First of all, my apologies to those who kept coming back and found no new postings for quite a while. I never thought I would be saying this, but I was busy!!! Really really busy - attending meetings, delivering trainings, customer visits, etc..
In addition, I have this individual(s) who takes on different names placing seemingly innocent comments with links to pornographic sites. To that person(s) - FUCK YOU!!. I will continue to reject your comments.
The last time I was in Korea, I landed at Kimpo airport and that was about than 10 years ago. This time, i landed at Incheon airport and it was so FAR from Seoul. My trip did not get off to a good start. My flight from KL was delayed a couple of hours, resulting in me missing my connection at HK (I flew Cathay Pacific). At HK, CP offered to route all those Korean bound passengers to either Bangkok or Manila and hence to Incheon. Of course I rejected that!! You think I have not have enough travel on an airplane??Anyway, after a couple of hours, they managed to get me a seat on another CP flight to Incheon, landing after 10pm.
That's when it got worse for me- I had this throbbing pain at the base of my left big toe. I thought that I may have hit something in the plane. Next day it got worse, putting paid to my plans to visit DMZ. Damn!!! By Monday, I was hobbling to work. I had to politely decline the distributor's offer of a sumptuous seafood dinner and opted to see a doctor. It's GOUT, the doc declared. He gave me a 6 days supply of pain killers and something supposedly for gout. I went on a starvation diet, missing 5 dinners and 3 lunches during the first 7 days. By the end of the first week (7 days later), the swelling had subsided enough to enable me to walk almost normally (no more limping).
The second week, I relocated my work location to Suwon, our office. My counterpart made me offers which I found difficult to refuse - authentic Korean fare. To hell with my gout. I am going to enjoy the food in Korea while I can and get the gout fixed when I am back in KL. Can't say that I regret doing that. Food was great. You need to see that on my facebook.
For some strange reasons, my mind started to play tricks on me language wise.
Maybe it was because I had managed a team of Japanese for some time in the past,. I have this habit of saying - chotto matte - just a moment please. At least that's what it means in Japanese. NEVER, I repeat - NEVER say that in Korea. In Korean, it means - fuck you!! Jeez!! No wonder I get strange looks from the engineers of the first week.
In my room, I always had the TV on even as I was online, surfng the net. And every so often, I heard an ad for HAND COOKED Tyres. This caught my attention and I looked at the TV.. It was for Hankook tyres.
At least I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Despite the gout flare up.
Kamza Hamnida Sung Han
