The game of life is hard to play

Well. It looks like I've finally made it through the week, and tomorrow I head off for 2 weeks in South Korea. Naturally, as is the way of these things, I had to cram 3 weeks work into one week, and I am now completely knackered. Still. I made it. All I have to do now is pack, and then collapse into bed (oh, and charge up the iPod).

The main purpose of the visit is to attend the wedding of my elder brother and his lovely Korean wife.... yes, his wife - they actually got married in the UK in August last year (legally in a registry office, and then they exchanged vows again a few days later in a ceremony for family and friends in my mum and dad's garden, so this is their third go at it). Family is very important in Korea though, and weddings are a public display of status, so it's very important for the bride's family to have a traditional Korean ceremony. To reflect the social position of the father of the bride (he's a lawyer), there will be several hundred guests. My mum and dad have already been fitted out with traditional Korean costume, and will be expected to stand in the line up and meet all of the guests, which will apparently take a couple of hours..... I have no such official role, but have already been warned that as I am both western and about a foot and a half taller than the average Korean, that everyone will make a bee-line for me and start talking to me, even though they know I won't understand them. Time for a lot of deep breaths, a few strategic bows, smiles and nods and plenty of wine....

It should be ace.

After the wedding stuff, our hosts are going to take great pride in showing us some of their lovely country. We will be based in Seoul, but we apparently have trips lined up to:

• The Demilitarized Zone
• Namsan
• Insadong
• various palaces
• mountains
  
• temples
• historic old cities
  
• etc. (I'm a little vague on the details as basically this is all I know)
  

We'll also be in Seoul for Buddha's birthday, when apparently there is a lantern parade through the streets.

Sounds brilliant, no? Can you think of a better way of discovering a new country? I'll be taking my camera, and I reserve the right to bore you all silly with it when I get back.....

I'm travelling out with my family tomorrow - probably for the first time since we all piled into the back of a small family car in about 1989 to head off for Eurocamp in Brittany. I'm hoping that this time around there will be fewer arguments about whether we get to listen to "Five Go Down to the Sea", "Asterix the Gladiator" or "The Sign of Four"....

Look after yourselves kids....I'll be back before you know it.

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You might notice I haven't done any earworms this week... no? ah.

Well, I just ran out of time, I'm afraid. I'm not sure it's a good thing to own up to, but the tune I've had buzzing around my head most over the last couple of weeks is "The Bad Touch" by the Bloodhound Gang. Hmmm. My number one this week though, if you're interested, would be "monkey gone to heaven" by the Pixies, as I've had 'Doolittle' on in the car this week. Now there's an album.

I'm shattered. Time for bed.