Sometimes the start, the cause, the trigger is hard to write down. Perhaps it was watching the Korean TV dramas I was doing which provoked me to want to visit South Korea. Dramas like "The Greatest Love" and "Master's Sun" - I'm now watching more Chinese and Japanese TV dramas but that's by the by. Perhaps it was convincing myself I'm steadily getting worse at playing Go, and thinking visiting a Korean Go school for foreigners might fix some of my foibles. Perhaps it was a yearning for the exotic.

I surveyed travel agencies which seemed they might be able to provide me with a custom itinerary of seeing sights, but also taking in a few days at a Baduk academy BIBA I found on the web. I plumped for Wexas (on no profound reasoning), and starting exchanging emails with Debbie there. We arrived at a date which the Baduk academy said was OK, and so I started planning the holiday (which is a part I enjoy, sometimes being on the holiday itself can be stressful). The planning involved minor details like how to get to and from Heathrow, sorting out how much money to take, ensuring I had days of holiday free to take from work.