Friday So Off To The Market,

but first a phone card, so a quick stop at the 7 - 11 which seem to be on every street corner, no problems with topping up the phone just making calls! over the past few weeks the quality of reception has gone down from bad to worse, whether International or local I can hardly hear the caller and the same for them, a friend had suggested that to free up band width calls were being diverted from the new digital satellites to the old unreliable analogue ones, worse in some case rerouted over land lines, who knows? but one thing is inescapable the mobile phone service out here is at the moment appalling,

but onward we go, into the Soi Bukaow market,

lots of tempting dishes on the way in, fried chicken bits,

and a selection of medicinal herbs and loofahs,

a quick look at one of the fish shops,

and the second one,

there were lots of plants on display, but the stalls I like the most, selling orchids had either not pitched up or had a very poor selection, may be the time of the year with not many people buying orchids at this time,

so an ice coffee for me until Diana returns from her shopping foray,

we then went to Friendship, but on the way I spotted the smallest disc brake on a motorcycle I had ever seen,

it was on a Honda Monkey, a bit small for me, I mean where do you put the shopping?

the bike park was a bit full as it was market day,

we dropped off the shopping and returned to the motorbike service garage we use, owned by Piate, (spelt as it sounds), on the left, I service the bike every 2,000 miles, change the oil, plug, air and oil filters check and replace the brakes if needed and oil the chain, this time 200 baht, 56,000 kilometer service completed in 1 hour,

so we had a walk around the Tuc Com center, looked wishfully at the new Samsung LED televisions and then had a ice coffee watching hapless motorists pay the locals for using the road, on market days we do not drive along the lower half of Pattaya Tai, but walk to the market or Friendship and park away from the traffic stop,

in the afternoon Phil called round then we decided to try and beat the rain and left a little early for the Thepprisit night market,

it started to rain lightly just as we started to walk around, I figured I could make a run for the shelter of the bar if the worse happened, but the rain after a few drops held off, Diana and myself split up when we walk around, I have always thought she gets a cheaper price if I am not around, so I take a unposed shot when we meet up going in opposite directions,

my last watch had stopped so I bought a new one, when Steve was over here he bought an American Eagle brand watch and was pleased with it, so I went to the same stall and bought this one, trouble was with out my glasses I did not notice it was not an American Eagle, D'Oh!

due to the slight bit of rain it had put everybody back some time, the stall owners had half put the stalls out then had to put rain covers on,

there were still some of the food vendors doing the rounds, this one selling squid,

Diana spotted again as she walked towards me,

nothing of note in the pet/flower/fish section so it was to an empty bar for me,

the skies still looked dark and menacing but the rain held off,

'Cheers!' from me, Diana has bought a new swimming costume for next week, we will be going over to the coral islands for a day trip out, it will be just like being on holiday again!

then home for a pork pie salad, feet up and a couple of episode of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, The Ripening Rubies, an audacious jewel thief has London society in a spin until a chance happening leads to his downfall, followed by The Case of Laker, Absconded, in another case for Martin Hewitt, a young debt collector is accused of theft, and it looks like an open and shut case, but Hewitt is soon on the trail of the real thief, then off to bed.