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20260102

Buster

Buster went back for another visit to the animal hospital. They've backed off on "It's terminal" to "This guy might actually live." We don't have a follow-up appointment, although I should probably check him in next month or something.

20251229

Around

I thought that said "PORN."

Also, Paul's back, but only for a short time.

20251228

HBC

Just a few photos from around the neighbourhood.

20251227

The Host Vs. the Nazis

This year for the annual trip up The Host Tunnel, we discovered some changes. No longer were we dealing with only Hosts, now we also have to contend with subterreanean neo-Nazis.

We came prepared, and Seoul's topside should be safe for another year, but I think we may need more aggressive anti-Nazi measures for next year.

For this trip, there were nine of us, and only two had gone down there before, so I'm hopeful that our cause is growing.

20251227

Hilto

While I was running around in the morning preparing for The Host, I took the time to stop by the mountainside park to photograph the Hilto at its current height. No, that reddish building isn't the Hilto. Although I've heard it will go next.

20251224

Christmas

I worked through the holiday, and on Christmas Eve two of my coworkers stuck around with me and we went out for barbecue in Namdaemun. I have to admit, I'm impressed with the selection of restaurants in Namdaemun. Decent quality, authentic, not expensive, like the old days.

The place I wanted to go to, which I'd visited and photographed two times before, seems to be gone, possibly toppled by its neighbour, but there were other places.

20251221

Biggie's and Dialogue

A few revelations spread over a couple days:

1. Biggie's is open. It's a pretty casual sports bar, and has a lot of growing left to do, but hopefully it finds a good enough customer base. I have met both owners before, and I have faith in them: he operates the Hallal Guys franchise here, and she's a realtor who has helped me out.

2. Dialogue now has a food menu. I showed up while there was a big delegation from Sauce, and while they kind of laughed off Dialogue having meat pies, I have to look closer.

20251220

Farewell

My long-lost distant cousin Jill and her husband, my brother-in-law Pete, are moving back to Scotland, so I showed up at Sauce for a farewell party.

It was the second of three parties over the weekend.

20251219

RAS Korea Year-End Party

TJ Kim's bookstore in Yeonhui-dong hosted RAS Korea's year-end party. Apparently he took on the surplus load of Transactions books when RAS Korea closed its office. I was also curious about his collection of maps, which included some rare and original maps.

Apparently one of the women there turned out to be Moon Jae-in's daughter, but I wasn't introduced to her or told about her presence until right after she left.

20251219

Buster

The vet told us that Buster's kidney condition has gone from "terminal" to "recovering." What a difference a couple million won makes?

20251218

Whoops

Just three random signs seen around my office.

20251217

Itaewon Observatory

This thing went pretty quickly from construction site to tourist destination, or whatever it's supposed to be. As I was nosing around, I saw a good number of other people giving an appreciative look.

I don't yet have an opinion on this thing, and it might come down to how many millions of dollars were spent.

20251216

Biggie's

Our first concrete sign that something is happening to the former grocery store at the curve in Sinheung-ro. The sign "Biggie's" is up.

20251215

Homeless Memorial

We got an article about the situation facing homeless people in Seoul.

On my way to work, I was able to spot them on the front steps of Seoul Station, so I stopped by. In the end, we didn't need any photos I took, because the ones supplied were pretty decent.

20251214

Buster

Time for the little guy.

20251213

Uplift Open Stage

I went to Uplift's open stage event, which had some pretty high-quality talent.

20251213

Hannam New Town

It was a rainy day, and rather than go home and dry off, I went over to this rooftop to get photos of the ruins of Hannam New Town. I had visited a few days earlier, but this time I came back with my DSLR.

20251213

Hongdae Playground

So they rebuilt Hongdae Playground, and rather than just making it a more comfortable place for people to hang out, they added these locked booths where I guess artists can enter to work on their art. It's now a wide open space, and they added more space to sit around by removing some of the wilderness to the downhill part of the park, but I have a feeling they've only scared away more people.

They should have made this place the terminus of the Daejang-Hongdae Line.

20251212

Vineworks

I went to Vineworks, which has since my last visit moved to Gyeongnidan. It seems like they might have locations throughout the city now. I also learned about some other new restaurants in the area, and ran into other people working in the media industry.

20251212

Hannam New Town

Here's my view of Hannam New Town's demolition from the eastern side, on a good roof.

20251211

Night Shift

Just a few photos from the night shift.

20251210

Hannam New Town

This is when I came back to this reliable roof with my DSLR.

20251210

Hilto

Here's a look at the Hilto's demolition, and demolition of something else.

20251210

Catnip Apocalypse

I've been trying not to conserve my cat supplies as much as before. Buster deserves as much catnip and as many Greenies as he can get his paws on, in whatever time he has left. Which seems to be growing.

