036

[sxwza]

The boys came home to me watching Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and started watching it with me. To my surprise they didn't seem too creeped out by it, and watching it alongside them made the movie seem less frightening to me, too. It turned out to be great fun.

Reminded of The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, something I watched not too long ago that was beautiful and thought-provoking.

[sxwza]

Life lately

We now have: flight tickets to Manchester, the shape of our trip, our caravan and accommodations booked, (... a grand plan.) Need to figure out how to do this trip without any checked-in baggage.

[weandthecolor]

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[haverst]

Felt this to my core

[sxwza]

On the train home after a cold and rainy Monday at work (the weather is still relevant even though there are barely any windows in this ICU because I am so cold I actually shiver when its raining outside) and I have yet to unpack and water my thirsty plants and buy fruits home but I am thinking perhaps instead of trying to do Edinburgh and Perthshire along with Manchester, perhaps we should just take it my usual slow way and just spend our time seeing a bit of Wales and the lake and peak districts that week. I just wonder if the boys will be bored. Except who could be bored with walks, books to read and clear blue sky?

[sxwza]

Mountain range, Singapore

[sxwza]

Some thoughts on our flight home

Our boys have begun to travel like we do—carrying their own backpacks, taking charge of their things, learning to streamline what is needed, and not needed with the view of avoiding having check-in luggage unless really necessary. I was particularly grateful for the airport security staff who spoke to each of them in turn about their bags ('do you have a handphone, laptop, or iPad?') as they placed them in baskets before they passed through the bag scanner. That he didn't speak over their heads to ask us, their parents, directly, was important to me. I did laundry on two nights this trip but it was less because we needed clean clothes and more because I didn't want the stains to set—I brought a stain remover and used shampoo to get the stains out, but perhaps I'll bring detergent pods and a little brush next time.

I'd packed precisely what I had needed this trip, which is always satisfying for me, and it was definitely in no small part thanks to the weather being so agreeable.

I let go of my ten-year old Converses before we left our room. I have three other pairs of sneakers, but have always been partial to my Converses. I have gone through several pairs since being a teenager, and these particular ones have seen me through the past decade in which I became a wife and mother, and through this past year of intensive care medicine residency where I wore them almost everyday, even though the soles had all but lost their grip on the smooth hospital linoleum floors. Our last adventure was walking the 4.7km Igidae coastal path, and climbing up and over rocks during our spontaneous off-the-track detour (with me in a mini skirt, no less.) Truly the end of an era. Norman brought me to a Converse store at Shinsegae wanting to get me a new pair, but I couldn't bear the thought of simply replacing my weatherbeaten, yellowed, sewed-up ones. I don't see myself getting another pair of Converses anytime soon, and perhaps that's for the better. I might get more wear out of my other pairs of sneakers now.

I brought an old unread issue of apartamento along on this trip with me, one of the last few copies I had received when I was still on a subscription. I was too busy with work and home duties to read the magazine even biannually, and was racking up a backlog, so I cancelled my subscription maybe two years ago. I didn't have the time to read it at all, no surprise, from our days out and nights spent doing laundry and looking over our plan for the next day. But today I managed to read a little during our late breakfast, and now on the plane home (it's my turn to sit on my own while the boys sit with their father), the pleasure of reading my favourite magazine as returned, untouched by the years that have intervened, and anew.

One of the interviews was with Rose Wylie, a painter who is still working everyday, now, after her husband has passed away and her children have grown up and moved away. In it she is asked to reflect on the years she spent caring for her children—twenty-four years in all—in which she kept engaged with current work and discourse, and simply 'absorbed', but painted nothing for herself, until one day, she simply 'stopped reading and started doing' again, that is, painting. Twenty-four years sounds like such a long time to someone who has barely lived thirty six. It is a reminder that life is long and seasons are but seasons, and we might become friends with time by growing along with it, learning about ourselves, staying curious, paying attention, and keeping our friends.

I've finished reading #34!

[sxwza]

Last outfit photograph by Noah, that wraps six days in this gorgeous city.

Goodbye Busan, until we meet again~*

[sxwza]

Outfit photograph by Noah

Slept in a little, woke up to the boys watching football (our past few mornings), then made our way to Bosudongga for a late breakfast. Wandered around Bosu-dong book street and Gukje and Bupyeong market eating and making a couple of vintage finds. Recovered at Subing eating injeolmi and mango bingsu and playing poker.

Hotpot for dinner supper

[sxwza]

Outfit photographs by Noah and Norman today.

We went hiking at Geumjeongsan today, but not after we caught the first half of South Korea v. Mexico—it was fun watching the excitement of the supporters gathering in Seoul to watch the match outdoors. By the time we were at the Beomeosa temple it was drizzling. The weather was cool and serene and very, very foggy. We walked through clouds of fine mists, at times indistinguishable from the rain. We could barely see thirty metres ahead, and the peak was a little unnerving because of the limited visibility, but it was an experience walking in such weather. We pushed the boys quite hard, and after some tears and groaning they rallied wonderfully ('when I'm holding hands with mama I feel safe'.) We walked 1.6km from Beomeosa temple to the north gate, 2km up and down Godabong peak, 1.6km to the fourth watchtower, and another 1.6km down the mountain. I'm so proud of us. Dinner was Korean BBQ with Dr Raj the sweetest and kindest trauma surgeon and overall awesome human being.

+ hilariously, Ansel has discovered conditioner ('it makes everything soft')

We just got tickets to watch a Manchester Derby at Old Traffold in September!!!!!

[apoemaday]

Her Kind

by Anne Sexton

I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night; dreaming evil, I have done my hitch over the plain houses, light by light: lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind. A woman like that is not a woman, quite. I have been her kind.

I have found the warm caves in the woods, filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves, closets, silks, innumerable goods; fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves: whining, rearranging the disaligned. A woman like that is misunderstood. I have been her kind.

I have ridden in your cart, driver, waved my nude arms at villages going by, learning the last bright routes, survivor where your flames still bite my thigh and my ribs crack where your wheels wind. A woman like that is not ashamed to die. I have been her kind.

[sxwza]

Outfit photographs by Noah and Ansel today~~

Hytte Roastery for late breakfast — wandered around Jeonpo the rest of the day through very charming streets full of vintage shops and restaurants — boys and I had gyukatsu for lunch while Norm attended the conference, after which we all had mango bingsu, yoghurt drinks from a street vendor ajumma, and ice cream before our two dinners

[expressions-of-nature]

Mount Fuji, Japan by maruone

[nodovess]

a really good sewing box

[sxwza]

Dinner at Gozip and a walk, everyone was relaxed, for once. The antics we get up to sometimes

[sxwza]

Outfit photograph by Noah at Shinsegae Centum City.

Busan day two — it was a lovely cloudy morning at the Igidae coastal trail, all 4.7km of it; the boys were great walking companions and I thought a lot about being in flow, the investment of attention and effort, during the walk. Noah had a slow start but warmed up wonderfully, and we held hands and just talked during the last part of the walk. Ansel was the opposite and needed a bit of encouragement toward the end. After that we had a late lunch at Solsot Haeundae, a short stroll through Haeridan-gil street, I had a matcha and a superb rice sand for tea, and we bought ourselves boat shoes.

[sxwza]

Photograph of my outfit by Noah. My Converses are about ten years old and are sadly giving way some more despite my having had them stitched up last year.

Arrived in Busan this morning—post red eye flight. We spent the afternoon at the Gamcheon Cultural Village. It was fun away from the main street without the crowds, walking the little winding paths through the houses by ourselves.

Dinner was dwaejigukbap at Subyeon Choigo