Lived through another day in the life. Started with the Wednesday Walkers group hike, assuming three participants constitute a “group.” Still, we had a nice hot climb up the Great Wall of Barretto on a beautiful day. Pictures at the end of this post.
In dart league, we faced off with the second-place team in a match that would determine the league champion. We lost 9-4. I played sloppy darts and lost at least one game I should have won, but even so, the final outcome would have been the same. Bottom line, they are the better team and earned their victory. Congrats to the Alley Wildcats team.
After darts, I went to It Doesn’t Matter. They were having a memorial gathering for the recently deceased JR.
Bob said JR would have loved this. Mission accomplished!
There is still a lot of controversy surrounding the manner of JR’s death. The official autopsy results have not been released. The consensus of the expat community is that this wasn’t a suicide. I’m not convinced either way. If the rumors are true that he had other knife wounds, then I’m going with murder. The embassy and a veteran’s group here are also involved in finding answers and representing JR’s interests. I’ll update when additional information becomes available.
It was a very long day of drinking, having started at 1:00 p.m. for darts. I somehow made it until 8:30, then headed home to sleep it all off. Woke up this morning to a brand new day, and I’ll make the most of it.
To the pictures from the Wednesday Walkers hike then:
Stick around to find out what happens next!
Sorry about the darts loss, but at least your team got second place.
I didn’t realize there’d been mention of other knife wounds on JR. That definitely changes things. I’d say I’m leaning more toward murder than suicide, assuming the other wounds are real. I’m still not convinced a suicidal person would go out by slitting his own throat. Painful and messy. Driving a knife upward into your brain would be quicker if you don’t have access to a gun.
Namsan’s cable car used to have a really bad reputation for unreliability, and I think the car fell and tumbled down the mountainside once or twice. I’ve ridden the thing exactly once, and I felt nervous the entire time.
Oh, yeah: at the beginning of my most recent 60K walk I saw, along the Han, a group of runners that included one very hot-looking young lady… except that her shoulders were a little over-broad. The word “bakla” popped into my head unbidden. She looked, otherwise, like just your type! She was also super-tanned for a Korean.
Yeah, something doesn’t smell right for sure. The widow wanted an almost immediate cremation, and the police tried to deem it a suicide from day 1. JR’s best friend was able to get some outside eyes looking at this, and at least there was an autopsy. Everyone is awaiting the results, and the delay in releasing them is also suspicious. Hopefully, justice will prevail.
I rode that cable car several times and always enjoyed it, but yeah, you can’t help thinking about the “what ifs.” Of course, I never knew about those previous crashes you mentioned, so my ignorance was bliss.
Your Tagalog vocabulary is nearly equal to mine! I usually don’t have any problem identifying a bakla–the broad shoulders and exaggerated female walk are giveaways. Now, a friend of mine is dating a bakla and thinks she is a real girl. I asked what makes you think she is a woman? He said, “I don’t know, I can just feel it inside of me…” Joke lang.