I Decided To Play Trains,

so after much blood sweat and tears,

                                                                           

          I managed to get three tracks and three locomotives running, but after 5 or 10 minutes the controller cut out, which was why I have not done much over the past few years on the layout, the thought of spending £279.95 on a Gaugemaster DCC02 Prodigy Advance2 Starter Package to replace the one I have did not appeal to me, I guess as with most electrical things of this nature it is not repairable, but I may take it back with us the next time we go to the UK to see if that is the case, also much of the fun was in building the layout rather than just watching the trains go round and round, but anyway here is a short video I made of the train’s this afternoon,

  in the evening we were outside for our usual Saturday evening bar-b-q,

  except that for this evening we were having an Indian meal, 

'Cheers!', we spent the evening listening to music, after about 11.30 we made a move inside for a couple from Judge Judy then for us we were off to bed.

On This Map,

there are 4 new schools,

Ilvermorny, Castelobruxo, Uagadou, and Mahoutokoro, I guess you will have never heard of them, but they are 4 in a series of 7 now known schools, one you will have heard of, Hogwarts, there are 11 'long-established and prestigious wizarding schools worldwide,' according to Pottermore, the new schools have just been announced last Friday in the Daily Dot and for friends in the USA a school it is rumoured will be there, Rowling shot down the idea that it was based in New York and said the name was 'immigrant in origin.' based on that statement and a few other clues, Ilvermorny could be somewhere along the East Coast anywhere from Appalachia to the border between the U.S. and Canada, in addition, 'Indigenous magic was important in the founding of the school.' so no more traveling across to Scotland to attend classes!

A Quick Quiz,

name the city that this floating one may replace,

 a few clues, in the 2015 – 2025 Lloyd’s City Risk Index, the city was identified as the 2nd most at risk city only behind Taipei, hurricanes, earthquakes and flooding were the primary issues, the country itself also suffered in recent times from a disastrous tsunami,

if approved and built this will be the view looking down at the 1600-meter tower (1 mile is 1609 meters), which would be twice as high as the world’s current tallest building, so if you are an inhabitant of Tokyo would you live in this city in the bay? the firm whose idea it is KPF hopes you will say yes to the new floating city, the plan is that in 2045 it will all take place, city floating on Tokyo Bay will providing home for half a million citizens, naturally flood defences will be provided and give more protection what will become 'Old Tokyo'

principal architect David Malott is an architect of innovative supertall towers whose portfolio includes 3 of the world’s 10 tallest tower, his firm, KPF, has been involved in some of Tokyo’s most recent major urban redevelopments like Roppongi Hills and the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, the Merrill Lynch Japan Head Office in Nihonbashi and Otemachi Tower, so the plan does have a talented architect at the helm, who knows? But one thing is certain, I would not like to be at the top of a mile high tower that floats when a hurricane hits!

I Guess We Have All Heard Of Chocolate Liqueurs,

and of course Kit-Kat bars of chocolate,

 put them both together and what do you get?

sake flavoured Kit-Kats of course! we did feature Kit-Kats and the number of flavours they are available in Japan some time ago, including the gold one, but do not worry too much about the sake content, there is 0.08% alcohol in them, at that rate you would die of chocolate poisoning before you could feel the effect of the sake!

Keeping To A Japanese Theme,

although this is old news,

it was announced 3 days ago, McDonald's in Japan launched a new product, french fries smothered in chocolate sauce, both white and regular chocolate are used in the dish known as McChoco, and there was me thinking that fast food companies were trying to help people slim!

I Dropped Diana Off,

at the market,

 then made my way to the bank,

 finally meeting up at Friendship,

 shopping finished we parked at the back of TukCom,

 and ordered a ice coffee and a ice tea,

 in the evening we made our way to the weekend night market in Thepprasit Road,

 clear skies looking towards Jomtien,

 and inland,

 I made my way through the market meeting the ice cream seller coming towards me,

 opposite the bar this evening a shoe stall and a 49 baht stall,

 lots of fresh fruit as always,

 and it appears that strawberries are still in season,

 not many customers in the pet section,

 with one exception, the first stall that sells puppies had quite a crowd,

 walking back towards the road I passed the chicken stall,

 the good news the boiling oil was kept well away from the customers,

 sunset over the market,

 Jim was at the bar, 

 another mobile stall makes its way into the market,

 Brian and Sa also joined us,

 as the sun went down,

 the usual suspects but one more besides us three, Charlie who hails from South London called by,

 Sa, Diana and Cher all returned from a successful shopping trip, we said our farewells and made a move for home,

 tonight was going to be an adventure, Diana was going to try out our pressure cooker that was a wedding present, this brought back so many memories, back in my teens everyone seemed to have one, in fact one friend of mines mother had 4 of them!, she used them not only for cooking but for boiling all of the whites, that is sheets, pillowcases and shirts were boiled in them, everything came out so white I can still remember it to this day,

 well Diana 100% nailed it, in no time at all the chicken was cooked to perfection as were the potatoes onions and carrots,

to round off the meal a chocolate from Steve and Kai,

then feet up for a few from the second series of Peaky Blinders, which was a good as the first series, we followed that with a few from Judge Judy, then we were off to bed.

