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Just got home from Bangkok via Doha & Qatar Airways. It's 9.25pm here & I got up at 3am UK time yesterday & have had about 90mins sleep since. BKK-DOH was a Boeing 787 & DOH-LHR was an Airbus A350.I think the Airbus just shaded it,but maybe it was because there were a lot less people on the Bus,although I did get a numb arse on the Boeing.Food & service were good on both legs. Sailed through immigration at LHR & then after less than 5mins in the baggage hall my suitcase came out.Then a 30min wait for my mate to pick me up & straight into a snarl up on the M25....& it was pissing down....some things never change.

Briann had the Sunday and went with me favorite... banana split

2 English breakfasts for the missus and myself at the Brick House.

OK I'm home alone & still jet lagged but I can still cook,even after four pints of real ale....

and home .... 37 1/2 hours door to door ... although that did include a night in London because it was too late to get a flight home and the Sun is out , blues skies 😎 hoping for a good Spring and Summer 🙏

I remember posting on a different thread about how some lose weight in Thailand, but I put it on, even though apart from coffee cake, I don't really eat sweet stuff. I put it down to the many crazy crisp flavours, I love crisps. I mean fried squid eggs ffs, it's hardly Tudor pickled onion 😆 I just bought a small box/tube of spicy garlic prawn pringles.

As in keeping with tradition. First night in Bangkok, boat noodle at Victory Monument. Just 3 bowls as a starter 😂

Premier Inn breakfast buffet £11.99

So arrived in Udon Thani on Monday and got the new car and bike licences today. Monday: Medical certificates (200 baht, 100 baht each), 30 minutes Tuesday: Residence certificates (1000 bbaht, 500 baht each) 30 minutes Wednesday: Driver's licences (760 baht, car 505 baht and motor bike 255 baht) 90 minutes. This would have only taken 30 minutes as well but the licences referenced my old passport and not my new one. I didn't have my old passport or a photo of it so my mum had to go around to my house in Australia and take a photo of the old passport which they then accepted. So what was needed for each licence: Medical certificate, Residence certificate, copy of my passport main page, visa page and the page with entry stamp. Also had to the online DLT training and show a copy of the QR code showing it was completed. Also needed to show them the QR code for the booking appointment time for today.

A walk around tarragona and time to replenish stocks,can't help notice how cheap it is here,cappuccino and icing pastry 3,10 euros in one of the many small coffee shops in town,and 15 euros for the snacks,only 17 today a bit chilly.

The first thing I did last night when I got home after 6 weeks away was make a list of what I have to do. Up at 0630 today-must be jet lagged-in Sainsburys at 7,groceries & 12 bottles of red,did a shedload of washing(or the machine did),sorted out a shedload of mail,ordered another 12 bottles of wine from Sainsburys online,went to see my mum in the care home just up the road & I'm just about to meet a mate in my local for my first real ale since leaving. I also ran both our cars & checked the tyres on them & drove over to mum's house to check it out. I need another fucking holiday!

This little fellow joins us every morning for coffee.

As you say great value... I did go back for pastries....There was an old couple there , that I recognised from my last stay .. I think they are local , staff were all saying hello to them and saw them drive off afterwards, whilst I was waiting for the bus .. they are probably there a few times a week 555

Brought my mankini, all good 👍

Brilliant! Now that I am back in Isaan this is what I see every morning whilst having my 6am coffee.. There are so many changes in Isaan since I first moved here in '97 but scenes like this still remain, although the days of buffalo ploughing the fields have long gone I am proud of showing my sons "real Isaan" before the changes began..

...and some Buffalo...

a few birds from yesterday...

I'd rather eat king crab than lobster - I find it more tasty although I haven't eaten it for years because of the hideous expense. With the proper tools, it's not so difficult.

King crab. My first time eating crab and I have to say it was delicious. Bloody should be at around £50 per kilo!

A very sad stage to reach. Many of us will have been there, and will empathise with what you are going through. I just hope you have the Powers of Attorney in place.

Knocking off some of the "jobs" that mum has put on her list of things for me to do during my absence.... Changed the battery in a mantlepiece clock, got the garden hose out of the garage, booked an mot for her car, moved a small plant pot, rolled up a winter rug.....

I rented a car in Zurich when my missus came out to visit,chose a manual Nissan Micra because that's what she had in the UK. Of course it was LHD & she couldn't change gear....I'd had a few pints so we ended up with her operating the clutch & me the shifter....great fun,in retrospect.

Now that is a breakfast. Have to say I have never been disappointed with their breakfasts when staying at Heathrow. Went to one in Merthyr Tydfil and it was an order to table but those at Heathrow are 'help yourself' buffets and that makes them amazing value.

