Money Can Buy Pretty Much Any Thing,

including Harrods, for a mere for £1.5bn, it is just a pity the new owners did not realize that parking outside their shop was not free! the Qatari royal family must have been a bit miffed to have a warden swoop on their £1.2million Koenigsegg CCXR and £350,000 Lamborghini Murcielago when they parked outside their new purchase, to find they had been clamped, but anyone who has ever nipped into Harrods for a few minutes could have told them that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea shows no mercy - or discrimination - towards parking regulation breaches in the cramped, crowded streets that surround it, I guess the new owners did not read the fine print in the contract, shoppers like me take advantage of the Harrods valet parking fee, it costs just £10 for the first hour, but I guess as the family has an estimated personal wealth of £2.4billion it was not really a cost saving exercise!

First Thing In The Morning,

Mr Tony called in for a drink and a chat, soft drink first then some coffees, we talked about the price of air tickets and that some airlines are doing special deals for a short time to the Philippines, then off to Friendship for some shopping, luckily the people collecting 'tea money' were having a late start,

next stop the pet/fish shop, but first a look at the dog homes Diana likes, I think she might want to get one for me!

the aquariums were more than a little bit dirty today,

the reason we called in was that one of the air pumps had stopped working, I thought I would have to buy a new one,

but for 60 baht it could be repaired, a new diaphragm was needed, so we just wandered around waiting for the repair,

a water feature,

with a nice flowering alba water lily,

along the front of the shop are these concrete ponds with fish in them, well of course after waiting for ever the pump was still not repaired so I bought a new one any way, I will pick the repaired one up tomorrow,

time for our night out, we always take the Secrets taxi, Diana looking lovely in her new dress a present From Epril in the Philippines,

to Cherry's it is buffet night on Wednesdays,

a slight Mr. Gravity moment at the table, but luckily missing her dress,

a fabulous selection of starters,

but first the salad bar,

Diana looking as lovely as ever,

starters for me included prawns and avocado, chicken slices with hard boiled egg, smoked salmon, potato salad and beetroot,

after her starters Diana went for some of the many main courses,

but the starters called me back! slices of roast beef, crab stick salad, pate and parma ham wrapped melon plus a few more,

Diana settled for spaghetti bolognese and meat balls,

Ah!

then on to the desserts,

fresh fruit for Diana,

mini fruit salad, apple strudel and a raspberry thingy for me, all in all for us great value for money including corkage for our wine 900 baht, the good news is that the next morning I still feel so full I can skip breakfast,

I mentioned before that Diana does not like black and white films, as if to prove me wrong we watched Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, she really enjoyed it! especially the telephone conversation between the President of the United States and Demetri, the Russian president, so much has been said about this film and parade by so many others, but for me Slim Pickings steals the show, who in real life was bareback bronc rider; saddle bronc rider; rodeo clown and bullfighter, that was not of course his real name but as a piece of trivia before becoming an actor, Slim was riding on the rodeo circuit, someone told him that he should take up another line of work because all he would ever get in the rodeo was "Slim Pickin's," his real name was Louis Bert Lindley Jr, then a few more of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, first The Superfluous Finger, a lady begs a doctor to remove one of her fingers, to deceive, but who? then Anonymous Letters, blackmail most foul in the higher circles of nobility, then off to bed.

This Has All Of The Makings Of A Good Luck Story,

painter and collector Rick Norsigian says he bought 65 negatives in 2000 for just $45 (£34), but it is thought that they could 10 years later be worth up to $200m! the negatives, a print of one pictured above are claimed to have been taken Ansel Adams, one of Americas greatest landscape photographers,

Adams at work above in the 1930's, but of course with this huge sum of money involved there is claim and counter claim from the Adams family and experts from the side of Rick Norsigian backing his claim, well I hope it all goes well for all concerned and an agreeable settlement can be worked out, but what a stroke of luck for Rick if they really are unknown examples of the work of Adams.

You Can Rely On Two Things In The UK,

our unreliable weather forecasts and over zealous council officials, most of my summer family days out consisted of dad checking the oil and air pressure in the car and mum packing buckets and spades, umbrellas, a wind break and sun cream, but it appears wind breaks are now banned, why? as two council officials from Bristol decided that a wind break was semi-permanent structure, the daring duo raced across Clifton Downs in their council 4 X 4 to stop the outbreak of lawlessness as the Hacker family and a Continental friend enjoyed their day out, Mr Hacker said: 'one of them asked who had erected the 'semi-permanent structure', 'are you on about the windbreak?' I said, He said that windbreaks weren't allowed due to the bye laws on the Down, one of them gave me a leaflet about the bye laws and it said you weren't allowed to put up tents or a gazebo, but it didn't say anything about windbreaks, 'both my family and I were shocked to be informed that we were breaking the law, I think they were being very strict,' Mr Hacker, 41, of Melbury Road, was told what made the windbreak "semi-permanent" was the fact that stakes had been driven into the ground to secure it, so the family did as they were told and took it down, 'we took the windbreak down and it was so windy our paper plates and serviettes were blowing everywhere, we didn't want to leave a mess as that would be breaking the law as well, so we packed up and drove home,' anyone contravening the bye laws, which also ban driving cars on the grass and lighting fires, could get a fixed penalty or a maximum fine of £500 if the case goes to court, I wonder if the driver of the council 4 X 4 had written permission to drive over the downs?

