Condo gets make over, boyfriend goes bohemian, Mr Graceful says goodbye

I walked into my condo, and barely recognised it.

Boyfriend Maiyuu has taken advantage of my absence over the last 10 days to revamp the place.

Gone are the writing table and bed base in his room. He is now sleeping with the mattress on the floor.

The computer, which used to sit on his desk, is now on the floor. He has even bought a dinky fan to keep himself cool while he is using it.

Maiyuu switches into busy gear when I go away. He appears to relish the freedom which my absence provides. He can go to work on ‘big picture’ stuff, as he can suit himself what he does, and at what pace.

'I can do a much better job at cleaning and decorating when there are no farang around nagging me to clean this and do that,’ he told me on the way back from the airport.

We took a taxi home, but he took a bus out to the airport to greet me, to save money.

Maiyuu has also cleaned the place top to bottom, and hung pictures on the walls.

But the highlight of his welcome home was undoubtedly the changes he made to my room. Maiyuu moved the bed sideways, so it is now parallel to the green-tinted windows rather than at a right angle.

The headboard is now in front of where I used to sit at the computer. My old built-in table has now become an extended headboard, where I have placed framed pictures of my family.

Maiyuu also bought a two-tiered study desk for my computer, which you can see in the picture. Now, when I am working, I can turn to my left and watch him in the sitting room.

Before I had to leave my work station if I wanted to talk to him.

This is the first big shake-up of the furniture and other arrangements in our place since we moved in six months ago, and our condo looks much better for it.

If I want to know how much Maiyuu has missed me, I need only look around at the changes he has made. It’s all there, in the many hours he must have spent cleaning and transforming the place.

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At the airport, Maiyuu turned up looking fashionably depleted – a faded pair of jeans, cardigan over a T-shirt, and bright green sneakers without socks.

‘You look sir-sir...in a good way, ‘ I said, referring to the Thai word for fashionably bohemian, or rough.

‘Run down and haggard, more like it,’ replied Maiyuu, though his face was beaming.

When I am away Maiyuu rarely looks after himself properly, as it is no fun to eat alone.

‘I make food for myself, but it does not taste as good,’ he told me in a text message while I was away.

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The graceful one has gone. Silom Farang wants a break from daily
blogging, and has stopped filing regular updates to his blog, Gay Boy Thailand.

The story of Silom’s adventures in the Land of Smiles was pulling in
3,000 or more readers a day by the time he pulled the plug last week.

It was much more than just a picture blog, Thai novel or diary of life with his Thai boyfriend, though it was all of those as well.

It was him; Silom’s ‘voice’ came across clearly in everything he wrote.

He treasured his interaction with readers, perhaps even needed it,
which gave his writing an earnest and vulnerable quality which is
lacking in many other Thai blogs, mine included.

He wrote in a personal manner, like a friend. At times I wondered what Silom might have made of some of my Thai encounters. In the manner of any good friend, he appeared to be there, watching.

By nature, Thais are gentle and self-effacing. The same qualities come across in
Silom's writing, which made his blog better suited to his subject matter than perhaps even he himself realised.

He is Gentleman Silom, and we are fortunate for having known him
through his blog.