A Monday morning spent ignoring Valentine's Day

Ah, it is Monday morning again and this week I have to work a full week, no lovely lunar new year to give me a few days off. Never mind. I had a pretty quiet weekend this weekend, for a change. A quiet dinner with friends and a visiting mum on Friday, visiting a friend on Saturday night and a pub crawl last night. Ah hang on, that is where things got a little silly.

But first, Saturday night. I went to visit my friend, Mona, her boyfriend and their dog for the night. We ate more fried chicken than can possibly be described as sensible, washed down with beer, before getting crazy and .... doing a jigsaw puzzle!!!

I made Mona promise not to tell anyone that this is how I chose to spend my Saturday night but the feeling of satisfaction when we finished actually made me want to boast about it. Actually, it took a long time to finish- for this was no ordinary jigaw. On one side was the picture but on the other was alphabet coding to make the puzzle 'easier'. Hum, we neared completion and were left with two pieces and two holes in the puzzle- none of which fitted together. So, with much stealth and precision we turned the puzzle over to reveal the mess we had made of the alphabet on the other side- and us two English teachers! The shame. We fixed it and then just stood back and gazed at our artwork for while.

Mona lives in a great apartment outside of Gangneung and it was great to wake up on Sunday morning to the views from her balconies- which run along both sides of the apartment. It was a classic Korean winter day- blue blue skies but cold. Very beautiful.

I went back to Gangneung in the evening and had to make up for a quiet night by going out with my mate, Tania. She had spent the last ten days with her mum so we had a lot to catch up on. We started the night at Bumpin (local foreigner favourite), then onto the Warehouse, Absolut, Yaz and finishing with some late night sam gyup sal (pork barbecue) at Da-ree.

It was a good way to finish the weekend and there is nothing like staying out late on a school night. Especially if one of you spots your boss all liquored up on soju in the wee small hours!