Is posting on Thai related forums and then checking back every fifteen minutes to see if someone has replied a sign that I have now joined the world of the truly socially pathetic? The answer is an unequivocal yes. It’s not my fault I have no friends. I love (maybe ‘like a lot’) the city of Khon Kaen on so many levels, but all the ex-pats here are over fifty. I just can’t see myself at a bar reminiscing about the summer Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons became big. Or, I imagine there must be a lot of talk about how much the Thai version of Viagra is going for and whether or not it is as good as the original. Maybe I am being a bit ageist, really. Seeing as how a lot of these guys are living with Thai spouses in their twenties, they probably are young at heart. Oh, who am I kidding, no fifty year old balding man with a paunch is going to give me a second look. I feel so unloved.
Otherwise, a classic day interacting with Thai employers. The part-time job that was going to pay me peanuts for 27 hours this month has dropped the hours now to 6. They hadn’t even informed me and I knocked out a whole lesson plan for them. I am still wondering just how much of bastard I should be. New in town, I want to keep my options open, but I definitely feel the bridge arsonist in me growing stronger. At my full-time job I was yet again given my working schedule. Of course it wasn’t the same as last week, but why stick to a plan? That might cause clarity and workability. There is something good in this. They, both ladies, were present for the meeting and handed me a piece of paper with my schedule and salary explicitly laid out. Even the best of Thais is going to have trouble changing the plan at this point, though I am not laying that down as a dare. Granted the miniscule change that they made in my schedule will actually mean less money for me, but they seem to have finally locked themselves into to a promise that appears wriggle-free. Furthermore, they have given me my own desk. I am now one of the crew – I don’t know who the crew actually consists of, I think there is only one other full-timer, but I can never tell, and sticking to my policy of ask you no questions, tell me many lies I will refrain from further inquiry. My only worry about this desk thing is that it will mean forced social interaction with other people. What’s a man to do? I don’t want real relationships to come in between me and my forum postings.