Just blew by. Felt nostalgic so just surfing my old blog pages.
See you in four years?
Eug.
See you in four years?
Eug.
Thursday, October 01, 2015
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Days four and five
I got lazy and I got tired so here are days four and five rolled in one big posting. :) I'll post day six tomorrow after I get to Busan.
Day Four
As with most days in Korea so far, it was cloudy and wet, and good weather to sleep in. I finally dragged myself out of bed and decided to go visit Seongsan Ilchubong, a mini volcano crater that's located on the eastern side of Jeju Island.
I got some really good directions (this really well organised guesthouse has a sequence of photos they took of landmarks) on how to get to the intercity bus station and set off. When I reached the bus stop, it was time to....eat! I need my energy for the climb. Nothing special, there was a shop there and it had pictures of noodles with slices of beef and vegetables. Something must have gotten lost in translation, because all I got was what you would normally get from the Korean instant noodles plus an egg.
Anyways, that was good enough for lunch and just as I paid for my instant noodles, the bus pulled up. Talk about good timing!
After what seemed an eternity, we finally arrived at the entrance to Seongsan Ilchubong, right about the same time that seven Chinese tour buses arrived. Bugger... I went to stock up on some snacks in case I got hungry and then prepared to go up to the top. But first, I saw a sign for a 'performance' by the famous pearl diving ladies so a slight detour downwards to the volcano sand beach. I saw five ladies, all probably about the age of my grandmother except one younger lady. They did a ritualistic song thing and then set out looking for things underwater. One of them was clearly not liking the Chinese tourists who were grabbing her by the arm to take photos. I guess if you had to do this everyday, you'd get grumpy too.
I decided to start climbing to the top of the volcano crater to grab the views from up there. Tell you what, it isn't easy when the trail is small and when you have seven bus loads of tourists who take two steps the stop to take a snap. Sometimes I wonder if they're there to enjoy the scenery, the climb, etc. or just spend all their time taking photos?? One thing I did notice, and I couldn't get a photo, was that most of the women in these Chinese tour groups, they like to dress up with makeup, etc. including high heels! I saw a lady wearing 2.5 inch at least. No kidding! They'll risk their lives just to look good while climbing a narrow trail with lots of people in the rain and strong wind?? Oh yeah I forgot to mention, the weather was miserable at best with heavy rain which then created a new hazard, people with umbrellas! BUT...I did get to the top and the view was good even in the bad weather.
My photo can't do justice to this place. In case you're wondering, this is an aerial view of Seongsan Ilchubong, courtesy of the Visit Korea tourist website:
After enjoying the scenery and descending, I caught the bus back. After what seemed like an eternity again, I finally got back to Seogwipo and back to the guest house to change out of my wet clothes. Hunger called so I went back out one of the food streets that I saw on my way back.
Jeju is famed for its seafood as well as pork. I found a restaurant that had a picture of a very nice looking pig and next to that picture, a picture of a succulent piece of pork. That made up my mind and I went it and order Korean BBQ. I never knew you could taste the difference, but the pork that I ordered, without marinade or any seasoning, was delicious! And being the greedy person that I am, I decided to order a marinated portion of pork as well! The lady initially used hand signals to tell me that BBQ is only for two people or more and then relented and served just me so I had to repay her faith and ordered a meal for two people. She even got her assistant to do all the cooking for me. :) Burp! End of Day Four.
Day Five
There was only one thing on my activity list for this day and it was enough to occupy the whole day - climbing Mt Halla, which at 1,950m, is the highest mountain in South Korea. I dragged myself out of bed at 7.30am because it's good to start early and then started having second thoughts because I'm lazy but when I stared out the window, it was all bright and sunshine. No rain! That's a sign for me to get my lazy arse going!
So I packed my essential things and armed with a jacket, snacks and three litres (yes three litres!) of water, I headed out to the intercity bus terminal again to catch the bus to the entrance of one of the hiking trails up Mt Halla. It's called Seongpanak and this is suppose to be the easiest trail to go up. It's easy because of the gradient of the climb but this also means the trail is stretched out very far. 9.6km to be exact. Now that's quite a long walk in most cases horizontally but when you have to climb 1km+ vertically at the same time, it gets harder. It took me about 4.5 hours to reach the top at 1.30pm. I'm not as fit as I used to be and struggled a little. All these grandpas and grandmas were overtaking me too!
