Out To Buy Some Chicken,

for tonight's bar-b-q,

 so we parked at Friendship supermarket,

 and in we went,

 it was so hot we decided to treat ourselves to a ice coffee each on the way to drink when we arrived home,

 so I dropped Diana off and parked further up the street, 

 opposite a shrine,

 with this deity on it,

 I was taken with the face, especially the eyes,

 were the artist with just a few strokes of the brush had transformed a piece of concrete into such a pleasing face,

 next stop the market for some grapes,

 we were a bit early as many of the stalls had not yet opened,

 also on our list a papaya and some apples,

 then outside for our bar-b-q, the moon was out early this evening, at 399,100.06 kilometres away from us and moving towards us, as I write this on Sunday morning the moon is now 398,023.41 and getting closer every second,

 time for our starters,

 garlic bread,

 then lite up the barby,

 luckily the wind made the smoke blow away from us,

 but then it changes and it was the usual smoke gets in my eyes,

 soon the kindling caught,

 and the flames grew,

 for this evening satay chicken and marinated chicken quarters,

 so on with the satay,

 Diana had prepared a peanut sauce with a vinaigrette of onions, cucumber and sliced red peppers, delicious!

 after a long break on with the chicken quarters,

 and baked potato,

'Cheers!',

during the day we watched Mission to Mars, we had watched it before and this is what I wrote then, 'when a mysterious storm kills all but one crew member of the first manned mission to Mars, a rescue mission is launched, but was it a storm or a weapon? superb special effects the spacecraft was in fact a 21 foot long model, made to look so real, great film well worth watching,' I have to say a much underrated film if the IMDB score of just 5.5 is to be believed, back to the evening we listen to music and chatted the evening away until about 11.00 then inside for just one episode of Boardwalk Empire and we were off to bed.

This Is In The 'Never Do This At Home' Department,

I happened across this,

as I was looking for something totally different, but it is so frightening I thought I would post it, it shows just how dangerous putting out an oil fire in the home kitchen can be, the cooking oil is in a small saucepan where it over heats and catches fire, the natural thing to do would be to throw water on to it, but what ever you do, do not! just a mug of water thrown at the blazing oil explodes into a fireball, the slow motion part of the video is an example of what would happen in your kitchen if you did so, the basic problem is that the water would go through the boiling oil, as soon as the water touches the bottom of the pan it immediately boils throwing the oil into the air, the action starts about one minuet thirty seconds in, when you get to that part just think this is a small saucepan about half full of burning oil, added to it just a mug of water, imagine the mess a deep fat fryer would make with a litre or two of oil, a must see video for everyone.

I Guess We Have All Seen Balloon Art Before,

where a clown or a entertainer makes balloon toys for kids at parties or shows,

but Japanese balloon artist Matsumoto takes this art form to a new level,

 the complexity of shapes,

 sizes,

and subjects has to be seen to be believed, there are more of his works and ideas here, I wonder if he will ever make a video master-class of how to make these fantastical balloon works?

Cast Your Mind Back To When You Were At School,

in my day the front of the class had a blackboard on it,

do schools still use blackboards today or have the Health and Safety brigade banned them for all of the chalk dust students and teachers inhale? anyway they have them in Japan, over the past 2-3 years there’s been an increasingly popular trend amongst students there to take advantage of their drawing skills and classroom facilities, during breaks between lessons students have been creating immense artworks on classroom blackboards using nothing but the chalk provided to them and some leftover from the previous lesson, the pictures often get posted to social media and go viral, above the blackboard art of Mt. Fuji created by 2 students at Mito Sakuranomaki High School in Ibaraki, 

earlier this year Nichigaku decided to call for submissions and host a Blackboard Art contest, the call for entries this year yielded 50 entries from 249 students, and the results were just announced earlier this year, Nichigaku awarded winners with gift certificates of up to 100,000 yen in value, above, an honourable mention went to 5 students from NSG-Highschool Niiza Saitama who created this monotone mural of crossroads,

the use of coloured chalks are also permitted, I like this one, it is as if the blackboard is looking at the teacher and students behind him, which won 2nd place for this mural created by 4 students at Omiya Koryo High School, you can see all 50 entries to the Blackboard Art contest here, blackboard art, I would never have thought it.

A Few Friends Called Round,

during the day,

firstly Mick in the morning and Alex in the afternoon, just as we said our goodbyes to him the electrician called back with new bulbs and light switch, after replacing the bulbs and switch we now have light in the area of the living room we sit in the evening, so no more romantic candle lit television,

 in the evening we were out for a real treat,

 we were going to a venue we had never visited before, 

 the Royal Cliff Beach Hotel,

 we made our way inside,

 the reception area was huge,

 the seating area by the bar had a aquarium as a centre piece,

 we made our way past one of the 11 restaurants and eating areas in the complex,

 until we arrived at the Maharani Indian restaurant,

 tonight we were the guests of Barry Kenyon, who kindly treated us to this evening,

 the restaurant was beautifully laid out, from the chandelier,

 to decorations in recesses in the walls,

the room was spacious,

 and the tables gave every dinner plenty of room,

 outside there was a balcony over looking the sea,

 with plenty of seating to watch the sunset over a cocktail or two,

 which you could access by these ornate stairs,

 knowing I like cactus Diana spotted this mini cacti garden,

 we ordered a selection of dishes,

 and a selection of condiments arrived,

 Diana decided on a non-vegetarian set menu, that included a lamb and chicken dish,

 plus a poppadom and nam bread,

 the meal was huge,

as was the serving of the onion bhajis I ordered as my stater, the serving was huge, this was a king sized plate,

Barry ordered a vegetarian selection, his starter put mine to shame, 

 our main courses arrived,

 Barry's dishes were included in his set menu, but I ordered a chicken jalfrezi, aloo gobi and pilau rice,

 'Cheers!', the servings for the main course like the starters were huge, we could have had one or even two more people at the table there was so much food, one starter, one meat dish, one vegetable dish and one rice and I was full to bursting,

 Barry and myself did not order a dessert, but Diana's set menu came with fresh fruit,

 we made our way back through the reception area, Diana loaded down with a doggie bag, if you do ever decide to try the Maharani restaurant at the Royal Cliff Beach Hotel remember the portions are big when you order,

 we bade farewell to the complex and made our way home, after thanking Barry for a lovely evening it was feet up for a couple from Ripper Street, one from Boardwalk Empire, a nightcap and we were off to bed.