i’m really looking forward to weekends … it’s the only thing keeping me going at the moment.

last week was busy, but fairly productive. i banked a full month’s salary and there’s another salary and $760 in extra teaching to come. i’ve picked up a 4 hour lecture at a training institute which will be fun. last night i went out with some students. we drank sake and kiwi soju. we talked and laughed, then headed to a singing room. it was really funny to watch everyone sing and dance. i didn’t get home until 2am, which is all good cause i slept until nearly 1pm! lol

i got in contact with a cricket club in korea. they practice most saturday afternoons and play most sundays. so next weekend i plan on heading out and roll the arm over in the practice nets. i might see if i can get a couple of games … ought to be fun.

today i’ll probably stick close to home. i might head to the pc room and play warrock for a while. it’s more fun to play at the pc rooms (so i’ve discovered). tomorrow i’m meeting a friend from the hanbok fashion show. we’re having lunch together and i’ll give her the cd of images from the event.

aside from that, nothing much is planned … clean my micro apartment, chat to senor culo, shoot koreans, sleep, count down the days.

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?
–Epicurus

… well, it wasn’t the bestest birthday ever, but i had a good day.

the irony of teaching in an adult hogwan is that i get a lot of leeway regarding my lessons. today, i took two of my classes to paris baguette to celebrate my birthday. the first class bought a cake for me and we had coffee with it. the second class just had coffee, but we had a lot of fun and talked for a long time.

at my office i also had another small party, this time with pizza and coke. then when i retuned to my school, my boss gave me a gift voucher for the local buffet restaurant (enough for 2 people to eat free) and my late class went out with me to enjoy beer and snacks.

so, it was a good day overall. i didn’t work too hard, the weather was fantastic, i had a good time with my students and i had a surprisingly nice day.

yesterday i was invited to photograph a hanbok final at the grand intercontinental hotel. i met one of the finalists and she asked me to take photos for her.

i got there at 11am, just as the event was starting, and got into a good position to take pictures. i was invited to sit at the media table, but the koreans has taken up all the seats with gear and told me that there were no spare chairs. so i sat on the floor in front of the stage (right in front of the vips) and waited for the interesting part to begin.

there were 10 foreign hanbok designers (all amateur) who were in the final. each was interviewed and paraded their designs. i got some good shots and saw valerie, the girl who invited me. i got as many photos of her as i could. overall, it was a lot of fun, and a good excuse to break in my new sb600 flash. the flash did a stellar job and was a great investment.

the rest of the day was mundane … and i didn’t get much sleep, thanks to the people at my work who insist on asking me to edit illegible documents.

i’ll post some pictures from the fashion show, as soon as i get a chance to edit them.

The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this - albert einstein, january 3rd 1954

this is from a little known letter, written by einstein in response to a book which was a re-interpretation of the bible. read more about it via the guardian.

liverpool end their season with a comfortable 2-0 victory away to tottenham. the reds scored 2 second half goals, the first by vororin from close range and the second a solo effort by torres. vororin scored a much needed goal, since his season at liverpool has not been much of a success … on the other hand, torres’ goal was his 33rd in all competitions and 24th in the premier league.

manchester united have won this year’s premier league. on the last day they needed to win to stay ahead of chelsea. united easily beat wigan 2-0 and chelsea drew 1-1 against bolton. there was plenty of excitement as reading looked like avoiding the drop with a 4-0 thrashing of hapless derby. however fulham clawed their way to victory to rescue themselves and stay in the top flight. birmingham, despite a convincing win, also drop. everton beat newcastle to claim the uefa cup spot.

however, game of the day went to middlesbrough, who absolutely smashed manchester city 8-1. it must be hard for city fans to watch their arch rivals win the league on the same day they get hammered by a team 16 points behind them. the fans must also be wondering whether it’s still worth trying to save manager errikson from being sacked. it was nothing short of a shocking turn out by city.

that brings the season to a close and liverpool now look to summer transfers to rebuild their team and make yet another charge at the league title. since benitez came to anfield, every year has begun with hope that this year will be ‘the one’. the past season has been liverpool’s best run, having lead the league in the early weeks, but a poor run of draws over christmas saw the reds drop down to 5th place, behind everton … we spent the rest of the season trying to fight back into contention.

there’s always next season … and maybe, this time, it will be the one.

another big buddhist weekend … i headed to cheongju to meet ryand and his girlfriend. i got there friday night and headed into town to meet a girl from model mayhem. her name is brittany and she’s going to model for me this month or next month (depending on when we can organise our schedules). i stayed at a motel and next morning i headed out with ryan to check the local temples.

the temples were pretty cool, one had a medium size stone buddha. the other was on top of the huge hill and had a good view of the city. both temples were decorated with lanterns and preparing for another weekend of buddhist birthday festivities. we got lots of photos at both temples … but the best part was when we left the temples we walked a little ways and stopped at a cafe. the cafe was a ‘photo and coffee’ cafe, owned by a guy who studied photography in america. the cafe was freaking huge, it was about 4 stories tall (built on the side of a hill) had a fabulous view of the city, and there were a million rooms and spiral staircases. the owner was great. he gave us a tour of the building and showed us his lecture room, studio and other small rooms used for shooting photos in. it was really quite a find! he even told us that we can rent parts of the building to photograph in … and it’s rather cheap, which is great. i anticipate heading down there in the future and making use of his great rooms and spaces.

saturday night we hung around at ryan’s house. we dranks some beers and felt really lazy. one of ryan’s noisy neighbours came around and brought angju (alcohol) with him. this stuff was incredibly expensive and really potent. it’s basically a big jar of alcohol with fermented mushrooms in it. the stuff is potent as all hell and is more suited to stripping oil off a garage floor, than drinking.

this morning we headed out of town, bearing east, towards beopjusa. i’d already visited the temple once before, but was keen to get back there before my time in korea ends. we arrived at the temple just after 10am and had a good look around. i took a lot of photos and made the most of the great weather (clear blue skies). although, i was kicking myself for forgetting my polarisers (i’ve lived in seoul too long, where i get no chances to use them). however, i still got a lot of good photos.

after we left the temple, ryan and i headed towards the town and got some lunch. then we walked back to the bus stop to get a ticket to cheonan. this is where our awesome plans went horribly wrong! there were no busses to cheonan. we either had to go back to cheongju, seoul or daejon, and get a bus to cheonan from there. we decided that it would take too long and we’d miss the remaining daylight. so we walked back into town, got some pa-jon and kimchi-jon, dong dong ju (rice wine) … we spent the afternoon drinking and talking. at about 5.30 we jumped on a bus back to cheongju, and there i switched busses and came back to seoul.

overall, it was a great weekend. i’m a bit tired, to be expected, but i had fun wandering aroundall weekend. ryan and i plan on getting to cheonan one weekend in the next month or two … if the weather is good, we’ll just do an afternoon trip and head out to see the buddha, then have dinner and return home. it’s the only black buddha that i know of in korea, and i’m determined to see it this summer.