Another Day Indoors For Us,

so no pictures today,

but Jay called round in the afternoon for a tea and a chat, after he left we had our evening meal, we watched a episode of Ade In Britain, next a few from The Chase, followed by a couple from Midsomer Murders, by now it was past the bewitching hour so we were off to bed.

It Seems So Many Of Us Multitask,

but there are always a few of us that decide to follow their chosen career by specialising,

but looking at this occupation I am guessing the number of customers needing this service is not that large, I guess you can specialse too much.

Whilst On Koh Chang,

Diana developed a liking for cornflakes,

so when we arrived back home after the holiday we bought some, I remember back in the UK the boxes always had a happy piece of artwork on the front of them, but I had no idea how aggressive some of their advertisements were till I found this one, pity the clerk! still it seems that Mr. Kellogg approved.

I Was Going To Meet Steve,

for a late breakfast/early lunch,

 but before that on the way I decided to drop off my motorbike at the repair shop near by,

 and there it is, for some reason the speedometer had decided that it had enough of work, also a slight oil leak had manifested itself, I also asked for a full service,

 the owner had a few bikes to see to before mine, so I was told to call back in 2 hours, 

 so I took a slow walk going past some of the shops nearby, the 20 baht store was the first,

 with all manner of household goods on sale,

  also I noticed that they stock charcoal, which is worth remembering as our usual shop had sold out a few weeks ago,

 the next major shop along was the building supply shop,

 with all the goods and equipment needed for house maintenance,

 blue pipes for water, yellow and grey for electrics,

 I finally reached the Punch and Judy, 

 the 140 baht small breakfast for myself,

and a prawn baked potato for Steve, we chatted away, then after saying our goodbyes it was home for me, the bill for the repair and service of the bike was a very reasonable 200 baht, in the afternoon both Phil from the UK and Mark from Cambodia telephoned for a chat, in the late afternoon we watched a few episodes of The Chase, then our evening meal over a couple from Midsomer Murders, which were very enjoyable to watch again, we finished the evening with another few episodes of Bones, then for us we were off to bed.

Here Is A Problem In Porthcawl, South Wales,

the recent storms have made a part of a public walk way unsafe,

but members of the public still liked to sit on the bench there and admire the view, signs are in place warning people not to use the path because parts of it were unsafe and a gate at the Porthcawl end has been locked, but it can still be accessed from the beach, so railings were installed, a spokesman for the council said the railings were installed for public safety, the new safety rail is meant to prevent people sitting on the bench on the coastal path between Pink Bay and Rest Bay,

 but here is a thought, instead of making custom built railings that may never be used again after the repairs are completed, why not remove the bench, or is that too obvious?

This Property Sounded So Good,

an acre, historic colonial with modern features and near the beach,

then I worked out how long it would take me to walk 895,000 steps to the beach.

I Forgot To Mention,

last week Diana planted some tomato seeds,

 and this week they started to emerge,

 the germination and growing time,

a lot faster than my fly traps, so hopefully in the next few months we will be eating our home grown tomatoes, or am I counting our tomatoes before they seed?

we had another day indoors, but in the afternoon Alex called in for a coffee and a chat, after our evening meal we decided to have a re-run of Midsomer Murders, the good news being that although we were familiar with the plot, it was just like we were watching it for the first time, next a few from The Chase, a couple from Bones, then for us we were of to bed.

Do Not Mess With Fish 197,

and you thought fish were fun!

well the fish bowl these fish are in looks like fun,

and it only takes up half the shelf space of a normal fish bowl, made by Psalt Design, the bowl is yours for just £295, even if you don't really think fish bowls are good for fish, it still can be a cool home accessory to use as a terrarium or even just a storage bowl.

Some Time Ago,

we were watching a class blower making animals out of molten glass,

and then I chanced upon the work of London-based art and design duo El Ultimo Grito (composed of Rosario Hurtado and Roberto Feo), who have made a fantastical glass city,

 a hallmark of El Ultimo Grito’s work is their small-scale, blown-glass architectural models,

the artists most recently appeared in the 2013 group show 'Keep it Glassy' at the Shanghai Museum of Glass, as well as previous exhibitions at the Museum of Art and Design in New York and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, I must admit I find the art of glass blowing fascinating, if you want to see the glass blower we were watching have a look here, but it is quiet a way down the post.

I Had Always Thought,

that if you wanted a dog you went to the local pound and took one home,

or if you wanted a pedigree dog a few hundred pounds would change hands, but it appears the stakes in the pedigree dog market have risen if this Red Tibetan Mastiff puppy is anything to go by, Big Splash, or 'Hong Dong' as he is known in Chinese, is 11-months old and already stands nearly three-feet-high at the shoulder and weighs more than 180lbs, He was recently purchased by an unidentified Chinese coal baron,

looking at the thickness of the coat I guess he would be a little overheated here in Thailand, but at £945,000 or $1.57 million making it the most expensive dog in the world, I guess the owner can afford a air condition kennel!

We Had A Quiet Day In,

so unfortunately no pictures today,

in the afternoon we decided to watch some of the excellent Poirot episodes we had watched some time before, luckily that was so long ago in some of the episodes we had forgotten who the villain of the piece was, in the evening a few from The Chase followed by another DVD of the series Bones, then for us it was time that we were off to bed.

