The Girl in the Big Mango

Last Tuesday was Lee’s 48th Birthday.

I went down the pub to meet with friends and surprise Lee with a birthday cake.

Wednesday night, an American guy invited me out as he was out with his friends. I thought I would give it a miss and would go home because I had to come to work early the next morning. Then, Andrew talked me into joining him and his mates in the pub. Which I did.

I ended up going home around 3AM.

We started from the Dubliner. Then, moved to Titanium. Then, a seedy bar on top of Andrew’s soi. That place opens until 2AM. So, four of us played pool. Being normal people that don’t play pool for a living, we were absolutely shite at it. The game wouldn’t end, cos we were so terrible. And we lost track of time.

Next thing I knew, a woman behind the bar started bitching at us in Thai. There were only two Thais in our group. I brushed it off cos I didn’t want to ruin the night. Nope she wouldn’t stop. She bitched like we were causing them troubles, and that she shouldn’t have allowed us to play in the first place.

Tell you what, all of us don’t get to sit, drink, play pool all day for a living. We do something else. And playing pool comes around the bottom of our To Do List. Is it a surprise that we are rubbish at it?

I think not.

We didn’t play to beat the shit outa the other team. We played for a laugh.

The owner, some old white guy, said they were allowed to open until 2AM, not 2.20AM. The grumpy old cow said they told us 5 minutes ago that they had to close the place. None of us recalled that episode.

We paid the bills and left. The grumpy old cow gave us the pool game money back, saying no charge. I was very pissed off, because of her manners, and had a vision of me throwing a 1000 THB note at her screaming “will you please just shut the fuck up now?”.

That was just a vision. I didn’t do anything to her.

By the time we left, the black ball was still on the table. You see, we could leave without finishing the game. It’s not a matter of life and death. And it’s only 20 THB a game.

Outside the bar, I told Andrew how rude the grumpy old cow was. His mates were there so I didn’t go all narky. Those people shut the place and walked past us - still bitching. I let a “HEY, SORRY WE DIDN’T KNOW!!!” out. The white guy turned back and waved like “Whatever”.

I’m going to burn the place down.