We meet at last!

at last we all meet up in Walking Street, outside Sisterz, Tom in the background, Mahendra, Nike and Gupta, number 30, Jeff, Pat, Mahendra, Gupta, me,Tom and Nike, many thanks to Tom for making the golfing Super Stars so welcome, then it was over to Maureen's bar, Nick and Maureen in the middle, Nike and Gupta strike the pose!

Jao our hostess in Maureen's, well our bags are packed and the taxi is due, soon we will be heading to the airport to go to Jil and Eprils wedding, so no more blogging for the next week or so, but the wedding pictures will be here next week.

Walking Street last night

Tuesday night in Walking Street,

leaving the Marine Plaza on the left, going towards Coyotes on the right,

seafood restaurant on the left, just before the Lucky Star pool and beer bars on the right,

into Walking Street looking away from the Bali Hai end, outside Jenny Star bar,

and opposite is the Bier-Kutsche restaurant where I had an evening meal with Jeff and Eric,

a little further along the street, not a lot of people about!

a favorite place for the disco crowd,

street show, for SWING (Service Workers In Group)

the show looking towards Soi Diamond,

the SWING line up, it is basically a AIDS awareness group,

the Lobster Pot has been here for as long as I can remember, Sea Zone is the new kid on the block,

typical food cart, chicken, sausages, liver, hearts and squid,

just heat and sprinkle with salt, delicious!

Haircut

Where to get a haircut?

well I go to this place, it is in the small Soi that runs between soi 17 and Pattaya Tai (South) this is looking towards Pattaya Tai, 30 baht for thai's, 60 baht for falangs,

looking towards Soi 17, if you are coming down Soi 17 from Third road it is on the right, there is a large pharmacy on the corner,

looking towards Pattaya Tai, the good news is that there always seems to be a hairdresser waiting, in all of the times I have used it I have never had to wait.

The UK's golfing Super Star's have arrived!

missed them by 10 minuets,

looking along 2nd. road towards Sabai Resort,

Sundra and Mahendra telephoned me this morning to say they all had arrived, but it was one of those things that I had my annual medical check up this morning, by the time that was done and we drove to their hotel they had left to go shopping, but as we were there I took a few shots of the hotel, it is on Second road, near the Big C on the same side of the road called Sabai Resort,

a view of the reception area from the car park,

beautiful swimming pool,

looking to the left,

and to the right,

pool side bar,

television area in reception,

Diana as we were leaving the Resort,

shrine at Sabai Resort,

we then parked up in Friendship car park to go round the market, in the car park was the bike above, all I can say is that who ever owns it takes bike touring very seriously! the suitcase sized baggage on the back must make the handling of the bike challenging to say the least,

disc rear brakes and gas filled suspension,

I particularly liked the blue electric fan on the top of the windscreen, I guess to keep the rider cool at traffic lights!

Diana after a hard mornings shopping,

relaxing with a nice ice coffee, Eric, Joe and my self are meeting up with all of the golfing Super Stars tonight at 8, just going out for a few drinks as tomorrow Diana and myself leave for the Philippines, so I hate to say no more posts for the next week or so, but I will then put all of Philippine trip on and all the pictures that I take of Jil and Eprils wedding.

Do Not Mess With Fish 9

And you thought fish were fun!

A teenager has been left with serious injuries after a fish impaled his chest. 19-year old Tonga "Piu" Loumoli from Mililani, Hawaii, was on a night dive off Kahana Bay near Kaaawa in Windward Oahu last week when a four-foot long fish jabbed him in the chest. The pointy-snouted piscivore managed to wiggle free, but left behind a big gash in his chest, as well as one of its teeth.

His friend managed to pull him into a dinghy and dragged him for nearly a mile before getting help from a police officer. According to a report from the Washington Post, Loumoli is now in intensive care at the local hospital where he is being treated for a serious liver injury. "I'm going to quit diving..."He is currently attached to a machine to assist his breathing, and is unable to speak. However, he did manage to scribble a note to his mother and sister, which read: "I'm going to quit diving..."Loumoli is convinced that the fish who attacked him was a Barracuda, however, experts say that it is more likely he was injured by a needlefish.

Airline 'ban' on long name

A WOMAN was stopped from boarding a budget jet — because her name was too LONG. Ulrika Örtegren-Kärjenmäki would not fit on Ryanair’s boarding pass. And dots on the letters invalidated it in security checks at Stansted Airport, Essex. Furious Swede Ulrika, who was with her daughter, had to pay an extra £380 for a flight next day. The same problem happened but an alternative pass was printed and she was allowed to fly home. Ulrika said: “I did not receive any explanation.” Ryanair are considering compensation.

Huge diamond is gem of a find.

That is going to make a huge ring!

