JEK
Senior Insider
Goodbye my oldest friend. A second big brother for me. Gone to surf the clouds up above.
I met Kiki when I was 17 years old (42 years ago) when I heard loud music pumping out from Snack "Le Surf" in Meschers sur Gironde, in France.
He was opening up his bar for the summer, and I was working on a campsite nearby. I offered some help cleaning glasses and stuff, while Phil Cabal set up the music speakers. We became friends, and when I had had enough of the campsite, I went and sold sun hats in front of his bar for the rest of the season.
The following summer I became Executive Chef and Dishwasher at Le Surf, working 25 hours a day for low pay. I loved it. I went back to England in the winter to work in a pub, and went back again the year after. We became great friends, always playing pranks on customers, and anywhere we went.
When Kiki sold the bar in the mid eighties, we both spent the next few summers organizing Mondial Billes, the World Beach Marbles Championship, created by Philippe Tranchet in Royan, Kiki's best friend in France, and travelled to beaches all over France, . So many stories to tell, and so many lifelong friends made doing that.
In the late eighties, Kiki went to St Barth in the French West Indies. I stayed in Royan for a while, with Mimi, one of the 'ladies of my life"
but when Kiki called me in the cold winter and asked if I wanted to come over to the West Indies I just couldn't resist.
The next 30 years were spent in St Barth. Various jobs. Kiki was a mechanic, I was a hotel receptionist. I became bartender at Autour du Rocher, a nightclub owned by my friend (still today) David Henderson, and also part owned by Jimmy Buffet. Later on I managed the club for David, and Kiki came and worked for me as barman ! What great times.
The club burnt down in 1991. I spent some time working in Miami, but then went back to St Barth. I worked for a while at Jungle Cafe, with Laurent Robinet and Martine Franchi, but when kiki became manager of bar de L'Escale I went and joined him as bartender there.
Time went on and I finally branched out, taking over Vaval Restaurant from Jeff Greaux and family (thank you for trusting me), and turning it into Chez Andy, The Hideaway. I had The Hideaway 17 years. During those years we saw each other at least a few time per week, Kiki helping with any events at The Hideaway, whilst running his own various businesses there.
In 2001 my son Matthew was born, and of course Kiki was godfather, along with George, another family friend.
About 10 years ago, Matthew then in France, I was separated from his mum Lydie, so I was needing a change. Thailand had been beckoning after a few vacations there.
The Hideaway Pattaya was born. There were initially 3 of us that were coming as partners, Kiki, Pin Pin and myself. But Kiki fell in love with a girl from Cuba and went to build a pig farm over there and Pin Pin sadly lost his mum and had to use his capital for death duties. So I opened The Hideaway on my own.
When the pig farm was kindly donated by kiki to the girlfriend's family (no choice in that) he came to visit. He felt a little guilty that he'd bailed, and put some cash into the affair so that I didn't feel alone. He stayed a silent partner since then, even paying a share of the new kitchen recently. He only had some small benefits from the business over the last few years, and never interfered, but was always ready when I needed advice or his opinion.
He has been happily living with his partner Patty for years now, and they were always happy together, building a house and running different businesses. Patty is still a great friend and although fully independent, I will always be there for her if she needs me. But Kiki left her financially sure, and when I told her she still had part of The Hideaway she told me that Kiki wanted me to have everything at The Hideaway. She could have kept that to herself, but it shows her honesty.
There is one other small shareholder in the USA, who knows who he is, and helped me out during a cash flow problem during Covid, when we were all short of funds here. Will forever have my thanks too.
I suspected recently that Kiki was ill, but he wouldn't admit it. He was coughing a lot, and you could see it went deep. He insisted that he had had lots of tests, but nothing came up. When he was finally admitted to hospital, it came out that he had been diagnosed for a while, but did not want Chemotherapy, just to go in his own time. He had asked Pat not to tell any of his friends, especially me as he knew I would nag him into treatment.
It has been a very tough few weeks. The only highlight being away for the weekend to see my son fight in his first Thai Boxing match (that he won). He dedicated the fight and victory to his Godfather.
Pat will organise the cremation in about a week's time at a local Buddhist Temple. This was also Kiki's wish, the rituals being more needed for his partner Pat. We are waiting for all the paperwork from the Embassy and family to go ahead with proceedings.
When we know when and where we will post details.
Thank you for all of your calls and messages, and please post your comments here. I will read them all in time. But please do not call me or message me personally at the moment. Many people have confused the time difference, and having condolence phone calls at 5am is not my favorite thing. But I know they were well intentioned.
Adieu mon Kiki, we'll miss you so much.
Desolé de ne pas avoir traduit en français, j'aurais pu, mais c'aura pris trop de place. Si vous ne suivez pas, copy coller sur Google Translate.... merci
Sorry if I forgot to mention people or important events, there were just too many.