While up there I saw an SK Telecom tower so I decided to dial in to my team's bi-weekly conference call at work. The guys were wondering where I was so I told them. Heh heh. It was about this time that I stepped on the one wooden plank on the platform that was loose and fell, twisting my ankle slightly and putting about 20 splinters or so into the palm of my right hand. I felt both pride and physical hurt. How can I get myself all the way to the top on sometimes treacherous terrain and then fall on a flat wooden platform?? I tried to tell the ranger but the language barrier stood in the way. He just nodded and then was on his way. Anyway, I managed to get the big splinters out there and then but couldn't do anything about the rest.
At 2.30pm, the ranger started chasing people off the platform. It was the designated cut-off time for people to start descending so I started to descend on the other trail (Gwaneumsa) that was recommended by the guesthouse host. Bad idea. Whilst it's also very gradual, and very long (8.7km), this trail was full of uneven rocks and about halfway down, it started taking a heavy toll on my knees. Ouch! You guys know I'm not exactly the lightest guy in the world! I managed to struggle to the bottom 3.5 hours later, with no more water left and little energy. I had drunk all 3 litres and only went to the toilet once. This means I sweated all the rest out! You can't imagine the joy on my face for seeing a vending machine. I dug my coins out and the Pokari Sweat (yes it's spelled Sweat) was heaven sent. AND after gulping down the entire can in one go, I saw behind the vending machine, about 200m away, a 7-11 shop. Hallelujah! Three giant bottles of Pokari Sweat later, I sat content on the sidewalk.
After resting for a few minutes, I had to negotiate with the taxi driver to take me to the bus stop on the highway. This trail doesn't have a bus service. He took me to the bus stop, I dragged myself onto the bus, flopped on the last seat and slept for the trip back to Seogwipo.
It's been a day of an 18.3km trek up and down, in wet weather (it rained for a short while just as I reached the summit), with a slightly twisted ankle, a hand full of splinters, etc., all this while not being physically prepared, so a reward of some sort was in order. I was thinking beer but I could barely walk so I would push that to the next night. Instead I stopped at the first restaurant I saw next to the bus stop. I had no idea what this dish is called but it wasn't too bad. Just not spicy enough!
By this point I was freezing too so I ordered one of Esther's favourite Korean dishes - Kimchi Jigae. I didn't take a photo!
Well, that's it for this posting. Will post about my follow up at the doctors for my hand (preview: local anaesthetic, surgeon's knife and no English...)
Eug.
Day Four
As with most days in Korea so far, it was cloudy and wet, and good weather to sleep in. I finally dragged myself out of bed and decided to go visit Seongsan Ilchubong, a mini volcano crater that's located on the eastern side of Jeju Island.
I got some really good directions (this really well organised guesthouse has a sequence of photos they took of landmarks) on how to get to the intercity bus station and set off. When I reached the bus stop, it was time to....eat! I need my energy for the climb. Nothing special, there was a shop there and it had pictures of noodles with slices of beef and vegetables. Something must have gotten lost in translation, because all I got was what you would normally get from the Korean instant noodles plus an egg.
Anyways, that was good enough for lunch and just as I paid for my instant noodles, the bus pulled up. Talk about good timing!
Only photo worth taking at this restaurant - novel idea to not scratch your wooden floor. Looks ugly though.
Local bus to the east side of the island. Took 1.5 hours!
After what seemed an eternity, we finally arrived at the entrance to Seongsan Ilchubong, right about the same time that seven Chinese tour buses arrived. Bugger... I went to stock up on some snacks in case I got hungry and then prepared to go up to the top. But first, I saw a sign for a 'performance' by the famous pearl diving ladies so a slight detour downwards to the volcano sand beach. I saw five ladies, all probably about the age of my grandmother except one younger lady. They did a ritualistic song thing and then set out looking for things underwater. One of them was clearly not liking the Chinese tourists who were grabbing her by the arm to take photos. I guess if you had to do this everyday, you'd get grumpy too.
