Slim Jim Had Returned From The US,

so we popped over to say hello and have a chat,

he had brought loads of toys back with him,

 a 5" wood lathe, belt sander,

 grinder with flexie shaft,

 and as we would say in the UK a pillar drill, Jim enjoys making things, so now he is all set to continue his hobby, we chatted for some time then we were off,

 to Foodland in Pattaya Klang, (Central Road), we both like corned beef, Mark told us tins of it here were about 45 baht a tin here less than anywhere else, so as we were in the area we decided to buy a few,

 also we were told that in what was Carefour, now Big C they sold some nice pizzas deep frozen, so we stopped of to buy three of them as the store was in the same road,

 naturally we had to have an ice cream first, I mean Diana walk past a Swensen's? no way, so we spent all of the money and a bit more that we were supposed to have saved by going to Big C on ice cream, so that bit of financial planing worked - not,

 then Diana could not make up her mind which one she wanted,

Mark called by in the afternoon, we watched a couple of 'Carry On' movies, the first Carry on Camping, Sid and Bernie want to take their girlfriends Joan and Anthea camping -  to a nudist camp site, of course they end up in the wrong place, but the site is far from normal,

next Carry on Doctor, the popular Dr Kilmore is sacked after being discovered in a compromising position on the roof of the nurses' home, the patients are determined not to lose him, and so take on the might of the "cutting" Dr Tinkle and the overpowering Matron, in all there are about 30 Carry On films, many with actors appearing in more than one, typically British and good fun, similar I guess to Benny Hill in many respects, after Mark left we had our evening meal and watched some of the television series Swamp People,

to round off the evening Waking the Dead, End of the Night, on a lonely road a tyre bursts stranding Gemma Morrison and her younger brother, two people stop, she was raped, and her young brother killed,  Eve proves that the blow-out was no accident, has this happened before? in the early hours of the morning we were then off to bed.

More Than A Few Times,

I am asked 'what do you miss about the UK?'



in answer I have to say very little, but there is one event this weekend I would love to attend, The Great Dorset Steam Fair, the spectacle covers an enormous showground, at over 600 acres being one of Europe's largest outdoor event locations, 2012 will see the show in its 44th year, The Great Dorset Steam Fair is a typically British event offering a unique blend of nostalgia and entertainment, there is no other event like it anywhere in the world which is why over 200,000 visitors attend each year both from the UK and from all over the World,


the last time we were in the UK we visited the Rudwick Steam Fair, we both enjoyed it, well at least I did! but having said that Diana was totally taken by the Wall of Death motorcycle display, every time a rider came near to the top of the wall Diana screamed, so if you are in the UK this weekend and have nothing planned this is the last time to visit the 2012 year show.

I Can Imagine In The Times Of The Wild West,

it was perfectly normal to have a 'get away' horse waiting outside the bank you were robbing,

but in this day and age the same thing would be a bit slow as a get away from the scene of the crime device, especially if you were towing a mobile flower cart, but that did not deter George Smith, cool as a cucumber he went into town with his horse and saw an opportunity to make a few pounds, he tried to steal a flower cart by hitching it to his horse and riding off into the sunset, onlookers in Stavordale Road, Carshalton, Surrey in the UK were shocked when Smith arrived with his horse, a chestnut mare, and hooked her to the flower stall in broad daylight on June 26, the cart, which belongs to florist Christopher Tucker, was dragged through a supermarket car park and down side alleys before police caught up with the 36-year-old and arrested him,


Smith, of Canal Walk, Croydon, pleaded guilty to one count of theft by finding when he appeared at Croydon Magistrates’ Court last Thursday, remorseful for what he had done, delivering the verdict magistrates ordered Smith to pay a £110 fine, £85 in court costs and a £15 victim surcharge, note to self, if I am ever tempted to drive away with a flower cart use a car!

