Off To Uncle Charlie's Fishing Park,

it is about 2 kilometers along Soi Nab Plan Wan, going away from Sumkavit, this is the sign outside,

it is opposite the Oasis beer bar,

Mr. Tony, Mick, Jeff and Nick ready for the off!

Ta-Taa and Maureen, waiting for the action to begin,

meanwhile the guys settle in for a drink,

looking along the lake,

Nick relaxing with a beer, ah! this is what fishing is all about!

and having a quite nap,

then it was action stations as Mick hooked a big one!

totals for the day Nick 5, Mick 1, me 1,

then the cooking started at 388,

Mick gets the bar-b-que going, a great way to spend the afternoon, if you do not have any fishing tackle or bait you can hire it all there, also they will clean any fish you catch for a small fee great fun!

When I Was At School In The 1950's - 60's

a few of the teachers wore their "trade mark" clothes around the school, Mr. Harriett, the woodwork master always wore his white tie up apron, with pencils, never a pen in it, also it was covered in animal glue used in the woodwork class, Mr. George, the art's master looked like his arts class, paint on his clothes and hands as he had just finished arts class in the arts room to take a class for for liberal studies in the teaching block and of course Mr. Wiltshire, the PE (physical education) master always in shorts and trainers, even at assembly, well you can see where this is going, Lorraine Page, at St Paul's Way Community School in Bow, east London, who is the acting head teacher has decided that having worked in similar attire for 30 years with no complaints Adrian Swain, 56, of Stratford, east London, has to go, yes he has been sacked 'I haven’t a blot on my character and have suddenly been sacked for something I have always worn.' the below is from the article, the school's website boasts of its 'excellent' PE facilities which include two gymnasia, a swimming pool, a weight training room and a table tennis hall inside, and two floodlit hard court areas for football, netball and cricket outdoors, professor Margaret Talbot OBE of the Association for Physical Education said that she thought the teacher should not have been sacked. I see that Lorraine Page is the acting head teacher, in my view she should give up head teaching and do more acting, the teachers at my school as I suspect Mr. Swain also is were dedicated professionals with skills and dedicated and had the greatest respect from pupils, why can the PC brigade just keep out of it and let the professionals do their job?

Now Black And White Squirrels!

last night we went for a stroll round the market on Tepprisit, and saw this little chap, I am not sure if he is a native of Thailand, but I have never seen one like this before,

naturally whilst I was taking pictures Da and Diana were out shopping,

which then meant when they were finished it was time to buy some food,

not to sure what any of this is, I settled for some sushi again,

now I have never seen this before, the lady takes a piece of dough holds it over some glowing charcoal and keeps moving it back and forth between the implements she is holding, it then almost doubles in size as it cooks,

Jeff is looking a bit pensive over which shake to order, they all look good and quite colourful,

eventually he chose a guava and apple,

which was expertly mixed, only 20 baht,

this is a view looking over the clothes section next to the food stalls, whilst the girls were shopping Jeff and myself had a few beers, then a friend of ours, Porn, walked past and said hi, I asked where her husband Craig was and the kids, imagine my surprise when she said I was sitting next to the kids and Craig was just 20 feet away having a foot massage, must get some new glasses!

Now This Act Of Political Correctness Could Kill,

whilst I am a bit tongue in cheek about my posts concerning the PC brigade, in this act of total madness we have put firecrews and ourselves at risk, many years ago the station officer at Chelsea fire station commented that to enable ladies into operational roles, wights, times and distances were reduced, now do not get me wrong if a lady passes the fitness test that's fine but, instead of picking up a 180lb person and in 60 seconds run 100 meters, a lady firefighter had to pick up a 120lb person and in 90 seconds run 80 meters, in other words she would not be able to save any of her colleagues if they were unconscious or most people she was trained to save, now that puts many peoples lives at risk, but as usual the PC brigade have won regardless of the risk, this is a quote from the article, Officials at the Local Government Association, which is pressing the quotas on fire authorities, said that an increased number of women firemen is necessary 'to meet the needs of local people'. But critics warn that they are placing their targets above the need for fitness and strength. Susie Squire, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'Introducing this sort of quota to the fire service is a big mistake. If ever there was a job that should be awarded on merit and physical fitness, it is that of a firefighter. (my italics) 'It is ludicrous that political correctness is being put above the ability to save lives.' She added: 'This quota system will not only cost taxpayers money by introducing additional and unnecessary administration, but could risk the safety of all of us in the long run.'

and in response,

Anthony Duggan, head of fire services at the Local Government Association, said: 'The fire service needs to be representative of the area it serves. It is important that the fire service attracts more women and ethnic minorities so that it can work more effectively in partnership with local authorities and other organisations to meet the needs of local people.' Mr Duggan called for a 'culture change' and said that asking authority members to sign the diversity charter 'will show that those who are making the strategic decisions are serious about getting a greater mix of people working in the service'.

all I can say is that I wish Mr. Anthony Duggan needs rescuing and the only crew available is all female, ones that could not pass the test that males have to pass.

Bar-B-Que At 388

in a change of pace we had a bar-b-que at 388 instead of rolls this week, the girls, Diana, Uncashar and Mas, preparing the salad provided by Mark,

Mark, Mr. Tony, Mick and Mikey all having a chat downstairs,

Geff arrived with Fay,

and the other Geff with Honey Mae, the prepared salad, Mick brought along salad cream and lots of different mayonnaise's, and best of all a bottle of our favorite tipple!

