all told it has been a pretty quiet week, especially on the ck front; a spot of recruiting here, a spot of recruiting there but nothing really blog worthy. last night however was a little different, as i found myself in a local chicken & hof (fried chicken & draft beer) establishment cheering on the south korean soccer team with some ck colleagues. but alas even that turned into a little bit of a non-event. from past experiences i was expecting it 2 turn into a typical ck-esq session, complete with thursday morning hangover, but now i’m thinking such events are only appropriate when someone is leaving the company, something that hasn’t happened in a ck eternity (7 weeks). when the final whistle blew on the soccer match it ended 3 things: the game itself (it finished a 1:1 draw), south koreas successful qualification campaign for the 2010 world cup (@ least i can cheer them on when ireland fail 2 make it), &, after only a pathetic 2 hours, my consumption of beer for the night. yep, after a few post final-whistle calls of ‘ka-ja!’ (let’s go!) i found myself on the street waiting for the 147 bus home, bowing 2 my colleagues in appreciation for the beers (& mustn't forget the chicken) they bought me (of course they wouldn’t let me pay) & wishing them all a good night. 15 hours later & i'm sitting here in the ck office thankful that it was a quiet night, especially with the 3-day weekend i’ve comin’ up. quiet. it’ll be anything but.
the return of han’s (& all it implies)
this is an excerpt from the e-mail bran sent me this morning, ahead of this weekend.
‘i'm nervous man. i think we might die this weekend.’
why the concern? well, cos hans is in town. for 4 days. 4 whole days (actually, nearly 5). bran might be right. 4 days might just be enough 2 kill us, especially with ryno added 2 the mix on sunday (now that’s just asking for t-r-o-u-b-l-e). but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? yeah, thought so. apart from a perpetual hangover i don’t really know what 2 expect from this weekend, but i do know what not 2 expect, namely much sobriety or much sleep.
‘livin’ with seoul’ this & that
so the north koreans will also be @ the world cup next summer. that’s cool. i think. & check out this story where 400 eligible koreans threw their hat into the ring, so 2 speak, in a bid 2 wed a rich korean business women (maybe she works around here?). if she’s half as hot as the majority of korean women half her age then i’ll marry her… for free. oh wait, i’m already married. i almost forgot.
a visitor lingers @ an image symbolising the korean war @ a peace museum near the border village of panmunjon that separates the 2 koreas.
isaw this picture on the bbc website (yep, i'm very busy today) & felt it deserved a place on my blog. i haven't seen anything as cute in a long while. it's a picture of kindergarten children in hong kong, where authorities have decided 2 close all nursery & primary schools for a 2 week period in a bid 2 curb the spread of swine flu.
adjective: cute (cuter, cutest) kyoot
1. attractive especially by means of smallness or prettiness or quaintness
the strangest thing happened 2 me the other day, an event i feel worthy of a blog entry. i was walking 2 the subway station in a light drizzle... actually, it was less than a drizzle; just a drop here, a drop there, but nothing worse… akin 2 an irish summers day if you will. anyway, this little korean man runs up behind me (i realise i’m quite often guilty of referring 2 them - koreans - as ‘little’ when in fact most of them are on par, in stature of course, with yours truly). i heard & sensed him approaching, 2 close for comfort even by no-privacy-of-space korean standards, & for a split second i thought that he was going 2 run into me. that was until i reminded myself that no sober korean would ever let that scenario transpire, one that sees them coming into physical contact with a foreigner in broad daylight. anyway, the next thing i know he’s walking beside me, holding his umbrella over me, all the while bowing/nodding his head unnecessarily & smiling from ear 2 ear, all of which conspired clearly 2 say ‘you’re oh so welcome, you dumbass out-in-the-lashing-rain-without-an-umbrella foreigner’. for the 20 seconds or so that he shadowed me 2 the shelter of the subway station canopy i felt a mixture of unabated embarrassment & ignominy, ignominy stemming from the fact that i had caused this man 2 feel obliged 2 do what he did, by the simple virtue of not conforming 2 the korean standard of walking under an umbrella @ the slightest hint of rain. that ignominious feeling didn’t last long however; once i had returned his bows in a pitiful & wholly inadequate show of gratitude & we’d parted I realised there was nothing 2 be ashamed of. after all he was korean & that’s what they do, even the ‘little’ ones.
