Anyone that’s in the know has found out that Josh has gone
home. For his own personal reasons he has decided to bring his Korean adventure
to an end and head home back to Bedford. This was strange for me, since
arriving in Korea I was welcomed by Josh, James, and Susie and settled into
life very quickly. A little over 3 months later and James and Josh have both
departed, as it happened Susie was busy this weekend so I had my first weekend
without any of them. I felt like Heather Mills, something was missing.
In all honesty I didn’t think Josh would go although maybe
it’s a good thing that he’s gone. In the absence of James and Josh I might
learn some more Korean and it’s likely I’ll meet some new (hopefully more
interesting) friends. C’est la vie. “I hope you ready for the next episode.
Heyyeyyeyay!...”
Anyway, I went to watch White Lies with Angie during the
week. They’re an English rock band but I’d never heard of them. We arrived at
the venue and they didn’t serve beer. Yeah that’s right, they didn’t have beer
at a music gig, mental. Standing in the crowd I felt very old. I’m only 24 but
felt 44. I had come straight from work so I was dressed in work attire. I
looked at the young people around me and they were wearing vests and baseball
caps backwards and I was dressed like a teacher, jumper over the shirt look. I
didn’t know any of the songs. I was holding both of our coats, and as my sober
mind wandered I started to look around at the venue and I had the most boring
thought ever known to man; “isn’t the brickwork lovely?” I mean the brickwork
was delightful, but Christ! Could I get any more boring?
Watching a gig in Korea was different to any that I have
been to back in the UK. No beer, no moshing, no cups of piss being thrown. If there was a
suggestions box at the venue I’d have suggested “more piss, please.” One other
thing that annoyed me about the gig was the bassist. He was sweating throughout
the gig but he never removed his beanie hat, I needed to have a word with him. Having
said all of that, the band weren’t bad and I had a good time.
We took a trip to Gyeongbokgung Palace on Saturday and it
was very interesting. I went with Karl and managed to time it well enough to
get to the palace for the English guided tour, we had 20 minutes to kill but
our boredom took over. We went off exploring around the palace grounds on our
own. I managed to piece it all together anyway, that building was the king’s
throne room, that one was his bedroom with en suite, that was his walk-in
wardrobe, that one was his games room, and that one was his kitchen with
adjacent conservatory. A nice place, I wouldn’t buy it though, too many
tourists and with a place that big people would be expecting to stay over all
the time.
We saw the changing of the guards, a bit of a drawn out
occasion.
The guard were dressed in traditional apparel, they went a little far with the dodgy stick on beards though.
After we went to Itaewon to a sports bar, a big weekend of
football for both Karl and I. Chelsea vs. Arsenal and Derby vs. Nottingham
Forest. Unsurprisingly the bar opted for the Chelsea vs. Arsenal game. To be
honest, it didn’t really matter which game they put on, both teams got
hammered. This was another game that I’ve watched Arsenal lose since leaving
the UK. I noticed this pattern a few weeks back, I haven’t seen Arsenal win a
game live on TV since leaving the UK back in November.
This is a list of Arsenal games I’ve watched live since
leaving the UK:
11th December, 2013 – Napoli 2-0 Arsenal
14th December, 2013 – Man City 6-3 Arsenal
23rd December, 2013 – Arsenal 0-0 Chelsea
8th February, 2014 – Liverpool 5-1 Arsenal
12th February, 2014 – Arsenal 0-0 Man Utd
19th February, 2014 – Arsenal 0-2 Bayern Munich
8th March, 2014 – Arsenal 4-1 Everton*
22nd March, 2014 – Chelsea 6-0 Arsenal
* I watched the first 60 minutes of the game before leaving
the pub while the score was 1-1.
The best 2 results I’ve seen have been two 0-0 draws. A
depressing 4 months, I can tell you! I even went to “support” Seoul FC in their
opening game of the new season and guess what? They lost as well!
8th March, 2014 – Seoul FC 0-1 Jeonnam Dragons
I’m hoping that the next few Arsenal games are an
improvement; we’ve got an important cup game coming up soon. Maybe I
shouldn’t watch it? Probably for the best.
