Mary's Diary (Part 20)
The water tank
A large blue plastic water tank has been placed in my garden by my son; with a motor, so that I have a good water pressure. Several times the float in the tank remained closed, resulting in no water supply, so an empty water tank. How is this possible? No one touches the tank, it remains a mystery.
The tank also sometimes suddenly overflows, because the float inexplicably becomes loose and then the water does not shut off, but the water comes over the edge of the tank. No one touched the tank here either. During the last flood, the float was found to have broken off. Rara, how is this possible again?
It's a pity no one can see me, it's really fun to laugh. There I am, half in my water tank, looking for the float and that as an old woman over seventy. For someone of my generation, I'm quite tall (175 cm), but I'm not tall enough to see into the water tank.
I am standing on the fourth step of a folding staircase and sure enough, the float floats there, of course just on the other side of the tank. With a bamboo stick I pull the float towards me and take it out of the water. I think this is all caused by the ghost in the tank. Yes, it will be.
In the shower
Nothing better than in the shower. It took a while to get used to only cold water, but that freshens you up. First wet everything, soap and also my hair with shampoo. Now rinse everything off and then there was no more electricity, so no water either.
You don't really think about it that much, but without power nothing works anymore and the power goes out regularly here. Flushing the toilet, the tap, the washing machine, the shower, nothing works anymore, even the fridge stops working. Fortunately, there is a large barrel of water in the shower for such situations, which you can use to rinse yourself clean.
The electricity here is designed for about thirty houses, but construction is still going on. There are now at least 150 houses here, but nothing has changed in the flow. The landowner should take care of that, but that costs money, so it doesn't happen.
Antibiotics
When I have flu symptoms I just wait until the weather is over. A bag of pills was immediately fetched for me here. Now I am allergic to penicillin, but I have been given tetracycline for something in the Netherlands, for example.
The pills were taken from the pharmacy. Just a bunch of pills in a bag, no leaflet, no indication of how much was in a pill, nothing at all. It did say: take 1 with each meal. Well, I'm not very trusting, so I'll have a look on the internet. It said: do not take with meals. Throw the bag of pills in the trash. After a few days I was better again.
The chicken
There are a lot of birds in my son's garden, including different types of chickens. Because everything is mixed up, you also get crossings, which look very nice, and also a few normal brown chickens.
So one of the brown chickens is not so common. I think she thinks she's a cat. She sleeps in a chair with cats, lays an egg in the same chair every day and when the cats are fed, she also comes running and eats with the cats, who find this very normal. They don't hurt her.
'Chance'
A day in Bangkok with my daughter-in-law, that's always fun. Well, lately we drive to a petrol station outside Bangkok, park the car there and take a taxi to where we need to be. You just stand at the gas station along the highway and then taxis also pass by and they stop when you raise your hand.
This time my daughter in law had a whole conversation with the driver. Coincidentally he came from a village next to the village where we live. We got his phone number and if we need to go to the airport he is more than happy to take us. In our area it is difficult to get a taxi, this can hardly be a coincidence.
The cat mother
The cat mother has been missing for fourteen days. The kittens, who are now more than four months old, are still in the garden and come to eat too. At half past five in the morning they are sitting in front of the door and find that the service takes a long time to come.
I can now pet one of them, the other two don't like that. Feeding is fine, but touching, yuck. At 17 p.m. they get another one.
Now the hangover regularly comes to look at them and then also gives them a wash. Really sweet, but I keep wondering where the mother cat has gone. I don't understand.
Mary Berg
Maria's Diary (part 19) appeared on July 4, 2014.
Submitted communication
'Exotic, bizarre and enigmatic Thailand': that's the name of the book that stg Thailandblog Charity is making this year. 44 bloggers wrote a story about the land of smiles especially for the book. The proceeds go to a home for orphans and children from problem families in Lom Sak (Phetchabun). The book will be published in September.
Hi Mary,
Haha, another lovely piece from your pen.
And a chicken that sleeps between the cats and also lays an egg, unbelievable.
When you sit down and think about it, it's too crazy for words.
I also have the image on my retina that you are hanging half and half out of that tank.
So chuckled for a while.
And get pills from a pharmacy.
So do they put it in such a plastic bag where they can write down what it is/for what and how many mg/when to take.
Then you can look online yourself.
It is possible to be without electricity.
Here (Jomtien) they also build.
