What is Dead Centre? Most people will think of it as ‘the bull’s eye’ or centre of a target, or a shot that hits it. However, in the context of his book, the Welsh writer Owen Jones uses the term in three ways:
as in bull’s eye above
to refer to the point where a killing took place, or the location of maximum fatalities
to refer to The Dead Centre Agency, which is a secret organisation that is responsible for the wave of extreme terrorism that’s sweeping the world. In different contexts, the term has been used in reference to terrorist attacks since at least the 1980s.
What is Dead Centre? Did it really exist?
The Dead Centre Agency, as used by Jones, is fictional, as far as he knows. In acts of terrorism, especially in the past, terrorists would attack targets such as shopping malls, train stations, and airports. These were places where large numbers of people gathered, making them easy targets. However, the author envisioned a scenario where terrorism could be a business opportunity.
He foresaw an organisation that found willing volunteer suicide bombers in order to carry out terrorist attacks on areas with little or no security. The client would choose the target, and The Dead Centre Agency would do the rest. Even to the point of paying the bomber’s or participant’s family his fee after the conclusion of the attack.
Could such an organisation really exist?
They say that the FBI has identified a terrorist group called “Dead Centre”. Apparently, it was formed in 2009 and its members are believed to be responsible for several recent terror attacks. The group’s name comes from the fact that it uses tactics similar to those used by the IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. However, the author is not aware that that that group operated to order as Jones writes in his work of fiction.
Surely crime on this scale could not happen in real life?
This type of terrorism is very different from other forms of terrorism because it does not involve any kind of political agenda. Instead, it involves random acts of violence carried out by individuals who are paid to commit suicide… and they do it because they have a terminal illness.. Furthermore, these people do not represent any particular religion or ideology, so they are very difficult to trace.
Although it is a form of terrorism, killing innocent people is not the objective. The client sets the purpose of the attack, and it is usually financial gain or revenge.
Did the owners of The Dead Centre Agency have a guilty conscience?
There was no evidence that the owners of The Dead Centre Agency had any sort of guilty conscience. In fact, they were quite proud of what they were doing to help the terminally ill provide for their families. They believed that they were doing something good for society.
Is there a sequel to Dead Centre?
At least seven police forces around the world and the SAS sought the leaders of the agency high and low. However, in Dead Centre 2, they are located by MI6, and offered a very special mission by an extremely important client.
“I can say no more”, said the Welsh writer with a smile.
What is the likelihood that such an organisation could really be out there?
Daddy’s Hobby by Owen Jones is the first novel from this Welsh writer. It explores why so many girls work in Pattaya and how they fare. It is his best-selling book.
Daddy’s Hobby by Owen Jones is an insightful look at why tens of thousands of young women choose to enter the Pattaya sex tourism industry, and how many of them get on. They and other attractions bring more than a million tourists to Pattaya every year. Most of them are men with money looking for a good time.
Daddy’s Hobby by Owen Jones – Origins.
In the mid-to late Seventies, Owen Jones was working in the south Netherland’s city of s’Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) in Noord Brabant. One day, a popular new bar opened up at the bottom of the street he lived in. It was a ‘Relax Bar’, a concept he didn’t understand, but he liked the sound of the music. One afternoon, he ventured inside. The bar was practically empty despite the fact that the landlord was very friendly and played lots of Heavy Metal, which was very popular at the time.
After a while he noticed a few scantily-clad young ladies looking at him from the darker recesses at the back of the room. When he went to the toilet, he was left in no doubt what a relax bar was. The owner/barman, whose name was Rick, I think, played the Meatloaf album ‘Like A Bat Out of Hell’ from cover to cover three or four times a day and sold marijuana, which had been decriminalised. This record more than any other brought the ‘house dancing girls’ out onto the floor.
The bar was called ‘Daddy’s Hobby’. I liked everything about it including the name, which I thought was very clever. Within a month or two, it was the busiest bar in the city. However, sadly, within a year, Rick had been murdered and his bar burned down. We all thought that it had to do with drugs.
Daddy’s Hobby by Owen Jones – Development.
