|
Ratanachai Suthidaechanai, reprenting the
mayor of Pattaya, welcomes all to the concert. |
Our very own Tony Malhotra is given the honour of introducing
Heather Small onto the stage. |
|
Nigel Cornick tells the
guests a little about the work Tracy does. |
Tracy
Cosgrove thanks her numerous sponsors and urges guests to buy
raffle tickets. |
|
Heather’s voice live is as perfect
as her
recordings. |
The audience is moved whilst Heather sings ‘Proud’ which she
dedicated to Tracy Cosgrove. |
Paul Strachan
A charity is planning how to help the community after a
major fundraising concert with singing star Heather Small.
The former lead singer of 90s pop group M People was at
the Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort in Pattaya recently for the beachfront
gig. She also sung in Koh Samui and Bangkok during her visit to Thailand.
Music fans off all ages enjoy Heathers energetic performance.
Money raised will go to the Melissa Cosgrove Children’s
Foundation (MCCF).
Tracy Cosgrove is the driving force behind the
foundation, which helps provide shelters for construction workers in Pattaya.
Tracy was voted Scotswoman of the Year 2003-2004 and previously held a MCCF
fundraiser featuring Heather Small in Edinburgh in 2006.
The open-air gig in Pattaya was held in the gardens of
the Centara. Guests were given a number of options regarding ticketing, some
of which included an excellent buffet laid on by the resort before the show.
Nittaya & Elfi are among the guests.
Guests were then ushered to their seats and treated to a
variety of warm-up acts, which included a DJ and dancers from the Fashion
Club in Pattaya.
Great as they were, it was Heather Small who overshadowed
everyone else with her incredible voice, which was exactly how she sounds on
her recordings, with not a misplaced note or an error in tuning. She
thrilled the crowd with her hits, ‘Moving on Up’,’ One Night in Heaven’ and
‘Proud’, which features on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Heather touchingly
dedicated ‘Proud’ to Tracy Cosgrove.
After the concert Heather took time to meet some of the
audience and had photos taken with fans, and the following day Heather
visited some of the MCCF’s projects in Pattaya.
Kaew & Mackenzie Strachan give the show ‘A big thumbs up’.
It was a fine evening and one that gave Pattaya a rare
taste of a very fine musician. Perhaps more importantly it also gave the
audience the knowledge that by buying a ticket they had contributed to the
admirable work that Tracy and her team do to help the children of Thailand
and Myanmar.
Tracy had this to say after the show, “At the end of the
day 850,000 baht was raised and so far 250,000 baht is already in action
helping on the food needs of the Burmese boys in Bangkok project. This
project hads75 boys who are fed by the monks and this money will go towards
there food costs for 1 year at 20,000 baht per month.
In addition equipment has been purchased for the
construction workers in Bangkok for the day care centre there.”
M People became famous for the songs ‘Moving on Up’ and
‘One Night in Heaven’ and were Mercury Prize winners in 1994 and Brit Awards
winners in 1994 and 1995. Heather Small went on to further success as a solo
artist and performed the anthemic ‘Proud’ at a concert to mark the handover
of the Olympic Games from Beijing to London, England.
For more details of the MCCF visit www.mccf.uk.com.
Ingo Raeuber (2nd left) enjoys the evening with friends.
Memories of the late 80’s and 90’s come flooding back for
many in the audience.
Some light Jazz is served up before the main event.
Dancers from the Fashion Club entertain the guests.
Many performances make it a night to remember.
The Britsh Ambassador to Thailand HE Quintin Quayle (3rd
right)
joins Tracy and her son and daughter for the gig in Bangkok.
In between concerts around Thailand, Heather visited many
of Tracy’s projects and spent time with the children.
A brief moment of relaxation.
More children meet the marvelous woman.
Heather delighted in spending time with the kids and
Tracy’s daughter Melissa.
It was Heather who felt ‘Proud’ when she met the children
whose lives will be changed by the series of concerts.
As the cutain was about to come down on the final concert
in Samui,
it was smiles all round from the people who made this event so special.
