This is a bit of a catch-up post. The year has flown by at such a mean rate, nearly done in already. In-between the World Cup and my dad’s passing a bunch of stuff happened and since then another bunch as well.

My youngest sister Mandy lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and her oldest son, Timothy, got married in July so I decided to go. It’s about a ten hour flight from Seoul to Vancouver and then a few to Edmonton. The flight in was on a nice clear day and the splendid Canadian scenery was on splendid display. Suffice it to say that Vancouver is one of the places I could see myself living, all the elements I need are there, mountains, water, snow, scenic city, etc. Edmonton is nice too but too bloody flat. We grew up on a farm in the North Eastern Freestate mountains so they are ingrained into us a bit. I can see that  my sis Mandy likes to escape the Edmonton flatness to the Rockies every now and then, my visit being one of them excuses to do so. Needless to say their majesty is splendid.

When I arrived the guys said ‘We are having Timothy’s stag party tomorrow’, ok, I thought, interesting, always a reason for a good party but their idea of a stag party was a bit different, a day shooting clay pigeons and an array of other death inflicting devices. Did I mention Mandy is married to a minister and Timothy has just completed his ministry training too. It started reminding me of Texas, having had a Texan on a few of my recent projects who was forever extolling the virtues of different types of weaponry and George Bush. The connection got even stronger when all the participants started arriving in various 4 wheel drive vehicular variants non which had an engine capacity of less than 4 litres, keeping in mind that back home we have two 1.6 litre VWs. While we were driving to the shooting range I remarked that Canadians drive the same big vehicles and shoot the same big guns as Texans and the only difference was that Canadians could not vote for George Bush. ‘And if we could we would!’ blurted out the driver, stroking the barrel of his 12 gauge shotgun lovingly while he depressed the accelerator a bit and the big V8 roared in approval. Welcome to Texan Canada! The shooting was fun though. Timothy, the geek, did not keep his head far enough from the scope of a hunting rifle and got a deepish gash between the eyes which had to be doctored up and covered in makeup for the wedding. The wedding was cool, poor Timothy managing to survive till then as he received an endless stream of abuse from myself and his dad’s brother who was there too. It was a nice trip.

After that it was back to work. We have an interesting gang of expats on the project. There are two Texans, another American lady who grew up in China and is Chinese and happens to live in Texas too, an American Chinese guy whose family originate from Taiwan, A Malaysian Chinese now living in Australia and a Pakistani guy living out of Australia too and a Pilipino guy as well as myself from Nam-Africa. It makes very non-cosmopolitan Korea a bit more interesting. We hang out a bit together. It’s interesting to see the foreign Asian component’s perspective and impressions of Seoul. They are in-between, foreign but still passable as local Koreans. They love their Asian foods and therefore much more adventurous at trying various Korean foods. My Korean diet has expanded quite a bit on my first project’s here before.

About a month after my dad passed away I went home for a week on a flyback. It was nice to be back again as I last was home when I left in April, having used up a work sponsored flyback to go to Canada of which I only have fond memories. There are lots of disadvantages associated with working away from home so one has to work the advantages real hard and the major one is the travel and exploration side. This I have nearly neglected a bit apart from some major trips but weekend getaways can make a huge difference to one’s psyche. Throughout the hot humid summer days we tended to stay indoors and get out at night and I regret that a bit, should have headed for the beaches. I suppose after a year of scuba diving in Indonesia and exploring islands the Korean beaches seemed a bit bland. The onset of autumn and winter has made us get out more often. A few weekends ago we rented a SUV and drove up to Chuncheon, a town in the North East on a bit of a lake and famous for dakgalbi, a spicy chicken and veg stirfry. We enjoyed the mountains. The Sunday afternoon traffic back into Seoul was hectic, I now know why I have overheard Koreans referring to the expressways as parking lots.

Two weekends ago I booked a trip to Tokyo just to get away a bit. I have two Korean friends from a previous project working and studying there as well. I stayed in a hotel in Daiba, one of the islands in the Tokyo harbour. The trip was most enjoyable. I walked my feet to stumps on Saturday, exploring various areas of the city. Japanese and Korean culture has a lot of similarities but I found Tokyo very different, perhaps as it has had more Western exposure. Along with Vancouver it gets classified as a city I could live in.

Last weekend we caught the train to Suwon, just south of Seoul, to go and explore Hwaseong, the old Korean fortress in the city. It is a world heritage site and well worth the visit. There is an old palace and about 5 kilomtres worth of old fortress walls to explore. http://eng.suwon.ne.kr/sub_frame.asp?parent_id=sub_04_01&page_id=sub_04_01&root_id=sub_main4 Travel is easy, there is a subway to Suwon from Seoul but we preferred the comfortable regular train just as a treat. Outside the new station is an Information booth with excellent maps and they can give directions, a short bus or taxi ride away, taxi is preferable, me thinks. A very worthwhile day trip from Seoul, I must add. The autumn leaves blended lovely with the very impressive old walls, a pity about the pretty drab Suwon surroundings resplendent with the regulation spread of standard Korean apartment blocks. I think an architect in the sixties or so drew up a plan for an apartment block, got it rubber stamped by the Korean government, was then shot as a North Korean spy and since then all the blocks have been built off this plan. The old style Korean building looks so lovely and full of ancient character, why don’t they design new ones to have similar looks? I love the intricate roof designs.

So that brings me up to date with the present, more or less. My mom has been going through a tough mental time since my dad passed away and we are all concerned about her but she is receiving some good treatment. I do think about my dad a bit. He was so larger than life, always cracking jokes about stuff and just commenting on life and things. At one stage I could just imagine him rumbling down the ramparts of Hwaseong and staring over the Korean plains around it. It’s strange that one can anticipate his passing as we did, due to his illness, but yet it can still leave such a huge void.