Lets Start With The Girls Again,

first thing,

breakfast, 

the one I really like, a bubbly one!

then into the coach, 

the girls were going here, Dinant, Belgium, amongst other things famous for the musician and inventor Adolphe Sax (1814-1894) who was born here, the towers on the photograph above suffering from the telephones wide angle lens leaning inwards,

so I corrected it, 

the girls walked around the town,

taking the pose, every now and then,

Diana's new favorite flower, the dahlia, 

looking across the town, 

and another pose of course, 

Diana and Wilma,

Wilma again,

 frequently mistaken for a cathedral due to its grand Gothic size and striking architecture, this is the Collegiate Church of Our Lady of Dinant, (Collégiale Notre-Dame de Dinant),

again I corrected the inward leaning of the pillars of the photograph,

another pose, 

and one of the church, 

Diana made a short video, and here it is above, back to good 'ole Blighty, I had a quiet day, not really doing very much at all just watching odd bits & pieces on YouTube, in the evening,

 time for my read and sherry, I did not pour the wine, as tonight for a change I was having a white, so I kept it in the refrigerator, 

smoked salmon from the huge pack I bought on my last visit to LIDL,

I followed that with liver & bacon, 'Cheers!', time for a film for the evening, and a real treat it was, 

The War Lord, a knight in the service of a duke goes to a coastal village where an earlier attempt to build a defensive castle has failed, then he falls for a local girl, then the trouble begins, the story revolves around the ancient rite of jus primae noctis or in French, Droit du seigneur. In The Curiosities of Literature (1823) by the British writer Isaac D'Israeli it was claimed the practice had been widespread across Europe, for another anecdotal record, in 1924 an elderly respondent retold a claim that even at the time of his grandparents' youth, in the early 1800s, the rule of first night had still been in widespread use in western Estonia; whether it had been a legal right he did not elaborate. Back to the film, I think much underrated, I really enjoyed watching again with its haunting background melody as it happens The Shadows thought the same and made the instrumental a hit, to round my evening off, 

Jojo Rabbit, funny, terrifying, slapstick, sinister all in one film! we really both enjoyed the film when we first watched it, a young lad in Germany wants to join the Hitler youth movement, and has as his imaginary friend, Adolf himself, fiercely patriotic, it is a disturbing realisation when he finds his mother is hiding the girl in the wall, a Jewess, so funny, so tragic, a really great and unexpected joy of a film, from the blurb:

"Hitler Youth cadet Jojo Betzler firmly believes in the ideals of Nazism manifested by his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler. However, his foundations are shaken when he finds a Jewish girl in his house."

and the soundtrack was just so good, The Beatles and David Bowie genuinely performed their respective songs in German for the Jojo Rabbit (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). The opening scene features The Beatles singing "Komm, gib mir deine Hand" (the German-language recording of "I Want to Hold Your Hand"), which they recorded in Paris in 1964 to break into the German market. Similarly, the film closes with David Bowie singing "Helden," his own German-language translation of his 1977 masterpiece "Heroes", and I have to admit I really enjoyed watching the film again, 2 great films in one evening and with that I was off to bed.

Sunday Lunch Time,

so a sherry and a read it is,

a great way to start the day, 

during the week we bought a couple of dressed crabs for our Sunday starter when we visited Polhill,

not so fiddly as the crab claws we bought a few weeks ago,

then a real treat, roast duck for our main course, sans gravy for myself, 

'Cheers!', after which we watched one Columbo, but then decided on a film as the next one we had seen fairly recently, 

so Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it was, Toon star Roger is worried that his wife Jessica is playing pattycake with someone else, so the studio hires detective Eddie Valiant to snoop on her, but the stakes are quickly raised when Marvin Acme is found dead and Roger is the prime suspect, 

we next decided on Wild Wild West, great fun, the producers did at one time think of building the full size mechanical spider, but gave up when they found that one leg they did build weighed in at 10,000 lbs! the story is about Jim West who is a guns-a-blazing former Civil War hero and Artemus Gordon who is an inventive U.S. Marshal and excels in disguise, when the United States is threatened by psychotic Confederate Arliss Loveless, President Ulysses Grant teams the duo up to bring him to justice, that is the dry bones of the story but it was great fun to watch, we rounded of the early evening with,

Police Academy 2, one of those comedy series that you either love or hate, which brought us nicely to a late night Midsomer Murder, after which Diana was off to bed, a 04.00AM start for her, for myself a Have I Got A Bit More News For You, before I too was off to bed.

