Lads On Tour

I'm writing this, as I should be finishing up the research methods section of the old dissertation. The power of procrastination has pushed me to clean my bathroom, download this and that on my computer (whoever heard of cloud files? What an idea...), upload photos, start getting stuff sorted for my Chinese 'foreign expert' visa, check flights for my epic Seoul > Barcelona > Ireland > Nanjing August foray, and write up set-lists for the couple of drummers who are interested in jumping into Jimbo's seat when he hits the road at the end of the month. In spite of the fact that I have only a week-and-a-half left until my final exam, there's no sign of the fear. I kind of need it at this stage.

Still, there's always time for a bit of 'lads on tour' action. Tomorrow, a half-dozen of us are heading down to Daejeon for a bit of craic before Jim's last weekend. The last time the six of us went out together... well... I can't really say what happened. It's not that I'm holding back, I just honestly can't really say. My personal rule for this trip is a self-imposed ban on soju (for me: the lads can do whatever they want!), so hopefully that'll keep things under control to some extent at least.

I'm not 100% happy about missing FC Seoul V Daejeon at Seoul World Cup Stadium tomorrow night, but I'll be watching it on the box. Wednesday past was another good night for the boys. Despite fielding an under-strength side, we hammered National League side, Yongin City, 4-0. Caretaker boss Choi Young Soo seems fairly adept at rotating the squad during a very busy May for the club. Dejan came off the bench to fire home a couple, Adi scored a bit of a jammy dodger, and the other was from a debutant, Choi something-or-other. A win against lowly Daegu could put us into the top-six (play-off positions). Surely they'll give Choi Young Soo the nod to carry on - at least until the end of the season... Since taking over from the shambolic Hwangbo Kwan, it has been six matches, five victories, and just the one draw (away from home in the Champion's League, falling victim to a last-minute equaliser). With Derry City defying the odds and pushing Shamrock Rovers at the top of the league, and Man Utd stuttering their way to a record 19th top flight league crown, my football supporter star is on the rise again.

There were a couple of other things I was going to mention but a few of the girls from the office at work just walked in to the coffee shop, so I should probably look busy and get back to my chapter. Have a good weekend!

Calm Down

It's been a bit busy recently with probably going out and doing too much, keeping up with work and my dissertation, but not really enough being sensible at all. We finished another DDE session on Tuesday night so I have a fairly quiet rest of the week - time to get plenty of that dissertation done before the research methods exam on June 1st. Confusingly, it's worth 60% of my final dissertation mark, so I'm sure 'the fear' will kick in soon.

Doing lots of reminiscing recently because Jim, another of my best friends in Korea (as well as our drummer), is leaving at the end of the month. We had our final FF gig together last Saturday, a venue that really means a lot to us (mainly as U R Seoul) over the years. I was there on my very first night out in Korea in December 2006 with Rob - yet another ROK hopper! I remember thinking how much I'd love to rock that stage, and we're really lucky in that we've been fortunate enough to have done so many times over the years. I hope I get another chance, but obviously it'll never be quite the same.

Other blasts from the past these days: great emails from Gallagher and Risky; a wedding invitation from Roisin (August 13th - Ill be there!); coming across loads of cards from Ji I had almost forgotten about; lunch with my old Korean teacher; and a Korean FA Cup match tonight against Yongin reminding me of being there this time last year (or longer?) scraping a win over 'a little town called Mokpo' with Rob. Will be in China before I know it. Better prepare myself!

Off to World Cup Stadium for Seoul V Yongin (FA Cup 3rd round), so this is short n' sweet today. Great win for the boys at the weekend over Gyeongnam (Dejan, Ko Yo Han(2)) putting us up to 7th in the K-League and continuing Choi Young Soo's undefeated reign as caretaker manager so far. Get in!

Living For The Weekend

Oh yes that was a great couple of days! Friday was a fun Hongdae night that ended up with a bit of wee hours noraebang action, with Thomas hilariously just stopping any song he didn't like the sound of. A few hours later and it was off to Children's Grand Park to enjoy the beautiful spring weather and be hit in the face by about a dozen out-of-control balloons that people seemed intent on terrorising me with. A bit of an unpredictable turn of events led to us getting the KTX to Daegu for the night, before heading over to Sangju by bus in the morning.

Sangju was exactly what I had hoped it would be: really small, really friendly, a totally different vibe from any other Korean city I've been to. People were really keen to stop us on the street and, somewhat bizarrely, thank us for coming to Sangju. A bunch of teenagers were also convinced that I was FC Seoul's very own Dejan, and I was in no rush to set them straight. Fame, by any means, please.

