Up Early, For Diana, And We Are Away!

so along to Bali Hai pier, park the bike and walk to the boat,

long shadows as the sun comes up,

we had just missed one boat, so this one was empty as we boarded,

get comfortable in the middle of the boat where it does not sway so much,

on to the jetty after the 50 minute or so ride, the sky looked a bit over cast, we thought some rain might be on the way,

most mornings we come here there are a few fishing boats tied up here,

today was no exception,

this one from Naklua,

the net is being passed from the front of the boat to the rear,

as we made our way on the jetty to the beach we had a look over to the right of the jetty, there was a huge shoal of small fish there, with some needle fish at the front of the shoal picking off the weaker ones, the picture does not give a good impression of how many there were, but it was a great sight,

we walked along to the half way stage on the boardwalk, past the food sellers on the landward side of it,

this is the food stall just behind where we sit,

after a cup of coffee we each had a plate of chicken fried rice,

a little later in the day Diana felt peckish again so some bar-b-qued chicken and a slushy,

followed by an ice cream, a small beer for me! this was the busiest day on the island, for some reason everyone wanted to be here today, perhaps we all knew what the weather was going to be like the next day!

I went for a short walk as Diana settled down with a book,

it was one of those Filipino love story books, but Mr. Sleep paid Diana a call!

all to soon it was time to catch the 4 o'clock ferry back to the mainland,

luckily we were just in time as this one filled up and left before the deadline,

a slightly newer ferry moves in to take it's place as the 4 o'clock boat,

then we are off,

good-bye to the beach for another week or two,

another one of the fleet of small fishing boats makes it's way to the jetty,

one day we will take one of the 300 baht per person speed boats, but as Diana said for 300 baht we could go10 times on the ferry we are on,

off course there is always the jet ski way to go, just make sure the tank is full before you leave!

45 minutes later and we are nearly home,

the day had been quite sunny in the afternoon, but now there was a slight haziness in the air,

another 3 or 4 minutes and we would be walking along the pier,

to the bar at the end of for an ice coffee or two,

as we made our way to our bike we noticed that City Hall had fenced off the middle of the Bali Hai square,

I am not sure what is going to be built there but a crane was putting some pilings in so a building of some sort I guess,

next stop Friendship, we were getting low on the medicinal red wine,

for tonight to save Diana cooking we called up to the soup stall for some chicken soup,

two plastic bags full 30 baht each, delicious!

the first plant as we walk in is this Amaryllis, this year it has more flowers than ever,

it has already sent 4 flower spikes like this one with another 4 on their way to flowering,

then feet up for a few movies, so no change there then! The Day the Earth Caught Fire was the first of the evening, panic has engulfed the world after the United States and the Soviet Union simultaneously detonate nuclear devices and have caused the orbit of the Earth to alter, sending it hurtling towards the sun, made in 1961 it is a black and white movie, all the more frightening for it, especially with hardly any special effects, so it has to make the actors all the more believable, as an aside at the end of the movie an unaccredited Michael Caine makes an appearance as a police man,

light hearted fun and laughter with the 1964 Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins is a kind of Super-nanny who flies in with her umbrella in response to the request of the Banks children and proceeds to put things right, great fun film, just a shame about the lead's terrible English accent - or lack of it! but Disney knew British audiences would forgive his shaky accent, but what was not forgiven was the authors view of how her work had been changed, P. L. Travers left the premier in tears, vowing never to work with Disney again - even making a clause in her will to stop any of her work after her death falling into his companies hands,

Buried Treasure was one from series 4 of New Tricks, normally when a body is found no one confesses, but this time two people put their hands up for it, Sandra, Jack, Brian and Gerry must discover why the pair took responsibility for a crime they couldn't possibly have committed and if they are in fact the perpetrators of other killings,

to round of the evening Spare Parts, the first of season 5, the trial of Ricky Hanson starts and the members of UCOS are scheduled to appear as witnesses, Hanson is the man who killed Jack Halford's wife but he's on trial for attempting to murder Jack but will Hanson walk or go down? at the same time they are looking into a lady named Carrie Soper, Ralph Wheeler was killed and left his fortune to Carrie, as they look into the case, they find several possible suspects including a solicitor, a doctor and someone with a lengthy criminal record, in the end, the case revolves around a car accident and organ donation, but for us off to bed.