I Did Not Have A Lot Planned For Today,

so I made a start on bringing down all of the Christmas decorations from upstairs, 

then spent some time in playing with photographs that I had started to arrange in categories and then give them a black background, the photographs above the black background ones are as they come out of the camera,

 this collection titled Steam Engines, 

in our travels in Thailand, we would often bump into people you could call characters, 

like Mr. Gold, from the Thailand collection, 

a arowana, 

from the fish collection, 

when we were in Venice, 

from Masks,

Bonsai, 

from a trip to Wakehurst, Bonsai, 

this one again from Thailand, 

but in the section Boats, as when I am playing with my infrared photographs, it is great fun seeing the end results, I should say the finished image with the black background may look out of focus, but in reality when printed they are pin sharp, 

after Diana returned home it was time for a read and a sherry, 

before bangers and mash, 

'Cheers!',

Diana made herself a noodle dish, 

we then watched the start of the Netflix series Vikings, which was remarkably good, I am sure we will be watching a few more episodes, after which Diana was off to bed, the combination of early starts and late finishes had caught up with her, for myself,

a old favorite Jojo Rabbit, a highly satirical film set in WWII, with NAZIS, Jews, the innocence of youth and the horror of war, it seems strange to say it, but as before I thoroughly enjoyed watching it again, after which I was off to bed.

Our First Day To Meet Mum And The Family In Bangkok,

we had a quick meal in London, 

before our flight, 'Cheers!',

a bacon burger for Diana,

fish and chips for myself,

and here we are in Bangkok, Diana, Doshian, Rojen, Mum, Donna, our guide for the day and Sandio,

first a bite to eat, 

we were all a tad hungry,

Sandio, one of Diana's brothers, 

Diana finished as we all were so into the mini bus and we were away, 

we stopped at a market just outside of town,

as you might imagine, 

lots of produce on sale, 

this stall had cornered the market on bananas!

we were led across the road, 

not much traffic thankfully,

and into the central section, 

we knew we were in the fresh fish section, before we actually saw them! the pink thing, 

is attached to a small motor which swirls it around to keep the flies away,

we continued walking, 

trying lots of goodies on the way,

delicious!

past a meat stall,

and back to seafood, 

on ice,

like this, 

a king sized horseshoe crab, I have to say I tried one of these many years ago, it was not to my taste, 

Diana taking a selfie with our guide, 

the prawn section,

these all freshwater I believe, as an aside the exchange rate was roughly 43 baht to the UK pound,

making our way past these, 

we came to a section that specialises in dried products, 

like squid, 

and other food delicacies,

some were so nice a few bags were bought to snack on in the mini van, 

I am not sure what these are, but they looked impressive, 

more dried squid, 

and a few varieties of bananas,

and fresh vegetables,

the market was huge,

looking along the aisles, 

they seemed almost never ending, 

back to vegetables,

crabs, 

and fish, 

now this should give you an idea of why we are in this market, railway tracks,

we continued past the fish stalls, 

these, huge catfish, 

frog on a stick anyone?

or alive, alive oh! as the song went, but I think it was cockles and mussels, 

it seems amazing that a railway train runs through here, 

but it does, the awnings lifted out of the way as the train approaches, 

and replaced as soon as it passes, 

as you might expect the area is packed when it is train time, 

but before that our guide explained the advantages of bulk buying!

some of the stalls put plastic chains across the front of the stalls, pesky tourists!

