Stanley's pictures: New Years Eve,

so a quick trip to Friendship for a bit of shopping,

the place was packed, we had to park in an overflow area,

even the cars were double parked,

but it meant we were close to the shrine so I took a couple of pictures of it,

inside the shrine,

around the top of it there are painted panels like this one,

next Diana had been busy in the kitchen making a cottage pie for this evening,

Jeff and Da along with Nick and Maureen called over as we were going to see the New Year in together,

Jeff was quiet impressed with the train layout,

after we had eaten Diana changed clothes for the evening and it was over to Jeff and Da's room for them to change,

all dressed up and ready to go,

and we strike the pose,

then just the girls,

next stop the entrance to Walking Street at the top end of Soi Diamond, the traffic into town was horrendous,

Nick and Maureen had left before us and managed to find seats at the front of the bar,

opposite what was going to be a new upstairs go-go but failed to open,

Then Mark, Mr. Tony's son, Alison and Mr. Tony arrived,

by now the street was staring to fill up with revellers,

Mr. Tony and Diana having a chat,

Jeff was still a bit peckish, so Da bought a few bits on sticks,

it appears they now sell double sized pieces of chicken on extra long sticks!

we could hear the beating of drums in the distance, the Chinese dancing dragon troupe was in town,

as was Slim Jim who had come to join us,

the dancing troupe did a left turn and proceeded up Soi Diamond,

then they returned to the street,

chasing out the old year and heralding in the new,

unfortunately the music in the bar was so loud Jeff had to by some ear plugs,

in luminous green,

still more people were arriving in the street,

next thing the girls were hungry,

by now there was hardly room to move,

and still people were arriving,

Slim Jim and Diana,

naturally I had to get in the act, but here is a strange thing, the bottle of vodka went down by 300 baht this year, hopefully a sign of things over here getting less expensive,

Jeff the romantic bought the girls a rose each,

'Ah!',

a look along the street in the opposite direction, a sea of people,

the Angelwitch sign pointing to Soi 14,

it looked much better in real life, a waterfall of coloured lights,

I then decided to buy some food for the girls, the choice was food on a stick,

and what a choice!

or a few slces of pizza, but next thing the lady owner of the pizza stall started shouting and screaming, 'no photo' and a few other things, which seemed a bit strange when were in a public street in which there were literaly thousands of picture snaping tourist taking pictures, naturaly she lost our purchase of food, for now and ever more,

in the distance the Chinese dragon troupe were performing acrobatics in the street, the thought of being at the top was not one I relished,

the drums started again,

and the dragon was with us,

it is surposed to bring you good fortune to give it money,

just pop your hand with a few baht in it into the dragons mouth,

off goes a happy dragon,

the next dragon was coming along the street, so Diana thought she would like to give it a few baht,

this time a white one,

but some times you can not get your hand out of the dragons mouth!

the drummers walk slowly past,

then as the hour of midnight is hearlded in fireworks and streamers fill the air,

'Happy New Year!'

although difficult to photograph the skies at both ends of the street were filled with fireworks,

like this but a lot better!

the New Year is seen in,

with congratulations all round,

Diana decided to have an alcoholic drink, a tequila,

a Happy New Year from Nick and Maureen,

and from Jeff and Da,

it was no surpise the bar was not full, I even thought about buying some ear plugs myself! but dispite Da asking if the music could be turned down just a little, it was impossible to do so,