Friday 15 July 2011

Friends to stay and a quick trip home!

Well, we've been busy over the last few weeks!

Between friends coming to visit from the US, and us flying home for my brother Michael's wedding, we also have had to plan our Summer Camp activities, sort out holidays, re-negotiate our holidays, debate about our holidays and then agree to lie about our holidays... more on this later!

June ended with a lovely visit from Meg and Isabel. Meg travels the world over all the time - well, it seems she mainly heads to Europe a lot... a lot a lot! But between interviews for new jobs she and Isabel bounced onto a First Class flight with Delta and slummed it with us for 5 days!
They got to see some of Korea... though since the monsoon weather had come early and it was raining heavily since the moment they landed until the moment we left them to fly home - we're not convinced they seen the best sides of Korea! lol!
Nights out at a Booking Club (where women are brought to men's tables and introduced - or PIMPED!!!), paint-balling in a forest, eating out every night and partying... maybe even getting a kiss or two - I think they liked it.

It was also Elysia's birthday weekend too - hence the Paint-Balling and trip to Seoul - so there was a good size of group (not too big to cause major headaches).


At least we think they enjoyed it... and of course there were tears before they flew home - from Danielle and Isabel!


The following week Danielle and I said our goodbyes to Korea too as we set off back to Belfast to celebrate Michael and Aoife's wedding on the 4th July.

The journey there and back was eventful - but not in a good way.

We started off by successfully getting a bus directly from Chungju to Incheon Airport - saving us the need to use the Seoul Subway system and the hassle of shifting our bags around the city.  Checking in was speedy and simple - our luggage was checked through to London Heathrow where we would pick it up and then jump on a plane to Belfast... if only it was so simple!
Our flight was announced as leaving 10mins earlier than planned which meant we would have a bit of extra time to wander around Abu Dhabi Airport, which is quite a nice place but 30 mins later we still had not moved.  When we finally did taxi out onto the runway and the thrusters we kicked into gear (Make it so No. 1) the plane rumbled, then rattled, then bucked, then shook itself to pieces... before the brakes were thrown on full and that fatal announcement rang out "Cabin Crew to man doors" which left the staff white faced - which considering they were mostly of tanned skin was quite disturbing.  Of course all the dials on the plane read 'normal' but something was definitely wrong!

After 3 hours of being watered, fed and watered again (all the time sat on the plane) we went for a second attempt following a suspension part being completely replaced by the engineers... and lift off was successful.

Now, considering we initially only had an hour and 15mins to spend in Abu Dhabi, Danielle's fears began to surface as she stressed about whether we would even make our connecting flight... and she was justified to - but since there was nothing we could do to make the plane fly any faster we calmed down and hoped for the best.  The best was landing 15mins before the flight was due to leave (thankfully our pilot had made up 2 hours due to a good tailwind and keeping the pedal to the metal... or the leaver to the geaver (if there is such a thing)... and we ran through the airport to our departure gate with minutes to spare.

Only London and Belfast left!

London was fine... except that when leaving the plane a gentleman was standing there waiting to greet us and kindly let us know that although we were in London, our baggage was not... and wouldn't get there until 6pm. This posed a small problem in that our clothes and presents for folks at home were in those cases and we had to get another flight to Belfast at 4pm!

To cut a long blog short - Danielle's bag was sent on the 8.30am flight and then delivered out to my parent's house on Saturday afternoon, and after numerous phonecalls and hassling the staff in Belfast, my bag came in on the 9pm flight that night.

It was great to be home - and made a nice change from Korea.  Seeing family and having some craic with them was medicine in itself.  It was also wonderful to see how the little ones had grown since we left in February - one of the hardest parts of being on the other side of the world is missing them grown up.


Of course - the whole reason for going home was Michael and Aoife's Wedding... another great event!
Although Michael barely looks old enough to buy alcohol - they both looked wonderful on the day and even the weather held out for them.  In a way it was very traditional with the Quinns pulling out all the stops for their daughter's wedding - and they did her proud.


I'll not even start on about the flight back - suffice to say Danielle and I will most likely never fly with Flybe ever again... 1.5 inches was enough to cost us almost £100 extra and the loss of a case merely.  You pay for the bag - and then they also charge you because the bag has it's own weight! Twats! And even the staff at Manchester wanted to kill the incompetent member of Flybe staff as they provided 6 luggage codes for 2 bags going to South Korea... they were not happy and told Flybe it directly! (Loved listening to that phonecall).

So, now we are both back in Chungju - and looking towards the summer... which has me teaching at 8am each morning for 4 hours, then taking English Summer Camp in the afternoons for two weeks... then being told to take 4 days holidays but that I will be working for 5 days at another school (1 day unpaid) taking their summer camp... and Danielle being told that she cannot leave Chungju between now and September... her life is owned by the school! lol! The chance of us not leaving the city is somewhere between the sun rising in the morning and an orange koala taking up residency in my desk! We are getting away from here for 2 weeks and exploring the East coast of Korea...GOSPEL!

Oh, and for those who read our last post and wanted to see Danielle's dress for the wedding:


'Til the next time!