We Spent An Unsuccessful Few Hours Driving Around Pattaya,

looking for somewhere to have cushion covers made, every time we tried a curtain shop or upholsterers the answer was no and we were redirected to some where else, so home we went, I then had the idea to call that nice chap David from East Coast Real Estates who directed us to this place on Thapprasite Road, the lady there was more than helpful, the selection of material huge, they should be ready next Tuesday, as we were in the area we decided to call in and see the newly married Don, Diana loved the car,

there was also a new Honda Scoopy in the drive, there are now so many automatic scooters to chose from out here, the Honda Scoopys range from 43-45,000 baht depending on the model,

the fish looked fine,

after a couple of Don's freshly made coffees we were on our way home,

I had arranged to meet Juu for a few drinks this evening, we had missed a few Saturday evenings out due the sale of alcohol being banned because of religious and voting dates failing on the weekends, the street by the side of Marine Plaza was almost deserted,

as was the side road that runs parallel to Second Road,

Walking Street was also quiet, the crowd of people in the distance are watching one of the street magicians,

first stop for me was to meet Juu in Champions, we stayed there for a couple of drinks then we hit the street,

we did not make it to Goodfellas, but at least there were a few more people about, we then went up Soi Diamond to Spicy Girls, next a couple in The Sea,

before making our way along the street again, the view towards Bali Hai pier,

and looking towards Beach Road,

we then decided to call in and say hi to Grieg, so a walk past the Buddha tree,

and in to Rozy, where Grieg made us feel more than welcome, a few in there and back to Champions to round off the evening, a very pleasant evening out,

at home feet up for a film based on actual events, Khartoum, after an Egyptian army, commanded by British officers, is destroyed in a battle in the Sudan in the 1880's, the British government is in a quandary, it does not want to commit a British military force to a foreign war but they have a commitment to protect the Egyptians in Khartoum, so the British government sends in General Charles "Chinese" Gordon, a much underrated film both then when it was released and now, at over two hours long it was getting late so for us it was off to bed.

If You Did Not Like The Look Of White Cauliflower,

would making it a different colour make you want to eat it? that is what TESCO's are hoping when they market a new range of cauliflower shapes and colours, along with traditional white varieties, they will be sold in a "rainbow pack" from Saturday, exclusively by Tesco, they are grown by one of the UK's largest growers of brassica in Lincolnshire, TH Clements of Benington, near Boston, Lincolnshire, the coloured cauliflowers are all naturally produced but have been crossed with other types of the brassica family, which includes green cabbage and broccoli, to make exciting colour variations and boost falling sales, TESCO greens buyer Jeni Gray said: 'these cauliflowers are almost works of art and have a real wow factor that should really create a stir with shoppers and hopefully children at dinnertime, cauliflower got its poor image from baby boomer generation schoolchildren who generally loathed them as they were always being told to eat their greens for health reasons, well I am not sure, but I think that I still prefer the white variety.

Could This Be The One?

in the FBI's longest unsolved hijacking case a new suspect is in the frame,

on November 24, 1971 a passenger named D. B. Cooper which is the name popularly used to refer to an unidentified man, hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft alleging that he had explosives strapped to himself he demanded and received $200,000 plus some parachutes in Seattle, he then demanded to be flown to Mexico, somewhere over southwestern Washington, he jumped out the plane's tail exit with two of the chutes, and was never seen or heard from again,

but the FBI today announced that it has a new suspect in the case who they are hoping to link to a tie Cooper left on the plane and cigarette butts in an ashtray using DNA testing and fingerprints, 'We do actually have a new suspect we're looking at,' said FBI spokesperson Ayn Dietrich as she revealed the twist in the investigation 'it comes from a credible lead who came to our attention recently via a law enforcement colleague,' she said, so will the new suspect be named in the FBI's only unsolved hijacking case? we will have to wait and see.

Many Thanks To Steve In The UK,

for sending me this information about where I have a home,

'Johnny Depp will be filming in Beckenham Place Park night scenes from a new movie 'Dark Shadows' directed by Tim Burton July 25/26th.,although the people on site say Tuesday 26th the cameras and crew have been there now 24 hours and notices have been put up by the golf club saying filming is taking place, sorry for the inconvenience' well we liked his last movie so I will definitely be looking out for this one, by the way if you are watching it in a cinema and some in the audience shouts out 'I can see my house from here!', that will be me!

