Monday, 29 July 2013

Out To Sunday lunch,

but on the way we made a brief stop,


 to have a look at a development,
 what makes all of these buildings so unusual to Western eyes,

 it the use of wood rather than steel for the scaffolding, but regardless of how it looks it seems to work, very well in fact looking at the number of buildings that have been built using this method,

 but eventually we arrived, at the Punch and Judy, it is located between Pattaya 3rd Road and Thepprasit Soi 8,

 we were joined today by Mr. Tony, he ordered the chicken pate, whilst Diana and myself shared a prawn salad,

 for her main course Diana ordered spaghetti bologneses,

Mr. Tony went with cottage pie with a cheese topping,
 
 for me the traditional Sunday roast lamb,
 
we naturally had to have a dessert, apple crumble with ice cream,

then home feet up for one one Diana's delicious latte coffees, we settled down to watch some of the auction/antique shows for the evening, then it rained, it appears that when it rains out here the satellite signal fails,

still that was not a problem as we decided to watch Salt as the satellite signal showed no signs of retuning, all went well till the power went out! it also appears that the rain takes out the electricity as well, so a scramble for torches and candles till the power came back on again, we watched the last part of Salt, there were three versions on the disk, the theatrical, the directors cut and the extended, which was the one we chose, after the film the satellite signal had returned so we watched a few more shows, then after saying our goodbyes to Mr. Tony we were off to bed.

One Man, 100,000 Toothpicks,

an incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco,
 
 
Rolling through the Bay is a sculpture by artist Scott Weaver, the elaborate sculpture is comprised of multiple 'tours' that move ping pong balls through neighbourhoods, historical locations, and iconic symbols of San Francisco, all recreated with a little glue, some toothpicks, and an incredible amount of ingenuity not to mention the 35 years it took to make it,

he estimates he’s spent over 3,000 hours on the project, and the toothpicks have been sourced from around the world commenting 'I have used different brands of toothpicks depending on what I am building. I also have many friends and family members that collect toothpicks in their travels for me, for example, some of the trees in Golden Gate Park are made from toothpicks from Kenya, Morocco, Spain, West Germany and Italy, the heart inside the Palace of Fine Arts is made out of toothpicks people threw at our wedding', you have to admirer the work and patience that has gone in to this totally unique art work.

Sunday, 28 July 2013

The Day Started Well,

we had a telephone call from Wattana Computers,


to say that our spare computer was ready, so in an hour or so the repair guy called round,

 and in less than an hour both computers were linked, so I have one keyboard, mouse, monitor and headphones, but can use either computer at the press of a button, the reason for this is that I have so many pictures I will be transferring them to the other computer as a back up, just in case! one thing I did forget to buy was a print hub, this will allow me to use the same printer for both computers,

 I spent a few hours transferring some of the photographs, then it was time to start our usual Saturday night bar-b-q, I dropped Diana off at the market to buy some prawns, meanwhile I went to one of the many shops that we call 'sheds', they are sort of permanent shops normally under canvas, but with some of the roofing a little more substantial, we needed some more charcoal,

 the one thing about these sheds is that they sell almost everything you can think of for the home,

 two 20 baht bags of charcoal later and I meet Diana in the fruit and vegetables market,

 then home to start sending out smoke signals,

 but the fire soon caught so it was flames rather than smoke we had to deal with,

 pretty much the same feast that we had a couple of weeks ago,

 first on the onion bon-bon, a couple of pieces of garlic wholemeal bread and Diana's hot dog,

 followed by prawn kebabs, Diana had also bought some pineapple in the market which finished off the kebabs nicely,

 prawn kebabs delicious 'Cheers!,

 we next eat some marinated chicken, after or meal we normally sit outside for an hour or two, very romantic in the candle light, but a slight drizzle started,

 so we moved under the eves of the house, but we soon went from slightly damp to quite wet in a mater of moments as the wind shifted, so a mad dash to get inside,

 in the time it took us to get the plates and cushions indoors we had gone from quiet wet to totally soaked, the rain had come down so fast and so heavy in just those few moments, so a change into dry clothes then it was feet up to watch some television,

we watched a few programmes from the Crime and Investigations channel, then to round the evening off one from Poirot,

Double Sin
A young woman is delivering a set of antique Napoleon miniatures to an American collector when they are stolen from her suitcase. Captain Hastings, under Poirot's guidance, sets out to find the thief.
then for us we were off to bed.

I Thought This Was Funny,

it was posted on RedDit,


if you like this sort of humour follow this link as some of the comments are in a similar vein, like,

The door was framed.
Also it saw the roof being held up by the walls!
The windows were in pain too.
It was curtains for them.
The ceiling tried to stay above it all.
The power outlet was just shocked about the whole thing.

on a different note I have just read how to avoid watching all of those warnings before the DVD you want to watch starts, speaking of warnings here is one, warning if you try this and your DVD player turns into a pile of atomic death dust do not blame me! but I will give this a try tonight, on the remote press stop + stop + play but this does not work with some disks, if it doesn’t work try stop + stop + stop + play, I have read that this trick doesn’t always work, but when it does, it can save you a few minutes where you would usually just sit in front of the TV doing nothing.

Saturday, 27 July 2013

As It Was Friday,

we were off to the market,



 parking in the friendship car park we made our way across the road,

 Diana disappeared into the market, whilst I popped into the Kodak shop to have my new visa and passport page that I had reduced in size and printed laminated, whilst there the owner was doing his weekly maintenance of the marine aquarium he has in his shop,

 then into the market, it was stiflingly hot, so I walked through quite quickly,

 to make my way out to the open air in the plant and pet section,

 a quick look at the aquatic store and we were on our way home,

 a shower and change then off to the Thepprasit Road weekend night market, a few grey clouds looking towards Jomtien,

 and inland,

 a shoe stall and drinks outlet opposite the bar this evening,

 the food aisles,

 with a few customers,

 there were a number of stalls vacant,

 I am guessing it is because it is now the low season,

but a few customers in the pet aisle,

 I noticed these and thought they looked kind of cute,

 water dispensers for dogs and cats, though I do not think they are refrigerated!

 sunset over the market,

 we were joined this evening by Mr. Tony,

 on our way back home we stopped off at the fruit and vegetable market,

 Diana was going to cook us a curry and we needed some onions,

 the curry and rice along with fried chicken wings was delicious,

 followed by fresh fruit and a glass of medicinal red wine, 'Cheers!',

after we said our goodbyes to Mr. Tony we watched another episode from Poirot,

The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim
Poirot wagers Chief Inspector Japp that he can solve the mystery of a missing banker without leaving his flat.

then for us we were off to bed.