Old man in the wardrobe

We have started packing our place into boxes, ahead of the big move into a condo close to town.

I have not yet signed the contract allowing us to take occupancy, but that day will come soon enough.

In the meantime, I have bought 16 large packing boxes from a hardware store in the market. I have taken all the books off the shelves, and sorted them into piles of 'to keep', 'to sell', and 'to throw out'.

Maiyuu has found a trader who buys furniture and clothes. He will invite him to our place to take a look at our stuff.

He hopes to sell as much as possible, and throw out as little as he can, which makes the packing process slow.

I would like to to throw out as much as possible beforehand, but Maiyuu has been going through my 'throw out' pile looking for items to add to his 'to sell' pile, for the sake of a few more baht which the trader might pay him.

'Don't throw this out...you can sell it,' he said yesterday, as he picked up a used notebook.

'You can't sell it - it's full, there are no blank pages,' I said, surprised he would want to sell such rubbish.

'Thais will buy it for scrap paper,' he insisted.

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Another persistent complaint of Maiyuu's is that he buys me clothes, but I forget about them.

They sit in the wardrobe until they begin shrinking (or my waistline begins expanding) until the day when I can no longer wear them.

'You like wearing the same clothes over and over, to make people feel sorry for you, as if you have nothing better in your wardrobe, which is not true,' he grumbles.

He is right! I didn't realise the extent to which I had become a creature of habit, like an old man.

I put clothes into the wash, they come back, I iron them, hang them on a clothes horse, and wear them again. Who needs to look for trouble in the wardrobe?

Yesterday I took everything out of the wardrobe. I tried on four pairs of trousers, and four pairs of shorts which I didn't know I owned, or had forgotten.

I still fit in them, which is good news.

I also found another four pairs of trousers which are now too small for me (they shrink in the dark), including two pairs of smart looking work trousers which - ahem - I never wore. Sorry, but I just forgot!

Postscript: A few unkind readers at the thaivisa forum once complained that my writing was mundane. This mundane post is for you!