We Had A Surprise Visitor Today,

Glen called over from America,

 so naturally a quick call to Steve meant that we all meet up in the Punch & Judy for lunch and a afternoon drink,

we then went back to 388 where we watched a few 3D documentaries, after Glen left and after our evening meal we settled down to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the quest is on to find the elusive fountain of youth, only to discover that Blackbeard and his daughter are after it too, great fun,

then to round the evening off New Tricks series 8, Only the Brave, the team reinvestigate the murder of Eddie Chapman, leader of a notorious criminal motorbike gang, a load of guys going through a mid/late life crises wearing headbands, cut off jackets and tattoos, the good news is that a series 9 is being planned but one of the four will be dropping out, James Bolam, who announced his departure from the show in September will be replaced by Denis Lawson, I just hope he is in character with the rest of the crew, with that we were off to bed.

Now This Is What I Call A Real Car,

it is a Bentley Blower,

made in 1929 the 4.5 litre car is coming under the hammer at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on June 29th, it was driven by British racing legend Sir Henry 'Tiger Tim' Birkin, who set a lap record at the iconic Brooklands Outer Circuit in 1931 when it hit a staggering 137mph, Birkin was one of the most famous of the Bentley Boys - a group of wealthy men who raced the British sports cars in the 1920s and 30s, His life was tragically cut short in 1933 in a freak accident after he burned himself on an exhaust pipe during a race, the burn became infected and he died from septicaemia at the age of 36,

the car, known as a Bentley Blower, was fitted with a 4.5-litre supercharged engine which developed 240bhp, just 54 were built, with the sports cars capable of accelerating from 0-60mph in just 8 seconds, Birkin reached an amazing 137mph in this particular model, now here is a thing, back in the mid 1950s I actually sat in one of these, it had a string steering wheel, outside brake and was painted green, I can still remember begging Dad to buy it, also I can remember his reply, 'Stan we have just paid £400 for our house that will take your mum and me 25 years to pay back, the car is £475, we can not,'

the thing is the house I guess is worth say £200,000 at to days prices, if this was the actual car that I sat in all of those years ago it is expected to go for up to £5million - making it the most expensive British-built car ever sold publicly, 'Dad, if you can hear me up there, we should have gone with the car!'

Once Again There Was A Nice Show From One Of The Pots

at the front of the house,

 about 6 amaryllis flower stems had decided to open,

 and a nice salmon pink they were too,

 both Mr. Tony and Mark called round during the day, then in the afternoon we were off to the market to buy some fresh fruit,

 whilst Diana was shopping I had a look around some of the other stalls like this one,

 selling fish, 2 in a basket for 10 baht,

 one of the butchers stalls, this one for pork,

 and of course rice, there are so many different kinds,

 not to mention vegetables,

I had not seen one of these stalls before, the owner has four omelets on the go at the same time,

 whilst I have seen many bar-b-qs with fish slowly turning on them,

I can not recall seeing one this large, but shopping over back to 388 for our evening meal, scallops wrapped in bacon followed by peppered chicken with broccoli, carrots and baked potatoes,

then feet up for a few DVDs, I must admit when I bought this BluRay, Frozen Planet it was because it was a documentary, having seen others from the BBC I was hopping that although I did not think the subject would be that interesting the scenery would make up for basically just snow and ice, but I was so wrong, firstly the images are nothing short of stunning, where I thought the content would be pretty much snow and ice I was completely 100% wrong, the content was so good we watched all of the first disc, all 3 programmes on it plus the making of each one, I am just hoping the other two discs are as good,

I Am Legend we had watched before, but the special effects were so good we decided to try it out on the new system, even though we knew what was coming next the surround sound made us both jump time and again, basically Robert Neville is a scientist who was unable to stop the spread of the terrible virus that was incurable and man-made, immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and perhaps the world, but what also survived were flesh eating zombies, he has to find a way to cure them,

for our nightcap New Tricks, this episode The Gentleman Vanishes, a prominent scientist working on cold fusion disappears while on a train to Paris, witnesses are traced and the previous investigating officer is interviewed, so where did the scientist go? with that we were off to bed.

