The Day Started With A Surprise For Diana,

a heavy parcel has arrived from the UK for her,

 Diana had no idea what it was,

 but I remembered how much she had enjoyed watching Gino D'Acampo,

 when he presented his cooking show on television,

 so I ordered the three books that featured his recipes,

and Hey Pronto! here they were,

 and for myself a change of watch, I had been wearing this one for the past two weeks,

 so it was time for a change, so this is it for the next couple of weeks, I am not sure what the translation is, but as you can guess it is from Russia,

 the day flew past for some reason, we did not seem to do anything but all of a sudden it was barby time,

 so on with the flames,

 that took remarkably quickly today,

 we had a real treat today whilst at Makro we noticed some scallops in their shells, so we bought a couple of packs at 159 baht a pack with enough for two or maybe three evenings worth of them in each pack,

 we also when in Friendship bought a couple of slices of Black Angus steak which was a tad expensive, the slice was about one and a quarter inches thick and came in at just over 300 baht each slice,

 so it was on with the potato and onions and later the mushrooms,

 but first a few slices of garlic bread, 'Cheers!',

 then the scallops which Diana had served in their shells with a topping of finely cut garlic fried bacon, they were delicious,

 next on with the steak,

 then time to serve,

 the steak looked and was full of flavour and so tender, we do not normally buy steak for the bar-b-q as sometimes it can be a bit chewy, but not so this one, well worth paying a little extra for,

to round off the evening a little more extravagance, some chocolate from Ocelot,

all the way from their shop in Edinburgh, Scotland, but here is the good news, it is now being stocked by Hello Chocolate www.hellochocolate.asia in Robinsons Department Stores, Singapore www.robinsons.com.sg but check that they have the items you want in stock before calling in, here is a full list of their stockists, this is one thing we cannot buy from the UK as it is bound to melt somewhere along the journey, I nearly forgot for tonight we had the Piura Porcelana, which we both agreed was the smoothest we had eaten so far,

for our musical entertainment this evening we were Squeezed out by Squeeze, my favourite song from them?, Up the Junction, the music great, the words superb and it is easy to sing along with,

I never thought it would happen

With me and the girl from Clapham

Out on the windy common

That night I ain't forgotten

When she dealt out the rations

With some or other passions

I said "you are a lady"

"Perhaps" she said. "I may be"

We moved in to a basement

With thoughts of our engagement

We stayed in by the telly

Although the room was smelly

We spent our time just kissing

The Railway Arms we're missing

But love had got us hooked up

And all our time it took up

I got a job with Stanley

He said I'd come in handy

And started me on Monday

So I had a bath on Sunday

I worked eleven hours

And bought the girl some flowers

She said she'd seen a doctor

And nothing now could stop her

I worked all through the winter

The weather brass and bitter

I put away a tenner

Each week to make her better

And when the time was ready

We had to sell the telly

Late evenings by the fire

With little kicks inside her

This morning at four fifty

I took her rather nifty

Down to an incubator

Where thirty minutes later

She gave birth to a daughter

Within a year a walker

She looked just like her mother

If there could be another

And now she's two years older

Her mother's with a soldier

She left me when my drinking

Became a proper stinging

The devil came and took me

From bar to street to bookie

No more nights by the telly

No more nights nappies smelling

Alone here in the kitchen

I feel there's something missing

I'd beg for some forgiveness

But begging's not my business

And she won't write a letter

Although I always tell her

And so it's my assumption

I'm really up the junction

and Diana's favourite Squeeze song? 

Labelled with Love, again great laid back music and terrific words,

She unscrews the top of her new whiskey bottle,

And shuffles about in her candle-lit hovel.

Like some kind of witch, with blue fingers in mittens,

She smells like a cat and the neighbours she sickens.

Her black and white TV has long seen a picture,

The cross on the wall is a permanent fixture.

The postman delivers the final reminders;

She sells off her silver and poodles in china.

[Chorus]

Drinks to remember; I me and myself

And winds up the clock and knocks dust from the shelf.

Home is a love that I miss very much,

But the past has been bottled and labelled with love.

During the wartime an American pilot

Made every air-raid a time of excitement.

She moved to his prairie and married the Texan.

She learned from a distance how love was a lesson.

He became drinker and she became mother

She knew that one day she'd be one or the other.

He ate himself older, drunk himself dizzy

Proud of her features she kept herself pretty.

[Chorus]

Drinks to remember; I me and myself

Winds up the clock and knocks dust from the shelf.

Home is a love that I miss very much

So the past has been bottled and labelled with love.

He like a cowboy died drunk in a slumber

Out on the porch in the middle of summer

She crossed the ocean back home to her family

But they had retired to roads that were sandy.

She moved home alone without friends or relations

Lived in a world full of age reservations.

On moth-eaten armchairs she'd say that she'd sod-all

The friends who had left her to drink from the bottle

[Chorus]

Drinks to remember; I me and myself

And winds up the clock and knocks dust from the shelf.

Home is a love that I miss very much

So the past has been bottled and labelled with love.

to round off the evening a sci-fi Cowboys and Aliens and with that we were off to bed.