Things Have Changed

Actually, I have changed. It’s now 5 years since I made beads and I really don’t know if I will go back to it. I still have all my equipment and glass but these days I seem to be a bit of a different person. Initially I thought that once everything had settled down again I would definitely go back to it. I rebuilt the shed at enormous expense and started to put everything back but I didn’t really have the desire to either finish setting it up or actually, even light my torch.

When it became clear mum had dementia I spent a lot of time trying to sort out carers, remotely organise appointments, do her shopping and mostly driving up and down the M6. One day while flicking through Netflix I chanced upon a Korean drama, Alchemy of Souls, and got sucked right in. I had no idea what kind of rabbit hole I was about to dive into. Alchemy of Souls is a fantasy drama and very beautiful visually, it was bright and shiny and the perfect distraction from the awfulness unfolding 300 miles north. I loved the sound of the spoken language but I couldn’t always match the English subtitles to what I thought was happening on the screen. I started to look at online language courses just because you know, enquiring minds and all that, I found Modu Korean which seemed like it would be a lot of fun. And it was, it still is.

Fast forward a few years…. Korean is an extremely difficult language to learn (for me anyway) I have been learning for about 3 years now and I’m still crap. But it drew me into the culture, the history, the places, people and stories. and honestly, I have become utterly enchanted by everything Korean. I promised myself that once I had mum’s affairs sorted I would go to Korea.

I spent a long time planning, I knew I didn’t want one of those hour by hour intineraries that many people seem to like. I wanted to wander about off the beaten track, find the restaurants where locals eat, cafes not besieged by Social Media Influencers. I really just wanted to find more of an authentic Korea, not the polished, photo ready version that many western tourists enjoy. Much to George’s dismay I also refused point blank to wear a Hanbok, either in or out of Gyeongbokgung Palace, that was never going to happen - 절대 안돼!

We left on Friday 8th May for nearly 4 weeks and had the very best time, but we didn’t even scratch the surface. We didn’t manage to get off the beaten track nearly as much as we wanted to because my meagre language skills were not up to the job, but we still absolutely loved it.

I really didn’t want to come home. I’m already planning my next trip. Now I have a better understanding of the lay of the land, I’m working hard on my Korean so the next time I can actually get around the way I want to.

So in the coming weeks I will be posting photos of our trip

Heathrow with luggage - It looks a lot but honestly the cases were pretty empty so I could brings back a ton of stuff… and I did!