Page 36 - MN

36
time, pets get used to it and it's not traumatic, but I may be wrong. I know the soi dogs just go about their business.
Normal Thai parties are noisy too, and usually feature Karaoke. Let me tell you about Thai parties, because I don't like parties and yet I have to admit Thai people do them the best. You go to a Thai party and nobody cares what you do. You can sing, dance, get drunk, talk, not talk, play with dogs, run around, or go sit in a corner and read a book. I think it's just wonderful. And the dress code is generally whatever you've got on at the time. Shorts, flip flops, tee shirts, dresses, make up, no makeup, whatever the hell you want. And there will be food. There will be enough food to feed an army. Tables bending under the weight of food. And you can eat whenever you please, whatever you please. There is a wonderful freedom to it all and I highly recommend Thai parties. But they will be noisy. And there might be fireworks.
The downside is that Chinese fireworks are not dependable. When Jintana and I got married, we had a combination wedding and housewarming at the new house her family had built. I like Thai weddings, as they are less elaborate than the ones back home. I'm not going to go into the ceremony now, but it was cheerful and involved monks chanting and people filing by tying strings to our wrists while giving us their blessings. Afterwards they took us upstairs to lie on a bed filled with rose petals. We hugged and everyone laughed and took pictures.
At the party that followed, everyone had a good time until one of the Chinese firework bombs didn't go off. One of Jintana's cousins, very drunk, staggered over to see what was wrong and it blew up. He died a couple of days later and as a result, the new house had a ghost problem. None of the family could move into it for about two years and Jintana and I lived in my cheap apartment (I'm a minimalist, remember?) in town. Later, we and the rest of the family moved into the house, and we've lived there ever since.
I've never seen the cousin's ghost.