LostSeouls: Because otherwise I wouldn't remember a frigging thing
30 November
The photos I've got from my Friday night out in Itaewon with Doc,
Chris, Tom and his girlfriend Sophia make everyone look a bit goofy,
we drank "Pyongyang" beer from North Korea (7/10, but then I'm not very
fussy) then went to Limelight where they gave us three free drinks- a
shot, a glass of wine and a beer. If that didn't guarantee a first
class hangover, they were prepared to stamp on your liver for an extra
5,000 won.
Onto stuff I saw at the weekend:
This long walk with a piano effect is in the maze of neon-lit side
streets around Jongno-3-ga. Like anybody who's seen "Big" (or the
video for "Billie Jean" I suppose) I keep expecting the keys to light
up and play a tune, but no. I'm told it might be a fountain in the
summer or something though.
I don't think much to KFC's new advertising slogan:
personally I'd have voted for
"KFC is deliciously
safe for consumption"
Then again at least a box of hot wings looks better than this
stuff:
Spicy battered chicken balls in what I think chinese takeaways back
home would call Szechuan
style. Szechuan presumably being the chinese word for "radioactive"
And finally a club advertising something they clearly can't provide:
I was in that place for an hour and a half before I realised they
were completely out of both Groove and DJ Mix. Ripoff.
29 November
Heading to Qingdao, China on Friday- it's a very short trip that I
hadn't really been planning to take but basically I have to leave Korea
and come back again because, well, I killed this homeless guy and
apparently that's not 'cool' any more.
Qingdao looks pretty good though, they have some kind of holy
mountain with amazing scenery, it's where "TsingTao" beer is brewed and
next to the sea. I've learnt from my last trip to Hong Kong that you
can't really touch down on foreign soil and expect to be partying like
it's 1999 a few hours later. So rather than roam the streets looking
for places to drink, my plan is to go to bed early doors on Friday
night, wake up bright and early on Saturday, hire a bike, and ride
around the countryside and coast with rainbows overhead and little deer
skipping out of the way as I whistle a happy tune.
We shall see.
28 November
When Marcy announced she was having her leaving do at Carne Station
(AKA Carnage Station) I was nervous. Twenty thousand won for all you
can eat and drink, 20 or so people in our group, it was bound to be
messy. And messy it was.
On Friday night I stayed up late calling England using that damn
Skype thing and only stopped at 6:30am when I ran out of credit and had
sipped my way through about half a pint of whiskey.
A bad idea all round that meant when I got to Carne Station I was still
feeling a bit shakey (i.e. half dead) from the previous night.
For some reason, the restaurant clientele always seems to be 20%
Koreans with very young children and 80% foreigners aggresively trying
to get their moneys worth out of the open bar. Gradually over the
course of the night the Korean families go home until at 10:30pm it's a
horrible scrum of people shouting and wondering whether they can get
one more glassfull of 'Rob Roy' down their neck before we all get
thrown out. To my knowledge it has yet no win a Michelin star.
  
The next bar was Tinpan Alley, where we realised that, depsite being
leaving before us, Marcy, Heidi and Rachel-Lynn weren't yet in the bar.
It turns out they decided to take a pitstop and split a bottle of vodka
in the park- nice going girls. Tinpan was packed, loud, raucous-
basically all of the reasons why we go there. Stuart bought me a shot
of tequilla, Shelly bought me a shot of tequilla (notice how whenever I
get really drunk it's not my fault?) and eventually we moved onwards
and upwards to dance at "Harabogee".
Ripped to the gills on tequilla, Doc tells me I was "throwing
shapes" on the dancefloor- which I know from past experience means I
was acting like a tool, rubbing myself against girls, and sweating a
lot. It was fun though, they played "No
Diggity", "Forgot About Dre",
"Crazy In Love"- all of your
essentials. It's been a long time since I went dancing, as generally I
prefer to sit in bars and force people to listen to my opinions on late
1990s pop music and why 'writing a blog' is the new 'having a life'-
maybe I need to do it more often.
