Home again, home again

What a joy to see Tim come out of his little room this morning. I'd been awake for hours! Breakfast! Both had showers in The Bathroom - competition to see who could make the most mess! Tim won as the shower leapt out of his hand and snaked across the floor. Aigu! Aigu! was the cry. The boy has remembered some Korean!

Our first breakfast! Jolly Tesco gets everywhere!

So we boarded the subway and off we went to meet the Yunes. What a lovely time we had with them. They took us to a rather nice buffet where I majored on the raw fish and Tim majored on everything! Great food. Then off to a coffee shop to meet David who used to manage the Ramada here in Seoul but now has a chain of coffee shops. Seems he is a coffee missionary of sorts ... so we drank some of his wares and reminisced about the days of yore.

Friends mean food!

Chung Hyeon church was once a striking landmark modelled on Cologne Cathedral. Today it's surrounded and crowded in by impressive development on every side. But still a great building. This is where we lived our lives church-wise: makes Borrowdale seem a little small, don't you think?

Chung Hyeon Church swamped by the recently developed neighbourhood

A Mr. Kwak let us inside, suitably impressed by our connections with the place. Terry once preached in the pulpit, I sang in one of the choirs and did simultaneous translation for a few weeks. God's grace sufficient for all things you see. He was touched by Tim's homecoming and return to his "koyang" (hometown).

Some sanctuary

And so to Changmi Apartments and our home for 8 years. How the trees have grown, as has the car population. No. 7 is still standing tall and proud. We managed to get in touch with the current occupant of our old apartment - it's either exactly the same as when we lived there or much smaller than remembered, depending on which one of us you ask.

Block 7

Hangang Park, a patch of green running along the the south bank of the Han River, is a quick and easy five minute walk from the apartment. There is a classic picture of the Pye clan sitting on the jungle gym but today it was looking a little forlorn and underused, perhaps waiting for a reunion.

Where we used to play

Bridge of sighs

On the other side of the apartments from the park is the Chamshil Shopping Centre: an absolute goldmine for things such as off-brand Lego, ABBA records/Paul SImon tapes and Airfix models (the model shop seemingly being the only survivor of the last twenty years). Steve and Tim have a not-so-fond memory of being chased from the Shopping Centre back to the apartment by a Korean kid: Steve pedalling as quickly as possible while Tim was riding pillion and urging his big brother to pedal a little faster if possible. No sign of said Korean boy today though.

The scene of childhood shopping