We had a bit of time before the match so we went to the stadium to get our tickets just as the FC Seoul team bus was arriving. I, predictably, got pretty excited and was absolutely over the moon when Adi recognised me and came over to shake my hand! Great stuff. In the hour or so before kick-off we strolled around witnessing the cities idiosyncrasies, including a huge band-stand full of dancing, singing, God-fearing worshippers giving it all they had. Pretty random, but I guess there isn't much to do in those parts! With the surrounding countryside, the clear water of the river running through it, and the relative calm and slow pace of life, Sangju struck me as a pretty nice place to grow up.

The match was simply brilliant - for the neutral! Three times FC Seoul led, and three times a very technical and incisive Sangju side pinned us back. Dejan has rediscovered his scoring touch and claimed a hat-trick, even though his third was more-or-less an own-goal that he can't have got more than a toe-nail to. Still, Choi Young Soo is showing signs of some top-class managerial judgement, and when substitute Hyun Young Min curled home a right-footed free-kick with only minutes to go to put us 4-3 ahead, he went absolutely berserk with the players on the touchline. That's the kind of passion fans love to see, and long may it continue. Winning 4-3 away to Sangju we are now back within touching distance of the top six in the league, inflicting the army side's first defeat of the season in impressive style. We are still very porous at the back, and certainly lack the composure we'll need to close matches out against more physical sides, but things have definitely taken a giant leap in the right direction.

My aims for this week: steady progress on the dissertation; keeping on top of things at work; getting enough sleep, food, exercise; and readying myself for another big weekend. On Friday night we're heading out to Bucheon to play what could be our last ever show at The Park. On Saturday night we have a similar situation with a show at Club FF with Sticky Fingers. If I'm still standing, we'll be heading to Seoul World Cup Stadium on Sunday for the visit of Gyeongnam, who have shown some form so far this season. Lots going on. Just realised my last weekend in Korea coincides with Jisan Valley Rock Festival at the end of July. After that I'll be flying to Barcelona for a family holiday in August, before heading out to China to start my new job later in the month. The dissertation is due at the end of all that somewhere. Somehow, everything always ends up getting done.

Congratulations to a few of my friends who have received numerous pieces of good news over the past week or so. It seemed for a while there that everyone was just breaking up with girlfriends/boyfriends, so it's nice that things have become a bit more positive for my extended family and group of friends. I hope the week is going really well so far!

It's Always Sunny When You Study

Think about it: whenever you cast your mind back to writing essays/getting ready for exams, how's the weather outside? I don't care if you're from Ireland, Canada, Korea, or wherever, I'll bet it was sunny - in your mind at least. I've been trawling through the research methods chapter of my dissertation today and, you've guessed it, the weather is beautiful outside. Children are playing in the river six floors down, people are texting me telling me to come join them for outdoor beers/cinco de mayo/whatever fun they're engaged in, having a life whilst I'm cooped up wrestling with this monster! So here I am, giving myself a bit of a break, thinking back to better times not that long ago.

Only a couple of weeks ago I was on holiday in Singapore and Malaysia with a girl from work called Christine. It was a really good trip especially because it was full of 'firsts'; my first time snorkeling, my first night safari, my first time riding a scooter, first time having my ears candled, first time having a tour of a Mosque, first time visiting a rubber plantation, and my first time being robbed on holiday... I'm not going to bore you with the details of everything we saw/did, but it was a great trip and I would recommend Malaysia to anyone. It's not the cheapest destination in the vicinity, but we met so many nice people, spent time on a beautiful beach which we had pretty much all to ourselves, experienced the beauty of Melaka, and the humdrum of Kuala Lumpur. Singapore was... just ok. I think you have to go just for the experience (and to hear the fusion of English, Malay and Cantonese), but it's a very plastic place with so many tourist traps and gimmicks; none more than the 'night safari' offered at the Singapore Zoo. We had a good time, but we made the right decision in only staying for three days.

A huge part of travelling is who you travel with, and I've certainly had my problems in that respect in the past. Considering the amount of times people have pissed me off on holiday, the safe bet is that it's me who's just bad at travelling with people. Funnily enough, even though I have only been working with Christine since March and we are very different people, we actually bounced off each other really well. She is very similar to me in that she wants to keep active and see plenty without going overboard and turning the trip into... a job! We did have a few drinks pretty much every day that we were away, but it was all pretty civilized - most of the time! I still haven't uploaded my pictures (which are pretty much all of Christine, as hers are pretty much all of me!) but, with this dissertation hanging over my head, I'm sure to use it as a delaying tactic sooner or later.