I Have Always Been Fascinated,

by glass blowers,

 so I just had to feature these pieces from Kiva Ford,

 this one titled Metamorphosis II, 

 and this one Metamorphosis,

both are almost too stunning for words, what a skilled glassblower, for more examples of his work have a look here, absolutely amazing!

If You Are Fed Up With Plain Walls,

or wallpaper,

 this could be the product for you, the SprayPrinter, it is a wireless device that converts digital designs into wall art from your smartphone and it is a simple as ABC,

developed in Tartu, Estonia, the team behind it claim that the device can be used to transform you home in minutes, it is a simple as this, A: You just pick your favourite image from the SprayPrinter application; B: Then you connect the device to your aerosol-spray can and active the application and start painting. C: When you are all done, just take a step back and admire your artwork on display, the SprayPrinter application offers an endless collection of images all that is needed is a tripod and face the camera toward the wall you want to decorate, you can also adjust the size and the position of the design by moving the phone close or further away from the wall, the secret behind this invention is its electromagnetic valve that opens and closes up to 200 times per second, which means you can print nearly 200 pixels per second, the device also has an app so that you can share designs and pictures within the SprayPrinter community, although not yet available at $150 it is bound to become a hit and no I am not on commission!

The Quest For Clean Drinkable Water,

has taken another turn,

if this solution to providing it by a UK group Seawater Greenhouse Ltd. really takes hold, it has developed greenhouses that provide fresh drinking water and can grow plants in areas that are as dry as a desert, they are already installed in places like Tenerife, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Australia, but unlike a normal desalinization plant that uses large amounts of energy, this plant takes a different approach, by using an evaporative process to remove the salt, ventilation air that is driven by wind is cooled, cleaned, sterilized and humidified by seawater evaporators, only the pure water evaporates and is then collected, the initial cost of installation is high, but then so is a normal desalinization plant, but once installed the company claims that the running costs becomes far more reasonable than the alternative, a great idea that seems to work.

We Had A Quiet Day,

but by now we had the latest on our honeymoon saga,

you may remember that on the morning of our wedding the travel agent called to say that all 12 flights from Manila to Boracay we had booked for our honeymoon had been cancelled, as had the 4 rooms we had booked for 4 nights, the flights had not been cancelled, the travel agent had scammed us, well, Diana's family went back for the second time and was given a cheque for 16,000 pesos, whilst there a family of Filipinos were also complaining, they had been ripped off for 300,000 pesos by the same 24 year old travel agent, well the good news is that the cheque was honoured, so all we have to do now is hope we can recover the other 104,000 pesos that is owed to all of us, we have been told to call back on February 4th for another cheque so we will see what happens next, back to today, we spent the day doing nothing at all, but after our evening meal we watched some more of Peaky Blinders, it was excellent, getting more enthralling at every twist of the story, we followed that with some Judge Judy, then for us we were off to bed.

With Valentine's Day Just A Few Weeks Away,

a few gift ideas for a sweet for your sweet,

 chocolate and champagne, in this case Jacques Torres Champagne Truffles that look like champagne corks a winning combination of milk chocolate, fresh cream and Taittinger Brut La Française Champagne,

 ladybirds always seem to be popular, none more so that John & Kira’s Red Ganache Lovebug Chocolatesy, hand-painted 62% dark chocolate shells with colored cocoa butter, each one unique and filled with a delectable dark Valrhona 64% chocolate ganache and a hint of Singing Dog vanilla sourced from Indonesian farmers,

 for a little more color and heart how about Pierre Marcolini 25 Hearts Collection made from a collection of milk, white and dark chocolate,

 incorporating a peacock design on the box by Queen’s scholar Kerry Lemon, Charbonnel et Walker Pink Champagne Peacock Heart pink truffles with a milk chocolate and Marc de Champagne centre, can not fail to impress,

or for a more stylized heart how about Compartes Valentine’s Love Truffles Heart flavors may include raspberry rose, pink crystal salt, red velvet, strawberry champagne, meyer lemon lavender, honey vanilla and many more, 

or for those on the edge you can not go wrong with rose gold spikes for the Renegade Collection at Vosges - Dark Chocolate Renegade Truffle Collection, Exotic Truffle Renegade Heart,Renegade Ensemble Heart and many more on this page, now just two things, firstly I am not on commision! and secondly some of these may not be available where you live, but if they are remember to buy two boxes, one her her indoors and one for Mum.