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Region’s CEOs gather at the Orangery
James Howard, consultant
with Milan Crosse Creative Ltd. addresses the meeting.
(L to R) Alex Mavro,
managing partner of Social Impact Ventures-Asia Co., Ltd.
gives a brief talk about his company.
(L to R) Richard Waller,
chairman of the World of Wine Co., Ltd.
talks about his company.
(L to R) Peter Djurson and
Philippe Griaud have a chat.
(L to R) Russell White,
technical manager for Thai Leighton Limited; Kevin Fisher, director S.E.
Asia for Cranes and Equipment Asia Co., Ltd.; and Michael C. Usher,
German Deputy director for TGGS.
(L to R) Stuart Saunders,
Esdesign (Far East) Co., Ltd.; Alex Mavro, managing partner with Social
Impact Ventures-Asia Co., Ltd.; and Maurice D. Bromley, director and
business development consultant, Golndustry (Thailand) Ltd.
(L to R) Joe Arunwell;
Peter Mewes, managing director of the Lendon Consultancy Co. Ltd; and
John W. Wyss, Pattaya branch manager for Property Care Services
(Thailand) Ltd.
Paul Strachan, production
manager for Pattaya Mail on TV and Pornuma
‘Ple’ Vanichchanant, Account Manager, Milan Crosse Creative Ltd.
(L to R) Cameron Stirling
from Milan; Alex Mavro, managing partner with Social Impact
Ventures-Asia Co., Ltd.; James Howard, consultant with Milan Crosse
Creative Ltd.; and Peter Stirling, managing partner of Milan Crosse
Partner Ltd.
(L to R) Paul Strachan,
production manager for Pattaya Mail on TV; Peter Stirling, managing
partner of Milan Crosse Partner Ltd.; James Howard, consultant with
Milan Crosse Creative Ltd.; and Suwanthep Malhotra, executive
director-sales & marketing for Pattaya Mail Publishing.
More than 30 CEOs from the Eastern Seaboard region
attended the Milan Crosse Pattaya networking dinner at the luxurious
Orangery By The Sea restaurant on January 30. The dinner, a monthly
event that has been held for the past seven years, provides top
executives with an opportunity to meet and form business relationships.
Along with the fine dining by the Orangery and wines from ‘World of
Wines’, those attending were treated to a thought provoking presentation
on corporate social responsibility, given by Alex Mavro, director of
Social Impact Ventures.
House wine by consensus
Miss Terry Diner
How many times have you gone to a restaurant, tried the house wine,
and found that it was from a four liter bottle and made in a previous Soviet
bloc country out of old umbrella handles? Too many times. Very few
restaurants look at performance versus price (a line stolen from Louis Noll
at Mata Hari).
 (L
to R) Stuart Young, director of S.L. Young Property Developments; Michael
James Butler, LLB, ACII, ACILA managing director of Siam Business Services;
and Ian Ivers.
However, Jameson’s, the Irish Pub, decided that they should find some house
wines that the majority of their customers enjoyed. Now you must remember
that wine appreciation is a very personal attribute. Not everyone enjoys a
1984 Chateau Neuf du Pape, for example - but the majority does. So landlord
Kim Fletcher hit on the best way to find the consensus - have a wine tasting
of several different bottles and in that way find the most popular.
To make this a real event, Richard Waller of the World of Wines was
approached, and he presented the judging panel with six whites, six reds and
one sparkler. These fitted into the “price” constraints.
The panel was a motley crew (not the band, that’s Motley Cru) and included,
amongst others, Judi McNamara, Stuart Young, Ian Iver, Paul Strachan, Som
Corness, Ray Matti, some amateur wino’s and myself brought in to represent
the finer end of the wine spectrum. (Or perhaps just because I have been
known to enjoy the odd tipple.)
After several hours of sipping and deliberating, a consensus was reached,
and if you are in Jameson’s and don’t like the house wines, then blame the
panel, not Kim. He did the best he could, but I am sure the majority of
people will enjoy the Aussie red and the Spanish Cava - just as we did.
(L to R) Judi McNamara,
customer relations manager of Easyriders; Mike Franklin, special
correspondent with Pattaya Mail; and Richard Waller, chairman of The World
of Wine Co., Ltd.
(L to R) Richard Waller, Ian
Ivers, Dr. Iain Corness and Judi McNamara.
(L to R) Mathieu, Moe
Deverdenne, Ray Matti, Bill Freeman and Woody Underwood.