And listens for kookaburras
Dr Iain Corness
The April Australian Chamber of Commerce (AustCham)
Seaboard Sundowners networking evening was held at a new and very
spectacular venue. This was the Pullman Pattaya Aisawan Resort, a rebranded
property, on Wong Amat Beach in Naklua.
(L to R) George T. Strampp, managing partner, Automotive
Manufacturing Solutions; Uli Kaiser, Automotive Manufacturing Solutions.
General Manager Philippe Delaloye was very happy to see
his resort’s capabilities and its spectacular views being appreciated by the
AustCham members and guests. His staff appeared tireless, and the Broken
Hills white and red Australian wines seemed endless. A certain recipe for
success. However, when pressed by the Pattaya Mail TV duo of Dr. Iain
and Paul Strachan to do kookaburra calls for the camera, Philippe failed,
but was excused as he is Swiss and not Australian.
(L to R) Cees Cuijpers, managing director of Town &
Country Property; George Strampp, managing partner of Automotive
Manufacturing Solutions; Mark Butters, CPFA, United Kingdom, director RSM
Advisory (Thailand) Limited.
The other major sponsor for the evening was Capital TV,
headed by Australian anchor-woman Raine Grady, who was there with presenter
Rod McNeil and her production crew, and did indeed manage a very credible
kookaburra impersonation. Well done, Raine! Showing you can take a girl out
of Australia, but you can’t take the Aussie out of the girl!
Flushed with success with the bird calls, the television
hosts called upon the famous Australian painter Robert Hagan, who
demonstrated that he could render the Australian kookaburra audibly as well
as with oils, brushes and canvas. On further chatting, it became apparent
that the kookaburra was probably the only part of Australia that Robert
Hagan actually missed! Other Aussies in that group agreed.
(L to R) Philippe Delaroy, GM Pullman Hotels and Resorts;
Raine Grady, Capital TV; Andrew Durieux, president of the Australian-Thai
Chamber of Commerce.
Of course you don’t need to be an Aussie to understand
that the AustCham networking evenings are great places to forge business
relationships. Regulars such as Cees Cuijpers (TCC) and John Seymour
(Northern Thai Real Estate) keep their business card holders up to date at
these evenings, and Robin Hyde (Seabra movers) was one of those, pressing
his new business cards in all eager hands.
The executive director of AustCham Brett Gannaway (and I
did promise last year not to call him Brylcream Brett any more, but have
broken that promise many times since then) was everywhere, as was the
AustCham president Andrew Durieux, who welcomed all the participants to the
event.
(L to R) Craig McCoy, managing director of Thai Houghton
1993 Co., Ltd; Ken Bright, manufacturing and engineering manager Bosch
Chassis Systems (Thailand) Limited.
The chamber has a new willing worker in Saeed Zaki, whose
firm dwp has been winning some major world awards. AustCham’s ‘men on the
ground’ Paul Whyte and Paul Wilkinson (AGS Four Winds) were also both
present.
Other nations were represented by the ubiquitous American
and splendidly sartorial George (Stradivarius) Strampp and Pat Gossett
(Materials Management and Engineering – MME) and the lofty Swiss Jeffrey
Burrows (Watermark Capital).
Spotted lurking in the shadows were the Amari people
represented by GM David Cumming and the delightful Unchulee Meesri from the
Sales department.
It was a packed event, and deemed successful by everyone.
The date and details of the next Seaboard Sundowners will be published in
the Pattaya Mail as usual.
(L to R) Philippe Delaroy, GM
Pullman Hotels and Resorts; Raine Grady, Capital TV; Pratheep Malhotra,
managing director of Pattaya Mail Publishing Co., Ltd.
(L to R) Tony Hanscomb, creative director for Beaches;
Paul Sutton,
property advisor for Northern Thai Realty & Export Co., Ltd.
(L to R) Raine Grady, Capital TV; Paul Strachan, Pattaya
Mail TV.
(L to R) Hamish Elton, Bach IT, MBA, MAICD, TeleDerm GP;
Scott Buckner, director of Buckner Investment Pty Ltd; Andrew Durieux,
president of the Australian-Thai Chamber of Commerce.
