Archive for the ‘Regional’ Category

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Going in Circles?


2009
11.13

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Posted in Australia, Korea | No Comments »

m.c. escher - reptilesAm I going in circles? I just read this from my blog 2 years ago:

” I miss the streets of Seoul, the bustle, the cars everywhere, the awesome subway, morning Dunkin Donuts runs, partying hard in Hongdae and Itaewon, Pita Time, motel rooms, orange-flooded midnight streets, walking to the Kim Bap Nara in the wee hours of the morning and ordering don cass, crazy ajoshis, kids staring at my whiteness, playing darts in Seoul Pub, egg and cheese Sally, shopping at 3am in Dongdaemun, driving on the right, galbi wrapped up with kim chi in a lettuce leaf, hanging with my korean ‘brother’ and talking about life until morning, cheap taxis, high-speed internet, being told my Korean is good when it sooo isn’t, my adorable student Hae Ri, Korean people and how they act the same wherever you go, making strange videos with Keith, my boys, my girls, and waking up any time and stepping out into a city that never seems to really sleep. It’s all a dream now.”

Now here I sit in Australia, thinking about my Korea far away over the seas.  Another world, another life currently continuing while I sit in a different reality.

But this time it is different, I think.  After years of not being able to do what I wanted, I was shocked suddenly to be back in a country where my possibilities weren’t limited to being a teacher or a company’s resident foreigner.  As I feel my mind opening up to the possibilities I see the future as being very different from the past.  Something clicked.  So while on the surface it may seem like the circle repeats, on the inside it is a whole new reality.

Popularity: 7% [?]

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The Little Beauty


2009
03.17

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Posted in Australia, Featured, Technology | No Comments »

For those of you who didn’t hear about the Australian bushfires, let me catch you up.  In February this year, a number of fires burned across south eastern Australia.  The intensity and scale of the fires resulted in high numbers of casualties and millions of dollars of damage.  Whole towns were wiped out.  People trying to flee in their cars were incinerated.  All told, over 200 people were killed by the fires, with a great deal more injured and homeless.

Similar events dot the history books.  In 1983, fires raged through southern Australia, burning 2000 square kilometers and killing 75 people.  I was just two years old at the time, so I had no real conception of the event.  However it affected my father deeply.  He was so moved by the senseless loss of life that the fires caused, that he designed a shelter, that families may place in their garden and run to should fire threaten their property.  It was an invention that cost an incredible amount of time, money and effort on the part of my parents.  But it was designed, built and tested under real fire conditions with my father, a chemist and a brave news reporter inside, while I watched from the sidelines.  

A place of proven safety only seconds away.

A place of proven safety only seconds away.

The success of those tests, coupled with the cheapness of the shelter made it seem like a no-brainer.  Yet, years later my dad had to give up the project.  Not only was the shelter hard to insure, but at every level of government asked for assistance, the same reply was given: it’s a great idea but we don’t want to get involved.  As a result, only a few shelters were sold, despite great interest following it’s appearance at the Royal Melbourne Show (of which it was the prize winner for best exhibit) and on TV current affairs shows.  

Why there was so little interest, why no-one in the country fire authority or on local councils stepped up to support the shelter are questions we need to ask.  For it’s damned sure that hundreds of lives could have been saved, had the shelters been available.  As an attempt to offer up a history of the shelter, and of the long process of it’s development, I made bushfireshelter.com.  Over the coming weeks, I will publish details about the shelter, along with photos, letters and articles from it’s inventor, my dad, Ray Toyne.

What is certain is Australia needs this shelter.  With conditions in the south being the dryest on record and summer bringing inevitable heatwaves, there must be a way for people in the bush to protect their lives and the lives of their families.  

For more information on the Little Beauty, please visit bushfireshelter.com

Popularity: 100% [?]

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Spring


2009
03.17

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Posted in Featured, Korea, Movies | No Comments »

Today, Spring came.  It was a relief.  For months, the cold has forced me to huddle inside every day.  I have hardly had any sunlight on my skin and I am sure that as a result I have SAD.  No, not sad, S.A.D. or Seasonal Affected Disorder.  When I don’t get enough sun I start to feel miserable.  The days seem boring and I just want to run away to somewhere bright and warm.  I self-medicated as much as possible by going to the tanning room and this seemed to help.  This is where I picked up my winter tan.

