Days in the Life of a Pattaya Hotel Owner

The day following Lan’s departure, another rabbit appeared. Mrs. Boss had secured this one from a neighbour, from whom she had purchased one of the previous two, and thought it most adorable. It was, to be fair, a relatively attractive rabbit (as far as rabbits go) — very small, fluffy white coat and red eyes (very much like mine after a few beers the night before). The new housemaid had still failed to appear (not an uncommon occurrence in Pattaya), so we left for the hotel with the house empty, save for two rabbits who were, of course, totally incapable of protecting themselves let alone our possessions. We returned some twelve hours later and to our amazement found only one rabbit remaining — the new, small, white, fluffy, red-eyed one had gone!

James suggested that the larger rabbit may have eaten it, but the lack of blood and bones suggested that this was as fanciful a thought as either of Mrs. Boss’ suggestions relating to the first disappearance. The fact that someone had simply climbed over the garden wall and stolen the first rabbit and then undertaken a similar exercise this day was, to me, the rather obvious answer. I had kept this thought to myself the first time around but now felt compelled to share it with my family before we entered the realms of aliens abducting our rabbits, or worse. Now whilst I was obviously correct in my assumption the matter of who did what and when was beyond my skills. The neighbour who sold us the now missing rabbits is a kindly old lady and scaling a two-meter high wall is something well beyond her capabilities, even were she to be seriously considered as a suspect. The market where the other rabbit came from did not know us or where we lived, so they too were not able to be included into the category of potential suspects. Added to all of this was the fact that the larger rabbit had remained with us now for a week, whilst its two partners had come and gone. Surely if you are a rabbit thief and you break into a house and find two rabbits, you would take them both?

The only certainty from all of this was that the disappearances had nothing to do with Lan. The continued failure of the new housemaid to appear led to Lan’s immediate re-employment and, as such, my joy at her departure was short lived.

I have always been a dog lover and my Sheltie, Tilly, was my one and only friend most of the way through my 40s. She was a delightful bitch with a terrific brain, and I always thought she considered herself to be far more than a mere hound. Tilly would generally sleep at the end of my bed and would come to work with me during the day. I lived in Central London all of these years and worked around fourteen hours a day seven days a week. As a small dog, Tilly did not require long walks every day, so a morning and evening trip around one of the local garden squares on the way to and from work would suffice. Even so, a couple of hours in Hyde Park on any Sunday, when it was not pouring with rain, would be most welcomed by her. She would always sit in, or outside, my office on Hereford Road and never ventured more than 20 meters in one direction or another when the need to stretch her legs arose.

I remember using Tilly to assist me in purchases of apartments as well. She was so adorable that almost everyone who met her fell in love with her. Whenever I was viewing an apartment I wanted to purchase that had an elderly owner, I would take Tilly along with me. I would tell them I had a dog and could only ever buy a place that the dog liked. Of course I would ensure in advance that this was okay with the property owner first (it always was) and she would scamper from room to room and sniff feverishly in every nook and cranny — Tilly that is, not the home owner. Eventually, having familiarized herself with the terrain, she would find me and sit herself down by my feet. “Yes she likes the flat,” I would say and commence negotiations with the purchaser. I never purchased a property through my own company, sometimes they were private sales although most regularly these were properties being sold through other agencies. Fortunately my knowledge of the business always enabled me to shake off the close marking of the agent concerned to get free and untethered access with the owner at some stage.

I cannot recall any occasion where I visited an apartment with Tilly that the owner did not fall in love with my dog and they were charmed by my concern not to make any offer until my dog had first viewed the property. I would chat away for ages and would be such a pleasant change from all other prospective purchasers that the vendors would really want to sell to me. Eventually I would convince them to accept any offer from me substantially lower than would be available from other purchasers although I would always promise, and more often than not carry through, the ability to exchange contracts within two weeks. Of course I would place the property directly back on the market at an inflated price or live in it for a month or so whilst I undertook some basic repairs and redecoration. Over a four to five year period I managed to make a substantial sum of money and reached the point of being a very wealthy man, or very wealthy young man as I preferred to consider myself.

Despite my success in the buying and selling property business and having a developing Real Estate company I rather forgot about my separation from my partner, Lucy. Now Lucy was a tough cookie and I soon realized that she had not forgotten anything. Lucy worked on the tried and trusted female logic that dictates at the end of a relationship whatever is mine is hers and she keeps whatever she has determined is hers! Not really fair I grant you but at the time I was so concerned with business matters that I had little or no time to defend myself from the swathes of papers that appeared at my solicitor’s office on an almost daily basis. “Just deal with it the best you can” was my constant reply to Peter, my solicitor, who appeared rather more up for the fight than I did. Eventually everything was resolved though and I got to keep the shirt on my back and, most importantly, my business, although none of my money. Through all those months of torture Tilly was my only close friend and she helped me to retain my sanity.