Dunno if I've ever had jet lag as bad as it was this time coming back. I didn't sleep much on the plane, but yeesh, it just killed me. Little dude and hubster too. We were all zonked. And the next week basically felt like a blur of laundry and getting little dude ready for back to school, etc. etc. Finally catching my breath...but now it's time to get ready to go to Prague!
Not that I'm complaining.
Little dude has his choir trip and I'm going along too because a) it's his last choir trip probably ever -- his new school come September likely isn't big enough for that kind of thing and b) I didn't go on his Vienna Choir trip last year and regretted it and c) an old friend from high school lives in Prague that I haven't seen since I was 16 is there. And it's a city trip. And I like to travel by myself. I mean, I'll see little dude, but only at his performances. The rest of the time is mine. Tickets weren't bad either. I found a nice AirBnB near the castle/old town.
Let's see...I suppose I should talk about the Florida trip a bit. Mom is worse than she was last time we visited but still better than I'd hoped. She's lost more weight and her lungs are filling with fluid faster and she has no energy at all, but she's still going. Talking to my sisters makes it sound like she could pass away at any moment and, while that is somewhat true, she was doing better than I thought she would be. Still, it feels like the countdown has begun. There's no getting around that. She's not in good health and it looks like she might have cancer again. It's stressful. And my sisters don't make it any less stressful. I'm not going to dwell too much on that. It doesn't do any good. It is what it is.
Otherwise...it was depressing to see just how far down the Trumpian rabbit hole they've all fallen. It's like wilful ignorance. Not even kidding. Actually had a conversation at one point with my older sister where I tried to politely explain that what she was saying wasn't factual in any way, shape, or form but she's all "Well, it's my opinion!" But opinions are not facts. Mostly I tried to stay out of it all. I didn't even start that conversation. Hubster kept falling into it and arguing with people, which is rather funny because he's actually quite conservative/Republican/Tory or whatever whereas I'm not at all. But, anyway, it was both galling and horrifying.
Little dude had a good time though. Lots of golfing and swimming. I found it all very exhausting, but, to be honest, I'd much rather go on a holiday by myself than visit family. There's always so much drama.
I did fairly good on the weight/exercise front even with the ginormous American portions of food. I had a couple of runs outside (and discovered that I really don't like running outside AT ALL). Went to brother-in-law's gym a couple times, and used the decrepit treadmill at the in-law's retirement park almost every day that we were there. I felt like I'd gained about 5lbs. by the time we got home, but two days later after the airplane bloat was gone, I was back to where I'd left at. So I call that a success.
Not sure how that will be in Prague. I figure I'll just be walking a ton. I'm not going to bring exercise clothes along for a 3 night/4 day trip. Especially since I'm not checking a bag. No room.
And now...I have to finish getting ready...little dude is just about packed but I'm not!
Monday, April 29, 2019
Wednesday, April 03, 2019
Beauty Inside
Back at the gym today and needed something new to start after (finally) finishing You're All Surrounded. I'd watched 5 minutes of the next episode of Strongest Deliveryman but stopped. Too depressing (suicidal people + bridges). I've been sad enough myself lately. Don't need to add to that. The only thing I already had downloaded that didn't look like it would be depressing (let's face it...the Midnight Diner stories are interesting but they aren't exactly cheerful...) was the Beauty Inside.
Bonus for having Lee Min Ki (playing the male lead, Seo Do-Jae, a chaebol airline director who is unable to recognise faces) from Because This is My First Life and also Ahn Jae-Hyeon (even though I just saw him in You're All Surrounded--here he's a friend of the female lead). The female lead is Seo Hyun-Jin, playing Han Se-gye, a Korean Wave Hallyu star, with a problem. For a week (?) every month she transforms into an entirely different person physically--male, female, young, old. Not exactly an easy thing to hide or live through.
This show is a remake of a 2015 movie. Well, not a remake exactly, as it seems to be very different as far as I can tell. In the movie The Beauty Inside, the one who transforms is a guy and it looks like (from the credits alone) he transforms into a lot more iterations...including Park Seo Joon. So, yeah, will have to see if I can find that movie sometime to watch.