‘livin’ with seoul' part ii by the numbers – an update
11 - days until ‘lords of the bow’ arrives, the next novel in the conqueror series of novels by conn igguldenbased on the life & times of genghis khan. no bookshop in seoul had it so i had no choice but 2 order it... & wait. tick tock.
7 - days until hans arrives back in korea for what will no doubt be 4 days of nothing less than debauchery.
26 – temperature, in degrees celsius, in seoul right now.
8 – temperature, in degrees celsius, in dublin right now.
‘livin’ with seoul’ video
check this out. i discovered this a little over a week ago & it had a few hundred hits; it now has almost 1,500,000 (& no doubt more by the time you view it). if you don’t like this you don’t like music.
it has been 77 days since my last blog entry, the crafting of which I’ve no doubt is 2 blame for the subsequent end of my then blissful, reposeful existence, & the reason why i haven’t been able 2 create a single blog entry since. well my 77-day, self-induced blogging jinx is over, & i’m back. that’s not 2 say the reasons it – my blog – has been kept quiet for the past 11 weeks won’t also be the same reasons that keep it quiet for another 11 weeks; they very well could, but here’s hoping they don’t (‘they’ can roughly be encompassed as time sapping, work related duties, so numerous in quantity that there is no way i could ever again claim, as i foolishly did 77 days ago, 2 be an ‘expensive luxury’). anyway, regardless of how many days have passed since my last entry the irrefutable fact is that i’m still here. yep, i’m still living, working &, most importantly, playing with seoul. except these days something’s are a little different. while i’ve gone from having seemingly nothing 2 do 2 having everything 2 do, the temperatures have increased such that i’ve gone from turning the heating off 2 turning the air-conditioning on (the mosquitoes aren’t here yet but they are on the way). i’ve also gone from being illegal 2 be very much legal (thanks 2 a recent 2-day hop, skip & a jump over 2 japan 2 resolve visa issues), & i’ve gone from sharing my apartment with bill 2 sharing it with nobody. what else? well, in what seems 2 be the revolving door that is ck, 4 people have left, 5 have come on board & 2 have gotten married, i’ve come closer to get unmarried (i prefer that word 2 ‘divorced’), an ex-korean president decided 2 kill himself, the 1st camp of the summer started, i spent 24 hours in a van being transported 400km for 8 hours of drinking, susan boyle - you know her, right? - became an international superstar (even in korea), swine flu has done the rounds, i’ve got through 2 books (1 of them the best book i've ever read), & i’ve sampled luxury, korean style.
of course some things haven’t changed. bran & mel (& a few other oft-thirsty socialites) are still here (although not troopa) meaning i’m still guilty of having 2 good a time, i still haven’t joined a gym (although i have played squash just long enough 2 remind me how much i love it, & how much i miss playing sports), everyone in the ck office, even a few nameless newbie’s, still unashamedly fuss over me, my laptop hard drives still continue 2 fail (2 in the last 2 months alone, taking as many months worth of pictures & work with them), economies around the world are still in a shambles (that said the south korean one seems 2 be bucking the trend), korean girls on the street are still smoking hot (& getting hotter as the days do the same), & the north koreans are still pissing everyone in the region off (but realistically not scaring anyone).
so there you have it. the last 77 days of in a preverbal nutshell. 77 days from now is august 24th, the day I take my latest flight home. here’s hoping i get 2 say hello before that, or @ least get 2 explain why i’ve been ignoring my blog.
