by Dr. Iain
Corness
Sheryn, affectionately and exclusively known as Harpic,
for the past few years, is a woman who has brightened up the music scene
in Pattaya, and in fact brightens up any gathering, be it social, sporting
or work.
The youngest of three girls, her father was a man who
followed many pursuits, mainly of the engineering kind, although he was a
good singer and was offered a position in a band, which he refused. Her
grandmother was also musically inclined and still sings in concerts to
entertain the elderly in nursing homes. Harpic’s grandmother is a
sprightly young 89 year old!
As a young girl she lived in Poole in Dorset in the UK
and did have an early interest in music too, wanting to play the clarinet.
However, her teacher told her not to bother as she was tone deaf, so she
never persevered with this aim in life.
By
the time she was 16 years old she was a well established tom-boy, riding
motorcycles and even having a go in trials and moto-X with her father.
“I think Dad always wanted sons, but got all girls!”
To finish her secondary schooling, Harpic went to
technical college where she did trade courses in welding, bricklaying and
engineering, but by this stage she had developed a strong interest in
animals and then went on to agricultural college.
After two years of agricultural college where she had
to get up at 4 a.m. to milk cows and feed pigs, “I wanted to do
something warm.” So Harpic went off to business college to learn typing,
“The thing I should have learned at school!” The office life did not
appeal however, and she returned to the horses, grooming Arab stallions,
plaiting horses tails for shows and even teaching people to plough in the
traditional way.
This was a time of hell-raising for the young Harpic.
“It was great fun - and I survived,” she mused. But the survival was
at a cost. It included a substantial motorcycle accident and becoming a
single parent. Fortunately the compensation from the accident went to
buying a flat and Harpic moved on to the next stage of her life.
Taking a job with an engineering company as a driver,
she progressed within the company to become the bookkeeper. She met a
young man and they became engaged. The future was beginning to look good,
until suddenly her fianc้e died after a heart attack. She was 25
years old and she retreated from the world. “I became a complete
hermit.”
Trying to rebuild her shattered life included a stretch
where she hustled the lads with too much ego in the pool room of the local
pub. One was tempted to entitle this story, ‘The Pool Hustler from
Poole’ but it was at this time she met up with Rick Bryant who worked
for Foster Wheeler, “Rick helped me a lot and I didn’t hustle him!”
She and Rick got together and moved to Newbury to
manage a pub there. Her second child (Paige) was born and one night, while
a little tipsy, she began singing. Despite what her teacher had told her
so many years before she could sing and Rick and she started a band. “I
told Rick I’d sing in the band until he got a better singer.” She’s
still there! It was at this time that the catch phrase for the popular
Harpic cleaner was “Clean right around the bend,” and one of the band
members said, “Sheryn, that describes you!” She got the label Harpic
that night and it has stuck.
The pub business was also going strong and Harpic did
the exams to become a publican and they bought the pub. Her third child
came next, called ‘Abi’, short for Abigale, which as Harpic said came
from being a publican - read it as “A Big Ale”!
A couple of years ago, Rick was seconded to Thailand,
and when the contract became extended they decided to sell up in the UK
and Harpic and the children came over here too.
She admits that she does not think too much about
“the future” as, “You never know what’s around the corner,” but
she does have a few items in her ‘want to do’ list, including learning
Spanish and Thai and how to play the penny whistle. “There’s not too
many people playing the penny whistle in Thailand and it sounds good with
Rick’s guitar.” She also wants to improve her horse riding skills and
her badminton; “I want to win a game, just once!” Harpic however, does
have a droll sense of humour. In her school days she was being tipped to
be an England badminton representative, but an orthopaedic condition in
her knees put an end to that.
She has no regrets, “Life’s too short to have
regrets. Everything I’ve done, right or wrong, I’ve learned from, one
way or another.” Noble sentiments that most people would aspire to.
So Harpic is here with her ‘soul mate’ Rick,
“He’s seen the worst of me (in her hermit seclusion), so it could only
get better from there.” Harpic and her booming voice plan to stay for a
while. She loves the live music scene in Pattaya, but the beaches with the
children, and the mountains for her own time and solitude, are also great
draw-cards.
I asked her what the epitaph will be on her headstone
and she said, “Upstairs won’t be a better place when Harpic gets
there,” but I would have to disagree. It will be noisy, but it will be
fun! Welcome to Pattaya, Harpic. You’re quite sane, it’s us that are
‘clean around the bend!’