Seongsan Ilchubong from the bus stop
Cool patterns from the volcano created layers of rock on the beach
Traditional pearl diving lady preparing to go out. They can hold their breaths for two minutes or more!
I decided to start climbing to the top of the volcano crater to grab the views from up there. Tell you what, it isn't easy when the trail is small and when you have seven bus loads of tourists who take two steps the stop to take a snap. Sometimes I wonder if they're there to enjoy the scenery, the climb, etc. or just spend all their time taking photos?? One thing I did notice, and I couldn't get a photo, was that most of the women in these Chinese tour groups, they like to dress up with makeup, etc. including high heels! I saw a lady wearing 2.5 inch at least. No kidding! They'll risk their lives just to look good while climbing a narrow trail with lots of people in the rain and strong wind?? Oh yeah I forgot to mention, the weather was miserable at best with heavy rain which then created a new hazard, people with umbrellas! BUT...I did get to the top and the view was good even in the bad weather.
Completely drenched from rain and sweat but happy. That's the town I got off the bus at the bottom there.
My photo can't do justice to this place. In case you're wondering, this is an aerial view of Seongsan Ilchubong, courtesy of the Visit Korea tourist website:
I couldn't take this photo from my vantage point but it looks good from the air huh? Our climbing path is on the left side of the crater.
After enjoying the scenery and descending, I caught the bus back. After what seemed like an eternity again, I finally got back to Seogwipo and back to the guest house to change out of my wet clothes. Hunger called so I went back out one of the food streets that I saw on my way back.
Jeju is famed for its seafood as well as pork. I found a restaurant that had a picture of a very nice looking pig and next to that picture, a picture of a succulent piece of pork. That made up my mind and I went it and order Korean BBQ. I never knew you could taste the difference, but the pork that I ordered, without marinade or any seasoning, was delicious! And being the greedy person that I am, I decided to order a marinated portion of pork as well! The lady initially used hand signals to tell me that BBQ is only for two people or more and then relented and served just me so I had to repay her faith and ordered a meal for two people. She even got her assistant to do all the cooking for me. :) Burp! End of Day Four.
BBQ thick bacon slices of pork and the usual array of side dishes. What you do is cut up the pork, put it in the leaf thingy on the right, add some kimchi radish, some garlic, some chilli sauce, wrap up the leaf and then wrap it up in a lettuce leave and eat. Yummmy!
The marinated one. Tender and delicious too!
Day Five
There was only one thing on my activity list for this day and it was enough to occupy the whole day - climbing Mt Halla, which at 1,950m, is the highest mountain in South Korea. I dragged myself out of bed at 7.30am because it's good to start early and then started having second thoughts because I'm lazy but when I stared out the window, it was all bright and sunshine. No rain! That's a sign for me to get my lazy arse going!
So I packed my essential things and armed with a jacket, snacks and three litres (yes three litres!) of water, I headed out to the intercity bus terminal again to catch the bus to the entrance of one of the hiking trails up Mt Halla. It's called Seongpanak and this is suppose to be the easiest trail to go up. It's easy because of the gradient of the climb but this also means the trail is stretched out very far. 9.6km to be exact. Now that's quite a long walk in most cases horizontally but when you have to climb 1km+ vertically at the same time, it gets harder. It took me about 4.5 hours to reach the top at 1.30pm. I'm not as fit as I used to be and struggled a little. All these grandpas and grandmas were overtaking me too!
Objective for today. Climb Mt Halla! This is the volcano that created Jeju Island.
He probably took one look at me and thought it was worthwhile following...this was about 50m to the top and I was quite tired at this point
Glory photo. :) I have no idea what the sign says. Probably "You're not at the top yet!" The crater which you can see in the background has a lake. Cool huh?
