Echoes

Ach. It's shite being Scottish. We do the hard bit and beat England and then cock it up against the Irish. Actually, that's not strictly true. The Irish looked a much improved team, certainly better than their performance against the tricky Italians and awful 1st half in Paris. And, to their credit, they tried to run in, in difficult conditions.

Scotland though. You can only admire their tackling and defence as a whole. 2 games without conceding a try cannot be sniffed at. Think back a year and our opposition were running in on average 5+ tries every game. It seems like they are making tackles as if they are going out of fashion.

Also, we didn't play that well yet at the end we were 'only' a converted try away from winning. Again, a year ago we were usually a converted try down after the first 5 minutes, never mind at the death. I wonder if we can keep this momentum going into next week in Rome. I would be delighted if we won there and returned a 3 win 6 Nations. That would be real, definite progress ahead of the World Cup next year. However, the Italians are no mugs these days as their draw in Cardiff showed. To hell, even if we did lose in Rome, that would still be an improvement on the 2 previous 6 Nations with only 1 game won in that time.

Mr. White, your time is now.

Ruby

The dust, the dust.
This time of year is actually not too bad. The day's are getting warmer and the whiff of spring at times manifests itself over the whiff of the pollution and the rubbish that lines the streets. I like spring above all because of the new growth. There's something optimistic about the spring, a chance to get the year off to a good start along with the blooming of the new flowers and ^greenery^. I haven't seen any azaleas in bloom yet but they will soon...that's when spring will be here.

Along, Korea is prone to another sign that spring is here and it has nothing to do with plants blooming or greenery. Look to the skies and you will see it. It's the dust with compliments, love China.
The dust comes from the Gobi desert in China and somehow makes it way to the Korean penisula and dumps itself onto us covering everything. Not a hardcore covering but a noticable one. The cars are currently showing signs of it whilst my office has a thin film of it due to me leaving the windows open. I can feel it in the air. The sun has been out at times but it's not a clear, bright sun. The haze caused by both the pollution and the dust.

Actually, I'm surprised that the Chinese haven't used this as a kind of weapon. It would be pretty effective. Load the dust up with *something* and let it fly off to Korea and beyond!

Amble

In my capacity as a member of staff for the Department of English Language and Literature, I have taken it upon myself to start up the Departments very own football team. To be honest, it's a disgrace that we don't have one, after all we have a decent pool of *potential* players. I think the problem has been that my colleagues are either not interested in the beautiful game or are on the wrong side of >35 or are women.
Alas, it's down to me.
I'm happy to 'manage' it and put time into getting things going. Perhaps a weekely practice followed by games against other Departments or simply other teams. Also, the University has a sports day so it would be nice to have the Department put out a team.

I might even decide to pick myself...hahaha.
The Boss has given the idea the go ahead, so really it's upto the students to get in touch and get this thing sorted. So far, I've got half a team who have shown an interest. All we need is another half team!
If we don't get it, I'll be quite depressed. All I can do is put up a few posters, post a few messages on relevent websites and sit and wait.

Ten

And Chelsea are out of Europe. Fantastic.
Rather pleased that style and grace won over defence and money. For all the money they have spent, they still lack something that 'whoa' factor. They have it in their Manager who could be classed as a footballing genius but on the park, they have unquestionable ability but that spark of genius is lacking. Barcelona however do have it in Ronaldinho and that's the difference. Someone who can turn a game in a split second. I suspect no amount of money could buy that - not even Chelsea.

They'll have to wait another year but I do fancy Barcelona. They have it all over the park. Messi goes off injured after 30 minutes and who do they bring on...Larsson. Strength and depth and the 'whoa'.
That's where my money is.
Barca. Champions of Europe 2006.

