Sunday afternoon found me on the familiar streets of Itaewon, albeit somewhat earlier than I normally arrive.  The occasion was a lunch meeting with the esteemed Kevin Kim of Big Hominid fame.  Kevin did a nice write up of Mannimals, our chosen dining venue to satiate our hunger for wood fired barbecue.  Go have a read about it, then hurry on back!.

As I awaited Kevin’s arrival at our designated meeting place (Hamilton Hotel) I heard some amplified shouting in what I assume was Arabic.  It had a familiar ring about it given the years I spent living in close proximity to the Seoul Mosque.  Sure enough, along came a mob parade of Muslim folk down the main drag of Itaewon.  As the car with the loudspeaker affixed to the roof approached, there was an announcement that the march was not a protest, rather it was all about honoring the Prophet on the occasion of his birthday.

Kevin did some research and found that Sunday was not in fact the recognized birthday of Mohammed. But there is no question that is what was being celebrated if the banner is to be believed.

Anyway, they all seemed peaceful enough.  My snarky comments above notwithstanding, I do try and be respectful of all faiths, but I truly do have issues with a religion that condones honor killings, stoning rape victims, and murdering homosexuals.  Maybe I’m just old fashioned that way.  And while I get the fact that not all Muslims hold such beliefs, a sizable percentage do if the recent Pew poll is to be believed. Regardless, I would have been much more receptive if this march was in protest of the heinous acts being perpetuated in the name Islam.  I was though surprised to see just how many Muslims were out in Itaewon, I reckon they numbered 200 or more, all adult males.  I guess the burka clad women-folk aren’t permitted to engage public displays of affection.

Anyway, after the meal we strolled out Haebangchon way and then said our farewells at the entrance to the Noksapyeong subway station.  It was still too early to quench my thirst at my regular watering hole (Shenanigans), so I meandered over to Dillinger’s which also was not as yet open for business.  Tried Seoul Pub unsuccessfully as well, before winding up a Scrooge Pub.

I’m far from a regular there, but the barkeep knew me by name which is always nice.  As I enjoyed a frosty mug of draft beer, one of the Filipinos who plays for Scrooge in dart league invited me up to the rooftop…

…where preparations for a celebration of the team’s championship were in full swing. And no Filipino gathering is complete without Lechon.

I didn’t stick around for the party (nor I suspect were any of the Muslim marchers in attendance) but the pig came out looking like this:

It’s finger pickin’ good I’d wager…

I got around to drinking some beers at Shenanigans before heading home.  Then drank some more there after work yesterday.  And that’s just about all I’ve managed to accomplish of late it seems.

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Apparently so.

Since my last post, I completed another work week more or less successfully, although nothing happened worthy of note.

I drank beers at Shenanigans Thursday, Friday, and last night.  Other than catching a buzz and chatting with friends and acquaintances, nothing else to say about those hours.

This afternoon I’ll be meeting up with the Big Hominid for lunch in Itaewon which should be fun.

Otherwise, I ain’t nothing but tired, I’m just tired and bored with myself.*

I reckon I need to man up and do something about that.

* Bruce Springsteen said it first.

It snowed today.

This was the scene that greeted me as I exited Samgakji station at 0700.

A tranquil scene on the Army base later that morning…

The storm seemed to peter out earlier than expected and left only a bare dusting of snow on the street.  The powers that be however  decreed that non-essential civilians would be released from duty at 1300.  Right about the time the sun broke through the clouds.  I took full advantage of mother nature’s windfall by hiking into Itaewon for lunch at Don Valley and then parking myself on a bar stool at Shenanigans.

All things considered, I’d call that a productive day.

…and winding it down.

The procrastinator’s nightmare is upon me.  One more day at work before I head out of the country for a couple of weeks.  Which means all those work projects I’ve been tasked with are coming due.  Made some pretty good progress today I suppose and I’ll put the pedal to the metal and hopefully depart with a clean desktop tomorrow afternoon.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I’d been pegged as a bigot for having the audacity to believe that maybe these ISIS fucks have some kind of religious motivation for their wanton acts of violence.  I defended myself with this article from The Atlantic that I believe makes a strong case for me being right.  It’s long, but well worth the read.  Especially if you want to get a glimpse into the minds of those who hold that we in the West must all submit or die.

Live free or die is my attitude.

