And finally..or as they say in Korean - majimakero

And so we say.......

My son is not here to correct my spellings or the lay out so if this last section is substandard then he has signed a disclaimer in advance. It is 4.45 a..m. and I think they call it jet lag but I have had enough of lying sleepless in bed. We are at a conference. Terry met us at Gatwick where Tim and I had an emotional farewell (well I was emotional at least!). Never get off an aeroplane after 24 hours of travelling and come straight to a conference of 200 people - unless you can help it of course which I couldn't. It's alright. They are all  missionaries so I'm amongst friends even if I have no idea who they all are! As for Tim, he went off to be welcomed home by just one very special person.

So what of our last day in Seoul?  I went to report the need to mend the broken door and Tim did a little tour of the neighbourhood, This was our nearest restaurant and significant because its speciality dish is ---. I can't even bring myself to say the word and we didn't eat there or I would never have been able to face Rover. But later in the market we did see two skinned and very frozen four legged friends in a freezer! But hey! The lambs in our garden (who have gone back to the farm in my absence but of whom I was very fond) may well end up in a stew somewhere. One cannot be too sentimental unless of course one has a persoanl relationship - like me and Rover

The restaurant

So off we set for one final ride on the metro to an older part of Seoul. We had managed to shake off invitations and were on our own. However the phone continued to ring and there were more people who couldn't believe I was there in Korea and now I was leaving and we hadn't met. I was sorry too, so not too far into the future, we will have to go back.

those chillies get everywhere

And of course so do the churches. The church in Korea continues to grow with mega churches more mega. I did think there seemed to be few smaller churches. When we lived here, theological students had to plant a church as part of their training so you would sometimes get six little churches on different floors of the same building.  I thought there were fewer red  neon crosses at night but maybe that's just because the city has continued to grow at such a pace that the churches have been rather swamped and dwarfed.

a city church?

Being with Tim for two weeks, and he with me, inevitably meant that we discovered significant things about one another and here is one..... the focus should be on the little white van!

Tim's dream car apparently!

This one's for Steve and Liz who both went to Korean kindergarten and can even still sing the song and  still have their little yellow tops and lunch boxes!

kindergarten outing

We weren't just wandering aimlessly. We had a mission! Stainless steel bowls in which to make cold summer noodles or our joint favourite bibimpap!

Korean kitchenware stall

Yes, they knew of the bowls and a woman was dispatched to fetch them. We think she went to buy them from somewhere else but she only charged us what she paid!

waiting for the bowls

As we all know once you have found what you are looking for you find more and more and more....

many many bowls

many many gloves to wash bowls

What is life without kimchi and soon Korean women everywhere will be laying it in for the winter. Tim makes excellent kimchi by the way and so do I even if I do say so myself! It's a very laborious process so many modern Korean women buy it ready made. It accompanies every meal. In the old days the kimchi for the winter was storied in large earthenware pots buried in the garden but if you've been noticing the apartments of Seoul, you will realise that there are no gardens for storage

garlic for kimchi

cabbages for kimchi

red pepper for kimchi

little dried fish and whatnot

paste and red pepper

Tim doesn't eat chicken and I must say seeing all these bits and pieces including piles of feet, and watching them being rapidly dismembered made me want to join him. If you are a vegetarian then wandering through a traditional Korean market is probably not the place for you.

bits of chicken

fish without chips

so you like calamari?

how about seaweed?

soya sauce, oil and red pepper paste

And after all is said and done, and you've eaten all the above and maybe not feeling wonderful, there is always hanyak or Chinese medicine. We found lots of stalls like these with the makings though not the secret recipes. Talking of which when I lived in Korea, I had a spell of cardiac arrhythmia. One morning some friends came with two small boxes in each of which resided a rather large round object wrapped in gold paper which I was assured was edible. These rather marvellous pills were for my heart. When our friends had gone we read the papers accompanying the pills, and discovered that not only were they good for the heart, but for every other ailment known to mankind. We still have the pills which cost a lot of money saving them for when we are about about to pop off. If we have time at that last moment we are each going to swallow one and see what happens!

makings of Chinese medicine

We packed and cleaned and waited for a final visit from a friend who got held up in the traffic so we were late catching the bus to the airport. Our plane flew at midnight and we arrived clutching our final Korean won to spend it on bits and bobs for family and friends but the airport shops shut at ten. Indeed some things we had deliberately left till then which all goes to show! Thwarted at the last, waiting to board the airbus homewards' we ate the very large dumplings (mandu) Dr Kim had thrust into our hands at the bus stop . And so we made our way home, me struggling with a rather heavy cold I might say.

Thanks so much for travelling with us. The number of hits have made the blog worthwhile and gives us a record of a marvellous two weeks back in the Land of the Morning Calm where one Timothy Mark Pye was born on November 25 1978. In the immortal words of both the American General and the Lord Jesus Christ...we will return! To all our Korean friends whose love and generosity and welcome made our time so amazing we say................

 "Tetanhi kamsahamnida. Sarang hamnida. Annyong hi keisipsio. Najungae manapshida"

our last meal in Korea