Surreality

The old blogging has died down a bit, hasn't it? I would love to say that this is because I have been incredibly productive and busy with other things but - that would be a lie... I haven't really been on it at all recently but I'm definitely not still in the murky depths of a couple of weeks ago. That wasn't fun at all. So to recap on life of late: I did indeed get offered the English job with Dipont Education at Nanjing Foreign Language High School in China. It looks like a really attractive deal, will involve prepping very high level students for A-Levels and SATs with a view to studying abroad; usually in the UK or US (although the UK is looking a lot tougher as a destination for foreign students these days). It's international education, secondary level, a good benefits package, not too far from Korea for visits, and it has opportunities for progression within the company. I need a few crucial questions answered but, at this point in time, it looks a better option than Cairo English School or anything else than has been in the offing. I'm hoping to get it all sorted out soon so that I can focus on my dissertation again, which has taken a back seat in recent weeks. Departure from Korea in August looking very, very likely now.

St. Patrick's Day started off with a very late poker night last Wednesday, Irish trad session with Tommy and a few others at Shamrock n' Roll on Thursday, Friday night gig following on from the fantastic 'Fotla' at Club FF's 'Go Green' party, a brief visit to the Irish festival in Insadong on Saturday before our gig at RMT that night. Around 6-ish I started getting calls and texts going on about something to do with Slash and his band being in Seoul for a gig this weekend and possibly being around RMT that night. I was too tired and busy getting into the spirit of the day to really think about it. As it turned out, his drummer, Brent Fitz, was there when we arrived. The band were introduced to him on our break, and he asked to come up and do a couple of numbers! Having said he could play "anything", there then ensued a pretty funny "not that one" saga before we agreed that we'd call him up for 'Paint It Black'. Jim was incredibly cool about it, because he is a great person, to put it simply.

The gig was scrappy (technical hitches, drunkenness abounded, energy was low) but no-one seemed to mind or notice. The atmosphere was great (we always get a good crowd at RMT, no matter what), and we were enjoying ourselves. A few co-workers were there, which was very nice of them, but made me a bit paranoid. I don't think I'm exactly their favorite co-worker and being on-stage is just asking for judgement and condemnation. Still - something you have to get over if you choose to be in a band! When the time came to call Brent up, I wasn't at all sure what to say. Cheese it up? Play it cool? Make a big deal of it? I probably did some kind of awkward mixture of the three. He was a cool guy and it was very, very hard not to just forget the words and stare at him as he played. It's the first time any of us had played with a professional, touring musician (although all that kinda stuff is old hat to Jimbo). He wound up staying on for 'Otherside' as well and threw a few really nice compliments our way as he went off. Definitely something for the grandkids, even though I think a lot of the crowd barely noticed. It was cool for us though. Very.

He actually got a few of us on the guest-list for the show the next day, but I was absolutely sapped when I woke up on Sunday, so I gave it a miss. Watched Chunnam V FC Seoul on the telly but I'm not going to start on that one right now. Have been playing catch up in a lot of ways this week but really on top of my classes, and feeling as though I'm on the verge of becoming a fully-functional human being again soon! Gig at Woodstock coming up this weekend. Bearing last week in mind, you never know what the night will bring...