In the early 2,000’s Owen Jones moved to Pattaya, and started going out with the cashier of the first bar he had a drink in. It put him in a ‘trusted position’ with ‘the girls’. Soon most of the thirty-odd girls who worked there were seeking his advice. Their favourite topic was how best to write saucy texts and emails to their ‘boyfriends’. Most of these had already returned home to their wives or girlfriends in Europe and elsewhere, but mostly the UK. That bar was a more flagrant example of Rick’s Daddy’s Hobby, but without the drugs.
After a few weeks, he had inadvertently collected many scraps of paper with translated messages on them. So, he sought the girls’ permission to write them into a book. No-one disapproved when he promised to use false names. It was funny, he said, because all the girls and most of the clients were already doing that anyway. Everybody was lying, especially the men. He recalls that he had never met so many navy SEALS, SAS, commandos, MI5 and CIA operatives in his life before. Not a one of them was a carpenter or civil servant, and they were all single, looking for a wife!!
There was no other name for the book than Daddy’s Hobby, subtitled Behind The Smile but for various reasons, it took him eight years to self-publish it.
Daddy’s Hobby by Owen Jones – Sequels.
Owen Jones used the name of Lek for his lead female character. She was also the life and soul of the bar, and didn’t mind the author using her real name. She too is sadly long dead. He used the Welsh name Craig for the main male, although there are many other dramatis personae in the novel. When he was writing the book, it was the Lek character that dictated to him in his head what he must write. He had already determined that the book should be 100,000 words long, but when he reached that level, it was clear that Lek hadn’t finished her story. So, Owen closed book one, published it, and started a sequel.
You may be wondering why it took eight years to bring Daddy’s Hobby to market, if it was being dictated.
“Well, when I looked at Craig’s character I could see too much of myself… I just was not prepared to share it at that point”, he says. “I nearly gave up several times, but Lek and I stuck with it and produced a result”.
He did not like the idea of calling the second volume Daddy’s Hobby 2, so he gave it the name of a significant chapter in volume one, An Exciting Future. It now needed a series title to bind them together and that became Behind The Smile. The books are frequently referred to as Behind The Smile.
Lek kept up the pressure for several more years until Behind The Smile consisted of seven volumes, of 720,000 words.
Daddy’s Hobby – the Future.
“Although the Lek in my head was the inspiration of the actual stories, encouragement came from elsewhere. It was also more important”, he says.
“My stepmother hated the book, and two of my three brothers have never mentioned any of my fifty-odd novels. However, one thought it was fantastic though, and asked me to write a sequel. I had also run a competition for a free copy. Coincidentally, the woman who won it was a student journalist, who wrote an encouraging review. I opened the door to Lek again, and started volume two.
“Suddenly, I started to receive encouragement from complete strangers all around the world. Unfortunately, I have still heard nothing from friends and family from my home town. It used to upset me a lot, until I learned that that was quite common in the UK. People seem to resent someone improving themselves”.
He claims to know three readers, who hadn’t read a book since leaving school – one of them being eighty-four! Two others have since written novels, and one has moved to Thailand to see it ‘for himself’! Many readers have sought him out for a drink when they are visiting Thailand, and others went to Spain and Wales to meet him.
Owen says that he hasn’t been back to Pattaya for several years. However, when he was last there tourists and expats knew of his books, and some had read them all. Its particularly affected him when a young Thai woman ran up to him, kissed him on the cheek, and said: “You’re the lovely man who writes nice things about Pattaya bar girls, aren’t you. Thank you very much”.
Every month, he sells several box sets of seven, who can only be going off reviews or recommendation.
Behind The Smile by Owen Jones – Narrations and Translations.
In these days of Covid, it has been difficult to find further inspiration for what he calls the Lek Series. Between 2016 and 2018, he and his Thai wife (that first girl, the cashier, that he met in Pattaya) lived in Andalucía, Spain. From 2018 to 2020, the tried living in Wales. However, Pritti Patel and the Tories made it too difficult for his wife to obtain a residency permit. He says that he will never forgive them for that.
However, while in Spain, Owen started to have his books translated and narrated. Principally in Spanish so that he could sell them to the local Spanish as well as the expats. He soon started to receive offers of collaboration from all over the world in fifteen languages. Since living back in Thailand, and he has been in lockdown in the village because of Covid-related travel restrictions. So, he has been concentrating on these narrations and translations. He now has more than one thousand books in thirty-eight languages registered in his name in the British Library.
