We Started The Day,

in McDonald's,

for a change, then back home for a quiet day, as in the evening we were out,

 so it was glad rags on,

 and we were off to Siam@Siam, which is on Second Road,

with it's views across the bay

 as we walk to one of the other view points we noticed some uninvited guests, a number of swallows had made nests here,

 looking towards Bali Hai pier,

Diana looking as beautiful as ever,

Third Road,

the Hotel is situated on the seaside of Third road, just past this venue on the other side of the road,

the Alcazar cabaret show,

across the bay some of the floating restaurants,

and below us Beach Road looking towards Walking Street,

one more of Diana,

then it was my turn to sit down,

we made our way into Big Fish seafood buffet,

and there was plenty of it,

and not only seafood,

there was beef, pork, lamb and chicken all waiting to be cooked,

as well as,

numerous cooked dishes,

also cold cuts, 

and deep fried specialities,

 on to desserts,

 again a great selection,

and a chocolate waterfall,

we had a table by the window,

in this section of the restaurant,

a candle lite dinner for 2, what could be more romantic?

so off for starters,

I started with the sushi selection,

then added cold cuts, diced ham salad, smoked salmon, 3 different cheeses and cheese biscuits,

well I was hungry and everything looked so nice,

Diana chose some Thai food and some deep fried titbits,

next course,

crab, 

I normally give cabs a miss, as they are a bit fiddly, I hate food that fights back! but these were so big I had a couple,

for Diana chicken and rock lobsters,

for my main course, rock lobsters, prawns, salmon, lamb and mussels,

on to deserts,

we both chose a selection, for myself crème brûlée is a favorite,

we arrived at about 6.30 in the evening,

but by the time we had finished we were the only dinners here,

it was late, 

and we had the singer all to ourselves, strangely enough we have mentioned the duo before, Simon and Garfunkel, and that was what the singer sang all evening,

the buffet is 700 baht with no drinks,

in my case 990 baht, with unlimited wine, which for us is great value, many restaurants charge 1,000 baht or more for a bottle, here we pay that for more than a bottle, with the meal thrown in free! if you see what I mean,

a last pose before we head home, 

then feet up for a nightcap as we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which we had never watched before, and was surprised at how enjoyable it was, and with that we were off to bed.

For As Far Back As I Can remember,

Jupiter has always had a red spot,

 a huge one, and has had for a few hundred years,

the Great Red Spot's dimensions are 24–40,000 km × 12–14,000 km,

perhaps this will convey it's size better, that is what the red spot would like if the Earth was dropped into it, we ll it looks like this huge storm could disappear in some of our lifetimes, 

NASA's $1 billion Juno probe took stunning photos of the Great Red Spot in July 2017, the closest images we've ever gotten of the giant tempest. Scientists were floored by the level of detail beamed back by the spacecraft, but here is the thing, it is thought that within 10 or maybe 20 years the spot which is actually a storm will be gone forever, Glenn Orton a lead Juno mission team member and planetary scientist at NASA JP, why Jupiter's storms last so long, "They don't, at least not all of them," Orton said in an email. "Think of the GRS [Great Red Spot] as a spinning wheel that keeps on spinning because it's caught between two conveyor belts that are moving in opposite directions. The GRS is stable and long-lived, because it's 'wedged' between two jet streams that are moving in opposite directions." in the late 1800s, the storm was perhaps as wide as 30 degrees longitude, Orton said. That works out to more than 35,000 miles — four times the diameter of Earth. When the nuclear-powered spacecraft Voyager 2 flew by Jupiter in 1979, however, the storm had shrunk to a bit more twice the width of our own planet, "Now it's something like 13 degrees wide in longitude and only 1.3 times the size of the Earth," he said. "Nothing lasts forever." How so very true.

A Few Days Ago,

I mentioned that we listen to the Music of Simon and Garfunkel,

 another of their songs was this one, dedicate to the man that was involved in the biggest mass murder that Wisconsin has ever known, the Taliesin massacre, and the man above?

 you may well of heard of, the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, above one of his mysterious, pre-Colombian-inspired houses built in California in the early 1920s,

and the finished house, the story goes that the couple’s cook, a man named Julian Carlton, started lingering in front of their window with a butcher knife (repeatedly). On August 15th, 1914, he was given his notice — but he wasn’t done with Wright and his entourage. That afternoon, Carlton drenched the house in gasoline and broke in to kill Wright and his entourage during lunch. He set fire to the home and murdered seven persons with an ax, including Mamah, Wright's 'wife' and her two children, for a full read of this tragic event have a look here, it is a mug of coffee read.

We Had A Quiet Day,

just a causal feet up day, 

and an afternoon/evening of Agatha Christie's Poirot, we just about watched all of season 1, all of these,

The Adventure of the Clapham Cook

Murder in the Mews

The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly

Four and Twenty Blackbirds

The Third Floor Flat

Triangle at Rhodes

Problem at Sea

The Incredible Theft

as it happens, it was such a long time ago that we watched them many of the plots we, or at least I had forgotten, and with the last of these we were off to bed.

Are There Times,

you have to sign so many documents,

 it makes your hand ache? if the answer is yes, this nifty little gadget could be just what you are looking for, Swiss watchmaker Jaquet Droz finally unveiled its impressive Signing Machine last month, at the Baselworld Watch Show, after reportedly working on it for the last four years, it showcases the company’s mechanical clockwork technology, only instead of doing it by accurately telling time, it replicates your signature to perfection, 

 created by Jaquet Droz it features a retractable metal arm that comes with a slot for a pen, You just place it in there, wind the machine up, and the 585 different parts inside will guide the pen to create your signature on pretty much anything you need, the Signing Machine was apparently inspired by The Writer and The Draughtsman, two pen-holding automatons built by Pierre Jaquet Droz and his son, Henri-Louis, in the late 1700s, to promote their watches, the Writer, could also guide a pen on paper, but the company claims that the mechanism for the newer Signing Machine has been “reworked for fluidity, carrying out perfect, more consistent signatures” than the old automaton could,

but what happens if you somehow misplace this small Signing Machine, or if it gets stolen? Someone could theoretically use it to sign your life away, don’t worry, though, as Jaquet Droz claims that the machine can only be activated by a code chosen by the owner, there are just two minor problems for potential owners, firstly, you have to send in your signature for the machine to be built to sign the same as you, secondly have a cheque ready for $367,500 I think I will keep to signing my own cheques!