All the world's your oyster...

... or sea cucumber, or squid, or whatever else you care to pick out at the fish market.

Perking up

The past two days have been much more enjoyable. No longer have I been having mandatory fun; instead, we've been spending our time looking at fish, either live, in the aquarium, or nearing death, at the fish market.

Seoul'd out

The day started horrendously; bright light was streaming into the room, harsh enough that I had to wear sunglasses to navigate the route between bed and writing desk, and my girlfriend was being sick in the toilet from the comedy wine that she'd drunk in 7-11 the night before. After I'd finished my account of the night's travails, we staggered out to a taxi and sped over to the Holiday Inn, to meet up with everyone from the night before for a bus tour of Seoul.

Our tour guide introduced herself with a string of syllables I had no ability to remember, 'but you can call me Jenny' – a name that bore no resemblance to the Korean that it abbreviated. That's different to Hong Kong, where people also have an English name that bears no relation to their Chinese one, but while the Koreans have names that are recognisably English ones, half the people in Hong Kong have English names like 'Banana' or 'Centipede' or 'Laboured Stereotype About Another Culture'.

Hungover in Seoul

I woke today at 7am, feeling rough as a dog. The flight to Seoul was uneventful, and we'd got a bus into town with the minimum of fuss; it dropped us straight outside the Koreana Hotel where we are staying. Then we had about half an hour of fumbling around before my girlfriend's friends arrived, and then we headed out to 'a happening club'.

I don't go to 'happening' clubs. As far as I'm aware, nobody has been to 'a happening club' since the mid-1970s. The taxi spilled us all out into the street next to a police station. I know it's been a few years since I was a serious carouser, but I was sure this was the wrong way round. You went and got drunk first, then ended up at the police station. Did Seoul reverse the natural order of things?

Hong Kong - phooey!

I was worrying that nothing of any note had happened today. I had failed to read the paper, so perhaps many wonderful things were occurring around me, but I was as yet unawares.

So low had I got that I actually began to look through the drawers of my desk. I'm not sure what for, exactly. Certainly not inspiration. The main reason for having drawers in a desk is so you can sweep the accumulated mess into them when the occasion demands it.