I Normally Wake Up Just Before 08.00 Every Day,

but this morning I was up well before that, Pattaya was the epicenter of a huge thunderstorm, by 11.00 in the morning the rain was still falling, the clouds still looking menacing over head, we had planned to go to the weekend plant market to buy some soil, but it looked like it was not on the cards today,

then at about midday the rain stopped and we had a few brief moments of sunshine so off we went, but first I took a picture of Diana's sunflowers still growing but a few caterpillars are having a feast of the leaves,

the market we were going to is on the Sumkivitt highway, next to Mini Siam,

and almost opposite the Bangkok Pattaya hospital,

you can park on the road, but we elected to park inside, there is plenty of space,

as soon as you stop there are as you would expect plants every where,

in the foreground one of Diana's favorite plants, Bougainvillea,

of course lots of orchids, these 50 baht each or 5 for 200 baht,

it looks dry, but with the recent rain it was a bit muddy underfoot,

the variety of plants was staggering, especially when you consider it is just a temporary market,

lots of figures for the miniature garden, it is difficult to see the scale of these but the mushrooms in the bottom right are about half an inch across,

we bought some more fertiliser, there are lots of different mixes, but we have found that 16-16-16 seems to work the best, the numbers refer to the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, & potassium in the mix,

I have always liked these trees when they become established,

I am not sure what they are called, but they have the most beautiful flowers, like these red ones,

or these yellow/white/pale pink,

another new plant for me,

it just sort of hangs, but has these strange fruits/seeds on the lower stems,

they almost look unreal,

now these I know are native orchids, no breeder has made them look this way, this is how they are,

we have looked at lots of small plants but trees are here as well,

not to mention many different types of palm trees,

some one has spent an age looking after these,

the cut off leaves on the trunk almost a work of art in it's self,

another one I know, a passion fruit,

it has a really strange looking flower,

garden ornaments, no gnomes, that seems to be a European thing, but lots of animals,

and flamingos,

there was a super abundance of water lilies too,

if only we had enough garden to make a fish pond,

another orchid stall,

but unlike the yellow ones we saw earlier these have been breed over several years by orchid breeders,

taking the best flowers of some and mixing with the hardness of others,

then joy of joys, a fish stall,

it seems strange seeing fish for sale in an open market, one of the many things out here that is banned by our European masters in the UK,

here is another strange one for me, a type of orchid I had not seen before,

it has huge numbers of 'micro flowers' on the flower stems, each flower just a few millimeters across,

next on our walk was a stall selling Hibiscus,

but these had huge flowers,

both the red and the yellow flowers about 5 inches across,

more garden ornaments, this time plant pot holders, I kept looking at the one in the middle, he reminded me so much of one of the creatures in the film Evolution,

then to what we came for,some bags of soil for the front flower bed, they were quiet heavy, having picked one up I thought two would be safe, four foolhardy,

but as they were 20 baht each or 6 for 100 baht the six it was then,

after wobberling our way home Diana started to put the new soil out,

meanwhile I carried on moving and adding some of the stamps I had purchased over the last few months,

like these, given as samples in the 1934 International Air Post Exhibition,

I had to go out and see how Diana was getting on, it is all starting to look nice,

Miss Greenfingers,

whilst outside I remembered the tyres on the bike were a bit flat,

luckerly only at the bottom of the tyre! the foot pump had now started to behave itself, a bit of tape round the pressure gauge saw to that,

then back to the stamps,

on the right of the stamp the legend 'printed on paper supplied by Samuel Jones & Co Ltd London'

on the left the legend 'engraved and printed on steel', under the border of the stamp at the bottom 'Institut de Gravure - Paris' so I wonder was the engraver French and the stamps printed in the UK? I do not surpose I will ever know,

back to the stamps,

then out on the town,

Walking Street was still crowded with tourists, but on the way in the police had nearly stopped the flow of traffic on Second Road with motorbikes that had been pulled over and parked in the street, not to mention the huge crowd of tourists who had hired the bikes to get around town, I know people should not break the law, but you can bet everyone of these tourists, when they return home will remember the 400 baht fine and having to que in the police station to pay it and then pay another 200 baht parking fee when they pick up the bike the following morning from the pound rather than the nice times they had here,

but hey less tourists means it is easier to get around town, that must be the plan!

the bar of our choice, Champions,

lots of pretty signs, but I have mentioned this before, if you are thinking of having a tattoo, do you really want to go to a tattoo parlour called 'House of Pain'? into Champions where we meet up with Juu, Brian and Sa, also Slim Jim called in to say Hi, then home feet up,

for another New Tricks, but it all went a bit pear shaped, I closed my eyes for a second and fell asleep! so with that we were off to bed.