The Good One Part 2
I've had some kind responses to your posting of my woes. Following these responses I decided to expand it a bit and include some more pertinent material so that others might see the approaching danger signs : You may find the last paragraph VERY pertinent.
I lived there from 1993-2001, but as she had spent a year studying in Australia (before I met her), wanted to see more of Western life. (The grass is greener….etc). She also got on well with my Mother who often traveled to Thailand.
The problem started I think when she fell in with an old Thai hag who had been working and living here illegally for 4 years and assured her that it was o.k. to work in a Thai restaurant illegally. (In the U.K. a Thai person on a Fiancee / marriage visa
cannot work for the first six months).
When she did get a proper job – well, it all changed ; Her job became the centre of the universe. I had been making very decent money as the S.E. Asian Manager for an aerospace supply company in U.K. and winning bids through my old friends in Thailand
who had formed a company for this purpose.
My wife got 20% of their profit and if you consider she made 17,000 U.S. in 2002 alone when I was back here establishing the business, as well as her salary as Front Desk staff in a fairly upmarket hotel, and the money that I would TX to her…..
Well, you will understand that this is pretty good going for a Thai graduate. When I went back in early 2003 to arrange the visa proceedings she had exactly 15,000 Baht in the bank! And she doesn't buy gold either. The U.K. company that I was contracted
to was bought out by a Sri Lankan businessman and his Indian father in law. Previously the company had been run by people with considerable knowledge of the aviation industry.
(I am a former private pilot and aircraft engineer). These
bums started doing some very, very naughty things with exports to the Middle East – sending aerospace / defence products as "Commercial Samples, no value". Then they would be sold on through their contacts to points unknown. No export
licences, no import licences, no tax declarations etc, etc. Given the situation in April 2004 in the Middle East, I took them to task about it. They took my keys and literally threw me out of the door.
They then refused to pay the commissions due to the Thai company and as I had managed to get some substantial orders, and my wife was due to get something in the order of 27,000 U.S. out of that lot. They also refused to pay me my commissions due. An
industrial Lawyer in U.K. costs about 300 U.S. per hour and that's just for reading paperwork. He reckoned it could take years to prove and at the end of the day we just had to write it off as the costs would be astronomical. (Naturally,
the company would fight tooth and nail and as they had my files, well……….All I had to go would have been to contact Gulfstream Aerospace about a particular component that I had protested about and back track it's history and how it
left U.S. with no export licence, ended up in Egypt with no import licence or customs declarations, and re-appeared fitted to an Indian registered Gulfstream 4 operated by some billionaire Indian – don't know anybody in the FBI do you? I
have some paperwork on this particular one). This is beginning to sound like a novel isn't it?
After this she changed – I got miserable, communications went downhill, although we still had lots of laughs and love. Surprise, surprise, she was doing her little "cash" job in the restaurant (and working full time by now legally in the Dept.,
store), and came home at 1am to find that we had been burgled and the car stolen.
I don't know what they were looking for but they were very good (two sets of prints), but they did not take the two passports that were in the drawers that they up-ended across the floor. A Thai passport with a Brit visa is worth a lot on the market
here, and a well used Brit passport with multiple visas is worth a fortune on the black market. I was asleep upstairs and never heard a thing. After this things changed, she started coming home from work at any old time, her hours being fixed
0830-1700 and would be evasive about she had been.
In October 2004 she went home for a 3 week holiday and I gave her money to buy my best friend and his wife (both Thai) dinner. She didn't pay which was difficult as the guy was on hard times as he had been one of the partners in the company in Thailand.
She also told them that she was going to leave me as she now had the visa and that was the main thing. They being Thai and you know how a Thai will never try to tell you bad news, left the subject alone. I fully understand this and bear them no
malice as I do understand the Thai mentality and indeed we are still great friends.