/Celtic knocked them out of Europe a couple od seasons back!/

Sticking

We had a 'welcoming' party for the new intake to our Department. That probably should read 'piss up' for the new intake because that is what it essentially is. The Cheonan Campus Professors all decended into some dingy bar for it to be met by literally the whol Department - 1st to 4th years. As is normal, we all had to give a short introduction. The Korean guys 1st with there monologues and then us. I'm not really 'into' giving introductions in this manner. I'm actually not too comfortable with all those eyes on me but it's something that needs to be done. The 3 other foreign Professors got a cheer as they were introduced...and finally, my time. I seemed to get a pretty large cheer. Louder than the others. Talk about embarrassed. It's nice to get some kind of recognition but it's definitely abit embarrassing and I find it all alittle strange, I mean, all I do is teach in my own little classroom. If people like what I do in class then great. If not, then hmm. I guess I should take it as a sign that i'm on the right track which makes it all worthwhile.
Anyway, after the introductions the Korean Professors bolted for the door 'We have a meeting' Yeah/yeah yeah. Just didn't want to be forced to sit and get drunk with the students! In the end, we 'foreign' lot got out will we could also. I'm sure the students don't want to sit around with us guys and if we did they would only to get us minging...nothing wrong with that but not on a Monday night!

Introspection

So_______i've done some digging.
Some new website links can be found on the Right/hand/side.

May I point out the 'Allow Popups' one. It's my Korean foto site and the one that gets updated the most. Oh yeah, you have to allow pop-ups or it won't 'pop up'. Some of it is in Korean but the bits you need are in English!

+ the B.Brother one is excellent. Makes you wonder what the military are using.
++ tv is 6,000 'channels'. Everything you need.

+++ in music. Check out mix. Type in a band, plays their music and music by similiar bands. Apparantly UK version is coming soon.
_+++ also, Scarface. Compare scars. I've nothing compared to these ones. Scary.


++++and my personal favourite. Draw a Pig. Does what it says on the tin. Hours of simple enjoyment.

overandout.

Pop

Word of the week: 'Arsed'

Can't be but perhaps brought on by what happened below.

Phrase of the week: 'Gastro Enteritis'

Not even sure that is how it is spelt but I can definitely tell what it feels like. I wouldn't recommend it. It's neither big nor clever.

Sight of the week: 'Finally, class'

The 1st class of any new semester is always 'interesting' purely because you have 30 or 40 students who probably don't know each other too well and probably have varying degrees of English competence. This and their own personalities all make it the best /and worst/ class of the year. It does appear though that it's the 1st year boys who show the widest variance in behaviour. Firstly, you have the ones who are too cool for School, or at least they think they are or hope to be. Secondly, these are the ones who are trying to show off to me and their classmates. They are trying to show everyone that they know alot of English. Unusually though, they are the weakest. Secondly, you get the ones who are not too cool for School, are scared shitless by the class and as a consequences don't want to be in it. These guys need abit of loving. They have potential, it just needs to be brought to the surface. Thirdly, you get the ones in the middle. The ones who are ok and are slightly motivated and the ones who are ok but aren't that arsed. The 1st group will be found out next week. Something to look forward to.

Rant:Abusive Tirade of the week: Families. Do my nut. Not my own but others. Was walking up the local 'mountain'...it's miles smaller than the Pentlands but that's what they call them here even though they are nothing of the sort...anyway, this mum and her teenage kid are alittle infront of me. The kid turns around and spies me. Then, immediaitely turns to her mum. I know full well what she has said 'Oh...some foreign bloke'. They keep walking and perhaps 10 paces later, the mum turns around for a little look but tries to make out that she's looking beyond me at something in the distance. I try to ignore it. Perhaps 3 or 4 minutes later, the brother comes running back towards the mum and blatantly points out that there is some foreign bloke behind them. In no way can what happened be misinterpreted as anything other that total 'I've just seen an Alien' kind of thing. Anyway, they get a swift stare and rather bad word in Korean and as they were taking up the whole of the path, I barged past them. Get that right up yae. It wasn't cool but it made me feel better for alittle while.

Song of the week: 'Don't save us from the flames(Orginal Mix)' by M83

Found this little gem on a mix album from May 2005. Kind of trancy, kind of strangely euphoric, kind of hard house but then there is this curious local that sounds alot like yer man from Coldplay - but it's not - then as an overdub there is a kind of 'wailing'. Sounds like a complete mish/mash but i'm quite liking it, so there.

Hidden message of the week: ...been waiting 7 years and 15 days.