In The Morning,

we had a few friends call in,

  Mick, Moochi and Jimmy called in, they are off on a trip to the north of Thailand, so we had a chat, after saying farewells and wishing them bon voyage, we had a slight change of plans for the day, we had planned on going fishing but Nick was having problems with his pool so decided to work on that today,

 so we then made a move to Friendship,

  for some beef as we are going to have beef stew and dumplings after our trip to the market tomorrow and we were nearly out of candles that we use on a Saturday evening we bought a few packs of those,

 whilst Diana was going around Friendship I popped over to the Kodak shop,

 as we had our new visas I had copied our passports and had them made into business card size,

 so there was a copy of our passport on one side and our visas on the other to carry around with us,

 both were then laminated,

 making my way back to Friendship outside the new wing a money booth had been placed at the front of it,

plus space had been made for a small motorbike park,

 later in the afternoon Mark called by for a coffee and a chat, after our evening meal it was feet up for some television, or I should say Bluray discs, firstly Dark Star, a very old sci-fi, made in 1974, a comedy in many ways as an alien outwits one of the crew and a smart bomb becomes way too smart for itself and the crew, not everyone's taste and of course showing it's age in the special effects department, but I thought it was well done in many places,

 I was a bit dubious about Dracula Untold when we bought it, thinking another spin off of the same story, but we were both pleasantly surprised by this new take on the legend, stunningly good special effects made for very entertaining viewing and a great story line,

speaking of great special effects the same is true of Total Recall, no tongue in cheek story line here like the 1990 version, this was a real all out every thing in the effects department goes, having said that the story was so different from the earlier versions but instead of travelling to different planets the protagonists travelled to the other side of earth, but still a great film to watch, now almost midnight with that we were off to bed.

How Often As You Drive Towards Traffic Lights,

do you think 'I wish I could change them to green',

well it is not going to happen quite yet, but if you have an app for iOS and Android that communicates with a city’s traffic lights to let you know when a stale green light is about to turn yellow, or a red light two blocks ahead will turn green it may help you judge your distance and therefore speed as you approach the light, the app is called EnLighten and is the brainchild of Matt Ginsberg, CEO and founder of Connected Signals, a red, yellow, or green circle indicates the current state of the signal, a countdown pops up at the bottom of the circle, letting the driver know how long before the green light goes red and then how you'll have to wait at the red light, EnLighten requires the cooperation of cities to make it work, it works in the states of Portland and Eugene (Connected Signals’ headquarters) in Oregon are all fully covered, as well as Salt Lake City, the app will roll out in other cities as the company gains access to its traffic signals, BMW announced on Monday that its iDrive system will integrate with EnLighten for iOS, any BMW with the iDrive system, even cars already on the road, can install the app and control it using iDrive, but here is the big one, where can I get an app that will actually change the lights to green as I approach them, like I guess they have on fire trucks etc?

I Keep Hearing More And More,

about 3D printers,

but I had never realised how big they could be,

there is one in China that can print a house and better still make a two-story villa from six modules, putting the 3D-printed pieces together on site with conventional equipment in under three hours! it is a product of the ZhuoDa group, the company and its web site is huge, I am not sure if this will work, but follow the butterflies.

I Often Come Across Sites I Have Not Seen Before,

and this is one of them, 

if you find the above joke funny, well I did, there are more of them here at animals got problems, have fun!

Keeping To A Joke Theme,

how to get your kids off of their computer games,

if only real life for parents could be that good! from Jim Benton joke pages.

