Putting pride first

First, the computer at home was working; now it's not.

We spent two hours in the stifling heat getting the internet connected yesterday, after waiting for the man from the telephone company to arrive, then a technician from the condo to tweak something else.

I used the computer for half an hour before it was time to go to work.

Today, the internet connection appears to be working, but the screen refuses to light up. I am undecided whether to call someone in to look for it, and lug the hard-drive to a computer repair shop at Pantip Plaza.

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On the slummy side of my condo, I dropped in to a laundry business. A young woman there told me that she services many tenants from my condo. In fact, her boss, the laundry's owner, started her business there.

Back then, she had four staff, and worked from her unit at the condo, picking up laundry around town which she washes, irons, and then returns.

Now, the business has grown so big that it employs 40 staff, and had to move to new premises - the shophouse where we talked that day on the slum side of the condo.

At my condo, some tenants have bought their own washing machine, but many have not, so send out their washing to be done elsewhere. The laundry charges a bit over B10 a piece, which is reasonable.

Not 10 metres from her shop is a bank of coin-operated washing machines. I don't know who owns them, but anyone can use them, and I have noticed Thais who live on that street taking their clothes in a washing basket there to be washed.

Which to choose?

At my old condo, the office provided four coin-operated washing machines in the carpark. At my new place, the office provides no such service, so owners (or tenants, in our case) are left to their own devices.

I am an independent type. I am not used to sending out washing to be done by a stranger, as it all seems too personal to me. If I could, I'd rather carry on doing it myself.

A large vacant lot separates the condo from the slummy side. Stray dogs and slum dwellers roam there...people who live in flimsy wooden dwellings with tin roofs.

I would like to lug my basket of clothes across the vacant lot, and wash it using the coin-operated machines which the Thais use, but am worried about it would look too down-market.

The Thais might look at me in a bad way: another farang drifter with no money! Any foreigner residents who spotted me carrying my washing basket would think the same thing.

Boyfriend Maiyuu says the coin-slot washing machines are probably dirty, and wants me to use the pick up and delivery laundry service instead. I might be independent, but I also have my pride. If I carried my washing basket around in public, then everyone would get to see my dirty clothes, not just the women at the laundry service.

I will probably give up my do-it-yourself quest, and do as he suggests.

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Maiyuu has bought a mattress for his bed, which will be delivered today. For the last few years, he has slept on a flimsy padded mattress which folds up.

I had never seen the things before I came here, but they are a common sight in Thai mattress stores, for those who lack a bed base or want to sleep close to the floor.

I feared Maiyuu would carry on sleeping rough at the new condo too, but thankfully not.

At the new place, he has a wooden bed base in his room; back at the old condo, which was unfurnished, he did not bother buying a bed base or mattress, so he slept on that wretched padded thing instead.