Happy Wan Kurd To Me

I have officially passed my very first birthday on the road, or my very first wan kerd that is; yes, British people delight, the Thai word for birthday is wan kerd, which had the Brits chuckling and the Americans looking perplexed on the day. For those non-Brits reading, ‘wankered’  is a synonym for drunk. In the words of Michael Macintyre “You could actually use any word in the English language and substitute it to mean drunk…” it’s all about the addition of ‘–ed;’ “…I was utterly gazeboed. Totally and utterly car-parked. Last night you should have seen me – f*cking pyjamaed!”

Well, I wouldn’t say I got completely shopping-trollied on my wan kerd since it was a school night but I did treat myself to a bottle of imported Chilean Sauvignon Blanc from the Big C since it was a special occasion and my lovely friend Ngan let me use her art bar to throw a party. She even put on a barbeque and gave us a free pitcher of boozy slushy at the end of the night. Not to mention providing me with my third cake of the day in the form of chocolate banana bread – seriously yummy.

The first cake was delivered by singing fellow krew (teachers) at one minute past midnight and the second was from the head of English, teacher Pad, at school. In Thailand the tradition is that the person whose birthday it is provides for everyone else as opposed to the other way around, I didn’t go totally Thai but I bought cakes for the teachers, chocolate coins for the children and beer and veggies for my buddies. I suppose having one expensive birthday a year is definitely ok considering that you can cash in on everyone else’s the rest of the year! There’s always cake in school when the children have birthdays and Thailand does do surprisingly good cake. Don’t get me wrong, the cake process in no way begins with ‘break two eggs…’, they’re all shop bought but they’re moist as melons and melt in your mouth – yum. Fabulous day; breakfast, lunch and dinner cake. Thank-you everybody who came or sent me messages and especially thank-you Ngan for letting us make a mess of your kitchen and commandeer your bar.