Battling on together

I love the feeling of my Thai guy’s head. I like to touch it, and kiss it many times a day.

Maiyuu is unimpressed.

He is not sure whether I really feel that close towards him, or if I am just being affected (ดัดจริต – tat jarit).

That is his usual reaction if I am showing him too much attention...he thinks it can’t be real.

Today I passed on the unwelcome news that the company I work for is slipping further into the red. The economic downturn finally is catching up with us.

At work, a Thai friend told me about our latest financial results. They are much worse than those for our first six months of the year, in which we bled millions of baht.

What we lost in the first six months, we are now losing every month.

I passed on the dismal news to Maiyuu.

‘So, you’ll be laid off right?’ he asked, sounding almost cheerful about the prospect.

Thais can get sulky and self-indulgent when presented with bad news.

I should be pleased if the company is doing badly, he reckons. ‘This will fit in with your plans. If you are laid off, you can go back to your home country, just as you always wanted,’ he said.

‘If you want to leave, just go,’ he has told me many times over the years, as if he doesn’t care one way or the other.

‘In all the time I have been there, they have never laid off staff,’ I said.

I am in no hurry to leave, just because I hear some bad news. We shall tough it out together.

Old food versus new food

When I walked in from work, I found Maiyuu dicing vegetables, always a good sign that another delicious meal is on the way.

However, the meal he had made me before I left for the office - sweet-and-sour fish on rice - was still in my backpack, as I didn't have time to eat it.

What to do?

When I bring uneaten food home, I try to sneak it into the fridge before he notices.

Being spoilt and over-indulged, I would rather have Maiyuu make me a new dish before bed, rather than reheat the meal he made for me earlier.

A new meal is always fresher, and I don’t want him to get indolent in front of the TV when he could be cooking for me.

However, on one of his journeys to the fridge while he fussed in the kitchen, he must have seen the sweet and sour pork dish despite my efforts to squirrel it away.

‘Do you want to heat that up?’ he asked quickly.

Yes, he was cutting up food in the kitchen, but that was merely ‘preparation’ for dishes he intended to make the next day.

Really?

One of Maiyuu’s persistent complaints is that I won’t eat ‘old’ food; I always want whatever he’s preparing in the kitchen now.

I looked at him.

‘Okay, I’ll cook,’ he said unhappily.

Chef Maiyuu made me ham, egg and tomato rice dish before bed, rather than insisting I eat the other dish.

Good. He had done nothing all night while I was at work. We do not live in a hotel. Everyone must pull his weight.

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I am disappointed to hear that a six-hour fast in the afternoons will not cut my weight.

Loyal reader Fran left the following message in response to Monday’s fasting post:

'I hate to disappoint you but not eating for 6 hours a day will not result in weight loss. You must decrease your total daily caloric intake; a period of a few hours with low glycemia is not enough.’

I shall have to stop eating high calorie food instead, starting with the banana cupcakes which illustrated that post.

I have eaten just one of them; Maiyuu took the rest to a woman friend, who wants to learn baking with Maiyuu. I don’t know where they will do it together, as Maiyuu is reluctant to invite anyone home.

‘I don’t want the bother,’ he said, when I ask why he never has friends around.

We also have a full bowl of home-made ice-cream in the fridge, which I would love to eat but have forbidden myself from doing so.

A box of donuts, which Maiyuu bought in Silom, also sit neglected on the kitchen table.

Well, neglected in a sense, as I notice he is still eating them, even if I am not.

I just look at them, and wish he’d get through them sooner. Then we could throw the box away, and I could forget they were ever there.

Forget the river trip, have a banana cupcake instead

Maiyuu's banana cupcakes

As the rain belted down this afternoon, Maiyuu occupied himself by baking a batch of banana cupcakes.

Just a couple of hours before, I was thinking of taking a day trip on a ferry down the river. I am pleased I let Maiyuu talk me out of that.

I am not really a go-places type. Neither of us are; we’d rather muck around at home.

At his request, I test-tasted one cupcake, breaking a self-imposed fast which I observe every day from lunch until 6pm.

I have not stopped eating particular types of food – I just don’t eat for six hours a day. Or if I must eat during those hours, I steal a tiny bit – mainly just fruit.

So far it appears to have made no difference at all to my weight, but I don’t care. I feel virtuous, so it’s good for my state of mind, if not for my stomach line.

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Maiyuu spent most of yesterday in town, looking for baking ingredients. He visited Sampeng market, and a supermarket which stocks imported ingredients for baking.

Later, he asked me to look up corn syrup and glucose syrup on the internet, to see how they differ.

Contrary to what I posted here earlier (this is amended text), he is able to find corn syrup and glucose syrup in town, even though they are not common. However, citric acid was a trickier find. Pectin powder, a citrus-based stabilising agent used in jellies and jams, he couldn't find at all.

'Staff at a couple of places told me that Thais don’t use them, so they don’t bother keeping them in stock,’ said Maiyuu.

‘Most Thais don’t know what these things are.’

Thai riddle in a box

Our savings box now has a lock.

I found the box with lock attached when I woke this morning.

The last time I saw the box, which sits on a top shelf in my bedroom, it was just a plain box with flip-top lid.

This morning I noticed the glint of metal coming off the thing.

I took a closer look. While I was at work last night, Maiyuu went out and bought a small attachable lock.

He screwed it on to the box, and padlocked it shut. This is to ensure the B2,000 we have saved stays there, even when our other money is running out.

I get paid twice a month. Close to pay day last week, as money was getting scarce, I happened to look in the savings box, and noticed Maiyuu had removed the B2,000, for ‘safekeeping’ in his room.

This was the second time he had done this - the most recent time was just before my previous pay day.

He was hiding the savings from me, just in case I was tempted to dip into the box to use that money to tide us over. If the money goes on general expenses, it might be hard to replace.

Actually, I didn’t need it; in the end, we had enough.

On pay day, after money had come out, I insisted he return the money to the box. He obliged. Two days later, however, I see he has now found a more permanent solution.

He won’t need to hide the money from me any longer, whenever pay day approaches, as the box is locked, and he has hidden the key.

I shake the box, in the hope of hearing the sound of money (two B1,000 notes) rattling about inside.

I can't hear anything; I'm not sure it's there.

Maybe it's all a giant con; he removed the money before locking the box, but led me to believe the cash is still inside.

Maybe he has decided to hold on to the money himself anyway. He's just hoping I won’t notice that I'm custodian of an empty box.

Self-healing computer

My computer is working again. Thank you to those readers who left messages or emailed with advice on how to fix it. In the end, it repaired itself. For two days, the VDU refused to display. However, last night it came back to life.

The screen lit up. A message also appeared, in which the computer told me that it had noticed I was having problems getting started. It told me to sit patiently while it repaired itself. That took another couple of minutes.

I like computers which repair themselves. Maiyuu had found a repairman who visits at home, and was on the verge of calling him. I asked Maiyuu to wait, and turned on the computer one last time, just to see what would happen.

My HP rewarded me for my patience by diagnosing and repairing itself. Maybe it was missing me.

Well done, my little HP. I’ll hang on to you for a while yet.