Dear Hilary
In response to the many letters that you receive from the elite of UK and Europe etc, this letter is on behalf of the over sixties, pot bellied, beer swilling, bar girl ogling, past-it guys.
Number one,
We are not all as described above, there are a lot of us expats who go to the local bar to meet up with our friends and discuss various topics. When we are there we are greeted by the bar girls, and as long time regulars of our particular watering hole, are treated with respect.
We don’t get the “come in sexy man” comments, and are generally greeted by name and seated in our usual spot, our drinks are brought to us without delay with the usual smile.
Number two,
Where else will you get the bar girl to run out of the bar in a tropical rainstorm to get your favorite snack from the passing vender without any complaint or expecting something in return,
Number three,
On occasion, when drinking a little too much of the mind clouding liquid, where else will you get the bar girl, or any waitress for that matter, to get you the regular taxi bike guy to take you home and make sure you are not ripped off on the way.
Number four,
We watch from our particular vantage point at the bar, at the people who write in to you after their particular trip to Thailand, they walk into the bar and look at us as if we are too old and shouldn’t be there, we then watch the real experts (girls) go to work, and after several beers later, the guy’s chest swells up and they give us the old knowing wink, as if to say that’s how it’s done pop. A few more beers later and the old bar fine is handed over, and the expert leaves with another captive, on the way out, giving us old smiling guys, the old knowing smile and wink.
Thanks for letting me have my small say,
Not so Desperate Donald.
Dear NSD Donald,
Thank you for that wonderful snippet of the thoughts of the ‘elder spectators at life’ group, but as you can see, I did have to shorten it a little – the Editor gets twitchy if we run to two pages! I did have to correct the spelling as well – I get a little twitchy with a letter full of incredible spellings, such as yours. However, you certainly do know how to put the tourist who thinks he knows everything in his place, and I loved the “expert leaves with another captive.” I am glad to see that our local plus 60’s still have fun, especially the last Friday of the month – is that pension day, my Petal? I will make it my business to drop by one Friday.
