Memories of a first pitch

My Busan Giants baseball shirt. Currently covering a terrible painting that I did as a teenager (I am not being modest, it is really terrible).

Bur it reminds me of that time back in 2008

When I went to my first baseball game, met the team, coach, and threw the first pitch.

It was a good memory to be fair. Better than the ugly painting.

Beware the non-sour sour Skittles!

As a sugar addict being in Korea was a blessing and a curse at the same time. Most of the sweets and chocolate, cookies, cupcakes, flapjacks, brownies, cakes etc. that I used to snack on in England were either absent or tasteless replicas in Seoul. 

I thought the cakes were generally kinda tasteless, and bread was always sweet. Of course if you wanted to spend big bucks and go to a specialist bakery it was possible, but I don't think you should have to pay through the nose for a loaf that isn't sweet tasting, when as far as I knew bread wasn't supposed to be sweet and cakes weren't supposed to be bland. Koreans often commented when eating cake with me, "oh.. this is too sweet" and I often wanted to point out that, as a cake covered in chocolate, it is supposed to be sweet, however I just put it down to cultural difference and held my tongue. 

Cupcakes were the biggest fail there, even cupcakes from shops that were dedicated to only making cupcakes. If I went to the right places and searched enough I could find really great bread, cheesecakes were almost always delicious, brownies were great, but cupcakes were always terrible, without fail, no matter how pretty they looked, or how expensive they were. There were cupcakes that looked really fluffy and well made, and every time I bought one I felt like I was cheated into buying something tasteless.

I really liked Korean snacks though, with rice cake (떡) being one of my favourites, 

and in the summer ice-flakes topped with fruit and sweets, sometimes nuts and cereal (삥수) was a nice snack, especially if the ice was flavoured. Bingsu also often contained rice cake although the toppings varied from place to place.

Cafe bene's bingsu

Found this bingsu in a google search and now I really want one.

That aside, I noticed a difference in one of my favourite sweets; 'Skittles'. 

Anyone who is serious about E numbers and sugar knows the really good Skittles are the sour ones. 

But when I bought sour Skittles overseas I noticed they have a sour coating but the actual Skittle isn't sour at all! What a con!

"Sour Skittles"

"Skittles Crazy Sours"

The lack of my favourite sweets etc. also probably contributed to the huge loss of weight I experienced when I first moved abroad, and was not a terrible thing. However now I am surrounded with all these treats again can I hold back?

Where can I find bingsu in London......??  (ㅡㅂㅡ)/

Chopstick Through Eye Prevention Agents (CTEPA)

Being back in country after so long, I inevitably have to find a new job and earn an income as I don't want to be at my parent's house for any longer than absolutely necessary. Looking for jobs in London, especially in what I want to do, is a soul destroying and often mind numbing experience.

But with help I have managed to stay sane, and prevent myself from removing my brain through my eyes, using the chopsticks I just ate my 라면 (Korean instant noodles) with....

Chopstick through eye prevention agent 1:

Shinichi Osawa (formerly Mondo Grosso), changed his name and style, and I like what he changed to. 

I saw him on this night when he played Club Volume in Seoul where I may or may not have been working.

Here are a just two of his songs, I tried to show you two that are different in style, because he has a range of different styles for every mood. And if you don't like the song there are angry bears shooting stuff so you can't complain.

Chopstick through eye prevention agent 2: 

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

I was away for so long that I totally missed these guys, as anything non top 40 rarely filters through to Korea, the land of K-pop, and K-pop, AND...... if you're bored of K-pop, K-pop covers of perfectly decent songs.. But that is totally different post. These guys seem to be chill.. And I like to mix my up's with my downs.

More chilled than Shinichi but not a snooze fest so I can stay awake long enough to read the same job descriptions for different jobs over and over again... >.<

Chopstick through eye prevention agent 3:

Nosaj Thing

While I knew one or two of his songs I really hadn't taken the time to look for more as my Melon search brought up a total of 1 track, and after that effort I lost focus and gave up on my search. It was a great track, (a remix of The XX's, of whom I am also now a fan, song 'Islands') so a little later on I remembered that I should do a search for more of his stuff. Kinda pissed at Melon for denying me such a great artist, with Korean heritage too! But  now I am in a country of more musical diversity I will be able to get his stuff more easily.

Wise words on the last video;

Max Crane 1 year ago

Listen with a subwoofer and reap the bassy rewards!

When I get my PS3 from Korea (poor baby is travelling alone) I look forward to playing games and getting blazed drinking tea to this.

So I would like to thank the agents above for helping me keep my eyeballs intact as REED and Jobs.ac.uk tag team raging on my sanity.

L