20251209

Itaewon Observatory

I went by that construction hoarding toting all these Yongsan attractions, so that I could photograph the HBC one, but during this visit it made me extra curious about whatever Itaewon Observatory was. I've studied up and I was confident on what it was, but things I didn't know included why, and how much it cost.

20251209

HBC

Just a few scenes around the neighbourhood.

20251208

Robin Kenson

I received a visit from a couple friends, who I hadn't seen since before Section 31.

20251207

Uplift

After a few people told me that Uplift was making great sandwiches, I somewhat doubtfully ended up there to see for myself. It ended up becoming a Restaurant of the Week.

20251206

Pyeongtaek

I stopped by Pyeongtaek, and almost all of I photographed was the area around the station.

20251205

Hannam New Town

I realised quite quickly that if I were to get over to this rooftop, I might get a really interesting view of Hannam New Town under a coat of snow. And yes, I kind of got that, but it could be more snowy. Will keep an eye out.

20251203

RAS Korea

There was a big seminar at Soongsil University, which was also an RAS Korea event. After a couple of hours of speeches, there was wine and hidden beer, plus Spam sushi, and then we were shown to the RAS Korea's new library location. I think a lot of members are cautious about this arrangement, and certainly a big problem is that you have to go up a lot of stairs to get there. So we'll see. Ideally the library would come back to RAS Korea after better arrangements are made including office space, but realistically I'm not sure how or where that could happen.

20251203

"Hawaiian" "Pizza"

I went through with the "Hawaiian" "Pizza." It was bad enough that I couldn't finish it.

20251202

Australian Ambassador

The Australian ambassador gave a talk for RAS Korea, which Matt later wrote about.

20251130

Night Shift

Just a few photos from around the office on a typical night shift.

20251130

HBC CU

A look at some of the foods available at the CU. One of these, I got 50 FB "friends" to dare me to eat it. They didn't all respond within my given deadline, but they did shortly after, so I bought the thing in question and saved it for a few days later.

20251129

Miari Texas

For my final stop on this northeastern Seoul tour, I stopped by Miari Texas, which has been widely reported to be totally closed and beginning demolition. Minus, uh... "As of this month, 111 of the 115 establishments have relocated. Three of the four remaining sites have agreed to move out by year-end, leaving only one business."

20251129

Gongneung-dong

After Kelly's, I drove around a bit more, found Hoi Polloi, and encountered a train cafe, plus a way into actual train infrastructure.

20251129

Kelly's Pub

I stopped by Kelly's in Gongneung-dong to take more photos of the place.

20251129

Cats

On my way out of the moon village, I ran into a little group of three cats. All of them are at least partly orange, so they may be related. One was extremely friendly, and the other two didn't trust humans. Especially oddly, Coetzer swears he ran into the exact same friendly cat inside Baeksa about three years ago. I've seen his picture, and it's hard to rule out the possibility that they are the same cat. But that's pretty old for a nondomestic cat in Korea, let alone one that still likes humans.

20251129

Moonscaped Moon Village

I returned to Baeksa Village, which is about 90% demolished. Also, the roof where I used to go to get photos of the area is now locked off. Fortunately, I was able to find a way into the demolished village, and soon I was walking across a moonscape. There were still some buildings left. I also encountered a lot of stray cats, fortunately mostly outside the zone.

20251129

Day Off

I had a day off, so I decided to drive to the northeast.

20251128

Whouse

On the way home from the American Chuseok party, I passed by an abandoned building I'd been eyeing for a few weeks, and I went for it.

20251128

American Chuseok

The Moseses had an American Chuseok party, so I showed up. I brought Korean carrots and a few other west Asian products.

20251127

HBC

A few photos in HBC, including these images showing more graffiti on the We Seoul'd U wall.

20251127

Buster

Buster returned to the hospital for a half-day of testing.

20251126

Commute

Just a bunch of pictures mostly on the roads around my daily routine.

20251125

Catnip

Buster survived, and it was time for him to get high on catnip to celebrate.

20251123

Signal Mannequin

I took a few photos of signal mannequins in order to post images on FB.

20251122

Hannam New Town

While exploring western Seoul, I remembered I should check in on Hannam New Town and try to get photos of the area undergoing demolition in golden hour/blue hour conditions.

20251122

Western Seoul

After checking in on Buster who has been hospitalised, I set off across a tour of western Seoul visiting various sites.

20251121

Jungnim-dong

On the way home from the vet, I stopped in Jungnim-dong, where I'd been observing advances in destroying the area. Although I'd been focusing on one side of the area before, this time I went in under another blanket, and entered into an alley full of old Hanoks converted into restaurants, as well as a church.