While up there I saw an SK Telecom tower so I decided to dial in to my team's bi-weekly conference call at work. The guys were wondering where I was so I told them. Heh heh. It was about this time that I stepped on the one wooden plank on the platform that was loose and fell, twisting my ankle slightly and putting about 20 splinters or so into the palm of my right hand. I felt both pride and physical hurt. How can I get myself all the way to the top on sometimes treacherous terrain and then fall on a flat wooden platform?? I tried to tell the ranger but the language barrier stood in the way. He just nodded and then was on his way. Anyway, I managed to get the big splinters out there and then but couldn't do anything about the rest.
At 2.30pm, the ranger started chasing people off the platform. It was the designated cut-off time for people to start descending so I started to descend on the other trail (Gwaneumsa) that was recommended by the guesthouse host. Bad idea. Whilst it's also very gradual, and very long (8.7km), this trail was full of uneven rocks and about halfway down, it started taking a heavy toll on my knees. Ouch! You guys know I'm not exactly the lightest guy in the world! I managed to struggle to the bottom 3.5 hours later, with no more water left and little energy. I had drunk all 3 litres and only went to the toilet once. This means I sweated all the rest out! You can't imagine the joy on my face for seeing a vending machine. I dug my coins out and the Pokari Sweat (yes it's spelled Sweat) was heaven sent. AND after gulping down the entire can in one go, I saw behind the vending machine, about 200m away, a 7-11 shop. Hallelujah! Three giant bottles of Pokari Sweat later, I sat content on the sidewalk.
Magnificent view on the descend
Wonder what these are? They look super cool. I wonder if Dave can take inspiration from this in his architecture designs? It looks like the gherkin in London.
After resting for a few minutes, I had to negotiate with the taxi driver to take me to the bus stop on the highway. This trail doesn't have a bus service. He took me to the bus stop, I dragged myself onto the bus, flopped on the last seat and slept for the trip back to Seogwipo.
It's been a day of an 18.3km trek up and down, in wet weather (it rained for a short while just as I reached the summit), with a slightly twisted ankle, a hand full of splinters, etc., all this while not being physically prepared, so a reward of some sort was in order. I was thinking beer but I could barely walk so I would push that to the next night. Instead I stopped at the first restaurant I saw next to the bus stop. I had no idea what this dish is called but it wasn't too bad. Just not spicy enough!
Mystery dish - it had noodles, fish cakes, rice cakes and other stuff. Despite the colour, it wasn't spicy at all!
By this point I was freezing too so I ordered one of Esther's favourite Korean dishes - Kimchi Jigae. I didn't take a photo!
Well, that's it for this posting. Will post about my follow up at the doctors for my hand (preview: local anaesthetic, surgeon's knife and no English...)
Eug.
Monday, July 04, 2011
Day 3 - Jeju Island
Good evening all. I'm now sitting in the comfort of my individual hostel room which I booked for KRW20,000 - that's about HKD140 or MYR56 in case you're wondering. I've got my own attached bathroom, a TV, air-conditioning, in-room internet and a great view. Good combo. Tomorrow I move to a slightly more upmarket 'hostel' as this one is booked up. Let's see how that one turns out.
From five star hotel to hostel albeit a comfortable one
The day started with nothing but rain, rain, rain and rain in Seoul. I had to catch a cab with a very bemused taxi driver because we travelled all of 250m down the hill and to the train station entrance. But he took one look at the sky and understood - no questions asked or any grumbles.
I caught the newly opened airport line to Gimpo airport. Actually, the Incheon airport line has been open for a while but it was only from Incheon to Gimpo which isn't very useful for most people. The line must have been tough to build because I went down something like five long escalators before I reached the platform. That's deep! I can also see it's not very popular yet. I was the only person in my entire carriage. I read somewhere that the original company AREX was in deep financial trouble and was taken over by Korail. It explains why I couldn't find an AREX website anymore.
Almost completely empty airport train
So on to Gimpo airport I went. The train is fast and only costs KRW1,200. That's better than paying around KRW50,000 to catch a cab from the hotel. Gimpo airport used to be the main international and domestic airport before Incheon airport was built. The airport is very, very busy even though it's only serving domestic flights and a select few international flights. I found a bunch of fast food joints but that's not for me so I continued searching and found a typical Korean restaurant with all their hot pot stuff and noodles. I settled on a beef stew something with rice. However all I could find was about three bites of tablespoon size meat. The meal wasn't too bad and I had sweated a bucket by the time I finished!
