Where Does The Time Go?

it is Sunday again already!

 for todays Sunday lunch we are off to the Beefeater in Soi Diana,

 or I should say that the entrance we arrive at is from a pedestrian walkway,

 there is a huge tree in the car park,

 it is so nice to think that some one took the time not to chop it down,

 at the base of it there is a shrine,

 with flowers and small figures in attendance,

 this is the walkway from the car park,

 and the restaurant itself,

 inside we bumped into the usual suspects from Margaritaville, Hi guys!

 although they have a full menu we went with the 250 baht all you can eat buffet,

 there was plenty to chose from,

 it has a Mexican theme to it so there were plenty of sauces, peppers and jalapeños,

 along with cheese, onions and tortillas,

 first course,

 followed by the second, 'Cheers!' from all of us,

 then on to the desserts,

 ice cream and meringue for myself,

apple crumble for Diana,

 with custard and ice cream, just a note the desserts are not included in the 250 baht menu, they were about 130 baht each, delicious they were too!

 then through the walkway to the car park,

 past the back of the bars that have their fronts in Soi Diana,

 next along Soi Diana,

 and we were on our way home, when we arrived we all put our feet up to watch a couple of movies,

 then a pleasant surprise, Mike, Riza and Sally called in,

 with, yes you guessed it!

 a birthday present for Diana, so I guess we will have to go out so she can try it on,

 whilst the girls chatted away we did the same thing,

 then all to soon it was time for our gusts to leave, many thanks to all for Diana's present,

in the afternoon we watched The Bounty, although portrayed as a villain with his oppressive manner, Captain Bligh (he was actually a lieutenant as the Bounty was only rated as a cutter), was never the less a master seaman, after being placed in an open boat Bligh and 18 other crew members loyal to him were set adrift on April 28th in the Bounty’s launch, it was 23-foot long by 6’9” wide, in most cases such an act would have led to certain death for the men aboard, but Bligh was a magnificent seaman and he sailed from Tofua, one of the Friendly Islands, landing in Timor, Java, on June 14th,


the journey of 3618 nautical miles took them 47 days, there was only one casualty, John Norton, a quartermaster, who was killed by natives, the voyage was an amazing achievement even with todays navigational aids, after an event filled career, (and a spell of a year or so under house arrest), Bligh was promoted to Rear Admiral of the Blue and in 1814 became a Vice Admiral of the Blue, he died on the 7th of December 1817, aged 64, in Bond Street, London,

we also watched Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, good though the special effects were I renamed it Watch Impossible! we just could not make head or tail of the plot, but the scenes shot 130 floors up on a building in Dubai were breathtaking, also making me feel distinctly uncomfortable with my fear of heights, that Tom Cruise cove seems like a brave chap, he nearly fell off the building so many times! after our friends left we watched some satellite television, then we were off to bed.

Whilst Traveling Around We Have Often Seen Examples Of Watermelon Carving,

but these seem to take the art to a new level,

Clive & Sharon Cooper run a company called Sparksfly Design, which is a sculpture and graphic design company based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, they specialize in things from extreme pumpkin carving & watermelon carving, to graphic design, fine arts, furniture design, crafts and all kinds of sculpture, considering Clive has had no formal training in melon carving the results are stunning,

if you want to see more examples of watermelon carving have a look here,  I have to say that it seems a shame to eat them!

We Had A Quiet Day,

Mark called round in the afternoon,

then Jay and Precil called by, the girls were soon off on a shopping trip to the market, meanwhile we chatted the afternoon and early evening away, after saying our goodbyes we settled down for some satellite television, the good news was that there was an almost continuous night of Top Gear which we both enjoy enormously, especially the tricks the presenters play on each other, and the barley concealed mirth when one of their number manages to mess things up, also there was a couple of episodes of Overhauling, a car program which we also enjoyed watching, as the last one finished at 01.00 in the morning we were off to bed.

I Guess Most Of My Friends Know I Like The Occasional Drop Of Red Wine,

for medicinal purposes of course,

but I would have to think twice if it cost as much as this 2004 Block 42’ Cabernet Sauvignon, the Block 42 vines were transported from France to Australia in the 1830s and are now located in South Australia's Barossa Valley, northeast of Adelaide, Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago said: 'there is something really magical about the 2004 Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet', Penfolds said the vines are thought to be the oldest continuously producing Cabernet Sauvignon vines in the world,


in case you are in any doubt as to how special the wine is the rare vintage has been encased in specially-designed hand-blown 'ampoule' by famous Australian glass artist Nick Mount, the ampoule has no cork or screw cap, and can only be opened by a trained wine expert, Penfolds’ chief winemaker Peter Gago said that if any buyer wished to drink the exclusive wine, an expert would travel to wherever the buyer was in the world and open and decant the ampoule using bespoke equipment in a special ceremony,


next question, how much? well a normal (albeit limited-edition) bottle of the 2004 Block 42 costs around £400, but that's just for the hoi polloi, for the real drink, one of the 12 bottles expect to pay £109,000 a bottle, if you are thinking of tasting just one glass thats £21,000 for a 150 ml glass, for me I will just stick to a nice bottle of Nuits St Georges, or perhaps the Mont Clair I normally drink, 'Cheers!'. 

I Popped Round To See Don Today,

I should have telephoned first as he was out,

 but the house almost opposite his has come on leaps and bounds,

 but by the time I returned home the once blue sky had taken a turn for the worse,

 on our way to the Friday night market we stopped at the pharmacy, Diana had a sore eye and we wanted to buy some eye drops,

 the shop was opposite the fresh food market we sometimes go to,

 lots of rain clouds as we arrived at the Friday night market,

 most stalls had already put up rain awnings, but I guess the book seller is hoping for no rain,

 unlike one of the toy stalls,

 it almost looks like they are looking for rain,

 a new artificial plant stall this week,

 almost too good to be true!

 a second hand clothes stall opposite the bar tonight,

 this was not looking good, no lychee's this week,

 but lots of rambutan amongst other fruits,

 a few people in the pet aisle,

 and a local cat,

 rain clouds coming up from Sattahip,

 and from the sea,

 I have seen these before, they look almost like runner beans,

 but I know not much more than that about them,

 I looked at some of the other fruit stalls for some lychee's,

 but there were none there, just rambutans,

 mango's,

 and dragon fruit,

 it almost looked like the cloud from the sea was starting to break up, maybe the book seller was correct not to put out rain awnings,

 just the owner sitting at the bar tonight as I arrived,

 there was still a lot of clouds coming from inland, but no rain,

 Diana had returned from shopping with some mangoes,

 in the distance a rainbow,

then we returned to 388 for our evening meal, well Diana snacked on some pizza from her birthday meal the day before, we watched satellite television till late, then for us we were off to bed.