Up Early, For Diana, And We Are Away!

so along to Bali Hai pier, park the bike and walk to the boat,

long shadows as the sun comes up,

we had just missed one boat, so this one was empty as we boarded,

get comfortable in the middle of the boat where it does not sway so much,

on to the jetty after the 50 minute or so ride, the sky looked a bit over cast, we thought some rain might be on the way,

most mornings we come here there are a few fishing boats tied up here,

today was no exception,

this one from Naklua,

the net is being passed from the front of the boat to the rear,

as we made our way on the jetty to the beach we had a look over to the right of the jetty, there was a huge shoal of small fish there, with some needle fish at the front of the shoal picking off the weaker ones, the picture does not give a good impression of how many there were, but it was a great sight,

we walked along to the half way stage on the boardwalk, past the food sellers on the landward side of it,

this is the food stall just behind where we sit,

after a cup of coffee we each had a plate of chicken fried rice,

a little later in the day Diana felt peckish again so some bar-b-qued chicken and a slushy,

followed by an ice cream, a small beer for me! this was the busiest day on the island, for some reason everyone wanted to be here today, perhaps we all knew what the weather was going to be like the next day!

I went for a short walk as Diana settled down with a book,

it was one of those Filipino love story books, but Mr. Sleep paid Diana a call!

all to soon it was time to catch the 4 o'clock ferry back to the mainland,

luckily we were just in time as this one filled up and left before the deadline,

a slightly newer ferry moves in to take it's place as the 4 o'clock boat,

then we are off,

good-bye to the beach for another week or two,

another one of the fleet of small fishing boats makes it's way to the jetty,

one day we will take one of the 300 baht per person speed boats, but as Diana said for 300 baht we could go10 times on the ferry we are on,

off course there is always the jet ski way to go, just make sure the tank is full before you leave!

45 minutes later and we are nearly home,

the day had been quite sunny in the afternoon, but now there was a slight haziness in the air,

another 3 or 4 minutes and we would be walking along the pier,

to the bar at the end of for an ice coffee or two,

as we made our way to our bike we noticed that City Hall had fenced off the middle of the Bali Hai square,

I am not sure what is going to be built there but a crane was putting some pilings in so a building of some sort I guess,

next stop Friendship, we were getting low on the medicinal red wine,

for tonight to save Diana cooking we called up to the soup stall for some chicken soup,

two plastic bags full 30 baht each, delicious!

the first plant as we walk in is this Amaryllis, this year it has more flowers than ever,

it has already sent 4 flower spikes like this one with another 4 on their way to flowering,

then feet up for a few movies, so no change there then! The Day the Earth Caught Fire was the first of the evening, panic has engulfed the world after the United States and the Soviet Union simultaneously detonate nuclear devices and have caused the orbit of the Earth to alter, sending it hurtling towards the sun, made in 1961 it is a black and white movie, all the more frightening for it, especially with hardly any special effects, so it has to make the actors all the more believable, as an aside at the end of the movie an unaccredited Michael Caine makes an appearance as a police man,

light hearted fun and laughter with the 1964 Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins is a kind of Super-nanny who flies in with her umbrella in response to the request of the Banks children and proceeds to put things right, great fun film, just a shame about the lead's terrible English accent - or lack of it! but Disney knew British audiences would forgive his shaky accent, but what was not forgiven was the authors view of how her work had been changed, P. L. Travers left the premier in tears, vowing never to work with Disney again - even making a clause in her will to stop any of her work after her death falling into his companies hands,

Buried Treasure was one from series 4 of New Tricks, normally when a body is found no one confesses, but this time two people put their hands up for it, Sandra, Jack, Brian and Gerry must discover why the pair took responsibility for a crime they couldn't possibly have committed and if they are in fact the perpetrators of other killings,

to round of the evening Spare Parts, the first of season 5, the trial of Ricky Hanson starts and the members of UCOS are scheduled to appear as witnesses, Hanson is the man who killed Jack Halford's wife but he's on trial for attempting to murder Jack but will Hanson walk or go down? at the same time they are looking into a lady named Carrie Soper, Ralph Wheeler was killed and left his fortune to Carrie, as they look into the case, they find several possible suspects including a solicitor, a doctor and someone with a lengthy criminal record, in the end, the case revolves around a car accident and organ donation, but for us off to bed.