We Had A Busy Thursday,

with friends calling round during the day, first to call in was Joe and his personal assistant Nan, Joe is a magician and does many corporate shows throughout the world,

then before I could do anything to the railway Mike and Riza arrived then John Boy, so it was all upstairs for a curry evening,

Big Jim, along with Mark, Jay and Precil were also there, so lots of food and drink for us upstairs,

whilst downstairs the girls Diana, Riza and Precil sung their hearts out on the karaoke machine, a great evening was had by all.

Why Are We So Ashamed Of Our National Flag?

is the question many people will be asking themselves, and the reason it has been banned from the new UK ID cards is that it might offend Northern Ireland nationalists, the fact that this decision has upset almost everybody else in the British Isles does not seem to count for much, but the good news is that the absence of the national flag drew a furious response from Unionists yesterday, who called the design a 'giant mistake', and urged a boycott of the scheme, Home Secretary Alan Johnson yesterday unveiled the final design for the credit- card sized plastic document which are scheduled to be issued nationally from 2012, now this is the bit I do not understand, Mr Johnson said that the card would never be made compulsory, well if that is the case why spend £200million on something you do not need to have? Ministers continue to claim it will be a convenient way to prove one's identity or age, and that combined with the national identity register it will help combat ID fraud, crime and terrorism, yesterday a poll by the civil rights group Liberty showed 68 per cent of people oppose ID cards, LibDem MP Chris Huhne said: 'A designer piece of plastic is not going to combat identity fraud, crime or terrorism, this intrusive scheme should be scrapped.' well if it is not compulsory why waste more money on it?

Happy Birthday To Nick!

so out of town for a meal,

along a very quite Sumkivait Highway,

past the Ambassador Hotel complex,

to the next set of traffic lights, easy to see gold shop at them, with a police station on the corner,

we are going to Perchai, the first car park on the right is one of the other seafood restaurants there, car park and restaurant empty,

a happy trio Maureen, birthday boy Nick and Diana,

having said that the first restaurant was empty there were not a huge number of people here, I have never seen Prechai so empty,

which meant that even the normal good service here was even better today!

"Cheers!" from all of us,

the usual fine selection of seafood, other courses to follow were steamed crabs legs, baby clams in chilly sauce and rock lobster tails fried in garlic,

and for desert a birthday cake,

and then present opening time,

a new shirt for Nick, many thanks for the meal and once again all together now "Happy Birthday" to Nick!

In 1812 Was Napoleon Defeated Before His March On Russia Was Ever Begun?

well it appears it could be so, according to author Stephan Talty, in his work "The Illustrious Dead: The Terrifying Story of How Typhus Killed Napoleon's Greatest Army." Talty carefully documents why 400,000 men never made it home, Ike few historians before him, he illuminates the critical role of a tiny enemy: the louse, even as the 600,000 strong army had set out men started to collapse at the roadside, but not as their officers thought, that they were drunk but of of "war plague" typhus, an easy to treat problem today but not so then, the investigation that began in 2001 with a gruesome discovery, a mass grave containing 2,000 corpses in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, at first thought killed by the KGB, or were Jews killed during the German occupation, but by examining belt buckles and uniform buttons with regimental numbers on them, archaeologists unraveled the mystery, the dead, it turned out, were soldiers of Napoleon's Grand Army, DNA samples from the teeth of the dead men and further lab analysis revealed that many of the hastily-buried bodies carried pathogens consistent with what was known in Napoleon's era as "war plague." the rest as they say is history.

Breakfast At The Golden Sands,

Breakfast At The Golden Sands, it is on the corner of Soi White House,

with a tailors behind it,

full menu but we only wanted a snack,

and it also had a 8 hour happy hour! tailors shop behind,

prawn salad for me and chicken with cashew nuts for Diana,

a few cars out and about,

but not that many people here,

looking across that road very few people on deckchairs, the bill came to 330 baht, I tried some of Diana's chicken, I must say it was one of the most tasty ones I have had, I do not know what was in it to make it so but it was delicious,

then up to carry on making the train set, to day I started on making a 5 engine round house,

so take two boxes of 3 and make 5, with one over for spares,

more than a few hours and many curses later, it is half completed,

the roof will not go on until the insides have been painted, I some times think I have to much time on my hands!

