We Had A Cunning Plan,

after a quiet day indoors,

 we would visit the Pattaya Seafood Festival on Beach Road, which is on this week only Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 6.00 in the evening till late,

 so glad rags on and we were of,

 we made our way to Soi Diamond,

 and down to Walking Street,

 and took in the sights,

 lots of slippers,

 and few customers,

'always have a plan B Dave', as Phonce said to Dave in Rare Birds, a great and hugely watchable film by the way, well this was our plan B, if we did not eat at the seafood festival we would walk back and eat at the Lobster Pot,

 so on we went past the Turkish ice cream seller,

 towards the end of Walking Street,

 making our way past the water treatment plant, 

 we looked back to the Pattaya Beer Garden where we had eaten many times,

 a quick pose on the boardwalk,

 we had walked for a short while, but I was expecting to have found the festival by now,

 but there was no sign of it as we made our way past one of the new markets that had opened up facing the sea, 

 we pasted one of Diana's favourite restaurants, 

 McDonald's, I had to drag her past it,

 then three at once, Burger King, the Pizza Company and Swensens,

 followed by Pizza Hut, when would the torture end?

 there was still no sign of the festival as we passed TQ1,

 the sign that has been seen by so many as it is the longest running bar in Pattaya, founded in 1978,

we continued past The Wave, a 21-room luxury Art Deco boutique hotel right on the beach,

 then music, or I should say a beat filled the air,

 as this monster truck and sound system made it's way along Beach Road,

 we were nearly half way along Beach Road as we were coming up to the Hilton hotel,

 one of the many entrances on Beach Road leading to a shopping mall,

 with massive LED signs advertising what is inside,

 the walk along the promenade was quite nice, in most places it was more than wide enough to make easy progress,

 as we were getting closer to Pattaya Central, plan C was taking shape,

 forget the seafood, as we still had not found the festival,

 and lets have an Indian at Ali Babas,

 inside it was nearly empty as it was still quiet early,

 and we were hungry, so straight away a few poppadoms,

 'Cheers!',

 our next course,

 a prawn puri each,

 with a shared chicken chat,

 after a break our main course,

chicken tikka masala, chicken korma, aloo gobi and peas pulau rice, we were full to bursting! the meal came to just over 2,500 baht, including more than a few glasses of wine, 

I have now found out why we did not see the seafood festival, the stalls on Beach Road start at the Dolphin roundabout and go along the sea front until Soi 4, we had started walking at the wrong end of Beach Road, D'Oh! but in any event it was still a lovely evening, we made our way home in one of the blue and yellow taxis that seem to be becoming more common in Pattaya, next feet up, a glass of wine, we then watched a couple of Murdoch Mysteries that were being shown on TMN, after those as it was late we were off to bed.

I Have Heard Of Black Birds, Cats, Dogs And Bears, Fish Even,

but the Indonesian chicken breed known as Ayam Cemani takes ‘black’ into an entirely different realm,

not only is all black on the outside all of it's internal organs are black! skin, beak, plume, tongue, legs, toe nails, even its meat, bones, and organs and stranger still the bone marrow is black, their blood, although not black, is very dark coloured, Ayam Cemani is so spectacular and exotic that it is referred to as the 'Lamborghini of poultry' that is reflected in their price, the word ‘Ayam’ means ‘chicken’ in Indonesian, and ‘Cemani’ translates to ‘completely black’ in Javanese, this exotic breed originated from Java in Indonesia, they were introduced to Europe in 1998 by a Dutch breeder, where they drew considerable interest amongst poultry enthusiasts due to its looks and genetic make up,

so how much to buy one? well Greenfire Farms can sell you a young pair for $1,999, or for a 1 month old $275 from Cemani Farms, I wonder what they taste like? no let me guess, chicken!

So Here Is The Question,

after reading the advertisement,

would you bring your pet dog or leave it at home?

Now You Know This Is Going To Go Wrong,

and it does, big time!

other that the tractor being stuck I am not sure what the problem was, but boy was it stuck!

We Had A Quiet Day,

which just slipped past,

 then in the evening we were off to the weekend night market on Thepprasit Road,

 it was a bit cloudy looking towards Jomtien,

 and inland, in fact rain had been forecast, but thankfully it did not rain whilst we were at the market,

 approaching the bar,

 more yellow ducks,

 just one stall opposite the bar this evening selling beauty products,

 at the end of the row of stalls no progress in the construction of them since last week,

 fruits in season this week,

 the food aisles crowded this evening,

there were even a few customers in the new restaurant/bar aisle,

 at this end of the row of stalls some work had taken place,

 with some steelworks in place for a roof to be fitted,

 not many shoppers in the pet section,

 and a different range of shirts in the shirt stall,

 the last few weeks the subject has been animals, this week people,

 lots of cloud over the market,

 a secondhand shoe stall,

 the ice cream man making his rounds,

 sunset over the market, not that you can see much of it,

 the bar quite empty this evening,

 but soon the usual suspects had arrived! we were joined this evening by Jim and Brian,

and of course Jim's wife Cher, unfortunately they are leaving Pattaya tomorrow so we wished them bon voyage, the good news is that they will be back, after our evening meal we watched some television, 

during the day Godzilla was the film for the afternoon, great special effects, but it somehow left us a bit disappointed, but then we are not Godzilla fans, having said that we both enjoyed the 1998 version, but there you are, back to the evening as it approached the midnight hour we were off to bed.