We Had A Busy Day,

first thing in the morning,

 just after I had finished the blog and my exercises Alex called round for a soda and a chat, after we said our goodbyes we were off to Friendship, 

 to buy a few things,

 the building next door taking shape,

 our next stop was to pick up Nick and Maureen's DVD player form Amorn, the repair centre in the basement of TukCom, we made our way past the complimentary bus that goes to the car park for TukCom customers,

the problem with the player is that it will play DVDs but not Blu-Rays, this fault first happened about a year ago, Nick and Maureen had tried local repair shops but they could not repair it, but I took it to Amorn and they repaired it with no problem, so a few days ago we dropped it off and was told to call back in 2 hours, we did, and were then told to call back at 4.00 in the afternoon, we did, and were then told to call back the next day, we did, and were then told to call back in 3 days time, we will, we were nearly tempted by some of the grapes on the way home,

 we also wanted to buy some soil and coconut chips, not only for us but for Nick and Maureen as well, so we made our way to the weekend plant market, to find it if you are leaving Pattaya to go to Bangkok as you pass the Bangkok Pattaya hospital on your left take the next 'U' turn and the market will be on the left, there is lots of parking space behind it, the hospital is in the distance,

 as you might expect plants everywhere,

 if you have a garden there are just so many to chose from,

 water features 'to go' a crane lifts these into place and I guess delivers them to your garden,

 orchids,

 lots of them,

 the flowers at the front are dianthus sometimes called pinks, similar to carnations, behind them some marigolds,

 a fascinating stall for me, insectivorous plants,

 we made our way past one of the aquatic outlets,

 and fern stalls,

 if only we had a pond a few of these waterlilies would have a new home,

 a few roses would too if we had a bigger garden,

 a new stall we had not seen before,

 selling rustic garden furniture,

 we stopped by the fresh fruit stall,

 and bought a papaya,

 it appears that garden ornaments,

 are almost becoming,

 de ri·gueur for many gardens,

 we next past the cut orchid stall,

 where I guess restaurants,

 buy then for table decoration,

 next door the plants themselves for sale,

 there were some new cactus I had not seen before, I was tempted but we had no room in our little cactus gardens,

 another aquatic stall,

 you may remember we are growing tomatoes from seed, we should have bought these!

 some very colourful grafted cactus,

 for condo dwellers you can still have a mini garden,

 like this one,

 a new aquatic outlet, but it was very specialised,

 selling just yabbies or similar crayfish and Siamese fighting fish, (Betta Splendens),

 but these were some of the things we were here for, pots and the trays that go underneath them,

 also some vitamins for the plants,

 and what a selection to chose from,

in the end we chose a 16-16-16 fertiliser which contains 16% nitrogen, 16% phosphorus, and 16% potassium,

 near this stall there were some more selling ornamental pots,

 and garden ornaments,

 ah! look at the rabbits, memories of my Uncle Harry came flooding back, if you missed the story I wrote about him about halfway down in a post we made at Christmas,

 then I weakened, I saw some planters,

 so I bought one, the cactus's I had seen were just too tempting, so for 250 baht it was wrapped up,

 whilst that was happening I looked at these mini orange plants,

 there were loaded down with fruit,

 nearly done,

 then we were away past a fine example of topiary, which looked like a giant bonsai,

 another water feature,

I stopped at the first of the cactus stalls,

which one to spend my 25 baht on?

 this one!

 on to cactus stall number 2,

 price calculated it was then time to wrap them up,

 we had a coffee in the truck, then on the way out picked up a dozen bags of soil plus two bags of coconut chips, we headed over to Nick and Maureen's to drop their soil and other bits and pieces off, naturally as we pulled up outside the heavens opened up and we all got soaked,

 we arrived home, out of interest these are the new cactus, I will buy a few more over the next few weeks then plant them in their new home,

 as I have moved most of the small tomato seedlings I thought I would try to grow some peppers,

 seeds planted a light covering with soil and we will see what happens next,

 I hope they will like their new home,

 we watched some cable television, then it was time for the bar-b-q,

 with the aid of the fan,

 the charcoal was soon glowing, hardly any smoke this week,

 on with the garlic bread,

 followed by marinated chicken,

 Diana had made some satay sauce and a cucumber, onion and peppers dish,

 meanwhile pork chops and ribs were marinating,

 so on they went, it was all so delicious,

 but we were not finished yet, instead of a fruit or ice cream dessert we had decided to treat ourselves to some brie cheese,

and saltine biscuits, we whiled away the evening listening to music, after going indoors one from Rumpole and we were off to bed.