“I still would prefer to be writing fresh material though”, he adds with a hint of sadness.
When Frank, a staid, middle-aged, confirmed bachelor takes his new, diplomat Thai bride to a friend’s apartment on the Costa del Sol for their dream honeymoon, they are in Nirvana… until the ghouls of a secret Scandinavian society torment the superstitious young woman to the point of seeking death to end her suffering. Frank is way out of his depth… What is he to do to save the first love of his life?
The Ghouls of Calle Goya
This novel, often called just Calle Goya is the perplexing story of how Evil can result from the happiest of circumstances and good intentions, and how madness can be the result.
It is based on a true story and is set in Norway, the UK, Spain and Thailand.
Calle Goya is available in several languages in several ebook formats (Barnes & Noble, GooglePlay, iTunes, Kindle, Kobo), paperback and possibly even audiobook (Amazon/Audible) too.
The cover is an original in crayon by Aliya.
Click a link below to learn more about the availability of the book in the language of your choice:
Londoner Frank marries Joy, a beautiful young Thai, who works in town. She has always dreamed of going to the Costa del Sol, so they head to an apartment in Fuengirola on Calle Goya loaned by Frank’s boss for their dream honeymoon.
Things start to go wrong when Joy fears that the apartment is haunted. Fear leads to depression and deepens into terror. Frank has no idea what to do, except take her back to her family in Thailand, but that brings its own misfortune.
Life finally looks brighter because of the intervention of a secret Scandinavian society.
This is the story of how Evil can result from good intentions.
Old age creeps up on us, as does getting older in general. Parents regularly wonder what happened to their youth, and older people wonder why they hadn’t noticed it happening to them. These are common experiences, but when you have been growing old abroad, there are other factors.
Those who are growing old abroad probably only have elderly friends. More than likely, they don’t have younger family members around them as they would, if they had stayed at home (in Britain, for example).
That can make growing old abroad pretty difficult for an ex-pat, much more so than if they had stayed at home near their family.
This is quite obvious, but it still surprises most elderly people because they didn’t see it coming. It seems as if one day, they were frolicking on the beach, or at least going out for walks every day, and the next they were house-bound or in a wheelchair and lonely.
However, it is a very depressing experience that a lot of ex-pats growing old abroad will have to come to grips with one day.
Sex Matters
It is easier for a man in some ways. He can go to the pub, but many women will not do that alone. They tend to live longer than men too, giving them longer to have to cope with ever-deepening depression.
This now very common phenomenon of ex-pats growing old abroad is one of the reasons why Neem Jones established Fuengirola Home Help Services. It is meant to provide home help and companionship to those who need it – the elderly, the infirm, the house-bound and busy parents.
If you would like to discuss your requirements completely confidentially with Neem, please go to her Facebook page and click ‘Submit Message‘, which will give you the option to phone, email or Message her.
I have been living and eating Thai food in Fuengirola for about a year, so I know the place fairly well. I also love Thai food. In fact, I lived in Thailand for thirteen years with my Thai wife and her family in a small, rice-farming village in the north.
So far, I have discovered four fully or partly Thai restaurants in Fuengirola and Los Boliches.
Mr Noodles: cooks some types of Thai food and Thai noodles from what I have seen, although I have not eaten there yet, because noodles are not my favourite food.
Padthaiwok: is located in the same street, opposite the bus station, as Mr. Noodles. It seems to be mostly noodles again, and so I have not eaten there, but my Thai wife has and she liked it. I did notice that they do not provide pork there and that it is Halal.
Srithai: is about two hundred yards opposite Padthaiwad in ‘Fish Alley’. I have eaten there and loved the food. I can vouch for the fact that it is authentic. The staff are very friendly too.
Thai Lanna: this restaurant is located in Los Boliches. I have eaten here too and it is my favourite in the area. The food is fantastic and the decor made my wife cry one day when she was feeling particularly homesick.
I have been told that there is another in Los Boliches on beach road near the border with Fuengirola. My wife went looking for it one evening, but failed to find it.
