The Culverhouse’s in Korea - June 2003
Hello all!
First of all an apology, we’ve been a bit slack on the update front! We actually wrote this about 2 months ago, sent it, but only realised the other day that it hadn’t actually gone!.....
Anyway……
This is our first update this year and we're very pleased that winter is finally over! Certainly the coldest winter we've known. Temperatures dropped to -20C for a week at a time, with lots of snow. At first it was great, but after the 3rd week of freezing feet and slipping around you long for warmth and greenery, Korea is very brown in winter due to the very low humidity.
Spring has been very welcome, both in the temperature and bringing colour back to the nation.
At the end of Jan, we were let out for good behaviour and came back to the UK for a late Christmas with the Culverhouse’s and a week running around trying to see as many people as possible. Many thanks to Jerome and Catherine for letting us crash at theirs, it was great!
After visiting all those new babies, and getting news of pregnant friends we flew to Hong Kong and hibernated for a few days before returning to Korea. It was great to see everyone!
Early March took us to Bangkok as I had to do a week working there, so Lyra forced herself to come and continue her studies by the pool! It was great to get some warm sun for a few days (although, I only looked at it through the office window!!).
My birthday was quiet with a few friends round for dinner and foosball! Then the following week we jetted off to Kyoto in Japan for a long weekend. Kyoto was fantastic, in particular the old Geisha district, Gion, where we actually bumped into a few Geisha’s dashing between appointments. We were both surprised at how different Japan is to Korea, as you tend to group the two together (although never tell a Korean that!). The weekend was spent mainly looking around temples, shrines, and the old streets of Gion, Kyoto is a bit special as it was relatively untouched during WW2, so there’s lots of history. Of course there was a bit of shopping too.
We ended March at the Berlin Ball, so it was leather shorts on and forcing down rather harsh tasting white wine while weight-lifting with the heavy bread!! Actually it was a fun evening with a few friends we hadn’t seen in a while, whilst drooling over the new BMW Z4 they had parked in the reception area!!
After the ball we relished the few days we had together alone in peace as we mentally prepared ourselves for the imminent arrival of BEN!! (with Andy & Tori of course!) For those of you who don’t know Ben he is our 8 year old nephew and general whirlwind!
The week these guys spent in Seoul was our first week of Spring and was an absolute blast! They acclimatised themselves very quickly and we visited all the main sights and spent a great day at Korea’s no.1 theme park Everland! Ben with his blond hair was a star attraction wherever we went, to the extent that he took to wearing a hat to stop all the girls screaming and wanting to say hi (in a few years time…he’ll be begging for that kind of reaction!!!)
A week went by like lightening and I went from a houseful to no-one in a day as the Cartwright’s flew off to Singapore, and Lyra disappeared off to Bangkok for a freebie week in the sun with our friend Joanne! It was almost painfully quiet!
The timing couldn’t really of been better though as I had the official opening of Mokcheon Distribution Centre. Our CEO in Korea SH Lee and Philip Clarke (Main board Director for Supply Chain & IT) did the honours along with about 150 others including local government officials and suppliers. The day went like a dream including the ceremonial start up of our automated sortation system (a particularly nervous moment for me!!)
The Distribution Centre is now up, running, and servicing all 23 stores here, the rest of the year will be spent introducing the sortation system and ensuring the new processes are fully adopted.
Lyra has now gained a new sense of independence as we have bought a nice little sporty car for her!! It’s a Hyundai Tiburon (which is the coupe in the UK), she’s doing great and giving the very cheeky Korean drivers a good run for their money!! Those of you who have visited will know just what we mean!!!
In early May we had sometime off and after much debate we booked a last minute deal to Bali. 10 days of doing almost nothing ,,bliss. What a great place it was too, lovely people, beautiful scenery, fantastic arts and culture, and tragically quiet since last year’s terrorist attack. We never felt in any danger, in fact we don’t think we’ve felt more welcome anywhere.
Well that’s about it, next on our social list is the Queens Birthday Ball, the biggest Expat event of the year!
So those of you thinking of coming to see us, hurry up, we’ve been here nearly 16 months now so time is running out!!
Still bye for now! Lots of love and Happy Easter!
Dan, Ly (31 next Saturday!!!), and the mogs .XXXX