One more flight and I'll be home ... security at T5 was a complete ballache

The Nest ( the old Robin's Nest soi Diana)

Chilli con carne in the Sportsman.

This is good so far. The main character is a real waster called Hardly. To mellow to have strong opinions, just mild preferences, and usually not even that.

Heathrow T2 wasn't that bad tonight , the usual long walk , but short queues at immigration and waiting for baggage wasn't too long 👍

Going to get my daughter from school in an hour, then taxi to the airport

Remembering how I enjoy the ever changing view out over the solent... HMS Prince of Wales (at least, ithink its the PoW, as I think QE is in Scotland being repaired) Which strangely isn't named on my marine tracking app, although its surrounding tugs are...

Turkeys turkeys everywhere. We have 3 groups constantly rotating thru. The biggest has 32 to 38 birds. They are really hard to count.

Moma bear and her 2 cubs. As you can tell from the handrail in the first pic she is way too close to the house for comfort

Immigration wasn't too bad, wasn't much of a queue that I noticed, though we were ushered to fast track as per usual. 5 mins max. Though took about 30mins for bags to come, but come they did, so all good compared to last 2 trips with EVA.

Today I rewatched the film The Killing Fields. Four CH-53 helicopters and crew from my Marine squadron were using during the filming. There were no close up shots of my buddies; but a couple of them can say they appeared in the movie. After it ended, I got on the Google and found the book on which The Killing Fields is based. The Death and Life of Dith Pran, written by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and author Sydney Schanberg. I found the entire book on https://archive.org/ , where I was able to read for free. It is a short, 78 page account including several pages of photographs. But, it was well written and a nice complement to the freshly watched film version. Highly recommend both.

Casa Pascal

The Key Bridge was completed in 1977, design would have started around 1970. Large scale fender protection of piers was not required then in USA (or Australia). In Australia the Derwent River Bridge collapse (hit by the bulk carrier Lake Illawarra) was in 1975. It did not have pier protection then either. Those design rules changed in the late 70s, so bridges like Brisbane Gateway opening in 1986 had small islands built around the piers so that an errant ship would go aground before it hit the piers. This is the standard modern method of protection. It really is true that the size of container ships has grown enormously in between. Now 200,000 to 300,000 tonne container ships are common. The Dali at 100,000 tonnes is at the smaller end of modern container ships. But it is still huge compared to 1970s ships. Containerised freight was only invented by the US army during the Vietnam War to reduce theft in shipping. They found it also greatly reduced freight handling costs, and so it led to a revolution in freight shipping. Container ships could be loaded/unloaded much faster. This made it more attractive to have bigger ships. So in WWII a cargo ship like a Liberty ship was around 10,000 tonnes. In the post war period (50s to 70s) the standard large cargo ship size was a “Panamax” at 40,000 tonnes. This allowed easy passage of the Panama Canal. In the 80s and 90s the larger “Cape Size” ships grew common, at around 100,000 tonnes. They were called “Cape Size” because they were too large for the Panama and Suez Canals, hence they typically sailed around Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. Since 2000 the Panama and Suez canals have both been widened and the sky is the limit. We see numerous container ships of up to 300,000 tonnes and some oil tankers at over 500,000 tonnes. With automation it takes the same crew number to sail a Panamax (15 or so) as a 500,000 tonne super tanker. So there are big economies of scale going to bigger ships. Morale of the story: no 1970s bridge was designed to take a hit from a 100,000 tonne ship. There is certainly a case to retrofit all those era bridges with pier protection. Since the 1980s most transport agencies barely have enough money to maintain their existing assets, so refits rarely happen. It also depends on bridge type. A suspension or concrete arch type bridge has much thicker piers, and so would be much less vulnerable.

Yes all is well, had a 8 week trip to Thailand and returned to u.k, just before Christmas. Pattaya, Hua Hin and finished off in Phuket to visit a few mates. Plenty of fishing in all of the locations, life is good, take care mate.

I had never heard of Gary Clark Jr. prior to tonight Jon Stewart had him on as a guest. I looked up some of his music. Jesus Christ the man can play the guitar. We are talking about Hendrix level talent here. IMO. Catfish Blues @Lirchenfeld you might like this one I think. "This is who we are".

Just woke up,switched on maps and see we are sailing back to tarragona, supposed to be tomorrow,so looking forward to get back into town again

A friend of mine died at his work yesterday😣 The police are calling it suicide, because he fell into a huge 20,000 gallon barrel of beer, but got out 3 times to take a piss.