The Bus! It's Newsy, It's Various!

Yay! Make a fuss, we're on the Bus!

Now, I know the brief from Niamh was 'local paper/little story' and all that, but by some strange combination of circumstance and fortune I happened to be reading The Scotsman on Wednesday. And there was this story that just sung to me, and even when Friday's Dumfries and Galloway Standard came out I could not get The Scotsman story out of mind.
So I went with the gut. It's not a little story, but it's a weird one for Western me.
You can find the rest of the news round-up here: http://variouscushions.blogspot.com/

Posting early because
a) it's the school holidays
b) I have a week in front of me. One of those ones. Culminating in 3 days in Dundee for work.

Still, on with the verse! All quotes, names and occupations are strictly as reported in the paper.


Different Strokes

You’d think that the people of South Korea
Would have just the one significant fear:
The crimson tide flow of Kim Jong-il,
Dear Supreme Leader; delusional will.

Yet my view, it would seem, is not so clear
And dictated by media we hold dear;
No, the South Koreans are suffering now
From more than our nuclear sacred cow.

The Napa cabbage crop has failed, you see,
And only Napa cabbage can make kimchi
Beloved national dish of South Korea,
To its people, simply, surely, gear.

I quote:

‘I have to get my kimchi fix
with every meal
or I’m not completely satiated.’
Kim Chang-Wan, Seoul businessman.

‘I don’t know how long I can keep ignoring
my grandkids and my husband’s demands
for kimchi every meal.
You’re not Korean
if you don’t eat kimchi
three times a day.’
Kim Hyung-sook, family cook.

Kimchi consists of fermented cabbage
Seasoned with chilli, garlic and radish
Then steeped for six months in special fridges,
The most desired of national dishes.

A mouth-scorching treat eaten by the tonne;
That’s a tonne, each year, for every one.

A food, I suspect, to run faster from
Than Kim Jong-il and his atomic bomb.


Napa cabbage


Kimchi


Ko Si-soon said her restauranteur son has started charging customers for refills of kimchi, a move she described as 'abominable'.