The Day Before The Day Before,

if you see what I mean as this is two days posts on one day, I played with stamps, again, whilst Diana played with her City on the Internet and chatted to her family, then time to hit the town, well go out for a meal,

we walked along Second Road towards the VC Hotel on the same side,

to the Royal Indian Hut,

'Cheers!' form both of us, Diana is holding the camera for a self portrait!

the food arrives, tonight for a change we had prawn korma instead of chicken, as always the food was first class,

we had heard a lot of music some ways off over the past few nights, so walking back to the motorcycle rank we were off,

finally we found out where from, it was a fair on the waste ground opposite the temporary market we sometimes go to,

Diana had to try to win a prize or two, 7 darts for 20 baht, burst 7 balloons and win a prize, it was not as easy as it looked,

but no worries there were lots of shops selling bits and pieces,

and dresses, thankfully only small sizes here!

then a sure fire winner, 20 baht for two and everyone has a prize,

which two to chose? result a pot of noodles and a dish cloth,

lots of rides for the kids,

even a Ferris wheel, all be it a bit smaller than the one George built,

we decided to have another go at the burst the balloons stall, each time the first dart missed so that was that, Diana had a 'kill' rate of three balloons out of seven, what was so amazing was the number of times the dart landed in between the balloons!

in the end the stall owner took pity on Diana and gave her a consolation prize, a lollipop!

but this only spurned Diana on to try again, first dart? missed! so home we went,

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me was the first for tonight, Dr. Evil uses a device he calls a "Time Machine" to travel back to 1969 and remove Austin Powers' mojo, Dr. Evil's personal life runs amok as he discovers love, continues to shun his son and develops a close relationship with himself, well, actually, a clone 1/8 his size whom he dubs "Mini-Me" great fun all round, the 60's set are deckled with cars of the period, spotting and naming them is also good fun, the clue is in the name, Austin,

then to a more sinister kind of fun, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween, one day he stumbles into Christmas Town, and is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries use it instead, but some how the meaning is lost in the translation,

keeping to the animation theme, Christmas with the Simpson's 2003, for us we do enjoy the Simpson's though I guess not every ones taste, I could not find this DVD to link to but here is one of the episodes on the DVD,

only a few to go from season 4, this one Nine Lives, Jack and the team reopen the investigation into the undetermined death of an elderly woman, partly consumed by her hordes of cats, whose decision to leave her estate to her cats sparked a family feud, when the deceased's pets die, her money and property comes back up for grabs but who can grab the biggest? then off to bed.

Up Early And Away!

another day out on the island for us, so the blog will be a bit late, in fact to roars of laughter and cries of shame there will be a double blog tomorrow, so out with the sun cream and off we go!

I Did Not See Anything That Was Interesting, Amusing Or Just Plain Weird,

after a quick glance through the papers today, so straight on to the blog, we had been looking forward to another meal at the Chinese restaurant in The Village on Third Road, so off we went for lunch, but disaster stuck, whilst the chippy was open the Chinese has been closed down for an indefinite period, I telephone and chatted to a young lady who explained it would be closed for 2 weeks maybe more, no one knows, which is a real shame as the food there was excellent,

but in a stroke of genius I remembered the last time I meet Fred at Tigglebitties, I noticed the menu there looked pretty good, so off we went,

there was a selection of bar stools over looking the road, so we settled there to watch the world go by,

it has a large restaurant dinning area,

Diana had a Thai dish,

I was feeling quiet hungry so I went for the club sandwich, I had thought that a club sandwich had tomatoes, egg, cheese, maybe some chicken, well at least that was in others I had, but I suppose every venue has a different way of making one, the club sandwich here consisted of a slice of bacon and a slice of ham in three slices of bread, I checked the bill and was charge for a club sandwich so I guess that is how they are made here,

next stop Tesco for some coke zero, milk and bread, then home for a chat with Mark, who called round, we also perused the Stanley Gibbons stamp supplies mail order catalogue that Phil had brought over from the UK,

after mark had left we had our evening meal, prawn salad for and some more Thai food for Diana then some of the years first lychee's, feet up and on with the DVD's,

this was a two DVD set, it was originally a TV mini series, which I guess explains why it was more than a little drawn out, basically a modern day vampire story but not scary or jumpy enough to be a real horror film, also I could not help thinking it was going to turn into Needful Things at times,

for some reason we started watching the third disc of series 4 having realised our mistake it was back to the first disc, episode 1, Casualty, the gang are all in hospital after being involved in a car crash but that doesn’t stop them from solving a crime committed on the ward, next episode 2 God’s Waiting Room, Jack goes undercover at a care home with Gerry posing as his son and we never knew that Jack could sing! episode 3 Ducking and Diving, an armoured security van is found at the bottom of a lake and could be linked to a disappearance some 17 years previously, unfortunately the IMDB web site is down so I can not make any links to it, but one thing I did find whilst looking elsewhere was this upcoming 4 part series, The Crimson Pearl and the White, a Psychological thriller lifting the lid on the darker side of Victorian London, this provocative and riveting tale tells the story of Sugar, an alluring, intelligent young prostitute who yearns for a better life away from the brothel she is attached to – run by the contemptible Mrs Castaway, highly sought after and sexually adept, Sugar finds her only comfort in the secret novel she is writing in which a murderous prostitute takes revenge on her clients. However, things change for her when she meets wealthy businessman William Rackham, looking forward to the release of that, but then for us off to bed.

