Stuck in Korea

Gifts for Santa from the children to date:

• 1 kilo of hastily folded paper that looks like it was salvaged from the bin.
• 2 rubber pencil grip thingies
• a paper flower. This ought to qualify in the first category, but it stands out as having had a wee bit more time and effort put into it. Also, it actually looks like something.
• 10 snowflakes (those ones where you fold the paper and viciously attack it with scissors hoping that it'll hold together when you unfold it)
• 3 elastic bands (one broken)
• a blob of play-dough
• a dead fly

A dead fly. If I was Santa (and the kids believe I'll be inheriting that title from my father in a few years time) I would shit in their stockings.

Enough. The Yuletide season is upon us, and hopefully I'll have a flight to Thailand on Christmas Day sorted out by next week. Plus it's warmed up a wee bit again.

Also, this weekend saw the brief return of Ash, the all-dancing, all-drinking daddy of Sokcho. Sadly he's based over near Seoul but it was good to see him again. There aren't enough drinkers in this town for my liking, so the prospect of the occasional visit from Ash makes my heart leap with joy and my liver writhe in agony. You have to respect a man who can keep drinking long after the sun has risen.