There Did Not Seem To Be Much That We Found Interesting, Amusing Or Just Plain Weird,

in the news today, so straight on with the post,

after spending a semi sleepless and uncomfortable night with a throbbing tooth ache I was waiting for the dentist to open first thing in the morning, unfortunately there were a couple of people with appointments, but as soon as he could fit me in I was seen, after an X-Ray, a small amount of drilling and a packet of antibiotics I was on my way, the thought was that it was not the tooth, but a gum infection,


I can hear it now, 'teeth are alright, but the gums are going to have to go!' but here is the good news within a few hours the pain had all but subsided, if you need a dentist locally the one we use is Dr. Chanis almost opposite the Friendship supermarket in Pattaya Tai,

 Mark called round for a coffee and a chat, after he left it was glad rags on, the thing is this time last night I was in such pain I thought we would have to call this evening off, but just 24 hours later we were ready to go,

 Diana looking as lovely as ever,

tonight we were off to the China Garden in Soi Lengkee, it is described as a Chinese Restaurant & Boutique Hotel,

 there were a few dinners outside, but when we arrived we were the only customers, but during the course of the evening more arrived,

 after some prawn crackers we went for the mixed starters,

 and a glass of wine,

 we tend to take the whole evening over our meals, that way we can have a few more courses than normal,

 chicken and sweetcorn soup next,

 followed by Peking duck, pancakes, plum sauce with sliced onion and cucumber,

 then after a suitable break our main course, 'Cheers!'

  special chow mien, chicken curry with seafood fried rice, all of which was delicious,

 

the kitchen can be seen from the dinning area, every so often a flash of flame can be seen as one dish or another is prepared, another lovely meal, the bill including wine came to 2,600 baht, it may seem a lot, but then we did take 3 hours or so over the meal so we did order an extra course that many would not have ordered, if you like 'English' style Chinese food this is the place to go,

during the day we watched a bitter sweet film, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, the 1939 version, it is basically the memories of an old classics teacher at the end of his career and life looking back, remembering pupils and colleagues, and above all the idyllic courtship and marriage that transformed him from being shy and aloof person to one of friendship and respect from his colleagues and pupils, from the film, "haec olim meminisse juvabit" one of the films I enjoy watching again and again, surprisingly Diana enjoyed it as much as I did,

 we also watched the first part of the The Naked Gun Trilogy, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! so funny even though slightly out of date,

to round the evening off after our meal it was feet up, ice cream and another visit to Downton Abbey for a Christmas special, we are all captivated by the series and are eagerly awaiting the new series, after that we said our goodbyes to Mr. Tony and we were off to bed.

Straight On To Today's Post

yesterday in the evening I had the start of a tooth ache,

 after a couple of hours it was sever, so as soon as the dentist is opens today I will be first in the queue! but back to yesterday, Jay and Precil called round in the afternoon,

 whilst Jay and myself had a chat the girls decided they were hungry so off shopping they went,

 mission accomplished, so then back for a few nibbles, after Jay and Precil left Mark called round for a coffee and a chat, we naturally put the world to rights before he left, next feet up for a few DVDs,

first an oldie, When Worlds Collide, I have copied and pasted my comments from when we watched it before, 'sure it can not compete with today's special effects as it was made in 1951, but when I watched it as a kid it was so real, the planet Zyra will collide with Earth and wipe out all of humanity, despite widespread disbelief, two philanthropists give Dr. Hendron some of the money he needs to build a rocket ship that will, at least theoretically, take them to Zyra, which may or may not be habitable for humans, the rest of the money comes from Sydney Stanton, a wheelchair-bound old man, who insists he come along, despite the severe limitations on the number of passengers and amount of cargo', one of the few end of the world movies that has not been remade in the past few years,

we now had received L. A. Law series 2, but there were a couple of episodes we had not watched on series 1, so it was time to catch up, still a great favourite of mine, Diana had more than a few chuckles at the antics of some of the crew, in case you do not know the series is about the lives and work of the staff of a major Los Angeles law firm,

this BluRay contains breathtaking aerial footage filmed over 15 years from the air over the earth that was visually stunning but with a doom and gloom commentary, it is all our fault is the message, so switch the commentary off and a nice piece of music on to be totally captivated by the images,

our late evening or I should say early morning viewing was the first from series 8 Waking the Dead, Magdalene 26, great story with a real twist towards the end, a middle-aged woman nude and wandering in woods after an apparent car crash is found and hospitalised, before she regains her memory an attempt is made on her life, who is she? and why is she wanted dead? yet again Boyd goes to a new crime scene, a car, whilst screaming at everyone not to touch it, he then crawls and handles everything he can find with out gloves on! pity attention to small things like this happen over and over again, but still great fun to watch, with that and a throbbing tooth we were off to bed.

