Days in the Life of a Pattaya Hotel Owner

So there I was back in Pattaya, sitting with the world crumbled around my feet. I had no idea what to do and no way of proving my innocence. Mrs. Boss had made her hatred of me perfectly clear over a 24-hour period and then, without warning, changed 180 degrees and was full of smiles and the joys of spring! Women — how on earth do you work them out?

With her birthday imminent and her reasonably good mood continuing, I decided to stick with my policy of saying nothing that may be likely to ruffle even a single feather. This muteness is rather alien to me, though perhaps I have been missing something as it seems to be achieving rather more than my fighting back has in the past!

I have absolutely no idea how things will unwrap over the next few weeks or so, but with the birthday followed by a two-week vacation on her own — first to Udon Thani and then a couple of weeks on the island of Phuket — things really should not seem that bad for Mrs. Boss. Anyway, here’s hoping!

The Jasmine Mansion is starting to flourish again after a disappointing December and January. Yes, these were busy months and we achieved good room rates and restaurant sales. However, everything was below the previous year’s levels and keeping the hotel full, or close to full, proved a struggle. After my return from Hua Hin, where I went for the final proof reading and editing work on Riff-Raffles Revenge with my friend Kevin, business really started to pick up. We had numerous email bookings, several customers walking in off the street and by the end of the first week in February a full hotel.

The only negative at the present time relates to our cook, Rung, who has been with us since July 2006. Rung has been a real star throughout her time in the kitchen, although less of an asset whenever she gets involved in other areas of the business outside of her domain! On more than one occasion, in fact probably on at least 20 occasions, I have had to calm Mrs. Boss down and stop her from sacking Rung. I have also failed in stopping Mrs. Boss from sacking Rung at least half a dozen times but then managed to instigate a process of immediate reinstatement. That, however, is all bye the bye as Rung is really rather unwell and is in hospital undergoing quite major surgery. It is anticipated she will be one week in the hospital and this is expected to be followed by several weeks convalescence.

Whilst I was away, Mrs. Boss managed to recruit a replacement for Rung, an experienced cook from a nearby hotel. The plan would be that the new cook would work a 12-hour shift during Rung’s absence and thereafter they would share the cooking duties, working eight-hour shifts and having one day off per week. We were also offering the new cook a considerable increase in the salary she was receiving from her present employers. The cook came in three consecutive evenings, once her shift at her hotel was over, and was trained in all the dishes we do, shown where everything was kept, introduced to our stock and ordering systems and generally fully primed for the task ahead. What a waste of time that proved to be. The day she was due to start with us, she had a change of heart and contacted Mrs. Boss to advise she would be remaining where she was! Fantastic, so what do we do now?

Well, what we decided to do was return to cooking ourselves. No, not leaping into a pot of boiling water but literally doing the cooking ourselves. We have done it before, and whilst returning to attend these chores is somewhat irksome, we can do it again. Well we can do everything we know how to do but that excludes some of the more recent additions introduced to the menu by Rung, of which we are quite clueless. The phrase, “Sorry that is not available,” is presently getting rather more use that has been the case over the past 18 or so months! We have also enlisted the help of a chirpy room maid who tells us she can cook — initial exposure to her cooking skills rather show her assertion to be an exaggeration of gargantuan proportions but at least she can do the washing up!

We heard from Rung 24 hours after her operation. She was starting to recover from the anesthetic and that she was, apart from the post-surgical pain, feeling fine. Mrs. Boss decided not to pass on my message of, “Hi, good, are you likely to be back into work tomorrow?” feeling it a little insensitive. It does appear though, that a few weeks rest at home and we should have an even fitter and healthier cook returning to us. Now, if she is away for four weeks in total that is 28 days. As she gets one day off every fortnight I calculate it will be another one year and one month before she is entitled to any further leave — or am I being a tad too harsh here?

With it being Chinese New Year, many offices are closed for at least five days and, of course, the boys’ schools are closed for such a period. The schools close for the flimsiest of reasons anyway and I was quite surprised that were not off for the last couple off weeks due to the heavy snow in China or some other equally unrelated global event. On the school front we do have some good news though in that James passed the entrance exam in order to attend Assumption School from the start of the next school year, being May 2008. So in only three-months time, Mrs. Boss and I will have the house to ourselves from Sunday afternoon to Friday evening — that will be the real testing time to see how our relationship is faring should it still be afloat come May.

The only other item of relative interest at the moment is the ongoing work in the adjoining building. The ground floor bar, Club Blu, has opened as has its private members bar on the first floor. Works are still ongoing to the second and third floor “rooms”, which I presume will be what are colloquially known as “short-time rooms.” If you have not worked that out then let me explain that these are rooms available for a man to take a lady of his choosing from the bar for sex — see, quite simple really. Anyway the real point is that whilst there is the occasional banging and crashing combined with the odd spurt from a jackhammer it does appear that most of the works are completed and our business life can return to some degree of normality. Hurrah!

As I complete this particular entry in my life diary I am questioning the reason for even writing it. I know I have a blog which needs to be updated but it only needs to be updated if I want to keep on writing. My second book, Riff-Raffles Revenge, is finished and winging its way to the publishers. Although I feel as though I want a break from the pressures of running a hotel and writing I seem inexorably drawn to the computer keyboard to detail my life’s events as they unfold. It all seems very strange to me at the moment but, despite my lack of any religious beliefs, there is something telling me this is all for a reason. We will see.