Everyday Ecstasy and Agony

Someone posted on facebook that Korea's hills mean ups and downs, ups and downs. In truth, this was no doubt a reference to the whole North Korea carry on. In fairness, I'm not going to talk about that anymore (for now). Don't I have remarkable enough ups and downs in my own daily life? Well, of course I do. Take today, for example. Zee and Jimbo both post the amazing news that Iron Maiden will be coming to Korea on March 10th and TICKETS ARE ON SALE!! Cue sudden excitement, searching of websites, frenetic calling of Ji and Jim, booking of tickets and.... ecstasy!!! Soon after though, the seeping disappointment of reality. March 10th. Thursday night. I'll be teaching. All hopes dashed in a moment. Even worse, as I teach that night, thinking of everyone witnessing one of the few real 'must see' rock (let's not argue over the genre) bands still plugging away at it, I know I'm going to be a grumpy old sod knowing I could be in a much better place. With that and Placebo's recent cancellation here, I'm due a bit of luck on the live music front.

Speaking of which, Ji is at the first round of the Rocky Mountain Tavern Battle of the Bands tonight. I, on the other hand, am being boring. I haven't exactly had a hard day. Studied for a few hours (draft Literature Review deadline looming), had my language exchange (NaRa showing the patience of a saint as I stumble through the same rubbish I've been stumbling over for the past couple of months) and had very easy classes tonight. Lee Hyori is at the Uni tonight hosting some kind of student Pop Idol-type thing so most of the students didn't appear to class. And why would they? As a result, I spent the first class yapping and the second class playing card games with them. Stressful stuff. Still, watching the battle didn't seem so tempting.
A. I have to get some study done in the morning before rehearsal.
B. I'm not a big fan of watching other live bands in Seoul. Nor can I do so without comparing them to us and thinking about it all WAY too much.
C. I'm not a judge. I'd have loved to have been a judge...

Here I am, so, sat in blogging on a Friday night, listening to Mayo and Kermode's strangely entertaining pretentiousness, going over lyrics a few more times before tomorrow, secretly hoping someone suggests a few beers in Suyu...

A short word on the recently neglected FC Seoul. Jeonbuk edged out Asian Champions Seongnam 1-0 to take the fourth and final Asian Champion's League spot for Korea and book a play-off semi-final fixture away to long-term league-leaders Jeju United (let's not forget that FC Seoul were top when it counted). The winner of that fixture this weekend will face a two-legged Championship decider against the mighty Seoul. Annoyingly, my 'volunteer' TOEIC study supervision is December 1st at 7pm - probably the kick-off for the first leg. I say 'volunteer' because we don't actually 'volunteer' to do it. We have to. I might try to UNvolunteer myself, but I doubt very much that that will be entertained. In reality, I'll probably be watching it on my phone and hoping they just work away and don't interrupt the tension. C'mon FC Seoul! It turns out that we're losing three players to military service very soon, two of which will be Kim Chi Woo and (my personal favourite) Choi Hyo Jin. We do have one or two returning, but it's a blow nonetheless. All the more reason to cap off a brilliant season by securing the Championship. Roll on December 5th...

Tomorrow night we'll be heading to a new microbrewery near Haebangchon for Julia's leaving party and then hopefully dragging people over to Woodstock (willing or otherwise) for our two-hour set at Woodstock, Itaewon. It's not everyone's cup of tea but I love gigging at Woodstock. Woo loves us, we love Woo. It works. There's a fair chance that the equipment will feck up at some point and I can GUARANTEE that my mic will shock me at least a couple of dozen times, but there'll more than likely be a good, music-loving crowd, nicely intoxicated and up for a bit of rock n' roll. Bring it on.

Really enjoyed catching up with Gary (Pot) on skype earlier for a bit, living out his dream in Melbourne and all the very best of luck to him. I'm going to stick 'contact [insert name here]' to my daily 'to do' list from Monday. I've barely spoken to Rob, Kev or John since they left Korea and I have fallen ridiculously badly out of touch with friends back home, in England, in Argentina... One call a day starting next week. It's time to start appearing offline people!