I have seen this view so many times as I have walked round the park, but not with the cranes!

First Thing In The Morning To Immigration,

in and out in a couple of minutes and I am OK for 1 year, on the way back we stopped of for some fresh fruit at the market almost opposite the top of Soi 5 Jomtien,

the market has a bit of everything, flowers, fish and meat,

a few of the seasons last mango's for a slushie tonight, as well as some broccoli, opposite the market beer bar building is going on a pace, almost as far as the eye can see,

beyond and to the right of these buildings more foundations are being laid,

I wonder if the area can support so many beer bars,

then home for breakfast, around mid day I met up with Mark at Tuk Com the IT Center, we were going to look at a few laptop computers, I will travel with one next time we are on holiday so we can update the blog when we have time every day,

so time for reflection on which one to buy as we drank our coffee at Starbucks watching the world go by on Pattaya Tai,

a decision made, it was off to Wattana Computers to order one, we decided on a Acer Aspire 4750G Notebook, it comes with Intel® Core™ i5-2410M/i5-2520M/i5-2540M processor (3 MB L3 cache, 2.30/2.50/2.60 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.90/3.20/3.30 GHz, DDR3 1333 MHz, 35 W), supporting Intel® 64 architecture, Intel® Smart Cache, whatever all of that means, also we have asked the company to call round and put in a wi-fi system, we are getting ready for next years purchase of a Samsung Smart television which needs a Internet connection for some reason, so on Monday when he calls round we hope all will be working well,

as we were in the area we called in for some frozen sausages from KPK Foods,

the to the Friday night market, it did not look too promising, dark clouds in the skies,

opposite the bar a car dealership was taking bookings for a test drive,

although still early the food aisles had a few people looking at what was on offer,

the fruit drink stall,

there are still a few gaps in the pet stalls, but the most popular stalls are the ones selling foods for pets, there must be 4 or 5 of them,

a few fish at the one last remaining freshwater fish stall,

also some accessories on display,

then back to the bar along one of the food aisles,

if you are even the slightest bit hungry do not walk along here, so many delicious tit bits to tempt you!

back to the bar, the car dealership had laid out tables and chairs with some greenery,

although still cloudy the rain held off, at the bar we meet up with Bill, later Juu joined us so we drank the night away,

later a friend of Juu's arrived, one of the kids was wearing one of these 'T' shirts with a flashing light on the front of it, the light reacts to sound, just clap your hands and it flashes, I guess it peels off before it goes in the washing machine,

then home feet up for Land der schwarzen Sonne, I had seen a short piece of this movie many years ago, but when I tried to buy it on E-Bay it was ridiculously expensive if purchased as Mountains of the Moon, but I found the German version with English soundtrack and German subtitles at a much more reasonable price, so I bought it and was glad I did, the story is about one of perhaps the worlds greatest travellers Sir Francis Richard Burton, fluent in over 20 languages, he left his mark on history, along with John Hanning Speke explored Africa when nothing was known of it's interior, the film follows their friendship during their travels, also shows how the Royal Geographical Society and other outside interests played Burton and Speke against each other for their own gain when the travelers returned, they left Zanzibar in June 1857 and, after exploring the East African coast for six months to find the best route inland, became the first Europeans to reach Lake Tanganyika in February 1858, a great film to watch and of course based on true events as recorded in their journals,

it was late so just one episode of Porridge and we were off to bed.

The Political Correct Brigade Goes Marching On,

this time in Birmingham, in the 18th century there was a small concentration of gun makers in the industrial area of Digbeth, during the century, however, the trade gradually moved to the north-west fringe of the town largely on the Weaman estate around Whittall Street in the district now known as the Gun Quarter, this was conveniently situated near Kettle's Steelhouses in Steelhouse Lane and close to the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, Sketchley's 1767 Directory of Birmingham lists 62 separate workshops involved in gunmaking,

by 1815 there were 125 firms involved in gun making mostly in the Gun Quarter, by 1829 there were 455 and by 1868 there were 578 gun firms in Birmingham, the Crimean War 1854-1856 was another boom time for Birmingham gun makers; in the decade from 1854 over four million barrels passed through the Proof House, 1862 sixteen separate gun firms amalgamated to form the Birmingham Small Arms Company, the BSA, with a large mechanised steam-powered factory at Armoury Road in Small Heath which took work away from the town centre, however, many small manufacturers remained in the Gun Quarter until the major rebuilding and road developments of the 1960s spilt the area in two, Birmingham's gun trade still exists as a small specialised industry, though only just in evidence in what remains of the old Gun Quarter,

