By The Time You Read This I Will Be,

either on my way to the Philippines, or have already arrived there, my taxi is arriving at 8.00 this evening so a quick shave, shower and change and I will be on my way to meet Diana and her family, so two things, we will not be having our usual Saturday get together as we will not be here, also I will not be blogging till we return next week, so that is a relief for most of our friends who read it, the downside is that there will be a huge couple of blogs when we arrive back in Thailand, so till then bye!

Straight On With The Blog Today,

the Internet has not been working all morning so I guess it could stop at any time,

first stop, pick up Diana's welcome home presents from the Kodak shop,

then breakfast, this is Dat Coffee Shop, it is near where we buy our soup on the corner of Third Road and Soi 17,

a marble Mickey Mouse in the floor,

we have been past the shop a few times so I thought I would give it a try, nice and clean, it always seems to have a few people eating or drinking there,

view from the shop looking towards where we buy our soup, I had two ice coffees and a bacon and salad sandwich, I have forgotten how much the bill was, about 140, but I remember thinking it was very reasonable,

and looking at the shop towards Third Road,

a few of the presents waiting for Diana's return,

my Internet connection has over the past few years been getting worse as the months progressed, so here is one of the guys from 3BB putting my new cable in, a technician will call round next week to run the cable from the street into the house,

then out to a quiet Walking Street, it was 7.45 so not many people out and about,

steak and onions with boiled potatoes, that will set me up for the evening!

first stop, Living Dolls,

then on to Sweethearts, I meet up with Grieg for a few there, then on to see Juu in Champions along with Big Jim, then home to watch a couple of movies,

but on the way back I saw this stall, so I had to stop and buy a few more welcome home presents for Diana,

both myself and the motorbike taxi driver were watching a confrontation between 3 Russian tourist and a baht bus driver, after a few heated words in Russian (or similar language), they walked away, the reply came from the baht bus driver 'my country, my country, I kill you, I kill you!' in remarkably good English as he rushed back to his cab, we did not wait to see what for,

a few more welcome home presents for Diana, it will drive her mad seeing these and not knowing what is inside them (but she will have a pretty good guess!), then home and feet up,

I did not watch a movie but continued to watch The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, a BBC comedy which even having seen it before was still so funny, good though Reginald was, my real favorite character in the series was 'Doc' Morrisey, then time for bed.

I Wanted To Go Shopping,

so off to the market,

this is the entrance to the Soi Bukaow market that I normally use,

but for a change today I went into Soi Bukaow itself,

on the right is the market I normally go in to, with stalls right to the street, and boiling oil!

but if you are on a budget on the left hand side of Soi Bukaow there is a second market, selling secondhand goods, mainly clothes and shoes,

at this end there is mainly fruit stalls,

I took a slow walk through, buying a couple of things on the way, eventually arriving at the fish shop,

I then walked over to Friendship to shop a little there, but before I crossed the road I spotted the remotely controlled rocket firing electric toy ride from last night, what a coincidence that out of all of the bike repair shops in Pattaya I should bump into it the next day,

well a few things I bought needed to be gift wrapped, so I called into the Kodak shop where for a small fee they are wrapped for you,

it was also nice to have a look at their marine aquarium, the blue fish is a regal tang, the last time I saw one of those was when we went to the fish farm,

in case you want to use their service this is the view looking towards Decorum and Friendship,

I watched a few DVD's in the day time Judge John Deed series 5 being one of them, the strange thing is although it is on the BBC website you can it seems only buy this series in Holland - with Dutch subtitles - not English ones, a legal thing I guess,

then to the Pinklady Kitchen on Mick's recommendation for my evening meal,

2 glasses of pineapple juice, prawn cocktail for a starter,

sirloin steak and chips on a hot plate for the main course, 390 baht, it would have been 100 baht cheaper if I had the pepper steak, good food in a nice clean restaurant,

a quick look over my shoulder as I left, it is in Soi 17, this is the view if you are driving towards it from Third Road,

then feet up a quick look at the cable channels then settle down with a glass or two of red wine, then I watched The Day the Earth Stood Still, this was the 1951 version, much better than the remake, but then I so often find that is the case, then off to bed.

I Had A Busy Day Today,

so up and at it! first stop the post office in Jomtien on Soi 5, the same Soi that the immigration office is in,

looking towards the sea, then off to Pattaya Tai to pick up my dry cleaning and drop it at home, also on the way back out drop off some more washing to the local laundry,

I was going to Carrefour on Pattaya Central, many times various companies had a stand in this area, like car or bike manufacturers but today nothing doing,

at the entrance a local artist had made a sculptor from pieces of wood, clever but not really my taste,

the reason I was going to the store was to get a new Internet provider, the satellite I have at over 24,000 baht a year is only now working from 8.00 in the morning till 11.00, just 3 hours and then it is painfully slow, the rest of the day it sort of starts then stops, so here I am at 3BB, the ladies here spoke fairy good English, all I had to do was give them a signed copy of my passport and my address, the lady that was helping then took a book which had a diagram of all of the streets in Pattaya found my house in it and made a note of where it was, the cable is for the Internet only, no phone line on it, the hope is that it will be laid in the next week or so, then when we return from the Philippines it will be connected to my computer, the brochure from 3BB, the service I have gone for is just over 1,000 baht a month, I was told the cheaper service is fine in Thailand, but a bit shaky if you want to read the papers as I do from the UK,

by now I was getting a little hungry so I stopped off at this sushi stand, the lady does not look very happy in the picture, but she could not stop laughing when I showed it to her,

all the sushi here was 5 baht each,

on the way back I called into the laundry to pick up the washing I had left last week, in the 3BB bag is the dialer for the new service,

8 pieces 40 baht, complete with the sauces and a fork, great no washing up! which is what I did next, I had run out of clean cups/mugs, then Mick called in for a chat, as soon as he left Mark called in, good job I did the washing up, but I should have said that the death trap for me, the kitchen, struck again, I smacked my head on the kitchen cupboard that is over the sink, whilst Mark was here Harry telephoned to say that he could not change his flight so he was leaving this evening so did I want to pop over for a farewell drink, so when Mark left a quick shower and off I went to Harry's hotel,

'Cheers!' from us and a safe trip to Harry,

on the way to see Harry the traffic had been held up by this procession, but I caught it up again on Second Road as I was driving home, a Buddha image was on the lead truck, then an advertising truck,

following them a low loader with a reclining Buddha image,

with some monks using water to bless well wishers,

after the reclining Buddha there were some seated images,

on normal sized lorries,

I guess they were all going to be installed in a new temple,

then a second lorry followed on,

home for another quick shower then it was off to meet Eric and friends at the Great American Rib Company on Thepprist Road,

as the sign says great ribs,

there is indoor or outdoor seating,

Eric had ribs,

I had a steak,

some one ordered a sizzling dish, and boy was it sizzling!

but it eventually cooled down,

by now lots of food had arrived so it was heads down and tuck in!

Eric had seen a new bar, Secret Motions, just of off Theppersit,

strange place, 3 ladies inside, that was about it so we left,

and arrived at the Buffalo Bar on Third Road, where we had more than a few vodka sodas, then time for home,

but just as we got out side I noticed this,

a rocket launching kids buggy, not that strange, but what was is that some one had taken the time and trouble to make it remotely controlled, great fun, then home to bed.