Top of the morning to everyone - today is a fine day in the dong. Well its a little overcast outside but this morning our kindergarten students have gone to a halloween party at Korea's premier theme park Everland. So instead of listening to 5 year olds talking about Pacrucky man and Bobby Boo, and being up to my neck in coloring and small fiddly bits of cut up paper I spent my morning sleeping in and downloading 80's music - I'll be strolling up to work at the nice old time of 2:50PM. To that I say Ding Dong!

This next part is from Darko's blog, who stole it from Meg's blog, who stole it from somebody elses blog - and in the spirit of good ol' online theft I will continue - the idea is to google your name and "needs"- so I typed in "Troy needs":

Troy needs Guitar and Bass.
Troy needs a costume for Halloween!
Troy Needs Prozac!
Troy needs to switch shampoo brands.
Troy needs your help!!
Troy needs vindication
'Troy' needs more mythology
Troy needs to be read and is anxiously awaiting your comments and advice. (It's true)


Alwyn needs grilling for this
Alwyn needs to wear a tux.
Alwyn needs help in figuring the positions of the stars on Saturday night.
Alwyn’s body needs fixing

Try it and leave the results in the comments section.

While your on google try typing in "failure" and hitting the "I'm feeling lucky" button. Alwyn happened along this one - its pretty funny.

Funny website - www.liquidgeneration.com

Funny toon - How pregnancy happens - made by the planned parenthood foundation in America

Funny Dubya Movies - "Bush Speaks"

"Gay Bar"

The last two movies are from www.spikedhumor.com - This is a website has some very funny movies on it, but some of the stuff on there is not for the faint of heart - you've been warned.

Hello Everyone! Just a quick note to you all to let you know what an awesome birthday I had. I went for the "Rockhampton Rib-eye" at the Outback steakhouse and it went down a treat - after a trip to the Cool bar for some of the local ale and a couple of shots of tequila (which didn't go down too badly either), the requisite visit to the Noraebang was on the cards for sweet renditions of everyone's favourite songs including Aerosmith's Walk this way, Rick James' Superfreak, Bon Jovi's Living on a prayer, The Beatles' All of my lovin' and Wham's Wake me up before you Go-go. Got in at 4:30 - sign of a good night.

A HUUUUUUGGGGEEE thank you to everyone for the presents, e-cards, phone calls, emails, kind words and well-wishes (by which I mean not wishing me any particular harm). To everyone here who came out to celebrate on Friday I hope you had a good night - you made a birthday so far from home so much more enjoyable. Everyone back home in Oz (and those who are travelling at the moment) I miss you all so much and wish I could have celebrated 25 years with you all - theres always next year.

Until Then,

Ding Dong

- T

Troy wearing silly birthday hat at the Outback Steakhouse

yes yes Happy Birthday to me. Today I reach a quarter of a century, I'm finally an adult in the eyes of the Australian government. I have received many nice presents this morning, including a swag of folded origami paper from my kindergarten kids. Tonight we will be celebrating with Beer and Aussie steak at that dinky-di aussie establishment The Outback Steakhouse. For those who are interested, I share my birthday with the following people:

1772- Samuel Coleridge

1833 - Alfred Nobel

1917 - Dizzy Gillespie

1928 - Whitey Ford

1940 - Manfred Mann

1941 - Steve Cropper

1942 - Judge Judy Sheindlan

1949 - Benjamin Netanyahu

1952 - Trevor Chappell (underarm anyone)

1955 - Eric Faulkner (of the Bay city rollers)

1956 - Carrie Fisher

1957 - Steve Lukather, (singer/guitarist of the band, toto!)

1971 - Jade Jagger

1971 - Damien Martyn (aussie cricketer)

1976 - Jeremy Miller (Ben Seaver from TV's Growing Pains)

Thats all for now - enjoy...

Yours sincerely,

birthday boy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TROY!!!
hope you have a rock'n birthday

-a

Good afternoon friends, family and wellwishers - It is Saturday afternoon and the most beautiful day in the dong. The sun is shining and its one of those autumn days perfect for lapping up those golden rays. We need to enjoy it while we can before the northern hemisphere winter rears its not so pretty head. Okay so since our arrival we have managed to keep everyone up to date on life in Korea and in particular life in The Dong - just so everyone is crystal clear dong is the Korean word for suburb or neighborhood, the particular dong in question being Songchon-dong - Today I thought I would take some time to show what the dong looks like. So sit back, relax and enjoy....

THE DONG - A VIRTUAL TOUR

PART 1

I apologize to those reading this from within the dong as it may seem a little boring; but to all those outsiders reading, particular those downunder, please enjoy this pictorial guide of our new stomping ground.

Firstly, This is the front of our apartment - we have a pretty good apartment by Korean standards, for which we are grateful. We are on the 2nd storey. Note the pork restaurant downstairs these are EXTREMELY popular in our area. Also note the "Heaven" sign, from which we derived the title for blog. I'm not too sure what it is exactly some people say its a hof/bar, but the word on the street is that its a front for a brothel - very common in Korea.

Above and below are shots from outside our schools building. Swaton language school is on the 7th floor.

This is one of the most important stops on the tour. The Beer Hunter - our local watering hole. Half Price Tuesdays is very popular with the foreign teacher community in The Dong.

Sunbimal - The local high rise apartment buildings. A bulk of the kids we teach live in these apartment buildings

Dongchundang Park - the local park. Complete with cultural relics. Today was such a beautiful day we took our lunch there to bask in the sun. Its a beautiful park to have right at our door step.

Kimbap Cheonkuk - Our favorite place to go for tasty and cheap Korean food - you will usually find us here a few nights of the week. Check part two of the tour for more of our favorite places to eat.

Our local convenience store - good for late night beer, chip, ice cream, and chocolate runs. Convenience stores are on every corner in Korea. "How convenient!". Unfortunately this particular one has just changed hands recentky and is no longer 24 hour. Drag.

Heaven - a better shot of the afore mentioned establishment


Stay tuned for Part 2....

Hey everyone, just another quick update to let everyone know that all is well in the dong. Teaching is going great guns, despite having to work on Saturday, and I think we are adjusting to our new asian life more and more as each day passes. The main reason for this entry is I want you all to check out this trailer for The Shining that our friend Greer turned us onto. I won't spoil it for you - I'll just say its amazing what can be done with a little editing. If you like them also check out : Psycho, Parent Trap, Westside Story, and Eternal Sunshine of a spotless mind.

All of them are good but the Shining is brilliant. Check em out.

Before I go I have one quick request. As you may already know the internet is freaking fast over here in Korea, I have maxed out my hard drive once already and am currently making space for a new batch of mass downloading. What I want from you, the faithful donger, is ideas - movies and tv shows - especially those from the 80's. The cheesier the better - Don't let me down guys. Leave suggestions in the comment section.

Peace, Love and Kimchi,

- T

Just a quick note to send our well wishes to our good friend, former bandmate and now fellow expat aussie, Brett - who is now in Jolly ol' England. Have a good one over there man, if we can ever get over there we'll definately look you up. I have added a link to Brett's blog to the page. I have also added the blog of everyone's favourite Bosnian - Darko, to the page - enjoy.