It Was Time To Go To The Bank Again,

we had also decided on a different venue for our breakfast,

 normally we would go to the Pattaya Beer Garden opposite,

 it is at Beach Road where the traffic after 7.00 in the evening has to turn left,

 so for our new venue we travelled along Walking Street,

 under the Samsung television,

 into Walking Street,

 I had given Diana the camera,

 so she was shooting over my shoulder as we made our way along the street,

 I have to say I had not heard of the Lighthouse go-go before, but then new go-gos must be opening up all of the time,

 but I had been to Alcatraz before,

 the street looks so different in daylight, we are just coming to the T junction of Soi Diamond and the street,

  past Sweethearts and along to Teazers,

 nearly at Champions,

 and there it is on the left,

 coming up to the big tree shrine,

 and the Simon Beer Bar complex,

 one of Diana's favourite restaurants,

 McDonald's, not the smallest McDonald's around but surprisingly close,

 we are coming up to the end of the street, a beach front restaurant on the right,

 with a hotel on the left, the street at the end in the distance here gets quite narrow,

 then opens up into the square opposite the Bali Hai pier buildings, I am not sure what this new building on what was open space will be,

this is the place for fresh seafood, just opposite the new building

 lots of shrimps, crabs and shellfish for sale here every day,

 straight across at the cross road,

 and past the boat park on the right,

 it seemed surprisingly empty,

 normally it is packed with boats at this time of the year,

 it must be a busier quiet season than I thought,

 we made our way along the road that goes past the boat park, lined with the new dolphin lampposts,

 I had almost convinced myself that the absence of boats was because they were in for repair/maintenance, but here were all of their trailers, so they must be out at sea,

 we had now driven to where the builders were working on the new jetty,

 lots of pilings in the sea,

 there was a non-stop fleet of concrete mixing lorries coming and going,

 the liquid mix being moved by crane,

 we then came to the lighthouse where the road turns sharply to the left and goes uphill,

 the restaurant we had chosen was the one next to the lighthouse,

 this is it, nicely shaded by tress, unfortunately I did not know its name, but it is easy to find,

it has a car park to the left of it,
 

looking back towards Pattaya,

there is seating area on the beach,

as well as by the restaurant,

we chose the beach tables, which meant crossing the wall to the beach

our table by the wall,

nicely in the shade,

the view looking out to sea,

an ice coffee to start,

then our food arrived,

and there was lots of it,

we had ordered the medium sized prawn fried rice which was 150 baht, thinking it would be small we also ordered some deep fried prawns at 200 baht, but really the prawns in rice would have been enough, there were so many of them, best of all they were delicious, another nice thing about eating here apart from the view is that there is a continual breeze to keep you cool,

 

then back to Pattaya past the never ending concrete mixers,
 

all along the road past the boat park and the now famous dolphin lights,
 

we went over the flyover on the way back, past the go-kart track,

Diana took a few more pictures on the way from the flyover,

the road below looking almost deserted,

then as we went down the flyover I noticed something on the right I had not seen before,
 

a new shop hiring out three wheelers,

all of the outfits were brand new, they all had red plates,

and very nice they looked too,

the shop called the Happy Three Wheeler is on the left hand side if you are travelling along Third Road on your way to Bali Hai pier just after the flyover starts,

here is their map of how to find them,

and price list, what a great way to get around town for three people or for two to get your shopping and bung it all in the sidecar,

 

when we arrived home we watched some television but for our film we watched Knowing, a time capsule buried for 50 years is dug up, it contains predictions of events that occur, worryingly the last one predicts the end of the world, all predicted so far have happened,

the last was The Hound of the Baskervilles, although most like Jeremy Brett playing Holmes, I have to say I almost prefer Matt Frewer, he may be more well known as Max Headroom, a great performance, then for us we were off to bed.