The other thing that I want to say about the above restaurants is that the staff are either mostly or completely Thai. The waiters are often local, but the cooks are Thai.
Give them a try. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
** Breaking news! There is now a Thai home catering service active in Fuengirola and Los Boliches. I have tried their food too and it is authentic and delicious Thai cuisine cooked by Thai ladies. They will either cook for you in your home or pub for your special occasion or cook in their homes and deliver it. See Thai Home Catering Services in Fuengirola on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThaiCateringInFuengirola/ **
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We had planned our arrival in the UK three months in advance and had bought flights accordingly. I had asked friends and family to look out for accommodation for us and spent a lot of the intervening time researching procedures and looking for possible immigration problems and their solutions.
Two days before our actual arrival in the UK, my brother, our fall-back in case we were homeless, informed me that we would not be able to stay with him. I rushed to reserve a hotel room, but they could not do that without payment. However, I didn’t want to pay in advance because there was a reasonable chance that my wife, being Thai, might be refused entry.
When the day came, we flew from Malaga into Barry. At Immigration / Passport Control, the official said that he had never come across a case where an Asian married to a Brit was carrying a Spanish Residency Card. After a few worrying minutes, during which he talked to his superior, he called us over. He wanted to see her passport and residency card, and then gave her leave to stay for six months.
So far, our arrival in the UK was going better than we had hoped for, except for accommodation. A taxi took us to the hotel and, unbeknownst to us, we took the last room in Barry. Apparently, a festival in Cardiff and a Rolling Stones concert had caused every available room to be taken for the following week. They could accommodate us for two nights but no longer.
So, at eleven am, ninety minutes after our Arrival in the UK, we set off looking for the next place we could move to. Despite many helpful suggestions, we were out of luck, and so went to bed a very worried couple.
The following morning, we trawled the remainder of my old haunts and asked several taxi drivers, but everything came up blank. As we were walking forlornly past a pub in town, a man standing outside smoking said, ‘Hello, O, long time no see!’
It was someone I used to know twenty years before, but I had forgotten his name. I asked whether he knew of any lodgings, and he took us inside for a think. Anyway, he offered us his spare room which would become vacant after five days. We leapt at it.
Now we only had five days to cover.
Homeless in Barry
However, his assistance didn’t stop there. He and his wife insisted on taking us around all the guest houses they could think of. Needless to say, they were all booked solid, so we retired to a pub to think again.
‘You can have our bed and we’ll sleep on the couch’, was their solution. We were flabbergasted, but had to accept after offering to sleep on the couch ourselves.
‘I’ll tell you something,’ he said. ‘I only stopped at that pub to smoke a cigarette with an old friend and that was only the second time I’ve been in there in eight years!’
So, there we are now, and I am sitting on the couch writing this. I can’t wait for our own room, so that they can reclaim their bedroom.
Such acts of kindness are truly humbling, especially when I still haven’t had even a simple email from any of my family asking whether we are still homeless or even just all right!
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It was Liverpool vs Real Madrid in some football cup final or other in our local pub in Fuengirola this evening. Well, I suppose it was in nearly everybody’s local too. I am not really into football. However, many of my friends are at various levels from professional to fanatic, so I try to take an interest in the most important games.
People started to arrive early to ensure a good seat and the tension was rising ever higher as it filled. Normally, the clientele is predominantly British and Spanish, but this night it was French and Spanish, although they were split fairly evenly in their support. However, more people seemed to be talking about the game than watching it as far as I could see.
There was never a hint of animosity, even though the noise level was quite deafening once the game got going. By the second half, I think that everyone was supporting the Spanish team as I didn’t notice any sad faces when the game was over.
Football and Me
The Liverpool vs Real Madrid match was the first football match that I remember watching in the last five years, so, as usual, I didn’t really know what was going on. However, I do enjoy the atmosphere, and the Spanish really love their sport, so watching any football game in Spain is a flight of emotion. There were fans of all ages and both sexes in the bar and everybody was shouting their team on.
Free food and cheap drinks ensured that everybody had a wonderful time. I would be watching again, but it was the last game of the season, so I’m told. It seems that I catch on too slowly.