Jeff brought along sausages and rolls from Jimbo's and Yorkies,

Honey Mae, Fay and Diana,

Mike and his Leo, Riza marinated a load of chicken and prepared a lovely desert for all of us,

Jordan and his friend Brent also were here,

pork loin grilled to perfection well done the chefs!

and chicken,

Tom missed the sausage rolls and pork, but the chicken found the spot!

meanwhile the girls had gone out to the market and prepared a feast of their own,

fish, cockles and various other things,

when it came to the desert Mick put Mr. Tony on a diet!,

it was delicious!

we then had some sushi,

all to soon Mr. Sleep paid us a call, a great time was had by all and the idea to have a bar-b-que was pronounced a huge success, so we will do that in the future, many thanks to everyone that brought food and drink along and apologies for those I have forgotten to thank in this post, as usual lots of jokes and the meaning or origin of words was high on the agenda, for instance the original meaning of the word screw as applied to prison warders in the UK, until the mid 1800s, prisons, at least in England, were places of punishment only, with no concept of rehabilitation for the prisoners, one of the forms of punishment was to crank a handle attached to a large wooden box, the cranking did nothing, other than turn a counter, the prisoner had to do 10,000 turns in 8 hours, equivalent to one every 3 seconds or so, as an extra punishment a warder could tighten a screw to make turning more difficult, warders came to be known as 'screws', by inference, the prisoner was 'screwed' and, although 'screw' remained within the prison environment, eventually 'to be screwed' became widespread, why did they have to crank the handle? to be feed, under 9,000 cranks no food! "Cheer's!"

Town Hall Turnips In Northumberland Strike Again!

James Cookson has some land and grows vegetables, and of course many times has to many, so rather than let them rot he leaves the surplus out side his house for people to help themselves to, he also has a "honesty box" that you can leave money in if you wish to do so, well wait for this , he received a 4, yes 4 page letter from his local council saying he must sell the vegetables by weight or he could “land himself in trouble”, James — who owns an estate near Morpeth, Northumberland — said: “It’s bureaucracy gone mad and European regulations, we sold five parsnips last week and £1 was left in the honesty box.” A council spokeswoman said: “Even small stalls have the same responsibilities as large retailers.” all I can say is name the council muppet that wrote to him and give him the sack, with a turnip in it!

This Is Potty!

with the almost all of the world in some sort of financial crises, in the UK ministers have spent upwards of £50 million on refurbishing their offices, last year Schools Secretary Ed Balls showered £78,300 on plants — while Jack Straw spent almost £27,000 on flora for his Ministry of Justice, in my view even before the financial crises this is an obscene amount of money to be spent on pot plants, who are theses people trying to impress?

the figures were released by 15 major Government departments, other ministries, which refused to say how much they spent, could take the final figure to £63million,

to put this in perspective, that would pay for more than 660 more nurses, 626 teachers or nearly 200 doctors a year, it could also buy 8,300 hip replacement ops, 40 new MRI scanners or 1,700 prison places, for spending my money in my book Ed Balls, Jack Straw et al should all be in prison!

Friday night market,

I had completely lost track of the days over the Christmas period, I thought boxing day was Thursday when it was in fact Friday, as we arrived back late from Nick and Maureen's we did not go out for our usual meal on Friday, but we meet up with Mick and Mas, with Mark and Uncashar who had both just returned from Laos,

we normally sit at a bar just between the clothes section and the food section, but we did not for two reasons, firstly the one you see, I have not a clue as to what it was all about but it was loud, the second reason was even louder, over the road a police auction was going on, selling motorcycles that had been confiscated for one reason or another, basically you pay a 10,000 baht deposit for a bidding number, the bike is wheeled in, for instance Yamaha 4,000 miles on the clock it went for 22,000 baht plus approximately 1,400 for other bits of paper, the bids go up in 500 baht increments, if you thought trying to understand what a auctioneer in the UK or States is saying is difficult you have no chance over here!

so we had a few beers whilst the girls did their shopping, the bar had this mini coffee bar outside of it,

as Diana very rarely drinks she peeled a Heineken sticker from one of the bottles and put it on her coke so she did not feel left out!

then it was back to 388 with a mountain of sushi and a few cold vodka soda's "Cheers!"

Christmas With Nick and Maureen,

Christmas Day, as we were going to use the truck Diana washed it,

then it was time to head over to Nick and Maureen's,

Diana in some of her new clothes,

when we arrived Ta-Taa looked better than ever,

and Diana in the Christmas spirit had to have a Christmas hat, Maureen and a present, as happy as ever,

Diana strikes the pose!

Nick also had a hat,

as did I, Diana and myself wore them in the truck on the way to Maureen's, the funny thing was that all of the drivers let us through with a smile and a wave, normally nobody gives way out here, you just have to mussel your way in to traffic,

a nice big Christmas tree,

prawn cocktails for starters, and we managed, thanks to Mr. Tony to have Christmas crackers on the table,

Nick gets ready to carve the turkey,

and Diana tries to help Maureen,

gravy for Diana,

we all tuck in!

then it is Christmas cracker time,

and time to open presents,

Diana was not sure what this was as I had made some of her other presents heavy,

she was so pleased when she found out what it was,

well the picture says it all, a portable DVD player,

later Jeff and Da arrived, they said they would be late , so Maureen saved food for them,

Jeff enjoying the turkey,

as did Da, strangely enough Jeff said he had never seen Christmas crackers before, well in case you do not know they are paper and cardboard tubes which when you pull them go bang, inside them is a paper hat, a small gift and a joke or riddle,

next desert, chocolate ice cream for Jeff and Da,

and English Christmas pudding for the rest of us, saying that Diana had a try of mine, liked it so much she ate half of it!

Boxing day next so a full roast beef lunch, and a few glasses of wine,

then all to soon home to 388, many thanks to Nick and Maureen, I hope everyone had as good a Christmas as all of us here did, looking forward to the party on New Years Eve "Cheers!"