In memory of our faithful pet!

About fourteen years ago we welcomed Buddy, a beagle, into our family. She was a super fun dog. She was a little mischievous but she had a super sweet character. She was very good with kids and never hurt anything or anyone. She did have her natural hunter instinct and so she ran away a couple of times. The fast food shop knew where she lived so they returned her to us a couple of times after she had run away. One time she ran away while it was snowing but she wasn’t able to find her way back because her tracks had been erased. Luckily she was returned to us by someone who knew her. Leaving grocery bags on the floor with bags of candy in them wasn’t possible because when you returned a little later to put the groceries away you would only find empty candy bags. Another time grandpa left the mackerel on top of the fireplace to warm it up and everyone went upstairs for a bit and when we returned the mackerel had disappeared and we saw Buddy licking her mouth in approval of that very fine fish.

When we decided to come to Thailand we wanted to make sure that Buddy would have a good home and we succeeded. A friend of ours had always been crazy about Buddy and Buddy had always been crazy about her. We plucked up the courage and asked her if she was willing to “adopt” Buddy. We are forever grateful. Buddy lived with her for almost 8 more years and had a really good life there. Near the end of October we received news that Buddy was sick and that our friend didn’t know if Buddy would make it. On November 4th she died. We were all very upset even though she hadn’t been with us for 8 years.

Thank you dear friend for the love and care that you’ve given Buddy. We are forever grateful.

Behind the wheel with a little too much alcohol is an accident waiting to happen.

At this moment I, Peter, am recovering from a motorcycle accident which was caused by a car driver who had had a little too much to drink.

I was driving home from church on Sunday September 7th when I noticed a car parked on the side of the road and so I automatically went to the middle of the road in order to pass by safely. When I was about 50 meters from the car it suddenly pulled away and made a U-turn. The driver of that car did so without using either a turn signal or turning his headlights on. The only option I had was to go even further to the right but sadly there was no escaping that collision. I got launched over the hood of the car and landed 10 meters further down the road.

Tatjana, who was also making her way home from church, was about 3 minutes behind me with the car. I didn’t have my phone with me and I knew she still had to pass me so I asked someone for a phone and called Tatjana to tell her that I had had an accident. A lot of people stopped to help me. Some of them wanted me to sit up and others wanted me to stay down, which was what I had been thinking because I had no feeling in the lower parts of my legs. An ambulance had already been called.

In the hospital they first cleaned out my wounds and a couple of x-rays were made. The doctor on duty didn’t know whether or not there was a fracture in my ankle because it was pretty swollen. We then decided to go home and try to get a good night’s sleep.

The next morning we headed back to the hospital and there we heard that there probably was a fracture in my ankle. They then made another x-ray and it showed that there was a fracture and so I had to have surgery.The doctor told me I wasn’t allowed to put any weight on my ankle for 6 weeks but that I should keep trying to get some movement into it. This has become my daily task which isn’t very pleasant since my butt hurts pretty badly from the accident.