Mary's Diary (Part 22)

The school

The school, where I occasionally help, has many children from the neighborhood. That means a lot of kids from farms. Many of these children treated animals with complete disrespect. Punching, kicking, teasing and wrong lifting and much more. After attending this school for a while, the children know how to do it.

A large chicken coop has been made on the school grounds, which mainly consist of grass. The children have to take care of the chickens in ever-changing groups. Clean the loft, feed and drink and collect the eggs.

There are also ducks and the school owner's cats. They are now also treated with respect; pulling tails is no longer an option. The herd has recently been expanded with two goats. The children must also take care of this. There are now even children who tell their parents how it can be done.

Spanking is very wrong with animals. Listening out of fear is certainly not a good basis. We always said at home: If you want to hit so bad, grab a guy who's two meters tall, see if you still dare.

The attack

As I mentioned, my yard has turned into a cat hangout. Since all the dogs in the neighborhood died, new ones still haven't appeared, so the cats can now walk quietly everywhere, no one chasing them.

One of the cats, a tomcat, is very affectionate: giving cups, wanting to be petted. Sometimes one of the cats wants to come in with me, like now. Well I knew that! As I entered, I gently pushed the tomcat aside with my foot.

Mister did not like that, with four legs, he jumped off the ground and then jumped on my foot and clasped it with four legs with nails sticking out. That hurt good. Startled, I shouted: What are you doing! That scared the cat again, he let go and ran away. Quickly put betadine on it, luckily it didn't ignite.

For the first time

Ate something for the first time that I didn't love. The tangle said nothing and ate it with relish, so it must have been me. Ice cream here too, so tasty and so much, I would like to go back for that.

It is striking that there are so many places in this village where you can eat such delicious ice cream. I was lucky, I love ice cream.

Prepaid Internet

Every month on the 29th I have to top up my stick by phone to be able to use the internet. My daughter-in-law does that for me. Last month, on the second of the month, I still had internet. This month it stopped on the 27th, very annoying. In the evening I can also regularly not use the internet at all.

In the Netherlands, I would have been very angry about this. Here I shrug my shoulders and think, tomorrow again. Could that be because of the heat?

BBQ

In my son's garden it remains special. First you see the sun go down, at the end blood red in color. Then it gets darker and quieter around us, all the birds on the site go to sleep now, except the geese.

I don't think they like us sitting out there with a fire on. At a distance they are watching us and keep making noises. Only when everything is tidy and everyone is inside, do they calm down and go to sleep. Now it's only quiet in the garden.

My getaway

The annoying thing about my age is that I now see things about people that I used to overlook. An example. When I was 21, I went out to dinner with a boy. I looked at him and thought, oh, what beautiful and long eyelashes he has. What beautiful eyes, what a nice smile he has, what beautiful teeth and how nice his hair is, wonderful to sit here with him.

As a little girl, my mother read many fairy tale books to me, always ending with: And they lived happily ever after. That would happen to me too.

Unfortunately, that was a big mistake and you learn from it. Now I'm over 70 and unfortunately I see very different things about people, although I sometimes make mistakes. I perceive the weaknesses of my fellow man better, so that I no longer only see the nice things, such as the long eyelashes and the nice smile. That makes it a lot less romantic.

Joop, with his beautiful head of white hair, had invited me to eat somewhere. He came to get me by car. After a nice ride and an animated conversation we arrived at a restaurant on the water. There we were, he looked nice and well-groomed, nice silk shirt, no tie, nice long pants and nice shoes.

Did I approve of him ordering? yes sure, that was just fun, I like surprises. We already had a drink, while waiting. For me a Campari with ice and for Joop a whisky, also with ice. I enjoyed my drink. It had been years since I had drunk that. Joop ordered a second whiskey and a third and a fourth and a fifth.

Then luckily the food came. Joop had ordered a bottle of wine with dinner. The food was very tasty, the wine too. Joop's face had turned a bit red and he spoke a bit louder than before. After pouring the second glass of wine, he knocked over his glass. This left a huge red stain on the white tablecloth.

I was watching all this. I didn't see a man with nice long eyelashes, but thought: what if five glasses of whiskey every afternoon? Joop settled everything and whether I was going home with him.

If you leave the car here and take a taxi was my suggestion. We went to his house by taxi. When he had opened the front door, I said: Joop, go to sleep and thank you for the nice dinner.

I got into the taxi and drove home.

Mary Berg

Maria's Diary (part 21) appeared on August 28, 2014. The new book of the Thailandblog Charity Foundation contains Maria's story 'Jan and Marie from Hua Hin'. An exciting story with a surprising and bizarre ending. Curious? Order 'Exotic, bizarre and enigmatic Thailand' now, so you won't forget it later. Also as an ebook. click here for the order method.