Lowering the drawbridge

Regular reader Tahmnong wants to know why it is harder to leave messages these days.

Readers now need to be registered to leave comments. Raising the comments bar has led to a drop in the average number of comments for every post.

Where once posts drew an average of eight comments or more, now we are down to just a couple. That's a shame for a blog which attracts 900 unique readers a day, as it does at present.

I have taken the step to avoid criticism by fool male farang who think all Thai blogs with a gay theme should be set in a gay sauna.

As I have said before, readers who want that kind of dismal, uninspired fare should go elsewhere.

The anonymous posting option is no longer. Anon the Psychic and his bitter kin will have to find their kicks somewhere else.

Anon the Psychic, for those who don't know, liked to leave personal criticism of me, but more often the boyfriend.

I enjoyed getting reader feedback on this blog, but in this case the antics of a bitter, misguided few have ended up ruining the experience for everyone else.

Update: Comments bar is now permanently lifted. I changed my mind.

Savings scheme-in-a-box reinstated, Big Martha's pasta

The household savings are back in their place.

I left the empty savings box on the kitchen table this morning, hoping Maiyuu would get the hint.

While I was out jogging, he replaced the money he had taken earlier, then gave the box back to me.

Earlier, Maiyuu took the B2,000 we had saved in the box and hid it in his room. He was worried I would break into it, as household income ran low before pay day.

Now pay day has arrived, and we both have money again, he felt safe to bring it back out of its hiding place.

He hid it the cash in a slender, pretty box he keeps in his room, which normally stores incense sticks.
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Martha Stewart and her Mum

Chef Maiyuu is over his flu and now is back in the kitchen.

He is making an Italian dish of pasta envelopes, stuffed with potato.

Martha Stewart made it yesterday, with help from her Mum, Big Martha (aka Martha Kostyra).

Big Martha, as her daughter called her affectionately, died in late 2007, aged 93.

In her guest appearances on Marsha's show, she would make dishes which she had passed on to Little Martha as a girl.

The tribute episode we watched yesterday, made shortly after Big Martha's death, pulled together footage from many appearances on the show over the years.

Big Martha and Little Martha shared the kitchen bench, with daughter Martha looking on while her Mum made pasta, Polish beetroot soup...

Martha Kostyra was terrific at kneading dough, which impressed Maiyuu as we watched.

'Watch how she does it!' he enthused.

She was a tiny woman, but had plenty of arm muscle strength.

Maiyuu will try his hand at making dough using the same technique today. Pictures to come.

Tomato soup aroma trail, savings plan vanishes

We have just walked through the condo with noses in the air like hi-so, queeny models, inhaling the scent of fresh herbs.

Maiyuu has risen from his sick bed and is making a large pot of tomato sauce, which he will serve over pasta.

He chopped up oregano, rosemary, Thai red basil and parsley and added them to the mix. Those are the herbs giving off the aroma from his steaming pot.
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It’s two days before pay day, and money is running short. Today I tried raiding the little wooden box where we have started our savings ‘plan’, as the modern language has it. It contained B2,000, which we have saved over the last month.

I wanted to break one of those notes, and spend perhaps B200, which I would duly replace when pay came out on Friday.

When I opened the lid, however, I found someone had been there before me.

Two days ago, I told Maiyuu that I was thinking of borrowing cash from the kitty.

‘Don’t do it – Thais would regard that as bad luck. You have started saving, so now you must carry on. You can’t break those B1,000 notes.’

Today, while Maiyuu was out shopping for food, I thought I’d take the money anyway, and quietly replace it in two days with a new B1,000 note. He wouldn’t know, right?

Maiyuu knew I could not be trusted. He must have taken the money from the box some time over the last couple days while I was not looking.

When he returned from shopping, I asked what had happened to our savings plan.

‘I have hidden it somewhere safe, until the danger has passed,’ he said.

Danger? Me?

Maiyuu promised he would replace the money on Friday, when pay comes out and I will no longer be tempted to raid the float.

For the last week or so, Maiyuu has felt unwell. A few days ago, as he lay on his sickbed, the poor thing lost a tooth.

He reckons the experience of losing a tooth was fun. However, he also appears to be coming around to the idea that I should take him to the dentist at the end of the year.

I have nagged Maiyuu to see a dentist for ages. Previously he refused outright. ‘When it is time to go, I will go,’ he likes to say.

My boyfriend doesn’t like to be a drain on the household finances. However, now that he has lost (another) one of his teeth, he is having second thoughts.

We have started discussing the dentist ‘option’ in earnest.

'If you take money from the savings box, I won’t be able to get my teeth done. You still want me to go to the dentist, don’t you?’ he asked today.

'Of course!’I replied.

By the end of the year, we still hope to marry the result of the savings ‘plan’ with the dental 'option' - and get his pearlies fixed.

What a transformation. Once, Maiyuu couldn’t see the need to save, and tended to live day by day. Now, he’s showing me how to do it.

Visa promise

I apply for a new 12-month visa soon, which renews my commitment to this place for another year. I can always leave sooner, of course, but in Maiyuu’s eyes, if not my own, it is a symbolic event.

Last year, he was worried that I might not actually renew it. This year, when I told him I was about to apply for a new visa at the immigration office, he seemed unperturbed. I suspect he can see I am happy and want to stay, so why worry?

Rich man's dogs

When we walk outdoors, Maiyuu takes the lead.

Every so often he will signal with his hand for me to move off the road to avoid traffic coming up from behind (he has eyes in the back of his head, or at least better ears than I do) - or to avoid dog poo, which is everywhere in Bangkok.

‘Why do these wealthy types who raise dogs around here let them poo on the footpath and the road?’ he asked.

‘They don’t want it in their front yard,’ I said.

Before 8am today we walked to the local 7-11 to pay the internet bill which Maiyuu had forgotten the month before. The last day for payment had passed, so that when I turned on the computer this morning I found the internet had been cut off.

After paying the bill we visited a small morning market on Pra Ram 4. This evening we shall visit another collection of stalls, closer to home. This part of town is good for markets, places where we can buy snacks and odds and ends.

We squeezed through crowds to make our way past the stalls. Many people were dressed for work or school.

As I watched the young Thais bustling around me, I caught a glimpse of myself as a new arrival in this land nine years ago, when everything looked so mysterious and exciting.

These days, in my bad moments, it is just another place to live. Instead of looking for fun outdoors or in the company of strangers, I amuse myself in other ways, by putting my energy into work or the boyfriend instead.