A Glimpse at My Day

I’m back from my Gyeongju 10k run. Gyeongju was fun. Everything was a little unexpected though. It’s a very… “old” place, so when we decided to go to Outlet Malls, I was expecting like, I don’t know, an entire mall building and the shops indoors.

Instead, when we arrived the outlet area, it was like… I don’t know the exact terms, but I would use the word “Street Mall”. I actually managed to score a new pair of running shoes - and it was the pair that I had been planning to get next, after I did that trial run thing last year. I trialed the Puma Deviate Nitro 3, and although by now there’s already the Nitro 4, I knew I liked the Nitro 3 and anyway, the outlet didn’t have the Nitro 4 for me to try it anyway.

They are… ORANGE! So sharp! I like!

What made me buy a new pair of running shoes? I did promise myself last year that after the Fuji Run I would get a new pair of running shoes, I was just being lazy and didn’t do it. And now I got new shoes! Almost half price of what I would have paid back at home.

The run itself was dreary. It rained on the day. And if I thought the run itself was miserable, I was sorely wrong. After the run, to pick up the medal and the finishing pack, we had to go through a muddy field, with poor indication of where to queue and such. The field was of so muddy, my running shoes were submerged in muddy water. When I did everything that I had to do, on my walk back to the hotel, I actually went down a river to rinse my shoes first. Then the following day we went to the outlet mall, and saw the sparkly new shoes… and that’s basically what made me decide to buy a new pair of running shoes.

THOUGH! Puma did just come up with new Pokémon shoes and I’m really eyeing the Umbreon ones, despite being male shoes… if I go by a Puma one of these days I’ll have a look see.

Gyeongju as a city itself is beautiful. Cherry blossom trees EVERYWHERE. Every street, every corner. But the practical part of me is also annoying and I kept thinking “the cleaners are going to have a lot of work to do!”

Of course, I get to rant too. I think this is the last time I’m going on holiday with this particular friend. She’s my one and only running pal, but I really just can’t with her see-sawing decisions.

Rant coming on and the photos are just random

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But then, the SAME NIGHT after dinner, she said “want to go buy some Korean fried chicken for snacking.” Okay mood queen?

On race day, it was raining. “Oh, I don’t want to go run,” she says. I’m like, “sure, stay then,” and she goes “are you going in this weather?” Hey, I came all the way for the run, I’m not going to miss it? Then she comes with???? I thought you’re staying?

Or right now on the plane. We took a low cost carrier so everything is paid extra. On the return trip, I asked her. “Are you going to buy a seat or just let it random assign?” And she said “I’l just let it random assign.” Ok, sure, so I let it random assign. When we go in, I saw she bought the front row extra wide seat.

At the end of the day, I know that what she decides doesn’t really affect me, and I’m not so egoistical to think that everything must go my way. But I really, really, can’t with eternally see-sawing decision makers. If it’s stuff like weather or feeling unwell, then yeah, that’s fine. But it’s when it’s just an anyhoo attitude that it annoys me to no end. I don’t make a fuss about it and I don’t complain about it on spot, but I really, really really, reaaaaaaaalllllllyyyyyyy find it annoying. That, and she will only do things that benefit her, without caring whether it affects the people around her.

She says she loves driving and decided to rent a car for the trip. Sure. Do we take turns? When we were in Japan, we took turns. But here in South Korea? She drove maybe twice? Then she defaulted to me always driving? Which is fine, again, it’s fine, but if I’m driving, you’re the navigator please? No, she’s just on her phone. I did miss highway exits 3 times, and I did voice out before certain exits, because I can’t always look at the road and look at the GPS at the same time, hey I’m driving, my eyes should be on the road, right? (And music is driver’s choice, but she kept hogging the USB connection!)

One time for food, she kept asking me, “so what do you want to eat?” In all honesty, I don’t really mind what to eat. But if we decide to eat this one thing (noodles), can we stick to noodles please? Then at night she complained to me I’m so “whatever” and asked if I was just being polite to let her decide. I’m like… in all honesty, I really don’t mind, I can eat whatever. And I don’t complain.

