Felix
You know Felix, I was asked to play in that movie, really true!! I starred as an extra in almost 70 movies, television productions and documentaries already. So was asked for this movie as well.
Unfortunately that was during my former life as a hotel inspector and I was abroad during the fliming, so had to let that one pass by! PITY!!
Greetings from the Land of Morning Calm
@Voy Kay#1102 I live near Canada. There is no end to my (anglophone) cousins' complaints about Quebec freeloading and still wanting to be its own thing apart. Partout la même, non? 
Pour moi, after inventing poutine, they can do no wrong.
Belgium is one European geopolitical curiosity that can't be pinned on Napoleon. Or can it? If allowed to draw a line through enough things, everything is because of him. Even here--he sold us the middle third of our country!
I read a little book recently, An Atlas of Extinct Countries, by English wit Gideon Defoe, and under each entry, he lists whatever caused the country's demise. Half the entries it simply reads, "Cause of death: Napoleon."
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Ian_Adkins True, also Canada has a seperated-by-languages part of the country. I've only been to Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Niagara. I was never very happy in Canada but probably that was because half of India seems to run Canada.
Napoleon, brilliant in many things, rash and dumb on other things. His 'war-happy' attitude costed millions dearly yet besides his defeats (Waterloo, Belgium his worst), he is also known for what he'd introduced to us.
Metric system, traffic rules (we drive on the right side since Nap.), the Code Napoleon ... to mention a few but my favourite is the obligation for choosing a family name. In Belgium, we took that serious but in Holland, they thought that was a joke so they still have the most weird and comical familynames of the entire world.
One final anecdote about Nap. would be that the third symphony of Ludwig Von, was named 'Bonaparte' first, as a tribute to the french general, but when Beethoven heard that he had crowned himself emperor, he was so angry that he immediately renamed his masterpiece (Eroïca).
To mention something personal .... I have a french first name and a Dutch family name yet luckily it's a name that existed already way before Napoleon. The name was only briefly famous in Holland in the early 17th century because of a certain lensmaker that provided Galileo Galilei with his lenses for his telescope (a Dutch invention by the way).
Would that forefather be the reason that I am an amateur astronomer (amongst many other hobbies) and hold two degrees in astronomy (solar system and deep space)?
@Voy Kay#1113 What a lovely family anecdote. Astronomy has been a personal passion since maybe the fourth grade. In college, I had three astronomy classes, one of which was a nighttime lab. My alma mater has the largest reflector telescope in New York, tied with Vassar. (Unfortunately the weather rarely cooperated.)
Ah, Beethoven's Third, "to the memory of a great man" (emphasis added). There's a satirical postmodern novel, Napoleon Symphony by Anthony Burgess, that gets its structure from Heroïca. Highly entertaining book.
My mother lives in Niagara Falls. The U.S. side, not the Canadian side, which is much nicer (and with a nicer view of the Falls).
Astronomy ? sweet!! I'm the neighbor nut case who drags out his scope to see different events. Then again, while the parents think I'm nuts, the kids think it's great. When they were small, I would set up my scope and a step ladder for them to see the moon. Now they are in college and they still come out when they see me get out the scope 
in my iPhone books, I showed how to take pictures of the moon with a cheap telescope, a pony clamp and some earbuds. Fun stuff -you can see one of the shots I used here : https://imgur.com/gallery/5p4YTLd
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Ian_Adkins
Speaking of Anthony Burgess ... 'A clockwork orange' ... I never felt more' being normal' then to be shocked when I first saw that movie, like 87,53% of the audience did. Shock was highly tempered though by that wonderful, lovely fake blond nymph (Virginia Wetherell) that stripped for Alex to test his psychological strengths and weaknesses. At my young age, it was the most beautiful creature I had met so far in life!
Speaking of creatures ... my mother's favourite was Beathoven ... at least I pronounced his name then like I just wrote it .... and she had all his symphonies on vinyl They all became part of my inheritance together with lots of opera records and French chansonniers. The latter being a poisoned gift but since those creatures are worth a lot of money, I still save those for future selling!
Speaking of mothers ... I only visited the Canadian side of the falls in Niagara and can second it that that side is indeed the nicer one. I only spent three days near Toronto, since I was doing flight inspections at that time for KLM. I flew up to 25 times a month in those days, seeing asterisks before the eyes ! Sigh!
Speaking of asterisks ... being a Trekkie since 1971, I was completely excited about space and everything related!
At the age of 8, my dream was to become a jet pilot. At the age of 9, that dream was destroyed by becoming nearsighted. Glasses were not allowed in a cockpit in those days. By the time they were allowed, I already knew I was a failure in mathematics. So if I had to fly to Barcelona, I might've ended up in Moscou! So I have 1670 flight hours on my conto .... as a passenger only! Double sigh!
Speaking of .... I should be silent now, the fourth chapter of this novel is about to reach its end .... or is it its climax?
@Voy Kay#1128 I suppose this is the dénouement, yes. Nearly--they come back on Sunday to swab me one last time, before discharge at 0600 KST on Tuesday. Deo gratias, I will have eaten my last squid-and-kelp hash.
Ian_Adkins For all the planet's values, I cannot remember what I ate while in Seoul!
I stayed in a small B&B, run by a retired Korean English teacher. He wrote down in Korean on a paper what I should try and needed to give this at the restaurant in the evening. I must admit, I never ate anything bad at all!