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I wasn’t happy that night – an argument with the wife, or possibly a misunderstanding… she is Thai, I am Welsh and I know for certain that we still don’t fully understand one another, even after fifteen years.
So, I went for a walk around the town where I live, Fuengirola.
My first encounter was with a young man and his female companion blocking the pavement. They were asking an Indian shopkeeper directions and he was struggling to explain in English.
“Can I help?” I offered.
“No, fuck off! We don’t need any help”, came the reply in a broad Irish accent proving that he was a liar as well as rude and ignorant. The woman looked at me apologetically, and I walked on by.
Musing on that experience, I called into Geordie’s new bar (he is a friend I have mentioned before – Coast to Coast) under Las Rampas. As I sat there, I watched people playing pool.
And this is amazing to me… a man broke and went in off. His opponent pointed at the black and proceded to put his seven balls and the black down ON A FULL TABLE in two or three minutes.
I was astounded! It was the best pool-playing I had ever seen in my forty-five years of hanging around bars.
Anyway, a younger man challenged him after about ten minutes, and, God’s honest truth, made him look like a novice! He had five balls left on the table at the end of the game!
A little while later, I got talking to a bloke, and he said that a lot of the Spanish international pool team meet there to practice…
So, if you like pool, call into Geordie’s and maybe you too will be lucky enough to see something like I did.
I watched every game untill kick-out, and then started walking home. It was around midnight.
The walk home was not uneventful, it is nice to be offered the company of pretty, young ladies, although I declined, and arrived home in a far better disposition than I had left.
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The weather on The Costa del Sol is quite legendary in the UK. In Scandinavia too, which is the biggest reason why people from those countries flock here in such vast numbers. (One of the others being the relatively low cost of living).
The Costa del Sol faces Morocco on the Maghreb in north Africa across only 14 kilometres of Mediterranean Sea, which is less than nine miles!
Admittedly, I had never spent a Christmas here before 2017, but this was my second January, and I have been coming here off-season for decades. In fact, many people do come here for the festive season to avoid the weather and expense at home.
Well, it has been cold this season. At the time of writing, 10:30 am in February 2018, the weather in Fuengirola is 2c (Real Feel -1c).
-1c!
People, even residents, are talking about how bitter the weather is around here. Fuengirola is in Andalucía – holiday resort! So, I should imagine that there are quite a few holiday-makers who wished they had stayed at home!
There is no real wind to speak of, nine mph, and it is not raining… it is just freakishly cold. If I didn’t think I knew better, I would say that it is about to snow.
That would be something, wouldn’t it!? Snow on the Costa del Sol – The Sun Coast?
“It has happened before”, one of my long-term resident Brit friends tells me, “but the last time was twenty years ago”.
Well, if I were a betting man, and if there were any betting offices around here, I would put a couple of pounds on the weather on Andalucía turning to snow over the next couple of days.
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**UPDATE** There are no Thais working here now and the owner still owes wages from August 2017 – AVOID!!!
The Thai-Lanna Restaurant is situated at Calle Francisco Cano 80, which is the third street back from the sea in Los Boliches, a suburb of Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol in south-eastern Spain. It is open Monday to Saturday from seven until eleven p.m. but the closing time is flexible (and the staff arrive at six) and if you ring +34 952 587 139, ask for Jose before Sunday, he may open for you on their day off.
The decor in the Thai-Lanna is exquisite – there is no other word for it. When I took my homesick Thai wife there, she kept touching the woodwork and artefacts murmuring: “Oh, this is real Thai!’ She must have said it twenty times before our food arrived.
There is a wide selection of food and I can vouch for the fact that it is authentic Thai too, because I know the two chefs. They are both middle-aged Thai ladies who grew up in Thailand, and in Thailand, ALL females (and most men) learn to cook from a very early age. In addition to that, I lived in a northern Thai village for thirteen years.
Needless to say, but I will anyway, as this is a review, the food was superb.
The name of the restaurant needs some explanation, but I will jump to the second word first, ‘Lanna’, which is actually two words, but Thai does not leave spaces between words. “Lan” means a million, and ‘Na” means rice field(s), since Thai does not use plurals. So, Lanna means “The Land of a Million Rice Fields”, which was a kingdom stretching across northern Thailand and beyond between about 1292 and 1607. “Thai” means free, so Thailand is the land of the free, and Thais are “The Free People’.
