Where do I start?
Sleep deprivation is a weapon of torture.
I took three practice shots at a paper target hanging from a wire a few metres away. My group was low and right. The instructor then said I should use up the other seven rounds. Bang, bang, bang. I was always useless with a pistol. 76 points. What a thrill, however. I handed back the gun and went back out to join the others.
Sam and Allan had much better scores and ended up having a 'shout out'. Given that Allan is on crutches, his shooting was spot on. I think Allan won?
We drifted out after our shooting bonanza and went to a bar near to the hotel. It was about 11pm by then. At around 2am, we left. Somehow, someone bet Alan that he would not dive on a hedge. He was not a man to be vanquished and duly leaped onto the hedge and was quickly followed by two others from the team. I am pretty sure someone captured the antics on a video.
A few minutes later, I was in bed and asleep. Jody, Jamie, Alan and Sam went off to a nearby shop. But, their night did not end there. To cut a long story short, they got back to the hotel at 5.30am and did not bother to go to bed. Today, they are looking delicate.
Who said anything about an early night?
Tomorrow, we have another reference site visit, a visit to a Buddhist temple, a traditional Korean lunch and train ride to Seoul on the KTX 'bullet train'.
And, "I'm going to have quiet night, tonight" is a promise we make to ourselves each night out here in Korea with LG. For three nights we have broken that promise. But, it has been great fun.
Monday was the first day of visiting LG's factory and reference sites. We took a short bus ride from Busan to Changwon (an industrial town) where LG has its factory making air conditioning units, compressors, heat pumps and more.
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| LG Show room Changwon |
LG's factory is massive. Measuring its scale by comparing it to the number of football pitches you can fit into it would not help you understand how big it is. It is a town in itself with its own buses.
When we arrived dozens of LG's workers were standing in a large, leafy shelter which turned out to be the smoking area. One of the LG team told me that we had arrived just at the end of the official 'fag break' and the smokers were making their back to work.
Our official tour began, which you can read about in detail here on the ACR Journal website.
Buffet Brilliance
For lunch, LG treated to us more Korean culture. They have perfected buffet lunches. After an initial welcome from Steve Yeung (and a beer), we drifted around to take in the spectacle of food on display. There were Korean delicacies, sushi, pizzas, soups, sea urchins, BBQ delights and Asian desserts. If I had had boots on I could have filled them. The choice was overwhelming and it tasted great.
We continued with our factory tour afterwards which took in the lines where LG makes its air conditioning units (again, read about it on the ACR Journal blog). At the end, Steve and Jody took us to a meeting room where a delightful member of the team, Irene, explained about the business on a PowerPoint presentation. "Any questions?" she asked. Deafening silence.
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| L to R: Steve, Jody, Jamie and Allen |
Sitting opposite me, I could see a smile on Jody's face, aimed at me. I knew why. I had 'hit a wall' and my lack of sleep in the last 48 hours was written all over my face. It was the '3 o'clock wall' when your body decides that it wants you to shut down despite what you want it to do.
Mika interrupted and took charge again. It was time to get back to the bus and head into Busan. A seat on a bus had never been so welcome. The tour had been great, interesting and useful. But, to get in an hour of sleep on the bus was a bonus.
I decided that I would have a quiet night on that bus. Yes, we were going out again to dinner. But, I was definitely going to get a proper night asleep.
Back in the hotel room, I caught up on some emails, updated colleagues about how tough the day had been and contacted my wife to wish her a happy wedding anniversary (What perfect timing).
At 7.30pm, as instructed by Sophie, the group met again in the lobby. We walked (or went by cab in Allan's case) to a trendy Korean BBQ restaurant where Steve and the other LG team members met us.
This time the cooking was done over charcoal and the meat was pork belly. Above each fire pit was a telescopic extractor to remove the smoke. Attentive waiters turned the meat and chopped it up with scissors when it was ready. Steve then showed us how to take a piece of meat, put it into a cabbage leaf with some other vegetables and eat it. Delicious.
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| Jody Lees waiting for the BBQ |
Steve then began proceedings with the Korean drinking tradition. It starts with putting a shot of 'soju' into a glass full of beer, making a speech and then repeating the process. We had to then down our drinks one by one around the table with anyone who didn't down it in one being penalised with another shot of soju.
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| Steve hands out the soju and beer |
The next game involved trying to flick of the part of a soju bottle top which is left over when you open it. Each bottle has a small strip of metal hanging off the cap connected to it by a flimsy piece of metal. By flicking it, the connecting metal becomes weaker.
The aim is to flick it off so that your neighbour who next receives this bottle top has to down a shot. Will and Alan were particularly unfortunate and had a few more shots than the rest of us. It is amazing how much fun you can have with bottle top.
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| Soju bottle tops |
Soon, the group walked down to the road to an indoor shooting range. Yes, an indoor shooting range. I thought it was going to be a laser shooting venue. But, no. Jody had arranged for us to have a go at shooting live rounds from pistols such as Smith and Wesson's, Glocks, a Desert Eagle or Beretta.
After the briefest of safety briefings, we went one by one onto the range, donned ear defenders and, with an instructor picked our weapon of choice. I picked a Glock. The instructor then clipped the weapon into two straps which prevented any users from pointing it in the wrong direction.
I took three practice shots at a paper target hanging from a wire a few metres away. My group was low and right. The instructor then said I should use up the other seven rounds. Bang, bang, bang. I was always useless with a pistol. 76 points. What a thrill, however. I handed back the gun and went back out to join the others.
Sam and Allan had much better scores and ended up having a 'shout out'. Given that Allan is on crutches, his shooting was spot on. I think Allan won?
We drifted out after our shooting bonanza and went to a bar near to the hotel. It was about 11pm by then. At around 2am, we left. Somehow, someone bet Alan that he would not dive on a hedge. He was not a man to be vanquished and duly leaped onto the hedge and was quickly followed by two others from the team. I am pretty sure someone captured the antics on a video.
A few minutes later, I was in bed and asleep. Jody, Jamie, Alan and Sam went off to a nearby shop. But, their night did not end there. To cut a long story short, they got back to the hotel at 5.30am and did not bother to go to bed. Today, they are looking delicate.
Who said anything about an early night?
Tomorrow, we have another reference site visit, a visit to a Buddhist temple, a traditional Korean lunch and train ride to Seoul on the KTX 'bullet train'.
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