---------------------------------------------------------- What's On In Goa: * Oct 11: Konkani translation of Satre book, Alliance Francaise * Oct 11: Friday Balcao, Mapusa. Mental health, suicides 4pm * Oct 12: History Reading (Farar Far by Dr Pratima Kamat, Fundacao 5pm * Oct 12: Goa Orchestra performs at the Kala (Corelli, Bach) * Oct 15: Magic in town... Illusion India show, Panjim then Vasco * Oct 16-17: Ornithology workshop, Bondla southernbirdwing.com ----------------------------------------------------------
Headline: Making a Goa of our own business! By PAULA HALL. Source: Coventry Evening Telegraph 7 October 2002 MEET THE TWO FRIENDS WHO VISITED INDIA ON HOLIDAY AND BECAME SO ENAMOURED WITH THE COUNTRY THEY DECIDED TO SET UP SHOP THERE EVERYONE dreams of quitting the rat race when they're on holiday. But most simply return to work the next Monday and get on with their lives. But one Warwickshire woman has turned her dream into a reality. PAULA HALL reports AS a civil servant on a management training course, Sue Watkins was asked to draw up a vision of where she wanted to be in five years time. Other delegates came up with bigger houses and cars, children and promotions. Sue struggled. Then, in response to the growing frustration of the course leader, she drew a beach with palm trees, a huge sun, a large garden and a boat. "Everyone was quite dismissive of it," she remembers. "I filed the notes away and there they stayed, forgotten." She rediscovered the picture from the past some years later as she cleared her desk in England for the last time - to start a new life in the exotic state of Goa on the west coast of India. The only thing she doesn't now have is the boat. Sue, originally from Nuneaton, set up the holiday villa company, Lazydays in Goa, with her friend and colleague Linda Guthrie, when the lives of both civil servants changed forever following a winter break in February 1992. They went to Goa, found an idyllic sunny paradise, and fell in love with the place. It was to be a holiday romance which didn't end on their return home. Goa had reminded Sue of the Algarve in Portugal in the early 70s, when it was just waking up to tourism. "When we were in Goa we said 'wouldn't it be nice if we could get a cup of tea and a cake and maybe a sun lounger'. "Then the next year when we returned for a holiday all these things had started to happen. We were sat there going 'but that was our idea'." A third holiday followed. Colleagues told them to "stop talking about it, go and do it". Sue, a Training and Enterprise Council manager in Sheffield, seized her chance to leave during a reorganisation of the service - so she sold her terraced home and moved to Goa. "I didn't feel brave at the time," says the former pupil of Kenilworth Grammar School and Higham Lane High School in Nuneaton. "I just felt it was the right thing to do." Linda joined her in Goa on eight months leave from work and their intention was to set up a hotel, but they struggled to find the right site. When Sue drove Linda back to the airport at the end of her stay, they were no closer to success. Then as Linda was checking in - literally in the last 10 minutes of her eight-month visit - they hit on the idea of renting out villas instead. And over the last seven seasons the company has grown from managing three properties to about 30. Now Linda, who is originally from Wolverhampton, splits her time between Goa and the UK, returning each year to avoid the monsoon rains, while Sue is permanently resident in a local village, with her Goan partner and their three dogs. She has a century-old detached cottage with terracotta tiles, built in Portuguese colonial times, with a big garden full of exotic fruit trees. And she has no regrets. "It's a ten minute walk from the village to the beach, along little pathways through coconut trees. And I live just under a hill with nice walks for the dogs and natural spring water," she says. The company meanwhile is going from strength to strength. It has a sales office in Bournemouth and a base in Goa, where the team includes housekeepers, an electrician, plumber and gardener, and is currently preparing for the busiest time, the sunshine season from October to April. The aim is to offer an alternative to the usual hotel holidays. Rather than sell endless trips at a welcome meeting they prefer to simply let their guests, who tend to be more independent travellers, get on with their own lives. "We just say if you want us we're at the end of the phone," says Sue. It is a different world of work to the one Linda and Sue left behind. Each day Sue sets out with a list of jobs, knowing she might only achieve two of them through the heat of the day. Going to the bank alone can write off a whole morning. On the day we speak Sue and Linda, who are both in their mid 40s, have spent a couple of hours at a house being renovated by a man who wants them to let it as a villa. "It was a pleasant meeting," says Sue. "The garden leads down to a river so we sat under a palm tree and chewed over the issues while we watched the river go by." Linda then meets a housekeeper at an apartment being prepared for new arrivals, while Sue visits a friend about some computer software, then another house being renovated by a man from Bombay who is phoning in to check progress. The two women meet up again in the afternoon for a couple of hours' office work. "We meet some very interesting people and there's never a dull moment," says Sue. "It's one of the things that keeps both of us here. "We go off in different directions and by the time we meet up there's so much that's happened - we will have been really shocked, or made to laugh, or made really sad. "Something will have happened to you that's had some impact. We often say 'well that wouldn't have happened in Sheffield'. "It does have its trials. A lot of things don't go on time and things go wrong. When a telephone at home goes on the blink it will be sorted. Here it could be a week. "On the other hand if you had a flat tyre in England you could be on the side of the road waiting for help and could be there for days unless you have you phone and call someone. "Here people just stop and help. You are never without help." Likewise there is always someone who can fix things because it is not a throw-away society, says Sue."If an element goes on a kettle, or a spoke on an umbrella, you'd get a new one at home. Here you would have it repaired, and there'll be someone in the village who can fix it. "There are some things here that make life very easy and other things that you expect to happen, don't. "There are lots of frustrations, but lots of rewards, and the balance is definitely on the positive side." GOA FACTFILE Flying to Goa from the UK takes about nine to 10 hours and costs about �450. Goa is on the west coast of India and has more than 100km of coastline, with secluded bays and golden, sandy beaches lapped by the warm Arabian sea. The Portuguese colonised Goa for 450 years, creating a blend of culture, architecture, religions, cuisine and social structure. The local language is Konkani, which includes Portuguese words, everyone speaks Hindi, and most people speak English. Lazydays advise that although many of its properties are in peaceful, rural locations, village life still goes on - guests may hear chanting from the local Hindu temple, trumpets and drums from the Catholic church, dogs barking and cocks crowing. The time in India is GMT + 5 1/2 hours (+ 4 1/2 hours during British summertime). For further information about Lazydays in Goa, see the website www.lazydays.co.uk. ============================= ======================================================================== To view GoaNet's archives http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goa-net ======================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Don't want so many e-mails? 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