It's comforting to know you're almost released into the wild again, spreading your wings and pleasuring your stomach as you like it!
Your moral will be high(er), I envy you for that since mine has a low level attitude at the moment since my little family and me have some sort of stomach flu since yesterday. Ah well, as long as it are no chinese microscopic beasts, we can live with it!
PS: Sorry for my crazy English at times, after all it is only my fourth langauge! 
@Voy Kay#1128 Ah yes my Droog, that Devotchka was quite horrorshow. A Clockwork Orange was my first taste of Stanley Kubrick almost 15 years ago. I've been a fan ever since!
And no matter what it was you ate in Seoul, I'm sure it was fantastic. Probably one of my top 3 cuisines!
@Ian_Adkins Since this isn't your first time in Korea if I remember correctly I'm sure you already had Manju. If not, they are small baked sweets in the form of fishes filled with vanilla cream they sell subway stations. I think I had two bags of them every day there! 
I can't remember, did you say you are going to Gyeongju this time?
Felix I've probably had them, if not here then something similar in Taiwan. Baked goods are somewhat novel and all the rage in East Asia. There's a virally-popular chain boulangerie here called Tous Les Jours, and it does in a pinch. My criticism of baked goods in East Asia is they can be unexpectedly and unnecessarily sweet. Sugar is the last thing I expect in a baguette.
Gyeongju is on the opposite coast, near Daegu. I originally planned to get out and see more of the provinces than last time, but this pandemic has all sorts of unknown consequences for tourism. And it's off-season. So I'll have to do my research and marshal all my English-speaking contacts to see what's actually doable.
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Felix Gosh, switching from Korean to Russian here! My poor head!
15 years ago?? Felix, you were 12 then, am I correct?!
Speaking of Korean food ... haven't prepared any lately! With the lockdown, we don't get that many ingredients as we would like. Today it's Italian, tomorrow Hungarian. We do love the Asian kitchen though, Chinese meals with us are always with chopsticks!
Normally we prepare about 350 different meals a year, because we love the variety and it sharpens our cooking skills. Since three years, that's reduced to 250 to 300 different meals since with our grocery garden and greenhouse, we need to adapt our meal timings to whatever is ripe and fresh!
Bon appetit everybody, I'm gonna help the missus now with a pumpkin cake with coko glacing. YUMM!!
Ian_Adkins 'May the force be with you!'
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Actually, I'm not a Star Wars fan at all but a Trekkie!
So let me change that to 'Travel well and prosper!' 
@Voy Kay 
a month later
Wondering here what Ian is doing these days ...
@Voy Kay#1446 I think I'll shoot him a message in a few days
22 days later
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Greetings all,
I am alive and well, and touched by the concern. Felix was kind enough to send me an e-mail solicitous of my good health. I'm sorry for the long absence. I am a homebody and a creature of routine, including my internet habits, and the thankfully temporary relocation has disturbed my harmony and upset my rhythms. I have ten days until I go back, and hopefully then I will settle back into my usual ways.
Korea is okay. Cheonan is something of a no-frills town, and we have lodged in an older part of the city with no attractions or parks or green spaces of any kind. It seems like most people looking for novelty go to Seoul, which is a relatively short ride on the KTX (HSR), but with the pandemic, we've only gone the once in search of objets. We may go this weekend to see the art museum, but as yet TBD.
Korea is a place of contradictions. Intense nationalism with not very latent feelings of inferiority. Great pride in the land, which is nevertheless littered and polluted. Great warmth and hospitality for those they know or are doing business with, but cold indifference bordering on hostility to people on the street (I was saved today from nearly being backed over by a truck by a young woman who very politely said, in English, "Sorry, sir, please watch out," which I took as the most extraordinary kindness, considering no one else waiting at the crosswalk said a thing). The cherry trees are bursting with blossoms, but the air quality is hazardous (AQI of nearly 600 the other day; over 1,000 in Daegu) as to keep everyone inside.
Much of my ambivalence is for the same reason I am ambivalent about America. Koreans, with their usual intensity, have adopted many of the same habits I dislike at home, and amplified them 110 percent. It's no different than a therapist who tells you what you hate in someone else is what you unconsciously hate about yourself.
And yet, for all that, it's a beautiful, sometimes beguiling country. And yet, I am happy to go home. And yet, my wife is staying on another month or more. And yet, and yet, and yet. That's Korea.
I hope you are all well, too, and I look forward to reading all your posts. I took the morning to get caught up, but stifled every impulse to reply lest you wake up and find 20 replies from Ian Adkins to threads now long dead. But I have missed this, thank you.
Ian_Adkins Glad to hear from you!
I can understand what you mean about Korea, it's a very intense country in that regard. Got a pic of the cherry blossoms? Awfully early this year, aren't they?
And I can only speak for myself, but I have no problem with 20 replies in long dead threads
My wife is more the floral photographer, but this is pretty representative: https://pin.it/4WQXfRy
(Sorry for inflicting a Pinterest link on you. I yearn for a Pinterest-free world. I also wish Google Lens, which obstructs my attempts to reverse image search for a non-Pinterest version of a picture, a speedy and assuredly earned demise.)
Seems like the cherry blossoms are a week early. Lotte has some ads for cherry blossom events weekend after next, that went up several weeks ago, but I suspect peak blossoming this weekend. But there will still be blossoms in time for their event, I'm sure.