I think it was also on the second to last day, we had run out of places to go (we visited all the marked places to go), and I wanted to go back to the hotel to use the Spa and Sauna facilities. But because she was on her period, she couldn’t use the facilities, so for her, she was in no hurry to go back to the hotel. Then I also filled in a survey form from the Race, and got a code to redeem card, she also did, but I guess she filled in her email address wrong so never received the email, so for her, it wasn’t important to go to the tourist info center to get it.

On the last day, I’ll admit I was in a bit of a sour mood - we did all the things that she decided. She would ask me what I want to do, mostly I’m ok with whatever, but when I did say what I wanted, she totally ignored. I’m not a complainer-to-the-person (I know I should, but I want to avoid on-the-spot conflicts). I was in a bit of a “black face” (looking grumpy and unresponsive I guess) because she suddenly wanted to go for coffee and cake, her words “we need to look for a place to sit down and have a coffee and toilet break,” ok, just in FRONT of us was a cafe, so I pointed to that, but she goes “I don’t want this one.” And walked on.

Found a cafe, and it was like a cafeteria type, take your tray and choose a seat. I looked around and saw seats were available but she went and chose a window seat between 2 groups of people. Then she found out the 2 groups of people would only leave us with 2 chairs so she said “oh, it’s a bit tight.” Sure. So I sat in another table, but also facing the window and started to eat my cake. She sat there, waiting… over 45 minutes when one of the groups left, she said “I insist to sit at the window,” and moved her seat. She looked at me for a long time and I just continued to eat my cake looking at the window.

I don’t really care where we seat, but once seated, I’m not moving. Sorry. I don’t like to create extra work for the staff, I’m staying put. So while she waited the 45 minutes to get the bloody seat, I was done with my coffee and tea and can you just feel how annoyed I was feeling? I guess she did and in the end when there was absolutely nothing else to do she finally said “ok let’s go pick up that freebie gift.” I think if she had received the email she would be running to pick it up.

And on the last night when she finally deigned to let us return to the hotel early enough for the Spa, it’s Monday and they are closed Mondays. Hey at least I got the freebie gift.

Oh, at one point in time we also discussed about Yoga. I said I couldn’t hold some poses for too long because I couldn’t breathe. I don’t know what she heard or understood that as, but for the rest of the trip she just kept making inferences that I’m very impatient and that I wouldn’t be able to sit down quietly and meditate and not use the phone if I went on a retreat. EXCUSE ME????? I already said, I couldn’t hold the pose because I COULDN’T BREATHE, how does that equate to not having patience?

I’ll be the first to admit that I could get impatient, but I can also sit quietly and meditate without doing anything. When she was driving, I’d sit quietly and give navigation pointers to her. When I’m driving, she’s sitting there on her phone replying to messages and not giving me ANY navigational assistance that I missed the exit 3 times. NOW WHO IS THE ONE THAT CAN SIT QUIETLY AND NOT USE THE PHONE?

She once mentioned about how she doesn’t know why her elder sister and younger sister don’t seem to include her in family gatherings… I don’t know the full story of course, but in a way, I think I can see why. I mean, she does think about others sometimes (when it equally affects her) but, it’s even when she walks, she doesn’t care about her surroundings. I really don’t know how to explain it. Oh boy.

Anyway, my small petty revenges? Since she went and bought and up-front seat and I was stuck in the back, I decided to embrace the life of the backers. She sent me a text “I’m rushing out coz I need to pee!” Ok. Go pee. Usually I’d be tense and counting at every row of people that starts to leave, eagerly awaiting my turn. This time? I was calm. I let the people go off the plane. I walked slowly to the train shuttle. All the while, she was like, sending short messages like “I’ll cross immigration”, “I’ll wait on this side of the luggage belt”, “are you out yet?”

I took my sweet time, not pushing against people. Saw the train doors closing and…. Just slowed down so I can comfortably take the next train without rushing. Before crossing immigration, went to the toilet. Washed my hands, face, applied more cream, SPF, hand cream. Touched up the light makeup I had. Fixed my hair and hat. Slowly walked out. When I reached the belt, apparently she had already picked up my luggage as well. “Oh, thank you,” I say.

Because I booked the car ride from Hong Kong Airport back to Macau, she’d have to wait for me ANY WAY. Let her wait. *harrrrummmmppphhhhh*Anyway, if you are interested and have the time to view the rest of the photos, the album is here.