We Are Back!

which might be good or bad news,

depending if you like our blog or not! so here we are at London airport, woefully over weight, well 5 kilos anyway, but the nice lady at the EVA Air desk allowed us to travel without paying any excess, well done EVA! but all of that weight on a trolley was too much for Diana,

so it was all down to me,

we decided to treat ourselves to a seafood supper, we were going to order King crab, but just our luck, they literally sold the last portion as we sat down,

so we chose the Cromer crab instead, and nice it was too,

 after our meal we still had some time to go, well rather a lot of it, it appears that a light dusting of snow meant that the aeroplanes could take off with out any problems, but unloading and loading luggage and meals was difficult as the lorries could not make it across the snow, so our aeroplane was late taking off, so the delay gave us time to try some coffees,

 and they were really nice,

if a trifle different form the coffees we normally have, the flight was uneventful, haply, but we did arrive an hour or so late, despite the pilot trying to make up for lost time, 

 after a good nights sleep we were out, we had to complete our TM 30 immigration forms, we arrived just shortly at 08.30, already the place was busy, by the time we queued for a ticket we were given number 70, 58 people were in front of us! the good news was that it only took a couple of hours, the problem being unlike other visas it is a time consuming procedure, but it has to be done, the good news was that Diana helped Mum and Dad extend their holiday visa so as lunch time approached we had a nice breakfast in the Surf kitchen on Jomtien Beach Road, next we parked up opposite The Grand Day/Night Hotel,

 and walked towards TukCom, for 2 reasons, firstly a couple of weeks into our trip my telephone decided to go on strike, it would turn on but just display the opening screen and that was that, so an hours wait and 400 baht later the telephones software was reloaded and all was well,

 the second reason we went to TukCom was that our printer has a fault with the printing head, we were told it was cheaper to buy a new printer! I still can not work that one out, but there it is, so instead of buying a Epsom as we normally do every 9 months or so we went for a Canon, with the same cravat, it has a 1 year guarantee, but that does not include the print heads, the only thing that seems to wear out, so I will spend tomorrow playing with it,

 next off to the night weekend market on Thepprasit Road, one of the market shrines,

 I made my way past one of the food stalls near the car park,

 new for this week, walking, barking, light flashing dogs, but this week in pink,

 looking towards Jomtien,

 clear skies,

 this look interesting, well it was certainly colorful,

 and I am guessing a real problem to drive around with such low ground clearance,

 I did like the matching brake calipers,

 looking inland, again clear skies,

 the fruit seller doing his rounds,

 opposite the bar this evening a clothes stall and what will be for tonight a shoe stall, 

 in the time we were not here a new steel construction had been erected at the front of the existing one,

 slightly offset from the original,

 also the top has now been covered with concrete decking, 

 looking down the newly formed aisle,

 the fruit shop was here as usual,

 this is such a nice shop to walk past, with the perfumed aroma striking you,

 at the back of the market above the pet section the steelworks have now been completed, but look to the right,

 metal work has been installed to form a ramp,

 which I guess will be covered with concrete,

 all of it supported by wooden scaffolding,

 one of the markets cats,

 as I walked to the end of the row, I found that the aquatic stall had relocated to a few stalls further in, the store was previously the last stall on the row,

 and I think this is why,

 a second ramp has been built at the rear of the overhead construction, 

 I made my way back to the bar, passing some of the many stalls selling souvenirs,

 and meet up with Brian, along with is wife Sa and son Nicky,

  Diana, her Mum and Dad arrived, they had left before me and had been looking around Tesco Lotus and the market,

 there was quite a crowd here tonight as well, as Mr. Tony, Jim and Cher are here in Thailand,

 group decision, a meal at the Punch and Judy, which is in Soi 8 off of Thepprasit Road,

 'Cheers!',

 we had a selection of dishes,

 from fish and chips, 

 for Dad,

a salad for Mum,

 fish for Jim and Cher,

and a cottage pie with cheese for Mr. Tony, for myself bangers and mash, we chatted the night away, after saying our farewells we made a move for home, then feet up, a night cap and we were off to bed, but before closing if you know me you will know I will have taken thousands of photographs, so I will continue with our daily posts, and over the next few weeks post ones that we took on holiday, so I will start numbering them, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc, I will say in passing we had a wonderful time, meeting friends that I had not seen in over 40 years! as well as exploring new places and revising old one, so let the posts commence!