This is Hugh’s vlog from when his friends Ben and Laurens visited recently. They all met in Spain (though Ben is from Northern Ireland and Laurens is from The Netherlands) for some filming, which we can’t talk about until later in the year.
Usually our friends and family are all pretty familiar with Korea, even if they haven’t visited Korea, they have tried Korean food and usually know some Koreans. But Hugh was the first Korean Ben and Laurens had ever met, so it was their first time in Korea. They didn’t even know what kimchi was… hehe. Hugh had a lot of fun showing them around Seoul.
Update to let you know there are new episodes of my new series ‘Either Way’ up! Click here to read them. This webtoon deals with issues like endometriosis, infertility and IVF. The response has been amazing and we are already over 1000 subscribers. There have been so many awesome comments too!
I met Ben in Spain (we were filming a TV show, that will be revealed later) and when I saw him he was really big so I was a bit apprehensive to talk to him. But actually he was my room-mate and we became good friends. He is a really sweet guy and really kind. He told me that he has some disease but I didn’t know what it was, I just saw that he was really strong and healthy. I researched on Korean sites and there wasn’t enough information about Cystic Fibrosis so I didn’t really understand what it really was. I had a really great time with him in Spain, when I left we cried. When I came back I talked to Nichola about CF and she told me more about it. I was shocked to see the life expectancy is 41 years. How can this strong healthy and amazing guy have this many years? But then I realised the life expectancy average is lower because so many children with CF die younger. Ben is an example of someone fighting back against the disease. For people with CF, time is really important, and yet he came to Korea to spend time with me, so I’m really thankful for his friendship.
He is inspiring to me because even with a disease he is stronger than the average person. So I was thinking, what was my excuse? It inspired me a lot and motivated me. The next step of my transformation is building muscle. I was really lucky to meet him as he is going to help me attain my goals.
When I met him in Spain a group of us were walking on the beach and he was picking up the rubbish on the beach and cleaning up. No one else was doing it like him, I was impressed, so I joined in and helped. I was really grateful to meet him. And yes, he looks like Thor right? Find out more in the video
We have some exciting news! I have started a new comic series called ‘Either Way’. This is a series about endometriosis, infertility and IVF. It’s our real story so it’s also in the context of our marriage. These are big topics to cover but one of the major reasons why I wanted to start this comic is to start to break down the stigma around these issues, as well as injecting a bit of humour into the story.
At the moment I am uploading it on WEBTOON but will upload on other platforms as well soon.
Since these issues are to do with women’s health, there can still be a lot of shame and stigma around them. Women often feel like they can’t talk about them, and even when they do can often be met with blank stares and “What’s endometriosis?” or “What’s IVF?”
I hope this comic series can educate as well as entertain. The title refers to something Hugh and I would always say when discussing the future. We were told we might not be able to have children. This can be devastating news, but in order to maintain some positivity we would say that “either way” we would be happy together and build a wonderful life together.
When my other webtoon Nicholalala was ending I was given the opportunity to pitch this idea to WEBTOON. I was a paid featured artist for Nicholalala, which meant I was paid every month to create those episodes. While they liked that ‘Either Way’ was genuine and my own story, they concluded that it was too mature for their core audience. Unfortunately, I think these types of issues are often labelled “too mature” or put into the “too hard basket” because of the stigma around it. But the truth is that 1 in 10 women have endometriosis and most will first get it in their teens. A lot of the core audience at WEBTOON may already be suffering from some of the things I’m making comics about. Also, many will go on to deal with these things later in life. I think it can be helpful if they are introduced to these topics early and can feel confident to talk about them freely. Many women struggle to even get a diagnosis of endometriosis because of the ignorance of many doctors. READ MORE ABOUT ENDOMETRIOSIS HERE.
READ AN EPISODE HERE:
You can read one of the first episodes here and then check out more over on the WEBTOON platform.
Of course anyone who has been following us for a while knows there is a happy ending to all this, but there is a lot of cover that we didn’t share online when we were going through it. This is the first time we’ve been this open about what we’ve been through.
What we actually eat in Australia is such a big variety and from all different countries so it’s hard to say what exactly Australian food is. There are very few foods invented in Australia because Australia, when referring to the start of European settlement (invasion), is very young. There hasn’t been enough time to really develop something specific and it’s a country of immigrants that brought their own amazing food.
There is one thing invented in Australia though, and I show Hugh in this video.
Since we are out in the countryside while in Australia we went to the local farmers markets. This is the first time our baby Yul has been to Aussie markets, though he has been to Korean markets many times. We like going to farmers markets to buy meat and produce because we can buy direct from farmers.
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