2012,

what a disaster! well it was! a really good almost all action disaster movie, one of the few movies I have seen where it was worth going to the other disaster known as the underground car park in Central Festival to watch the first disaster! first the movie, staring John Cusack was pretty much based on When Worlds Collide, a 1951 end of the world movie, very similar story line, they live, we die, or that may be the other way around if you can convince your self of all of the lucky breaks that Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) has, and a few moral dilemmas thrown in for good measure, but we did not go for that we went to be impressed and we were, Diana came out of the cinema shaking and not with the cold! now how true this is I can not say, but I have always heard that the most difficult thing to fake on film is water, well all I can say is that in this movie it looks and acts 100% just like the real thing, if you have not seen this movie yet make the effort, now on to the second disaster, the underground car park, for bikes it is a total shambles, this is the second occasion we have been there and it was the same as before, well in fact worse, if you park your bike in one of the bays, expect to have to move at least 2 bikes before you can get yours out of there, triple and quadruple parking is the order of the day, there is nowhere near enough space for shoppers to park their bikes, it may be the same for cars but I have not driven there in the truck,

after the movie we went downstairs in the outside lift, as Diana said,"scary dairy!"

by now the sun was getting lower,

as was the lift,

at ground level was the enormous Christmas tree,

and seating for fans of the pop groups that were performing there,

Diana strikes the pose, there is a huge TV screen in the distance,

on the way back we called in to see how Mick was getting on with his aquariums, well he had stocked them all already!

then it was time to get ready for the evening meal, we were going to go to McDonald's, one of Diana's favorite restaurants,

but we noticed that the Brazilian restaurant, Zico's on beach road had a special offer on, the normal price for 15 different types of meat and seafood was 750 baht, but for tonight it was 299 baht for the ladies, on our way back to the restaurant the Christmas tree was now lit up,

so we gave McDonald's a miss and went to Zico's, to start there is a fully stocked salad bar, so many different things to chose from,

Diana had almost a bit of everything!

also every table has 6 different sauces or dressings,

then for the main course you take a plate to another set of dishes, there you can help yourself to baked or mashed potatoes, rice, and a few other things as well, then the fun begins, by each dinner there is a double sided disc, green one side red the other, if it is green side up a seemingly never ending number of 'carvers' comes to you table you grab the tongs that are supplied and a slice of meat or seafood is carved off,

just mind your fingers! no but seriously it is great fun, when you have had enough just turn your disc to the red side up and the waiters will pass you by,

naturally Diana kept a weather eye out for the prawns, so as they hove into view the disc was reversed to green side up,

they were so nice,

a prawn moustache for me,

and prawn earrings for Diana, yes I know you should not play with your food!

"Cheers!" from both of us,

did I mention the show? well at 8, 9 and 10 in the evening Luana and Cynara both from Sao Paulo in Brazil, put on a dance show,

the girls and in fact all of the staff were so happy, Luana and Cynara slowing down their dance if they could see you trying to take a picture of them,

I am not sure which is which, but you get the picture,

a little bit of Brazil comes to Thailand,

just like the Rio carnival,

and naturally I had to get in on the picture,

a shot of the pots that contain potatoes, rice, etc to go with the main course,

and the grill where the foods are cooked, well we had a total blast! Diana was totally captivated by the endless skewers of food that kept arriving and the show, one of the dancers asked Diana if she wanted to try to dance but Diana declined, similarly I have made a total fool of myself in other similar circumstances, I to declined, but not so one of the other dinners who had a whale of a time trying to keep up with the samba,

we were joined by Marc the owner, who very kindly gave us a VIP card, the restaurant does not yet have a web page but when it does I will mention it on the blog, he has another outlet in Phuket, but has already found that here and there are quite different when it comes to clientele, the drinks are a little expensive, but unlimited food and a floor show made the 1,800 baht bill seem quite reasonable, a great night out and a lot more fun than McDonald's!

so then it was time to wind our way home, a couple of pictures by the tree,

and some of the water features there,

Diana was still smilling at the memory of the meal,

the trick here is not to get to close to the water, Diana defiantly got a bit wet taking theses, then back to the second disaster, but this time I only had to move one locked bike to get ours out, it would have been nice if one of the parking attendants could have helped out, but I guess that are only paid for security and not customer services, must get the hernia sorted next week! (joking!),

and home and feet up to watch the last of Hornblower, what a excellent series, they are based on a series of novels, The Horatio Hornblower Series by C.S. Forester, for a compleate run of the books look here, then at 3 in the morning, (again!), off to bed.