Love the tall coke cans they have here. The soup was literally boiling in the stone bowl.
I had my meal and since I was early at the airport, I went to the Asiana lounge, which was outside the secured area which is unusual. I guess domestic isn't as profitable because all the lounge had was some soft drinks and cookies. About 40 mins before my flight I decided not to risk it and left for the security checks. I got to my gate and lo and behold, flight delayed! All that rain, rain, rain...bugger...
Very heavy downpour reduced the visibility significantly. There's actually a very busy runway out there with planes taking off every few minutes but you can't see any of them!
The plane finally got in about 35 minutes late and by that time another two Asiana flights had left for Jeju. This island is popular! We left Gimpo not long after and it was one heck of a bumpy ride as the plane climbed to a higher altitude. I bet you it's still raining in Seoul right now.
After arriving at Jeju Airport, I walked out, spoke to someone at the tourism desk, got my map and headed for bus no. 600 to go to Seogwipo. My local friends told me to stay on the south side of the island. They told me Jeju city is just like any other city and not much fun. The trip to Seogwipo took another 2 hours (zzz...) with some interesting scenery and the bus stopped at all the major hotels. It felt a little bit like Las Vegas with very large complexes sprawled all over the place. There was also an ironman event which stopped traffic everywhere. Go go guys!
Anyways, I arrived at Seogwipo city with instructions I gathered on the internet on how to get to the hostel. I wrote "ask the driver to stop at Sunbeach Hotel, walk towards Cheonjiyeon Falls and the place is on the right". Right...only one slight problem. No signage! So are the falls uphill (ugh) or downhill (yay)? Then these two German guys that were on the bus helped me out. They had a Lonely Planet book which contained a map that showed where my hostel was. Whew!
Hokay...where do I go? Uphill or downhill?
I checked-in, dropped my bags and headed out before the sun disappeared. I decided to walk around the neighborhood and check things out. Since NOW there was a sign that said where the waterfalls were, I decided to follow it. When I reached the place, there was a ticket office. I guess nature is not free nowadays. I decided not to pay because my tummy was starting to tell me it was hungry. I saw a Korean restaurant with lots of pictures. I like pictures since I speak zero Korean (hello and thank you doesn't cut it) so I walked in.
They gave me a menu. It had four choices - boiled pork, grilled fish, abalone soup or all three of the above. Guess which one I ordered? *grin* They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here are a few!
If you can see the words up the top, they were a joy to my eyes and hungry tummy!
The menu with four choices
So I went the Guboo and when it came I almost fainted...15 dishes including rice!
I tried my best but...
I better sign off now. It's getting late. I'm planning to see a few things tomorrow I found on the travel Korea website which sound very interesting. They have a real-life submarine tour here in Seogwipo! I've never been in a submarine before. Jeju also has some super cool volcano structures. One place I'd like to visit is called "Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak". It's a Unesco World Heritage site but it's a long trip there - about 2hr 30mins according to the website. *shudder* At least the sub is only a few minutes away at the port. Here are some links if you're curious.
We'll see how my 'plan' pans out. I might just sleep in again. Hahaha. Weather dependent, Tuesday will be walking up Mt Halla!
Eug.
P.S. I'll admit it here - you know what's different for me this trip? I actually wish my wife was with me to share the adventure (don't tell her that!) Probably explains my slightly less than normal enthusiasm to see and do loads of things. Or is it a sign of aging??
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Day 2 - Seoul
Right, the work week that I had + long travel = sleep in.
Well, not quite right. I did wake up at 9am to sample the hotel's buffet breakfast. It was quite disappointing to be honest so I ate and then I went back upstairs to book my accommodation in Jeju Island and do some research on climbing Mt Halla, which is apparently the highest point in South Korea.
