I Popped Round To See Don Today,

I should have telephoned first as he was out,

 but the house almost opposite his has come on leaps and bounds,

 but by the time I returned home the once blue sky had taken a turn for the worse,

 on our way to the Friday night market we stopped at the pharmacy, Diana had a sore eye and we wanted to buy some eye drops,

 the shop was opposite the fresh food market we sometimes go to,

 lots of rain clouds as we arrived at the Friday night market,

 most stalls had already put up rain awnings, but I guess the book seller is hoping for no rain,

 unlike one of the toy stalls,

 it almost looks like they are looking for rain,

 a new artificial plant stall this week,

 almost too good to be true!

 a second hand clothes stall opposite the bar tonight,

 this was not looking good, no lychee's this week,

 but lots of rambutan amongst other fruits,

 a few people in the pet aisle,

 and a local cat,

 rain clouds coming up from Sattahip,

 and from the sea,

 I have seen these before, they look almost like runner beans,

 but I know not much more than that about them,

 I looked at some of the other fruit stalls for some lychee's,

 but there were none there, just rambutans,

 mango's,

 and dragon fruit,

 it almost looked like the cloud from the sea was starting to break up, maybe the book seller was correct not to put out rain awnings,

 just the owner sitting at the bar tonight as I arrived,

 there was still a lot of clouds coming from inland, but no rain,

 Diana had returned from shopping with some mangoes,

 in the distance a rainbow,

then we returned to 388 for our evening meal, well Diana snacked on some pizza from her birthday meal the day before, we watched satellite television till late, then for us we were off to bed.

School Dinner Times,

become a hot potato for Health & Safety,

head teacher Iain Gilmour ordered children at lunch time to whisper, as anything louder than that broke strict Health & Safety rules, Iain complained that the children’s cacophonous chatting could give staff migraines, but parents say the move was overly strict and prevented pupils at Isambard Brunel Junior School from relaxing between lessons, but Iain countered with the statement, 'in our lunch hall we had 110 children shouting, it was breaking Health & Safety laws in terms of decibels', but later he relented, 'we said to them “please talk quietly, and if you can’t talk quietly then don’t talk at all”, Health and Safety laws, quietly working for you!

Another Ride That Is Defiantly Not For Me,

as Switzerland launches the world's first Cabrio aerial cable way,

the new Cabrio at Stanserhorn near Lucerne features double-deck aerial cabins, with steps leading up to an open-top sun deck – and is the first in the world to offer such cable way technology, the lower largely glazed deck offers capacity for 60 passengers, of whom 30 at a time can climb the short inner stairway to the sun deck, two cabins travel in opposite directions suspended on supporting parallel cables,


Facts & Figures:Valley station: 711 meters
Summit station: 1850 meters
Length: 2320 meters
Capacity: 60 passengers
Hourly capacity: 465 passengers
Masts: 4
Speed: 8 meters per second
Travel time: 6 minutes 15 seconds
Track gauge: 5 meters,


Jürg Balsiger, Director of the Stanserhorn Railway Company, says: 'the Stanserhorn has always been an unforgettable Alpine experience – our vision is to make it even more memorable, this we are doing with the inauguration of new Cabrio aerial cable way. Swiss state-of-the-art innovation has created a spectacular but safe new dimension in Alpine travel,' that may well be so, but with my fear of heights I will not be traveling on it any time soon! even if I was a holder of a Swiss Pass, they benefit from special fares on the Stanserhorn, paying only half the normal price.

I Missed It!

it being a 1929 Bentley,

the car went for £5,042,000 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, making it the most expensive British-made car ever sold at auction, the car, known as a Bentley Blower, was fitted with a 4.5-litre supercharged engine which developed 240bhp, just 54 were built, with the sports cars capable of accelerating from 0-60mph in just 8 seconds, the sad part was that I had already made a post about the car and its history, what a car! but I just missed the date of the auction, I must pay more attention next time!

Happy Birthday To Diana!

she wanted to keep her birthday low key,

 but now it is presents time!

 smallest first from me,

 Diana knows that the two presents I had bought her had been in the safe for some time,

 but she did not know that I had bought then when we were in Cambodia, a pair of earrings, 

 to match the ring and necklace I had bought her there,

next the medium sized gift,

 a matching bracelet,

 I have to say it was a major job keeping them away from Diana, then having the boxes sent out from the UK, wrapping them and all of the time keeping them secret,

 next the big present from Nick and Maureen, Diana had been shaking it before today, but did not have a clue what was inside,

 a jewelry box,

 beautifully inlaid, Diana also wanted to say thank you to Mr. Tony for the chocolates,

 then for me down to the bank, again!

 then home to pick up Diana followed by a trip to the money exchange,

 guess where next? that's right, the gold shop, our annual trade up,

 this time from 2 baht to 3 baht, nice it looks too,

 home and change, out again,

 to the hell hole known as the Central Festival motorcycle park, the planners seriously under estimated how many people use bikes out here, parking is not the problem, the problems start when you want to leave and have to move 3 or 4 other bikes to get yours out, still it gives the attendents something to laugh about as they watch you stuggle as they sit a few bikes away,

but having arrived were here to watch Prometheus, a team of scientists travels through the universe on the spaceship "Prometheus" on a voyage to investigate Alien life forms, I can best describe it as another Aliens movie, but with a much more complicated plot and special effects, scary in a number of places, also lots of slime and goo, arrange to eat after rather than before watching would be my advice,

 which is what we did, arriving home a shower and a change and we were of to Pan Pan, this outlet is located at the crossing of Tappraya Road with Teprasit Road at the beginning of Jomtien, (there are two others in the area),

 Diana looking as lovely as ever wearing all of her jewelry from Cambodia,

 the restaurant was quiet empty when we arrived,

 one of the reasons Diana wanted to came here was the selection of desserts,

 most with fresh cream,

 all of them so tempting!

 Diana chose spaghetti carbonara, smoked salmon for me with freshly made hot bread,

 the good news was that I had one of those carafes of wine that kept filling up, 'Cheers!'

 next our main courses, a huge pizza for Diana and a steak for me,

 when I say huge, it was,

 she tucked into straight away,

 after a suitable break our desserts arrived, whilst I was distracted having our picture taken,

 Diana had already started on her dessert, look where I am pointing, gone in a flash before I could take a picture!

 Diana had tiramisu, I had torta Brazil, they were delicious, the meal for the two of us came to 2,800 baht, a great night out for both of us, especialy birthday girl Diana,

this is the view of Pan Pan from the other side of the road,

if you come along Teprasit Road you will see this big television screen at the traffic lights, turn right there and the restaurant is on the left, next for us home feet up a bit of television then for us we were off to bed.