Anyway, back to this one. Se-gye is known as a difficult actress because she's always running away. Everyone thinks she's a diva or has some kind of secret she's trying to hide (like a kid out of wedlock or that she dates tons of men, when she's never even had a relationship before due to her condition). There's a hint that Do-jae's condition occurred after an accident and it's more than likely (given this is a Kdrama) that it's from the first time Se-gye transformed when she was 20 on holiday in Europe. Confused at waking up an old woman, she was wandering the streets of an unfamiliar city and nearly got run over by a car. She was pushed out of the way at the last minute by a man who got hit in her place. I'm sure we can all guess who that was. I mean, really, is there any doubt?
So, after the first episode...I'd say it's looking promising. I don't think it'll be too surprising in any way given the premise and what they've laid out so far, but I like the actors. It looks like it will have a decent amount of humour. The characters are sympathetic -- both can come across to people that don't know them as not being very nice but they both have their reasons. Lee Min Ki is deadpan as always. I've downloaded all the episodes on my phone so I'll have them when we go on our trip to Florida on Friday.
Edit: Watched some episodes on the flights back and forth to the US and am now on episode ten. I am enjoying this one overall. The angst to getting them to be a couple wasn't too drawn out, which was good and made sense for the characters -- they're both people that were desperate to both love and be loved. There's a lot more about the second leads than I thought there would be -- in fact, I think a lot of the last episodes will deal with that. Ahn Jae-Hyeon's character Ryu Eun-Ho and Lee Da-Hee's character Kang Sa-Ra (Do-Jae's step-sister) have their own troubles ahead of them with a number of obstacles. Thought it a bit odd that one of the obstacles is that Eun-Ho has always wanted to be a priest. Feels a bit out of nowhere and, honestly, he (and his character)...well, you just can't picture him as a priest.
The show hasn't yet had the big reveal about Do-Jae's accident being related to Se-gye and I'm not sure exactly how that will wind up worked in when it's now gearing up for a big battle between some bad guy corporate types and Do-Jae.
Anyway, while I am liking it, I also can't say that it's completely enthralled me. Like, I enjoy watching it, but I'm not jonesing for the next episode either. That could be partly because of being busy while on holiday, I dunno. We'll see.
This show is a remake of a 2015 movie. Well, not a remake exactly, as it seems to be very different as far as I can tell. In the movie The Beauty Inside, the one who transforms is a guy and it looks like (from the credits alone) he transforms into a lot more iterations...including Park Seo Joon. So, yeah, will have to see if I can find that movie sometime to watch.
Anyway, back to this one. Se-gye is known as a difficult actress because she's always running away. Everyone thinks she's a diva or has some kind of secret she's trying to hide (like a kid out of wedlock or that she dates tons of men, when she's never even had a relationship before due to her condition). There's a hint that Do-jae's condition occurred after an accident and it's more than likely (given this is a Kdrama) that it's from the first time Se-gye transformed when she was 20 on holiday in Europe. Confused at waking up an old woman, she was wandering the streets of an unfamiliar city and nearly got run over by a car. She was pushed out of the way at the last minute by a man who got hit in her place. I'm sure we can all guess who that was. I mean, really, is there any doubt?
So, after the first episode...I'd say it's looking promising. I don't think it'll be too surprising in any way given the premise and what they've laid out so far, but I like the actors. It looks like it will have a decent amount of humour. The characters are sympathetic -- both can come across to people that don't know them as not being very nice but they both have their reasons. Lee Min Ki is deadpan as always. I've downloaded all the episodes on my phone so I'll have them when we go on our trip to Florida on Friday.
Edit: Watched some episodes on the flights back and forth to the US and am now on episode ten. I am enjoying this one overall. The angst to getting them to be a couple wasn't too drawn out, which was good and made sense for the characters -- they're both people that were desperate to both love and be loved. There's a lot more about the second leads than I thought there would be -- in fact, I think a lot of the last episodes will deal with that. Ahn Jae-Hyeon's character Ryu Eun-Ho and Lee Da-Hee's character Kang Sa-Ra (Do-Jae's step-sister) have their own troubles ahead of them with a number of obstacles. Thought it a bit odd that one of the obstacles is that Eun-Ho has always wanted to be a priest. Feels a bit out of nowhere and, honestly, he (and his character)...well, you just can't picture him as a priest.
The show hasn't yet had the big reveal about Do-Jae's accident being related to Se-gye and I'm not sure exactly how that will wind up worked in when it's now gearing up for a big battle between some bad guy corporate types and Do-Jae.