Give the Thai-Lanna Restaurant a try, you will not find a better or more authentic northern-Thai style, which is not as hot as the food from Isaan or the south west, although if you want it hot, just tell the waitress. Those ladies in the kitchen can cook anything Thai.
Five Stars out of Five.
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Thai Catering Services in Fuengirola and Los Boliches
Thai Catering Services in Fuengirola have launched!
The Three Lions in Fuengirola is now offering authentic Thai Sweet Green Curry made by Neem of the above-mentioned company in Fuengirola and Los Boliches.
Nick and Luke of the Three Lions took delivery of two of Neem’s home-made Thai meals this week, so they are now offering Kaeng Kiouw Wan (Thai Sweet Green Curry) and rice and Pom Pia (Spring Rolls) the latter with Thailand’s most popular accompaniment to Pom Pia, a hot and sweet sauce.
Thai Catering Services
When asked about the range of food she can provide, she said: ‘I can cook any Thai food you want to order, but at the moment, I have selected eight of Thailand’s most famous and popular traditional dishes. I have chosen to prepare them with chicken because it is the least likely meat to offend, but I can adapt the recipes for pork, beef or prawns if someone wants it. The same with the Spring Rolls. My standard Spring Rolls are vegetarian, but I can easily add meat or prawns if people want’.
Why not pop into the Three Lions this evening to sample the ambience and Neem’s traditional, authentic Thai cuisine, or give her a call and arrange for your own order to be delivered to your premises?
You can find out more about what Neem has to offer on her Facebook pages here:
For those of you who have been following the eighteen-month epic story of our, and in particular, my Thai wife’s, quest for residency in Spain, we had to go to the police station again today for what I thought was the final time. Just to fill in quickly for those of you with a bad memory or those who just came in on this saga:
We have already:
1) satisfied the Spanish Embassy in Bangkok with all the proof that ‘anyone in Europe could ever expect’ (their words)
2) satisfied the police in Malaga with a load more papers and
3) satisfied the local ‘National Police’ in Fuengirola, where we live with seven more sets of papers including photos and proof of payment of the fee of €10.30. At least, the delivery of these last papers and the donation of fingerprints, were the point of today’s visit.
Long process
Monday is the worst day to visit official places, but we had been told to be there on Monday, for an appointment between ten thirty and noon. We arrived at ten thirty-three and there were a hundred people in a queue, which I knew from previous visits was unlikely to be hours – we had been where those poor sods were several times over the past year, but we had progressed to a different level.
So, I tried to ask what I had to do. After all, I knew that I had an appointment.
The first guard pointed at a counter on the wall and told me to take a ticket, but when I asked him where from, he didn’t know. I asked two more, but they didn’t speak English. I could see people being fingerprinted in a room, so guessed that we had to be in there, but when I entered, I was told to get out.
After thirty minutes, someone took pity on me, and said that if I had an appointment, then I already had a number. I found it, but it was 29 and they were dealing with number 33.
I entered the fingerprinting room again with my number, but was told to get out again. The helpful desk sergeant from before told me that I was now number 40, so, happy at last, we sat down and awaited our new turn.
Bureaucracy
It came forty-five minutes later and we entered the fingerprinting room again, but legitimately this time. Everything was going well as he checked our papers, and then he said something I didn’t understand, but he bundled us our papers and led us out of the door to a woman who spoke English.
‘The price of the Spanish Residency card has gone up’, she said.
‘Ok,’ I asked bewildered, ‘by how much? I’ll pay it now’.
“Eleven cents,” she replied smiling, “but we do not take money here you have to go to a bank’. She scribbled something in Spanish on a piece of paper, saying, ‘Give this to the printers a few doors down, they will know what to do. Take the paper from them to the bank, pay it and report back here to your happy policemen before twelve. Next!’
