Momma's was a dream created to give myself a break from the notoriously hard and unfair teaching game and it was also an idea in honour of my mother who was sick in hospital at the time. You could say it was a son trying to make his mother proud.

Another good reason was the boredom of eating cold rice and Thai food every day, I craved British comfort food at a reasonable price, so opening Momma's gave me the chance to eat British comfort food every day for free.

It's so long ago now to remember clearly, I would say two and a half years. No easy feat I might add.

Well, it never crossed my mind to close. I wanted to be able to keep it running and then to leave it alone to run itself in the end, so I could pursue others business ideas in Thailand. However, opening a business in Thailand is never easy. Truthfully you are up against many obstacles all the time and when negotiating the rent, they (the landlords) must have been laughing their heads off, thinking how much rice they can now buy and how lucky they are to have a farang with his own money tree growing back in his home land.

I was paying the farang rate right from the start. The key money and two months rent deposit was a large amount of Thai baht to part with. I was also teaching kindergaten, prattyom and mattayom all in the same week and that was a hard way to try and earn the money.

As we all know, paper contracts and verbal agreements are not worth much. There was a promise of the rent staying the same every year, but it only took nine months for the landlord to break this promise and the rent went up every year after that too.

You also need a Thai as a business partner. I wish I could have employed my farang friends and given good polite service everyday, and worked the place by myself with only good reliable staff. But hey, this is Thailand and I couldn't do that. I had to employ Thai staff and my Thai partner, Wanna, was also my girlfriend. Many of the customers will remember her.

Wanna was the best thing to happen to me in my life, and we had a very happy 5 years together, however being Thai Chinese she had a lot of pressure from her huge family to marry me and more importantly to start a family together. "We have a business with money coming in, I want a baby". She was very stubborn sometimes and couldn't see the sense in waiting for the business to be at least five years old or running by itself. I felt being a westerner that "a baby" was a huge responsibility and I needed a fair amount of cash in the bank to support the a child. It was not going to be fair to leave the baby with her family because i could not support them both.

So after many talks and many heated arguments, She tore up the drinks licenses and made phone calls to close down Momma's. Our relationship was over.

It was a shame, but looking back it was the right decision. I was not ready to get tied down like that under those circumstances.

Wanna herself has become quite a success story. She met another British guy over the internet and now lives in Sevenoaks in England. Married with two children.

My deepest apologies goes out to all those customers that walked that soi only to find the place closed or not open yet. But like I have already explained, it was so hard to get a reliable business partner and staff. We all know Thais are sometimes not the best workers in the world. They can lack good business sense and customer care skills. I tried my best to teach the waitresses and get Wanna to care of things a lot more. She needed to pay attention to looking after customers and observing the opening hours, not just concentrating on closing times. I thought it was going to be easy to open this little restaurant, as our other business, a bar-code business, was in its second year and doing well. At times I got so disheartened with this unprofessional behavior. It affected me too, so once again folks - Momma's is sorry.

Well, I didn't get to do that. Vacating the premises wasn't done in amicable circumstances. The main locks were cut and replaced and the situation got plain silly. I was locked out and my equipment, personal laptop and everything else was locked in! I had to call on Thai friends to help me out and we went to something like the "Justice Department" to show them the contracts. The landlord had no right to cut the lock and seize my equipment as we still had three days left on the contract.

I invited close friends around to help and to devour all the food stock and beer from the fridge. Funny but those nights were amongst some of the best.

Of course not, but sometimes a business is about good times and the new people you meet. We broke even after selling all the equipment and you have to remember - I ate well every day. so i was happy.

Yes, I was in a 'what to do now?' situation. I needed to knock up a resume and buy a new tie. It's always the same with these so called agencies though. You fall in love with the school and the students but you hate the agencies. Most of them have no professionalism and are just greedy for money. I was promised support but got nothing. I was literally dumped in a school and just constantly moaned at. I got no bonuses for marking exams and I was expected to work for free on some Saturdays without notice. And they stiffed me out of my last month's pay.

Yes, of course - after every hurtful blow from the agency and after every bad Mattayom class.

Yeah, the clouds parted and the light shone through. I was asked by an old friend to fill in a class for him at The Andrew Bigg's Academy at Ekkamai Major Cineplex.

I went in with a good attitude and was a big hit with the kids. After this I was asked if I would like to take on some more classes and I agreed to do so. I then went from part time to full time and become an in-house teacher. I must say that my year and a bit there was probably some of the best times in my teaching career. I was asked to do some amazing stuff. There were summer camps in Koa Yai and all sorts. One of the highlights was being an emcee on the HP computers north and south east Thailand roadshow. One school a day and one hour a day in front of 200 students. The rest of the time was spent exploring the towns and provinces. I remember saying to my self "I'm getting paid for this"

In-house teaching at The Andrew Biggs Academy was also a joy. Andrew has worked hard to sort out the system to make it so easy for the teachers. Lesson plans and resources are all laid out for you and small class style teaching allows the teacher to really make a difference.

Andrew Biggs is sometimes gossiped about and put down on the internet but in my mind he is simply a great guy trying to do good things for the education of Thai people. He really cares and gives so much of his time to this cause.

I practice for my health mainly, but after a big loss in a match fight in Pattaya, which meant two days in hospital, I decided to keep learning and practice for myself only. You have to be very trusting to get into the ring for a Thai coach,

I am happy enough now to study and be able to keep my health and to protect myself, my business and mygirlfriend.

It's funny how life works and how bad times turn into good times. I was working every weekend at ABA and decided to give myself some quality time.

I was invited one night to a beach party in Rayong, where I partied till the morning light, only to find my Thai friend's truck had left for Bangkok already. So i thought "holiday time" and found a room next to a guesthouse with a sign saying "for rent" I talked with the really nice guy and within a week I had made up my mind to open a business there.

Yes that's right. ROOTS Reggae Guesthouse but the restaurant is not called Momma's in honor of my mother. It's called "BEER'S KITCHEN" after my new girlfriend and business partner. She has been the best business partner so far. She's so artistic and clever. She has really transformed the place into the best its ever been. We've worked hard to keep it clean and to upgrade the whole image of the place.

Well, we haven't had any lanky rastafarians so far but all the rest is true. It is the perfect place to chill out near a hassle free quiet beach.

We have been very lucky to always have a good crowd from travelers to families, even a few teachers from Bangkok for weekend chill-out breaks.

We also attract long stay tenants, monthly and weekly stays. The bar and free pool attracts a lot of local expats too. The restaurant is picking up and building up trade now with a barbecue every Friday and Saturday.

We have Swedish and European comfort food with Momma's signature dishes still on the menu. Breakfast trade is sometimes good as we are the only place open in the mornings offering all the favourites and the best full breakfast for miles around. People can eat and chill in peaceful surroundings during the day. The evenings are filled with reggae and salsa music.

We also have free pool and free WI-FI for customers.

We are both so happy. It is a pleasure to get up every morning and indulge in simple pleasures such as watering the plants and feeding the fish.

I hope so. I'd love them to try us out - perhaps a weekend chill-out break. All ajarn readers are welcome. One love!