Per Magica Ad Astra

I went a stroll  yesterday  to see the impressive  Imperial City.  On the way  I  had breakfast  in Cafe on Thu Wheels Then over the bridge  The city And a beer in the DMZ bar I think the only way I  can post the Relive is to add a link which is HERE

Well that was a long day. It started at 4.30 checking out from the Diamond King Hotel. Then a taxi to the railway station,  I had left loads of time and the station was not yet open. Boarding was pretty  simple  apart  from finding my seat. They put your seat nmber on the back of your seat, it causes  no end of problems. There are always sellers with food and drink on these trains and I dined on sweet corn.  For me, the countryside is similar to a train  ride in thailand. The people  are a little  different  and the prohibition mob have yet to take power so alcohol is allowed. Here are a couple  of snaps.  A little  late arriving at Hue and a taxi to the hotel. Coffee. 

 I didn't know if I should blog or not today, after all I start my trip to Vietnam and I know not if I will be able to do more than just Facebook posts until back home. Still even though the out and about Relive was a simple walk into the city with but 1 snap I decided to blog it. And as this is just about all from me blog wise whilst in Chiang Mai this month I stuck together a few of the snaps I have taken and tweaked as a slideshow. It is on YouTube but to make life easy here it is. As a link, the bloody upload feature is refusing to work. May slideshow. Coffee.

 I know they say you should have an eye catching title but what can I say😀 After a few days of walking plans being scuppered I finally got the old pins to move and trundles into town where I got to have a farewell coffee with my friend Charlie before he goes on another stunning adventure on which I expect him to see lots of exotic creatures provided he survives the dangers of a stop in London first. Here, as you may expect, is the Relive of the walk. Of course one of my missions in life😕is to show that even the untallented snappers can have photos on display  that can be, and will be, seen across the world. It really is a technological miracle that we live in an era where your phone can capture the moment then with a couple of clicks you can add fluffy white clouds and stuff. The Relive had a couple of snaps to brighten the video and here, just to prove this point is a slight tweak on the iron bridge What did I do? Changed the bland sky and tweaked the banner colours a little. Even t

You may have seen, if you do the Facebook thing, I had a walk to Central Airport mall on Thursday and after paying my bills etc I joined my friend Charlie for a coffee in Coffee World. Well, what append was (is that how Jethro says it😁?) I left my birthday hat behind. Most upsetting as not only is it a rather good hat but it was a present and I would hate to lose the gift. As I fancied a beer and a curry in this Friday early evening I hopped out of the car once Mrs T had finished her visit to the insurance people and strolled back to the airport mall. Want to Relive the stroll? Thought you would... Like a numpty, I decided that I would use my brand new shoes for the walk, the ones I had purchased on Thursday and walked less than half a km in. And just as you would expect, the new form on my foot created blisters... Why? Mrs T says I didn't bite them, If you bite the shoe they know not to bite you back😮I think she is right... My feet may have been a little tender by the time I got

 Morning all. I really didn't have much activity to write about for a blog today but I have anyway. Yep yesterday was a lovely sunny Tuesday and just right for a morning stroll into the city with the hope of more phone photo trinkets to waste my dwindling cash on, and a coffee of course. Here is the Relive. Of course it would have been very easy to do all of this just on a Facebook post, after all Meta is all things to all men right😈 But I have a bit of a loopy mind and on the walk in I saw an ice delivery chap supplying ice to a cafe. These bags of ice are pretty big and I started to ponder if the chap that has to hump the bags from the truck to the shop, does he break into a sweat?😅 It didn't take long to get to the River Ping (if you think an hour and a half isn't long) which with the rain, has turned a rust brown colour. The dirt that gets caught up in the flow is often quite fine particle size, almost colloidal so it doesn't settle out quickly and I am convinced

 The time to vote was coming to a close, soon the counting would begin and life, as we know it would return to normal. And what could be more normal on a Sunday night than... Of course to get the tasty Red Lion roast I put on the walking shoes. As you will have seen the Red Lion has been having a bit of a makeover this no booze weekend (well Saturday night / Sunday daytime) and they hadn't quite finished but the boys packed up in time for the MotoGP and the footy, fine entertainment whist enjoying the fayre. The evenings sport left Dyche and Everton still scrapping for their life in the Premier league and Manchester City getting more than one hand on the League title as Arsenal, their only challenger, crashed at home to Brighton. And the election? Although all the votes are not quite all accounted for here is the reported snapshot of the result. It is hard to say what this means with the Senate run by the military. By the way this screenshot was from the Reuters website and if you

