The Truck Was One Year Older Today,

so off to the test centre for it's yearly check up,

 in Thailand when a car or truck reaches 7 years old from then on every year it has to have a government health check, exhaust emissions, brakes, lights, horn, tyres and vehicle PIN numbers are checked and recorded, for motorcycles it is when they reach 5 years old, any way in case you have yo have this done the test centre we use is on the Sukhumvit Road,

    to find it if you drive towards Bangkok as you approach the Bangkok Pattaya hospital it is on the same side of the road just before it,

looking back towards Pattaya it is just past the overhead walkway,

 the good news it passed with it's colours flying, and as we then had to do a 'U' turn to go home we called in at the weekend plant market as it was almost opposite, one customer with a truck full of palms,

 whilst this lorry was unloading them,

 in the car park looking back towards Pattaya the Bangkok Pattaya hospital in the distance,

 it seems that cycads are still in vogue, there were so many of them here which are all commercially grown, but in the wild it seems that some of them are under serious threat, 

 a bit of fun with these garden ornaments,

 I wonder what secrets are being whispered,

 we made our way along the aisles, past some pots of desert rose, or Adenium obesum, to give them their 'proper' name,

 next in the aisle the aquatic section,

 well I should say today just one big stall,

 orchids by the box,

 or individual plants,

 all looking so nice,

 as were the bags of water-lilies,

 a nice unvarnished garden swing was new for this visit,

 as was this huge bed,

 ta-da!

 a nice self contained waterfall for smaller gardens,

 and some garden fun,

 decorative snails,

 mushrooms,

 or should I say toadstools?

 and a few strawberry planters,

 we bought some cut orchids for our table on Sunday,

 and past a stall selling natural unvarnished screens and planters,

a quick look at the pots for sale,

 then a delicious ice coffee,

 in the truck before we left for home,

 all day it had been overcast, 

 so I decided as it was cooler than normal to thin out some of the cactus,

 you may think that cactus are slow growing,

 but these are not,

 in a matter of months so many have grown 'pups' they are crowding each other out,

 there are about 40 baby cactus that I removed from the parent plants,

 and this is the second time I have removed some,

 they really do grow so fast,

 now here is a tip, if someone tells you that the baby pup cactus do not have spines as sharp as their parents, do not believe them, the baby cactus spines are just as sharp, mean, vicious, unforgiving and nasty as their Mums and Dads! so after more than a few minuets with the tweezers,

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

 work still continuing on the tall building looking towards Jomtien,

 looking inland cloudy skies,

 one of the ice cream sellers has a sale,

 opposite the bar this evening a shoe stall,

 and this one with a huge air cooler, which was great for the stall and their customer's in the opposite side of the aisle,

 there were of course smaller units for sale,

 we then noticed some of these,

 lychees, Diana bought a kilo to snack on over the next few days,

 the first food aisle was packed with customers,

 I continued past the Sugar Bunny,

 to the next food aisle where goods were still being unloaded,

 these are new, not the stalls, 

 these heavy duty foundations,

 the pet aisle with just one stall looking busy,

 I had noticed these raised pillars last week,

 but since then a new concrete floor has been added,

 the whole area looking very smart now,

 sunset over the market,

 further along,

 you could see the after and before look of the market floor,

 just a couple of parking attendants taking a short break at the bar,

 looking inland some cloud starting to roll in,

 tonight we were joined by Brian and Mick, after a chat and putting the word to rights we said our farewells and made a move for home,

 where we were greeted by a delicious aroma,

Diana had prepared a beef stew and dumplings and nice it was too, 'Cheers!', after some fruit we settled down to watch some more of the third season of Boardwalk Empire, then for us we were off to bed.