First Thing And We Were Shopping At Friendship For Saturday,

this is one of the reasons I do not want a new bike,

all of the new bikes I have seen whilst they may have an under seat luggage compartment, they tend to be for us not big enough,

they do not have the 'hooks' to hang shopping bags on like ours,

boring bit, on to the railways, I started to ballast the tracks, putting in the small stones that the sleepers or tires are set in, the few books or articles I have read on the subject all say how time consuming it is if you want the track to look effective, how right they were! it took ages just to make this short length look nice, I am not looking forward to doing the rest,

so I took a break, for so long the 'mountains' have looked like a snow scene so I started on a undercoat of green,

painting around the rocks that Diana had been colouring,

and around the culverts,

but there is still a lot to do,

after finishing this bit I ran out of paint, so off to the arts and crafts department in Friendship tomorrow to buy some more,

when that is all done it will be time to get on with the ballasting and cover the green with some grass and low cover, but I am getting ahead of myself, I have a nasty feeling the ballasting is going to take forever,

for today Diana decided to make a cottage pie,

whilst it was cooking she showed me the new dress she had bought at the night market the day before,

well this was a first, I guess due to ill health or prior commitments not a single friend called by, the good news is that I had the vodka all to myself, the bad news is that I will be having cottage pie for the rest of the week! whilst I remember it we will not be here for next Saturday, so cross that one off your diary, after eating it was settle back for some strawberries,

a choc ice each,

and Diana's favorite, some chocolates from Hotel Chocolate,

then feet up for a couple of DVD's, first Night at the Museum, it brings back a few childhood memories, as a kid I sometimes had a nightmare about the dinosaurs coming to life, in this movie one does! great fun,

then for me one of the better modern Dracula's played by Gary Oldham, very entertaining then off to bed.

Many Years Ago I Remember Taking My Driving Test,

the first question I was asked as we left the test center was 'can you tell me the number of that car?'

eye test you see, well it appears that being able to see in the Lib Dem-controlled Portsmouth City Council's is no longer an option, the application form for a taxi driver licence is available in Braille, to help the blind or partially sighted to get a job, did I mention the form can also be downloaded in an audio format?

the decision and cost to make the form available in Braille was defended by head of customer services Louise Wilders, "The form is also for employers to fill in - they could need a Braille version,"

then a better reason, "obviously, a taxi driver would not need the Braille version, but they might find a foreign language version helpful," well I can see that one working, a foreign taxi driver who can not read English picking up some one that can not speak! I have to say it, any one that needs a form in Braille to fill in should not be driving at all, but then I am not in Portsmouth City Council.

Just When I Thought Things On The Train Were Going OK,

the controller decided it was time to die, it is the bit of kit needed to control the speed of the trains, I had bought it in the UK a couple of years ago but had only just started using it, so off to FedEx in Nagklua, as usual the fountain was not working,

the office is at the back of this little square,

I decided to call in about 9.00 that way it was done and I could put it out of my mind for the day, note to self, FedEx opens at 10.00, D'Oh! so I sat in this coffee shop and read the paper till then, but in a happy way things changed for the better, the lady that runs the office opened it at 9.45, then things changed for the worst, 4,089 baht to send it! at today's rate £77.22, ouch! the unit is out of guarantee so I just hope the repair is not to expensive,

so then home and back to the trains, I am now starting to 'rust' the tracks, I bought a special paint applicator, but it did not work to well, well not at all really so back to using a brush,

Diana continued to paint the rock outcrops,

she uses a series of washes to darken down the rocks after a few applications,

starting to look nice and realistic,

we will, when the rocks are finished, fill in the white bits with a green wash and then add grass and bushes,

meanwhile I am making the tracks look rusty and used,

very rusty at the points or turnouts, as these are the places that in real life grind the rails due to the turning stresses involved,

Diana hard at work,

by now it was time to go to Thepprisit market, but on our way out I noticed that the Jasmine was full of buds,

so in the next night or two we will be welcome home with a lovely smell in the air,

Diana keeps looking at handbags so first stop a handbag stall,

Honda have set up a sales stall to show off the new range of bikes,

these are all 'step throughs'

oh dear, another one in pink, just what Diana wanted, good job she can not drive!

no space for a luggage rack, but I guess there will be room under the seat, but I have to say not enough for when we go shopping,

also the new Wave, but it looks very similar to the last one,

one of the new ones, I have to say the colours that have been chosen for them are to say the least a bit bland, but maybe more will become available later, there was nothing much new in the plant/fish section, but I did notice these, not sure why but they almost reminded me of a stretched crocus,

plenty of food and snacks for sale,

a new range of 'T' shirts,

'Ah'

Diana return from shopping as I was having a beer with a new dress,

then time to head home, but on the way I spotted this Yamaha twin,

not sure if this is the owners name or another company has used the engine and put it in their frame,

it is a parallel twin, I am guess about 650 c.c.

I liked the painted wheel rims, with two pinstripes of red and it would look just like a Vincent/H.R.D. rim, I must remember to put the pictures of my old one on the blog, for the record the one I had was a H.R.D. series 'B' 998 c.c. Rapide,

then home for a pork chop, broccoli, fried onions and chips,

some chocolate desert for Diana, OK I confess I had some too!

then some fresh strawberry's Diana had bought in the market,

the yabbie tried for another walk about but gave up after the second attempt, so here he is on the bottom of the aquarium,

then feet up for a totally OTT movie, Van Helsing, we had seen it before but not for some time,

we were going to watch the second of the Titanic DVD's in the series next week but decided to look at one after Van Helsing, a total different view on the sinking was put forward, the hour that the program lasted just flew past,

in fact it was so absorbing Diana said she would like to watch the final one in the series, I must admit I had always been told in other documentaries about Titanic that after striking the iceberg, weak or substandard steel in the hull plates was the cause that the ship sank as the steel was not strong enough and fractured far more than it should have done - not so, the steel was comparable to modern day steel according to all of the experts in this 3 DVD set, totally compiling viewing, then off to the land of nod.