Out of Paradise
The Life and Times of Cheap Charlie
AKA: Thunder Brother -
雷大哥
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グーレググリーニング
- Gregg X Greening
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Currently living in Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand
since January, 2009...
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...Escaped from Paradise, California to Europe in the summer of '72 on a six month quest for sun,
sand, surf and snow - I'm still on it...
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...Have been operating a
small Guesthouse / Hostel / Bar / Restaurant here in Patong Beach since
October of 2009...
Check out
our website here
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This is what
I wake up to every morning with some of the world's best beaches just
minutes away  |
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I relocated from an extremely beautiful part of southern rural
China where I had been living since 2005 - in a small place called Yangshuo,
Guangxi Province - one of China's most popular tourist destinations -
surrounded by abrupt karst mountain peaks and beautiful rivers - One of my
favorite pastimes there was taking a bamboo raft down the Dragon River on a
lazy Sunday afternoon with a cold LiQuan beer, watching the water buffalo
wading in the shallows, diving in for a swim from time to time and thoroughly
enjoying the magnificent scenery along the way. |
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I had a busy language school
in Yangshuo
with a Chinese partner which I've
just sold out my share of...
Check out our web site there at
www.xijieschool.com
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I've had 2 other language schools in Japan where I
lived for over 20 years - The 1st I opened in 1982 - sold in 1995 - moved to
New Zealand - on to Fiji - back to Japan - and opened the 2nd with a Japanese
partner - check out our web site there at
www.so-mecc.com
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I have another website that I've been working on
as a hobby for a while...
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Got
married (for the second time) in January, 2006 - to a lovely Chinese
lady.
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My previous marriage was to a lovely Japanese lady for
18 years |
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- and have 2 boys - now 24 and 22 years
old -
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- the older has just
graduated from Bowling Green University in Ohio
where he was studying music... |
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…and
the younger is in his 2nd year of university in Japan. |
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Decided on settling in
Thailand following a
month's holiday / honeymoon... |
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Yunnan Province in western China... |
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...and
Thailand (which has prompted our current move) |
| In 1995,
after 15 years in Japan, I sold my first language school there and took up
residency in New Zealand's premier tourist resort of Queenstown...
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...where I
bought a 6 bedroom house overlooking Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkable
Mountains - with some of the most magnificent views imaginable - and converted it into a guest house - along with
another 7 bedroom duplex, 10 other rentals which I sub-let and a live music
pub and restaurant where I booked some of New Zealand's biggest recording
acts. |
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Zealand, I happened to stumble into extra parts in 4 movies - 'The Vertical
Limit' - where I was part of the K2 base camp climbing crew -
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- and the
three 'Lord of the Rings' films. |
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The 1st of
which I was an Urukai warrior...
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...the
second, a Rohan refugee...
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...and the
third, a corpse following the battle of Pelennor Fields...
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That's not
me, but I'm in there somewhere...
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...I'm in
here somewhere too...
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...and one
of these... ...dead.
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A total
of 6 movies I've been in... (that's 3 more than James Dean)... |
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...one other in Switzerland in the mid 70's - 'Love and Bullets' with
Charles Bronson... |
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...and one in Arizona when I
was about 8 years old - 'The Deadly Companions' - Sam Peckinpah's
directorial debut. |
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Between New Zealand, the separation from my 1st wife and my ultimate return
to Japan in 2001, I spent six months in Fiji where I hooked up
with a Fijian tour operator and resort owner in the Yasawa Islands and took
up the lease of a 6 bedroom duplex apartment complex in the international
arrival town of Nadi. I turned it into a guesthouse with the intention of
managing both my guesthouse in Nadi and the resort in the Yasawa Islands
where we would send travelers when they arrived at the airport in Nadi. |
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The
plan was all good - but with the circumstances following the coup-d'etat
in 2000, the mounting racial tensions between the indigenous Fijians and the
indentured Indian laborers imported by the British years ago, along
with the rising unemployment and the associated crime caused by trade
embargos due to the coup made life there a bit more difficult than I would have
liked
- A beautiful place to
visit... ...but you don't want to live there.
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Prior to
Japan, I spent 8 years in Europe between 1972 and 1980 - where I realized my
2 dreams and desires... |
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...winter skiing
accross the European Alps...
...Manlichen above Grindelwald overlooking the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau
Mts... (This was
the view from my bedroom window) |
...and
summer sailing in the Mediterranean...
...around the
Balerus Islands, Ibiza and Formentera and along the Spanish coast.
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The
majority of the time (over 6 years) was spent in Switzerland...
...I lived
directly above here |
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...where I
happened to stumble into working in the music industry operating and
managing a recording studio and promoting and recording the annual Montreux
Jazz Festival from 1973 to 1979. |
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That lead
to a contract with WEA
International Records (Warner Bros., Elektra/Asylum & Atlantic Records) in
the Artist Relations and Audio / Video Planning Division where I managed the
Audio / Video Planning Division side - along with independent European
concert and tour promotions. My claim to fame is making the world's first
commercial digital recordings - that was of the Montreux Jazz Festival for FM Tokyo
radio in 1978 .
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Damn, how time flies when you're having fun... |
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