Canterbury Tales Cafe

So this day I picked up the notes in the Pigoen Hole, there was one from an inmate named Smith, well as such a common name it meant nothing until I went to see him and it was a guy I knew from my Youth in Canterbury many years before.

So after the breif long time no see he went on to tell me how he had been on a home visit to see his Mother who was ill and had a bit of a row as his mum never came to terms with him being in Prison.

Unfortunately she died that night and of course he was pretty cut up about it, he also told me that his Brother had died of Cancer a while before and he was having big problems with coping in Prison and a few times he had became suicidal.

I continued to visit him for a few months as he was counting down the weeks to getting released and was looking forweard to starting over.

Cutting a long story short, this guy was the owner of Linx Taxis in Canterbury whgich is how I became a Taxi driver for the last 5 years or so of my time in Canbterbury before moving to Thailand, Smith was eventually Murderd with a shotgun in the Taxi office one evening, I was out in one of the Taxis on the night it happened & I will continue on that further on in the Blog.

During my last years in Canterbury I met Da, a Thai Nurse who was commisioned to England under some foreign Nursing scheme, cut a long story short we got on well and spent 2 & half years living together in Canterbury, it was great to see peoples faces when we went anywhere as she was a stunner and people wondered how I managed to find her, I always concidered it my present from the powers that be for all the Voluntary work I had done.

I always wanted to try to live in Thailand from the first time I came here although I never imagined I would and Da was my short cut for doing this so in 2004 I sold up all my worldly goods in Canterbury and went for it.

We had quite a trip as we brought the dog I had bought for Da a year or so before, a Shihtzu called Bubblegum & we had to get all sorts of paper work together and have him implanted with a chip etc and we had to fly British Airways as they were only one of the few airlines that you could use to take Animals abroad.

Anyway we arrived and started to settle in BKK, we rented a nice little house in Min Buri, about 30 kilometers out of BKK city, we initially traveled a lot aroung Thailand, as Da's Family lived in Chaing Mai, North Thailand.

After a few weeks I met the local Headmaster at the Government School near by, Klanklongsong School, ages from 4 to 14 yrs and about 550 pupils, we got chatting, he invited me to look round the School and I was mobbed by the kids, he asked mne to help the Teachers with their English which I was more than happy to do as I thought I could practice my Thai language on them too.

So I started at first 1 day a week, I was as keen as ever and went and bought a few long sleeved shirts and nice tailored trousers and of course a Tie, little did I realise how hot I would get wearing them as there was no A/C in the class rooms but I loved it and soon was there 2 days a week.

I would arrive before 8am and many of the children would come and try and speak English and I enjoyed it and found it very easy to communicate and got right into it, I did actually have thoughts of persuing this as my next career move, it was only the thought of being tied to a 9 to 5 type of job that made me decide otherwise.

One day I was out for a walk and as I passed this rough looking dog it came up behind me and bit my ankle, It wasn’t a real bad bite although it was bleeding and a bit further along the road a Thai Lady noticed it and asked me why I was bleeding, I told her a dog bit me and she said go DR go Dr.

I returned home by which Time my wife Da was home and she took me to the local clinic for Rabies jabs, we went back to the place where the dog had bit me and the dog was still there outside a house, Da saw a guy there and asked him if it was his dog and he said yes, she told him about the dog biting me and he was very nice and offered to pay my medical bills, after that we became friends and I went onto Teach his 2 Daughters English.

His Daughters were 18 & 23 respectively, one was studying Law and the other Business at University, the Policeman’s wife is a Teacher & they had a younger Son, we still keep in touch and they have been to see me here in Pattaya since.

All through my time Teaching I had a great time with the kids and Teachers, we had a day out at the Safari park which was right beside the School, it was quite strange to look out of the window and see Giraffe’s Rhino's, wilder beasts, Zebras walking by as well as the roar of the Lions & Tigers.

We also visited Dream World in BKK, a small type Disney park, in fact it was the first trip we went on so 550 children, about 14 staff, I wondered how we would over see it all but apart from the really young ones the rest were given a free rein and had a great time, we went sledging in the snow dome and the kids & Teachers loved it, we were given a pair of wellies and an anorak to keep warm, I reminded them that its fun for a while but when you have weeks of it like we can have in the UK its not so much fun.

So as it was coming to the end of my 1st year in Thailand I had been giving it some serious thought, obviously it had gone well enough for me to know I was staying so what next, it was time to head for pastures new, unfortunately I had split up with Da some months before, she didn’t really want to come back to Thailand so amicably we parted, I still miss her sometimes and don’t have any bad feelings for her, it was just circumstances.

I had met Yao ( my wife now) by now who was also a Teacher at the International School in Pattaya, we had that chemical thing right from the off and we got on really well, I was still unsure what to do and it was Yao who suggested renovating property in Pattaya as there were many business opportunities with the high Tourist numbers.

I spent a few weeks in Pattaya looking around at different areas and checking all sorts of resources for prices, laws, rules etc etc, I finally opted to buy a single shop house in Soi Chaiyapoon, between 2^nd and 3^rd road central Pattaya, it was totally empty and in quite a state although the building itself was sound, I started up a company through a Lawyer and purchased the building in the company name.

So onto Renovation, what a learning experience that turned out to be,