The FARANG Speaks 2 Much

This is a departure from my normal blog.

It is an exercise in imagination for me. I’m imagining two people, a Bangkok Bar Girl and her sponsor back in America, and I am wondering what each of them thinks about when they wake up in the morning. It’s got a bit of ’stream of consciousness’ feel to it, and it’s designed to be a ligthearted look at two people.

It’s the first actual fiction I’ve ever put on one of my blogs. Dunno if you’ll like it or hate it.

Steve

Five-oh-five in the morning. Great! The alarm’s not set to ring until 5:30, so if I get in and out of the shower quickly I can clear my overnight email and get a quick look at the markets before my run.

Shit! I forgot — I have a breakfast meeting with Neville today, so I may have to cut the run short by five minutes or risk being late. I like Neville but his constant whining about croissant and cappuccino not being a real breakfast gets on my nerves. Like American food isn’t real food. He’s always on about sausages, black pudding and beans. Beans! My god, I’m surprised he doesn’t want a glass of Guinness Stout to round out the morning.

Enough of that. Let’s check the blackberry and see what else is on today.

Okay, we have a lot of futures positions that are looking good — need to review and decide when to close the contracts… and the wheat harvest projections are scheduled to be released by the Ag Department this morning. I need to call Andy and remind him about that.

Okay, the schedule looks fairly normal today except for the Johansson Client Portfolio Review at 2:30.

Let’s look at the to-do list. Hmmm…

Christ — Kate’s birthday this weekend, and dinner on Friday night. I’ve got to get her a present. When am I gonna find time to do that?! If I cut lunch short from 25 minutes to just something on the run then I might be able to get over to Neiman-Marcus, but how am I gonna figure out what to buy in 15 minutes? What the hell is there left that I haven’t bought her already?

Ah! I’ll just offer Monica an extra long lunch break today if she’ll go pick something up for me. She’ll do a better job finding something that Katie’ll love anyway.

Damn! I forgot about Lek. She wants another $500. Chicken feed, but it’s such a fucking hassel to have to always send the money myself. That’s one thing I can’t ask Monica to do for me. Can you imagine the questions I’d face if she knew I was sending money to my girlfriend in Bangkok??

Oh I miss Bangkok. If I ever get enough cash together to quit and just do what I want (and the balls to tell Katie that I’m leaving her) I’d love to live in Thailand full time. Jesus, all that soft brown flesh!

Well, maybe not full time. I’d probably get a little batty after a while. I mean holiday’s are one thing, but I don’t know if I could handle the lifestyle 12 months a year. Maybe split my time between Bangkok and New York. Six months here, six months there? Maybe.

Of course, thing’s would be problematic. I’m certainly not taking Katie to Bangkok, and I can’t possibly bring Lek to New York. Come to think of it, if I lived in Bangkok full time, I’m not sure I’d keep seeing Lek. I mean, it’s good fun to have a girlfriend there now — especially since I know she stays out of the bars and doesn’t sleep with other guys while I’m gone — but if I lived there full time there’d just be too much fun on offer to ignore it all.

Yeah, if I was spending 6 months a year in Bangkok, I’d want to be single.

Anyway, that’s not happening any time soon. For now, ten days every two and a half months is good enough, though I always find it hard to concentrate on work that last week or so before I head off to Bangkok. And it’s always depressing to leave.

An hour after I’m back in the office, though, and real life reminds me that its here. Bangkok disappears as soon as the phone rings the first time.

But the point is that I need to find some time to get to the bank. The account I use for sending money to Lek is almost dry. I’d better put about 5 grand in it so I don’t have to go back for a while, then I can transfer the $500 to her. Yeah — with Monica getting Katie’s birthday present, I can get to the bank at lunchtime.

Well, time for a shower….

Lek

Almost noon!

Why am I awake so early?! If I get up now I’ll be tired all day.

But I have to get up… I have to go to the bank before 4:00 to get the money Steve is sending. I’ll call him before I go to the bank and make sure he sent it. Oh no… can’t call him before six o’clock.

He probably sent me an SMS already. Yes he sure did. “Money in bank. Love you, Steve. :~*”

Great. But I still need to go to the bank early. I must send 4,000 baht to paw and mae at the post office, and I must pay rent tomorrow. So, no more sleep today.

Maybe I can take a nap after I finish at the bank.

What do I have to do today?

I want to get my hair colored and cut, but I need the money from Steve before I can do that. I think it’s better to wait till tomorrow.

