Simple and clear in muted colours. Similar to The Bimbo's present home greys and dark greens play a role. Especially after I figured out how to get rid of this giant orange stripe that ran through the center of the page. Any comments greatly appreciated at the email above. I've forgotten so much about writing HTML it's like learning all over again, but after the weekend I have picked it up again pretty well - I wish I could do the same with Korean.
One thing I did forget to mention in the boredom of last week was the email I got from my sister Haylee, who it seems has grown up to be 20 and is doing PR at Tafe in Melbourne - who would have thought? I flicked her an SMS on a number which I took a gamble on her still having and whattiya know!? - Random.
I'm also heading up to Seoul on a secret mission this coming Saturday. No details yet - I don't want to jinx myself, and I don't necessarily want certain people shooting their mouths off, so more on that after the weekend (perhaps at the new sight?). But I have also organised to hook up with Sophia on Saturday while I'm up there - something I am looking forward to very much - she's fun.
Anyhoo thats it for now. It is 10 to 2 on Wednesday morning - I am still not sleeping very well. I got to bed at about 5am last night (now yesterday morning I guess.) It might be the right time to go and see the doctor and ask for some more barbituates. Or should I just break out the black label...hmmmmm tempting...

Yellow Dust

You don't believe me about the dust? See this photo from Nasa. (via The Marmot)

Routine

Monday
Slept through alarm
Got up, ironed shirt
Went to work
Came home, watched "House"
Downloaded "The Sopranos"
Went to bed.
Tuesday
Slept through alarm
Got up, ironed shirt
Went to work
Came home, watched "House"
Downloaded "The Simpsons"
Went to bed.
Wednesday
Woke up on time (someone called)
Got up, ironed shirt
Went to work
Came home, watched "CSI"
Went to bed.
Thursday
Slept through alarm, (I haven't been sleeping very well this week).
Got up, ironed shirt
Went to work
Came home, watched "CSI"
Went to bed
Friday
Woke up on time
Got up, ironed shirt
Went to work
Came home pissed about
Went to bed
Got up at about 3am and pissed around some more
Went back to bed at 5am
Saturday
Got up at about 7am
Went for a ride on my bike for about half an hour - almost died.
Pissed about most of the day (The Yellow Dust was everywhere so didn't feel like going back outside)
Downloaded "Snatch"
Went to bed (early and I actually slept!)
Sunday
Woke up
rode down to the shop
came back.
Pissing about right now

Exciting week huh!?

Cuisine Bimbo 5 Chapchae 잡채

Chapchae is like noodle salad and is swiftly turning into one of my favourite Korean dishes. It is also increadibly easy to whip up in a giffy.

Ingredients
6 ea Chinese black mushrooms
1/3 lb Tender spinach leaves
1 ea Carrot
1 sm Zucchini
3 md Mushrooms
2 ea Chinese cabbage leaves
4 ea Scallions
4 tb Vegetable oil
1 tb Sesame oil
3 ea Garlic cloves, minced
1 tb Japanese soy sauce
1 ts Sugar
1/2 ts Salt
Method
Crack open your duty free Johnnie Walker

Soak the Chinese mushrooms in water. When softened, cut off the hard bits and slice. boil spinich for a couple of minutes and Squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Slice and Dice.

Heat oils. Add Garlic Stir and fry for 10 seconds. Add vegetables.

Stir fry for 3 to 4 minutes or until the vegetables are tender-crisp.

Add the drained noodles, soy sauce, and salt. Season to taste.
YUM!

Another (another) Drinking Story

It has been a good week by all accounts. Students turning up to class on time and doing their homework. The weather has been gorgeous and I have caught up with and made some new friends.
Monday saw the return of Ken and James to Nonsan via Shanghai, Bangkok, Seoul, Suwon and all points in between. We had or usual and very tasty dinner of BBQ before heading of to 하늘보기 but was disappointed to not find my man Mr Lucky - thus no Martini, but half a bottle of Jonnie Walker Black later I managed to make my way next door, upstairs and into bed.
I gave James his present from New Zealand. So interested was he in my old school jumper one night when I was wearing it, and especially the school crest, that I got him a Dilworth T-shirt, which he was suitably impressed with.

James and his new T-shirt.

