JANUARY
Mum goes back to London about a week into January, and I just crack on with work and study. It's a bit of a forgettable month, but at least I get to spend increasingly more time at home where I not only study but discover LOST, the greatest TV show on earth, and the two of us watch all of Season 1 in 5 days. At one point we even discover Jerome crawling around humming the theme tune to it.
Here's Martha, doing a meaninful smile a couple of days before she takes off out of here.
FEBRUARY
Short month and not cold at all. In my month off I juggle study with a spell teaching a camp at In Je University, in Gimhae. It was interesting, and good for money, but of course meant extending the old study for another month. Still, met a splendid Aussie chap called Jason who then went and disappeared off the radar all year long ~ probably killing himself working, like everyone else.
Laura Pearson leaves Pusan, sadly. Went out for a good long drink to say goodbye. Of course, if we were all working half as much, we would have been famous friends, instead of office-mates at Dong-A that mostly just fly past each other half the time.
Start teaching LOST to privates, which sparks a year-long stream of privates leading to privates, all sitting there talking about LOST for great money. Not a bad way to supplement your income. By the end of the year there is NOTHING I don't know about that show.
Here is Jerome playing with my mouse. You turn your back for a SECOND!
MARCH
Work on my MEd assignment all month, hand it in at the death, and get a B, as usual. Again, if I had more time, what I could do..
The football's on again, but Real Busan's deserved and hard-worked revival is thwarted from within as our new goalie Jordan is a serial non-turner-upper. Lost us games, man, that we should have won. The team is really solid too, from top to bottom; well, almost.
Here is me in the street in Nampo-dong with Gabo and Jackie, back in Korea for a week after at least two years away. Great to see each other ~ the presence of Jerome running around served as notice of how much time we'd spent in Pusan.
Eun Jung and I had just been to VIPS ~ to celebrate 10 years together!
APRIL
Super Real Busan win a lot but no goalie = DMZ unbelievably manage to pip us to the title and take it for a 3rd time. Disappointing, seeing as we'd out-gunned them so obviously the game they beat us 4-3 with four bullshit goals and that is a title right there!
Went to Fukuoka with Eun Jung and Jerome. It was OK but a baby makes a city-break holiday another thing altogether, 'cause you walk past all the bars, restaurants & what have you but you can't go in ~ so close to the fruit but you can't even taste it!. Still, good enough. Nice to walk around such a nice city in the spring, thinking and talking, albeit just IN THE DAYTIME. Good all the same. You find yourself like that. Buying CDs, chit-chatting, walking around Ohorikoen, thinking aloud, with a good few days to spare, you get to think, talk, and not get disturbed by either commuting or work. Or even just meet people. Travel is so amazing.
Start teaching IELTS and working harder than ever now ~ nonsense living, I call this.
MAY
Harder than ever, as I say. Pretty much working all hours nowadays, you should see me ~ the unclaimed human. He IS work itself. No, nothing else except work.
Actually I say that but there was the odd night drinking microbrews in Seomyeon with this one and that one. Coming home in the taxi up Sanbokdoro, looking down over the mountain lights, a bit pissed, listening to Universe & U by KT Tunstall on the old MP3, a surprisingly good song.. Not ALL bad then.
Except this here Sunday in the sun down in Jangnim ~ Real play in this big tournament but get cheated off the face of the earth by a string of sickening reffing calls in favour of the Koreans, openly partizan ~ couldn't get a shot on goal against inferior opponents 'cause the refs kept calling us offside. There's a cloud over Real Busan...
But at least Jerome enjoyed the day.
JUNE
Same old shit as last month. My name is John. I work-a-lot. I half kill myself, but at least I have a laugh along the way; there's one guy in my IELTS class called Brian who allows me to creatively take the piss out of his un-Koreanly large nose almost every time ~ if I forget, he even reminds me to come up with another line. The best was telling the story, with pictures on the board, of how I saw a brass plate for sale in Gukje Market the other day with PRIDE OF PUSAN written on it and a big, embossed picture of Brian's nose in the middle of it. Marvellous. You can look at him during every lull in class and go SUGAR, over-pronounced like the way Koreans say it: shoo-gaa, and he vibrates with glee. Ah yes. A bit of fun, but all the same I also wonder how to ever get off this treadmill. Will I ever? Will I 'eck!
Oh, the World Cup came and went. England were eerily disappointing, despite having a crop of top players and looking so poised for success. In the end, Italy win it with the best TEAM and show of togetherness against adversity ~ delighted for 'em. It also put right what went wrong for them during the Debacle of 2002. Four times, now..
We discover the newly revamped Songdo Beach. It's really nice. You can get right into the water, and its warm, nice, and blue. Here's Jerome, having fun.
