Winter

Posted by: bkksoul on: December 20, 2006

• In: Life | Randomness | Thailand
• 8 Comments

One of the things I love best about this time of year is that when “winter” blows into town the mechanical drone of the air-conditioners disappear, the windows burst open, and lo and behold, will you take a whiff of that? Nothing but cool, crisp air all around you!

Well, as cool and crisp as you can possibly get in tropical, vehicle-congested Bangkok, that is.

But when you live in the suburbs of the ‘Kok, your winter air actually IS a little crisper. And when you sit outside on your balcony and look out over the lake, you can almost fool yourself into thinking that maybe, just maybe, you’re not in one of the hottest tropical countries in the world but in, oh, I don’t know, some lakeside hideout in the south of France or whatever.

So you sit back with your dental anatomy book in hand and kick your feet up. Feel that cool breeze! Feel that luscious sunshiney warmth! For two precious weeks of the year, you don’t shy away from it; instead, that glorious ball of warmth is actually…pleasant. And not the festering bearer of untolerable, stifling heat it normally is.

You start reading about permanent mandibular lateral incisors and smile. Tres chaude! In more ways than one.

But then suddenly, your ears perk. Lakeside living means that the wind carries the sounds of your neighbors and amplifies it ten-fold, and because you normally never sit out on your balcony (much less open the damn window), suddenly you’re catching the low buzz of lawnmowers, the shouts of Brit kids playing hide-and-seek three houses away (“One! Two! Three! Twenty! Ready or not, here I coooome!!!”), and from the other side of the lake, the infectious twang of June Carter and Johnny Cash’s toe-tappin’ Jackson.

All in all, it’s very pleasant…at least in that mellowed-out, sunshiney, suburban sort of way, it is.

Until the screaming wail of a baby pierces the air. At first you assume it’ll fade into silence, kind of like how James Van der Beek mysteriously faded into the dark oblivion of Burned-Out-TVland after Dawson’s Creek went off air. But, no. Hardly two seconds go by when the pretty square house across the lake unleashes the fiercest, most irate screaming ever. Dude, we’re talking levels that border on outright noise pollution, and despite Mommy’s shushing and hushing (yes, you can hear that, too), Angry Baby does not want to zip it. AT ALL.

So Mommy turns on Beethoven. Mommy offers food. Mommy sings Thai lullabies. Mommy hollers for the maid. Maid comes running. Maid plays peek-a-boo. Maid tries singing a song for Baby from her native Isan. Maid resorts to bribery — coconut ice-cream for some peace and quiet? Do we have a deal? Apparently not, because the screaming just manages to get louder, if that’s even possible.

In a moment of sheer frustration, Mommy finally resorts to pleading…but NOTHING WILL SHUT THE KID UP. You’ve come across a good many babies in your time, but sweet baby Jesus, who would’ve thought such tiny lungs could produce such horrific pandemonium?!

Alas, after a short, but sweet, ten minutes of lakeside sunning, you finally admit defeat and dejectedly pick yourself up before fleeing inside to the quiet confines of your house.

But not before shutting every last window as securely as you can. In all your years of living in Thailand, you never thought you’d say it — but dammit, here’s to hoping winter ends really, really soon.

Oh, and here’s to hoping the week ends soon, too, as exams totally suck. :(

~*~

Currently Playing: I’m Coming by Rain to help drown out the wails of the baby’s screaming that’s still ECHOING IN MY HEAD and haunting me like a really infectious pop song that just won’t go away. And also because he, like, dances really well. And stuff.