For those of you whose free time is so inconsequential that you waste it tuning in to my musings, you may ask yourself, What has become of Ma Song? If you are a frequent follower, you will realize that my mother-in-law has been involved in more than her fair share of hijinks, often involving spitting or littering, that end up as fodder for my entries. You won’t have to scroll to far back to be reminded that only recently Ma had several health issues that concerned us deeply. If you were at all worried about her recovery – never fear; she has regained her sprightly spirit and is once again the bane of my existence. So where is she? you ask – why camped out on the floor of my living room as I write this! I mean, I know she must be in decent health if she was able to negotiate the several forms of public transport and a kilometer walk to make it from Nong Sao to our house in Khon Kaen, and all this without a phone call. Surely she must have been confident in her physical condition if she didn’t even bother to let us know she was coming so we could pick her up from the bus station. Really, I appreciate her not wanting to put us out or burden us, but it might have been nice to know she was coming in advance. You see, we might have been out or we might have been naked or we might just have not been in the mood for a visit, but hell we’re family, right?
One thing I’ll say about Ma Song is that the lady is hard as nails when it comes to sleeping. We have a decent sofa that folds into a bed, though often she prefers the firm support that can only be offered by a stone-tiled floor and will spend the night with only a thin carpet between her and our masonry. Even in her palatial estate in Nong Sao, she always gives me and the missus her bed and sleeps on the wooden floor with only a pillow as means of support. Sometimes I feel guilty about this, but then again we never show up unannounced...