I looked at my phone, it was eleven twenty, and the nearest bank was ten minutes walk. We hurried to the printers, but it was ‘closed for holidays’. We went to my friendly estate agent, George, but he couldn’t seem to get it printed. We went as fast as I can to our solicitor’s, and she printed out the form for us. Then it was off to the bank which was now between us and the police station. They charged us €10.30 to pay the eleven cents, and Neem, my wife, had to run to the police station leaving me to catch her up.
Residencia
When I arrived, they were almost done. ‘It’s funny,’ laughed the woman from before… it happens every year!’ I didn’t think it was funny at all. ‘Still, it’s all over now. Your wife can pick up her card some time after 45 days… between one and two pm. Bye-bye’.
This might not sound like a big deal to you, but if we had missed today’s appointment, we wouldn’t have got another appointment for at least three weeks and probably six, by which time some of our papers might have expired.
Neem is now in the clear and we are so grateful for that.
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The Three Lions is fairly large pub in Reyes Catolicos, a street in north Fuengirola about fifty metres from the beach. It is not far from Los Boliches and easy to find on the Internet, which will give you more precise directions on how to get to it.
The Three Lions is owned and run by two British brothers, Luke and Nick, who, if not behind the bar, are usually to be found on the small square outside, which they share with the restaurant next door ‘Just Ribs’.
This is handy, because although the Three Lions is a well-stocked bar, they are not able to provide much in the way of food yet. Their temporary solution is to allow their clientele to order something to eat from next door, or the pizzeria or chip shop near-by, which will deliver.
Nick and Luke are also in negotiation with Neem of Thai Catering Services to provide authentic Thai food (see her details elsewhere on this blogor her page on Facebook). I will keep you informed about how that pans out.
The Three Lions is basically a sports bar, but it is not obtrusively so. Not being particularly sports-orientated myself, I would call it a music bar, because, despite the three large flat-screen TV’s showing sport, the two pool tables and the dartboard, and the competitions and leagues they are in, the two brothers can answer any question on music you care to fire at them. Their knowledge on the subject is quite impressive!
The clientele is mixed. People of all ages and both sexes go there, both expats and holidaymakers. Their nationalities are also varied, with British and Scandinavians making up the majority, followed by Spaniards and Moroccans. Being situated so close to the sea, many customers often take a break from the bar to go for a dip in the water, and many sunbathers pop in for refreshments. This means that casual is the dress mode at all times 🙂
The Three Lions is not open all day, but usually is from about five till twelve or one, when you will find young and old wandering in and out or enjoying a game of pool, which many of them take pretty seriously.
Why not pop along and join in the fun one evening, I am sure you wont regret it. Say, you read about them on my blog for an extra warm welcome, and if I hear you say that, I will say ‘Hello’ as well 🙂
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It is my pleasure to introduce to the residents of, and the holidaymakers in, Fuengirola and Los Boliches, Pranom Jones, better known as Neem. Neem is a Thai lady who moved to Fuengirola with her husband in January 2017, and is now keen to take part in the local community.
Neem is offering two separate types of services to the folk in Fuengirola and Los Boliches. They are, in essence, home help and Thai catering, but I will explain them in more detail below.
Fuengirola Home Help Services
Fuengirola Home Help Services is about caring. Neem is learning Spanish, but currently speaks only Thai and English. However, there are many elderly expats and young English-speaking families in Fuengirola and Los Boliches, who might want to use Neem’s home help services.
Neem is offering to cook, clean, shop, walk the dog, push the wheelchair and be a companion, do the gardening and the laundry, or anything else of this nature. She can also babysit, pick up the kids from school or just keep them amused until you get home.
If you would like to talk to her about this sort of thing in complete confidence, please use the button on her Facebook page here:
In this business, Neem is offering to cater for private parties in people’s own homes. She is a Thai chef par excellence, and will prepare the Thai food of your choice, with aqdvice from her, if you want, from start to wherever you want. She can do the shopping, prepare and cook the food in her or your own home and leave you to serve it, or she can do that too.
So, if you are looking for a meal with a difference, hot or not so hot, plan it with Neem.
Contact her using the button on her Facebook page here:
The lady behind Fuengirola Home Help Services, Pranom Jones, better known as Neem, today launched a new service to add to her already impressive array – home Thai catering services in Fuengirola and Los Boliches.