Nittaya Patimasongkroh: heart of gold
Elfi Seitz
Nittaya Patimasongkroh is a sincere lady who I truly admire. She is a
member of a variety of organizations in Pattaya. I hardly ever met a woman
that conducts her business with such excellence and at the same time
sacrifices most of her time for the benefit of her fellow citizens,
especially the children.
 Nittaya
receives her award from Chonburi’s Vice Governor Montien Thongnit.
As the youngest child in her family, Nittaya was born on September 1 in
Pitsanuloke, where she spent the first years of her life. She was witness to
a conflagration in which the family house of Peter Malhotra, managing
director of Pattaya Mail Publishing, who comes from the same city, was
destroyed.
When she was nine years old, she moved with her Thai mother and her father,
who is a goldsmith from China, to Prae, where she finished her school
studies. At the age of 16, she met the love of her life, Somchai
Monathavorn, whom she is still happily married to today. In 1982, the couple
moved to Pattaya, because “business was booming back then”. They opened the
Than Thong gold shop at the beginning of South Pattaya Road, close to the
pedestrian plaza. The shop is still in operation today. Somchai soon quit
work as a road constructor and helped his wife at the shop full time.
Together, they have one daughter, Arusaya Thumaree, who is now married and
has a daughter of her own.
 Nittaya
proudly presents her award.
The gold shop was prospering, and soon apartment buildings and other
businesses followed that Nittaya and her husband still take care of today.
But in her opinion, she wasn’t busy enough yet, so she joined YWCA Pattaya
and the Lions Club Pratamnak to work on charity projects, especially for the
children. After the end of her term as Lions president, she was president of
YWCA Pattaya for four consecutive years - twice as long as intended, but no
one could lead the club better than Nittaya. Today, she is chairwoman of the
charity projects for children at YWCA and visits all schools around town to
see where she can help.
Shortly after Nittaya stepped own from the YWCA presidency, she became
chairwoman of the newly established club One World for Sharing that takes
care of the physically and mentally handicapped, as well as elderly people.
The club also supports talented athletes and organizes its Special Olympics.
Doctors from all over the world volunteer to check the athletes’ health. The
first games were held in August last year at Chachoensao Panyaukul School,
Rayong Samut Prakan School, the Garunyawet Center, and at the Bangpakong
Residence Home.
 Students
involved in environmental projects receive bicycles for their efforts.
Nittaya strongly recommends families to make their handicapped children part
of their family life. “Fostering family ties helps the children,” she says,
“and competitive sport boosts their self-confidence. Pattaya is constantly
growing, which has both good and bad sides. Children are our future, so we
need to make sure that they receive much needed aids.”
It’s no wonder that this woman has recently been honored. On December 5,
during the festivities on the auspicious occasion of His Majesty the King’s
80th birthday, Deputy Governor Montien Thongnit presented Nittaya with an
award as Outstanding Citizen of Chonburi.
“I’m so delighted, as I never thought I would even be considered for such an
award,” she said. “Without my husband and my daughter’s help, I would never
have been able to achieve all this. It’s a great honor for my whole family.
I’m so thankful for the help of the local departments and private
organizations that have always been so generous. This award is for everybody
that helped.”
It is certain that there is a lot more to follow from this outstanding woman
and her projects, since she can’t sit still and always needs to be busy, as
Nittaya says. Not a single thought is spent on retiring, because “There’s
still a lot to do.” And right she is, so let’s get busy.
Always busy, here in a project
for free children’s glasses.
A jazzy connection at The Jazz Pit
Top international jazz musicians can be heard
performing nightly
at the Jazz Pit on Soi 5, Pattaya Second Road.
By Sue. K
Those who are familiar with nightlife in Pattaya will agree that we
are constantly bombarded with pop music and pop culture in this town, to the
extent of it being called, noisy.
Fortunately there is still a place in Pattaya, located peacefully on soi 5,
that offers something different. It’s called The Jazz Pit.
Offering fun but easy listening Jazz, Blues, Latino, Bossa Nova, Samba,
Funk, and even jazzy arrangements of some pop songs, every Monday night a
jamming session takes place here that gets the place a roarin’, while on
other week nights, except Tuesdays, two personalities perform here regularly
and keep the place a rockin.’
Rein Sahagun from the Philippines is 25 years old and came to perform at The
Jazz Pit after her close friend heard her lovely voice and recommended a
singing profession for her.
She admits to feeling emotional when singing Jazz standard songs, especially
songs from her favorite singers like Salena Jones, Laura Fygi, Ella
Fitzgerald as well as the new jazz artists like Renee Olstead and Michael
Buble.
