Mary's Diary (Part 14)
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 was not very stable either, because she lived in Amsterdam, Maastricht, Belgium, Den Bosch, Drenthe and Groningen.
Christmas present
For as long as I can remember, a diary has been open on my coffee table. When the children were still at home, everyone wrote down what they were going to do that day, outside school hours. I also wrote all my activities in it. The kids have been out for more than 20 years, but the agenda is still there.
For the new year, I looked for a calendar in my area, nothing decent to find. I sent this to a good friend of mine by email. Big surprise! This week there was a package in the mailbox, well, it was half hanging out, because it didn't fit. I opened it and besides a nice Christmas card, there was a great agenda. What a nice Christmas present. A friendship to cherish.
To stay
From the litter that Berta had before her sterilization, two puppies went to a Dutch friend of mine. Their names are Bob and Marly. Today they come to stay for six days. Kwibus likes it, they play together in the garden and also inside, which they are not allowed at home. The door is open, everyone can go in and out, they love it.
Their mother Berta is not very happy about it, she clearly doesn't feel like it. Occasionally she shows her teeth and sometimes growls quite a bit. This way the little ones at least know who's boss. I have six busy days ahead of me. The puppies will go home on January 3rd, it was nice that they were there, but also very nice that they are going home again.
Laptop
That same day my laptop breaks down and it is impossible to get it to work again, that will be weeks without it. Also don't get the time to sit behind a computer anymore.
Nightmare
Kwibus falls ill on Sunday 5 January, the veterinary clinic is closed that day. The next morning to it. It's not rabbies, but a rare form of distemper. I have to come back with him every day for six days.
January 7
The dog still has a high fever, same medication.
January 8
He still has a lot of fever, now also goes into an oxygen cabin.
January 9
He begins to eat a little more and sleeps a lot.
January 10
Eats himself with support and is very restless.
January 11
Has constant convulsions, is given a sedative and luckily has no fever anymore.
January 12
I will be in the clinic from 10 am to 15 pm. We go home with an IV in his leg. They still think he's going to get better.
January 13
There's a neurosurgeon now, looking at him. I have to give him another week, come every day again.
Kwibus died in the night and was buried in the garden. The neighbour's daughter is inconsolable, she played with Kwibus every day, I invited her to come and lay a flower on the grave.
January 16
One of the two puppies is sick and dies that night.
Visa and Bangkok
Tuesday the XNUMXst to Bangkok for my visa, I am with my son. It is busy with people, but not with cars. Occasionally we have to wait at a roadblock, three cars are allowed through and we are well in time for the visa.
One of the ladies behind the counter explains how we can get back from Bangkok the fastest and we succeed. All told, we've been in there for less than an hour. On the way we eat something and are home early.
Nightmare on repeat
Berta, the mother dog, is sick and it doesn't look good. After five days she also passed away and is buried next to her child.
Despite the sadness, there is still something to laugh about. My son comes to dig a hole for her and as he digs he suddenly says: I hope I don't dig up some of your landlord's murdered women. Despite everything, we have to laugh a lot about that.
It is very strange to me that no one is waiting for me when I get home. It's quiet here in my neighborhood, there are still three dogs in the whole neighborhood, the rest are all dead. Hopefully those three don't get it. And I don't want any more dogs at all, don't want to think about it, I've had it with animals for a while.
The snake
On my way to the supermarket, I come across a beautiful snake. I had to take a picture of it. When I showed the photo at my son's house, everyone was shocked. I was told, if you see a snake, run and get out. At such a moment you really feel like a stupid foreigner. I never thought about the danger for a moment.
Real foreigners
Went to a new store last Sunday, towards Kanchanaburi. There was a supermarket, with all sorts of foreign things. Then suddenly me and my son are real foreigners. Ha, baguette, brown bread, butter, all kinds of cheese, whipped cream, canned sauerkraut and much more, we stock up on some of that.
Outside the supermarket a shop with delicious looking cakes and a large ice cream parlour. The kids wanted pizza, so that was it. If you haven't eaten that in a long time, that's sometimes nice.