 The Thai electorate get to cast their votes this weekend (well some of 'em voted last weekend if they were away from their constituency). They are voting for what I would call the "lower" house and it is from that house the new Prime Minister will be from. Will the PM be leading the country? Good question as, just like in the UK, the electorate don't get to pick the other chamber except here it is called the senate rather than the house of lords. These are all military appointees and it may be interesting to see how they work with the popular vote if that should go against their views. In order to ensure a fair and proper vote and, I am told, reduce corruption, the sale of alcohol is banned from 6pm Saturday until the close of polls, 6pm Sunday. The prohibitionists are a powerful bunch here who seem to like to demonstrate their power. The cannabis cafes don't come under this rule as far as I can see... man. What did this mean? Well It meant I was out on Friday ni

 It's Friday today. What is so special about Friday? Well when it comes to actually tippy-tapping this little entry, not a lot really. Tomorrows entry may well be a lot bigger and possibly more interesting as today's schedule includes such goodies  as fish and chips at Sausage King followed by wine and beer in the city. TGI Fridays as the corporate line goes. Not only that but I think I may well get wet! Yes the rains have come, not only have the rains reduced the temperature just a little, the high today expected to be only a moderate 34℃ but it has reduced the smog and cleaned the air, just look at the snap I took of the moat on the wander yesterday. OK I have used the fantastic ACDSee dehaze a little and the one on the Relive doesn't have that applied but trust me, my word the air is so much better. Did I say Relive? Yep, we went shopping to the market yesterday and I handed the keys of the car over to Pin and went for a stroll. The plan was to go home but by the time I

 May 8th and it was pretty darn hot, there has been talk of rain but at the time I walked into the city to buy Mrs T some of here favourite steamed buns and get more food for the little monster, none was to be seen. Later in the day I had planned a little stroll into the city to enjoy a few hours celebrating the passing of another year in my pretty darn good life. Not only was it the anniversary of my birth but it was also the day the WHO officially said the Covid pandemic was now over. Off I set in the stifling heat and by the time I reached the city I was hot, very sweaty and in need of coffee. So I called into the comfort of Pantip, where the air-conditioning and coffee did wonders to my energy levels. A short detour to help a tourist get his bearings and it was off to Kalae bar where the wonderful Chipmunk provided a refreshing cold towel as well as the most welcome cold beers. If you have read my last blog you may have seen I took a snap of a bottle of Italian brandy Well I really

 It's one of those weekends here, the first weekend of voting in what passes for a general election where voters who are out of their region get to vote for their chosen candidate in the lower house. The upper house, the senate is appointed by the Royal Thai Army and so the vote, to the best of my knowledge does not include these members. There is a decent bit on the Thai parliament on Wiki HERE . I cant vote of course, I never expected to and I doesn't upset me at all BUT, during the period of voting it seems the Thai electorate cannot be trusted to not spent their time before making their mark in a bar or shop purchasing alcohol. Alcohol sales are banned, for everyone for a defined period and for this advanced vote day that means Saturday night with a cool beer at the a bar would be illegal. As I wasn't going to be out on the Saturday night I took a hot and sweaty stroll into the city on Friday morning in the hope of sorting some insurance, a coffee with my friend Charlie

 It has been a few days since I have really been out and about but as I needed to call at immigration I used the opportunity to get the old legs moving. The air is much better as you can see but it is still bloody hot. Still, lets not waste the opportunity to get active, here is the Relive. As you can see on the Relive the short path on the Stinky canal between Sridonchai road and Loy Kroh varies, when you set out the path is very good. The path changes and soon the vegetation starts to take hold.  Then within a few metres, After that you think, maybe it is all clear now.  But there is a final batch if entangling plant life to get through before the end. The city jungle walk eh? Coffee.    

 I just can't do things as quickly as I used to, or can I? Is it me or is time just passing by more quickly now? I mean bloody hell, April is over. It has gone so quickly that the April showers have not had time to sprinkle their goodness and the smog is still lingering although it is getting a bit better. Last month when I looked towards the city on the railway line the rails melted into the smog  But now I can see clearly (as the song goes) The last day of April was dictated by our little monster, Satang, needing a trip to the vet and as the penultimate day had more food than exercise, I figured a walk would do me good so here is the map thing. If you noticed the rail photos has telephone lines in them on the Relive, it is true, they did but a bit of Luminar Neo magic and poof, they were gone. I also had time to post my slideshow (did you take a look?) I quite liked it, but I do confess I need a way to select the photos I want to include and then tweak them a little, for example