소화기 and the Heat

Many of the valued visitors to my Patch of Seoul have noticed that the quantity of my blogs has decreased over the last few years, but of course, not the quality. My usual answer has been that I have said most everything I have to say about living in Korea. And that's kind of true--many posts these days share my various travels abroad, or the occasional new experience, like the opening of the new Seoul Botanic Garden as recorded below.

However, a look at the early days of this blog reveal that in addition to the big issues--sports, politics, Korean education, Konglish tee-shirt slogans, good stuff to eat--Tuttle would also delve into the minutiae: weather, the existence of God, even new shoes! It is often in such a granular way that the greatest of truths is revealed.

In that light, the delivery this evening to my apatuh of my own brand new(ish) 소화기 certainly deserves mention:


소화기 so hwa gi is obviously the Korean for fire extinguisher, and it suddenly strikes me I have lived here for two years plus without one, if one is needed. I have to say there are six overhead sprinklers, but a little hand tank can't hurt--even if it doesn't have the customary tag showing the last time it was serviced. On the plus side, just inside the front door, you can't miss it.

The weather so far this spring has been mild, or at least, it had been until today. The mercury topped 30 C for the first time: 31 C according to my app. So I guess the fire extinguisher serves as a metaphor for the heat. But the aircon does a better job at keeping the place cool.