After a while, Big Steve got up and left.  He had not gone five minutes before Karen came past again.  I chuckled to myself.  It was like a sitcom here at the market.

"I just been speaking to your friend," I told her.

"My friend? You mean Somchai?"

"No, I mean your Aussie lodger."

Her face changed.  "Oh my god! You mean Big Steve? Where is he?"

"He went off that way about five minutes ago."

"God, what weirdo that guy is. Can you believe that he had a fight with his Thai wife and asked to stay at mine for a couple of days.  I mean, why not get a hotel? You can get a room by the morning market for three hundred baht.  Anyway, I said yes and can you believe that he ended up staying over a month?!  I mean, he never offered to help with the rent and he is so filthy.  He used to wear that vest of his for over a week in this climate...disgusting!  He absolutely stank.  And then he started making rude suggestions about us having sex and I was like, no way am I gonna have sex with a skanky person like that.  And he used to just live in my front room.  Really annoying.  Anyway..." Karen laughed wickedly.  "I used to bring my boyfriend back and then later his brother of course and we used to have really loud sex in my bedroom while he was taking over the whole of my sofa in the living room.  That used to make him really mad!"

"Bitch," I said and she laughed again.

"Yeah and he was always going on about all the big guys he knew in Krabi town.  Like, whatever.  When I was growing up in London, some of the people at school used to go on about how they knew some of the top guys in the Firm...but Krabi town? Cmon."