(L to R) Pratheep S. Malhotra, managing director of
Pattaya Mail Publishing Co., Ltd.; David Cumming, general manager of Amari
Orchid Pattaya;
Philippe Delaroy, GM Pullman Hotels and Resorts; Suwanthep
Malhotra,
managing director of Chiang Mai Mail.
‘The usual suspects’ - members of the Pattaya City Expats
Club Board gather,
with guest speaker Christopher Moore (3rd from right) to
celebrate the start of PCECs’ tenth year of continuous meetings.
Chairman Michel de Goumois cuts the ninth birthday cake
eagerly watched by David, Christopher, and Roger.
The Sunday meeting of the Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC)
on March 28th was held for the first time in the Rim Suan Room in the Amari
Hotel’s Garden Wing. The PCEC hopes to return to the Henry J. Bean’s venue
on the 15th April when the refurbishment programme is scheduled to be
completed.
The PCEC was also pleased to announce the Club’s 9th
Anniversary which coincided with the move to the temporary location. Current
PCEC Chairman Michel de Goumois and founder member Max Rommel congratulated
the Board Members and the membership as a whole on the anniversary. Max
described the background and formation of the Club and announced that to
mark the 10th Anniversary next year a much anticipated history of the PCEC
would be produced. A cake then arrived as a celebration of the occasion in
the traditional manner.
Founding member Max Rommel recounts the origins of
Pattaya City Expats Club - started as an information resource for expats in
Pattaya, it has grown to be much more than that. Max described the first
meetings and the various locations, as well as the clubs dimorphisation and
evolution into what it is today - one of the happiest places to be on a
Sunday morning.
This week’s MC, Richard Silverberg, then introduced the
main speaker, welcoming back Christopher G. Moore, the well known author.
Christopher introduced The Corruptionist which is the eleventh of his books
featuring the character Vincent Calvinho and set during the recent turbulent
times in Thailand with the accompanying street demonstrations and the
occupation of Government House in Bangkok.
Christopher read the first page of the book to set the
overall scene. He then provided some of his own thoughts and ideas on the
subject of the nature of corruption and this invited some thought provoking
discussion.
9th Anniversary guest speaker, Christopher Moore, shares
with PCEC members & guests excerpts from his latest book, The Corruptionist.
The eleventh of his books featuring the character Vincent Calvino, ‘The
Corruptionist’ is set during recent turbulent times. But when?
He stated that corruption operates in silence and totally
out of sight. Whilst violent robbery is viewed as being undertaken by
criminals who are not part of normal society, corruption is often viewed as
occurring on the inside and is not wrongful. Corruption should not be viewed
as a victimless crime.
Protagonists firmly believe that laws do not apply to
them and that they are actually above the law. Thus the consequences of
being discovered are remote. A remedy is to instil the idea that those
carrying on corrupt activities are actually outsiders. Both the giver and
taker should be considered to be equally guilty.
Christopher likened the level of corruption to that of a
healthy human immune system. If the immune system starts to break down then
the whole body may be at risk of attack from disease.
It was suggested via a number of questions from the
audience that poverty was a major cause of corruption at the lower levels of
society.
Following Christopher’s talk it was announced that the
Computer Group was scheduled to meet on Monday, April 5th in the downstairs
meeting room at the Markland Hotel starting at 2 p.m., the topic being
Windows 7.
The next Frugal Freddie dinner was planned for Monday
March 29th at 6 p.m. at the Bella Express restaurant in the Bella Hotel
complex just off Pattaya Klang. The restaurant provided an ‘all you can eat’
buffet for 150 baht.
The Pattaya Players invited interested PCEC members to
attend the open audition on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. for their production
of ‘Loot’, a black comedy melodrama.
Hans Strusynder announced that the next visit to the
driving license centre would take place on April 7th.
The regular Open Forum was then underway with Sig
Sigworth providing the lead. As always it provided an opportunity for
questions about living in Thailand with an emphasis on Pattaya to be asked.
The Open Forum again proved to be the usual lively and entertaining session.
For more information regarding, not only PCEC Sunday meetings but also the
varied mid week activities, please see the Community Happenings section of
Pattaya Mail or, for more details, visit the Club’s website at
pattayacityexpatsclub.com.