The Day Got Off To A Good Start,

we were up early to go to immigration,

 and as we closed the front gate we we were greeted by a rainbow,

 in no time at all we arrived,

 parked the bike and made our way inside,

 there was only one person in front of us, we handed in our paperwork which was examined and given a card and told to call back after 3.00 in the afternoon, back on to the bike and home we went,

 a quick change and we were parked up in Walking Street,

 and heading towards our breakfast,

 when we noticed either the same car we had seen at the weekend plant market, or another one where the owner had the same idea for a car accessory,

 under the Walking Street sign,

 as a mobile plant seller walked towards the street,

 as we made our way to the tables a digger was making a trench,

 in the sand,

 I guess to bury this pipe, 

 and here we were at the Pattaya Beer Garden,

 just as we arrived there were a few spots of rain, in the distance the clouds looked a little ominous,

 having sat down I could then see the water pump that the big pipe presumably was going to be connected to,

 we normally arrive here on immigration days about 10.00 just as they open, where there are usually 4 or 5 couples like us with more arriving as we eat our breakfast, today we were a bit later at 10.30, the difference being not a soul was there, we had the place to ourselves, stranger still we took our our time ordering and eating our food, but as we left we were still the only customers, what a difference a few weeks had made since we were last here, when I had my visa details transferred to my new passport when I returned from the UK,

 the new building next to the Pattaya City sign nearing completion, a few more months and I guess it will be occupied,

 a start to our breakfast, a diet coke for Diana, an ice coffee for myself,

 our breakfast arrived,

 mini beef burgers or sliders as they are called here for Diana,

 and three pieces of chicken in breadcrumbs for myself,

 the bill came to 370 baht, we made our way back along the walkway to Beach Road when it struck me,

 it was Wednesday, so there were no deck chairs or umbrellas on the beach as they are not allowed on Wednesdays, I wonder if that explains why there were no customers in the beer garden? instead of going to the beach and eating out as there is now no shade or deck chairs to sit on the tourists and long term visitors stay at their hotels, eat there and spend the day by the hotel pool or go shopping? just a thought,

 in the afternoon Mark called in for a coffee and a chat as did Mr, Tony, later we called back and picked up our passports all stamped and tickety-boo, then called in to Country Favourites which is in Soi Bonkai 2 for a Indian takeaway,

 masala poppadoms for our first starter,

 followed by,

 onion bhajis and chicken samosa,

 finally our main course, chicken tikka masala, vindaloo and jalfrezi with aloo gobi and peas pulau rice, 'Cheers', after all of that we were full to bursting, so we did not have any ice cream or chocolate, we spent the evening listening to music,

moving inside at about 11.00 a couple of episodes from Red Dwarf and we were off to bed.

At First I Thought These Were Paintings Of Hands,

but they are not, 

the images are painted on the artist hand, the pictures are the work of Italian artist Luca Luce, He’s a makeup artist by profession, but he uses his extensive knowledge of colours and shading to create surreal optical illusions on his own palm,

it really does look like a piece of his palm has been lifted and placed aside and in this one it looks like the skin of his palm has been peeled backward to reveal a power outlet, what an amazing talent.

I Do Like A Latte Coffee,

so although not yet available,

I had to make a post about these caramel latte coffee lollies, made by Holly's Lollies, there is also a vanilla version soon to be available, these are just a few of the lollies that are or will be available, and there was me thinking lollies were only for kids!

What Three Things Do All Umbrellas Have In Common?

they open, they close and you lose them!

 well the last option may be a thing of the past with this new umbrella,

 you can sync Haz up with your smartphone, through its Location Tracking feature you will receive notifications reminding you where your umbrella is in the event you can’t find it, click open the app, then click on the map and the location of your umbrella will pop up on your smartphone, the Location Tracking feature has a range of almost 100 feet, if your umbrella is not within that range you will still receive a notification of where you last left it,

the Haz app also sends you notifications on the weather as it changes, so well before it rains you will get an alert to let you know that you will need to have your Haz umbrella on hand before heading outside, the app also provides notices of high UV levels, which is another added bonus,

but this has got to be the neatest bit, it is motorised, so with the push of a button Haz opens and closes, and retracts with ease,the motor, cutting-edge in every sense, is powered by a rechargeable LIB  (Li-Ion Battery) which lasts a long time, the days of your umbrella not opening or closely properly is now a thing of the past, according to Harry Hu the inventor of the Haz umbrella, apparently it will sell for $69 and no I am not on commission, I just thought it was neat.