Neurosis creeping in

‘Finished,' said Mum bluntly, waving me away from her shop.

She meant she was not willing to serve me at her shop any more, since I had taken to drinking at a rival place inside her soi.

Farang C and I turned up at her shop after the eatery in the soi closed. She saw us arrive, and sold farang C a newspaper.

But if we wanted to carry on drinking, she said we would have to carry on somewhere else.

We took a table at an eatery next to her place instead.

-

Suan Lum Night Bazaar

Earlier, farang C and I met at Suan Lum Night Bazaar, my first visit to that inner-city tourist haven in eight years.

Before my friend arrived, I wandered past a few stalls, and bought the boyfriend a jazzy pair of underpants.

They are stretchy, and have brightly coloured stripes.

'Are you sure you don't want a more conservative design?' the shopkeeper asked.

She was nervous that boyfriend Maiyuu may not like them, as they were more 'out there' than the designs and colours which most Thais choose.

'No - I am sure they will be fine,' I said.

-
We took a taxi from there to Mum's shop in Thon Buri.

We took the route which takes us past Central World and the Ploenchit market, via Lang Suan, Petchburi Rd, and so on, until we reached the Victory Monument and we realised we still had another 10 minutes of travel still to go.

This was 8pm, past the so-called peak hour, but the traffic was still painfully slow.

The taxi driver and I talked about what to do if you are caught in a traffic jam but need to pee.

'An empty water bottle?' I suggested. 'I didn't bring one.'

'You could stretch out in the back seat there and no one need know what you are doing,' he joked.

'Or Pampers?' I suggested.

'A rubber tube and a bag on one leg?' he asked.

'And should you tell your friends?...they might be in need too,' I asked, then thought better of it.

'No, you shouldn't tell friends - they might ask to use them too.'

We arrived more than 25min later.

'You have to stay philosophical when stuck in traffic jams,' said farang C wisely.

'That's hard when you need to use the toilet badly,' I said.

-
Maiyuu is back from his two-day getaway - not at a temple, as I first thought, but to Pattaya.

Last week when Maiyuu told me that he wanted time out from our relationship, he said he would go to a temple in the provinces for a couple of days, and warned me not to send anyone looking for him.

I believe he decided some time before he left that he would not visit a temple at all. He stayed at a hotel in Pattaya instead. He told me the name, which I have forgotten. Was it in Boys' Town? No. He says it was close to a beach, where he took several walks, alone.

-

Thais like plotting, subterfuge, conspiracy theories, ghosts. On the night Maiyuu returned, he asked me whether I had been on the tenth floor of the condo, gossiping about him with his friends.

'No...why would I do that?' I asked.

'I have been hiding by the railway lines outside, to watch who was coming and going - and I thought I heard you talking to Duck and the others about me,' he said conspiratorially.

'You mean, you heard us from outside the condo even though I was supposedly talking to them on the tenth floor? ' I asked, confused.

I gave up. I am not sure whether Maiyuu is slowly going mad, or if he is letting moods cloud his judgement.

He told me about his Pattaya adventures. A Russian guest in her early 20s struck up a conversation, and flirted with him at the pool.

-
Maiyuu found a long strand of what is probably woman's hair in our bathroom yesterday, and asked if I had invited anyone to our place why he was away.

No - I knew few women here, which is sad, but true.

I told Farang C about the strange accusations Maiyuu has been making since he returned.

He reckons Maiyuu is feeling guilty about his Pattaya adventures. If he can accuse me of gossiping, or smuggling people into our place, then he feels better about whatever he was doing in Pattaya.

In truth, I think he spent most time in the city of sin alone, as my boyfriend is not much good with people these days.

When people go mad, do they start cutting themselves off from the world? His world is getting smaller, centred mainly on me, and home.