It looks as though my next holiday will be with the family in Barcelona in August. I had been hoping to get over there anyhow because Kev and Jo are working there at the moment and my sister, Rachel, will be there too; so this is just perfect. It'll be our first family trip together since... I actually can't even remember! Speaking of family, my sister Charlene is now officially a movie star! Ok, not quite, but she has got her first film role since graduating from LAMDA last year. It has taken a bit longer than she would have hoped, but it's a start, and no-one has a better temperament to handle what could be a bumpy road ahead than Charlene. Emma and Rachel are both nearing the end of exam periods at the moment and I am, as always, extremely proud of the lot of them.

Time to get back to the grindstone. I hope you're all having a good day be it enjoying the sunshine in Korea, voting for AV in the UK (don't tell me you can't understand it...), reacquainting yourself with our staple diet of rain in Ireland, or eating Skippy in Oz. You know who you are...

Back On Track - Or Getting There

Just a brief one because it's late and I have a full day of dissertation writing tomorrow that I want to be fresh for. Children's Day will be taking over Korea in the morning, so we have the day off as all the kids in the country will be out somewhere being spoiled rotten. Most teachers here are out tonight and plenty will be around and about enjoying the freedom tomorrow; I've heard wake-boarding, museum hopping, hiking, etc. For my sins, I'll be sat at home trying to write a draft chapter three and getting myself in better shape for my exam on June 1st. I was just thinking earlier of all the little things I have had to give up over the four years I have been chipping away at this MA. Most irritating of all (not just for me) was not being able to have a few beers on an idyllic little island off the coast of Venezuela with Annie a few years ago because I had an essay to write the next day. I guess I should knuckle down over the coming weeks and months to actually ensure that it all ends up counting for something.

I actually had a great day today. The weather has been lovely so I went for a bit of a cycle along the wee nearby river, and the knee has been feeling fine. We had a pretty funny meeting at work that served to remind me how lucky I am to be moving onwards and (hopefully) upwards in August. I faxed through a pile of documents to Nanjing Foreign Language High School earlier, and should be receiving my full, signed contract, from DHL next week. Exciting times! My DDE classes at night have been going well, and I rushed upstairs straight after to watch FC Seoul V Al Ain in the AFC Champion's League.

Time for a little context: caretaker coach, Choi Young Soo, led Seoul to a 2-1 win against last year's runners-up, Jeju United, last Saturday evening. Having gone behind, we showed real strength of character to restore some hope, with Park Yong Ho and Ko Myung Jin scoring two decent goals. It was a nervy enough performance, but a win is a win, and the 37-year-old former assistant manager took some brave decisions. The major downside was that Kim Yong Dae, Korea's No. 2 goalkeeper these days, took a nasty blow to the face and had to be replaced by the untested Yoo Sang Hoon. The youngster looked a bit erratic, but also showed some good reactions to keep us ahead as the match wore on.

Back to tonight, I had a bit of a scare when the UAE station I found streaming online appeared to show the score as 1-0 to the visitors. However, when Dejan headed home smartly on 40 minutes, it changed to 2-0... so I realised they just posted the score in a way I wasn't accustomed to! Although we looked really shoddy at the back, and would have been punished by better sides, we did show a lot of promise going forward. Dejan slotted home a gorgeous through-ball from a returning Lee Gyu Ro on 73, and it was all but over as a contest. Interestingly, Han Il Goo was chosen between the sticks, and looked like a disaster waiting to happen, frankly speaking.

What I like about this manager is that he appears to be taking some brave decisions and is bringing back players who had been somewhat discarded by Hwangbo Kwan. I'm thinking of Park Yong Ho, Ko Myung Jin, Lee Gyu Ro, and, most notably, Lee Seung Ryeol (who was back in the first eleven tonight). I'm heading down to Sangju this weekend to watch the unbeaten army side containing two current FC Seoul players who we look to be really missing this season in Choi Hyo Jin and Kim Chi Woo. I'm looking forward to visiting a new area (I expect it to be a big change from regular Korean cities I've visited) and I'm hopeful that Choi Young Soo can keep his little winning streak going. Let's just hope it isn't just beginner's luck...

A final shout out to The Outside View podcast, because I still listen every week but have neglected to mention for a while. You could also do worse than 'like' the K-League page on facebook, which is regularly informative and helpful. Lot's of procrastinating to do tomorrow, so expect a post!