I met up with a colleague for lunch and she took me to eat some Ginseng chicken soup at a famous restaurant in the Myeongdong area. The queue was quick and we very quickly had two bowls in front of us. The Koreans believe in eating really hot food when it's really hot. Ginseng and BBQ was my option and seeing that I was already sweating heaps, I chose the Ginseng chicken.
It was delicious. The name of the restaurant is in Korean in the picture above (see the cover over the spoon). The English name I found out was "Chicken restaurant".
After lunch, my colleague decided to take me to try some local tea. I ordered a tea called "U-jien" since it sounded like my name. It was very strong green tea which I didn't really like. BUT...the green tea tiramisu was to die for. Delish!
By the time we finished lunch and tea, it was already 4pm+ and my colleague had to go somewhere so I wandered around Myeongdong in the hot, humid overcast weather and then made my way back towards my hotel. The hotel is uphill (very steep hill) from the subway to the hotel and by the time I reached my room, I had probably lost back whatever I gained from the tiramisu. :)
I decided to take a quick nap before making my way to the hotel lounge for evening cocktails. Problem was I slept till I was way past cocktail time and into 9pm territory. Wow. All that lost sleep during the week finally caught up on me but hey, I'm on holiday so who cares? So what do I do this late? I walked around and found a McDonalds with of course, my favourite bulgogi burger. Don't knock it back until you try one. :)
Yes, I know the blog is about food so far but that's pretty much all I've done! Just chillin' and eatin'.
Hopefully I'll have more to write tomorrow.
Eug.
Well, not quite right. I did wake up at 9am to sample the hotel's buffet breakfast. It was quite disappointing to be honest so I ate and then I went back upstairs to book my accommodation in Jeju Island and do some research on climbing Mt Halla, which is apparently the highest point in South Korea.
I met up with a colleague for lunch and she took me to eat some Ginseng chicken soup at a famous restaurant in the Myeongdong area. The queue was quick and we very quickly had two bowls in front of us. The Koreans believe in eating really hot food when it's really hot. Ginseng and BBQ was my option and seeing that I was already sweating heaps, I chose the Ginseng chicken.
It was delicious. The name of the restaurant is in Korean in the picture above (see the cover over the spoon). The English name I found out was "Chicken restaurant".
After lunch, my colleague decided to take me to try some local tea. I ordered a tea called "U-jien" since it sounded like my name. It was very strong green tea which I didn't really like. BUT...the green tea tiramisu was to die for. Delish!
By the time we finished lunch and tea, it was already 4pm+ and my colleague had to go somewhere so I wandered around Myeongdong in the hot, humid overcast weather and then made my way back towards my hotel. The hotel is uphill (very steep hill) from the subway to the hotel and by the time I reached my room, I had probably lost back whatever I gained from the tiramisu. :)
I decided to take a quick nap before making my way to the hotel lounge for evening cocktails. Problem was I slept till I was way past cocktail time and into 9pm territory. Wow. All that lost sleep during the week finally caught up on me but hey, I'm on holiday so who cares? So what do I do this late? I walked around and found a McDonalds with of course, my favourite bulgogi burger. Don't knock it back until you try one. :)
Yes, I know the blog is about food so far but that's pretty much all I've done! Just chillin' and eatin'.
Hopefully I'll have more to write tomorrow.
Eug.
Skype
Wow I never realized Skype was available on Linux. I'm using Linux on my very old first work laptop with 2GB RAM. It works very well. And now that I'm not as addicted to World of Warcraft, I'm tempted to switch my work laptop across to Linux. With my 8GB RAM, I have nothing to worry about running our company's software! (TBH, 8GB is barely enough)
Now I can chat with wifey whenever she's online. :)
Today's 'adventures' or 'non-adventure' to come...
Eug.
Now I can chat with wifey whenever she's online. :)
Today's 'adventures' or 'non-adventure' to come...
Eug.
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Accommodation booked!
Whew! I can rest easy now. Jeju Island, being a very, very popular domestic and international destination means accommodation, both cheap and expensive, is hard to come by.
