Wednesday 31 August 2016

Diana Went Shopping In The Market,

whilst I did a little shopping myself, 


 I went to the builders for a cover for our outside table and chairs plus a couple of plastic boxes for the charcoal, then meet Diana at Friendship,

 when she had finished in the market,

 next stop, the rear of TukCom for a couple of iced drinks,

 then home to check on progress,

 tiling,

 and painting coming on well,

 Arry starting on the floor at one end,

 by now it was getting late,

 the painting all finished,

 on all sides and ceiling,

 the floor at the far end nearly finished, we are keeping the sand wash in the middle in the hope that the rough surface will help keep the kittens claws trimmed,

 then glad rags on,

and upstairs,


 we were off with Barry for an Indian meal,

 at the Ali Baba Tandoori & Curry Restaurant, it is on Central Road about 200 yards from the sea, for starters masala poppadoms,

 followed by prawn puri,

 for our main course chicken tikka masala, aloo gobi and peas puliuo rice,

 'Cheers!',

 we were all bloated,

 Diana took a couple of pictures on the way out,

 well I just had to strike the pose,

we then made our way home, but first we stopped to look at this display of ice creams next door, all looking too good to eat,

arriving home we had a chart with Barry and after thanking him and saying our goodbyes settled down to a few from 3rd. Rock From The Sun, then we were off to bed.


Whether It Is Riots, Bad Weather,

or accidents,


looters are always so quick to appear!


Lost In A Shipwreck In 2012,

and found on a research dive in 2014,


a camera was found, before you ask of course it does not work, but the amazing thing is the memory card did! a marine ecology department team from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada conducted a research dive to study starfish off the coast of Bamfield when students Tella Osler and Beau Doherty came across something interesting, this camera,

 on it as you might guess family pictures, after asking around online, and pinning the man's picture up on a local bulletin board, Côté and Gray discovered the camera belonged to Paul Burgoyne, who had been rescued from a shipwreck by the Coast Guard back in 2012, 

for the full story of the shipwreck and rescue of Paul Burgoyne shown above have a look here, in relating the story there was a bit of luck for Paul, when Future Shop arrived at his studio to surprise him with a new camera ­— this one waterproof — to replace the one that sunk with his boat off Vancouver Island two years ago, “It will go under water intentionally,” Burgoyne said of his new Nikon Coolpix AW120 camera, delivered by Future Shop representative Elliott Chun, “I sure appreciate this, this is fantastic and I’ll put it to good use.” he new equipment replaces a camera and memory card Burgoyne had bought at the Granville Street Future Shop, not long before setting off on his ill-fated journey, while warranties don’t extend to cameras dropped in the ocean, after hearing about Burgoyne’s accident and the story of his lost camera, Future Shop decided to surprise him with a replacement, what an incredibly nice gesture from Future Shop, if I lived in the area they would have my business for life, I am just amazed that being submerged for so long the card still worked.


I Guess We All Have Had A Picture Or Video Taken,

that shows us in an unfavourable or embarrassing light,


 the rich and famous often seem to be depicted that way, so what if it happens to you and you want to stop the images from being uploaded to the Internet? well it appears that a gentleman known only as Liu, had only recently arrived in Weifang in search of a job when he attended neighbourhood square dance, which he apparently enjoyed, what he did not enjoy was bystanders laughing and taking photos of him showing his dancing skills, terrified the images would be uploaded on the the Internet there was only one course of action open to him, 

destroy the physical internet infrastructure in his neighbourhood to prevent these embarrassing photos of himself from appearing online, so while on an evening walk, Liu ended up destroying four optical cable network receivers, causing over 100,000 yuan in damages, (£11,448 or $14,936 at today's rate), he was soon caught and a picture taken of him re-enacting his crime, the sad thing is an online search of Liu’s square dance photos does not turned up any relevant results, maybe his desperate crime actually paid off, or maybe the people who photographed him had better things to do than share them online, We will never know.


What Started Out As An Attempt,

in 2013 to make shirts for her son,


 took a different turn when he asked to have pictures of cats on them, his mother, Japanese embroidery artist Hiroko Kubota was happy to oblige, 
 
 after making a few cat shirts the artist posted photos of the pieces online and unsurprisingly they quickly went viral, spurring Kubota to open an Etsy shop under the brand Go!Go!5 where she started selling the shirts at a price tag of around $250-$300 apiece,

but price was no object for internet cat fanatics and the shirts have been snapped up almost as quickly as Kubota embroiders them, but here is the problem, to have a shirt made with Mariana, Hogue and Cable on it I would need one with three pockets! and no I am not on commission, I just thought they looked so cute.


