I Still Do Not Understand Where The Week Went,

it is Sunday already!

 so with Diana all smiles it is time to go,

 off to the Robins Nest for Sunday lunch,

'Cheers!' from me as we both chose the Sunday carvery, but this week the price has risen from 199 baht to 249 baht, I guess the higher prices being charged due to the floods are starting to take effect,

whilst finishing our ice cream this gentleman called by with some fresh coconuts, 

they were huge, Diana just had to buy two for later this evening,

shortly after we arrived home, another thunderstorm came past, hopefully that will be the last of the rains,

then feet up for a film I had not watched in years, although I am pretty sure many people will have seen parts of it in documentaries about Russia at the outbreak and just before the First World War, they do not realise far from being news footage, the clip they have just seen was taken from Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein's  October (Ten Days that Shook the World), events in Petrograd are re-enacted from the end of the monarchy in February of 1917 to the end of the provisional government and the decrees of peace and of land in November of that year, the film was in fact released in 1928, but in filming the scene of the storming of the place was based more on the 1920 re-enactment involving Lenin and thousands of Red Guards, it was witnessed by 100,000 spectators, far more than the original occasion, which was far less photogenic,

next the 1984 version of A Passage to India, tensions between Indians and the colonial British come to a boil when a white female tourist accuses a young Indian doctor of rape during a visit to some caverns, great acting and locations,

fantasy again, in X-Men 2, a mutant by the name of Nightcrawler infiltrates the White House and attempts to assassinate the president, setting off a chain reaction of anti-mutant measures by the government, at the same time Wolverine is to trying to find out more about his past, the special effects even better than before,

Daybreakers promised a bit more than it delivered, in the future a virus has transformed 95% of the population into vampires, human blood is thin on the ground, but a cure is at hand, if only the vampires can take their medicine, I am not a great fan of scary movies, which is just as well because this one was not, in fact it was as slow as watching grass grow on a slow day, but the last part of the film speeded up if you like lots of blood splashed around, Diana loved it! then as it was late we were off to bed.

I Have Heard Of Steam Powered Cars,

but never a steam powered motorcycle,

till now, when one has just come up for sale, it is a 1894 Roper Steam Motorcycle, the second of two known to exist, the other being in the Smithsonian Institute, regularly used by designer Sylvester Howard Roper, it averaged a record speed of 40 miles per hour on the Dorchester Road in Boston for a measured mile in May 1896,


following Roper's death the bike went through a number of owners who displayed it to the public until it was bought by its current owner in 1996, Glenn Bator, head of Auctions America by RM's Vintage Motorcycle Division, said: 'Roper built two steam motorcycles and this one dates from 1894,' the amazing thing is that 'when Roper invented his machine the word motorcycle hadn't even been conceived,'



adding 'we’re delighted to have been selected to present this historic and pioneering motorcycle at our inaugural Las Vegas sale in January, a significant piece of Americana, it is arguably one of the world’s most important motorcycles,' 



if you are interested in biding, the guide price is expected to be in the region of £325,000, would I like it? I have to say much though I like motorbikes this one is not for me.

We Had A Bit Of A Lazy Day,

Juu called round early in the afternoon,

so we watched a couple of hours of River Monsters that we both found fascinating, but on to the evening, we decided on a meal out so off to the Punch & Judy we went,

 Diana decided on blue, with matching necklace and earrings,

gammon ham for Diana, chicken and mushroom pie for me,

 and very nice it was too, 'Cheers!',

back to the afternoon, we watched the DVD about Arapaima gigas as Juu has two of them, looking at the size and weights in this program Juu's must be in the 90 - 100 kilos range each, not a bad growth rate when you think that only 6 years ago they were less that 6" long! after Juu left we watched some of the second series, topically starting in Thailand on the Chao Phraya river which runs through Bangkok, Jeremy Wade goes looking for a fish which although well known by locals was only scientifically discovered in 1989, the giant freshwater stingray Himantura chaophraya, because of its habit the second part of its name is Chao Phraya, rumoured to grow to 1,300 pounds that would make it the largest freshwater fish in the world, what puts that title at risk however is it that it is not known if the fish spends some time at sea which would mean it is not a true freshwater only fish, great series of DVDs if like me you like fish and fishing,

the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a fantasy adventure, with more special effects than you could dream of, the views across the city are so good, the story line on IMDb says it all, 'set in the mystical lands of Persia, a rogue prince and a mysterious princess race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time -- a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world,' we both really enjoyed this one, though to be fair it was not in the least taxing on the brain, just great eye candy,

where would we be without New Tricks? going to bed a lot earlier I suspect! but as we watched Where There's Smoke, it became apparent a solitary fire was not what it at first seemed, solitary, it was one of a series with the same professional MO, then for us off to bed.

