Per Magica Ad Astra

 Having lived here for a billion years you may think I have been to every possible place. Of course I haven't and what's more, every now and then someone has me taking in a new and worthwhile venue. On Saturday we packed 2 of them in Dantewada Land of Angels Waterfall Park  and  On the Rock . Here in what I hope will be the 1st of a couple of videos, is a slideshow of the types of things you may experience there. Hope you like the snaps: -  Wine.

 Well then. One of those days, hot outside, hot inside. The day started with a trip to the Womens Prison, as we call it. Not actually the prison but the vocational centre where it is possible to get a good massage as well as food and drink. Unfortunately when we turned up, the massage spots were all taken and so we sat down and ate. The family had driven there but I had, and this may come as a surprise to you all, got there by foot and not only that, I recorded the whole journey. With no massage to be had it was back to home which in itself was another plan that went into the ether😁 And so later in the afternoon, having out my party togs on (jeans and a t-shirt), I set out have a bit of Friday night fun. My first port of call was Number 1 bar which, as pretty much a given at this time of day, was very very quiet. But it did serve cold beer, so I had a couple... Then to the Kalae Bar where the wonderful Chipmunk arranged a Tandoori mix to satisfy my tastebuds. Very tasty. My final ...

 The last week of April and once again I am thinking how time flies, I think I was listening to Morse when I heard that life passes at a constant rate in 24-hour units, well something like that. Well there was a lot in these 24 hours. For a start off I went into the city and met a chap about travel insurance. He is French and would you believe he is called Clouseau although in a cunning move, he disguises the fact by spelling the name differently. So off I trotted on a little trundle to meet him and have a coffee with my friend Charlie. Of course the tech recorded it so we can all Relive. Whilst I was out and about in the city Mrs T was at the airport picking up Daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. Quite a day. But it wasn't over... At 2am Thai time, the Clarets faced our most despised rivals, Blackburn Rovers at Ewood. A win would secure the Championship for the Clarets, but Rovers were not playing nice including a small allocation of tickets to away fans. Well, despite th...

 Never thought I would blog about steamed buns. Well I am not really; it is just one of those things that happen. Sunday evening and we had some serious wind and even a spot or two of rain. Mrs T also is a busy bunny as she has, for the first time in many many years a full Tepin Baan Lek . By Monday morning, the high winds has blown all manner of vegetation into the pool and so, the first task was to get it cleaned so that the enthusiastic 10-year-old guest could enjoy. Then it was time to let immigration know we had overseas guests, we are required to do that you know, it's another of those rules that came in who knows when and they just can't bring themselves to take it of the things to do incase they upset someone's ancestors 😌. We normally do this online, but our online account seems to be problematic, so we went in person to register the guests and sort the online bit. That being done I wanted a little exercise, so Pin jumped into the driving seat, and I set out to ha...

 Right, a bit of housekeeping before I start. A short while ago I changed the format of the blog following reader input to simply make it easier to read. Whilst I think the new format did go someway to achieving certain objectives, other desirable features were lost...  So I am now trying yest another format which looks like it may give me close to the desired effect, lets see shall we. Feedback appreciated. Also, yesterday I included a YouTube at the end of the blog but, it seems that readers accesing via a mobile phone didn't get the video.  Not sure why so I am going to try and bung it on again here. Did you get to see that mobile viewers? Right, onwards!  I am simply not getting out on the Burg anything like enough, and in the hope that the smog and the extreme hot temperatures are close to ending, I took it on a little outing to get the juices flowing. The Burgs juices obviously needed that as on of the first thing that happened within the first 5km was the oil ...

Earlier in the week I had a trip to one of the big private hospitals here in Chiang Mai, private not because I am posh, it is just my stay here does not allow me to take advantage of the Thai heath service. That being said the private hospitals here are very good, very good indeed. I had been required to fast since midnight for reasons I don't quite understand. Not just a food fast, no liquids either, not even water 😮. By 8am they had taken blood checked my vitals (i.e. written down my BP and weight that I gave them). Shortly after I was taken into the bowels of the building where the CT and MRI scanners were housed, sat down then presented with a green liquid. I supped the green whatever in just under an hour. You have to wait a while for the stuff to coat your innards but once that is done and you have changed into a hospital gowns the scan can begin. The scan is performed on some pretty high-tech stuff, in the case of this hospital, a unit made by Phillips which not only does a...