Hanbunsik [한분,식 - 한분한분을 위한 식사]

The entrance to the little cozy restaurant 

If you're having a craving for some Korean food! Then you should ABSOLUTELY and most DEFINITELY visit this place. I love kimbab and all the Korean snack-like meals but sometimes you just get sick and tired of all the franchise places and want a nice homemade style. And if you're like me.. then you really.. really.. have to go here. But please do keep in mind that we all do have different opinions and taste buds so don't be put off if it isn't up to your expectation..

Hanbun (한분) - a person /
sik (식/식사) - meal

For me, however, I have been looking for some good busik (분식) place and I think this is it.. though it is a bit out of the way.

Their name is very clever, too. Hanbun, sik (한분, 식): Hanbun (한분) refers to one person and sik (식) means meal. So, translated it means meal for each and every person. I thought that was neat.

Below are the basic side dishes provided with the meals: soup and white kimchi :

White kimchi (백김치) - this is good for those
that can't have spicy kimchi 

Soup with fried bean curd(유부) it has a little spicy kick to it 

We ordered 2 kimbab, jinmi kimbab which had seasoned dried squid in it and salmon mayo kimbab. They were both delicious.. but can't wait to visit again and try the other kimbab.

Jinmi kimbab  (진미 김밥)
[in food, 'jinmi', refers to delicate flavor]

Salmon mayo kimbab (연어마요 김밥)

We also ordered ddokbokki, which is a dish of rice cake and fish cake seasoned in a little spicy sweet sauce. All three dishes were delicious and fresh. I really liked the kimbabs because they didn't have too much rice in it but more of the other ingredients. Also the ddokbokki was good to because they made it with rice cake made with brown rice. So, it felt much healthy.

Ddokbokki made with brown rice
(현미떡볶이)

The restaurant is located between Yeoksam Station (line#2) and Seollung Station (line#2&Bundang line). When you reach the Renaissance Hotel, walk to the back of the hotel and you'll see a Japanese Restaurant named IDOMI (이도미), take the alley where Idomi is and walk straight, pass the first intersection and you'll see the restaurant on your left. If you live near by, you're in luck because they do deliver and the owner and the employee do speak English. They're open every Monday to Friday from 10:30am till 9:00pm, closed on Sundays.

HANBUNSIK

address: 역삼동 664-32

tel: 025-666-555

No more hospital visits... Knock on wood!!

March 20th, 2015

My final visit to the hospital and checkup with the doc.. To see the progress and get the plastic thingy (sorry for my ignorance but I still don't know what they're called :( ) out of my nose that was correcting(?) my deviated septum. Boy, now I can believe you can practically stuff anything up your nose. I was wondering how kids got those huge toys stuck up their nose and had to visit the emergency room... I mean, I had my eyes closed when they were pulling it out but, wow, seriously they were huge.. And I just had thought it was some kind of tube. 

Anyhow, it was a quick visit: the nurse did her thing and the doc examined and told me it's healing well.. no infections or out of the ordinaries. I just need to take care of it a bit more with the cleansing for a month since there'll be scabs and occasional slight bleeding. Still am not supposed to blow my nose or pretty much he said blowing your nose is not good at all (for anyone). Mid April I should be able to start exercising and in about a month's time I should start getting some feeling back. It still feels a bit numb and stiff :( but it is still heeling so need to give it time. 

My check up for the first surgery went fine too. The swelling is all gone and I could see a huge change after the doc took pics to show the difference between the before and after photos. 

Breathing is much better now. I think it could get much better after the swelling goes down and I can feel my nose again, lol. It's weird because after the surgery, taste and scent are much more pronounced. 

Also, no snoring! And I'm feeling more rested as days go by.... Except for the occasional times where I can't really fall asleep but that has more to do with my insomnia problem and getting my biorhythm in order. However, sleeping 3 hours a day is ok because I do feel much more rested than I used to before the surgery. ;) But yes, a regular scheduled time wouldn't hurt either. 