I've got my rooms booked in Seogwipo now. Will be there 4th-6th for now but that may change depending on whether there are lots of things to do. I'm thinking Mt Halla and some cycling. Sounds good? :)
Eug.
I've got my rooms booked in Seogwipo now. Will be there 4th-6th for now but that may change depending on whether there are lots of things to do. I'm thinking Mt Halla and some cycling. Sounds good? :)
Eug.
Friday, July 01, 2011
And I'm back!
This blog is being temporarily re-activated to keep family posted about my whereabouts as I embark on this totally unplanned backpack trip through Korea. Well, it's only for a week!
I've touched down in Seoul, missed the bus by minutes, caught the next one 30 mins later and am finally checked in at my errr....not quite backpackers hotel in downtown Seoul (it's five star). Just had dinner at some nondescript shop and I'm ready to take a shower and hit the sack. Whew! It's tiring even if it's only a short flight (HK airport is far, Incheon is further).
At this rate, tomorrow will 90% likely be a late start, followed by lunch with a colleague and then exploration around Seoul. Catch you guys when I'm next online!
Eug
I've touched down in Seoul, missed the bus by minutes, caught the next one 30 mins later and am finally checked in at my errr....not quite backpackers hotel in downtown Seoul (it's five star). Just had dinner at some nondescript shop and I'm ready to take a shower and hit the sack. Whew! It's tiring even if it's only a short flight (HK airport is far, Incheon is further).
At this rate, tomorrow will 90% likely be a late start, followed by lunch with a colleague and then exploration around Seoul. Catch you guys when I'm next online!
Eug
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Fishy name
Spotted this one in the Malaysian Star Online newspaper - http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/10/nation/5079473&sec=nation. Read the second story on the page - another one for the unusual names list?
(in case you don't know what I'm talking about, there's a Malaysian singer who goes by the name "Fish")
chet (in a better mood for the day already :-) )
(in case you don't know what I'm talking about, there's a Malaysian singer who goes by the name "Fish")
chet (in a better mood for the day already :-) )
Friday, November 06, 2009
There's more!
I was reading an email in which this person kept using the word "performant":
"If you tune the server right, it will be more performant."
"It's more performant this way."
www.dictionary.com definition
"If you tune the server right, it will be more performant."
"It's more performant this way."
www.dictionary.com definition
| Main Entry: | performant |
| Part of Speech: | n |
| Definition: | a performer |
| Etymology: | based on informant, etc. |
Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon
Copyright © 2003-2009 Dictionary.com, LLC
Cite This Source
And a colleague revealed another favourite term used by our neighbours on the continent - "prepone":
"I'd like to prepone the meeting to Monday instead of Tuesday."
And suprisingly, there's an entry on dictionary.com for it although I'm not sure which source:
Copyright © 2003-2009 Dictionary.com, LLC
Cite This Source
And a colleague revealed another favourite term used by our neighbours on the continent - "prepone":
"I'd like to prepone the meeting to Monday instead of Tuesday."
And suprisingly, there's an entry on dictionary.com for it although I'm not sure which source:
| Main Entry: | prepone |
| Part of Speech: | v |
| Definition: | to place in front of, to schedule for an earlier time; cf. postpone |
Monday, November 02, 2009
New pet peeve
Up among my favourite pet peeves (I have obsession problems) "ATM Machine" and "PIN Number", is the word "revert". For heaven's sake people, you do not use the word "revert" in the following context!
"please revert to me by email", "i will revert to you by email", "revert to us with your response please"
A definition from http://www.dictionary.com:
chet
"please revert to me by email", "i will revert to you by email", "revert to us with your response please"
A definition from http://www.dictionary.com:
re⋅vert
–verb (used without object)
–noun | 1. | to return to a former habit, practice, belief, condition, etc.: They reverted to the ways of their forefathers. |
| 2. | Law. to go back to or return to the former owner or to his or her heirs. |
| 3. | Biology. to return to an earlier or primitive type. |
| 4. | to go back in thought or discussion: He constantly reverted to his childhood. |
| 5. | a person or thing that reverts. |
| 6. | Law. a reversion. |
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