Here are some photos
If you live in Korea, this t-shirt is
pretty funny. If you don't, you must really be sick of me going on
about it by now.
me, Heidi and Stuart. Umm, that's it.
Emily was looking fly. Is the guy on
the left laughing at me, or with
me do you think?
This is Gold Bar- the last place we
went to.
Stuart and me left before everyone else and the bar staff chased us out
of the door because they thought we hadn't paid. If I was Joe Pesci I'd
have had a few words to say to them let me tell yer.
Cyclops Brock
Despite being a bad ditcher (another Canadian phrase I've learnt, it
means you go home early), Marcy will be sorely missed. She has a dirty
dirty mouth and makes me laugh talking about "moose knuckles",
"cougars" and the bears hanging in her Mum's garage. That's the kind of
special person you can't find just anywhere y'know.
25 November
I had a great plan for this Christmas this year, I was going to take
13 photos that I'd taken over the year and make a 2006 calendar which I
could give to friends and family, possibly even selling a couple on
here (all proceeds going to charity, recycled paper, 'no animals were
harmed in the making of this calendar' and all of that stuff naturally).
Well I slaved over the bugger for ages, and eventually got it
sorted out, took it to a printing shop on Tuesday and told them what I
wanted (A3 pages, glossy paper, one of those ring things to hold it all
together at the top) and he printed me one up.
Even if I say so myself it looked pretty good, there were little
boxes to mark dentists appointments in, notes on each photo written at
the bottom written in classy italics,
the lot.
Sadly, the printing fella summed up a few sums on his calculamator and
told me that even if I went insane and ordered 50 of them, we were
still looking at a whopping 20,500 won per calendar.
Well you can buy the Bad
Cat page-a-day calendar for less than that (including entry to the
"Is YOUR cat bad enough?" contest) so I know when I'm beaten.
  
Everyone's getting socks, same as last year.
23 November
Pizza Hut special for the autumn season, 'Bam Pizza':
It was ummm, O-kay
22 November
Photos back from Saturday afternoon around Namdaemun Market. This
time about half of them showed more or less what I wanted to see, which
is a big improvement from previous films- the only trouble is that my
camera seems to be broken. Hmm.
Anyway, here are some of the ones that turned out OK
They say that Namdaemun market sells 'everything' which is obviously
not true- you couldn't buy, say, a genuine designer handbag, or a
t-shirt saying "Dokdo is Japanese!" but there is a lot of stuff. It's
proper crowded too, market holders are always trying to push carts full
of tat along a street alread thronged with people- you have to dodge
food delivery scooters, and old women up from the countryside to sell
ginseng on a blanket spread on the ground
 
A fascinating place with something new to see every time you go, but
the people who work there generally either laugh at you, or tell
you to clear off when you try and take their picture- I was glad Doc
was there too, one of us could pretend to think about buying something
whilst the other took photos.
Some stalls in nearby Myeong-Dong had thousands of LPs. They don't seem
to be in any order, unless George
Michael and "The Greatest Hits
of Richard Clayderman" both come under 'G'.
"Hello mate, do you have any Jackson
5?"
"I'm not sure, try looking under 'F'
for 'Family'"
Here's an interesting thing- whilst we call it the Korean War, it
started on 25 June 1950 so is known here as the "6.25" war.
It's probably best not to know what someone had to go through to get
those medals, or how much they're being sold for now.
21 November
When my mate Sam lived in Korea she would normally ask me on Sundays
"What was the highlight of your week?", but this Saturday was so
outstanding that I don't think I'd be able to answer her question.
I woke up pretty late and met my mate Doc at Seoul Station- he was
given a camera as a gift when he left his last job, and I'm getting
more and more into taking photos so we'd arranged to meet up and go
around Namdaemun market seeing what we could see through our
viewfinders. We did the same sort of thing around Gyeongbokgung the
other week and annoyingly his shots turned out loads better than mine,
so this time around I rubbed bogeys on his lens whenever he wasn't
looking which should make me the winner.
Namdaemun was pretty good (photos later when they come back from the
developers), and we visited my new mate Mr Oh who owns a shop in an
underground shopping centre.
