We Were Out For Sunday Lunch,

so we were off to The George,

  we have eaten there many times before, it is in Chaiyaphruek 2 Rd, if you are going away from Pattaya heading towards Sattahip on the Sukhumvit Road when you arrive at the Chaiyaphruek traffic lights turn right and the restaurant/pub is about 100 yards along the road on the left hand side,

 as you go inside there is a well stocked bar on the left,

 a quick look at the carvery,

 roast beef, chicken and pork,

 roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, Yorkshire puddings and stuffing, plus a full selection of vegetables to accompany the main course, 

 included in the three course meal there is soup of the day, Diana decided on pate,

a prawn salad for myself,

 after a long break,

 it was time for the main course,

  a little of all three meats for Diana,

just pork for myself, 'Cheers!',

 for dessert we both choose, vanilla ice cream, 

 which looked,

and was delicious, as indeed was all of the meal, 

 to finish the meal Diana ordered a latte coffee,

 I went with a Jamaican,

 the same as an Irish coffee but with rum instead of whiskey, the 3 course Sunday roast is 395 baht per person, which we thought was very reasonable, especially as you can have as many visits to the carvery as you like, the coffees are extra, 

 meal over it was time to go, 

 just as the heavens opened up, 

 the rain was torrential,

 as we were waiting for our Grab taxi to arrive we had a pleasant surprise, Blu for Cafe des Amis popped out side to say hello, we had not seen him for some time, he had brought his family here for lunch,

 the rain continued,

 torrents streamed down the street,

 although a little difficult to see, who ever owned this motorcycle could not have put it in a worst place, there was a constant stream of water pouring on to it from the awnings above, 

 the rain continued, 

 I have to admit when I see tangles of low voltage cables like these I am always amazed the the telephone/Internet/cable television services do not go out more often when it rains, but they do not, the system seems to hold up remarkably well, the high voltage cables on the right are carried much higher up the poles,

our grab taxi arrived and we arrived home only slightly wet, and that was getting out of the taxi to our front door, in the evening I asked Diana what she would like to watch, and was surprised when she replied The Big Country, talk about an all star cast, Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, Charles Bickford, Alfonso Bedoya, Ramón Gutierrez, Chuck Connors, Chuck Hayward to name just a few, in case you have not seen it the film contains for myself one of the best, if not the best, monologues in film history by Burl Ives,

and here it is, Burl Ives in the speech that won him an Oscar, and rightly so, I did read some where that his monologue was made in one take, the first one, and that was the one used in the movie, there were no second takes, strangely enough my first childhood memories of him was him singing in the Uncle Max radio show from 8 till 9 on a Saturday morning, I guess I was about 5 or maybe 6 years old, the song? Big Rock Candy Mountain, a song about a hobos dream land, great lyrics, here they are in full,

One evening as the sun went down

And the jungle fires were burning,

Down the track came a hobo hiking,

And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning

I'm headed for a land that's far away

Besides the crystal fountains

So come with me, we'll go and see

The Big Rock Candy Mountains,

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,

There's a land that's fair and bright,

Where the handouts grow on bushes

And you sleep out every night.

Where the boxcars all are empty

And the sun shines every day

And the birds and the bees

And the cigarette trees

The lemonade springs

Where the bluebird sings

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

All the cops have wooden legs

And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth

And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs

The farmers' trees are full of fruit

And the barns are full of hay

Oh I'm bound to go

Where there ain't no snow

Where the rain don't fall

The winds don't blow

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

You never change your socks

And the little streams of alcohol

Come trickling down the rocks

The brakemen have to tip their hats

And the railway bulls are blind

There's a lake of stew

And of whiskey too

You can paddle all around it

In a big canoe

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,

The jails are made of tin.

And you can walk right out again,

As soon as you are in.

There ain't no short-handled shovels,

No axes, saws nor picks,

I'm bound to stay

Where you sleep all day,

Where they hung the jerk

That invented work

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

....

I'll see you all this coming fall

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

the song was first recorded in 1928 by Harry McClintock, its a Hobo song, the word Hobo I have been told stands for Helping Our Brothers Out, first coined in America's Great Depression, then for us we were off to bed.