any moment now the awnings will be removed, 

and here it is, I should say at this point I will be making a separate few posts of just videos once I have posted the stills, 

next I spotted these DIY kits, 

of how to make the famous Thai dish of Tom Yum soup, 

we carried on walking along the tracks,

 we walked past this stall selling tilapia, in Thai the ones on the left are called pla nin, (say it as it looks), the gold ones, pla tab tin,

a real Thai and in fact Far Eastern delicacy now, durian, I have tried this 3 times, and found it quiet unappealing, it is all a matter of taste, 

 

a fresh coconut for the journey anyone?

back across the road to the mini bus, 

the fried chicken smelled nice, 

as did these pastry's, 

all set, 

and in to the van,

well a pose first!

our next stop, 

a farm that makes sugar, from coconuts, 

so up the ladder to collect some,

well Donna had to try, and emulate a monkey!

our guide showed us how the flesh of the coconuts was collected, 

using a scrapper,

which he sat on, 

the scrapper a part of a carved rabbit, 

Donn a had to have a try,

those were the days!

I took a bimble around the building,

straight away I was drawn to the fish pond, 

covered over to stop the fish jumping out, 

and I suspect birds eating them,

I have seen 3 person bikes, think the Goodies, but this is the first and only 4 person bike I have seen,

back past the pond,

to a souvenir stall,

and this is what we had come to see, 

the production of coconut sugar, 

the hot part of the operation,

and it was more than a tad hot!

and now the good bit, try the sugar,

behind the building, 

all manner of objects were being taken over by the jungle,

but I guess the boat was for the small river,

 that bordered the property,

lots of wild bananas, growing everywhere, 

I looked behind me, the family had caught me up,

solid teak furniture here, no IKEA in sight!

"anything for the weekend sir?", I remember hearing the last time I sat in a barbers chair this old!

a neat use for a discarded oil drum, make a swing, 

or table and chairs out of them,

Diana admiring these, 

Jackfruits, a favorite of both of us,

a quick pose from Diana,

and a look at a table, 

with this on it, 

a palm flower, 

back to the bus, 

but first a group photograph, 

before we arrived here, the floating market, there are a few to visit, this is the one about 2 hours outside of Bangkok, 

a quick look around, 

before we decanted into long tail boats, 

all set, 

some of the engines, which are car engines on gimbles are massive, 

I will now start to make only a few comments as the photographs are self explanatory, and it saves a huge amount of time, I hope you enjoy the photographs, 

I will say that in the photograph, the water level seems a tad high!

I think my favorite on the water photograph, 

oops!

the boats are called 'long tails' because of the propeller shaft at the back of the boat, 

it makes the boats easy to manoeuvre in the narrow canals, 

but some times they are alarmingly close!

a puff of blue smoke, and they are off, 

and the next one,

all manner of goods for sale,

a golden ampullaria apple snail, (Pomacea canaliculata), on the surface, 

I thought these were rather neat, look carefully at the handles, 

elephants!

a work in progress, 

we are looking at them, they at us, 

more works going on,

time for a ice cream,

add a orchid, 

ta-da!

Diana was so happy to see here family again after nearly 6 years of being in the UK.

our boat ride at a end,

a quick chat about what was happening next,

up onto a viewing platform,

looking upstream,

and downstream,

a pose rom Diana,

and a last look at the floating market, 

a quick bite to eat, 

if you are in Bangkok and want to go to this market, this is it, 

another drive and we were here, 

at a temple complex,

I am not sure who he is, 

but we were told he was made of wax,

well I just had to!

time to eat, 

in a strange coincidence, 

I sat here with Neil about 40 years ago!

this is the one and only restaurant that specialises in farmed giant Mekong catfish, (Pangasianodon gigas), 

Neil and myself were here looking at fish and particularly discus breeders in Thailand, 

and stopped here for lunch, 

and, 

here he is!

back to now, after lunch, 

the girls just had to have a go on the swing, 

we were soon back in Bangkok and back to our hotel, ready for the next days adventure, I should mention that if you want to see more of our days in Bangkok and my trip to Pattaya, please click on to the 'Older Posts' at the bottom right of the page, also now that I have published all of the photographs except Diana's I will now start to put together a couple of videos that I will post soon.