It Is Snowing In The UK,

and it is thought to be the worst in 18 years, whilst having an Indian meal at Jay and Precil's yesterday Steve, a very good friend of mine from England telephoned to say he had taken lots of pictures of the snow, well many thanks to Steve, these are some of the pictures he sent to us out here, they are all take in Beckenham, Kent, just on the outskirts of South East London,

white as far as the eye can see,

this imposing building is Beckenham Place, behind it there is a 18 hole golf course and a woodland area,

the streets are covered in snow with very little traffic, and no chance of a bus!

Beckenham Tennis club car park, only one car so it will be a quite drink!

looking from the club house, I have an apartment in the building on the left,

the entrance to the house I have an apartment in,

front of the house,

this is the road just outside Steve's apartment, not much business for the speed camera!

one little bit of snow and it is a opps! moment,

Steve's wife Kai making her way home,

at least some kids had some fun,

the entrance to Beckenham Place Park and golf course,

fun in the snow on the hills by the golf course,

"For Sale" signs being put to good use,

a lot of snowboarders out today,

I wonder who made that one, it is miles from nowhere,

this is one of the walks through the woodlands area in the park,

great pictures from Steve,

it must be so cold out there,

this was taken at the side of where Steve lives,

Steve like myself likes different types of bamboo, this one is at the back of his apartment,

and his car in the morning,

another shot of the bamboo, it looks really nice in the snow,

and another bamboo in the garden,

the view from Steve's living room, once again many thanks to Steve for taking the time and trouble to take and send the pictures, they were taken on Pentax and Canon SLR cameras, Steve said the pictures could have been so much better but the sky was so overcast so there was little light, but great pictures neither the less.

Children You Will Not Play Under That Tree, You Are Killing It!

yes that is what the council's principal arboricultural officer Diana Oviatt-Ham said, in a statement that is like something out of Monty Python, 2 and 3 year old kids have been banned from playing under the tree, Cambridge City Council gave a report into the health of the tree at the Under Fives Roundabout Pre-School in Cambridge, It argues the tree - which covers half the playground - will suffer if the ground is "poached and compacted" by "constant activity" which could stop water reaching the roots, the report recommends: "Ideally, the children would not be able to play beneath the tree."

Eileen Hori, chairman of the nursery's management committee and parent, said the tree is now better protected than ever, she said: "Before the tree had branches broken off and was played under and climbed on by children and adults, "People littered on it, dogs and cats went to the toilet on it and tramps slept under it - and yet the tree still thrived, Mrs Hori said the pre-school has a maximum of 34 pupils with no more than 12 playing outside at anyone time. just goes to show how disruptive those 2 and 3 year old kids feet can be!

Council official, Diana Oviatt-Ham you are an idiot!

Welcome Home Jeff!

after 3 or so weeks snowed in, Jeff returned from the States, he said the snow was over 3 feet deep in places so he is glad to be back in the sun, Da had not seen the new fish before, Diana and Da were laughing and pointing to one of the fish in particular, it appears that Jeff has put on a little weight in his absence and Da had noticed it, so she is joking with Diana that one of the fish with a big stomach should be called Jeff! well this is the fish now known as "Jeff" in the middle of the picture,

Jeff and myself had a few afternoon cocktails on the roof, then after Da and Jeff left we went to the pharmacy store on Pattaya North, if you drive along Third Road turn left into Pattaya North and it is about 300 meters down on the left hand side, it is called Fascino, they have got everything there from aspirin to mobility scooters,

the place is huge,

well as it was still early we decided to go to the new Central store, so down to the Dolphin roundabout, straight across and along Beach Road, we then went to turn left into the car park following a car but were turned away, we were told go along Beach Road turn left at Soi 12 then turn left again on Second Road and left again into Central, the annoying thing was that you can see the motorcycle park from where we were on Beach Road, so several minuets later we were in Central, minus one for no entrance for motorcycles on Beach Road!

inside everything was bright and spacious, with lots of things going on for kids, this I think will be the new family store for most people out here, it appears you can drop the kids in some areas and do your shopping in peace (though if you want to do that why have kids in the first place?)

the shows put on were really nice with something for everyone,

and shops everywhere, I expected to see some empty places but everything was fully booked, but one thing I did notice was that so many stores had already got 5% - 30% off or even more, even the electrical giants were doing it, LG was 10% to a staggering 60% off, amazing!