Moving on to topics not so depressing, on Sunday we had the finals for the little singles league I host.

Handed out trophies to the top 3 finishers in each of our 3 divisions…

…and medals to those who earned them…

But the one I enjoyed handing out the most (and the one I expect was the most appreciated) was to our sportsman of the year, Do Hee. This gal came out week after week and got her cute butt kicked consistently. Never lost her smile or her enthusiasm either. It was her first time playing in a competitive dart league and if she keeps after it and maintains that positive attitude, she’s gonna be a good one.

Today I stole a few minutes to spend some money.  Actually, it was at lunch and after work that I did my shopping, but stealing time makes me sound like a real badass, right?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

…so I bought myself a present. A new laptop, a wireless mouse, and a contribution to the Bill Gates empire. As you can see, I haven’t been bothered to take it out of the box yet…

My buddy Dennis is safely back home in Cambodia, but before he left I honored him for Veteran’s Day with a trip out to Namiseom..  Regular readers might recall that I was there a couple of months ago with the wife.  She was ill and couldn’t make this trip though.

Dennis brought along his old friend Julie…

It wasn’t all that cold, but the fire was the pits anyway…

Sadly, it seemed the trees were dying of something…

While Dennis waits for the grill to heat up, Julie takes care of business. We had the famous Nami spiced chicken of course…

And finally, as important as Veteran’s day is we must also take note of the Korean “holiday” that takes place on 11/11 as well…Pepero Day!

Interestingly, I’m unable to upload the photos from that trip.  Guess it’s time to open that laptop box…

I don’t know, and I don’t care.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently.  Lots going on but nothing to blog about.  Which is no excuse.

A little stress at work, some out of town company, and a sick wife about sums it up.

I’ll elaborate soon, but now I must retreat to bed in deference to that 0530 alarm.

Thanks to Kevin and Nomad for reminding me that some folks expect me to remind them that things can always be worse.

I’ll be back soon!

The building has been cold all week.  In unrelated news, this was happening in my parking space:

It was eerier in person. Steam billowing right up out of the asphalt. I guess they sent a work crew out and shut it down because it disappeared by the end of the day…

My buddy Dennis is visiting from Cambodia.  Got him a base pass, cashed a couple of checks for him, fed him some barbecue at Linus’.  He then provided the evening’s entertainment at Shenanigans:

He’s gotten pretty damn adept on the old six string…

What else?  Well, it’s a damn good thing I don’t drink 2 Diet Cokes a day

I think I average around six. I must be invincible. Someone call Marvel and see if they are looking for a new Super Hero. Just call me Diet Coke Man.

Crazy busy at work.  Going to have to go in early in the morning to prepare for a meeting with the Chief of Staff.  Fun times!

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…has got to be better than All Hallows Eve.  At least in Itaewon.

This picture does not do justice to the crowds on every street and sidewalk shuffling forward at a zombie-like pace.

It was sheer madness on the streets and in the bars.  So, why was I there?  I had a dart match to make up in the afternoon (which I lost 14-2) and then I had scheduled a rendezvous for 6:30 with my old friend Dennis.  Dennis retired back in January and has been moving about various locales in Asia every since.  He’s been in Cambodia of late and now he has come back to Korea for a brief visit. He doesn’t own a lick of cold weather clothes however, so I brought along a sweater for him to wear.  And he did in fact look quite cold when he walked through the door and then donned the sweater without hesitation.

After a couple of drinks at Dolce Vita, we made our way ever so slowly through the jam packed streets (including the back alleys off the main drag) to Don Valley for some Korean food.  We both opted for a steaming bowl of bulgogi and rice, which did indeed hit the spot.

As we said our goodbyes for the night, I was happy that Don Valley is right around the corner from the subway station.  Still, I could barely move in the human gridlock and it took several minutes of pushing my way through before I reached the stairs leading to my escape from the madness of Itaewon.  Alas, the subway station was packed in a manner I had never seen in the decade I’ve been haunting Itaewon.  It was around 10;00 p.m. and people were still pouring into town, while a similar number of us were trying to flee.  It was pure chaos.  In fact, they had the station attendants waiving us through the turnstiles without swiping our fare cards in order to move the crowd along.  This proved to be a problem when I reached my destination because without an entrance swipe, your card doesn’t work at the exit point.  I tried three times without result, and then just pushed my way on through the turnstiles.  I really had to pee.

