Coconut pancake, bald patch, Songkran trance

Boyfriend Maiyuu can now add another dessert, kanom krok (coconut pancakes) to the list of Thai traditional desserts he can whip up. He used his new takoyaki (Japanese dumpling) maker. A recipe for kanom krok, accompanied by pictures, is here.

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Maiyuu says it is hard to push the peddles. I reply that he is simply out of shape.

As I walked back from the pool yesterday, I found Maiyuu riding his bike in a courtyard close to the condo entrance.

I leave the condo more often than Maiyuu, who spends most of his time in our room.

In daylight hours, he leaves the bike in the courtyard, and brings it in only at night.

'Is the bike still there?' he asks me when I return.

Maiyuu loves his bike. Maybe this is the first bike he has owned since he was a child, if indeed he ever owned one.

I enjoy watching him cycle round and round the courtyard fountain (broken long ago now, I'm afraid).

When he turned his back the other day, I spotted the donut-like bald patch at the crown of his head.

At 30, is he too old to be enjoying a bike? No.

Am I proud to have bought him the bike, which which evidently gives him so much pleasure? Of course.

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The Songkran water-throwing festival is upon us. Last night as I walked to work I spotted young people warming up for the event. They were under a bridge, dancing hypnotically to reedy Thai country music.

People who throw water like to dance up and down on the spot while they are waiting for victims to come along. It is a creepy dance, as if they are in a trance.

Songkran revellers are usually wearing wet clothes. When I first noticed this odd dance, I assumed it was to keep away the cold.

Kids do it, even people in their 20s, 30s. Now I have a simpler explanation: Songkran revellers dance to keep their spirits up.

They are trying to convince themselves that throwing water at each other and getting splashed in return for hours a day really is as fun as they have been led to believe.

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No one has invited Maiyuu out to play Songkran, which means that he might have to spend the long weekend stuck at home with me.

In previous years, he has rarely been at home. He would squirt or splash water by day, and go out to discos at night.

'I call my friends, but no one answers. And no one has invited me out with them,' he says.

Maybe they're all getting too old, or they think he now lives too far away?