Anyway, while I am liking it, I also can't say that it's completely enthralled me. Like, I enjoy watching it, but I'm not jonesing for the next episode either. That could be partly because of being busy while on holiday, I dunno. We'll see.
Tuesday, April 02, 2019
Finally, no longer surrounded...
Finally finished You're All Surrounded today after an hour and a half on the cross trainer at the gym and then waiting for an hour and a half at the BMW dealership while the car was being worked on. Thank you, Netflix, for letting your app download episodes.
Yeah, Lee Seung-gi, I'm relieved too. I mean, I overall enjoyed it but...it did feel like went on for a few episodes too long. Thankfully, everything was mostly resolved and the bad guys got their due. Finally. Other than you never do find out who Dae-gu's father is.
Things I liked: all the good guys. No, really, they were all good. I didn't even much mind the crazy Im Won-hee and his style of overacting can really get on my nerves sometimes. But he was in small doses here, so it was okay. And, truthfully, this show was such a downer in so many ways that it needed some comic relief.
Things I didn't like: the bad guys were all kinda ridiculous...eyeball popping, shrieking...I wanted to smack them all across the face. And, yeah, you're supposed to want to smack them as they are the bad guys but still...they just seemed more like caricatures of bad guys at times. Like, their motivations and then what they did because of them really just were completely out of the realm of possibility. The police chief with her "I want to support the police and make the department better by doing all these illegal things with a corrupt politician" for one. It's like she started down a slippery slope and crashed all the way to the bottom without ever thinking about what she was doing. Well, they all did.
Anyway. I liked the actors. I would have appreciated more touching moments between the leads. There were a few kisses and lots of tears but it would have been nice if there were more nice moments, if only to balance out the angst. Like, give me some tenderness! I've had to sit through hours of the stupid Assemblyman being evil and his shrill daughter, so gimme something! But overall it was a decent show and the pace was fairly good throughout, even if it could have been wrapped up in less episodes.
Am I glad I watched it? Yeah, sure. Discovered some more new actors, got a decent story with a bit in the way of surprise (only a bit; most of it was pretty predictable), a hint of romance. Would I watch it again? Probably not. It's not something you'd watch again, once you know all the ins and outs of what happens. Honestly, it would probably be painful. Once was good.
It has actually made me want to watch A Korean Odyssey, which has some of the same actors, even though I've been spoiled and know that it doesn't end particularly happy. I'll just have to watching something really sweet beforehand.
Yeah, Lee Seung-gi, I'm relieved too. I mean, I overall enjoyed it but...it did feel like went on for a few episodes too long. Thankfully, everything was mostly resolved and the bad guys got their due. Finally. Other than you never do find out who Dae-gu's father is.
Things I liked: all the good guys. No, really, they were all good. I didn't even much mind the crazy Im Won-hee and his style of overacting can really get on my nerves sometimes. But he was in small doses here, so it was okay. And, truthfully, this show was such a downer in so many ways that it needed some comic relief.
Things I didn't like: the bad guys were all kinda ridiculous...eyeball popping, shrieking...I wanted to smack them all across the face. And, yeah, you're supposed to want to smack them as they are the bad guys but still...they just seemed more like caricatures of bad guys at times. Like, their motivations and then what they did because of them really just were completely out of the realm of possibility. The police chief with her "I want to support the police and make the department better by doing all these illegal things with a corrupt politician" for one. It's like she started down a slippery slope and crashed all the way to the bottom without ever thinking about what she was doing. Well, they all did.
Anyway. I liked the actors. I would have appreciated more touching moments between the leads. There were a few kisses and lots of tears but it would have been nice if there were more nice moments, if only to balance out the angst. Like, give me some tenderness! I've had to sit through hours of the stupid Assemblyman being evil and his shrill daughter, so gimme something! But overall it was a decent show and the pace was fairly good throughout, even if it could have been wrapped up in less episodes.
Am I glad I watched it? Yeah, sure. Discovered some more new actors, got a decent story with a bit in the way of surprise (only a bit; most of it was pretty predictable), a hint of romance. Would I watch it again? Probably not. It's not something you'd watch again, once you know all the ins and outs of what happens. Honestly, it would probably be painful. Once was good.
It has actually made me want to watch A Korean Odyssey, which has some of the same actors, even though I've been spoiled and know that it doesn't end particularly happy. I'll just have to watching something really sweet beforehand.
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