Mr Oh's shop is a mad treasure trove of cameras, miniature steam
engines and watches, but less than half the stuff there is actually for
sale. He's a real collector- (buys two of everything so he can leave
one unopened in the box) who would much prefer to just keep the stuff
he collects, and on this visit he showed us a few of his watches:
You're looking there at maybe a few hundred thousand dollars worth of tickers,
he went through and told us a bit about each one and it was like so:
"This one's unusual because it's made
out of white gold, you can see the number on the back there, they only
made 500 of them. This one is the most complicated mechanical watch in
the world, it automatically adjusts for leap years and can boil an egg"
etc.
Even though I'd only met him once before, and Doc is very
shifty-looking, he had no problem with letting us try on these
ridiculously heavy pieces that cost more than either of us make in a
year. Maybe I'm just a watch geek, but to me trying on a platinum Rolex
Submariner whilst someone serves you proper espresso coffee made with a
proper Italian machine is good times.
After bringing up the subject about eight times, I finally got him
to sell me a (much, much cheaper) watch I'd seen in the window-
digital, but 1970s style with proper tiny red LEDs instead of those new
fanged LCD screens. The photo below doesn't really do it justice, but
it reminds me of the display on the bomb when Sean Connery is trying to
save the world from a camp man with a cat.
After walking from Namdaemun to Anguk station, me and Doc met up
with the rest of the gang for Heidi's birthday meal (at a great Indian
restaurant, but I don't really have space to get into that as well), it
was at the restaurant when I discovered that the belt I'd just bought
in Namdaemun...
...had a switch...
Oh yes my friend. A batman belt that flashes on and off at the flick
of a switch.
Disco batman.
Even Muhammed Ali never had a belt this good.
Getting to Hongdae we tried to get our oversized group into a number
of different bars before ending up at Zibe (or something similar, it's
got a weird name). This is the bar we found a few weeks ago down a side
street next to the park that has a small swimming/paddling pool inside,
well it turns out that this bar also has a second floor, and if you're
particularly lucky you end up getting a private room that's kind of
like a huge four poster bed. On a cold night it's hard to beat
splitting a bottle of vodka with friends as you all sit around on a
cushioned, heated floor- especially as it came with it's own en-suite
bathroom.
 
We move onto Tin Pan Alley and some guy on the other side of the bar
starts singing "Doncaster la, la, la!" at me so I do tequilla shots
with him (turns out he was actually saying "Doncaster, wank wank wank!"
but never mind), then onto the club (Sk@ Bar) where Doc starts doing
card tricks and some very drunk guys at the bar keep pouring some of
their bottle of whiskey into my drink.
So Sam (if you still read this site!) highlight of the week? Take
your pick from that lot.
   
[Happy Birthday Heidi!]
17 November
Important Paper Cup Update!
The messages printed on paper cups are just one of those things that
makes me laugh. A cup has a very specific and limited role in life- it
won't hold liquid any better if you write either "Change Of Pace"
or "Easy
Life" on
the side, and yet there must
be someone, somewhere being paid to draw up completely unnecessary
designs to be printed on the side.
These people probably studied design at University, spent hours
poring over the works of Bauhaus and Lichtenstein, gained the latest
modern techniques and draw from ancient sources of inspiration,
plumbing the depths of their imagination to come up with a unique idea
of style and spend weeks waiting for that illusive spark of genius to
ignite their inner flame.
Either that or they let a trained monkey loose with a box of
crayons.
 
The first cup is an interesting twist- latin instead of konglish-
and I think you'll agree, pretty classy. Part tribute to "Dead Poet's
Society", part Van Gough's "Sunflowers", and all inspiration.
Cup the second was actually emailed to me by someone who reads this
site!
His name is Stafford Lumsden, from Chosun Bimbo
and the place where he goes for coffee seems to have a real
attitude problem. Stafford, if they tick the "Go Away" box you know
you're in trouble-
and if you didn't order cappuccino but it has a frothy top, I wouldn't
drink it.