Korean spring 

I was also in Australia for a month, which would more accurately explain where my winter tan came from.  The sunlight there really recharged my batteries, not to mention all the food, exercise and family love.  The trouble with going home is leaving again, the dissatisfaction I feel when I return to Korea.  I used to travel to go somewhere new, so returning to a second home has none of the thrill that real home has and all of the drawbacks.  They say home is where the heart is, which is why, with my family, my friend and my love all under one roof, it was almost impossible to get on the plane to come back.

But I did come back, and the weather is only getting warmer and warmer here.  It’s going to be great to sweat it out again through a Korean summer.  Then, if I’m lucky head back to Australia and start Spring all over again.

Popularity: 53% [?]

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Seoul to Sunshine 2: Brisbane


2009
01.28

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Posted in Australia, Regional | 1 Comment »

After bowling

After meeting up with my friend Doug in his uni accommodation in Brisbane, doing some ten pin bowling with his team and getting our first taste of Vegemite, we lazily arose to the second full day of Australia. We needed a bit of rest after the flight, but now that we’ve caught up we’re ready to hit the road.

We decided against the Gold Coast and instead will make our way south to Byron Bay where we can take in the full backpacker experience and work on our tans.

Contrary to our original plan of catching buses and trains down the coast, we’ll be renting a camper van and doing the 2000km road trip to Melbourne.  Should make for some interesting pics.

Saint Pio protect us!

Popularity: 16% [?]

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A Trip to the Beach


2008
08.06

Posted in Korea, Regional | 1 Comment »

Last weekend, I made the most of my short vacation and headed down to Busan on the slow train. The ride took over 5 hours each way, but it was my hope that some nice beach time would make up for it. Little did I know, all of Korea had decided to do the same thing.


A South Korean Beach in Summer from David Toyne on Vimeo.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Hello, Goodbye


2008
06.05

Posted in Korea | 1 Comment »

This relocation to Korea has turned into a vacation of sorts. There I was, in China, writing blogs about my new religion, relaxing in the afternoon sun and now here I am in Seoul with dreary weather and no motivation to write about anything. People living here seem to work too much and enjoy too little. Sure, I used to live that life too, however it’s only after stepping out of that environment that I could realize how dull it is.

To be fair, there are lots of great things about this country. If you look at it in context, you can really see how they as a people have developed. The grandparents of this country have seen so much change and dealt with it. As kids, they lived through a horrible war that tore the whole country apart, and now they drive nice cars on 5-lane streets through a city lined with tall buildings and high-speed internet cables. But I’m not a historian, nor am I a Korean studies major. I’m an artist at heart and an Australian by birth. Concrete everywhere, cars cluttering every feasible space, people bustling around with the mark of stress on their face, really brings me down. Life, to me, is more than about making money and babies.

In Korean, the same word for day is the same word for work (“Il”). This really says a lot. In English, work and day don’t even have any of the same letters as each other. This says a lot too. I do believe that to be happy, one must engage in productive work, I just don’t believe that said work should encompass all of one’s life at the expense of everything else.

But don’t listen to me, I’m currently unemployed.

Sometimes decisions have to be made and they turn out to be wrong. I think there is some correlation between self-honesty and the eventual success of those decisions. It’s never too late to change one’s mind, but breaking a pattern of denying one’s dreams is very hard to identify and cure. Those who dare to do what they dream are the lucky ones, those who are not concerned with the here-and-now and more concerned with the future they envision. In this case, work is justified and fulfilling.

I came to Korea and found myself wanting to rewind the clock and stay in China. I miss my bike, my apartment, my $2 noodles, my coffee maker and my City Shop salad. Most of all, I miss the bright sunshine which warmed this artist’s soul each day. My religion and thus the world needs me to fulfill my destiny. It needs you to do the same thing. The doing is the hard part, but there is happiness in the act and in the result.

Popularity: 8% [?]