First Stop,

the bank,

 which is opposite the Pattaya Beer Garden,

 looking outside the bank the Samsung television screen is working fine this week,

the day just sort of slipped past, in the evening we had a game of Monopoly, we were in fact waiting for the Monday evening's first showing of some of the series we like so much, like Gold Rush, Bering Sea Gold and Deadliest Catch, I should mention as you can see by the picture that I won at Monopoly but that victory was short lived as Diana won the second game,

for the last part of the evening we watched the second half of Judgement from the Silent Witness box set that we have, then for us we were off to bed.

Together In Life,

united in death,

in Roermont in the southern part of the Netherlands, where most people are Catholic, there is a cemetery with a large burial site for Catholics and a small area for Protestants
however the Protestant part of the cemetery is separated by tall brick wall which led to this strange grave that spans both sides of the cemetery, here is the story,

'in 1842 a twenty-two year old Catholic woman of nobility (J.W.C. van Gorkum) married a colonel in the Dutch Cavalry, He was not of nobility and was Protestant as well, that must have been the scandal of the century in Roermont, however, the marriage had lasted almost forty years, then the colonel died,

eight years later the woman past away also, She had refused to be laid to rest in the family's large tomb and, instead, had ordered the monument that you can still see today, She lies on one side of the wall, he on the other, still holding hands', true love will alway find a way.

It Should Have Been A Crowning Achievement,

but success slipped away,

it was to have featured in the Guinness Book of Records and luckily jigsaw maker Dave Evens had already measured and photographed the giant jigsaw puzzle and sent the information off to the Guinness World Records before it broke up, the jigsaw was a montage of photos of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee,

it was being built on a sloping board, but disaster struck as it slowly but surely slid from the board that he was building it on, to create the 40,000 piece jigsaw he spent over 200 hours cutting the jigsaw from wood,

but just a day after putting the final segment in place, his 6m (19ft 6in) by 2.5m (8ft) jigsaw suddenly crumpled to the floor, breaking into thousands of pieces, Dave served as an apprentice jigsaw maker for the renowned Victory Puzzles and has cut thousands of jigsaws during his career,


the puzzle is due to be displayed in the Queen’s Ball Room at Sandringham alongside 100,000 cards she received for her Jubilee until November, after that the puzzle will be auctioned off and the money will go towards the Help For Heroes charity, so Dave is asking if any volunteers are willing to help him complete the puzzle in time, so if you want to help to put Humpty Dumpty back together again now is your chance,


by the way in case you're thinking that Humpty Dumpty was an egg you would be incorrect Humpty Dumpty was not in fact a person but a cannon, used in the English Civil War, a quote from the article,


'a shot from a Parliamentary cannon succeeded in damaging the wall beneath Humpty Dumpty which caused the cannon to tumble to the ground, the Royalists, or Cavaliers, 'all the King's men' attempted to raise Humpty Dumpty on to another part of the wall, however, because the cannon , or Humpty Dumpty, was so heavy ' all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty together again!'


hopefully Dave and his army of volunteers will have more luck with the jigsaw puzzle.

They Are Black!

well I should say they are not yellow anymore,

'they' being what could have possible been the closest double yellow lines in Great Britain, the lines were in an alley just 4FT wide, locals called the decision “totally ridiculous”, last night it emerged contractors have been back and covered over the lines with black paint in Swindon, Wilts, we mentioned the lines being painted some time ago, so I guess with time the costly yellow mistake and the black remedy will be forgotten.