I'd like to thank all my friends and family for being there for me and sending me good thoughts! 

Love you all! 

Organising...

Since I have had more time to myself..
I've had time to organise much more and get rid of the things I've thought about getting rid of..
However, the indecisiveness sometimes gets in the way and some other reason pops into mind and I'm holding onto it again...

Been trying to hoard less and go minimalistic.. it's not perfect but I'm sort of making it work.
Got rid of a lot of books, things and went through the clothing, shoes and bags, put them in a box of 'throw away' and 'donate'. I should go through them again and get a pile of winter clothes to get rid of. It's not perfect, but it's getting there...

While I've been organising all the things, in my mind, I've been organising something else too..

My address book or contact list on my phone has names and contact info of people that I just don't keep in contact anymore.. mostly from old work and yes, there are people that I do keep in contact but there are the ones I don't. I did keep them just in case.. but as years go by, I really don't think they'll or I'll ever contact again.. so what's the use of keeping those names and numbers?

I'm trying to make things simpler and focus on what matters the most.. and it comes to where I just need to delete some of those that doesn't matter and make room for what does.. I've already deleted the apps that I'm not using but thought I might and had downloaded.. there still are way too many apps on my phone :P

Organising my address book made me think about all my friends that I hadn't contacted personally. Yes, we have Facebook, and other social medias that keeps us updated in their lives in general, but phone calls and emails and letters, I feel, are much more personal and they do bring a smile to your face. So, I'm slowly building and updating that as well.

Second surgery... Thank heavens it's over!!!

March 6th, 2015

While my first surgery to fix the obstructive sleep apnea was concentrated in the oral area, my second surgery was all about the nasal area: fixing the crooked nasal cavity by inserting a plastic tube and burning of some tissues to broaden the airways, and some other thing I couldn't understand... :P

The morning of... I got ready to head to the hospital on the subway with the morning crowd headed into work. My surgery was scheduled for 10am but had to be there by 9:20 to see the doc before the surgery and and do a simple checkup. So, with all the people cramping up in the subway off I went...

Morning crowd...

Got to the hospital way early, talked to the doc, did some basic tests, got changed into hospital gown and off to the surgery...

I got another round of general anesthesia and this time it was different because I actually felt the liquids flowing into my veins and it hurt! But after that I only remember waking up again cold in the recovery, dizzy and just hurting all over and not being able to breathe through my nose. After gaining a bit of strength I was moved to a bedroom where I wasn't able to sleep for the next hour and half OR drink. So, tried to focus on some other things in order to forget...read a bit, played some game, chatted with my friend on FaceTime. Time did pass quickly and gosh, was I glad to be able to drink water!

I was feeling weak, tired and thirsty. My nose was blocked with gauze stuffed into it and breathing through the mouth made me thirsty all the time. I was released from the hospital around 8pm with nose still blocked, an IV needle stuck into my right wrist, so couldn't breathe properly and couldn't use my right hand. On top of that, I couldn't wear my glasses because it'll put weight on the nose and that was a no-no. So, I was half blind, and half-crippled...

Sleeping that night was really hard! Kept waking up and I couldn't sleep lying down so had to sit up again and that made it a little easier to sleep. 

March 7th, the day after the surgery I had to return to the hospital to get the gauze out of my nose and get the antibiotic shot. Getting that done even though it was very, very painful, I'm glad it was done because I'm feeling much better! 

Next appointment is a week later and I'll get rid of the stitches and the blue bandage that's covering the nose. And a week later from that they'll take the plastic tube out. 

I can't wait till everything is healed. For all the swellings to go down and have fully healed it'll take months.

There are also some precautions I need to take in the meantime (for about a month) like: no excessive exercising, no heavy lifting, no tilting the head down, no sauna or public bathhouse, no alcoholic beverages (up to 3months)