Monday 27 February 2017

We Are Only Making One Post Today,

and it will be short and fast,


 as we are leaving home very early, we were going to have the new crop of mushrooms for breakfast, but as we will be in a hurry tomorrow we had them for our evening meal this evening,

 and nice they were too, hopefully a new crop will appear for next week, during the day Mark called round for a tea and a chat, we also had to charge the batteries for the camera and the Kindle, so we are already for tomorrow, in the evening it was feet up for Bargain Hunt, proving yet again there were no bargains to be had at the antiques fairs that the contestants visited, but there were bargains galore at the auction when the goods they bought were sold off! we spent the rest of the evening watching Netflix, Black Sails our choice for the evening as it had English subtitles, which surprisingly enough the UK Blue Ray we bought did not, and with the end of three more episodes we were off to bed.


We Went Out For Sunday Lunch,

Russ and Slim Jim called round,


 and we booked a Grab Taxi to take us to Aroi pub resto, which is situated on Sumkivitt Soi 89, the Soi is almost opposite Underwater World,

 we were greeted by the starters, salads,

 with potato and egg mayonnaise,

 next to the main meal vegetables,

 and meats, today Australian beef and lamb as well as chicken and ribs,

 expertly carved by Belgian owner Peter, I should also mention there is soup of the day included in the price,

 Slim Jim decided on one of the 24 or so different bottled Belgium beers on offer,

 we were also joined today by Cher and Jim along with Mr. Tony,

 as you might expect all of the meal was first class, included in the meal is an ice cream dessert, but the fruit pies here can not be missed,

 we all enjoyed them,

 the choice today was,

 cherry, apple or rhubarb,

 after our meal we all had a coffee,

 excellent! 

 'thank goodness their going!' no really Peter could not have made us all more welcome, for Sunday lunch, evening meal or afternoon snack this is the place to be,

and here is the map showing where it is, there is parking opposite

we said our farewells on the way home we noticed this beauty pulled up along side us, one day if I ever have the money that could be me, Russ came back with us and we chatted the afternoon and early evening away, saying goodbye it was feet up for some Judge Judy, Cops and with that we were off to bed.


They Say That The English And Americans,

are two nations separated by a common language, 


the quote has been attributed to many, leaving that debate to one side I came across this ingenious infographic by Grammar Check, a website that offers editing and proofreading services, if you go to the link there are 63 different meanings for the same object, so hopefully that will explain a little more plainly about our daily writings! 


I Thought This Bowl Looked Quite Nice,

and it appears you can make one yourself,


 using wood, if you have some scrape pieces in your workshop, or as Peter did make your own pieces of scrap,

 missing lots of steps, broken pieces of wood are packed together, 

 coloured resin is added, and after several days of adding more resin, using less dye as the layers are built up,

 it is set and placed on a lathe,

 surplus material is shaved off,

and hey presto you have a totally unique bowl,

for the full lesson on how to make your own here is the video by Peter Brown, it looks easy if you have the right equipment, but as all things in life experts always make the difficult look easy, but what a neat bowl.


This Has Not Been Seen For 11 Years,

the water level in California's Lake Berryessa,


has risen so high it is overflowing into what appears to be a gigantic plug hole,

this is a diagram of what is happening, the phenomenon is said be able to continue for the next few months with floods of visitors arriving daily to view it,

the spillway was designed to take in around 48,000 cubic feet of water per second, which is the same thing as draining half of an Olympic-sized pool in one second, "Back in October, we were essentially half full," Roland Sanford, general manager of the Solano County Water Agency, told CBS Today, "This is the first time that the lake has been so low, and filled-up and spilled in one year." what an amazing sight.

Let The Train Take The Strain,

was a once popular saying,


 and thanks to a brilliant train route devised by travel expert and blogger Derek Low, you can now really let that phrase happen, for just $213 you can travel 3,400 scenic miles from San Francisco to New York,

 you travel through cities like Salt Lake City, Denver, Chicago, and New York, and features stunning views of the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada mountains, and more, this is how you can do it, for a little over $200, you can purchase one ticket for the direct California Zephyr and Lake Shore Limited routes,

or as Derek did you want to extend your trip and are willing to pay a bit more, you can follow Derek's lead, He paid $429 in 2011 for a 15-day rail pass, so that he could stop and spend some time in the cities he passed along the way, if you visit his blog site he takes you day by day across America on his incredible journey, building on that journey and fast forwarding to now, he also on the site can for a fee book tickets and make itineraries for you, and no I am not on commission, I just thought what a wonderful trip it would be.


Sunday 26 February 2017

As It Was Saturday,

I was all set to change the refrigerator magnet,


then realised we did not have one from Singapore, so we printed a picture from our visit there to put on the door and here it is,

 Saturday is also maintenance day, so water out of the aquarium,

 and fresh water back in,

 meanwhile in the kittens room, 

Diana was cleaning their pool,

 watched by Mariana,

 and Hogue, 

 then Cable had a look,

 but it was all too much for him,

 then play began as the boys decided to deconstruct the plastic plant we had put in the pool, during the day Diana went to the Netflix web site and downloaded the starter package, so we now have hundreds of one and two star movies to look at, so far the only movies that have more than three stars that appeal to us are titles like Gone With The Wind or 2001 A Space Odyssey, in the kids section we expected to see titles like any of the Ice Age series, there were none, it all seems rather a dull selection of films, even the documentaries were old, most of which we have on BluRay in any event, but there was one good thing about it, the series we are watching now on BluRay and enjoying immensely is Black Sails, but on BluRay it does not have subtitles, but on Netflix it does, so I guess it is worth keeping if only for that,

 on to our evening bar-b-q, garlic bread to start,

 then garlic mussels,

 'Cheers!',

 lite the barby, lots of smoke as usual, 

 then flames,

 and glowing charcoal,

 on with the chops,

 and the potatoes with bacon and onions, 

 now time to tuck in,

 we followed the meal with a Magnum, 

 and a liqueur, 

what a perfect way to round off the day, we listened to music until the midnight hour then we were off to bed.