First Thing In The Morning,

as I watered the plants,

 looking at the sky I wondered if I had wasted my time,

 huge water laden clouds rolling in, but it was just as well I did water them is not a single drop of rain fell,

after spending some time playing with my stamps, I'm in the process of scanning each page so I have a permanent record of what stamps I have with out having to look through the physical albums, we got ready for our late Sunday lunch, so it was glad rags on,

 today we were joined by Mr Tony and Phil and decided to eat at Cherry's,

 first stop the salad bar,

as we arrive back from the salad bar we had been served an amuse bouche, fried fish with tartar sauce,

 our starters were next to arrive, both Phil and Diana going for the set menu,

 whilst I decided to go à la carte and ordered a lobster bisque soup,

 with freshly ground pepper,

 Diana and Phillips set course meal had a fish served on tarragon leaves starter,

 followed by pumpkin soup,

 meanwhile I had decided I starter of honey glazed baked salmon served on potatoes and asparagus with a white cream sauce,

 for a break in the proceedings a orange sorbet was served,

 our main courses then arrived, a steak for Diana and Phil and a lamb shank for Mr Tony,

 for myself I went with the Australian lamb chops served with vegetables,

 both Diana and Philip had the chocolate mousse dessert included in the set menu which at 325 baht per person is really good value for money,

 by now I was really full so I declined the desert and went with a nice port and latte coffee,

 Mr Tony also joined me in a coffee to round off the meal,

 outside there is a seating area for people waiting for a table and for smokers,

 next to the seating area there is the customary shrine,

 again Cherry's excelled itself, the food excellent, the staff attentive, we will be back! Cherry's is located on Third Road opposite what was once the Ex-cite disco,

both Mr Tony and Phil decided to head straight for home as by now it was getting late, so for us inside feet up and another episode from Silent Witness, tonights episode was titled Judgement, we only watched the first half, so we are looking forward to seeing the conclusion tomorrow, but for now we were off to bed.

I Must Admit I Have Always Quiet Liked The Jaguar XK120,

finished in British racing green,

 or like this one, white with a red interior,

so where to start? buying a project to restore is one way to go, this one was being offered at the Coys auction in Ascot, Berkshire with a £15,000 to £25,000 estimate, but it appears that it was not just any old rusty XK, it was a Competition Roadster, and was one of the world’s fastest cars when it left the production factory in 1953, a fact that a few enthusiasts took into account when the car finally went under the hammer at £85,000,


a nice result for owner Douglas Potter who raced the vehicle before storing it at his home in Surrey for more than four decades, restoration will cost an estimated £100,000, so who knows maybe it would have been cheaper to buy one already restored?

I Have Split Todays Post Into Three Parts,

as when I use many pictures in one post it slows up the whole process of posting them,

today we were off,

 to the International Livestock Show which is a three-day event, held at the National Sports Stadium on Soi Chaiyapruek 2,

 but as we arrived we were in for a surprise,

 there was also an International drift competition taking place,

 I was aware of the sport but it never really watched it on television,

 but here it was in real life,

 having said that these are just warm up laps, the real racing has not take place till later on this afternoon,

 so on into the National Sports Stadium,

 the sign outside says it all,

we have been to the stadium a few times before, once for this livestock show,

 and one other time when a Thai Buddhist Amulet exhibition was taking place,

 then we were inside looking at the different types of livestock that were here,

 there were not just cattle here but also goats,

 and chickens,

 it was of course an exhibition and there were prizes to be won, these for the best goats in the competition,

 this I believe is the final lineup,

 with one of the judges asking one of the exhibitors to move the animal slightly,

 then the lineup was complete,

 then moved onto the cattle section,

 it is amazing how many different farms are in Thailand,

 that specialise in Thai Brahman cattle, although of course they are originaly from India,

 the animals themselves are huge,

 and again like goats they are all being exhibited in a competition to find the best,

 each farm taking their best animals around the competition arena,

 this is one of the many booths where you can buy cattle or enlist breeding services from bulls and heifers,

 each farm owner proudly displaying the trophies that his herd have won in the past,

 we then passed a pen where small goats were displayed,

 this one seemed to like having his picture taken,

he always seemed to adopt the perfect pose, after looking around the rest of the livestock we then made a move outside to watch some of the drifting in the next post.