We Had More Than A Few Friends Call Round Today,

but in the morning we went to the TUKCOM Com center,

after dropping my Fuji camera (again!), it was in need of a slight repair, so off to the shops, I did not do a comparison on the Internet, but I had one priority, to buy a camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, going back to my old camera days they were always the best lenses, the only camera maker that I could see that had this was Sony, so that was the one I bought, so as from tomorrow all of the pictures will be taken on it, the price was 8,499 baht including a (free) 2 GB card, but here is the rub, I always like to have a spare set of batteries with me, in this case it is not a AA or similar but a special battery a NP-FG1, a catchy name, but a we caught you price, 1,990 baht! I have just looked up today's exchange rate, £36.28 for a battery, I know it was my choice but it feels more like assault and battery!

Mark, Mick and Alex all called in for chat and a cup of tea, so the day just flew past,

then it was off to the market, Diana wanted a new hair grip thing, so I left her to it and started my usual wander around,

we were quite early so not many crowds to get around,

so many clothes stalls, the one problem here is to get shirts and trousers big enough, there are some stalls that cater for people of a larger frame, but typically most sizes are smaller than I can get into, larger sizes are more commonly available in the Soi Bukoaw market,

lots of small stalls like this one, every thing 10 baht, the sign says it all,

in the pet section this is the first saltwater aquarium I have seen there, I hope he makes a go of it, saltwater fish are much harder to keep than their freshwater counterparts,

then on to the orchids,

these large flowering ones are very popular,

as are these slightly smaller ones,

in a variety of colours,

this shop at the other extreme also has some cactuses,

back to the food stalls, an abundance of shrimps,

and Diana's favorites, bugs!

then just as I was going to the bar I noticed Sai Ja, I guess with her great granddaughter,

she has a small stand selling home made hats and things that she makes herself,

Diana returned with the hair thingy that she bought 10 baht, what a bargain!

all say 'Ah!',

we were later joined by Rizza and Goh, Mike wanted to be here as well, but he was still on the mini bus coming down from Lao where he went to get his visa,

Diana and the girls popped back to say hi to Sai Ja and bring her a green tea,

Sai Ja with Riza and Goh,

on our way back to the bike Diana saw this one, of course she wanted one straight away,

she said she would feel safe with this one as it has 3 wheels, I said 'if only they did one in pink',

well that was a dumb thing for me to say, parked by the truck there was a pink one!

we decided to stop at the food stalls, I did not fancy sushi , so I went for the chicken soup, the girls had already bought their supper,

we also bought a couple of halves of roasted chicken to snack on later,

Diana then decided on a few Thai deserts,

I am not sure what they are, but the girls seem to like them,

the girls decided to eat outside, I think they had some smelly stuff, so I was thankful for that, after Rizza and Goh left we settled down to watch The Tudors, but something did not make sense, it was all wrong, then it dawned on us, the labels on the DVD's had been stuck on the wrong discs, disc 3 should have been disc 2, and of course disc 2 was really disc 3, now it all made sense! we were totally engrossed in it, we watched it all, so now we will have to wait till series 4 comes out in the spring, by now it was well past 2 in the morning so it was off to bed, the chicken tasted great.