A lovely lunch on the 6th July at Grappa Italian Restaurant.  A small and intimate group of 45 ladies enjoyed the beautiful food, entrees, mains and desserts, followed by birthday cake to help Gillian Thom celebrate her birthday, which was today.  Happy Birthday Gillian!

There were some lovely Chinese ceramics for sale in the foyer and some pretty silver and beaded jewellery which the ladies enjoyed browsing.

Anja made announcements and Peggy updated us with some exciting trips which are coming up.  You will find details of these of course, in this newsletter.

We welcomed one newcomer from Australia, Maggie Travis.  Welcome Maggie!

We also discovered that the Tamar Centre, which apparently has the best cakes in Pattaya, is going to be opening for meals very soon and are looking for volunteers to help them with some practice runs….sounds interesting!!!

Thank you to Stephane and his team at Woodlands for a delightful meal.

An 8 o’clock start from Foodland saw 7 PILC members leave for the museum.  Our driver knew exactly where to go, something that doesn’t always happen.  Our first sighting of the Chang Erawan, a giant three-headed elephant, is astounding.  At about 42 meters in height (the elephant stands 29 meters on a plinth) it is a very striking view as you drive on one of the elevated roads around Bangkok.  Standing underneath is just as awe inspiring.

First stop is the plinth inside which is the museum.  Outside is a short climb up to the elephant itself.  The decoration and art forms, the use of pottery, broken or whole, could only happen here in Thailand.  An elevator takes you to the first floor where, if you get down on your hands and knees, you can peer out over Bangkok through a window in the belly of the elephant, then up stairs to the stars.  You really need to see this for yourselves, trying to describe it in a few short words, cannot do it justice.

Next stop was the Ancient City.  We had lunch in the floating market, followed by two hours on a tram which saw us travelling through the Ancient City with many stops to view the attractions, but it’s not a city, it’s a country: Thailand.  The whole layout is in the shape of Thailand, and all the buildings are in the correct part of ‘Thailand’.  The Preah Vihear has been built on a mountain just as it is on the borders with Cambodia.  Some of the buildings are recreated here, some have been removed from the real site.  If you take a bicycle you can ride around the whole of Thailand.  Or you can hire a golf cart and take yourselves to see the sights, or like us, go on the tram.

It was a very enjoyable day out, one that I will repeat:  I want to see the things I missed the first time.

Celia Picken

Our Book Club meets on the last Tuesday of each month to discuss  
the pre-determined book-of-the-month.  The following is a list of the upcoming choices so that you can start looking for them and reading up!

July 27  -  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Meeting to be held at the home of Judy Hoppe.

August 31  -  The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Meeting to be held at the home of Connie Kwok.

September 28  -  The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz
Meeting to be held at the home of Julieta Blanes.

October 26  -  The Mango Rains by Daniel M. Dorothy

November 30  -  The Twins by Tessa de Loo

December 14  -  In lieu of a Book Club Meeting, Rosanne Diamente will host a Christmas Party for the group.  Watch for more details.

January 25  -  The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh

For more information, please contact Connie Kwok.

For approximately three years Elisabeth Thaler-Gentsch has been teaching the children, who attend the Fountain of Life, how to make greeting cards and also helped to sell the cards at the PILC Lunch and Coffee mornings.

Elisabeth is very artistic, patient and spends a lot of time preparing for her classes.  Outside school, Elisabeth enjoys wine tasting evenings and spends a lot of her time with Aussie and Kiwi friends, to the extent that she has adopted some of their phrases and sayings.  She loved the PILC visits to Garrunyawhet Ladies Home painting nails and putting on make-up, she also belonged to the PILC book club and held gem sales every few months.

Many people, especially the children at the Fountain of Life, will sorely miss Elisabeth when she leaves Pattaya and returns home.

Mary Pierce

Dear Friends,

On June 15th, sixty-one PILC members met for coffee at the newly renovated Pullman Hotel in Naklua.

As many members are still on vacation in their home countries or elsewhere, the turnout was a very good one.  Thank you to those who came and participated at this Coffee organized by our own Hospitality Chairperson, Khun Alvi.

Hopefully a good time was had by all.

Making the announcements was Connie Kwok, substituting for Anja Schoof who was away in the Netherlands.

Connie mentioned that in June, three of our members are leaving for various parts of the world.  They include Kavita Lamba (moving to Brazil), Elisabeth Thaler-Gentsch (moving to Germany) and Teresa Maunton (moving to Houston, TX).  We would like to wish these three women a fond farewell and we will miss their smiling faces at all our Coffees and Lunches.

Also not present was Khun Alvi who was taking care of a medical emergency.  Alvi, we wish you a very speedy recovery.

Once again thank you, Khun Alvi, for organizing a very fun event at the Pullman.  Your hard work does not go unnoticed.

Kind regards,  Connie Kwok

April 28, 2010

All CPDC children, staff members and members of HHN Foundation were privileged and very happy to welcome Madame Ambassador of the Netherlands, Mrs. Baiba Braze, with two members from the Netherlands Embassy, Bangkok.

Awaiting for her arrival are 10 Dutch ladies group leads by President of PILC, Mrs. Anja Schoof, Dr. & Mrs. Henk Dijkstra, Ms. Elfi Seitz and the German great benefactor who donated for 3 houses at CPDC, Mr. Hans Miller.