Whenever I Think Of Car Or Bike Engines,

I always think about 2 or 4 stroke petrol engines,

until I saw a picture of this 2 stroke engine, which happens to be a diesel engine, this is RT-flex96C - a two-stroke turbocharged diesel engine designed by the Finnish manufacturer Wärtsilä and it also happens to be the largest and most powerful diesel engine in the world, standing at 13.5 meters high and 26.59 meters long, it is almost as big as a small apartment, it weighs over 2,300 tonnes and its largest 14-cylinder version produces 80,080 kW of power,

the 14-cylinder version was put into service in September 2006 aboard the Emma Mærsk, a container ship – the largest at that time, the design is based on the older RTA96C engine, but revolutionary common rail technology has done away with the traditional camshaft, chain gear, fuel pumps and hydraulic actuators, the result is better performance at low revolutions per minute (rpm), lower fuel consumption, and lower harmful emissions,

pictured above on the right is the massive 300 ton crankshaft, one of the most remarkable feature of this behemoth is the high thermal efficiency, which exceeds 50%, this means that 50% of the heat generated by burning fuel is converted to power, for comparison, most automotive and small aircraft engines can only achieve 25-30% thermal efficiency,  


for the technical at it's maximum of 102 RPM it produces 7,603,850 newton meters (5,608,310 lbf·ft), power produced is up to 5,720 kW per cylinder, 34,320–80,080 kW (46,680–108,920 BHP) total, this is interesting, at least a fact that is easy to understand, at full load each cylinder is injected with 160 g (about 6.5 ounces) per cylinder per cycle, even at its most efficient power setting, the big 14-cylinder engine consumes 1,660 gallons of heavy fuel oil per hour, can you imagine pulling into a dock and shout to the gas tank attendant, 'she's a bit low on fuel, fill her up Joe and here's my credit card!

Sunday Again,

we decided to eat outside,

 Diana cooked a delicious Sunday roast,

beef with Yorkshire puddings and all of the trimmings, it was delicious,

after spending some time listening to music, it was back inside to watch the Sunday afternoon movie, a 1965 film, The Warlord, 

after a light snack later in the evening the second movie was October Sky, in Coalwood, West Virginia, all the boys grow up to be coal miners and Homer Hickam has no reason to think he'll be any different, too small to earn a football scholarship, Homer has no way out of his predetermined life -- until the soviet satellite Sputnik flies over the October sky and changes events for ever, a nice feel good movie that actually in some places really happened, we watched a few more from The Chase then for us we were off to bed.

It Appears That,

Michael Williams, 53, of Sumter, South Carolina,

tried to pay his bill at the Applebee’s on Broad Street in Sumter, with a debit card, but it was declined, He then offered to pay with a trillion dollar bill, police were called, and Williams was arrested on an unrelated charge of contempt of magistrate’s court,

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/02/21/3282261/police-man-tried-to-pay-tab-with.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/02/21/3282261/police-man-tried-to-pay-tab-with.html#storylink=cpy

 by a strange quark of fate we do in fact have a trillion dollar bill or I should say a one hundred trillion dollar bill, that's 14 zeros!

have a look here for the story of them.

The Beer Coastguard Rescue Team,

have a bit of a job on their hands,

as a huge container was spotted off of the shore at Axmouth, near Seaton at 08.11AM and is believed to be carrying 14 tons of Lark cigarettes, police have warned that it is not a free for all and the public should not remove any of the cigarettes, the Police and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency was informed that containers were lost from a Maersk cargo ship on Valentine’s Day as it crossed the northern stretch of the Bay of Biscay in stormy conditions, more than 500 boxes fell into the water – most of them were empty and are thought to have sunk - as high winds hit the ship during an attempted passage from Rotterdam to Sri Lanka, thankfully none of the crew were hurt but the loss of the containers is thought to have been one of the biggest ever losses suffered by Maersk,


years ago I remember watching a film of a similar indecent, Whisky Galore, where a ship floundered off of the Scottish coast and the locals tried to liberate the thousands of bottles of whiskey on it, the strange thing was that the film was based on a couple of true events the first, the Loch Sheil, the 'Whiskey Wreck' – 1877, Thorn Island, Pembrokeshire, the 1218 ton rigged sailing ship was carrying gunpowder and a cargo of 7000 cases of beer and whiskey, most was picked up by locals and hidden in cliffs or buried for years, two bottles of whiskey turned up in the roof of a house in 1950, the crew survived and the only casualty was a local who found some of the whiskey and drank himself to death, 

this wreck was then followed by another shipwreck, the 8,000-ton cargo ship the SS Politician which sank off the shores of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides in 1941 and inspired the book and film Whisky Galore, back to Beer in Seaton which I visited with Steve from the UK when he was running a marathon there, I wonder how many cigarettes will be handed in?

I Can Just Imagine The Conversation,

'OK Brent let me know when the drill comes through',

I mean what could possibly go wrong?

We Decided To Take A Drive Out To One Of The Plant Nurseries,

on the Sukhumvit Road,

 this one just before the Floating Market on the same side of the road,

 some of our plants have more than a few bugs growing on them, so a spray to kill them was needed, there is a small coffee shop here as well,

which is quiet nice as it takes some time to view the whole nursery,

 there is a nice show of plants along the street,

 with plenty of orchids on display,

 under cover there are many walkways,

 going through the various sections,

 here bromiliads,

 and orchids,

 bug spray purchased, 120 baht and we were on our way,

 walking along the street back to the truck,

 they had quite a large aquatic section with these water loving grasses/rushes,

 and potted waterlilies,

 in lots of colours,

 back home it was bar-b-q night, so on with the show,

 after our starter of garlic bread the prawn kebabs went on,

 which were delicious,

and some time later followed by a baked potato and some marinated chicken, we chatted the night away, but we did go inside for a couple more episodes of The Chase, then for us we were off to bed.