I met Kiki when I was 17 years old (42 years ago) when I heard loud music pumping out from Snack "Le Surf" in Meschers sur Gironde, in France.
He was opening up his bar for the summer, and I was working on a campsite nearby. I offered some help cleaning glasses and stuff, while Phil Cabal set up the music speakers. We became friends, and when I had had enough of the campsite, I went and sold sun hats in front of his bar for the rest of the season.
The following summer I became Executive Chef and Dishwasher at Le Surf, working 25 hours a day for low pay. I loved it. I went back to England in the winter to work in a pub, and went back again the year after. We became great friends, always playing pranks on customers, and anywhere we went.
When Kiki sold the bar in the mid eighties, we both spent the next few summers organizing Mondial Billes, the World Beach Marbles Championship, created by Philippe Tranchet in Royan, Kiki's best friend in France, and travelled to beaches all over France, . So many stories to tell, and so many lifelong friends made doing that.
In the late eighties, Kiki went to St Barth in the French West Indies. I stayed in Royan for a while, with Mimi, one of the 'ladies of my life"
but when Kiki called me in the cold winter and asked if I wanted to come over to the West Indies I just couldn't resist.
The next 30 years were spent in St Barth. Various jobs. Kiki was a mechanic, I was a hotel receptionist. I became bartender at Autour du Rocher, a nightclub owned by my friend (still today) David Henderson, and also part owned by Jimmy Buffet. Later on I managed the club for David, and Kiki came and worked for me as barman ! What great times.
The club burnt down in 1991. I spent some time working in Miami, but then went back to St Barth. I worked for a while at Jungle Cafe, with Laurent Robinet and Martine Franchi, but when kiki became manager of bar de L'Escale I went and joined him as bartender there.
Time went on and I finally branched out, taking over Vaval Restaurant from Jeff Greaux and family (thank you for trusting me), and turning it into Chez Andy, The Hideaway. I had The Hideaway 17 years. During those years we saw each other at least a few time per week, Kiki helping with any events at The Hideaway, whilst running his own various businesses there.
In 2001 my son Matthew was born, and of course Kiki was godfather, along with George, another family friend.
About 10 years ago, Matthew then in France, I was separated from his mum Lydie, so I was needing a change. Thailand had been beckoning after a few vacations there.
The Hideaway Pattaya was born. There were initially 3 of us that were coming as partners, Kiki, Pin Pin and myself. But Kiki fell in love with a girl from Cuba and went to build a pig farm over there and Pin Pin sadly lost his mum and had to use his capital for death duties. So I opened The Hideaway on my own.
When the pig farm was kindly donated by kiki to the girlfriend's family (no choice in that) he came to visit. He felt a little guilty that he'd bailed, and put some cash into the affair so that I didn't feel alone. He stayed a silent partner since then, even paying a share of the new kitchen recently. He only had some small benefits from the business over the last few years, and never interfered, but was always ready when I needed advice or his opinion.
He has been happily living with his partner Patty for years now, and they were always happy together, building a house and running different businesses. Patty is still a great friend and although fully independent, I will always be there for her if she needs me. But Kiki left her financially sure, and when I told her she still had part of The Hideaway she told me that Kiki wanted me to have everything at The Hideaway. She could have kept that to herself, but it shows her honesty.
There is one other small shareholder in the USA, who knows who he is, and helped me out during a cash flow problem during Covid, when we were all short of funds here. Will forever have my thanks too.
I suspected recently that Kiki was ill, but he wouldn't admit it. He was coughing a lot, and you could see it went deep. He insisted that he had had lots of tests, but nothing came up. When he was finally admitted to hospital, it came out that he had been diagnosed for a while, but did not want Chemotherapy, just to go in his own time. He had asked Pat not to tell any of his friends, especially me as he knew I would nag him into treatment.
It has been a very tough few weeks. The only highlight being away for the weekend to see my son fight in his first Thai Boxing match (that he won). He dedicated the fight and victory to his Godfather.
Pat will organise the cremation in about a week's time at a local Buddhist Temple. This was also Kiki's wish, the rituals being more needed for his partner Pat. We are waiting for all the paperwork from the Embassy and family to go ahead with proceedings.
When we know when and where we will post details.
Thank you for all of your calls and messages, and please post your comments here. I will read them all in time. But please do not call me or message me personally at the moment. Many people have confused the time difference, and having condolence phone calls at 5am is not my favorite thing. But I know they were well intentioned.
Adieu mon Kiki, we'll miss you so much.
Desolé de ne pas avoir traduit en français, j'aurais pu, mais c'aura pris trop de place. Si vous ne suivez pas, copy coller sur Google Translate.... merci
Sorry if I forgot to mention people or important events, there were just too many.
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