Happy Birthday Buddha...

Since today is Buddha's 2568th (?) Birthday, and about 1/4 of the Korean population is Buddhist, today is a holiday.

A few moments ago, I was enjoying this holiday with a cup of coffee and a good book on my balcony - when my quiet morning was shattered by the most horrific racket I've ever heard. It was louder and more prolonged even than any rucus I've caused since I was 5.

Moving aside my bamboo curtains, I peered down to discover the source of the commotion. It turns out bricks are being delivered to the back of our building, and they are being delivered in the following manner:

An entire load of bricks is stacked on the back of a bongbong truck (A Korean style pick-up truck). The solitary brick delivery man is standing in the bed of the truck pushing all the bricks row-by-row off the stack. All the bricks clink-a-chink together, until they go tumbling and rumbling over the metal ridge of the truck and onto the pavement below. So it's an entire prolonged symphony of "Clink-clink-chink - bricks, bang-clang-bang - metal, crash-bang-clatter - pavement." Oh well, at least he decided to wait until 11 o'clock, and didn't start conducting such noise at 5am.

Speaking of 5 am, that's when the crazy rooster has gotten warmed up. Most roosters, as we all know, go "Cock-a-doodle-doo" in their own special rooster way. Not the nutcase that lives in the village beside my building. This lazy rooster wakes up early early early every every every morning, and cries out "Cock-a....." "Cock-a...." So there I lay in bed, every nerve on edge, waiting in vain for the "Doodle-Doo". It never comes. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that my life would one day be lacking in sufficient "Doodle-Doo"'s, but lo and behold, that day has come.