Dec 30, 2010

Time for some more bad news: Rasamee’s daughter was in a motorbike accident a few days ago. The girl had been driving home after repaying ten thousand baht (part of my gift from last week) to one of Rasamee’s friends when it happened. Thank heavens it was not serious. Following two nights in the hospital, she ended up with only a sore shoulder. Lucky. This is the third person in Rasamee’s life who’s had a motorbike mishap, her son and best friend Wan being the other two. (There was also an older brother three decades ago who, like Wan, was killed.)

Would someone please teach these people how to f*cking drive?

Rasamee is going to take a few days off work to go home, look after her daughter, and be with the extended family over New Years. It is a Thai tradition to get together for this holiday and I was invited to be part of it but declined, not being comfortable with the implications of meeting the parents. Plus, I could use some time to myself. Being around Rasamee and her troubles makes me on occasion feel like I’m suffocating and it will be nice to have her out of town for awhile. Her vacation will be my vacation.

Before Rasamee’s departure this afternoon, being in an understandably good mood, I treated her to a New Year’s lunch over at the Central Festival Shopping Center, or whatever the hell it’s called. (Our eating out together is one of the things I’ve come to enjoy, sans any bad news.) This was one of the malls I went to with Tip a couple weeks back for a bit of sightseeing on what turned out to be our only date. For Rasamee, I took her to an upscale Thai restaurant on the fifth floor that I’d been wanting to try. Both of our dishes were scrumptious. In a way, this meal was an atonement for my forgetting to get her a New Year’s Day card. (Oops!) She gave me one, and I should have remembered the reverence Asians place on this particular holiday. But at least we were able to share a nice lunch to commemorate it — and say our goodbyes for the year.

• Moving To Siam
• Thai Girlfriend