16 November
This weekend saw Rachel-Lynn's birthday + Andy's last night in Korea
before he moved to Thailand. That's an equation that can only result in
messiness, but since I was on 24 hour support for my job, I couldn't
get drunk.
Let me repeat that, I couldn't get drunk. All weekend.
Before you call the Geneva Human Rights Commission about my lack of
basic human privileges, I actually had fun anyway, just a more quiet,
reserved, sit and watch from the
sidelines as everyone else gets gradually louder and crazier
kind of fun.
My photos from the night are, basically, crap so to fill in here are
some of my
favourite quotes, strange how much more you remember when you don't
drink:
"Who has wine left? Give me all of
your wine!" (Rachel-Lynn being classy in a candlelit Italian
restaurant)
"I'm starting a website, it's just
going to be pictures of Moose and Bears" (Marcy)
"My Dad was a mountie..he can't ride a horse though" (Shelly- so
wouldn't that make him a "walkie"? Damnit, I only just thought of that
line)
"That boy just told me 'no more
talking'" (Marcy in Tin Pan)
"What do I have to do to get on
Lost
Seouls?"
"Get your junk out and put it in that
glass" (Marcy talking to some guy her co-worker
Eric. Actually Marcy that guy was right, no more talking from you)
"Me and Bo-Heon are really drunk
and
we're in that chicken place. Come to the chicken place. Bring everyone
to the chicken place" (etc. etc. for 10 minutes- Heid, in that
chicken place)
"I'm the straightest man in Ko-re-a"
(Andy, sung to the tune of "Sweet Home Alabama")
  
When most people went to the nighclub I stayed in the bar with Doc
and his mate Jeremy, since I was still forming whole sentences and
focusing with both eyes- which reminds me of an old photo actually.
Safe trip Andy- I await confirmation that you are now the baddest
melv in Thailand.
14 November
It's Monday, it's LostSeouls so it must be time for another "On Friday I got really hammered and went
to.." update right? Wrong!
This week I'm mixing it up like when Tom Cruise made cocktails in
whatever movie it was, and serving up my Sunday first. Fight the Power!
Although once planned to ride my bike to the orphanage every week,
that was when I thought I could plan the route taking in only downward
sloping hills, since I've figured out this isn't possible I've really
gone off the whole bike idea. In fact this Sunday I barely even
considered it before getting on the subway to World Cup stadium.
The weather was really drab so no-one really fancied going to the
park or anything, instead we just sat around talking in our usual
mixture of Korean and english. When there were things that the kids
couldn't explain properly I took out my Korean-English-Korean
dictionary and got them to look it up.
  
Boys will be boys though, and within about 30 seconds they were
looking up rude Korean words and trying to make me say them- now I'm
not sure if they expected me not to notice the english translation "A penis" next to the word "자지" and
just read out loud whatever they put in front of me, but I spoilt their
fun by saying stuff in Korean that sounded tantalising close to the
sweary one.
Me:"잡채
(Noodle salad)?"
Them: "No teacher!"
Me: 주차장 (Car Park)?"
Them: "TEACHER NOO!!!"
Me: "Oh I can't read Korean"
"Waaaaa!"
Whilst the older kids were doing this, the younger ones were
wrestling my camera off me. Since this camera was only purchased on
Saturday I was determined that I'd be the only one using it- but in the
end I capitulated and let them take a few shots.
As usual, their photos were
much better than mine.
  
I didn't mention it at the time but because the date 11/11 looks
very slightly like 4 sticks of a biscuit snack called "Peppero",
November 11th is "Peppero Day" in Korea.
My mate Andy gave me an absolute stack of the things to pass along to
the kids which is why the kid in that last photo has something that
looks like a horribly disfigured tongue poking out of his mouth- it's
the remains of a strawberry flavoured Peppero.
Were I the sort of person who Christmas cards with a photo of
himself on them, there would be a heavily airbrushed version of this
little beauty being dusted with glitter as we speak. Look at his little
face! He could work for Santa himself!
11 November
*Refresh*
10 November
Enough with the fancy photos, it's time to poke fun at other
people's culture!