Tuesday 30 August 2016

Full Steam Ahead,

for the next days work on the kittens room,


one of the boys started the final grouting on one of the walls,

whilst the other started the front of the pool,

also the top of the wall was fitted with it's corners,

a few final touches,

and the front and inside facing walls are finished,

meanwhile door furniture fitted and Arry is matching the new door with the old,

and it was done, well the first coat anyway,

tops of the walls finished,

needing a bit of a clean and grout,

matching blue and green threshold put in place,

and work starts on painting the walls and ceiling,

at close of play the step up to the pool tiled, then off the happy band of builders went for supper,

the day just slipped past watching progress on the room, after our evening meal and watching a few from Judge Judy and Highway Patrol it was time for tonight's film, this one titled Admiral Command and Conquer, definitely one of the better period true life dramas, do not be put off by the Dutch only soundtrack, it has excellent English subtitles, the film follows the fortunes of Holland in the 1600s when a new admiral was given command of the Dutch fleet, at a time when France, Germany and England were snapping the countries heels and borders, both at sea and on land, he led the opposition in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century, and became the most famous and one of the most skilled admirals in Dutch history, although his name might not be known by many, one of his deeds you may have heard about was when he famously sailed up the River Medway to Chatham to sink as many as 13 Royal Navy ships in 1667, and towing two, one the normal flagship of the English fleet, HMS Royal Charles, back to Holland, this daring act became known as the Raid on the Medway: The Worst Defeat of the British Navy in Historyhis name, Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter, because of it's lack of English soundtrack I nearly did not buy this film, but having seen it I am so glad I did, Diana who is not a fan of non English speaking films really enjoyed it too, it was that good, and with that we went to bed.


At First Glance,

they fooled me,


I could not understand why plastic blow-up dinosaurs,

 were being featured on an arts page,

 then I found out why, they are in fact made of ceramics by artist Brett Kern who is based in West Virginia, earlier this year released a few pieces in gold glaze that were made available for auction, you can see more in his Etsy shop, and he shares tons of process videos and photos on Facebook, and no I am not on commission, I was just fooled!


I Guess We Have All Heard Of Drones,

and shipping containers,


well here is an idea to combine the two, why? the easiest and probably the best reason would be to transport emergency equipment over roads that through natural disasters have been destroyed, or in some countries where there are no roads to bring supplies, although only a pipe dream could it become reality? who knows but what a neat idea to bring help and equipment quickly and efficiently, each container could be preloaded, one for water treatment, one a hospital and so on, for more on this story have a look here.


Monday 29 August 2016

Work Starts Again,

on the kittens room,


 I think this is Arry's son,

 using an electric drill with a mixing attachment to mix a bucket full of concrete,

 whilst Arry starts work on the door,

 tiling begins,

 normally on a Sunday we alternate between eating out and Diana cooking a Sunday roast, today we would be at home, but with building work going on we decided to eat out, for today the Punch and Judy, it is located on Soi 8 off of Thepprasit Road almost opposite what was the Eden Hotel,

 so in we went,

 as there was no rush to get back because of the builders we decided on a starter each, for Diana mushroom soup,

 a prawn cocktail for myself,

 we then decided on a very long break before Diana's Thai food arrived,

 and my roast lamb,

 'Cheers!',

 to round off the meal a coffee for Diana,

 and a Jamaican one for myself,

 basically the same as an Irish coffee but with rum to replace the whisky,

 arriving home, a start had been made on the outside wall,

 the door was fitted,

 and start had been made on the top of the wall,

 Arry was fitting the door handle and lock,

 by the close of play the outside wall had been screed,

 and the end of the pool finished,

 at the far end there will be a shower head to fill the pool and a drain tap at the bottom,

the tiling up to the door now completed so off the workers went for the night,

we watched a few game shows, then the main attraction, Sherlock, The Abominable Bride, set in the 1890s it was as good if not better than ever, what a great script and story line, and with that we were off to bed.