I think this cartoon from the Mail nicely sums up some council law enforcers, I also wonder if the young lad has got permission to fly the Union Jack.

but then a moment of sanity from the council, a city council spokesman said: 'We apologise to the gentleman and his family, clearly there needs to be discretion when enforcing the bye laws of the Downs,' better late then never!

The Day Started With A Mighty Crash From The Kitchen,

I must admit Diana has always been a bit 'unfortunate' in the knocking things over department, after breakfast as she made her way to the kitchen the cutlery on her plate also proved that Mr. Gravity was still working, I must admit Diana did say she was not too well, so she went back to bed, so I called over to see Mark, as usual we chatted about trains, stamps, motorbikes and other things with more than a few cups of tea, then back home and off to the market, Diana did not buy anything at this stall but on we went,

some rice, (we had run out, so off to Friendship tomorrow), some dried fish,

they look like a freshwater fish known locally as blah tepean, (spelt as it sounds),

these are a saltwater fish, I am not sure what they are called other than 20 baht!

I have not seen these in this market before, bags of dried seafood, shrimps, squid and other delicacies, not cheap either at 50 baht a small bag,

fresh baby asparagus, yummy!

and a bag of fresh green peas, I like eating those out of the fridge as a snack whilst watching television, but in truth they were a lot smaller than they looked,

a few bananas for snacking on,

the bar-b-q was in full swing,

not sure where the owner was,

then bargain of the day a whole melon for 25 baht,

then feet up for a film night, no change there then! first The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Vincent Price plays a "dead" man avenging the surgical team that lost his wife on the operating table, nine doctors in all (one of them a nurse) are treated to nine of the most innovative, creative, outlandish deaths imaginable, the deaths loosely follow the Ten Plagues of the Old Testament, but each with a new twist, I particularly like the one with the frog, the victim a psychologist, describes himself as a shrink,

as the cover suggests Public Enemies was next, the Feds try to take down notorious American gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during a booming crime wave in the 1930s, for both of us an enjoyable movie, with more than a grain of truth in the telling, for me in real life the role of Melvin Purvis showed just how tenacious the 'G-Men' as they were called had become,

then for me an old favorite, The Hunchback of Notre Dame,1939, Diana does not like watching black and white movies, but this one she watched the whole way through, in 15th century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only the deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral can save her, I liked the comment by Louis XI, the ruler of France, as he sat in his bath, some thing along the lines, 'you mean if I bathe twice a year the dirt is easier to remove? I'll think about that', I wonder how many times the poor at that time had a bath? then off to bed.

although now a few days old I really did like this story,

most families who buy a mass produced car never get more than they paid for it back when they come to resell it, but a vintage Morris Minor 1000 has been bought by the same Black Country garage which sold it as a new car – 42 years ago, and T Wall Garages has had to pay more than the car cost in 1968 to get it back, the maroon two-door saloon was bought from the Pensnett garage for £681.17s. 3d by coach driver George Gregg on July 1, 1968, He was given £50 part exchange for his old Austin A35 and had to pay an extra £8.10s to have seatbelts fitted, as George became older and stopped driving the car was then past on to his son Peter in 1985, dealer principal Tim Barnes made Peter a four-figure offer for the Morris Minor and is delighted with the firm’s new acquisition, the Morris has still only covered 46,000 miles, “We took it for its MoT and it sailed through,” he said, the aim is to use it for promotional purposes, charity events visits to schools, for me a great story, a little bit of UK motoring history surviving, I just wonder how many Morris Minors ended up on the scrap heap?

The Pound In Your Pocket,

may not be worth anything at all! I have seen a few fake £1 coins in the UK over the years, pretty poor copies they were too, but new counterfeiting gangs are getting more adept at fooling the public, look at the examples above, one is fake one is genuine, record numbers of fake £1 coins in circulation could force the Royal Mint to scrap the entire denomination and reissue it, there are now about 41million counterfeits, or one in every 36 coins in current use, it is thought that the proportion of fakes has tripled in the last decade, not that it is any consolation but other countries have had the same counterfeiting problem occur with there coinage, the five rand coin in 2004 was reissued after taxi-drivers and shopkeepers in South Africa started to refuse to accept them, fakes were just two per cent of all coins, compared with 2.81 per cent with the British £1, shoppers tend to only realise they have a fake coin when it is rejected by a parking meter or vending machine, which contains devices to monitor whether the metal composition of the coins are correct, however, at least half the fakes are now so good they pass these tests, so will the £1 coin be replaced? Robert Matthews, the former Queen's Assay Master at the Royal Mint, the most senior coin tester in the country, said: 'If the number of fakes keeps increasing at this rate, there will have to come a point when the Treasury makes the decision whether to remint or not.' as one commenter noted, 'bring back pounds shillings and pence! decimal money is foreign and was forced on us by Europe, if the good Lord had wanted us to use metric money he would have given us ten fingers and toes!' well yes, just out of interest the real coin is the one below.