So I'm getting on the subway last night, heading to Dongdaemun to try
to buy a heart rate monitor and maybe a camera (didn't manage either),
when a sign caught my eye.
I liked the little cartoon so stopped to take a snap of it when I
realised that I didn't know what  (the thing this restaurant is
advertising) is, so looked it up when I got to the train. Imagine my
shock and awe as I discovered the mystery; it's a dog soup restaurant.
Oh yes my non-korean speaking friends who are only just catching up,
that cartoon isn't so cute now is it? Her little thumbs up sign and
smile has been twisted into a macabre conspiracy with the viewer now-
I'm sorry ajumma, whilst I respect your right to eat whatever you
like (and think you have lovely hair) I cannot condone the fact that
you're about to take the lid off that pot and somehow trick your
faithful pal Bowzer there into jumping into the broth.
And look at Bowzer there with his tongue sticking out. I'll bet he
helped to collect the firewood that will shortly cost him so dearly.
Tongue sticking out, tail wagging happily...and yet... the eyes,
there's something in the eyes.
I think he knows.
09 November
In an ideal world I'd be writing about what I did last night; went
out on a leaving do with people from work, ate pork, sang Simon &
Garfunkel songs with the boss, drank soju. However as anyone who has
been to Barnsley will know, this is not an ideal world and I can't find
my memory card reader.
So instead, here are some more photos developed from the weekend,
try and imagine a kind of TV "technical breakdown" type music playing
in the background.
   
08 November
Well one thing I did on Saturday night that I'll never do again is
eat bundaeggi. Silkworm
larvae boiled in their own juices, eaten by people as a delightful
street snack- they may smell like urine but at 2,000 won for a cupful
they have to taste pretty good right? Wrong.
SaeJin bought a cup full and I stole one (you pick them out with a
wooden cocktail stick)- at first it was kind of the same texture as a
fried shrimp, not bad, but when I bit into it my mouth was filled with
grit and the taste was like meaty ammonia. I swallowed it as
quickly as possible since, if I was going to get that far, I had to be
able to say
that I'd actually eaten one- but ended up dry-heaving into a pile of
rubbish whilst
Cam ran to the shops to get me a bottle of water.
0.3/10
 
Backtrack to the start of Saturday night, and after 'getting our
grub on' (copyright Wyatt)
I took Rachel-Lynn and Doc to a bar I've been wanting to go back to for
ages. I forget its real name now (what with it being written in
foreign) but this place advertises itself as "Traditional Korea 70s
Sound". The entire back wall is full of LPs, the menu is written on the
back of a Cho Young Pil album- (the Korean Mum's favourite who Andy
met outside City Hall), drinks of makkoli
(the choice of the alcoholic farmer) are served in tin pots and the
shelf
above the bar is stacked up with cans of peaches, just in case they
start rationing fruit again.
It's a very very
retro place, the music is great, drinks are cheap, Cam and SaeJin
showed up later and I don't think SJ ever wanted to leave.
Leave we did though, and in fact Doc and RL went home, leaving Cam,
me and SaeJin to check out another new bar that's built around a small
swimming pool.  
Good music here too, and you can hear the water flowing slowly through
the pool in the background- I probably went to the bathroom 8 or 9
times. The rickety wooden walkway just next to the water is asking for
trouble in this place, someone or other is bound to slip and fall in. I
just hope I'm there with a camera to see it happen.
Met up with Heidi and BoHeon, drank too much whiskey, talked
nonsense to Steve, Stacey, Shelley and anyone else in my vicinity whose
name started with S. Woke up rough on Sunday.
Vive Le Weekend!
07 November
My new Friday routine is to go to a massage place in Hongdae where they
crack all of your bones, tell you you've got one leg shorter than the
other, then charge 40,000 won for the privilege. It's a bargain, I
always feel about 2 weeks younger when I leave, and there's a
restaurant opposite which sells the best takeout tuna and mushroom
pizza in Seoul- a bottle of red wine with one of those bad boys and
you've got a quality night in (OK then, two bottles of red wine).