I Always Thought It Was Just Us That Had Problems Spelling Road Signs,

but it appears it is a problem in the US as well,

if this sign is anything to go by, it is near the corner of 50th Street and Pine Island Road in Lauderhill, Florida, where perhaps the painters should have gone to the Banyan Elementary School, that the sign warns of, Jerome Seleznow, 76, who lives just yards from the sign, said Friday that the entire neighborhood was dumbfounded by the mistake, 'it’s stupid, stupid, stupid,' said Seleznow. 'a school sign [spelled wrong] next to the school, stupid,'


but there is some good news, Brad Terrier, assistant director for the county’s Highway Construction and Engineering Division commented, 'we do review the work, unfortunately it seems like we may have not gotten to that review as of yet,' Terrier said Friday afternoon, just hours after he was alerted to the error from news reports, calling the misspelling incident 'very, very rare,' Terrier said a crew fixed the sign Friday afternoon, 'our focus has been getting it corrected at this point,' Terrier said. 'we are still trying to figure out some of the circumstances and looking into what the issues are,'






one of the crew members hired to fix the sign said Friday he thinks the error occurred because a single stencil containing the letters “H” and “O” was accidentally painted backward, so I guess that's what the circumstances were, but I am not sure about the issues.

We Had A Quiet Day,

Mark called by for a cup of tea and a chat,

then it was time for the night market, clear skies at last, 

 opposite the bar another fund raiser for the people in the North of Thailand that have been so badly effected by the floods,

 it was still early so not many people about,

 good for wet weather,

 flip-flops in lots of colours,

 the pet section has a couple of new stalls selling puppies,

 a little bit of cloud was starting to come in from the sea,

 but that did not deter the food stalls,

 just do not get too close, those bowls have a gas burner under each one,

 by now more people were starting to arrive,

 I meet up with Diana, just as I was thinking about buying a couple of giant mango's,

 I then sat at the bar, rain clouds now looking very threatening,

 but the good news was that the clouds past us by, when the girls returned from shopping a donation was made to the fund, then for us back to 388,

Ultimate Crimes - Dressed to Kill was the first for the evening, a real bargain at just £1.49, the DVD is split into three parts, women who kill, deadly ladies and victims of jealousy, many of the nine people featured I had not heard of, but who would have thought that one of these ladies murdered her husband, mother and friends to commit fraud? chilling,

I had to have another look at the special effects in X-Men, the story starts in a world where both Mutants and Humans fear each other, Marie D'Ancanto, better known as Rogue, runs away from home and hitches a ride with another mutant, known as Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine and builds from there,

the second disc in River Monsters was as good as the first, extreme angler Jeremy Wade is on a mission to get face to face with some of the world’s most terrifying river monsters, but some are so small but more terrifying than the large ones! such as the Candiru, it swims into the orifice of the body where it becomes stuck as barbs form its gill covers stop it being pulled out, the fish dies resulting in the unfortunate person dieing of blood poisoning, it has been know to follow a stream of urine which it mistakes as a secretion from fishes gills that it normally invades to drink the fishes blood, perhaps worse is another of the species the Candiru asu, human bodies have been found apparently shot to death with a bullet hole or two in them, the hole was in fact made by the fish which then devours its victim from the inside out, great DVDs, but after that we were off to bed.

Do Not Mess With Fish 146,

and you thought fishy were fun!

I remember Blinky from The Simpson's who lives in the nuclear power station pool, so I guess it was only a matter of time till a real life Blinky showed up! fishermen in Córdoba, Argentina caught a three eyed wolf fish in a reservoir fed by a local nuclear power plant, the fishermen say their discovery, which actually bears no resemblance to Blinky the three-eyed fish from The Simpson's, (except the three eyes), has begun to worry local residents who live near the reactor,

the story was I think first printed here, by the way if you like fishing, as I do, here are a few hints and tips of what not to do when out fishing.

I Dropped Diana Off After Breakfast,

at the We Care Clinic,

at the end of each month she has a beauty treatment,

 I then return home and wait for the call to pick her up, but today the bike needed a repair, so I stopped off at the bike shop, the dipped beam in the headlamp had failed, 50 baht later and I was good to go,

 but whilst there I spotted this chap making a few repairs to a grill,

 not much in the welding spectacles department,

 to protect his eyes from this,

 then it rained again,

 luckily stopping before it was time to pick up Diana, so a stop off at the market,

 plastic macs drying out in the sun,

 some pineapple for tonight's dessert,

 and some rice cakes,

 freshly grilled tilapia,

 and some vegetables for the next few days,

 as it got dark we called over to see Alex,

 as it was Alex Juniors 8th birthday,

 sadly his younger brother George was not feeling well,

 but Alex was full of beans,

 Diana relaxing,

 Alex, Alex Jr. and Mark,

after a huge meal of Chicken and lasagna,

 the cake box was opened,

 fresh cream with cherries,

 Alex did the honours,

 whilst Alex Junior blew out the candle, we were all so full, many thanks to Alex for inviting us, and a huge Happy Birthday to Alex Junior,

 on our way home we stopped off at a local fair,

 it had just stopped raining for the second time today,

 so there were not many people about,

 Diana had to have a try for a prize, 7 darts for 20 baht,

 with no luck on that stall we had to try another one, also with no luck, so home we went empty handed,

home and feet up for Diamonds Are Forever, who is stealing the diamonds and where are they going? just two of the questions Bond has to answer,

next for the fifth in the Apes saga, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, after conquering the oppressive humans in "Conquest for the Planet of the Apes", Caesar must now keep the peace among the humans and apes, gorilla General Aldo views things differently, and tries to cause an ape civil war, by now it was late so we were off to bed.