Off To The Bank,

and the gold shop!

no rain this morning, the sky is blue, the birds are singing and we are off,

so to the first stop, park the bike and walk past the flower and fruit stalls, almost opposite the temple on Pattaya Tai,

well a couple of hundred yards away but it is the nearest landmark I could think of,

on the way to the gold shop we spotted some of the first of this years lychee's,

then here we are at the shop, Diana wanted to buy a little some thing,

after being surprised at the price of gold a purchase was made and we were on our way back to the fruit stalls, lychee's and yellow plums for us,

then to the bank, the sign over Walking Street deifying all (including me!) that said it would not be replaced after the first one failed,

looking back towards the bay,

opposite the bank a fruit juice seller,

we called in to have the bike serviced, 56,000 kilometers, so oil, plug and filters changed also the speedometer needed sorting as it had stopped working some time ago, the great news is that here you just go to a bike shop and it is serviced straight way, no waiting for an appointment, the price of the service including parts and oil? 120 baht, (£2.41 at today's exchange rate),

whilst waiting Diana popped over the road for two iced coffees,

in the afternoon I called over to Mark for a couple of hours, after our evening meal it was feet up for Mission to Mars, when a mysterious storm kills all but one crew member of the first manned mission to mars, a rescue mission is launched, but was it a storm or a weapon? superb special effects the spacecraft was in fact a 21 foot long model, made to look so real, great film well worth watching,

Bank Robbery was the next title in the New Tricks series we have been watching, when one of Gerry's informants returns to England and provides him with new evidence, the team re-open the case of a 1987 bank robbery where one of the bank employees was killed, the prime suspect was always Ray Cook, but the police could never get the evidence to charge him, but will his alibi stand up to a closer look? next out of the box, Ice Cream Wars with mayhem caused by the ice cream bandit, two families feud over prime sites but who pulled the trigger? Congratulations are in order as Luke Hanson has recently been released form jail after serving 8 years for setting a fire at his local school in which the caretaker had been severely injured, he was across the country committing another crime at the time and would like the team to re-open the case,

on to two from series 4, Father's Pride, the team reopen a 20-year-old case when a camera and film belonging to a photographic lab assistant murdered in 1987 are found in a Soho pub toilet, new evidence leads the detectives into the dark underside of the modelling world and to the door of a professional footballer, to round the by now late evening or I should say early morning off, Big Topped, the circus comes to town, a circus ringmaster who burned to death in his caravan, leaving only his feet behind is this episodes mystery, also Pullman's mother has a stroke and this event leads Sandra to start asking questions about her father, then off to bed.

'It Is More Than My Jobsworth!'

came the cry from the jobsworth in Manchester council, when taxi driver Asif Khan change his car, a silver Volkswagen Passat to a silver Honda Accord, the problem is Honda silver is not well, silver, the father-of-two was told by Manchester council that his badge could not be renewed because the new car did not meet the town hall's strict colour code, the taxi driver who had successfully driven taxis for the past seven years has fallen foul of the councils colour code, taxis must be silver or white, so is this the new silver? no, according to Manchester council, the rule was brought in as a safety measure to help crackdown on bogus taxi drivers, strange, it looks to me that most cars in the UK are silver or white, but the jobsworth's know best, so as Asif said 'it's practically the same colour as my old car, it says silver in the log book and on the insurance documents, the only way I can get it passed is by buying a new car or re-spraying it',

a spokesman for Manchester council said: some people do make mistakes and in cases like this we provide advice and refund the application fee, so there you have it this hard working man has now been given three choices by Manchester council, buy a new car, re-spray it a non Honda silver or go on the dole!

speaking of jobsworths how about environmental enforcement officer Wayne Turner of Milton Keynes council? self-confessed eco warrior Ruth Boden-Webster, 50, has been conscientiously sorting her rubbish for recycling for more than 30 years, but unfortunately for her when she went to the recycle bins on land that Tesco owns the council had not emptied the bins so she left a a bio-degradable bottle next to an overflowing recycling bin, wait for this, with her name and address on it, is that the way a fly tipper would do it? well the answer is yes, the council wrote to her with a fixed notice of a a £75 fine or risk being taken to court, she did not pay as the bins were full, so good ol'e Wayne, if he follows government guidelines could take it as far as Ruth to be taken to court and face a fine of up to £50,000 and a prison sentence of up to five years for fly tipping, fly tipping with her name and address on it?

special needs teacher Miss Boden-Webster orders special biodegradable washing up liquid online and it arrives in a foot-and-a-half tall, 25-litre container, she has contacted Milton Keynes MP Mark Lancaster who has pledged to raise the concerns with the council, a council spokesman replied saying there was a problem with people fly-tipping rubbish at the Tesco site and added: 'there are signs advising people to take larger items to one of our three community recycling centres,' I have one hope, that the creatures that impose and enforce these rules are the first to go in council job cuts, it would be so nice to see how they would cope in the real world, not the ivory towers these jobsworth currently live in.