Diary of Maria Berg (part 7)

Maria Berg (72) made a wish come true: she moved to Thailand in October 2012 and she has no regrets. Her family calls her an ADHD senior and she agrees. Maria worked as an animal caretaker, student nurse, animal ambulance driver, lady bartender, activity supervisor in day care and as a caretaker C in private home care. She wasn't very stable either, because she lived in Amsterdam, Maastricht, Belgium, Den Bosch, Drenthe and Groningen.

Home again

The grass has turned into something brown in those days that I have been away to the south of Thailand. According to the people who should know, I just have to keep spraying and it will grow again. I can't imagine that, but do it well every day. The plants are still in reasonable condition and my container with the water plant can still handle it. All windows are open again, there is no air conditioning here, only a fan and that is really enough to cool down.

The shells I found on the beach have been washed and are drying on a table, there are really beautiful ones. Part of it will go with me when I go to the Netherlands, I will make a friend happy with it. The funny thing is, when I go to Thailand, I have a suitcase full of things from the Netherlands and when I go to the Netherlands, I have a suitcase full of things from Thailand.

Another animal

Recently, a beautiful red kitten keeps coming to eat at my house, whether it is a lady or a gentleman, I don't know. I put water and food on the garden table, so that the dogs cannot reach it, it is not really afraid of the dogs, it runs away from me.

Berta, the outdoor dog, is slowly turning into a yard dog. She now eats in the garden and the latest thing is running circles around the house with her pup Kwibus. After some time they lie together on the grass (what is left of it) and pant. I am happy to see this happen. Maybe one day she will dare to enter the house.

I'm in love!

Yes, I'm in love, no, not with a man, I'm in love with a quad bike. In the village center I discovered a shop that sells the quad. I went to look and fell in love instantly. On such a very cool quad that you could also use on land. They come in the brightest colors, I want an army green, which must be ordered. A rack in the front and a rack in the back, where you can take everything with you. I look forward to touring there. It will be one with a license plate, so that I can also go on the main road.

This should be easy for someone with a large driver's license and driving experience with 50 cubic meters of trucks. No, I have not been a truck driver. Got all my driver's licenses as a joke when I was young and always moved my friends, my family and myself.

That was always a laugh. Especially when something went wrong, it was a source of amusement, like dropping a gas stove, what a noise! Girlfriends always liked to help. We (my girlfriends and I) talk about it sometimes and have to laugh at all those memories.

hair products

In one of the narrow streets in the village center there is also a shop with everything related to hair. When you enter the store, you first see shelves full of hair dye, not like in the Netherlands, from blond to black and some shades of red, here only the dark colors. Women older than me (now 72 years old) also dye their hair, except for a few.

Then you get shelves full of all kinds of shampoos and then all shelves with hair care products. Reinforcements, cream, hair spray, etc., nothing else is for sale. The store is not big, but I have never seen such a large assortment of hair products.

Most women in Thailand hate going gray. Well, that is not only in Thailand, in the Netherlands many women also dye their hair. The store can't say much to me, gray from my 24th year and now completely white. All I buy is a bottle of something I'm not familiar with, Ginseng & Rice Milk aka ginseng with rice milk should be good for protecting your hair from the sun, let's see if that really helps.

The Italian

Even though it's just a village here, we even have an Italian restaurant! My grandchildren loved to eat there. It was very busy, but there was still room for us. I ordered spinach lasagna. Everyone ordered something different, it all looked delicious. The lasagna really had a layer of cheese and looked green from the spinach, I was quite hungry for that.

Used to good Italian restaurants in Amsterdam, but this was something different. It was sweet, you didn't taste spinach and the cheese was a bit rubbery. The kids liked everything. What made up for it was the dessert, delicious ice cream in fourteen flavours. We all chose three scoops with lots of whipped cream. I would like to go back for that ice cream, I really enjoyed it.

My garden at night

When it is dark in the evening, all sorts of things happen in my garden. It's 20:30 PM and dark, well, it never gets completely dark here. All neighbors leave lights on around the house at night and my nice neighbors also have an illuminated ghost house in the front garden. That light also burns all night.

There's barking coming from my yard, from several dogs. When I go to look, there are three dogs around the bird feeder. Kwibus, the pup, is the captain; mother Berta and the black dog of my other neighbors participate eagerly.

There is a large toad in the bird drinking trough. He is clearly not impressed by this noise. After half an hour the dogs have long been looking out for him. The toad sits quietly, take a picture of him.

Maria's Diary (part 6) appeared on April 27. After that, Maria wrote De Week van Maria Berg (May 25).