Having Seen The Pattaya Wall Of Death,

it reminded us of the one we saw in the UK,

so many years ago, and here it is, so that trip will be in out thoughts for this week, it was just a pity we did not buy a refrigerator magnet when we were there, so the picture will have to do,

 on to today,

 as it is Saturday we have our usual maintenance to do,

 Diana cleaning the kittens pool as a very playful Hogue watches and helps,

 Mariana decided to sit in the box, 

 whilst Cable then also decided to help Diana,

 then it was Hogue's turn, 

 to sit in the box,

 meanwhile I took about 40% of the water out of the aquarium, 

 and replaced it,

 on to breakfast with home grown cherry tomatoes,

 then out to the weekend plant market on the Sumkivitt Road, we went last Saturday but it rained so much we did not even get out of the truck when we arrived, in fact it rained so much that we decided to drive back home, and looking at the skies as we drove nearer to it,

 it looked like it could be a repeat this weekend, 

 but thankfully the rain held off,

 if you want to visit the market and have an interest in flowers or gardening the market is almost opposite the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital, if you are going away from Pattaya you will pass the hospital on the left, then take the next 'U' turn and the market will be on your left, there is ample parking at the rear of the market, the market is there every weekend,

 as we walked to the market there was the ominous rumble of thunder in the distance,

 we made our way through the larger,

 of the aquatic stalls,

 which had a nice display of fish and equipment on offer,

 and into one of the main aisles,

 plants,

 and cactus everywhere,

 and lots of ornaments for the smaller garden!

 every stall with a different collection,

 in this one,

 roses,

 and waterlily's, 

 three different ones in each pot,

 and one of my favourites,

 orchids, but more of those later,

 as well as small plants,

 there are larger specimens available, 

 to make a garden look mature in one go,

 the selection goes right down to mosses for poolside decoration,

 and of course lots of garden ornaments,

 with the message in Thai,

 and English, 

this stall specialising in Bromeliads,

 which many of us instantly recognise as having the pineapple amongst its members,

 this stall was very melodious, having lots of wind chimes tinkling away, 

 as well as some paper fish which swayed with the breeze, 

 then on to the cut orchid stall,

 lots of them,

 if you want a table decoration for a special occasion,

 this is the place to come,

 also of course there are full grown plants to buy, these are especially nice as they give off the most pleasing of scents,

 we made our way past another cactus stall, 

 and another with bromeliads and air plants, Tillandsia, which are also a part of the family Bromeliaceae,

 one of the smaller aquatic stalls,

 and a few more cactus,

 by now we had walked to the non-plant section, with lots of garden ornaments,

lots of pots,

 in all shapes,

 and sizes,

 it is also where the food and coffee stalls are, so whilst Diana ordered a coffee,

 I went shopping,

 for some vitamins for the plants and some snail and slug killer, we have been plague with snails, every day I find a few in the early morning, I keep a daily score of how many I find and have done for the past few months, on the worst day I collected a staggering 48, which considering how small our garden is shows how popular it is with the snails, they are not native to Thailand, they are in fact Giant African snails, (Achatina fulica), which is one of the largest of the terrestrial gastropods, and they could teach rabbits a thing or two about breeding if our daily crop of them is anything to go by!

 returning to Diana I watched this lady preparing some poc-poc, 

 then in the truck,

 and as soon as we started our journey, blue skies,

 on our way back we had two stops, one to pick up some frozen food for the fish, we did not want to go out next week as it is Songkran,

 the shop we use is the one on Thepprasit Road, almost opposite this restaurant, our second stop was sad indeed, like most of our friends that like to stay out here Riza stays on a tourist visa, well she has been told like all of our friends that are under 50 years old that she can no longer stay in Thailand, so like so many of our other friends she will join them as they have all had to relocated to Cambodia or the Philippines where long term stay for under 50 year old's is not a problem, so she gave us all of the items that she had bought for her home here in Thailand, it is such a shame that we have had to say goodbye to so many friends that enjoyed staying here so much, but I guess like Mark and so many others they will call back every so often,

 on a happier note as it was Saturday we were going to eat outside, but instead of our normal bar-b-q we decided on an Indian, 

 to start onion bhajis and lamb kebabs, 

 followed by chicken tikka masala, chicken jalfrezi, peas pulao rice, aloo gobi and garlic nan,

 and to round the meal off, some of Diana's chocolates, cherry brandy liqueurs, I was allowed those as they have brandy in which she is not so keen on, we listened to music for the rest of the evening and as the midnight hour approached we were off to bed.