After a series of conversations with Gino, he quits Real Busan to form Busan United, with whoever will join. I get behind his project, and quit Real myself, sensing an opportunity to relinquish the running of a footy team after 4 years at the reigns, neatly between the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Behind a chink in the curtain I can glimpse, what is it? My life again? Big names jump in, such as Mike, Sebaldo & Marcelo. Soon enough almost everyone is in, including five names from PSV, just not the new boss's least favourite people . Busan United are now clearly the greatest foreign team Pusan has ever seen, and will win every single game they play for another year, so great is this powerhouse. Not too popular though with anyone else though ~ the rest of the league are annoyed, as the balance of power is now greatly effed, as is the league ~ three teams, in DMZ, Inter and United, and one very sick man, PSV, who will not last.
JULY
Work-work-work then STOP ~ buy a FUJITSU laptop (quite nice) and plan to head off the the UK ~ PHEW!
Busan United win their first three games, including a biggie v DMZ, which signals to anyone half asleep that a giant has hit the scene. Looking along the bench though at the stars that can't get much gametime either, I decide to call it a day already, as ten minutes of footy in a day in Yangsan is not going to beat raising your baby on your only day off. No hard feelings, but got to be done.
I love the break. Swing by Tokyo on the way (pictured left, the view from Starbucks at Sinjuku), which of course I loved. Popped into HMV and bought everything by FREE TEMPO, who are permanently on my MP3 these days.
Once in London, go and see the Laligagas, who are even better now ~ pretty excellent, except my jetlag, "the pub without air", and a heatwave didn't really make the drinking much fun ~ the UK has no idea what to do when it gets hot.
Also went and saw Spurs v Inter. Not that great, but Spurs won 2-1 thanks to two Tainio goals, and look good for this season with the new signings. Stayed in Tony's house after, went down his local, played darts, drank, good.
Squeezed in a party too, James Taylor whisking his amazingly young girlfriend down to Truro. Saw plenty of folk there, which was a bonus.
AUGUST
In the UK then. It's been three full years since I was back, and since then, this here War on Terror has got in everyone's face. The flight back for example was a nightmare of over-security ~ police with rifles at the airport, passengers not allowed to take ANYTHING onto the plane..
Went for a walk around some old places. Here is Clapton Pond, covered in whatever that green stuff is.
London (and the UK) is swarming with more foreigners than even before. The newest wave is from Eastern Europe. Ukraininans, Czechs, Poles, all over the place. At one point, on a visit to Dan and Stepanka in Brighton, I noticed that apart from me & Dan, every single person in the pub was Czech..
I'm on a good course at International House every day ~ TRAINING THE TRAINER. Interesting.
What I remember otherwise from the three weeks back was times with Crawford, Maria; going to Spurs v Real Sociedad with Michael; a top night in London with Steve Pashley & later on Jim; and that trip to Brighton to see Dan.
Oh, and Mum too.
Back in Korea ~ why did I leave it three years? Never again will I stay away that long.
Series of angry e-mails off Gino for quitting his team. What you going to do?
SEPTEMBER
Go to Seoul twice, one of which was Bruno Civera's leaving Korea party. Still teaching IELTS & getting deeper into it. The new Doctor Who is on Korean telly. The weather is lovely but I'm still running all over the place on a mission to earn some dosh. That's about it from me.
On the left, you can see a little printing shop in Daegu..
OCTOBER
Went to PIFF again ~ always a pleasure, Pusan at its best. Good films, for once. Talking of watching things on a screen instead of living your real life, LOST is back, Season 3 is on now, and it's the highlight of our week, such is our anti-social life of work, study and baby-raising.
Here I am in Juwangsan with Barney and Damien, at the very top. We enjoyed it ~ this is travel. Up there, and then a long night of hardcore drinking in Daegu. Makes you wonder why in the world we all don't travel a bit more, such fun it is.
NOVEMBER
We decide to move house ~ from Sanbokdoro (pictured left) to LG Metro City, the biggest apartment complex in Korea ~ and so nice it is too. Goodbye to our rubbish apartment we stayed way too long at. To think: Eun Jung and I lived 3 years and 8 months up that mountain! The new place is really good, although you pay for it most of all with the punishing commute to work, which I suspect I'll never get used to.
Liking teaching the old IELTS in the evenings, even if it is way, way underpaid. There's a nice gang in my class anyway.
Went to Seoul again briefly. Had a small house party.
DECEMBER
Here I am at Eun Jung's art exhibition at Busan MOMA ~ splendid location, can't beat it.
Other than that, not too much. Still working hard of course. Lots of IELTSing, although that's going a bit blah these days, as all the fun students have moved on.
Had a pretty nice Xmas night party ~ us, plus Cindy, Barney, Tim, Gyeong-Yoon, probably some others but I'm effed if I can remember, as we all drank a vat of wine each.
Eun Jung's mum took Jerome to Daegu for a whole week during the show. Wise? Time will tell. Probably the experience will psychologically scar him for life.