Calendar quest

For some time now, Uncle Yenny has been smitten with this little Korean character called Pery. I don't know much about him, his origins, or what exactly he does, but I find his bulbous head (which is hugely disproportionate to the rest of his body) irresistibly adorable. o__o

My first encounter with Pery was on Kakao Talk (a Korean messaging app, kind of like WhatsApp) where he appeared in a series of emoticons:

 Image credits: http://beasty9irl.tumblr.com/post/54196999462/3-1-2

I think the theme behind the emoticons "기분좋아져라!" roughly translates to "Get happier!" or "Let's feel better!", which adds even more to his appeal... Who can say no to such positivity?! :D

After a little stalking around on the interwebs, I discovered that the creator of Pery had a Twitter account: https://twitter.com/perytail . It was here, whilst ogling the pictures on the account, that I realised there was actually a variety of Pery merchandise available for purchasing, one of the items being a very adorable, artistic looking calendar. And from that very moment, my sons, it became my ultimate mission in life to get my grubby paws on one.

The task proved easier said than done. For starters, I couldn't seem to find anywhere to purchase it online. None of the regular online shopping sites like Gmarket or Auction seemed to have it. I even asked Angry Eddie to try searching for it in Korean, but to no avail. By sheer luck though, I finally stumbled across a picture of some items with a caption that roughly translated to "now selling at Dalssi Market* in Samcheong-dong"... And there it was. The only physical place in Seoul that stocked Pery merchandise -- a tiny little shop called Dalssi Market* near the Samcheong-dong area, very close to where the president of Korea lives. Samcheong-dong is actually rather far from my place because I live on the east side of Seoul and Samcheong-dong is north-west. However... Upon reading the caption, it was crystal clear exactly what needed to be done.

And so.. On a chilly, windy December day, I set off for Samcheong-dong on a quest to finally get my hands on a Pery calendar. Okay, so in my head it was going down as some hugely epic quest, like something out of a movie where the main character would have to scour the city for hours, venturing down countless dark and dangerous alleys, but in actual fact the store was rather easy to find.. Go out exit 1 of Anguk Station, walk straight for a bit, turn right and keep going straight. Somewhat of an anti-climax, huh? XD

The inside of the shop was like a Perytail dream.. (Perytail.. fairytail.. Hah! Pun intended!) Or, the one shelf right by the window was, anyway. (The rest of the shop is for vintage clothing, and it's really quite small, so all the Pery merchandise is crammed into one spot by the window.)

Feast your eyes upon the cuteness!!

The lady at the store was really nice and despite my refusing to be upsold to a "scheduler set" (calendar, schedule book, and coffee mug), she still kindly gave me some cute little Pery Christmas cards for free. (Yes, I was too cheap to fork out an extra 12,000 won ($12) to get the set lol. u__u)

Tah-dah! Life mission accomplished!

As it turns out, the calendar is a mix of handrawn artwork combined with artistic photography, and lovely little feel-good captions thrown in here and there:

The picture on February's page of him sprinting along and lugging a giant, heart-shaped cloud says, "Now, I'll bring this to you!" So adorable! XD

Unfortunately, I later learned that there is indeed an online store for Pery merchandise -- http://www.bburn.net, so I probably could've saved myself the journey of going halfway across town. Oh well. u__u

Finally, since we're on the topic of calendars.. Happy new year, good sons! May 2014 be filled with much happiness and many wonderful surprises and adventures for you! ^__^



*Dalssi Market: 서울시 종로구 화동 102번지 (Seoul, Jongno-gu, Hwa-dong 102)