First Thing In The Morning,

the taxi arrived for Albert,

 so we all said our goodbyes,

 last case into the trunk, hopefully Albert will be back at some time soon either here or in the Philippines,

 next water the plants before getting ready to go out,

 then we were off to Central Festival,

 a double take in the lift because off a mirror in it,

 and this is where we were off to,

 the XD theatre for the full motion experience,

 glasses on, seat belts strapped, so on with the ride,

I stayed outside and took a few pictures of the family on a monitor, they were being shaken all over the place as the ride went on and you should have heard the screams!

 they all thought it was great fun,

 we then walked to the end of the 6th. floor to look out across the bay,

 remember to bring a 10 baht coin if you want to look through the binoculars,

 this is what I guess you would see, I took this with the camera set at maximum zoom,

 the family pose against the Pattaya Bay backdrop,

 the view without the family,

 then joy of joys we found Swensens,

 all stop for a picture,

 or two,

 then lets begin, Dioshane chose this one, notice the lit candle under the dish of chocolate to stop it from solidifying,

 strawberry ice cream for Donna,

chocolate for Sandio,

 mango for Mum,

 strawberry for myself,

 and mango for Diana,

 next stop Juu had invited us round, so we had a look at his fish, these are albino Pangasionodon hypophthalmus, they are about 10 kilos or so,

there were also a couple of big fish in there, all of the family were amazed at the size of them,

they were Arapaima gigas, a bit difficult to photograph this is a view of the body/tail end of one,

compared to the albino catfish you can see how huge they are,

towards the tail end of the fish they develop a red edging to each scale,

after me being resoundingly beaten Diana takes on Dang,

Diana all set for the perfect shot,

we had a few more games then after a few snacks made our way home,

where I was greeted by Jake,

at 4.30 sharp our minibus arrived to take us to Prechai seafood restaurant, it was my birthday party, a bit early as Diana's family would not be here for it and also because I am keeping it low key this year, Mark joined us for the meal,

so many beautiful ladies and Sandio,

last week we saw one of these mantis shrimps as an exhibit in Under Water World, this week there are hundreds of them here to eat!

along with King and rock lobsters,

some more mantis shrimps in one of the pools,

as usual there was a good variety of seafood's to chose from,

Mr. Tony and Booie also joined us,

Donna, Dioshane and Mum,

Mr. Tony brought along a bottle of wine with its own case,

then some the food arrived,

so a quick picture, then we all tucked in,

Booie was here with Mr. Tony,

the sun had started to go down,

between courses some of us went down to the shore,

goodbye to the sun as it sinks lower in the sky,

some one takes their kid for a walk in the sunset,

we always try to arrive here about 05.00 in the afternoon,

it is so nice watching the sun go down,

and there it is nearly gone,

next course some tom yung soup,

under the container a small piece of lit charcoal keeps the contents hot,

seafood fried rice and baby clams next,

as the sun disappears,

ever popular, rock lobsters fried in garlic,

so much food,

so many happy faces,

'Cheers!' from me,

I forgot to mention we had ordered some crabs as well,

then my surprise birthday present from Diana's family,

time to open it,

or at least try,

first the outer, then the inner wrappings,

to reveal a oil colour portrait of Diana and myself,

brought all of the way from the Philippines, many, many thanks to the family for being so thoughtful,

then some thing attracted Sandio's interest,

it came curling up from the beachfront,

it was an elephants trunk, the rest of the animal was with its mahout,

going along the seaside restaurants entertaining dinners,

20 baht for a bunch of bananas to feed it, after a selection of fresh fruit it was time to leave, once again many thanks to everyone,

Mr. Tony says good bye to us all,

whilst we wait for our mini bus,

we had bought a little extra food for our next door neighbour as she did not come to the meal, so I had to say hello to Jake,

 it was then feet up for David Dickinson's Cheap as Chips, he is an antiques expert who gives tips on buying,

 followed by Top Gear: The Challenges, great fun, 

we watched a few of those, then as it was late Mark left and for us we were all off to bed.