Also experienced my husband having to get a bucket out of the pool as I was a big soap ball.
thankfully no hair.
And only then do you find out what you [should] use the electricity for.
Nice day.
LOUISE
No electricity, in Thailand it is even free. I'm renting a room in a block of 60. The settlement is made on the last day of each month. The electricity must be paid according to the number of kilowatts consumed. So the meters must be recorded. About four years ago, because the maintenance man had not been asked if I wanted to do that, OK. I saw that the power wires on the ground floor just ran under the balconies of the floor above. From here to the adjacent meters and to the floors above. I saw that branches had also been made to the adjacent plot. A snooker club is located here, where many Thai and foreigners come from morning to late in the evening who have nothing to do. So I went to the club to see where those wires went. One couple went to the kitchen and another to the club's switchboard. I even noticed that they also used the satellite connection. Together with the settlement, deliver a note to the residents that there would be no electricity on that day and hour. That was the moment to turn on the main switch and disconnect the illegal wires.
Result, snooker club a day without electricity. so no people and no income. Next morning still no electricity. How could this be. Then bring in a professional. He searched for half a day before he found the cause. Subsequently, after a whole discussion, it was decided to make an application to install their own meter and to pay for the damage suffered on the basis of a month's consumption.
I was then able to reconnect the wires while waiting.
For more than four years they had simply let someone else pay for the electricity.
We regularly have dull bangs in the village and power cuts of a few hours. I ask Nui, do you have an idea how that can be done. Turns out that a man lives in the village who works for the electricity company, just like his wife. He is a kind of owner. He taps that power (they say), illegally of course. Apparently he knows the trick. Sometimes that doesn't go quite right, so bang. I'm not sure if it fixes the problem or not.
As for that float. They have a split pin as a fulcrum. The float, the mechanism, is made of bronze. The split pin too. What some hardware shops are now doing is replacing the split pin with one made of iron. Now you get galvanic corrosion in the water and the pin dissolves. After a year or so the float overflows loose and the simple-minded place a new float/valve. Then it starts again. I also had a bronze split pin in it 5 years ago when I got it. Still good now.
Maria, once again a nice piece of well written text, I always like to read it. I don't think the floater is placed properly. Perhaps it is upside down (at the top of the valve or to the side), it must be at the bottom of the tap, otherwise it will break in no time and the supply will also malfunction. Have your son take a look at it, or have a plumber come out. Also have a side pass installed, which is a pipe that is between the water supply from the street and the pipe past the pump (that little motor), with valves in between. If the electricity fails again, you can have water directly from the street by switching to that pipe. I have also done that with me and it has proven its worth every time when the electricity fails again or when the tank is empty, for example.
Greetings,
rogers.
Another real Maria story, beautiful! About the ghost in the water tank; when I was little, my grandmother had a well, covered with a lid. In addition, a zinc bucket on a chain, with which she brought up water. We were never allowed to look in there, because “pietje den aaker” was in that well and he pulled small children into the well with his hook and they never came out again. Maybe that ′′ Pietje ′′ is busy with other things now.
The ghost in the water tank, hear my Thai family talk about it too. Especially to the small children, they go white with shivering at the thought only as if there were no spirit in them.
Reminds me just like you Gerrie, of my (Dutch) grandmother, she told the stories about Frau Holle. Will be a variant of an existing theme.
That of Frau Holle was also a story at a well, no one came out of it properly. Unless AS BLACK AS PIT AND SOOT. That was traumatic!
Actually, these are pedagogically and didactically responsible story links; keep children out of danger zones.
Sometimes starting university students dare to dive into a pond after some 'ad fundums', or worse jump into a river, even if not for a bet or a cup of beer. If only they had had a grandmother who told about 'Pietje Den Aaker'… because she has drowned many already.
All the more (archaic language) it is always nice to read Maria's diary. It's so casual and honest, but she describes it as it is, and as no other can. Without fuss. Or even without the cat, because she is… where the grass is greener, take a look; has just given, appropriate?? Hope she comes back soon for her offspring, because Maria is worried.
Maria, thank you, and hope for news from mother cat.
Maybe the missing mother cat went to eat with the chickens?
Like that chicken going to eat with the cats?
Wrong mind in wrong body or how do you say something like that?
Always nice to read your diary, Maria!
I fully agree with this. Another beautiful piece, especially that chicken with an identity problem. Awesome!