Diana declined to have her picture taken with Blue Mouse!

there are loads of escalators in the mall, so long as you do not look down all is well!

next floor and it is even longer down,

nearly at the top, when you get to the 5th. floor it is all restaurants, from everywhere in the world but mostly Asian, well we felt a bit hungry so we went downstairs to the basement for the Foodcourt, huge place, you buy coupons order the food hand the coupons over and cash in any coupons you do not use at the end of the meal, sounds great? not really there was not a single place where the signs were in English, now I know I am in Thailand, but I would have thought that as they are trying for International tourist they would have put some English on the signs, minus another point!

one of the places you can leave the ankle bitters and go shopping in peace!

we then went to the information desk and asked where the McDonald's is, and were very politely told "Royal Garden!" final nail in the coffin for Central! you may know that Diana loves McDonald's and for them not to have one is a bit strange to say the least, especially as they have a KFC, only a small thing I know, but if we have got to park we might as well continue going to Royal Garden which we can get to from Beach Road as well as Second, the reason for using Beach road is that we only go to that end of town if we have gone to Naklua, so we drive home via Beach Road, so Central is a great place to visit, visually stunning, with so many shops and a proper supermarket, but for us Friendship and Royal Garden has all that we need, would we go back? I can not think of a single reason to return,

Diana with her hero!

proper food at last! I am sure Central will do well, but with the next "super mall" coming in a couple of years I think unless there is a huge influx of tourists one or more of the mall's will find it hard going, in case you do not know I have heard the new mall is going where Tops is, from Second down to Beach Road, the hotel next to Tops is also being pulled down to make way for it, allegedly, the mall will have a condo on the top of it, 66 square meters for 3 million baht so the rumour has it, work starting end 2010/early 2011.

This Week At 388,

yet another great night was had by all, luckily we had enough chairs to go round, big Jim arrived with two huge bowls of chicken stew,

the girls cooked some chicken for themselves in the kitchen,

Rizza, Honey Mae and Diana cooking some pork for the guys,

Mr. Tony, wide awake!

Geoff and Mike, Tom was also here but I forgot to take a picture,

Big Jim chilling out,

later Matt, Eric and Brent arrived,

a shy Diana,

Booie called in a showed Diana how to crochet,

we also had one uninvited guest, I do not know what it is other than a beetle, but it made a load of noise when it flew! as you might expect the drinks flowed freely and we all had a good time, the stew that Big Jim brought around was excellent as were the ribs from Mr. Tony, naturally we all put the world to rights, well we know as much as our leaders do! looking forward to seeing everyone next week, "Cheers!"

The Politically Correct Brigade Strike Again,

in a blatant case of double standards, a boys’ club has been forced to call itself a “working with young people” group – because council bosses ruled its name was sexist, bureaucrats threatened to withdraw funding of £11,600 a year unless the historic Broad Plain Boys’ Club met guidelines on equality, the sports club in Easton, Bristol – which already admitted girls – is now known as Broad Plain Working With Young People, club leader Dennis Stinchcombe MBE, 53, has run the group for 33 years. He said: “We had to give in. It’s a tragedy, “The club’s been part of Bristol for 115 years.” what makes this a bitter pill to swallow is that the Labour-led city council DOES fund other single-sex groups – such as the Bristol and Avon Chinese Women’s Group, what a load of two faced non descript nobodies must work in Bristol council.

This Is One Of The Many Things I Love About Britain,

I have mentioned this before,

yesterday afternoon, the Tornado - the first steam locomotive to be built in Britain for close to 50 years - undertook its maiden journey, thousands packed the platform at the National Railway Museum in York to wave the train on its way as it departed in a triumphant plume of steam at 12.07pm, hauling 13 carriages behind it,

the 18-year project had proved a labour of love for a group of railway enthusiasts who decided to build a new engine from scratch in 1990, they donated £1.25 a week - then the price of a pint of beer - for nearly two decades, it was a peppercorn fund - appropriate enough for Peppercorn Class A1 Pacific 60163 Tornado, based on the locomotives built by Arthur H. Peppercorn for the London and North Eastern Railway in the late Forties and later scrapped by British Rail in the Sixties, steam trains, I just love them!