A MASSIVE gem stone which could become the largest polished round diamond in history has been discovered. The massive stone – the 20th largest rough diamond ever found – weighs 478 carats and is of outstanding clarity, Gem Diamonds said. It was recovered at the Letseng Mine, owned by the company, in Lesotho earlier this week. Another similar sized rough stone from the same mine was recently valued at 12 million US dollars. But the clarity and round shape of this gem mean it could be worth considerably more and in its polished state could fetch tens of millions of pounds. Flawless It is estimated to be capable of producing a 150 carat polished gem stone, dwarfing the Koh-i-Noor diamond which is part of the Crown Jewels. A spokesman for Gem Diamonds added that initial examination suggested that the white diamond, which has yet to be named and valued, has a completely flawless centre. The mine, which was owned by famous diamond company De Beers for many years, has already produced three of the world’s biggest diamonds including the 603 carat Lesotho Promise, the 493 carat Letšeng Legacy and the 601 carat Lesotho Brown.

Clifford Elphick, chief executive officer of Gem Diamonds, said “Preliminary examination of this remarkable diamond indicates that it will yield a record breaking polished stone of the very best colour and clarity.” The find is still dwarfed by the Cullinan Diamond which was discovered in 1905. At 3,106 carats it was the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found but the biggest polished stone produced from it, the Great Star of Africa - 530 carats - is a teardrop shape. The Koh-i-noor is a round cut but at 105 carats it is smaller than the potential size of the new find. It originated in India but was seized by Britain as a spoil of war in 1849. It supposedly brings good luck to female owners and misfortune or death to any male who wears or owns it.

Short hair - banned from class!

THREE lads with crew cuts have been banned from their classes, until their hair grows back, pals Kieron Hawkins, Max Miller and a third pupil face sitting in the corridor for two weeks after getting their heads shaved. The boys must study at desks in separate corridors at Oakmeeds Community College in Burgess Hill, West Sussex. Kieron’s father Glenn says he is furious with the school and branded it “stupid” for taking such extreme measures. He said: “Why should you have to be taught in isolation just because you have short hair? Kieron has had crew cuts before and always has quite short hair anyway.” Kieron, 14, and two of his friends used clippers to give each other grade one haircuts on Thursday. Mr Hawkins was told by the head of his son’s tutor group that Kieron was not wanted in lessons because his hair was too short and it was against the school rules.Mr Hawkins said: “Apparently a grade two is the shortest they are allowed to go, but we have never had any letters informing us of that sort of thing.“Having short hair does not affect his education or the way he learns.”Kieron said: “I’m not even being taught – I’m just given the work to do. It’s very boring.”Headteacher Colin Taylor said the school had rules about haircuts which all parents and pupils were made aware of.He said: “We have a policy that we accept no extreme haircuts and the pupils all know that. It is written in the school’s code of conduct and parents are aware of it.”

Wettest place in the world?

Cherrapunji, India,

whilst chatting to Jeff in Sisters some one asked where the wettest place in the world was, in a flash I had the answer, Cherrapunji, India, how did I know? I have been there, a bit of a long story but basically I and a friend of mine, Neil, were 2 years or so ago doing some research on the river systems and fish populations in the areas of Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh for the Indian government, there should have been millions of liters of water an hour passing over this cliff face, but it was as dry as a bone! this was the only significant amount of water we found there, Cherrapunji in the State of Meghalaya has for long been regarded the rainiest place in the world. Its annual mean rainfall based on the 30 years data (1931-60) is 1156.5 cm while that based on longer-term data (1851-1960) is 1131.4 cm, in one 4 day period 3.721metres rainfall was recorded, to put that in context the average annual rainfall in London is only 750 mm, less than a meter, afternoon tea in Assam, myself and Anil from the government, catch of the day! I tried casting a net like this with absolutely no luck what so ever! crossing the mighty Brahmaputra, it is about 1,800 miles (2,900 km) long, the river is an important source for irrigation and transportation. Its upper course was long unknown, and its identity with the Yarlung Tsangpo was only established by exploration in 1884-86. This river is often called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra river. In Bangladesh the river merges with the Ganges and splits into two: the Hugli and Padma River. When it merges with the Ganges it forms the world's largest delta, the Sunderbans which is known for tigers and mangroves. While most Indian and Bangladeshi rivers bear female names, this river has a rare male name, as it means "son of Brahma" in Sanskrit (putra means "son"),

satellite map of the Brahmaputra river,

why was it always my turn to dig out the jeep?

whilst there we went to one of the national parks and saw the rare one horned rhinoceros,

this is a shot of a mother and sister, in the nineteenth and end early twentieth century, the Indian Rhinoceros was hunted relentlessly. Reports from the middle of the nineteenth century claim that some military officers in Assam individually shot more than 200 rhinos. In the early 1900s, colonial officials became concerned at the rhino's plummeting numbers. By 1908 in Kaziranga, one of the rhino's main ranges, the population had fallen to around 12 individuals. In 1910, all rhino hunting in India became prohibited, today thanks to conservation numbers are up to 2500 individuals in the wild,

a rare shot of me at work,

ops! caught working again!