Saturday afternoon I met up with Doc so we could have a look around
Gyeongbok palace and take bad photos with our film cameras. At least,
my photos turned out to be bad, when we got to the developing place Doc
muttered some excuse about wanting borders around his, so that he
wouldn't have to suffer comparison with my masterworks.
Gyeongbokgung (to give it it's proper name) is the huge palace
complex at the northern edge of Seoul, just before you hit Bukaksan
mountain. I've seen it from the outside scores of times, and even been
inside the courtyard for quick peep before after closing time but this
is the first occasion when I've actually stumped up the 3,000 won
entrance fee to go inside.
Just as we arrived there was a changing of the guards ceremony, lots
of young guys on minimum wage had dressed up in the traditional garb of
Joseon dynasty soldiers, carrying pikes and staffs with fake beards and
moustaches glued or painted on their faces. When the ceremony was over
the barriers were taken away and you were free to pose with the
'guards' who stood stock-still and pretended not to see the two
Japanese girls holding up peace signs 3 inches from his face. It was
ace.
Better yet though, there were clothes and weapons available to
borrow so that you could dress up as one of the guards- completely free
of charge, and with queue of people waiting to try them on. Doc and I
jumped straight in there, the boots were made of really soft suede- and
were more comfortable than my own shoes but the black wicker hats were
a nightmare- heavy, rough and basically just balanced on the top of
your head. Presumably the guards posing for photos were stood still to
prevent these things falling off.
Those weapons were the real deal too, wooden handles and solid steel
blades- Doc tried pointing them at the camera but the palace guide who
was taking our photo told him off. Apparently dressing up is a serious
business.
The palace proper covers a lot of ground with little alleyways
leading to large meeting rooms- all ornately painted with sloped wooden
roofs and carved doors. It's not all man-made though, there are trees
planted all around the palace grounds which, at this time of year,
makes for a lot of colour- the mountains in the background are visible
from a lot of places, and one huge building is located on an island in
the middle of a beautifully still lake.
It's this building in fact that you see on the 10,000 won (5 quid)
note- although according to my money it seems that the some fool has
planted a tree right where there shouldn't be a tree. For anyone
keeping count I've now seen the buildings on the 10 won coin (here), and
also the 5,000 won note (in Gangneung, my taxi driver nearly crashed
the car whilst pointing it out).
Lovely scenes, but I've gotta tell you I had a nightmare with my
camera. This film business is a lot harder than you'd think, I took 38
'photos' before realising I hadn't loaded the thing properly and the
film wasn't winding on. Doc thought he'd finished his film and rewound
it into the cannister when in fact he'd just turned the shutter lock on
(the film counter being broken after he dropped it a while back), and
once again I took several photos with the lens cap on.
Neither of us are David Bailey that's for sure.
A smashing afternoon, I can't believe I've never visited this place
in all of my time in Seoul. I guess it's like those people who live in
New York City and never visit the Statue of Liberty, or Londoners
who've never had tickets for Top Of The Pops. I'm even considering
going back for a time when they have guided tours in English- at one
point we overheard an announcement saying
"The harvesting of
the silkworm
ceremony will begin in five minutes"
and that is something which I think deserves a fuller explanation.
04 November
It was my workmate Eonmi's birthday yesterday so after work her
husband picked us up from the airport and drove us into Seoul for
a meal.
Eonmi and her fella Park Jeon-Goon
We went to the street that runs along the right hand side of
Gyeongbok Palace (an area called Samcheong-Dong apparently), I'd
ridden my bike along here a few weeks ago so knew it was positively
glued-up with classy restaurants. There are Italian, Chinese, Japanese,
steakhouses and, of course, Korean places. I really wanted Eonmi to
chose a Korean because they all looked like they would have a range of
mad dishes I'd never eaten before, and luckily (after a couple of close
calls with fairy-lit pasta joints) she picked SunYoungSan, an imposing
building that served big set banquets in the old Royal court style.
There were A LOT of dishes so I'm just going to whip through them
with little photos, but if you see something and go "What the frig is
that?!" then click the photo and view a larger size. Alright?