My bar owner friends had all told me that Halloween was their busiest night of the year.  I had no idea it would be so scary!

Talk about realistic. Today I participated in the Courageous Channel exercise (non-essential personnel evacuation drill) and immediately afterwards I got shot. Luckily, I was already at the base hospital. And it was a flu shot.

I was attacked in my sleep Thursday night. The battle raged from 0200-0300. I was unable to digest why it was happening and was in danger of being completely liquefied. I retreated from the bedroom and eventually purged the intruder. When I awoke a few hours later I found myself on more solid ground. I’m just glad the attack didn’t occur on the subway or I would have been in deep doo-doo.

Ahem.

What else?  Well, our Deputy Director is heading back to the states next week so I and some co-workers treated him to some adult beverages at Shenanigans in order to properly celebrate his departure.  He seemed to enjoy himself.  I managed to stay conscious for the bus ride home (and it was touch and go) before passing out on the bed immediately upon arrival.  Ah, those Friday nights in Itaewon.

Found this map of Columbia which will help me find my way around town during next month’s visit.

My neighborhood is off the page, just past the top right corner. Not sure what politically incorrect term I’d use to describe it, but it’s a pretty diverse collection of folks either just starting out or old fuckers like me just trying to get by…

If you missed Hillary’s testimony before the Benghazi committee, it went something like this:

We can’t handle the truth. Apparently.

I’d actually met him back in 2013 in Las Vegas. He’s a friend of a friend who was playing in big tournament there and he came to just hang out.  Didn’t know if he’d remember me, turns out he did.  So, that was kind of nice.

And that’s all she wrote.  Well, all I wrote anyway.  Till next time.

It looks like I will be spending Thanksgiving in what’s left of Columbia, SC.  I booked my flight with American Airlines this morning.  Getting there is going to be pretty sweet (well, defining sweet as the least amount of time as possible crammed into a couch seat) as we have a direct ICN-DFW flight.  Just over 17 hours with the connection to CAE.  The return is via Narita and will take 24 hours.  I’ll worry about that discomfort later.

I tried to book on United from work yesterday where I found an incredible fare of $980. For whatever reason the internet connection kept timing out when I tried to pay.  From home this morning the same flight was over $1100 and I couldn’t bring my self to pull the trigger. Instead I cashed in the miles I’ve accumulated on my credit card which paid for one $1300 American ticket and part of the other one.  So I’m one thousand bucks out of pocket for both tickets and not complaining (much).

In other news I beat my arch rival Vidal in darts last night 9-7 and I’m real happy about that.

ROKdrop shared this link to some photos of North Korean women.  I was struck by their natural beauty.  Just last night I was having a conversation with one of the bartenders at Shenanigans about how too many women in southern Korea engage in needless plastic surgery.  Her day job is writing for the fashion industry and she too was distressed about the trend of many Korean females to try and “westernize” their appearance.

There is just something about a traditional Korean look that trips my triggers. Or maybe I’m just old fashioned. Or old.

Speaking of old, as part of the above referenced conversation with the bartender we talked about getting older.  She’s all of 28 and already feeling like life is passing her by. Being 60 myself I found it difficult to muster much empathy.  I told her the worst part about being old for me was becoming invisible.  She didn’t get it of course, but what I meant was I’m surrounded by a sea of Korean beauty but to the young and attractive I may as well not exist.

In some countries I’m still a “hansome man”. Not so much in Korea.

In unrelated news, I awoke to the sound of thunder this morning.

Into each life some rain must fall.

And finally, there’s this:

I’ll put this in the category of things can always be worse…

Last night we wrapped up the Chuseok holiday celebration with a visit to my brother-in-law’s beer and chicken hof in Wolgok.

It’s the first time I’ve been there (he opened a couple of months ago. It’s a clean, well-lighted place. The chicken was tasty and the beer was cold…

The nephew joined us and we were the only miguks in the neighborhood, quite the change from Itaewon….

Justin was quite the hit with the extended Korean family as they enjoyed and appreciated his ability to speak Korean. I was glad he was there to provide interpretation so as not to be left out due to my ignorance.