so I guess the area has a good history of guns in the area, but just 50 people who have signed a petition have made the PC council change the historic area and is to become known as St George and St Chad, this is the problem with petitions, today only a few firms remain in England including Westley Richards and Co, Simon Clode, managing director of the firm, said it appeared the decision had been made hastily, 'it's a shame they're not acknowledging the history of Birmingham's gun making,' he added: 'no one from the council has approached us as gun makers, we employ six apprentices, we've got two more joining us next month, we're still going strong and export all over the world,' I wonder if the council petitioned people who wanted the name to stay as it is?

so what is next for this PC council? I know rename Cannon Hill Park, one of the biggest parks in Birmingham, what about Birmingham Small Arms, the famous motorcycle manufacture, wipe that from Birmingham's history books, sounds far to much like guns, the logo that appears on motorbikes even has 3 rifles on it! I wonder if the council will rename Armoury Road? as the author of this link stated, 'sadly the Birmingham authorities appear to be blind to the value of their own culture and history', that just about sums it up, but moving further afield I guess Arsenal Football Club should change it's name and remove that gun from it's logo? common sense and the PC council's of Great Britain will never go hands in glove whilst people like the ones in this renaming exercise have power.

The Popular Press Predict That The World Is Getting Warmer,

it may be, but it is not a Man Made phenomena, the world over heating, drought and rising sea levels all on the cards, all feature in this scenario, but according to new NASA research this may not be so, a new study that may prove global-warming alarmists have been wrong all along, NASA's Terra satellite covering the period 2000 through 2011 shows that when the earth's climate heats up, the atmosphere appears to be better able to channel the heat to outer space, now here is the point, the satellite data call into question the computer models favored by global warming believers and may put to rest controversy over the discrepancy between the computer models and actual meteorological readings, so who is correct?

well I have read about one guy who does not believe in global warming or rising sea levels, if he did believe in all of this nonsense he would not have spent $8,875,000 on a ocean-view villa on 1 1/2 acres with a swimming pool, spa and fountains unless he is supremely confident that the world is not warming up and sea levels will not rise, his name? Al Gore.

Down To The Bank Again!

where does all the money go?

I guess we spent some of it in Phuket, but we had a whale of a time,

the only problem being that when we arrived back in Pattaya I spent quiet a bit of time updating our blog, I have heard so many stories of people using Internet shops and having passwords stolen that I always up date the blog when we return home, so today we were off to Wattana Computers opposite Foodland to have a look at the price of laptops so I can update the blog every day when we are next away, the view from the car park looking towards Foodland,

Wattana side entrance, I have been told that Acer is a reliable make to go for, also to make sure it has factory installed Windows 7, rather than have the operating system installed locally, if it sounds like I know what I am talking about I am just repeating comments from folks wiser than me, but the problem is that over here Acer now do not ship with factory installed Windows 7, well looking at their brochure they do, just one model at 39,900 baht a bit out of my price range, so it looks like I will have to look else where for one to buy,

just a few yards down the road are the flower stalls, so we stopped off there,

it appears that begonias are in bloom at this time of the year,

we also had a look at the bonsai stall,

I quiet liked this two tree pot,

a nice twisted trunk on this one,

yours for 1,200 baht,

as we went past a motorcycle dealership we noticed this parked outside,

a huge shoe, there must have been a reason for it being there, but there was no signage to say why it was there,

it was still fairly early when we called into the market, so not many stalls had been set up,

first stop two fresh coconuts for Diana,

onions and potatoes for this evening,

bar-b-qued fish for Diana,

as it appears the mango season is over we purchased some bananas and a pineapple to make slushies from,

it was late in the afternoon so we had our evening meal I was watching the news trying to catch up on world events when we received a call to say there was a leaving party at Margaritaville for Willie and Jean, so glad rags on and over we went,

Jay with Precil and Mike with Riza were already there,

and of course Willie,

the girls in party mode,

the evening just slipped away, all too soon at 02.30 in the morning Mike very kindly gave us all a lift home, so when we arrived it was time for bed.