It Was Shower Day For The Kittens,

which is always fun,

 for me as I am watching,

 first to be showered was Hogue,

 who is normally the most difficult to corner when he knows what is going on,

 next Mariana, who like Cable always plays with water in the pool or the aquarium, 

 but when it comes to being showered puts up a frightful racket,

 now time to dry up,

 Mariana and Hogue look at the antics of Cable, trying to escape capture,

 but he too was finally showered, we watched some television during the day, Diana and myself both spending some time on the computer, 

I made this short video of the outside kittens and their Mum, my day begins at 05.55 as I unlock the back door and feed the kittens, they are getting more used to me now, but this is a close as I can get them, with the camera between me and them, they look so cute!

after our evening meal we watched the start of Westworld, which we thoroughly enjoyed, 

then our film for the evening Solace, which was really good to watch, basically a psychic works with the FBI, and he is good at his job, but there is a catch, the killer is also psychic and better than the FBI one, I am not really into the psychic stuff but this was a good film to watch never the less, we rounded off the evening with a few game shows like The Chase and Tipping Point, then for us we were off to bed.

This Is The Bund Finance Centre,

it is directly east of Shanghai,

 it looks futuristic,

 and from the outside it almost seems to move,

it has the same effect on the inside, 

because it does! you are not seeing things, the dynamic design wraps a new cultural centre in Shanghai, part of a 190,000-square-meter development by Foster + Partners in collaboration with Heatherwick Studio, (images by Laurian Ghinitoiu),what a great idea, apart from looking stunning the awning could be used as ever moving curtains as the earth revolves, shading occupants of the building from glare, neat.

These Are The Skills I Need,

to make some of my pictures of temples nicer,

 digital illustrator Chris Labrooy manipulates his images in ways I can only dream of, all I want to do is hide a few cables, 

but he can create CGI vehicle concepts based on VW Beetles, Datsuns, and Citroen C3s that look and are absolutely stunning,

and who says the camera never lies?

Chris decided to bring a few of his ideas to life in a series of animations titled Cut & Shut and Tokyo above, magic.

Who Would Have Thought,

that the Harry Potter books could have an impact on owls?

but they have, the books are filled with owls, from Harry’s BFF Hedwig to Draco Malfoy’s mail-delivering eagle owl, but those fictional owls could be linked with a black market in the real world, in Indonesia, researchers believe that the popularity of the Harry Potter franchise is leading to a significant upturn in black-market owl trading, Nature reports, 

 

a new study in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation examined the number of owl sales in 20 bird markets on the Indonesian islands of Bali and Java, where wild-caught birds are sold as pets, in the early 2000s, owls were rare in these markets, owls made up less than 0.06 percent of the birds in Indonesian bird markets before 2002, but after 2008, they were 0.43 percent of the market, while there could be other reasons for the increase in demand for owls as pets, such as greater internet access allowing people to trade info on where to get the birds, the world’s most famous boy wizard surely shares some of the blame, look no further than the birds' popular name: "Harry Potter birds." they used to be known as "ghost birds," the researchers write, strangely enough in the UK it is perfectly legal to keep a native owl as a pet. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

to Diana,

 to start the day we went to her favourite restaurant,

  and her choice was Burger King, in the Central Festival,

 so it was tuck in,

 a double cheese for Diana and a whopper for myself,

 then to Dunkin' Doughnuts for a take away, first it was going to be a bucket of doughnuts,

 but Diana decided on a selection instead,

 we pottered around the house in the day, then in the evening it was glad rags on,

 and we were out to Cherry's, on Wednesdays and Saturdays they have an International buffet, the restaurant is on Third Road opposite what was once the X-Cite disco,

 so a quick look at what is on offer, the salad bar,

 a selection of starters,

 to chose from,

 as well as some sushi,

 the sign says it all, 450 baht each,

 soup of the day was cream of mushroom plus every week there is tom yung goong,

 just add the soup to the bowls with prawns and fish already in them,

 for the main courses, battered fish, spring rolls and a selection of breads and salsa,

 18 or so dishes in heated trays,

 plus there is a carvery and pizza station, 

 on to desserts,

 and what a selection,

 so many to chose from,

 plus 7 different flavoured ice creams,

 so time to tuck in, my starter,

 we were joined this evening by Mr. Tony,

 Diana chose a spring roll, spaghetti bolognese and a slice of pizza,

 'Cheers!',

 a second plate of starters for myself,

 'Cheers!', from Mr. Tony,

 and both of us,

on to desserts, we all made different choices, I went with two raspberry spoons, after a coffee Mr. Tony kindly dropped us off and after thanking him and saying our farewells it was feet up,

 for a few more game shows, yesterday I made a mistake, I published the wrong video, I have changed it now, but if you looked at yesterdays video this is the one I should have posted, I have changed yesterdays to the one it should be, great fun for all when Diana popped over to the Philippines to see her family, and with that we were off to bed.

I Guess Most Of Us Like Bananas,

and have seen several articles about how beneficial they are,

 well here is another posting about bananas, with 29 different facts about them, like this one, number 11 on the list of 29, there are more trade restrictions on bananas than on AK-47s! I had to read that twice, but it is true! the global trade in bananas or banana plants is governed by at least three binding global agreements and the non-binding, though strictly adhered to Codex food code, the arms trade is not governed by any binding global agreements, if you want to find out more about bananas the full list is here.

If You Break It You Buy It,

is a commonly seen sign in many stores around the world,

 but what happens if it is you or your other half that tries on a 300,000 yuan (at today's rate £23,070 or $44,125), jade bracelet and drops it only to see it break,

into two halves? 

 a female tourist visiting the Ruili Jiegao Jade market last Tuesday did just that, and then fainted, according to CGTN, the tourist, whose name has not been disclosed, stopped in front of a jade jewellery stall and picked up a bangle to try on, however, the shiny jewel slipped out of her hand and split into two halves as it hit the ground, realising her expensive mistake, the woman blacked out and fell to the ground, “She fell in a faint, but luckily she didn’t have any serious problems,” Lin Wei, the son of the storekeeper, told local media, 

the good news is that she doesn’t have to pay the asking price, following an appraisal by the Ruili Gem and Jade Association, which is backed by Ruili Administration for Industry and Commerce, the broken bangle was authenticated and valued at just 180,000 yuan (at today's rate £20,455 or $26,484), so that's all right then! as an aside the next time you take out travel insurance, would your insurance company cover this claim?