Thai dinner drama (1)

The dinner date was for 7pm - not midnight!

I had invited loyal reader Ian, visiting Bangkok from his homeland Australia, to dinner at 7pm.  Boyfriend Maiyuu offered to cook.

An appointment for dinner carries heavier overtones for foreigners than it does for Thais, for whom time is highly flexible arrangement.

For the foreigner, 7pm means just that. We can turn up a little late, but not so it is indecent.

For a Thai, 7pm is just another point where the big hand of the clock stops during the day, or night. No reason to get stressed.

I suggested Ian catch a taxi to the local shopping mall, a landmark in these isolated parts, where I would pick him up. When I left home at 6.50pm, Maiyuu was still in the middle of cleaning.

Chairs were strewn about. Rubbish bags where he had stuffed his clothes were overflowing. No food had been cooked.

Maiyuu rose the day after 12pm. He had promised to tackle a large pile of ironing the night before. He had not started that, but I put it out of my mind.

For days, he had promised to tidy the place, which has looked like a bomb hit it since we started decorating months ago. He hadn't started that, either.

In mid-afternoon, he finally started to tidy. I withdrew for the day, to let him get on with it. I went out for a few hours, to teach English.

When I returned at 6pm, he was cleaning CD covers. Really, I think I would have started on a bigger task, such as clearing the floor of obstacles, particularly as time was now closing in.

'Would you like me to call it off?' I asked.

Boyfriend Maiyuu was angry.

'That's up to you. I don't care. But what makes you say such a thing, when I have already started cleaning?'

'When will you cook?'

'When your friend is here...or do you expect me to start serving the meal as soon as he arrives?' he asked waspishly.

'Well, I thought we could all eat together.'

Boyfriend Maiyuu wanted to do the poor Thai houseboy act...slaving away in conditions of servitude, making a meal for two foreigners, while we sat and enjoyed ourselves.

Our place is not suited to that, as the cooking area is right next to the dining table. Apart from that, I wanted Ian and Maiyuu to get to know each other. He can hardly do that if he has to cook.

I took a shower. When I emerged, the boyfriend had opened a bottle of paint thinner, which he was using to scrub paint stains off the floor. The air was filled with the heavy smell of mineral turpentine.

Things were getting worse, not better. No one can eat in such conditions.

I gave up, and went to meet Ian.

Before I arrived at the mall, I received a text message from the boyfriend.

'So, I take it you're not bringing your friend back now?'

I replied saying I would take Ian to Mum's shop instead, then return later.

now, see part 2