Saturday, January 23, 2010

Fucking Mooks!

Well, I've written about what fucktards the drivers in this country are, and I have yet another shining example to share with you today.
Flint and I went to Daejon to stock up at Costco. Inside Costco was a breeze. We were there right when it opened at 10 in order to beat the mooks. Not all of them, but enough to make shopping enjoyable rather than a chore to get through without bloodshed.
But on the roads I was presented with a different story. I knew even before I got out of my neighbourhood on the way to pick up Flint that the mooks wanted to have an accident with me. Ajummas were wandering around the centre line, ajussis were dashing and dodging through traffic and cabbies were either following too close or moving to cut me off in order to get just one car ahead.
Typical mookishness, so I was able to keep my cool.
I was just about ready to make the turn into my neighbourhood when I met the Mook Of The Day. He had stopped to block the turn lane and was asking a question of the policeman standing there watching traffic.
You know it's a bad sign when the cop listens for a bit, and then points back in the direction this fool has just come from.
So, now what is he going to do? How is he going to get turned around? He's in the right hand curb lane, with four lanes of traffic between him and pulling a u-turn.
Is he going to just go ahead and drive through the crosswalk? He's heading that wa... No! He's turning back to the right, and he's going to make the right into Habukdae. Or is he? He's stopped again! Fuck! Make up your mind!
I always say that drivers here don't know whether they're coming or going. You'll see them going along, and then pause as if they forgot where they were and what they were doing, and then go back the way they came.
Well, here's the prize champ. Or is it chump?
He finally makes the turn (without using his signal - in fact, he never used his turn signals OR his four-way flashers at all), and heads into my neighbourhood, Habukdae. He's moving slowly, but not too slowly. Just slow enough to piss off the cab drivers and give an opening to the other mooks waiting to get on to the high street. They pull in front of him, cut him off, and he just takes it.
He goes through one intersection, and then pulls to the right hand lane just before the next intersection. He's stopped there, in the curb lane, and there are no signals going. This is my chance to get past him finally.
But... NO! He's pulling back into traffic right in front of me!!! He's going to make his u-turn right now!!! Swerve!!! Beep the Horn!!! Raise the finger into his startled face!!!! Keep going before he can collect his addle-pated mind!!
The last I saw of him, he had pulled back into the curb lane, and a long line of traffic was going past him.
Whew! That was a close one! Did you see how close he came? Missed me by that much!
These people just do not pay attention to what is going on around them. They act without thinking, or checking to see what's coming. I've seen kids, adults and ajummas just walk into traffic and cross the street without looking. Some of them even run into traffic. They'll walk on the street rather than the perfectly good sidewalk (which is for scooters, I must admit).
Flint calls them "the bottom of the food chain." I call them "the next statistic."

2 comments:

  1. Holy shit... You should add a photo for your Mook of the Day sections.

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  2. Good idea. Kind of funny because Stig and I were just talking about a "Mook of the Year" award. :)

    I call the kids "Statistics in Training".

    Wish I had the camera with me this afternoon. I saw the mookiest mook that ever mooked. I went to meet coworkers at DreamPlus. Of course I took the scooter. I parked it where the bikes and scooters go in this courtyardish area . Giving me the stink eye was the mookiest mook I have ever seen.

    I am a big boy so I don't usually comment on the size of Koreans. He was one of the biggest Koreans I have ever seen. Shabbily dressed. Looked drunk. He was shambling around the courtyard. After giving me the eye he went to the phone both and started checking for coins, slamming the phone down several times, checking for coins. Then he went to the vending machine checking for coins and smacking it around. Then he had to check out the garbage can.

    I had just finished locking up the scooter and sending a few messages. He started eyeing my scooter. I said "Don't even fucking think of it." He shambled off to the phones again.

    When I went in the doors I waited so I could watch the scooter. Sure enough the fucker was heading for my scooter as soon as I went in. I opeened the door and went out. He stopped by my scooter and I shouted in Korean "Son of a bitch. You want to die?" He almost jumped out of his shoes. He mumbled something at me and staggered off and into the mall through another entrance as fast as he could.

    When I came out the scooter was ok and he wasn't in sight. As I was driving up the road I could see him pushing his way to the front of a line at one of the street vendors.

    Mooks. What can you do?

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