Laptop
Bought another laptop a Panasonic, second hand. That's a laugh, I also have to go back with it, everything on the keys is not correct at all. When I press M, I get an O and with some letters, I get numbers. They had set him to Dutch, but that is not correct either, sometimes he suddenly switches to Thai. So now sitting on a borrowed one to write. Hopefully they can fix it.
Maria's Diary (part 13) appeared on December 27, 2013.
Submitted communication
Looking for a nice gift for a birthday or just because? Buy The Best of Thailand Blog. A booklet of 118 pages with fascinating stories and stimulating columns from eighteen bloggers, a spicy quiz, useful tips for tourists and photos. Order now
Dear Maria, I was there early this morning because of the skirmishes on Election Day. And who is second on TB? That's right, show who's important here. I already knew, but that it was so bad with your dogs, I didn't know that and I'm very sorry for you.
Cheer up, because good times are coming again. Hope to see you soon, or to emails.
Hi Mary,
Yes, tell me.
With only the dog leash (then in the Netherlands) in your hand away from the fat.
Man, a big mouth but a small heart and there went to my car crying.
Waited a long time, because the last qwas still playful, but when she had finished her crazy hour, she was completely exhausted.
And you right 3 pieces. yuck!!!!
Enjoyed your story again and look forward to your next one.
LOUISE
What happened that you lost Kwibus, Bertha and the puppy. Fortunately, you have plenty of fun moments with your animals to remember.
Your laptop probably has an “American” keyboard: the first row of alphabetic keys starts with QWERTY , which is called a QWERTY keyboard. A French keyboard has a different layout, they call it AZERTY (again because of the key order). In the past you also had a Dutch keyboard. You can also set multiple keyboards: Thai and American. Handy for someone who often has to write in several languages. With a certain key or key combination you can even switch quickly (on Thai computers you can often switch quickly with the ~ key to the left of the row of number keys (leftmost, second row).
I suspect that your computer is set to a Dutch keyboard. A helpful person can change the keyboard settings. You set the keyboard to American, and you can set the language to Dutch. You can remove the Thai. If you want to experiment or explore for yourself, take a look here:
http://www.microsoft.com/business/nl-nl/Content/paginas/article.aspx?cbcid=40 . Keyboard and language settings can be found from the menu Start > Control Panel.
On the bottom bar of your screen, which also contains START with which you shut down your computer, you can easily change the language for your keyboard. On the right side of that bar you see a box with the time in it and icons of the programs that are running. To the left of that plane is a small field, which contains NL, TH or so, the language. If you click on that, a window will appear in which you click on EN English (United States).
And then your keyboard should work just fine.
Greetings and strength without your dogs.
Andrie
Yes, often, but that is not always the case, unfortunately I have experienced it myself.
Then you really have to search under Start > (settings) > control panel > country settings and then click on "details" under the "languages" tab. At least with Windows XP, but with later Windows versions it doesn't differ much in my opinion. For example, on Windows 7, Start > Control Panel > Clock, Language, and Region, then click > Regional and Language Options, then the Keyboards and Languages tab.
Once you have found it, you can set the settings to:
– Default input language: Dutch. Keyboard: United States (International).
The advantage is that you can make frequently used accents appear on letters with key combinations. If you first press the key with double quotes ” and then a vowel, it puts two dots on the vowel. He does the same with other accent marks. If you set the language input to English and the keyboard as well, then that will unfortunately not work. The most important thing is of course that your computer knows that you are using a QWERTY keyboard, whether the language is Dutch or English (United States) is less important.
For example, if you also want to be able to type Thai, you can add the input language Thai. Sometimes you have to install extra language packs to write Thai with the Windows CD. This can also be done somewhere under the Regional settings. So far the tip to Maria to ensure that the keys you press also correspond to the letters that appear on your screen. 🙂
Hi Maria I am on holiday in Thailand and I live in Maastricht. How sad about the dogs and your laptop. I can't email anymore because my email has been hacked but I'm going to Maatricht again on March 10. Good luck Wanda