It's back to thinking how weird thais are..

We have been trying to get hold of the man who cuts the grass in this mooban. He is usually around doing odd jobs. As far as exaggeration is concerned, the lalang in my garden is waist high now. So we desperately needed him to come 'kaotim' those buggers.It's very mind-boggling how the locals operate their 'ricebowl'. Back home, the 'thambi' rings the door bell every month and checks if we need to get the grass cut. It's kinda like maintaining his customer base, lest that he doesn't come and we decided on another 'ahneh' fella. But here, the gardener doesn't offer his service even when he sees that the garden is transforming into a jungle.

Anyways,2 weeks ago, the uncle strolled by. I quickly opened the glass door, and hailed him down, and pointed madly at the grass and do the 'chop chop' hand signal. To me, it was quite obvious what I needed him to do. Afterall, he has been doing it for the past two years. Aiseh, he looked at me and queried, "Alai?" -what? Cut grass la, what? Ask you to come in yumchar meh? So I did some chop-chopping action again. He went,"Ohhh.. ok ok."

He didnt come on that day. Neither did he come the next day. By day 3, I was tulan annoyed and decided to ask my neighbour if she could get him to come over ASAP. She knew that snakes and cacings don't care much about territory and will cross over to her house from our 'semak samun'. Thus, she said she will help to summon that uncle. Later, I was told that he would get it settled by this week.

Today is the 2nd week since I 'handchopped' him. Still no sight and sound of him. Feeling tulan annoyed again, I went across the street to another lady who speaks smattering English, and requested for her gardener.

"But no same same," she told me.
"Mai pen rai (never mind)," I replied.

Just then, the 1st neighbour rushed out and proclaimed, "He is coming today!" I have no idea how on earth she knew what the topic of the day was. And the 2nd neighbour looked relieved that she has not caused my garderner to lose one job.

I ambled back to my house, scratching my head. Was it taboo to change gardener in this kingdom? Even for one who has failed to accomplish his task after a notice of 2 weeks? It all appeared that I was too fussy and impatient. I could almost hear them say, "You want to change gardener JUST because you waited for 14 days? Preposterous!" Seriously, I would have stomped the ground and insisted I want another garderner, if I had spoken Thai. But alas, I could only muttered an insincere "mai pen rai"

It's 4 pm. Is he coming or not? D'oh!