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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

Hitting the tunes now. I'm a happy man, even with all of the issues.

lol Not having a car has added years to my life. Had to walk down Soi Bucky today. I don't think I have ever said so many curse words within twenty minutes in my life (and that is difficult to match, lol). What a friggen cesspool.

Opening mail and making lists of things I need to do .. 555

If she's got a Thai sim , it will pick up the U.K. network, with dtac you get free data roaming in U.K. for 24 hours, as assume other Thai phone companies offer similar 🤷‍♂️... just make sure she has your full U.K. number + 44 etc in her phone

Dumfries! You must have tried the national dish of scotland INGREDIENTS 1 Mars bars 1 cup plain flour 1⁄2 cup cornflour 1 pinch baking soda beer oil (for deep frying) DIRECTIONS Chill the chocolate bar by keeping it in the fridge, but don't freeze it. Mix the flours and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) together. Add beer (which gives a lighter until you get a batter with the consistency of thin cream. Heat the oil until a small piece of bread will brown in a few seconds, but don't allow to smoke. Remove wrapper (optional) from chilled chocolate bar. Coat completely in batter. Carefully lower into hot oil and fry until golden brown. Serve, with ice cream or french fries, if you're so inclined.

Well that is certainly pretty.

According to TV news reports tonight both Bay bridges have concrete 'crunch' areas around the towers. . . . Why experts say what happened in Baltimore won't happen to a Bay Area bridge https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/could-sf-golden-gate-bridge-collapse-19370020.php ... The iconic Golden Gate Bridge has “the most robust protection system of any bridge on the West Coast,” according to Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, the director of public affairs for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, the state agency that manages the bridge. Early Tuesday morning, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore plunged into the water after a ship lost power and slammed into one of its supports. Cosulich-Schwartz said it would be impossible for any ship to get close to either of the Golden Gate Bridge’s two towers. “The North Tower is half on land and half in the water, and a large vessel would run aground before colliding with the pier,” Cosulich-Schwartz wrote in an email. The south tower is anchored to bedrock underwater and surrounded by what’s known as a fender, a protective shield designed to prevent ships from hitting a bridge’s piers, Cosulich-Schwartz said... ... Caltrans manages the Bay Area’s other seven major toll bridges: the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael, San Francisco-Oakland Bay and San Mateo-Hayward bridges. All of them have protection systems in place, according to Caltrans spokesperson Bart Ney. Ney said the strategy to protect the bridges is mostly the same at all of them — with fenders in place — but that the particular systems are “different for each bridge,” depending on several factors, including the type of bridge and the depth of the bay at that location. In the past 20 years, there have been two significant “maritime allisions” — the term used to describe a moving ship hitting a bridge — in the Bay Area. Both occurred at the Bay Bridge. In 2007, a container ship called the Cosco Busan hit the bridge’s fender at the second tower west of Yerba Buena Island...