Rice Porridge and Water Kimchi
I don't know exactly what this was- some kind of noodle salad
Slices of beef with a pear, cucumber and (I think) jellyfish salad. The
brown things at the back are slices of fermented duck egg. The egg
looked grim and Mr Park's description of how they made it wasn't
particularly appetising, but it basically tasted like boiled egg- Eonmi
made me eat hers because she's soft.
I could eat no other meat but seafood for the rest of my life and be
happy, no question (assuming chickens can swim).
Lightly seared tuna on a bed of etc.etc. This was a tasty mouthful
Steamed Pork. This is normally eaten in huge piles by businessmen with
loosened ties, between shots of booze in cheap restaurants next to the
market. Really tasty stuff anyway, the little dish at the top right is
a dipping sauce made with dried shimp, just to really ram home the
non-Kosher aspect.
This was cool, a clear broth filled with all kinds of stuff chucked in,
it came with a piece of burning charcoal in the middle of the bowl to
keep it bubblin' hot.
Slices of beef with onions and mustard sauce- it was at about this
stage that started loosening my trousers
Joey Tribiani's favourite food: fried stuff and lots of it. The thing
in the middle is a piece of salmon soaked in lemon juice and topped
with fish eggs and was the best bit of the meal, hands down. Fish eggs
sound disgusting, but the way they burst in your mouth when you're
crunching into something is just mmm, ahhh...ohh no, I've got drool on
the keyboard again.
Bulgogi with side dishes. It was at this point in the meal that Eonmi
and Park JeongGoon put down their chopsticks and waited for something-
turns out that bulgogi is pretty salty so there was bound to be some
rice arriving shortly for us to eat it with. These are the little
things that mark a true Korean from some guy who just drinks soju a lot
and uses "^^" instead of ":-)"
When the rice showed up it was wrapped in a lotus leaf and steamed with
all kinds of fruits and beans and stuff. Like I say, this was a classy
place. Anyway we're nearly finished...
Dessert was yaksik ('healthy snack'), apple slices, and tteok (rice
cakes filled with red bean paste). Or you could have had Raspberry
Ripple ice-cream with sprinkles.
And a nice cup of "OhMiCha" to finish.
OhMiCha means five flavour tea, not sure if I can remember all five
flavours but I think it's sweet, sour, salty, Bashful and Jermaine.
A cracking meal I'm sure you'll agree- the place was called "용수산" -
42,000 won for the set meal, (21- 22 quid) and booze is the same price
as anyway else in Seoul (6,000 for a bottle of soju, 4,500 for a beer).
Which really begs the question, why have I never been to one of these
classy type Korean joints before?
Happy Birthday Eonmi!
03 November
There are two running themes on this site, photos of paper cups, and
write-ups of Meena's leaving parties. Meena, my Thai friend, is heading
back to the land of banana leaves and elephants on Saturday, and this
time she swears it's for the last time (people just can't stay away
from Korea you know). To celebrate we went to Insadong and ate a whole
table full of stuff at a restaurant we've visited before, then drank
Wild Raspberry wine (a drink so sour it makes you close one eye when
you swallow it) before catching cabs to Itaewon for beer and general
delights.
Meena licking cream from SaeJin's
chopsticks (what?)
These were hung up in the restuarant,
you press rice cakes in them to make nice patterns
Easy tiger!
"Hasta La victoria siempre!" and
"Hana pitcher to ju sae yo!"
The highlight of my evening was finally getting in one place all of
the people in Seoul who come from my home town, Doncaster. The path
leading to this photo was long and winding- I know Stuart (far right)
from back in the day when his Mum used to run a scout troop with my
other mate's Mum (rock and roll!).
Andy (in the dodgy yellow t-shirt) met my Dad in a swimming pool, Dad
overheard him talking about Korea stopped swimming and said "My son is in Korea, he has a website.."
- and the rest is history.
Doc (left) is a friend of someone I met in Japan, and living proof that
being born in Donny is a lifelong ticket to a social scene that others
can only view with their noses pressed upon the glass.
Have a safe trip Meena, no doubt we'll see you again soon!