I had a very good Chinese friend here and a very happily married woman whose husband was back in China while she finished her Masters degree. We became friends – she not having seen her husband for a year and a half and me having not seen my fiancee for
a year and a half. However, friends only – someone to talk with as I am not from this area and neither was she! She was extremely good to my wife when she arrived, really sisterly and kind to help her adapt to the different society. They would
go to the gym together – and my wife passed comment to our Chinese friend, "That the only thing that could make her happy was money". The Chinese lady was utterly taken aback – she thought that money is a good thing but you marry because
you love someone. (I have notarised statements from their respective countries from both the Thai and Chinese friends to use in court). In Sep 2004 the Chinese lady and her husband returned here for graduation and stayed here with us ; Gosh, was
my wife sour or what? It took her 100% control not to spit whenever they spoke to her. What this sudden hatred for Chinese women is about I really do not know, really, really cannot understand. My old Mum reckons that it was obvious ages ago and
is a jealousy thing – their love of education, personal confidence, things like that.
Late Nov 2004 a new section manager started work in the Dept., store where she worked, it's an upmarket sort of a place frequented by middle aged ladies who like to buy their underwear there. (The Brits will know which one!) Suddenly, every second
sentence contained this guy's name and as I would quite often go to meet her from work, she started leaving at times up to an hour after finishing time. I would go to her section and ask if she had finished at 5 and would get a "Yes".
She would appear out the door at say, 6.
She had always been a conservative dresser but started buying rather gaudy high heeled shoes and flimsy underwear – also mini-skirts. This was just so out of character it was unbelievable. And started going out to work "Christmas" parties –
I was not invited. It's not that big a store, and I think about 9 parties in 2 weeks is a bit much……
On Jan 10th 2005 she went to the cops and said that I had been beating her with a mop in our upstairs bathroom. The bathroom being downstairs and there ain't room to swing a mouse let alone a mop. However angry I may have been with her at times I
would never ever strike my wife. Never. Of course I didn't know that she had taken this course of action.
The 10th & 11th she screws me silly which to be honest was nice. The evenings of the 12 and 13 she would not eat the food that she brought in – we always ate together. Both evenings I finished the food and was out like a light within 5-10 minutes.
Woke up in the early hours of the morning on the 13th and found her and her possessions gone. She must have been bumping and thumping around getting suitcases up and down the stairs and I never heard a thing.
I got drugged on a train near Hat Yai in 94' and know the feelings of disorientation and general lassitude following a drugging. Most folks seem to agree that this was what happened. At 5am on the 17th the domestic violence unit arrive at my door
and haul me off to the cop shop accused of 1. Beating my wife with a mop. 2. Throwing a dead rat at her. 3. Punching her about the head and shoulders and throwing a telephone at her, cutting her head. As she works with the public all day we would
expect some comment about bruising or perhaps medical treatment? Well, they optioned for charge one and I have now taken some digi pics for my lawyer showing the mop and sweeping brush size relative to the bathroom. (The toilet in this house is
a separate room). I have also made a CD Rom for my lawyer of all the November pics, photography being a hobby of mine, as this assault took place in November sometime between the 1st and the 31st. Where is the bruising? And some of the pics are
of her rather scantily clad. Bruising takes time to heal…… If someone had attacked me with a mop (or anything else), then I would remember the date exactly. Then I discover that she has been making the maximum withdrawals from our joint bank
account – she knew the bills and rent are direct debit and having got us into a maximum overdraft situation left me with a major financial problem. (My fault for not checking more often I suppose). However, under law she is liable for 50% of the
debt as it was a joint account. I never had an overdraft in my life before.
As her initial 2 year visa is not expired until Feb 2006 (Initial 6 months, then apply for a further 2 years, then apply for Residency) then she has to prove to the Home Office that she has a happy and stable marriage to get residency here
:- Common opinion suggests that she has to take this course of action so that she may reasonably apply for divorce and gain residency in this way. Certainly someone has been steering her – I have known her since 1998 and this is simply not the
way she would do things. I reckon, the old Hag or the Manager of the Restaurant. They know all the scams. Well, that's it for now except for one last point : SHE HOLDS A DEGREE IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION FROM RAMKHAMHAENG UNIVERSITY. THAI
BUSINESS – YUP, I WORKED FOR A THAI COMPANY FOR 8 YEARS! Now we know the syllabus !!!!!
Stickman's thoughts:
I'm in NZ at the moment, so no silly comments from me on submissions for a week or two…