St. Valentine's Day, We Had A Table Booked For The evening,

but first thing off to drop off the truck, I had mentioned before that the paintwork was in a terrible state, I guess not enough U.V. stabilizing/blocker had been put in the paint, after just a couple of years a small patch appeared on the bonnet, then the paint on the roof began to look bad, growing bigger year by year, it was one of those expenses I kept putting off, I always had a better use for the 30,000 baht I had been quoted for the two items to be resprayed, well last week my hand was tipped, a small chip in the windscreen that had been there for the past 7 or 8 years decided to get bigger, like split across nearly two thirds of the screen so I decided to get both things remedied at the same time, and this is where I ended up, the garage was recommend to me by a friend who had some work on his truck done there, I also had another couple of slightly cheaper quotes, so I reckoned on about 15 - 20,000 for the respray, plus well I did not have a clue as to how much the windscreen replacement would be but say 2,500 baht, so it came as a pleasant surprise when I was told 15,000 baht all in, also that the truck would look like new! well I will wait and see, pick up is on Friday morning, so I will take a few pictures and put them on the blog on Saturday,

the garage is located on Sumkivitt, right next door to this place, many of you will know it as the garage with no name but with huge numbers of 'super cars' in the window, they put several of them in a shopping mall to advertise their business a few months ago, but it was so packed I could not get close enough to get a photograph of the cars, so here was my chance, as I got closer I could see two magnificent MV Agusta motorcycles, as I got closer to the window about two meters away a Thai gentleman told me straight away 'No Photo!!' so that was that, I wonder what was so special that it needed hiding from the street?

on to the evening, glad rags on and we were off, we particularly wanted to go to the New Orleans restaurant as the last time we were there they had 5 Filipino chefs and Diana wanted to eat real Filipino food again,

Diana was wearing a matching set of earrings and neckless which went with the dress so well,

the necklace and earrings were made of glass, we had bought them when we were in the UK in the Greenwich craft market,

the motorbike taxi's dropped us off at the beginning of Boys Town on Second Road,

no mistaking the gender of the clubs down here!

then to the front of the New Orleans,

for reference the Kitten Club is a little further along the street,

inside and the drinks are ordered, I had a bottle of the house red which was a very reasonable 590 baht,

garlic bread as a complementary starter, but now the bad news the Filipino chefs were not there, so no Filipino food, which was a shame as Diana had been looking forward to it so much, also on the next table there was a family of Filipino's, I hope they too did not mind the lack of their native food,

if you want to see pictures of our last visit to the New Orleans have a look here, also the history of the Dejan's Olympia Brass Band,

not many people yet but it was only 7.00 in the evening,

'Cheers!' as the first course arrives,

Diana had 6 huge oysters Rockefeller's,

I had prawns in a tomato and basil sauce with peppers,

starters over Diana had the half rack of ribs as she was not now so hungry,

I decided to push the boat out and have the 850 baht Angus steak and yes, it was worth every baht of it!

'Cheers!' from both of us and a happy Valentines to all,

remember me saying that Diana was not that hungry? well look at how little meat she left, should have gone for the whole rack!

we then decided to take a walk into town along the beach front,

there were lots of lights and displays celebrating Valentines night, we meet a charming English couple so we took their pictures of them with their camera and vise versa,

there were lights every where, it all looked so nice and romantic,

then to the entrance to Walking Street,

the big screen over the street still working,

as were the neon lights as we continued our walk,

so many seafood restaurants along here now, back in 1982 there were just a few,

I remember this sign on the right from years ago, 'they are still swimming'

a couple of the beer bars were having a bar-b-q,

neon every where,

I have mentioned this bar before, the rock group are really talented, their songs and music perfect, but it is a bit too loud for an easy conversation but if you like live music check this place out,

we walked back to Second Road for our motorbike taxi's passing a mobile cuddly toy stall on the way,

past the Indian resturaunt we went to a couple of weeks ago when our regular one was closed,

then feet up glass of wine for Unbreakable, this suspense thriller unfolds as the audience is introduced to David Dunn, not only is he the sole survivor of a horrific train-crash that killed 131 people he doesn't have a scratch on him, now I am sorry to burst your bubble but dispite the message at the end of the film that the charecter Elijah Price goes to jail, this is not based on a true story, then for us off to bed.