Shower adventure

A team of builders is into the second week of making repairs to our bathroom.

They are replacing the bath, putting down new tiles, and repairing the lighting.

The builders who put the bath in originally failed to seal it properly. Water seeped under the bath, where it gathered in a fetid pool.

Finally it started leaching into the place below us. The tenants below complained, which alerted condo management to the fact that something was wrong.

The workers turn up about 9am and stay until 5pm. They do their work professionally, cleaning up every night before they leave. They also do their best to contain noise and disruption while they are here.

However, having four or five builders in our place invades our privacy. If we do anything in the main room, such as taking a meal, we are on full view. The builders pass regularly between the bathroom and the front door.

Maiyuu spends most of his days asleep, as he recovers from a head cold. I take shelter in my bedroom, where at least I can close my door against intrusive staring.

We have been unable to use the shower for the past week. In its absence, we have been forced to use public showers in the condo administration building, which also houses a gym and a pool.

Last night Maiyuu decided it was time for a shower, his first in a couple of days. I take three or four a day, there or at work.

I put some toiletries and a towel in a shoulder bag. Maiyuu prepared a bag of his own, and we headed off.

It was fun embarking on an adventure with Maiyuu. We do so little outside home together.

The showers were empty, as the gym is rarely used. The pool is under repair, and has been for months.

We took showers simultaneously, though in different cubicles. I finished first, and waited for Maiyuu.

‘This is our first time doing anything together since you came to the airport to pick me up more than a month ago,’ I told him.

He did not reply.

I wonder if Maiyuu realises how much simpler, and more enjoyable, or lives together would be if he made more of an effort.

No matter.

We travelled down in the lift. I handed him my shower bag.

‘I’m going to see Ball and his family. Have a good night,’ I said.

Speaking my mind

I paid a visit to the noisy builders and spoke my mind.

They stated before 8am yesterday, which I thought was too much.

Plumes of dust filled the air around my place as the construction crew working on the site of a condo nearby took pneumatic drills to a driveway laid only months before.

It's a common enough sight: one team of Thai or Burmese builders, hired on the cheap, does a sloppy job.

The next team hired to fix their work must dig (or drill) it up and start again.

Most of the men and women on site look Burmese. I asked to speak to the head guy.

A woman wearing a protective scarf over her face pointed me towards a tallish man standing in a makeshift shelter about 20m from the scene of the action.

As I approached, I watched his eyes. He looked nervous.

'What are you doing, starting before 8am? Rents around here are expensive. Some people are still asleep,' I said. 'The noise has been going for hours...it's hard to think.'

I threatened to call the police or the council if he didn't smarten up his act.

'They wouldn't dare come,' he said.

'I don't care. I will do it,'I said in an angry moment.

'I promise we will go no later than 5pm,' he said.

We had to shout to make ourselves heard.

I asked his name, told him mine, and shook his hand.

He looked delighted to get a farang handshake, and gave me a broad smile.

Shortly before 5pm, I went back a second time, and spoke to someone who could have been the architect.

'The drilling job will take another two or three days...but we will start later in the morning, to cause you less bother,' he said.

Ever more dysfunctional

My partner Maiyuu plans a trip to the provinces this weekend to sell bags.

Joe, a Thai gay friend who lives in this condo, has invited him. He wants his help selling the items. Maiyuu can wear his trademark smile (he rarely smiles in public, only scowls ) to win over customers.

The anti-government protest group People's Alliance for Democracy has taken over Suvarnabhumi international airport, and the old Don Muang airport, cutting off the capital from air traffic.

At the time of writing, they have yet to suspend inter-provincial bus or train travel (though they have in the past), so there is still hope.

If not, Maiyuu can spend the weekend at home with me, watching on television as the world outside becomes ever more dysfunctional.

White palaces in the sky

Maiyuu and I live in the noisy centre of town.

A short walk away from us, builders are putting up several condos and apartments.

At one site, they are using jackhammers.

Tucked away behind the construction site are a collection of what looks like shanties - temporary accommodation where the builders live until the project is finished.

On a modest plot opposite them, a second building crew is erecting bamboo poles for what looks like an apartment. Once they are in place, they pour the concrete.

They, too, have erected their own flimsy on-site accommodation, complete with a makeshift clothes line where their work shorts flutter in the breeze.

Welcome to inner Bangkok, where landowners are forever refurbishing, upgrading and building to take advantage of rising property values.

The crew wielding the jackhammer started beating the earth before 8am.

Thanks, guys. Who cares about the neighbours!

It's getting hard to think, so perhaps I'll just post pictures instead.

Ton the louse springs for gin (joking)

A pink gin and soda with pomegranate seeds, similar to the one Maiyuu made himself.

I pinched this one from the internet after I inadvertently deleted the one I took.

Farang C bought us the tipple to say thanks for the grief he and his Thai girlfriend caused us in a drama concerning her former boyfriend, an ex-jailbird called Ton.

Ton the groin scratcher is a pain, but without him I'd have no gin.

So, thanks mate!