Happy New Year! (Seol Nal).

Last Wednesday I was invited to the JW Marriott-Seoul New Year Celebration for the staff. Miss Yoon as graceful as she can be, extended the invitation to me. I thought it was going to be the usual company party with some employees exhibiting some talent. I thought wrong. It was a talent competition between the divisions, recognition of the most outstanding employees, door prize give-aways, presidential and GM speeches all Emceed by the funny late night host Lee Hyuk Jae of SBS's "Yashim Manman Manmyong Eh Geh Mooleosumnida." (That's "Late Night Talk Show" for KBFD viewers.)

I totally missed-out on the spread, dinner buffet, beer and other beverages. Got tied up at work, bossman waited until close to quitting time to give me some of his work to edit. Looked at it and identified several punctuation, word usage, and spelling errors. Arrrrh!!! I stuck it back to bossman by telling him that the spelling and grammar tool works in MS Word. I knew he felt like a heel... Good. Okay I'm done ranting...

The JW Marriott Grand Ballroom was packed with associates, managers, and executives. I wasn't sure which table the Mikado ladies were occupying, so I called. Miss Dayna answered, got me from the back of the ballroom and escorted me to the front table near center stage. Wow... I sat facing the stage with my back toward the GM and Mr. President (of the Hotel). The MC was late but when he showed up, two divisions had already performed their number.

I couldn't remember who went on first and what they did but the second group was the food and beverage division. They started with several impersonators, sticking to the themes of the JW Marriott restaurants, a geisha, a Chinese Opera girl, a French Maitre d, and a surprise impersonator of Andre Kim. I don't know where the famous designer fit in the JW Marriott scheme but I got a good chuckle. Each impersonator had their funny moments, trying hard to work in a Japanese, Chinese, or French accent in their Korean. The Andre impersonator had all the right mannerisms, facial expression and walk. His white suit was obviously Andre, and the make-up was dead on!

Then came the second part of the F&B talent. A lip-synch number by three hip-hop types and four hot babes dressed to the T like "Jewelry." One of the hotties was Miss Yoon! Ai-fishnet stockings, killer stilettos, mini-schwingskirt, belly button exposed, cool top, hair in a seductive pony tail, topped off with glitter make-up... Okay, she can dance! So, can the other three ladies.

Mister Late Night, Lee Hyuk Jae finally showed up and by this time the whole ballroom was warmed up. He cracked a bunch of jokes about being late. He introduced himself to the crowd and spoke directly to the GM saying, "Yesterday, all my troubles seems so far away." It was funny because I don't think the GM realized he was speaking English with his heavy Korean accent. The crowd just roared in laughter. More talent by the other divisions included a cute tap dance routine by services, an aerobicize-flag waving-cheerleader number by spa and fitness, "Summer Nights" from "Grease" by finance and marketing, and a routine similar to "Jump" by the Taekwondo studs of loss prevention.

The door prize give away was next and everyone dug their pockets for their tickets. Ipods were desired, a few got their wish. Gift certificates to the expensive department stores were next. A washing machine, a vertical fan, and lots of other small appliances were given away. There were many prizes to be had but looked like they just drew tickets on the side and published the winners list at the end of the night.

There were three categories of employee recognized: "Front of the House," " Back of the House," and Manager of the Year. Each category had their own video put together and showed the most outstanding employee of each month in their work environs. As the name implies, the "Front of the House" employee had a lot of face time with the hotel guests, whereas the "Back of the House" employee did his work out of sight. Two of my favorite associates from Mikado were recognized. Miss Yoon was the January "Front of the House" associate, and Miss Han was the July associate. So now I call them Miss January and Miss July. Ha-ha! Neither one got selected for associate of the year though.

In the finale the GM (an English fella) sang an easy listening Karaoke tune and then the President sang the love theme from "Winter Ballad." The Pres did it right. Could have passed for the real-deal.

Although I missed out on the food and beverages, I had a great time that night. Miss Jang, the manager of the Manho Chinese restaurant said to come again next year. Oh, I forgot one little bit of a teaser... While Miss Yoon was being recognized earlier on stage for something (sorry I didn't pay attention at that time to the award) her friends stuck a bouquet of flowers in my hands and told me I should be giving these to Miss Yoon. So I did. And while I was up there presenting the flowers to Miss Yoon, back at the table some of the associates from the surrounding tables asked, "Who is that giving her those flowers?" Someone piped up, "Das her ae-in!" First time I found out I was her ae-in! Ha!