Mary's Diary (Part 4)

To the hairdresser: great haircut
and it's fun too (archive photo)

Maria Berg (71) made a wish come true: she moved to Thailand and she has no regrets. Part 1, 2 and 3 of her Diary appeared on November 28, December 29 and January 23. Part 4 today.

The grandchildren all want a cake

Saturday afternoon, to the Saturday market. I look my eyes out. Lots of fruits and vegetables that I don't know. Types of fish I've never seen. There are also roast chickens, look tasty, but when I consider that they may have been there since the morning, I didn't buy it anyway. Fruit and vegetables and tasty limes. Exciting, how will it all taste?

Then the sweets department, I'm with my grandchildren and they all want a cake. It looks nice and they all choose one, including one for me, which we will eat at home. We go home and look forward to the beautiful cake on the way, which will taste.

Got home, first unload everything and then we really sit down, here come the cakes! I am a real cake lover and I also think I know something about it, the children enjoy eating it. I gain a new experience, very good for the line, I will never eat it again!

—

We went for a washing machine and ended up at a wedding

Last Saturday, we (the whole family) finally went to look at a washing machine. First here in the village, that didn't work out, my son had already had a look and now the washing machine suddenly cost 2000 bath more. They had one at the second case, which I wanted, but my son said we should look further. After number three we had dinner, then on to a large department store where we went to have a look. Everything was bought and viewed. The kids got tired, so back to their house.

Towards evening I offered to treat them to dinner. We all drove to the center of the village, I thought, but we suddenly turned left and sat on the University grounds, stopped at a large building and I asked: are we going to eat here? Yes, my son said, we're going to a wedding of a colleague of mine here and we're going to eat here too.

Fortunately I had put on nice clothes that morning, so it was possible. First greeted the bridal couple and then at a table with four more people. An American with his Japanese wife, a half American half Thai with his Thai wife and our tangle. At least 40 tables with family, friends and people from work. It was fun and because I witnessed my son's wedding, I understood most of it. At half past nine in the evening I was home and at ten o'clock I was in bed, but…. still no washing machine.

—

The hanging plant is a Lazy Lady

I once bought an antique beet mill in Drenthe from someone who has been a good friend of mine for years. A large metal thing with a large wheel on one side and a crank on the other. It doesn't work anymore but is very nice as decoration, I just painted it completely again and I've been putting plants in it for years.

Here in the village there are several places where you can buy plants, including opposite the supermarket. There they had plants with orange flowers, they are hanging plants and very special. Freely translated, they are called Lazy Lady, the flowers close at 18 p.m. and you only see green and in the morning they only open again at about 00 a.m. and you suddenly have plenty of orange flowers.

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To the hairdresser: great haircut and it also looks nice

It was about time I had my hair cut, always had very long hair, but since a few years, nice and short, especially here in Thailand a relief. Shower in the morning, comb through and you're done. But now it was getting very long.

In the village in one of the narrow streets, where the button and thread shop is also located, is the hairdresser. When you step into the shop, you go back a century, everything there is from a long time ago. Mirrors with the weather in them, barber chairs I've never seen before, no cash register, but a table with a drawer in it for the money. Two ladies over fifty run the business.

Behind the case is a dimly lit room, where there is a doctor's examination table with a sink against it. Yes, you will need to lie on your back on the exam table with your head over the sink. Your hair is washed three times, with shampoo, which has such a perfume smell, it would almost knock you down, so it's a good thing you're lying down.

Your ears are also washed inside (not very pleasant), then a cream treatment that is rinsed out. With a towel on you return to the shop, where you can take a seat in one of the antique barber chairs. The lady is busy with me for an hour, I do my best not to get impatient. The result may be there. Nice cut and it's still nice too. Quite an experience and all for 110 baht.

—

Cartoon at home: I haven't had such fun in ages

I'm standing outside watering the plants late in the afternoon, when suddenly a skinny Thai man runs across the lawn with a tree of at least two meters, which he can barely hold on to. He walks like he's drunk. Is it because of the weight of the tree or is he really drunk, who knows?

He is clearly very angry and is chasing my outdoor dog. Screaming loudly and swinging back and forth, he tries to hit her with the tree. The dog then runs into a street and the man lies face down on the ground. It's really like in cartoons, I'm doubled over laughing. When he gets up, he looks at me very angrily. Too bad for him, I haven't had such fun in ages.

Where had the earthworms gone?

One morning my son and his second daughter, who just turned four years old, are looking for earthworms, they go fishing. Between them is a container to put them in. He explains to her how to find the earthworms. They are diligently busy, meanwhile they are having a nice chat with each other, at one point my son looks in the box, there is nothing in it, while he has already caught several.

He asks his daughter where the earthworms are. She can't answer him, she has her mouth full... with earthworms. She swallows them quickly so that she can answer her father anyway. You must be polite to your parents.

 

Dear Thailand Bloggers,

Got a taste after reading Maria's Diary? Thailandblog invites you (expats, tourists and potential tourists) to also climb into the pen. This can be in the form of a Diary with short stories or in the form of a Week Diary. Size approximately 700-1500 words. Send your text as a Word file to the editorial address. Maria dared again for the fourth time, now you.