For Some Reason When I First Looked At This Picture,

I did not think it was taken in the UK,

but looking at the road sign I can see that it was, another driver took this snap on the the Devon Expressway and the A30 near Exeter, the car without a roof rack was going slowly according to the photographer, about 30 mph, the head of Devon and Cornwall police's traffic department, Inspector Richard Pryce, said, 'We will be making contact with the driver of this vehicle.' I am surprised, with all of the CCTV cameras I see on the side of the roads in the UK that the driver completed his journey without being stopped on the road side.

A Few Posts Ago I Mention How Fish In Plastic Bags,

Or The Boxes They Were In,

were used to import drugs, well it appears that according to this article the practise has been going on for years using flower boxes, the drugs, destined for West Yorkshire and the West Midlands were brought into the UK during 2008 and 2009 and were hidden in boxes of flowers, three Dutch men have been jailed for their part in smuggling £150m worth of cannabis into the UK, fish, flowers, what will be next?

The Day Has Finally Arrived,

after 10 months of saving we had enough to buy our dream television and sound system,

 so first thing off to the cable shop for some speaker cable,

 made in the U.S.A. so it should be good,

 and cable connectors,

 also a new washing machine,

 all the boxes inside and counted,

 but first the washing machine is made ready,

 and plumbed in to where one the old ones were,

 then downstairs to the living room,

the screen is bolted on to the wall, it is a neat hanging bracket, the screen can be moved several inches so you can set it accurately if it needs to be changed,

 our first look at it on,

 tuning into Sophon cable, soon to be replaced with True Vision,

 Diana having seen her washing machine is now unpacking her second present, the hoover,

 the delivery comes in two parts, the first crew assembles the bracket, bolts it to the wall and also tunes in the television, the second crew calls in later to assemble the speaker system, so we were off for Sunday lunch to a new venue, the Pig & Whistle at Jomtien,

it is almost opposite the golden statue roundabout,

 we were joined by Mike and Riza whose birthday it is tomorrow and Sally,

 with Mr. Tony as well,

 we had starters of prawn cocktails,

 with soup or pate, for Mike, Diana and Mr. Tony,

 there were few dinners,

 but I took these interior shots after they had left,

 the roast lamb for me,

 'Cheers!', from all of us,

 the girls had Thai food,

 chicken and ham pie for Mike,

 and a half carafe of red wine for me,

cocktails for the girls,  

 well it was a birthday party,

 and Riza had to try her present on,

 then home to 388 where we were meet by Jake,

 he is getting bigger by the day,

 he also said hello to Mr. Tony,

 shortly after we arrived home the speaker crew started work,

 it all looked very complicated,

 before they finished Mike Riza and Sally had to leave,

 meanwhile work continued inside,

 it all looked a bit complicated from the back,

the first connections, component leads to a Philips play any DVD player, HDMI cables will be used for everything else,

 Phil called round in the evening to watch some of the 3D BluRay discs we had bought, so glasses on,

 Mr. Tony looking cool in his,

 Diana decided to have another play with her new vacuum cleaner,

and here it is, a 55" Samsung Smart,series 7 television with an Onkyo 7.2 sound system,

 well we had to watch a bit of The Nightmare Before Christmas, 

 also Grand Canyon Adventure, it was great fun dodging the splashes! 

 Ocean Origins was next, stunningly shot, but not 3D,

but Deep Ocean was in 3D, stunning, a tribute to the ocean, "Oceans 3D" takes viewers on a voyage through, among others, Californian kelp forests, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and Roca Partida Island off the coast of Mexico, this disc was one of a set of three,

The Nightmare Before Christmas was all that it should be in 3D, the story line taken from the site, Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween, one day he stumbles into Christmas Town, and is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween -- but alas, they can't get it quite

so it was goodnight from Jack Skellington and us as it was late, I have to say we are both 100% delighted with the television and sound system, it made all of the waiting and saving worth the effort, with that we were off to bed.