02 November
Just in case yesterday's entry left a nasty taste in your mouth,
I've decided to go classy today and post some photos I took on
Sunday. Since I bought a film camera, turned 27 and lost another 10% of
my hair, riding around town on my bike stopping to take snaps whenever
I see something cool seems like a great way to spend a day. In another
6 months I think I'll be ready to spend Sunday morning 'antiquing'
after a hard Saturday night organising my pieces of string collection
by length.
 
Between my house and City Hall is a road lined with trees that runs
past a couple of theatres and what I presume (by the armed guards stood
outside the gates) are embassies- although I suppose they could be
supervillains' hideouts.
It's a nice place to be on an autumn afternoon, especially as there
was a little cultural festival going on with traditional drummers and a
blind choir. The salvation army had a few stalls set up selling various
stuff including these little porcelain masks, handpainted kites, and
basketballs for a bargain 5,000 won (2.50quid)- I was tempted until I
remembered I'd have to carry the ball around all day, and I have
never actually played basketball.
Whilst I was taking photos of the stalls, a group of people walked
past staging some kind of protest- some people are funny about having
their photo taken so I was kind of reticent, but when I got the camera
out one guy actually stopped to pose with his sign
I know what you're thinking "Blimey
that bloke is bad at maths", but I've just looked it up and
마음 means something like mind / spirit / heart.
So the sign says something like "The
mind's eye also is an eye".
Since the protest was actually about blind-awareness, that's quite the
poetic slogan. Nice job sign fella, no wonder you looked so pleased
with it!
On this street I also met a whole family of people who read my site
(except the kids)- Bryce and Mary from the United States of USA.
A lovely couple, Mary told me that I'm more attractive in person than
online so if either the french girl from "The Beach" or the blonde
newlywed in "Love Actually" has been reading this site (and
statistically surely at least one of you has) then the answer to your
question is "Yes, I should
email James for some light flirting/marriage".
01 November
Some weekends take a couple of days to really process in your mind,
this one being a prime example.
On Friday I went for a very classy meal and cappuccino with a young
lady, and was on my way home when I realised the night was still young
and I could meet Jon and American Mark for a cheeky spritzer.
Well I arrive at the bar and American Mark seems somewhat
distracted, his eyes are a little glassy and as he shakes my hand I
feel like I'm touching the clammy hand of a zombie. At first I was
perplexed as to why he seemed this way, however all became clear when
he grabbed the bowl of onion rings on the table and coughed up a load
of sick into it. Mark was ruinously hammered.
Jon came back from the bar, clutching what has to be the world's
most unnecessary Wrong Island Ice Tea for Mark and well,
long-story-short, the onion ring bowl was used several more times until
it was full to the brim.
By this time the people at the tables close to ours had noticed the
state of Mark and their cries of indignation amused him no end, to the
point where he decided it would be a good idea if he drank from the bowl. I could barely
watch, but Jon was on hand with the camera - if you really really want to see the rest of the
photos of this, click here and here. Happy Halloween.
Moving onwards and upwards we then hit Tin Pan Alley and then Q-Vo;
the Korean club playing American hip-hop with a queue outside like a
Russian McDonalds. It was packed to the rafters, so full that the door
staff were forming human chains and forcing everyone further into the
club- Japanese subway style- so that they could charge more people to
get in. Maybe I'm getting old but my idea of a good time is not having
my face pressed into the sweaty vest of a guy from LA as I try to hold
onto a 5,000 won bottle of Hite Prime, listening to Puff Daddy's "I'll
Be Missing You"- when the doorstaff started telling me off for taking
photos, me and Jon decided enough was enough and took off, leaving Mark
last seen clambering his way up the iron balcony to get into the VIP
section.
 
Finding a much quieter place nearby, I ended up getting pretty drunk
with Jon on a Korean version of sake and heading off home after a long
night of debauchery.
Things weren't finished there though as at 5am I got a call that
there was a problem at work, and could I go into the airport offices to
fix it? Turning up at 6am stinking of drink and smoke I hooked myself
up to a Coca-Cola and Coffee IV and fixed the problem before collapsing
in the office bunk bed until midday on Saturday.
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