When asked about the difference in music scenes between Thailand and the
Philippines, Rein said musicians in her home country are more focused on
singing pop songs, but Jazz songs are most likely to be sung for the older
audiences.
Rein prefers to perform here, especially at the Jazz Pit where she can
continue her journey with jazz standards. She can’t see herself singing
modern hip-hop anymore.
She is not definite about how long she will be in this profession, but she
says that when you have a passion for music within you, it stays with you as
long as you live, and even if she may stop singing one day, she will
continue transferring her knowledge to other new and aspiring singers.
Meanwhile Thomas Reimer is a professional guitarist from Austria who found
his fame in Munich. Thomas studied violin for 8 years at the conservatories
in Graz and Linz but turned to guitar to be able to play chords, like on the
piano.
Having been a music teacher for 3 decades at many music schools and
universities back home, how does he see the difference between teaching
music and performing?
“In teaching, I tried to transfer my energy and know-how to the students to
make them better. When I perform, the energy stays with me to give the best
possible output in music to the audience,” says Thomas.
Thomas came to Pattaya for a holiday 3½ years ago and went to the Jazz Pit
once in a while to play with Ramil and the other musicians. One fine day he
was approached to take on a job there and accepted. He has high respects for
Dr. Sunya Viravaidhya, the owner and CEO of PIC Group, for being so
supportive of jazz music throughout these many years.
Before coming to Thailand, Thomas performed in many European countries like
France, Greece, Switzerland, Netherlands, Poland, former Yugoslavia, just to
name a few, but one of the most thrilling places was still Munich, Europe’s
finest concentration of world class jazz musicians, where he lived for 25
years.
There, at the jazz club “Vielharmonie” he and his friends, Joe Nay and
Guenther Klatt played alternately with John Scofield Trio (with Steve
Swallow and Adam Nussbaum), and Steps Ahead (with Michael Brecker, Mike
Manieri, Eliane Elias, Eddy Gomez). The audience was usually full of many
very good musicians or critics from newspapers, so it was always thrilling
to perform in Munich.
Thomas also performed with international and well known artists like Dusko
Goykovic, Leszek Zadlo, Butch Morris, Allan Praskin, Douglas Sides, Wolfgang
Haffner, Barbara Dennerlein, Joe Haider, Fritz Pauer, Bill Bickford, and
musicians of the “Vienna Art Orchestra”.
But the outstanding memory was the performance with George Benson many years
ago in Munich, who also signed him an autograph: “To Thomas - great
guitarist, thanks George Benson.”
So what does jazz music mean to Thomas?
“It’s the feeling of freedom and at the same time, the daily duty to
improvise new ways around the chords or new chords around the melodies,” he
says.
Thomas’s favorite music piece is The “Grosse Fuge”, an unbelievable late
string quartet piece from Beethoven
His latest CD from Germany is called “Vienna’s Heardt”. You can order it on
the Internet from Edition Collage, or Georg Loeffler Verlag, or go to his
homepage at www.jazzabc.com/reimer and you will find a link to the CD. There
are some originals but also some compositions from John Coltrane, Wayne
Shorter and The Beatles.
Another CD was produced by GIT Los Angeles (the most famous guitar
university in the world) and MGI Munich “Global Guitar”, a sampler with
worldwide leading guitarists such as John Abercrombie, Frank Gambale, Al Di
Meola, Robben Ford, Mike Stern, Scott Henderson, Paul Hanson, Joe Diorio
etc., on which Thomas recorded “Donna Lee” from Charlie Parker.
At the Jazz Pit every Monday night, jam sessions take place on stage where
various professional musicians of many nationalities get together and heat
up the venue.
Among these are Odd Riesens, a saxophonist from Norway, who is teaching in
Oslo at the Royal Academy; Lee, a guitarist from Finland; John on
percussions from New York; Brad on trumpet and flute from California; James,
a vocalist from London, piano players from Austria and Germany and other
well known artists that might just pop up unannounced.
A frequent comment from the patrons that visit this place is that they are
surprised to find such a high quality jazz performance in this city, and
that they often leave the place tapping their shoes and singing their way
home.
We tend to overlook the influence of music in our everyday lives, yet music
not only affects the artists’ lives and the art they produce, but also gives
us a sense of belonging, a sense of connection with the world. Music shares
our good times and bad.
But at the Jazz Pit, music time is always a happy time for all.
The Jazz Pit is located on Soi 5, Second Road. Live music every night except
Tuesdays.
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