“Thai food is widely acknowledged to be one of the best cuisines in the world,” said Neem with an air of pride, and I have been cooking it, village style, since I was a schoolgirl! Every day of my life for about forty years!”
“I can cook real Thai style for those that want it that way, and basically I am talking about hot, but perfectly spiced, or I can tone it down a bit, as I have been doing for my British husband of fifteen years, but still retain the authenticity of the Thai meal”.
“It all depends on what the client wants. I can cook any Thai dish – from the north, south, centre or Isaan, because I come from the north, but worked in the south with many people from Isaan and the more commercial centre”.
When asked about the details, Neem replied, “The easiest for me, is to walk into a fully stocked kitchen with the food that I have bought to cook the meal. However, I understand that not every bar has cooking facilities or even a license to cook, so in those circumstances, I am willing to cook in my house and deliver it. I am very flexible, just call and see what we can work out…. satisfaction and authenticity is guaranteed… I only left Thailand a few months ago and I have been cooking Thai all my life.
“I want people in Fuengirola to realise that Thai country cooking is fantastic, but that they do not have to burn the skin off their tongues to appreciate it. Ask my husband, he eats the milder version”.
If you would like to know more about Neem’s Thai Catering Services in Fuengirola and Los Boliches, please head over to her Facebook page and contact her on the following page:
Often, it seems that everything takes longer when living abroad, and this can make you really short of time when you are also working abroad. For example, in Britain, we tend to work for eight hours straight from eight or nine a.m, whereas in southern Spain, like the Costa del Sol, most people work from nine or ten until two p.m. and then from five until nine, which ties you up for twelve hours a day.
The locals on the Costs del Sol grew up with the system and it suits them, but it often leaves northern Europeans wondering where the day went!
Twelve hours tied up with work and eight hours sleep only leaves four hours for shopping, cooking, socialising, sport and everything else.
The ‘relaxed’ southern Spanish lifestyle leaves many Brits and other northern Europeans feeling exhausted.
This is what led Neem Jones to set up Fuengirola Home Help Services – a new business covering Fuengirola and Los Boliches.
Fuengirola Home Help Services provides mature ladies to help around the home and garden, so that busy working people have more time to enjoy themselves.
Fuengirola Home Help Services provides assistance with: children, caring, cooking, cleaning, gardening, companionship, house-, dog- and baby-sitting, shopping, although any normal household or family activities will be considered.
If you would like to book a meeting with Neem Jones to discuss your requirements, it can be done through her business’ Facebook, Fuengirola Home Help Services:
Neem Jones says that she will take on any type of home help, but she is particularly interested in becoming involved with children and the infirm or house-bound, because she is a people person.
So, if you are working abroad in Fuengirola and feeling a bit frazzled, get in touch with Neem and let her give you some of your life back.
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Raising a family abroad is usually the task of young, busy people. Some parents may be sent abroad to work by their company, or they might just choose to do it for the lifestyle. One thing, though, is for sure, raising a family is difficult, and raising a family abroad is even more so.
Why?
For many reasons. When raising a family abroad, you are unlikely to be able to rely on the support of friends and family. You probably just won’t have any there. It is also probable that you won’t speak the local language well or understand how ‘things work’.
Without the support and inside information that you would have at home, raising a family abroad becomes more time-consuming.
This is where Fuengirola Home Help Services comes in. It is designed to reduce the pressure on busy people like you by providing a responsible, experienced woman to do the shopping on your behalf and deliver it to your home, or pick up your children from school, take them home and feed them or keep them amused until you get there.
Fuengirola Home Help Services can also clean the house, tidy the garden, prepare a meal, Thai or European, babysit or almost anything else you want for a negotiable hourly or daily rate.
Neem is particularly fond of children. When you see her interacting with yours, any fears you may have will be instantly allayed. Neem speaks Thai and English, but not yet Spanish, although she is trying to learn it, despite not having found her inability to speak it a problem yet.
This is a brand new service being offered in Fuengirola and Los Boliches only (at the moment), so if you think that you need more time and want Fuengirola Home Help Services to provide it for you, contact Neem Jones via her Facebook, where you can message, phone or email her for a personal response.
