A Little Afternoon Entertainment

The complete lack of Health & Safety in this country never fails to amaze me. Sometimes though I really think it's more to do with laziness than lack of knowledge. It's just so much easier not to have to bother with all the extra hassle involved in ensuring that someone doesn't maim themselves or die. The Thais are generally a very laidback people who would far rather have a good gossip with their mates or a sleep in a hammock (these ingenious sleeping aids can be found all over the country, strung up between signposts, tree trunks, wooden posts, wherever possible) than do something as strenuous as work.

I was at a friend's house the other day when a few labourers wandered in to brick up a gap in the top of the wall bordering the garden. Their 'scaffolding' consisted of a few thin planks of wood and a bench which needed to be somehow nailed together. The young Thai guy, wearing jeans slung so low they rested just below his bottom (luckily, unlike the Russian woman on the escalator, he was wearing underwear) and a beanie, looked at all the offcuts with a slightly bemused expression on his face before picking a couple of planks up at random and nailing them together. My friend and I, on sunbeds facing the wall and thus with a with a prime position to watch this spectacle unfold, glanced at each other with knowing looks and barely concealed smiles. This was going to be interesting. The poor man probably felt more than slightly self-conscious knowing that we were watching his every move but he acted like it was all a breeze. Or perhaps he just really didn't care.

The scaffolding slowly went up, looking more precarious with every hammered nail. It was when he grabbed the wobbly bench-type-thing and proceeded to nail it to a couple of pieces wood, creating a platform that sloped at an angle more suited to a child's slide, that our laughter bubbled up and escaped from our mouths. Even Lily, my friend's two year old daughter, pointed at it and said "uh oh!" He seemed non-plussed, evidently considering his creation a success. Until, that was, the two female workers he arrived with returned, saw the mess he had made, pointed at it, said something in Thai that sounded very like an admonishment and then laughed themselves. He then proceeded to sheepishly take apart his hastily nailed together death-trap before putting up something slightly safer under the strict supervision of the women.

Perhaps I need to amend my earlier statement - Thai men can be rather work-shy at times but the majority of the women pull their fair share of the weight, and often rather more than they should of the men's.