The Black Watch

Helen has a sense for when things are going on so she was able to clue me in to Black Watch being at the National Theatre here.

I was asked if was interested. Naturally I said yes. (Me, turn down a trip to the theatre? Not very likely.)

 

Looking at the picture (that weirdly keeps unrotating itself) you can see the complimentary program we got that would have cost at the very least €12 at home.

 

 

The play is designed as an immersive experience so all the action take place on a space with the seats facing down on two opposite sides. It's a little rough (Every sentence has a fuck in it)  so not one for Granny I fear.

 

It was good, the acting was good, the settings atmospheric and it was very interesting. (The slow motion wire death was hella' surprising though.) There was lots of bangs and flashes to simulate gunfire and mortars and it worked quite well. They turned up the sound a little too loud at the end though.

 

 

On the other hand they didn't speak in a Scottish accent or dialect having cut out the 'dinnae' and other similar phrases but they kept them in the broadcast subtitles which we were a bit confused by. The non-English speakers would have been far more troubled by this. We wondered why it wasn't the other way round. It was still very good but the characters didn't really sound Scottish with the script so carefully excised. They sounded a bit too English.

 

The theatre had a shuttle but it was within walking distance of our subway station so we decided to walk. It was quite steep but the area was beautiful.

 



On the way home, Helen and I went to Insa-dong where we stopped for a euhm...random jam session.

We sat on the stools and picked up instruments and banged away. Helen has actually played drums but she was nice enough to let me try this big drum thing that I don't the name of but it was a lot like a bodhran.

An unexpected diversion.

Kyoto Tour - Todai-Ji and Nara

So when you hear of Nara, what do you think of? That's right!!

Well, Todai-ji temple is attached to Nara park with the famous deer that have not the least amount of fear. You can feed the deer with crackers but unfortunately Nara was in the grips of the Typhoon so even though thw wind was not too bad the entire day was pretty much like this.

Seriously though, we did get to see some of the deer. There are signs up warning everyone that while they are pretty amenable to a pat and some cookies they are not tame deer and have been known to bite.

The breed is Sika deer and the males I saw had their antlers removed (For which I am quite glad) They are fairly large animals and definitely of a sturdier breed than those that live in central park here in Songdo. According to Seth (Master Ball - Animal Whisperer) deer can scream. I didn't seek to test that today though.

It was interesting how these deer were not the least bit afraid of humans. They wandered right up and stuck their noses into our hands looking for treats.

This was also the site of Todai-Ji temple.

Todaiji has a colourful history of fires. In that, it has been burned to the ground at least twice and technically isn't finished because they ran out of money. There are heads of god statues awaiting the cash.

Here you can see where camera issues really got mad.

We were actually allowed to take pictures of this gargantuan buddhist temple but I have no idea as to why it's yes here but no in other places.

Before you ask, yes I was mincing and skipping through the puddles and I still got soaked through. My umbrella has holes too so it was a party all round.

I'm afraid these pictures do not do justice to the sheer scale of the building.  It was built to contain a fifty foot, 500 tonne buddha statue after all.

The temple is dank and dark and lit only by candles (Guys, let's try to avoid another fire, kay.)

The statue is made of bronze and was built in layers after being cast from a specially made clay sculpture. It was partially melted a few times but it was rebuilt each time.

It was definitely a 'wow' spectacle. It was a terrible pity about the rain, we couldn't really dally in the grounds.

Watch your fingers

So on Friday, I met up with my coworkers for drinks. There had been a change of plans and we decided that since the weather was nice, we'd avoid the bars and go lounge in Central Park.

Central Park, as I have posted before, is just beside our apartment complex. So, with a blanket, ice-cream and a selection of drinks in tow we set forth.

I have to honestly say, it was much nicer after nine at night than in the heat of the midday sun. Unfortunately all the Pagodas were taken so we had to sit with the crickets in a pow-wow circle. Of course, we can't sit as nicely as some of the kidsin school can. (Who do so with the gravitas of old men.)

It turns out, than on one of the many man-made islands on the lake there is a population of rabbits. Lots of rabbits. We saw them going nuts, dashing around their island. (They were pretty big too - emergency winter food supply.....?)

Along with those fluffy bunnies and the crickets there were deer. I don't know the breed but they are quite small and even the adults have spotted coats.

Mr. Seth Ball revealed his skills as some sort of animal whisperer and discovered that the deer were attention whores remarkably tame.

On a side note, I don't believe I've ever tried venison.