You experience everything in Thailand (226)

In the series of stories that we post about something special, funny, remarkable, touching, strange or ordinary that readers in Thailand have experienced today: Pim who hates shopping incredibly, but what does he want with a kilo of rope?

Can I have a kilo of rope please?

It is my fault! I really hate shopping. Sometimes wandering aimlessly through shopping malls, especially when it's busy trying to avoid other shoppers so as not to bump into them, I find it exhausting.

When I visit a store I know exactly what I want, I take it off the shelf and pay at the cash register. And then go home as soon as possible! Finished!

Unfortunately that doesn't always work out because my wife does have a driver's license but can't drive, she doesn't dare to do that either. That's why I always have to come along, often I stay in the car for XNUMX minutes or longer if we "have to" go to the Makro or something like that.

I was therefore glad that she said to me: "come, take a shower and get dressed because I want to quickly pick up that pump because I have more to do today". And that it really had to be done quickly became apparent when she urged me for the third time within 10 minutes to take a shower, get dressed and get in the car to the hardware store.

Because we ran out of water and that was because the sub-mersible pump stopped working. And the large stock tank that normally contains 1500 liters of water was empty.

Our water system was made during the construction of our house in 2014. A long cylindrical pump is 40 meters deep in the ground and pumps water into a storage tank and there is another pump that starts running as soon as you open a tap somewhere or a toilet flushes. Works fantastic, no worries and the water is filtered with a drinking water filter under the sink cabinet and is of excellent quality.

But now there was no water and in the morning two men had come to inspect things, pulled the pump out of the well and it turned out that the motor and the pump had come loose and the thing had to be replaced. I had hoped that the mechanics could provide the material themselves, but no, we had to provide a new pump and then they would come back later in the day to fix things.

So we quickly went to the hardware store to pick up such a pump, we received the specifications from the mechanics, so it was a piece of cake. Arriving at the pump department of the hardware store, the "expert" salesman turned out to have a day off, so a lot of calls were made to find someone who could find the pump and related accessories together to complete the deal.

By now we were surrounded by about five employees who all knew something, but didn't really know the details. I felt the storm lingering. This is not a piece of cake and this is not just going back and forth, this will be day's work. Did I mention I'm not much into shopping?

Apparently that could be read on my face despite the face mask because all the staff had also quickly disappeared.

Oh, well, someone came to help us further and we called the technician who had been to our house earlier that day and told the seller what we needed.

The salesman switched back to the lowest gear and after fifteen minutes a staircase on wheels was placed that was driven to a rack so that a large heavy box could be taken from the top shelf containing the pump and accessories.

When they came downstairs, the box was opened to see if it really contained a pump. And really, believe it or not, there was a pump in the box, even the exact one that was printed on the box!

All the small boxes in the packaging were made up and, miraculously, it also turned out to contain the accessories such as a switching device, a very long blue power cable and a coupling piece. After an hour it was decided that this must be the intended pump with a probability bordering on certainty and everything was carefully packed and the box was sealed with tape.

Now only two 1¼ PVC connectors and a piece of rope of 40 meters had to be put in the shopping cart and I thought that I should be able to get home before dark, so to speak. The salesman walked from left to right and front to back of the huge shop, but the PVC connectors did not appear.

To divert attention, he pounced on the delivery of a 40-meter length of rope that was attached to the pump so that it could gently lower into the well dangling from that length of rope. After some wandering we arrived at the rope department.

It took a while(!) before he had found the right diameter and a fresh roll of twine appeared from which the packaging was removed.

The rope is actually a kind of plastic and is very unruly if you want to remove it from a roll, it immediately curls together and changes in no time into a tangled forest where there is no end and no beginning to discover. The salesman, who had been operating in the lowest gear all morning, downshifted further and began to pull the now one large tangle of rope here and there. Of course without result, it only got worse.

My wife kept an anxious eye on me, she had already seen that I was about to explode, actually from the moment when it turned out that the "expert seller" was not present and I already indicated that I wanted to go to another hardware store.

Despite the fact that the ratio of customers: salespeople was probably 1:6 in the store at that time, I decided to help the man. I found a beginning (or end) of the rope in the tangle and walked it some distance so it couldn't spring back into a tangle.

After half an hour I had freed about fifty meters of rope from the tangle and I shouted: "enough, this is enough, cut it off!"

“NO”, said the man, “rope goes by the kilo and this is not even a kilo”. He pulled the rope out of my hand, whereupon it immediately twisted again and placed the bundle of rope on a scale.

The scale indicated 700 grams and the man continued to pull apart the ball of rope. I yelled, "Glow, glow, glow," or words to that effect, and made it clear to my wife that I wanted to leave NOW.

She preferred to discuss this with the seller and after some hesitation she managed to persuade him to cut off the piece of rope and then stick a sticker of 1 kilo on it if necessary, despite the fact that it only weighed 700 grams or something. more laundry.

But now those two 1¼ PVC connectors were still missing. “Never mind, I'll get glowing, glowing, glowing somewhere on my way home”!

Almost boiling I walked to the car and left my wife in the shop to pay and already 20 minutes later the man, still in the lowest possible gear, came out with the shopping cart followed by my wife with a whole pile of administration in hand on which the purchase was confirmed and the warranty was arranged.

I opened the tailgate of the car and the salesman put everything in the trunk. He smiled at me. A feeling of utter powerlessness came over me, my God, how I hate shopping!

In the evening the mechanics came, half an hour and we had water again and now we have to wait until something breaks again.

Submitted by Pim Foppen

Question to the readers: Why does "garden hose" and apparently also "rope" go by weight, but electricity wire goes by the meter? (at least that's my experience so far)