The Time Has Come,

to paint the house,

 what prompted this was that Alex had just redecorated his and had found a reliable painter, also a shop that sells paint at reasonable prices, so off we went, the shop is on the Theppresitt Road,

 next to the big Honda dealership,

 a quick look through the colour charts,

 and we were off, the paint is shaken by these machines,

 which beats using a stick any day of the week,

 we then loaded up Alex's car and home we went, I also took a few colour sample strips as I wanted to match the brown that our woodwork is painted in,

 it has been raining pretty much every night in the early hours of the morning,

 so we have had a nice show of hibiscus,

 it is just a pity their flowers only last a day or so,

 next stop the weekend plant market, almost opposite the Bangkok/Pattaya hospital,

 it was a bit wet and muddy underfoot,

 so I guess that was why there were so few people there, it had been raining on and off all morning,

 I had to take a picture of some orchids,

 also of some of the insectivorous plants,

 I must admit I liked the dark red fly traps, but at 800 baht I will wait till they hopefully have some small ones,

 new for this week some lotus plants,

 after flowering the seed pods can be eaten,

 plenty of water lilies,

 and a few examples of topiary,

 there were of course large trees for sale,

 and another live fish stall had opened since our last visit,

 lots of garden ornaments,

 and what looks like a couple from Shaun the Sheep,

 Diana then noticed this strange looking plant,

 we did not have a clue what it was but it certainly looked different,

 the aquatic store seemed to be doing a good trade,

 a few more pots of orchids,

 and some more ornaments,

 I had not seen these ones of birds on the side of a pot before,

 but this was what we had come for, some dishes to place under our plants, that way we can put some chloride on the drive to keep the moss away without having to worry that it might affect the plants as the roots would not be in contact with the concrete,

 well that is the theory, this is the goods section of the market, all of the fittings on the right are for automatic watering systems,

 a few more orchids,

and a close up of one,

 our shopping finished it was time for a coffee to drink in the truck before our move home,

 before we arrived home we stopped at the paint shop, we had picked the colour for the wood work,

 I thought this was a neat touch,

 every sale has a sample of the paint placed in a book with your name and printed label of exactly what paint was bought,

 of course the same label is on the tin as well, but now you do not have to bring a paint covered tin back to the shop if you are running out and the paint has obscured the label,

and there we are, I do not know if paint is cheap or not out here, but this lot came to 9,000 baht (£180.60,  $291.90 at today's rate), the big pot is 18 litres for the ceilings then two for the outside and two interior, one gloss for the white inside wood work and one brown for the exterior woodwork plus some thinners, work starts hopefully Monday,

 back home it was move the plants time,

 easy does it,

 I did not think they were heavy,

 till I picked them up,

 only a few more to do now,

 then all finished and Oh, my back!

 in moving them we noticed one of the amaryllis had a flower stem on it, so next week we should see a new bloom,

all done, now all they have to do is grow!

 we decided a beer was in order so off to the Punch & Judy, we had already eaten breakfast, but having had the Saturday special before I can recommend it,

we both read the Saturday papers from the UK, then I had a telephone call, Phil had just arrived from the UK so I dropped Diana off home and picked Phil up,

naturally we both caught up on what was happening here and in the UK, I then brought Phil back,

for our evening meal Diana had made a delicious beef stew, so it was then feet up for the latest Wicked Tuna, Top Gear and a few more, then for us off to bed.