Lunch at Ocean Marina, June 5, 2007

This sunny day saw 58 of the PILC members enjoying the very best of everything the Ocean Marina Restaurant had to offer.  Not having been at this location before, I was interested to see this much talked about venue; and I was not disappointed!  A magnificent, cool and lofty foyer greets you and then through to the restaurant room on the beachside of the building.  The first thing that strikes you is the restaurant’s extraordinary wall of glass spanning the front wall.  Kavita was collecting fees and Jacinta and Paula were enrolling new members.  Two new members registered on the day and so we say a warm welcome to Sheila McCarthy and Mavis Norman.

As usual, the cacophony of sound was impressive as a multitude of conversations ran concurrently.  And in synchronisation to this, we all buzzed around talking to this person or that, raffle tickets for that day were sold and tickets for the Motorbike raffle, monies collected for the Quiz night (Foundation of Life), AND we managed to find seats.  We ladies are so good at multi-tasking!  Finally, at 11:30 we all settled at our seats as our madam President addressed the unruly throng; this took several attempts (as usual) but finally Roseanne won our attention.

Announcements regarding several aspects of our activities were made:-
• Our thanks were extended to Khun Sotalak and all her staff for looking after us so well.  Our guest speaker, Mrs Kasemsook, was unable to come due to illness and thus Alvi had very graciously volunteered to talk to us about Thai culture.
• 3 ladies are leaving Pattaya; Ellen Jackson, Erin Castle and Amelia Palas-Cuniah.  They will all be sorely missed and we wish them well in their future endeavours.
• A plea for more hands at the craft group for their endeavours to build up a huge stock-pile of goodies for the upcoming Bazaar.  Monday afternoons at North Star Library.
• More recipes for the cookery book Kavita and Judy are compiling for sale at the Bazaar.  Come on ladies ‘give’ generously… it doesn’t cost you a thing, and we could all do with a bit of divine inspiration at times!!
• A reminder for volunteers for Mari’s Therapeutic riding program.  Training sessions commencing June, 8.
• Planning in full flight for upcoming Bazaar and Ball.  If anyone has contacts or knows of Companies who would be interested in becoming sponsors, please contact Cindy.
• The raffle for today raised 7,000Bht.
• Reminder about Nonie’s tours/travel events.
• A golf team is required for the upcoming “Pattaya Mail” Mike Franklin Golf Tournament, Friday June, 29.

We then all enjoyed the extensive buffet; whilst lining up for food we soaked up the glorious, uninterrupted vista of the bay with all those sea-craft bobbing around in the crystal sea … that’s hard to surpass.  Raffle ticket winners were drawn, 7 in total.

Khun Alvi, very ably and elegantly assisted by one of the Ocean Marina staff, demonstrated the various ways of the ‘wai’.  Alvi explained the significance of the wai, and the correct time to use what ‘wai’ when!  This was very enjoyable and imparted useful knowledge to us all.

During the proceedings, Annette’s son Liam was in great demand; the staff were almost jostling (males and females!) to be on baby-sitting duties.  It was quite funny to see who won out for ‘holding the baby’ rights.  A group photo was taken and this took a remarkable amount of effort to muster one and all into their places, but was well worth it as the photo shows.

As usual, new acquaintances were made; catch ups with old friends eventuated and future plans were plotted with friends.  In other words a great time was had by all and we gradually drifted off to other places.  See you at the next group get together.

Faye Vawdrey