In addition to all the rain we’ve been getting in Bangkok this week, I suspect we may have been struck by an earthquake, or at least a few tremors. How else to explain the worsening condition of most sidewalks around town? I realize the steady flow of motorcycles, and even a few trucks, doesn’t help the condition on the sidewalks, but it appears something else is making them worse than normal. It makes me feel like I’m walking on the surface of some sort of constantly shifting organism as I stumble down the path. It’s not just cracks, but wobbly slabs of concrete and missing chunks of pavement that had to the obstacle course-like madness. I’m not the most coordinated of people, so having to walk on a surface like this only makes me look more spastic than normal.
It’s been an insanely busy week at my bookshop. We’re currently having an anniversary sale, but the increased influx of people coming to my shop is not only because they want to buy books. It’s also that time of year when there is an exodus of foreigners from Bangkok. With local international schools nearing the end of their school year, many foreigners are moving to other cities, moving to somewhere else in the city, or just taking a holiday break from the city. As a result they want to sell their entire book collections. It’s great to have some good new titles for our inventory, but not so good for our cash flow. And for some reason, this year we are seeing more people selling more books than usual.
Adding to the recent chaos, we are looking for a new location for the bookshop. Our new landlord (this guy bought the building from our original landlord last year) has decided he wants to raise the rent, the sluggish economy be damned. Our lease does not end until February next year, but we aren’t keen to pay even more money for this old building (roof leaks and all). So, my business partner has been looking for other locations in the area. We think we’ve found a good spot on the same street — on the same block, in fact — that is much cheaper. The downside is that we will have to spend a considerable amount of money to get it into retail shape. Our new miserly landlord has graciously agreed to let us out of our current lease if we give him three months notice. As for the deposit, that’s a gray area. We’ll get some of it back, but I have the feeling the landlord is going to find reasons to withhold the full amount. I don’t look forward to moving whatsoever, but I have look at this whole situation from a positive perspective and try to make the most of it. If nothing else, we can design this new store, using all three floors, so that we have more space and more shelves for our ever-increasing inventory of books.
I had dinner one night last week with my friend Myriam at a restaurant on Asoke called Big Mama’s. I’d never been there before but Myriam had been there several times, thanks to a recommendation from her daughter Yolanda. Big Mama’s serves very good — and very reasonably priced — Italian cuisine, everything from the usual pizza and pasta, to other creative meat, seafood, and vegetarian dishes. The place was packed when we went. It was a good thing Myriam had made reservations or we would have been cooling our heels (more like sweating, in this humid weather) outside for a while. I was very pleased to discover a good new restaurant that pays more attention to the food than the décor. I mentioned it to several people this past week and was surprised to find that most of them had been there before. Not such a secret after all.