And this was BEFORE I started drinking copious amounts of soju…

Yep, I shoulda stuck with beer.  I’m not sure how many bottles were consumed, but it proved to be too much.  The thing about soju is that it sneaks up on you.  I had no idea just how drunk I was until the taxi dropped us off at the abode.  As soon as I hit the bed, the room was spinning.  I got up to hit the bathroom and promptly lost my balance and went crashing into the dresser.  Except for a largish scratch on my back I got up relatively unscathed, and stumbled my way to the toilet.  Where I promptly deposited the undigested remnants of the fried chicken and pork I had earlier consumed.  Then I just laid on the bathroom floor to be near my new best friend.  I guess I passed out because Jee Yeun tells me I was in there for a couple of hours.

Anyway, I felt okay this morning and made it into work on time.  Seriously though, getting that wasted is ridiculous.  At least I didn’t embarrass myself until I was safely ensconced at the house.  Jee Yeun was not pleased of course and sternly told me “no more soju!” I’m certainly in no position to argue the point.  Lesson learned!

So, I celebrated Chuseok in the traditional way.  Stuck in traffic.  The in-laws live in Nowon, about 10 kms from our place.  Took one hour to get there.  And an hour and a half coming back.  I thought all the Koreans went to their ancestral homes in the countryside for the holiday?  Not this time.  Apparently.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the other blessings of Chuseok.

I recently concluded a major battle with my (now former) e-juice provider, Vaping Zone. They are located in my hometown of Columbia, SC and they’ve been my go-to source for supplies every since I overcame my cigarette addiction by becoming addicted to vapor.  I never had any problems with them whatsoever until the order I placed on 29 August for 10 bottles of juice and two new e-cigarettes.  The order came to $185. which included paying an extra ten bucks for Priority Mail shipping with insurance.  I normally receive such shipments in 3-5 days, so when two weeks had passed with no sign of my package I began to panic.  Literally.  I was perilously close to running out of juice, and as I mentioned above, I’m addicted.

I go to the Vaping Zone web page and look up my order which also includes the Priority Mail tracking number.  And when I entered that number in the USPS website it indicated that my order had been received by the Army Post Office on Yongsan on 11 September. So I gave the tracking number to our admin person who fetches the mail and asked her if she could have the postal folks find my package.  She came back and reported that my shipment had come without a name on the box (which is required since only SOFA personnel can use the APO) so it had been “returned”.

Damn!  I wrote a lengthy and kindly worded email to the support folks at Vaping Zone explaining the situation.  I recounted as to how I was in desperate need of more juice and asked them to please reship my order ASAP.  I awoke the next morning to a two line response saying “we always put a name on the shipment and if it is returned we will reship”.  This response was totally unresponsive to my needs and greatly pissed me off.

So, I sent another email telling them that.  I also pointed out that I had spent $800 dollars with their business this year and that I deserved better than a bullshit response that didn’t resolve my issue.  I noted that I had insured the package so it was on them to either re-ship my order and give me a refund.  Two days later “Amanda” in shipping emailed me that she had checked my order and confirmed my name was on the shipping label.  She also provided the tracking number to prove her point.  Except the tracking number was for an entirely different order!

I ended up bumming a bottle of juice from a vaping buddy to keep me from going into nicotine withdrawal and wrote again saying I wanted my shipment or a refund.  I pointed out that mistakes can happen and that is forgivable but their shoddy customer service was not. They still have not responded.  And so I set about finding me another supplier.

That turned out to be a Minnesota-based company called Vapes.  Although their selection of vaping oil is not as large, their prices were significantly cheaper.  So I ordered up 5 bottles and hoped they’d arrive before I depleted my borrowed juice.  They did.  And I was really surprised to find an extra bottle of liquid and a handwritten note that said “use coupon code ‘military 7’ for a discount.  I tossed in a freebie!  Thanks!”.  Wow.  I was gobsmacked to be treated like I mattered even though it was my very first order.  Suffice to say, I have found a new vaping home.

And oh yeah, they also threw in a bunch of these cool stickers. Can’t wait to decorate my car!

Epilogue:  I finally received my order from Vaping Zone, no thanks to Vaping Zone.  The admin person brought in a battered box that had been opened and resealed by the Post Office (I’m assuming the APO).  They apparently opened the package in order to retrieve a name.  Because as I had said and Vaping Zone denied, the shipment did not include one.  Sorry bastards.

Well, on the plus side I won’t be running out of supplies anytime soon now…