After receiving a warm welcome and a short briefing of overall work during the past year from Director of HHNFT, Mrs. Braze kindly donates 50,000 THB to benefit the children’s sustainable education.  She feels it is of great importance that these children learn additional skills which may suit each of them, in addition to normal academic.

Mrs. Braze spent some time with children and gave a short speech.  She emphasized the importance of education and encouraged the children to believe in their dreams, and always give their best.  Moreover each child received a nice little bag with books, notebooks, as well as a pen, all came in a beautiful bright orange colour which represents Holland.  The children spent their afternoon looking at picture books, writing, drawing and  reading happily.

Mrs. Braze took her time taking a look around CPDC while accompanied by all Dutch ladies and gentleman.  They visited the farm, had a look at one of the dormitory houses and the dining area.  She was impressed with the fast development and work done at CPDC.

Marja Hofman

Hello Ladies,

This morning we had a wonderful Book Club meeting with 9 ladies present at my house.

Present today was Heather, Rosanne, Anja, Anna, Vera, Elisabeth, Johanna, Julieta and me, Ineke.  Johanna from Germany and Julieta from Argentina are new members, and we are very happy that they joined us.

We are sad that we had to say good-bye to Elisabeth and Vera, as they are leaving Thailand in June.  We wish them all the best in their home country and we hope to hear from them in the future.

We discussed “According to Mary Magdalene” by Marianne Frederiksson.  Elisabeth was leading the discussion and she did a wonderful job.  We had an interesting discussion about religion and the role of women in the church.

This month we raised 900 Baht for the scholarship fund.

Next Book Club meeting will be June 29th, when we’ll be discussing the book “Sara’s Key” by Tatiana de Rosnay.  The hostess for the month will be Rosanne, with myself as discussion leader.

The book for the meeting of July 27th is “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak .

Kind Regards, Ineke

Today’s the first time that our lunch is hosted by the Dusit D2.  The staff welcomed about 60 PILC ladies in their modern stylish venue located at 2nd Road (opposite Marriott).

Anja welcomed all members, and especially our two new members of today:  Paula Foster and Laure Close, both from America.  And, sadly, said good-bye to the two ladies who were joining us for the last time:  Geraldine McEvoy, moving to Bangkok and Fiona Brown, who is going back to the UK.

In her announcements, she requested for volunteers for coming Saturday for the Garage Sale this weekend.  Jameson’s Irish Pub has a special promotion on Tuesday’s for pasta and pizza.  The Dusit D2 offers a spa voucher to all signed in PILC members of the day.

Claire gave details about the upcoming play of the Pattaya Players.

Anja handed over the prizes of the Rayong Ladies Club to our lucky members.

We listened and watched a nice and interesting presentation of the Women with a Mission.  Especially the pictures in the presentation which showed us the improvements they have achieved for the refugees and the necessity for further fundraising for continued improvments.

The lucky winners of the raffle stuck together; they were all sitting in the same corner of the room!

After this part we moved to the restaurant, and enjoyed a lovely and tasteful lunch with plenty of food.  You’ll agree that when the Dusit D2 allows us, we’ll come back!!

Marja Hofman

We were very lucky recently to have a new member, Elizabeth Gilek, a novelist and screen writer from Sweden, join us for a few months while researching her forthcoming novel.  Whilst she was here, for a few months over the winter, she offered to run a Creative Writing Group for our members, and six of us joined her for the six weekly sessions at North Star Library.

We were all a little apprehensive about what was to come.  The first session was easy enough, as Elizabeth outlined the course’s contents.  Then came the difficult bit – “homework”, as we called it, consisting of a writing exercise to be read and discussed in the following class.  Horror!  I never thought I would be so nervous about speaking in public (I normally never have a problem with that!) but soon found that with Elizabeth’s gentle, thoughtful guidance, and not too much criticism from the rest of the group, it became easier to get through the exercises each week.

It was fascinating to hear the different “voices” from our class.  Elizabeth admitted that although she had not conducted such seminars for over two years, whilst she concentrated on her novel writing, she had never had such a varied, international group before, and she also enjoyed hearing about our experiences.  It was quite a mixture of nationalities – Silvia from Argentina, Lisa from the Netherlands, Supa who is Thai/Indian, Karen from Australia, Rita from Portugal, and me from the good old UK.  Fortunately for me, the common language was of course English, but I take my hat off to Silvia and Lisa who were not able to write in their native language, but who still produced fluent and thought-provoking stories each week.

The course has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had whilst in Thailand.  Although I can write “business” English quite easily, I never realized how hard it would be to write fiction, with its development of plot and characters, tension and originality.

Elizabeth has now gone back to Sweden for the summer, but she is due to return to Thailand in October and has promised us that she will run a three day intensive seminar to help us develop some of the ideas that we have already written about.  The rest of the group are going to meet once a month during the summer to “keep in practice” and hone our skills, and I, for one, am looking forward with great anticipation to Elizabeth’s return in the autumn!

Gillian Thom

On June 9th, the PILC embarked on an overnight trip to the former Thai capital of Ayutthaya.  Seven members and three husbands braved the heat, humidity, and hyacinth-choked waters of the Chao Phraya to explore the ruins of the ancient city, follow the not-so-attentive tour guide, and eat and sleep on a rather dated rice barge.  Even so, the food was good, the company even better, and a good time was had by all.

To see some photos of this outstanding folly,  just push play below: