Wednesday 22 July 2015

Last Week I Potted Some Cactus Seeds,

the few that had instructions were all in Thai,


 but the Internet can sometimes be a wonderful thing, I looked up how to sow cactus seeds, well it appears they like to be more moist than their parents, so I put some in small pots in sand that I could keep damp and some in pots covered with cling film that would keep the moisture in, all then said to wait for 2 or 3 months to see if any had taken, so when Diana said some of the cactus were growing today I naturally assumed she was joking, 

 but she was not,

 in three or four of the small pots,

 there were definitely,

 signs of growth,

 and in one of the big pots as well, back on to the Internet, it appears I should keep them moist and wait for 3 months or so until they are big enough to be handled, then put them in bigger pots, I hope the bat plants grow as quickly,

 next stop the Soi Bukaow Tuesday/Friday market, we parked at the back of TukCom and walked to the market going past some new works on Pattaya Tai, it is surprising how much land is fronted by the shops on Pattaya Tai,

 I made my way past Friendship,

 and the new building next to it, I now know what it is, an extension to Friendship, it already has a number of items on it's shelves, next time we are in the car park I will take a look inside,


but this was my first port of call,

 the Kodak shop nearly opposite, I wanted to have the tax certificate for the bike encapsulated in plastic,

the aquarium in the store looking as nice as ever,

as was the Regal or BlueTang, (Paracanthurus hepatus), that has been here a number of years,


 it took a few minutes for the encapsulating machine to warm up, but I was soon on my way,

 walking past a durian seller that had set up shop outside of another shop,

 this was really neat, a continuous chain keeps the kebabs constantly turning over the grill,

 one of the many mix and match perfume stalls, and that is what you do, mix your own unique scent, the only problem is if you concoct one that is really nice out of several bottles, will you remember how to mix it the next time you want some more of it?

 no trip to the market would be complete with out a look at the aquatic stall,

 or the plant section,

which has a small selection of cactus,

 where I noticed this one, a stinky cactus, one we had did not do so well, so for 50 baht this will be it's replacement,

 I was not tempted by the orchids, 

 I made my way back to meet up with Diana, when I spotted this bike

 that some one had spent a lot of time and money on customising, the attention to detail like these gold cylinder head bolts,

 and footrest brackets had to be seen to be believed,

 although there were no left turns into Soi Bukaow from Pattaya Tai it was still quite busy,

I met up with Diana at the ice coffee stall and home we went,

 after our evening meal I put on the first disc from the BBC's World War 1, which we thoroughly enjoyed, so much so we watched all three episodes on it, I had not seen a single piece of the footage used on all three episodes before, which made for compelling viewing but there was a slight disappointment, as it was from the BBC I had assumed the subtitles would be in English, I have to admit when I bought it in the UK I did not check, I just assumed that would be the case, but I was wrong there was only two subtitle options, Dutch or nothing!

next a movie that you had to concentrate on, Ex-Machina, the plot basics, a young programmer is invited to the house of his boss to evaluate a robot, but as the evaluation continues the robot becomes more human than he or his boss imagines, with unforeseen results, the film will not be to everyone's taste, but for me it was a good insight as to how the robot/human interface could work and the unsettling consequences of what could happen in the future,

back to an old favourite as we continue to watch the fourth series of Downton Abbey, then for us we were off to bed.


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