Letters from a Widower (5)‏‎

In memory of my dear wife I write down some beautiful, special or fun anecdotes. Mali was a beautiful woman and together we experienced many fun or remarkable things. Below are some of those events that I can look back on with a smile.

You can read part 1 here: thailandblog.nl/column/letters-of-a-widower/
You can read part 2 here: thailandblog.nl/column/letters-weduwnaar-2/
You can read part 3 here: thailandblog.nl/column/letters-van-weduwnaar-3/
You can read part 4 here: thailandblog.nl/column/letters-van-een-weduwnaar-4/

Same same but different

To emphasize that we were together, Mali sometimes had the characteristic of putting on or buying similar clothes. For example, a blouse or sweater with the same design or a certain color or pattern that came back. The idea of ​​belonging together is of course nice, but then it has to be kept within limits. Fortunately, she did this very subtly, because to dress almost the same now? I just didn't tell her about Jut and Jul.

I am smart!

Lingo was a program that Mali liked to watch, she could do puzzles with it. This was also the case on the night that a letter G appeared on screen. “Stingy!” Mali immediately exclaimed with enthusiasm. The participants failed to give the correct answer and that was, yes, the answer Mali gave. Mali crowed with satisfaction “I am smart more people!”. Of course I asked Mali how she knew the answer, to which she laughed and said “Dutch people are very stingy”.

Garden hose

It was Mali's first spring in the Netherlands and time to fix up the garden together. Mali was still a bit worried that there couldn't be any snakes in the garden, but I convinced her that this wasn't the case. She was digging in the garden full of good ideas, but when she saw the first fat worm she questioned my statement a bit. “That's a worm honey” I explained. I also told her about the snails in the garden. Later that day I picked up a snail and asked her what it was. Mali could no longer speak and after a short silence she said with a grin "That's Mr. Verstappen*". “Oh, would you like to give Mr Verstappen a kiss?” I said as I brought the snail to her face. “Nooooo!” Mali screamed as she jumped back. “Mr. Verstappen is dirty!”. And thank you dear…
*Of course she didn't mention this one here, but my own last name.

marktplaats

The first year in the Netherlands there was still a lot of space in the hall, the coat rack and the wardrobe. Meanwhile, her Dutch improved by leaps and bounds, as did her knowledge of how we do all kinds of things here in our country. Then Mali discovered Marktplaats, where she could buy nice things for good prices. Soon the hall was full of shoes and boots, the coat rack full of coats and the closet full of clothes. She also liked looking for jewelry, so I now have a mountain of nice watches and other stuff that she bought for one or two tenners each. Mali couldn't imagine people offering these things for so little.

German is better

We had a nice little Japanese car. Fine for our purposes and affordable. But Mali actually liked a Mercedes better. If we were to buy another car, wouldn't it be a Benz? Or at least a BMW. Well, those are nice boxes, but a little outside our price range. But Mali could save for that. I explained that not only was the purchase expensive, but also the tax was not cheap and that maintenance could also be expensive. Mali understood the message and continued to search. Indeed, a Mercedes or BMW may have been too expensive, but a nice Audi or Volkswagen was more than enough according to Mali. Every now and then she showed nice, reasonably affordable German cars that should eventually replace my Japanese car. The savings account did not add up quickly, so the discussion about when a German would arrive at the door was put on hold.