I need to wake up early tomorrow anyway. It’s the anniversary of Uncle Run’s death and I need to go to the temple for tamboon. I can’t go in the afternoon, so I need to wake up by ten o’clock at the latest. I’ll call Poo-Na today and ask her to go with me. She told me that Liam has been complaining that she’s asking for too much money, so she needs to be careful right now. It always gets like that when they’ve been back home for about six weeks. Poo-Na said Liam’s back in three weeks and she’ll remind him what he’s paying for. She said that she’ll tell him to take all of us out for a night of dancing while he’s here.

I like Liam — he’s always fun and smiling. He takes us dancing, karaoke and dinner every time he’s in Bangkok. I wish Steve were a little more like that, and not always so serious, but of course Steve seems to have a lot more money. I don’t understand his job exactly, but I think he earns more than Liam, who builds houses somewhere in Australia.

But right now Poo-Na doesn’t have money. I promised to pay her rent with the money I get from Steve. I should take her to lunch after the temple tomorrow as well. She’s such a good friend. We can go to Daeng’s restaurant and eat moo yang, somtam poo palaa and khao nieow. It’ll be fun.

I can come back home and sleep after that.

I need to call my parents today. I haven’t called since lunchtime yesterday so they’ll probably be worried about me.

Oh! How am I going to get to the bank today. My drama comes on TV at 1:00. I can’t miss the story, and it doesn’t end until three o’clock. If I get my shower then, by the time I put on my makeup and get dressed the bank will already be closed! What can I do?

I guess I could take my shower now. Then I can watch the story, and when it’s finished I can put on my makeup and get dressed. That should leave me just enough time to take a motosai to the bank before four o’clock. I can make some ma-ma noodles to eat now, then I can call Gig to see if she wants to have dinner together.

I need to remember to call Steve to say “thank you” at six o’clock, but I can send an SMS message before then. He’s asleep now so I can do that while my story is on TV, but if I don’t call him to say ‘thank you’ then he’ll be unhappy when he calls me.

I can’t go anywhere very loud tonight. Steve just sent money, so he’ll be calling every two hours to make sure that I’m being a ‘good girl’. That’s okay, since I have to wake up early tomorrow anyway I can just stay home tonight with Gig and Poo-Na and eat grilled octopus and dried squid. We can drink whiskey and paint each other’s fingernails. Poo-Na can sleep here and we can go to the temple together. Perfect!

Tomorrow night, after I wake up from my nap, I can go out. I’ll have enough money to pay for a bottle of whiskey at CM2, so I can call Noi and Jik to go with me. It’ll be fun. If Steve calls I’ll just answer the phone in the bathroom and tell him that it’s Jik’s birthday party. He likes her. He’ll probably make me put her on the phone so he can say “happy birthday”.

Steve doesn’t care if I’m out with my friends — he wants me to have a good time — but he’s so jealous about other men. It’s silly really. I mean, he’s not here for two or three months, but he expects me to live like a nun. I mean, this is Bangkok and there’s just too much fun on offer to ignore it all. I’ll bet he’s not exactly being a monk while he’s in New York!

I love him, of course, but if he’s not here to keep me company I should be able to have a bit of fun. It’s not like I do it when he’s in town — and really, that’s what he pays me for isn’t it? To be his girlfriend when he’s here?

But I have to be careful. I need to keep him happy. That’s why I try not to ask for too much money, and why I answer the phone every time he calls, and why I try to be a good girl most of the time.

What I really want is for him to marry me and take me back to America. If I’m always pretty and sexy when he’s here, I don’t act jealous, and I don’t make him angry then I’m sure he’ll take me to live in New York. I think after New Year I’ll talk to him about getting a visa for me to come visit him. I love America; at least I’m sure I will when I get there. And I can fly back to Thailand with Steve every three months when he comes here and we can go to Si Saket to see my family. Everyone will be so jealous!

Oh, but enough daydreaming. I need to wash my clothes soon. If I’m going to the bank today, and eating with Poo-Na and Gig tonight then there’s no time. Temple tomorrow, nap in the afternoon and out to CM2 tomorrow night. No time.

Friday I’ll be too tired. I better plan on sleeping all day.

Maybe I can wash clothes on Saturday. But I then when can I get my hair cut? Maybe on Friday if I can wake up before three o’clock.

Anyway, there’s so much to do this week. I’d better get my shower now….