Golf

Today I managed to have a game of golf, quite a feat as it is only my fifth game since moving to Seoul. I was invited by my boss in Germany, CFO of the group. We went to Neuhof e.V. Golf Club which is not too far from Darmstadt. The weather is Darmstadt has been really cold this week, something like a South African winter, and I unfortunately didn't bring any warm clothes or jerseys so had to go shopping yesterday.

The drive there was interesting as we hit the German autobahn, which as you may know has no speed limit, so not long after we were driving at 240km per hour in a 750 BMW, not bad...

Anyway the golf game was okay, I was striking the ball really well, just not quite getting the direction quite right and always seeming to go left, I have to figure that one out. The weather was perfect during our game, the sun came out and we had a perfect game. When we finished and went for a drink, the rain came down, then went away and the sun came out, then the rain came again, and so on ... So we were really lucky with our game.

Frankfurt

I decided t go into Frankfurt today and have a look around. I caught a train from Darmstadt to Frankfurt and got a map from the tourist information at the station. There was a sightseeing walk that was estimated to take three hours so I decided to do that.

It started by crossing the river Main and walking along the river path. The river sides and path were really well maintained and full of trees and cut lawns. A little way along, I came across a type of flea market, I walked around for a while and then the smell of cooking food drew me towards it. There are stall that have a large fire in the inside with sausages and steak being cooked above. I bought a bratwurst roll which was really nice.

I went to the Roemerberg, which is the historic city centre with beautiful houses that have wooden supports and window and door frames. In the centre is Frankfurts City hall which has been the city hall since 1405. There were quite a few churches and cathedrals which are always exquisitively done.

I also went to the birthplace of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, who is a famous German writer and is seen as a key figure in German literature.

I did get a little lost at one point but managed to work my way back onto the route. I walked to the Fressgass, a pedestrian promenade which is full of restaurants and coffee shops. I bought a cappaccino and sat down to enjoy watching people going by. It is a pity that I am here on my own, it would have been nice to walk around and have lunch and a glass of wine with Carla, maybe next time ...

I headed to the main offices of the State Bank of Hesse which has an observation platform 200m above the streets of Frankfurt but when I saw the queue to go up I decided continue on the tour.

I carried on to the European Central Bank (ECB), which has been in the news quite a bit lately with everything going on in the financial world. It was a really nice building, but the large Euro sign outside I thought was a bit much.

After this I slowly wondered back to the river and then headed back to the station. Their timing was pretty accurate, just on three hours.

Germany

I am currently in Germany where I have a two week business trip. I will spend a couple of days in Frankfurt, a few more in Darmstadt and finally end off in Deidesheim.
At least I will get a game of golf in while I am over here, but since I have only played 4 games in the last 3 years while being in Korea, I can't expect too much.

Braai

The braai ended up being quite successful, although not as relaxing as it would be in SA. Everyone was scheduled to arrive at 13:00, so I put the braai on at 12:00, which was probably half an hour too late.

We bought a large amount of meat for the braai; ribs, steak, lamb chops, chicken fillets and drumsticks and boerewors (beef sausage), in addition we had salads, garlic bread, rolls, kim (dried seaweed) and kimchi (fermented cabbage) ( adding a Korean touch to the braai), beer (Budweiser) and lots of wine.

The weather couldn't have been better, it was a hot day with clear skies, if only we had a pool in the garden ... I can still dream.

We were a little worried about where everyone was going to sit, but there was no need, as we have a low table in the lounge and it is normal to sit on the floor in Korea, so everyone naturally went and sat on the floor.

Everyone arrived on time and enjoyed the cold beer, the guys helped with cooking the meat as usual, although the fire was still really hot making the cooking a bit difficult.

Everyone enjoyed the food, although most of the steak was cooked medium ( still pink in the middle), which I thought was perfect but it turns out people in Korea normally have it cooked well done or what I would consider overcooked and they do not like the pink in the meat, so many people left the middle and only ate the edges, oh well ...

All in all it was a good day, but Carla and I were exhausted at the end and just spent the evening at home relaxing in front of the TV.

Braai

When I arrived in Korea and found a house, I was told that I am expected to have my team at work come over for a house warming. I have been putting it off, and other things always come up, but eventually, nearly three years after arriving in Korea I will have them over.

So next Saturday (6 September) my team will be coming over for a traditional South African braai (barbeque). A bit of wine, some beer, lots of meat ... I'll let you know how it turns out.

Baby

Well, most people are aware by now, but Carla is pregnant. The baby will be due in March 2009, so one year later than Jacqui and Jacque's baby boy who was born on March 1, 2008.

We don't know what it will be yet, still a few more weeks until we can tell.

Here are some of the first scan pictures we have. It was interesting to see the development and realise that something is really there. Watching it kicking and moving around was also nice. We had the scan as it was at the 12 week stage, and needed to have certain things checked like the nose and the thickness of the neck, these apparently are both important to check to see if the baby is at a high risk of down syndrome.

Our baby was not very cooperative, and the doctors really struggled to get the right angles, so we had to have a break and walk around several times to try and get the baby to shift positions. On the fourth try (4 scans later) the doctor managed to get what he needed. ( Either that, or he just gave up and told us everything was okay).

Yongmun Mountain

We have been back in Korea for a nearly a month now, unfortunately it was straight back to work and into the thick of things. We have been trying to get out of Seoul a couple of times, but everytime we have got stuck in traffic for a few hours and had to turn around. We tried to get to a place called Yongmun Mountain, which is only about 60km from Seoul. The first time we tried we nearly got there, but after about 40km and 3 hours, we turned around because it was getting late and weren’t sure how long it would take to get back. Then a week ago, there was a public holiday on the Friday, so we tried again, this time after nearly 4 hours we had only gone 30km’s and turned around again.

1000 Year Old Ginko Tree

We decided to give it another go today, so planned to leave early in the morning to miss the traffic. We did miss most of the traffic, so it only took about an hour and a half, but at last we made it. The mountain was really nice and we sat beside a river to have lunch with Storm going for a swim every now and again.
On the way back we found a different road which followed the edge of a dam. It had beautiful scenery the whole way and almost no traffic. A nice way to spend a Sunday.