First Thing Off To The Bank,

on a very cloudy morning,

 I was as quick as I could be, it looked like it was going to rain,

the Samsung television now working well, on the way back I had to buy some ice as we were out, then of course half way home it started raining, later Mark called round so we had a long chat about Cambodia in general and specifically the capitol Phnom Penh, where he is staying, after a few hours Alex also called in for a tea and a chat, after saying goodbye to them I was going to go to the dentist, I was still in intermittent pain, but then the skies open up so I took a pain killer instead,

after our evening salad and a few television shows we settled down to watch an episode of Whitechapel series 3, a hardened detective sergeant, and an expert in historical homicides investigate modern crimes with connections to the past in the Whitechapel district of London, many with similarities to crimes the past, we had enjoyed series 1 & 2, the third series was as good as if not better than the others, in fact we enjoyed it so much we watched 2 episodes, so by now it was late, or I should say early morning, so with that we were off to bed.

Yesterday We Posted A Piece On Sand Art,

looking around we noticed you can make a similar effect with snow,

taking between between 6 hours and two days to complete, 54 year old Simon Beck strapped on a pair of snowshoes and walks out into the freshly fallen snow at the Les Arcs ski resort in France,

aided from years of competitive orienteering the skill helps him in the precise mapping process which often begins on a computer before he’s able to mark landmarks in the snow that guide his precise walking patterns,

England based Simon has been making snow art since 2004, I wonder if there was enough snow in the UK to save him the trip to France this year?

Most Visitors To London Will Have Looked,

if not used the London Underground railway,

but to receive maximum usage a map was needed, like this one, but it was not quite the answer as many people found it difficult to follow, as more stations were added it became even more complicated to understand, 

then along came engineering draftsman Harry Beck who in 1931 based the map upon an electrical circuit by straightening lines and making the map not geographically accurate he designed the one we are all so familiar with today,

but here is another idea, Dr Max Roberts has issued a redesign of the map based on concentric circles, partly inspired by the orbital London Overground, the London Underground map expert, who has also published a curvy version of the Tube map, said the official map was becoming too cluttered, in a posting on the Going Underground blog, he wrote: ‘grounding a map in familiar shapes such as circles can make it easy to comprehend, however, it is also possible to push a design priority too far, as the old saying goes, be careful of what you might desire, in case you get it.’


Dr Roberts added however that he did not expect the map to be adopted any time soon, ‘overall though, I don’t think I will be sending this one to Transport for London for comments, no great advances in usability here, but it was fun to make it,’ he said, so is it better being a square or should we be going round in circles?

We Were Up For A Home Cooked English Breakfast,

Jeff was leaving later today,

we all had a great time, during the day we were joined by Mark who had called round to say hi,

 but then it was time to wish Jeff  'Bon voyage' as he made his way back home,

 in the evening Mr. Tony called in with some tonic water he had bought for Jeff, but alas he had already left, then it was time for our evening meal out, I took this picture of one of the flowering hibiscus as we left,

 Diana had her glad rags on, we do not normally we eat out on a Tuesday,

 but tonight we were going to Le Bordeaux which closes on Wednesdays,

 it is situated in Soi Day Night 2, just near the TukCom Centre,

 I am not sure but I think the wine cooler is a new feature,

 but one thing I am sure about is that the complimentary dry sherry was a great idea,

 as was the complimentary amuse-bouche,

 single, bite -sized hors d'œuvre which added to the experience of the evening,

 for our starters Diana chose a diced bacon salad with croûtons,

 whilst Mr. Tony and myself went with an avocado and seafood salad with ursin dressing,

 'Cheers!', as our main courses arrived,

for Diana fillet of beef,

 for Mr. Tony beef bourguignon,

 and a pork fillet for myself,

 then came the desserts,

  and what desserts they were, both Mr. Tony and Diana went with delight profiteroles, containing orange sorbet, hot chocolate au Grand Marnier,

whilst I threw caution to the wind and ordered a baked Alaska, as an aside the name Baked Alaska originated at Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City in 1876, and was created in honour of the newly acquired territory of Alaska, an Englishman (George Sala) who visited Delmonico's in the 1880s said, 'the 'Alaska' is a baked ice, the nucleus or core of the entremet is an ice cream, this is surrounded by an envelope of carefully whipped cream, which, just before the dainty dish is served, is popped into the oven, or is brought under the scorching influence of a red hot salamander',

 all I know was that it smelt delicious,

 and looked spectacular as it was served,

 what I did forget however was that it remains alight for some time burning with a barely visible flame, which is why I now have tightly curled hairs on my arm as it reached for the chocolate across the dessert!

 then it was time to extinguish the flames as I poured on the hot chocolate,

  when the roars of laughter and cries of shame died down after my brush with the still flaming Baked Alaska Diana and Mr. Tony both tucked into their desserts with gust,

 I also had to finish the chocolate, it was so delicious,

 we were then served with after dinner chocolates,

before making our way home, once again a meal that was just excellent, then home and feet up for the latest Kings of Restoration amongst other shows, as we went outside to see Mr. Tony to the gate we noticed that Mike and Riza must have called round as there were some more tonics by the plants, so many thanks to them for calling round, the good news is that Jeff might be here again soon so they will be put to good use then, so after saying our goodbyes to Mr. Tony for us we were off to bed.

