Up, Up And Away,

at least I will be soon as I am at the airport,

 a new portrait of the King was being put in place,

 inside the airport is huge,

 and not claustrophobic like one I could name,

 space everywhere,

 I just had to look at this shop,

 well it had a aquarium, so I just had to,

I know space here is expensive, I also know that promoting a football club can bring in extra revenue, but I was surprised to find a shop for Leicester City, I am sure it is a large club, but with my limited knowledge of football I was surprised that say, Man City/ Man U./Arsenal/Chelsea did not have an outlet here as so many people in Thailand seem to follow that game, having said all of that Steve has just informed me that the team is Thai owned, so that explains it,

 the central display in the airport,

 I believe it is the Nāga,

 the head of the beast,

 and in its entirety,

a merry Christmas from the Airport of Smiles, well it will be for Diana when she comes back to Thailand as she still has her Christmas presents to open,

 a stop at the sandwich stall for breakfast,

 for some strange reason I decided to take a picture of myself in the ceiling,

 if you look carefully you can just make me out,

 even more so in this one,

 the forward view of the ceiling from where I was sitting,

then who should I bump into for a beer? none other than an old friend of mine TomTom from Sweden, we had a lot of catching up to do as he is off home,

 the plane at last,

 on the way out two weeks ago Diana's plane was 1 hour late,

 this time for me it was just 45 minuets late, with more than a few empty seats,

 then to Manila airport to meet some of Diana's family, younger sis Dioshane and Mum,

 I had to have a pose as well!

we stayed at the Copacabana hotel apartments about 20 minutes from the airport, Diana's family had bussed up to see us off,

 the view from the corridor,

after we said our goodbyes to her family we made a move to one of the many huge shopping malls,

lots of lights,

as Diana remarked it was so similar to the one we went to in Singapore,

the downside was that of the 30 or so restaurants here not one sold wine even worse only three or four sold beer, eventually we chose a Japanese restaurant, a starter of asparagus wrapped in beef was most delicious,

this takes skill, pouring a beer and looking at the camera, the number of times I had to do it before I got it right, but the beer did not go to waste!

'Cheers!',

we also ordered chicken in plum sauce with tempura prawns,

and some bacon wrapped prawns in batter,

it all tasted delicious, we must eat Japanese style food more often,

we then decided on a night cap at the hotel pool and restaurant, but it was closed,

in the distance it is I think one of the many malls that are in Manila,

our room at the Copacabana, we watched a movie or two then as we were up early for tomorrows flight we were off to bed.