How Many People Does It Take To Repot A Plant?

well if it is one the oldest known pot plants in the world 9, plus a crane and a lifting frame to complete the job, the repot took place at Kew Gardens, a few newspapers are calling the cycad real name Encephalartos altensteninii the oldest pot plant in the world, but where does that leave hundreds of Bonsai plants which are over 200 years old? I guess though they are trees and not plants, anyway this specimen was collected on Cook's second voyage in the early 1770s from the Eastern Cape in South Africa by Kew's first plant hunter, Frances Masson, it was one of 500 species gathered for the botanical gardens during the voyage around the globe, if you have never visited Kew give it a try, I have been there many times and always found it interesting, although I should not say this, bring a bit of extra bread in your sandwiches to feed the fish in the pool near the main greenhouse, also this year Kew is 250 years old, Happy Birthday Kew!

When I Learnt How To Swim As A Kid We Were Given Certificates,

2 lengths of the pool 50 yard certificate, 4 lengths 100 yard, etc, but not any more, in Dagenham, Essex, lengths have been banned! regular users of the Dagenham Swimming Pool in Essex say the rules are a clear indication that Britain is gripped by 'health and safety insanity', a local resident Mr Bradford said: 'A lot of elderly people swim lengths of the pool to maintain their stamina and health and young people swim lengths to become better swimmers' Mr Bradford said he was told by the pool manager that they would need to have an extra lifeguard on duty if people were swimming lengths, as it was more difficult to keep an eye on them and there was not enough funding to pay for one, so not only is it a health and safety issue it is a failure of the council to proved a extra life guard on the grounds of cost, don't you just love these caring councils that put cost before the safety of their constituents? a council spokesperson denied the rumour that due to health and safety rules the pool was being emptied in case some one drowned.

Tuesday And It Was Off To The Market,

we had a little shopping to do, a birthday present for Nick and a new belt for me, this is the view of the market entrance from the car park at Friendship, we park the bike there then go to the market and then come back to do our food shopping in Friendship, we normally park a bit further away, but the boys in brown were not there today, so no voluntary contributions, as you go into the market your sense of smell works overtime! either side of the passage way there are small tables with more types of food than you can imagine and the smells, well the less said about them the better!

lots of hair products, and for me a belt, well 2 at 99 baht each, genuine copies, well what do you expect at 99 baht?

plenty of fresh vegetables,

a local aquarist helps herself to the fish of her choice,

I have seen many of these plants but never one in flower, just wish I knew what it was called, I am pretty sure it was not a Bromeliad, the members of this plant family are known as Bromeliaceae, the family contains over 3000 described species in approximately 56 genera, but I do not think this was one of them,

and of course lots of orchids,

I went to the corner cafe we went to last time,

the ladies were making these soft dumplings,

just mix the ingredients and they use a cone shaped funnel to make them,

the coffee here is strong so I had a ice coffee, the other nice thing here is that bit is at a cross roads, so many vendors walk past,

mission successful shopping all done!

"Ah!"

Jay phoned to say he was outside 388 with Precil, so it was home in double quick time!

Diana and Precil kept us supplied with tea and cola, meanwhile Mark and Anchisa called in for a cup of tea and a chat,

then before I knew it Jay had beaten me at cribbage, oh the shame! beaten by 3 games, if there is one thing I dislike more than a bad loser it is a bad winner! (joking) I know I will be ribbed about this in the weeks to came, just wait till he tells Mike and Riza, (I bet he already has!), by now it was getting late so it was time for our evening meal and watch a few DVD's first up was Night Of The Demon 1957, very scary but left behind now in the special effects department, then a History channel DVD, Ultimate Crimes - Headline Murders, not to gruesome, Diana likes this sort of thing, now there's a worry! we have got 6 or 7 of these Ultimate Crimes, so we will be watching a few more over the coming months,

then on to a sit-com favorite of mine from many years ago, "I Didn't Know You Cared" British humour at it's dry best from 1975 to 1979, Uncle Mort, a man who says it like he sees it, he, in the first episode, oh boy is this so politically incorrect! compared ladies to greyhounds, "the ladies do have one advantage over greyhounds - they don't run after motorbikes!" I have bought all 4 series, so a few to watch every week, strangely enough although the accents were from the north of England Diana did chuckle a few times, then at 2 in the morning off to bed!