If You Need To Save A Bit Of Cash,

when you are motoring,

this could be the sale for you, Bruce Weiner has spent the past 15 years fastidiously scouring the world buying up hundreds of the finest microcars and who owns the The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum has put his collection up for sale, if you want to attend the sale will be held at the museum at 2950 Eatonton Rd. Madison, Georgia, 30650, but on the days of the auction admission will be by Bidder Registration only priced at $150, this will include an official auction catalogue, and admission for two (2) to the preview and auction,



not only will the cars themselves be up for sale but also all of the memorabilia that he has collected in the past, for a full look at the inventory there is a 832 page online catalogue to glance through, as a matter of interest the cars were built after the Second World War, as America and Great Britain battled with crippling shortages of food, raw materials, electricity and gas, they were created as a way of mobilising the population again and while the boom for the tiny mode of transport only lasted around a decade the mini-car has come to embody the post-war spirit,



essentially they were capable of fitting some one 6 foot tall inside and returning 100 miles to the gallon with a top speed of just 40 miles an hour, many having just a 49 cc engine, so if you want an economical way of getting around town get your cheque books ready!

For Us,

and I suspect a few others,

a little bit of bad news about 3D films that we like so much, Lucasfilm confirmed that Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones and Episode III - Revenge of the Sith both to be filmed in 3D would be delayed, they will instead focus its efforts on "Star Wars: Episode VII",


Disney bought Lucasfilm, the company behind Star Wars, from creator George Lucas last month for $4.06bn (£2.6bn), but there is one piece of good news for 3D fans, Episode I - The Phantom Menace was released in 3D last February and earned $22.4m (£14.3m) in the US in its opening weekend, so hopefully it will be released on a BluRay 3D disk some time soon.

They Say Life's A Beach,

well when the weather improves here are a few ideas of how to spend a day on the beach,

 take a garden rake and involve your self in some sand art,

 then you too can gaze down upon completion along with other members of the public at your artwork,

 the ones above are by environmental artist Tony Plant, 

but he is not alone in using sand as his medium, as you can see from other artists like Andres Amador, who typical etches massive sand drawings onto beaches during full moons when his canvas reaches its largest potential,

 or for a more geometric example of sand art this one was made by Jim Denevan his works can span miles of North California beaches, the good thing is if when the weather improves and you decide to take up sand 'painting' you have a fresh canvas everyday! 

First Thing,

I was along to the dentist,

Dr. Chanis, his surgery is almost opposite Friendship supermarket on Pattaya Tai, the good news being that I was the only patient as he opened, so straight in to the chair as work then started on a root canal, 3,000 baht later, the cost for this and all of the other visits for the procedure and I was on my way,

across the road to buy a few things in Friendship, I should mention that again it was raining, most unseasonal like for this time of the year out here, the good news was that we had bought some plastic rain coats for when it rains and we are on the bike, the bad news was that as I put one on we had completely missed the bit on the packet that said 'kids' well at least the top half of me was dry as I returned home, we stayed in during the day, as the anaesthetic wore off the tooth was starting to hurt again, although not as bad as before, so we spent the rest of the day and evening at home, Mark called in during the day as has he had just returned form Cambodia, he was a bit busy moving to to his place so we will catch up on everything tomorrow, so for us it was feet and watch some of the new Kings of Restoration, Swamp People and Pawn Stars then for us we were off to bed.

I Guess By Now Most Of Our Friends Know Am Scared Of Heights,

so it will come as no surprise to say I will not be taking pictures like these,

 the pictures were taken by and feature Korean photographer Ahn Jun,  

and this was the picture that started her project, to take pictures over the sides and tops of buildings, as she explains, 'I was sitting on the edge of my apartment in New York and looking over the cityscape, I had a thought that suddenly my youth was coming to an end and I could not figure out the future, I sat on the edge and looked down, I took a picture of my feet and that was the start of my project',

Jun completed a BA in art history at the University of Southern California before going to New York to study photography at the Pratt Institute, then Parsons The New School for Design, She started Self-Portrait while at Pratt, but says working on it took a while as she sometimes had to wait months to get permission to shoot, the buildings she shoots from are a mixture of landmark architecture and places that have personal significance for her, but she always shoots in the same way – setting her camera onto drive mode, she shoots as many images as possible per second until the memory card is full,



in my case the memory card would be empty as there would be no chance of me getting close to the edge, but then if we were all the same how boring life would be.

Another Day When I Am Going Straight To Today's Post,

the reason being a toothache that started Saturday,

 got worse during the course of Saturday evening and was really painful on Sunday, so today I will be forming a queue outside the dentist when he opens, but back to Sunday, we decided on Sunday lunch at the Punch & Judy,

 where we were joined by Mr. Tony who had a prawn cocktail, Jeff went with the soup as did I, but even trying to eat some of the soft bread roll that came with the soup was too painful,

 Diana ordered Welsh rarebit for her starter,

 followed by some Thai food as her main course,

 Jeff and Mr. Tony ordered the sheppard's pie, whilst I went with another soup,

 eyes down and tuck in!

 Diana ordered apple crumble,

 so we shared that, 'Cheers!',

 Mr. Tony also went for the crumble whilst Jeff tried the banoffee pie,

 we followed the meal with a cup of coffee, one sip and it was almost all gone,

 a latte coffee for myself,

which was delicious, after the meal we all went back home and chatted the evening away, then after saying our goodbyes to Mr. Tony we were off to bed and for me I am now off to the dentist.