On the subject of T-shirts I would like to get a couple of custom ones done, in particular one that says 외국사람 across the back. (That's more funny if you are a foreigner living in Korea.) Anyway while trawling the internet I also came up with this design which I thought was increadibly funny.

So the week went speedily enough leading us to Friday. Being the end of the month it was time to do the whole sticker market thing. I had some concerns in that it would be the first without Sophia who instigated these things and was the leading force behind them. I think overall it went OK, and I even gave the new teacher Lucy a chance to stand up and take one of the classes. I think (hope) 'The Boss' thought it was OK as well. Afterwards Clair decided we should go out and have dinner somewhere so I suggested BBQ and so we went to my usual place and we had some 삼겹살. Very tasty indeed. Shortly thereafter I was back at 하늘보기 to round out the week as it started. I figured out it means look up at the sky, which is a good name for a bar on the top floor of a building I guess. Unused at the moment, the bar has a large outside area on the roof, which will be most pleasant in summer to sit outside with a few beers. Martinis were abound on Friday night and I managed to get through 3 as well as a couple of beers before making it next door, upstairs and into bed.
I felt sorry for Lucy who wasn't drinking as she has been suffering from a cold this week and is on medication. I can't imagine how tedious it must be to listen to Me (let alone Me and Clair) when you're sober. Apparently she hasn't been feeling to good about work either. A couple of kids have decided to leave Jung Chul and study elsewhere, or quite altogether on the heels of Sophia leaving. I guess it's a testiment to Sophia's teaching that these kids have formed a really good bond with her. It doesn't make Lucy feel any better though. I tried to explain to her that when I first arrived in The Republic I went through the same thing and felt quite quilty (despite being called Alistair) for the first 3 months, and that if things were bad then 'The Boss' would probably say something anyway. I don't know if I managed to communicate my point very well, but I think she got it. Besides which this is a girl who got 950 in TOEIC!!!! (Out of a possible 1000?). But it is her first teaching assignment. I feel like such an old hack realising that I went through these very same things 2 years ago. Oh well.
My original plan for Saturday was scuttled because the weather was absolute shite - I was gonna go and get a new bike and ride around Nonsan. So I put it off until today. I picked up a new pushbike then for W75000, my only complaiint being that te seat wont stay in the prefered position so after this I'm going downstairs and attacking it with a spanner. That should sort it. So I rode it back to the apartment from the bike shop. All pretty good. You know what they say is true - riding a bike is like...well...riding a bike, I havn't forgotten, considering its probably been 10 years since i last rode one. And that was under some pretty trying circumstances if I recall - weaving in and out of Egyptian traffic on the West bank of The Nile in Luxor. By contrast I only nearly crashed once between 강상동 and home. Unfortunately it also reinforces how horribly fat and unfit I have become. There aren't any really big hills in Nonsan (Thank God) but even going up a slight incline was a bit of a mission. Nevertheless I feel if I stick to it things can only get better. SO I'll be ridiing to work tomorrow. (I don't know how I'm going to drink my coffee on the way, but oh well.)

In Other News:

Where can I go where I can sit on the beach and watch American Marines drive up in tanks and hovercrafts and shit. This video is of some Koreans protesting against said military exercises, but I think it would be a good afternoon's entertainment to sit on a beach somewhere with a few beers watching the Marines make an amphibious landing. Also from The Marmot's Hole This piece which I guess is kinda sad in that I think Korea is really safe. I have felt more safe wandering around Yongsan at 1am in the morning, (I was at the pub! OK!) than I have wandering around certain parts of downtown Auckland on my recent trip home. And this thing. Apparently Japanese - Korean friction is turning in to a bit of a (blood)sport. New Zealand - Australian analogies abound except for the fact that we didn't brutally occupy Australia for 40 years. Finally as an avid reader of Engadget and listener of This Week in Tech I thoroughly recommend Cranky Geeks. Brought to you by the team at dl.tv I find John C Dvorak hilarious.

BTW as anyone will tell you - it's quite handy to save your work periodically - This is the 3rd time I've written this post. Stay tuned for a new Bimbo Cuisine in the next day or two, I made Chapchae last night which turned out pretty good. I was inspired by Clair bringing me some for lunch the other day. Also, like CSI on BitTorrent I have also now officially become addicted to Season 6 of the Sopranos. Why don't the show The Sopranos on TV here in Korea - I reackon it would rate really well. Oh well.