Today's view

On my way to Seoul for the week. Try not to bathe me in nuclear hellfire while I’m there, dear Americans.

XOXO

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Rail! High speed rail everywhere!

Except in North America.

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Hey, Australian trains are underfunded archaic slow crap as well…

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We’re all one big unhappy family.

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This is MOS Burger’s Namban Chicken burger. It has made me want to go back to Miyazaki for real Chicken Namban

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Breathtaking view of the lettering aisle at Michael’s.

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orsp

Now that’s just dirty!

This is more like “yesterday evening’s view” on my walk back from the bus terminal after getting back from work. Which I took because the heat at night has cooled down to a refreshing 26 degrees. Cellphone photos.

Like much of small town everywhere, Gunsan is filled with dead dreams.

On the upside, there are plenty of dreams left to replace them.

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Brush Farm yesterday.

Gully forest strains the light- and focus-adjusting capabilities of my phone to breaking point.

No more fox worries for the native critters:

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The first time I went to Korea, I felt weirdly at home. It took me a while to figure out but I realised after a while that it feels like if the shitty bits of London (where I grew up) and the shitty bits of Japan (where I lived at the time) had babies, the offspring would be Seoul.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Korea but it’s weird as all hell. Amazing food, some great people, the weirdest museums on the face of the planet, the worst architecture in the world.

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There is something about the English speaking world. I think it comes of originally being run by aristocrats with the attitude of “I’m all right, Jack”.*
East Prussia, which was run by the Junkers, another aristocracy was also an underfunded crap country. At least when the Russians invaded it on their way to Berlin they couldn’t make a lot of it significantly worse.
I think there’s a pattern here.

*Mark Twain on his travels noted the utter fustercluckedness of trains in Australia and New Zealand too. I don’t know about New Zealand today but someone once said to me that the only way to get on a reliable and punctual train in Australia was to be a lump of ore.

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Excellent public transportation though.

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Friends gave me a day at their beach house on the central coast. I got a sunburn and some much needed, uninterrupted, thinking time. I think my dissertation might finally be coming together!

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Off to get late morning coffee

Off to get tomorrow’s breakfast

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Working at the sand mines again.

Wildflowers all over the place. They’re out early this year.

Ran into one of these little dudes, too:

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Awrr yeh. Best part of the chilly months in Korea is back.

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A few day’s worth:

Mornings on the harbour

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That used to be a meth lab down there, until the bikies got high and decided to blast a new driveway up the cliff. They drew a bit too much attention with that.

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These almost-dead small skeletal trees are Homolanthus populifolus, the vines on the ground are Stephania japonica. They’re both good Oz natives.

The reason why the trees are almost dead is because, until I got to them today, they were completely smothered in the vines.

They should all recover, which will help hold the slope together and shade out the invasive weeds.

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Under two months left in South Korea. Assuming the boss doesn’t bribe me to stay until March since no one wants to come to the ass end of Jeollabuk-do. If he does I’m going to try and force someone else to do the Jeonju job because getting there is a huge pain.

Random river system in Jeonju.

Random tiger carving on random water fountain in a random small park in Gunsan.

Waiting for the bus. In B&W cuz it’s classy and not because the sky was blown out.

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Sand mines again.

Friendly little dude.

Translocation zone; scrape the topsoil and seedbank from an area that will be mined, use it to make a new forest in a bit we’re restoring.

Wildflowers are not easy to photograph on a windy day.

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My view is not especially majestic, comparatively, except for the toe floof. It’s amazing she can walk on hard floors without sliding around.

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83 degrees today in southern Maine!

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