by Dr. Iain
Corness
Simon
Simms has what many people would regard as an idyllic lifestyle. Retired
and living in warm sunny Pattaya for eight months a year, and then going
to warm sunny Australia for the rest of the year. However, this is not
just a hedonistic way of life, Simon has a life that is involved in
helping children, especially orphans, as he has first hand experience of
being raised in a home without both parents.
He was born in the UK near Maidenhead, but never really
knew his father, being raised by his mother, as an only child in a single
parent household. When he was 13 his mother decided that life in Australia
would be a better situation and they migrated to South Australia. He was
still in a single parent household, but at least the weather was better!
He stayed at school until he was 16 years old. He was
not the best student. “Very, very average,” said Simon, “but if it
was sport, I was fine!” However, 16 years was enough for the young boy.
He wanted to do something in the big world outside school - but it had to
be exciting! How many of you older folk had ideas that being a fireman
would be thrilling? That is exactly what Simon thought, and he enrolled as
a fireman. “It’s one of those exciting things when you are young.”
For the next five years it was sliding down chrome
poles, polishing brass helmets, unrolling hoses and chasing fires! But
after five years of it, the excitement had obviously worn off. “I
started chasing dollars instead of fires,” said Simon. That chase saw
him carrying flammable liquids, instead of water, when he joined a petrol
company as a tanker driver.
What you have to understand here is that these were not
the small tankers you see running around Thailand. Simon was the driver of
a ‘road train’ carrying petrol. These consist of a prime mover, plus
several bogie tankers on behind (like a railway train), and are used to
transport fuel long distances across the inhospitable Australian bushlands.
Simon was carrying 60,000 litres at a time, always
mindful of the fact that one accident could mean the end of not only his
life, but the potential to encompass scores of others as well. He spoke of
several “near misses” and admitted to having three or four very bad
accidents. “The money was huge,” said Simon, “but after 20 years my
nerves were shot at the end.”
Probably to relax his nerves, Simon became very
involved with the Australian Surf Lifesaving movement at weekends, the
association which patrols Australian beaches, ready for all emergencies,
be that drownings, heart attacks, or even shark attacks. Being a sporting
man, he was a keen SCUBA diver too, but the Lifesaving movement was the
main draw for him, now having been a member for 30 years.
After two decades on the road, Simon felt it was time
for him to find something easier. “I was looking to semi-retire in
1993.” The idea of having a “little shop” close to his favourite
beach at Normanville looked very attractive after the millions of
kilometres behind the wheel away from home. So with some of his sack of
gold from the petrol company after 20 years “hard yakka” (as they say
in Australia) he bought the little shop.
Was it the easy, relaxed semi-retirement he was looking
for? “It was seven days a week of sheer hell! It was the worst thing
I’ve ever done in my life,” said Simon.
It was during this period of “sheer hell” that a
friend who had been to Thailand before convinced him to come over for a
holiday. He arrived in Bangkok, and like us all on that first visit,
wondered why it had taken us so long to discover the magic kingdom!
From Bangkok, it was then natural that someone who
loved the water as much as Simon did, would come down to Pattaya, the
closest seaside resort to Bangkok. “Pattaya? I’ve been in love with it
ever since,” said Simon.
He returned to Australia and put the little shop on the
market and then returned to Thailand to look for that semi-retired
lifestyle. He took up painting as a relaxation and has been happily
following an artistic side of himself that he was previously unaware of,
painting landscapes and portraits in oils. These days he even gets
commissions from Australia for some of his work.
In the afternoons he follows his sporting and more
physical side of himself. That includes exercise programs and, more
naturally for the surf lifesaver - swimming. In fact he lists his hobbies
as “Lifesaving, fitness and drinking, in that order!” That in turn
brings Simon to his latest physical pursuit in Pattaya. Marathon swimming!
In Australia he had joined Rotary International and
enjoyed becoming involved with their charity projects helping people. To
help raise money, he combined his Rotary work with his swimming and came
up with the idea of sponsored marathon swims across the bay at Normanville.
These were 4.5 kilometre swims and generally take about one and a half
hours, but if there are sharks around would take a shorter time in the
water!
Now spending the majority of his time here, he has
become associated with the Jomtien-Pattaya Rotary Club and suggested that
he would organize another ‘swimathon’ but this time across Pattaya Bay
from the Royal Cliff Beach Resort to the Dusit Resort, a distance of
around 3.5 kilometres, and no sharks!
The charities to be supported are those caring for
little orphaned children. “Education for children is so important,”
said Simon, children always being important for him. “I’ve tried to be
a good Dad (for his own children), not having had one myself.” He is now
trying to expand that concept with orphans.
If you would like to sponsor Simon’s marathon swim, contact any
member of the Jomtien-Pattaya Rotary Club, or Thor Halland, tel. 038
488040, e-mail [email protected]
