On the diddy plane again!!!

Afternoon!

Wheyhey, just finished sorting out my holiday... Me and the wife are going back to Thailand. Courtesy of all my airmiles, earned the hard way sittting for months in economy class on Air Puke (AirFrance/KLM) I got two tickets business class all the way to Bangkok. From the moment I check in at Heathrow to the moment I roll of the plane in bangkok its free shampoo all the way!!! Last time we were there two years ago we did the same holiday and we loved it. We are going back to Hua Hin on the gulf of Thailand. As Hua Hin is a mayor fishing port the seafood there is out of this world. Fresh, cheap and plentiful. The last time we found a little travel firm that did a little dinky toy plane ride to Bangkok. We had come out from Savurnabumi by limousine which took three hours on shitty roads so when we found this little local airline SGA and found out that the tickets were only 50 GBP back to Bangkok we jumped at the chance. Hua Hin Airport is, how shall we say, small I guess...

This is the Siam GA arrival terminal at Savurnabumi Airport in Bangkok. Works very well, nice friendly staff that guide you all the way through the terminal etc... Aiport staff in Europe could learn from the service that these guys provide. It is indeed service with a smile...

This is the route that we fly. Straight up over Hua Hin and then over the Gulf of Thailand north to Bangkok...

This is the runway at Hua Hin Airport. It is right in the town and has not a lot of flights going through it so no crowds or queues... Lovely...

When you are on the diddy plane the pilots are just sitting right in front of you and you can watch all that they do. The plane, a Cessna Grand Caravan 208B, seats only 12 people plus the two pilots...

This is the flight taking off from Hua Hin... These are not my pictures... Found them somewhere online, my flight is in the evening so it will be dark...

This is the view over Hua Hin just after take-off when it turns north towards Bangkok...

This is the rather basic control instrumentation of the dinky toy...

This is on final approach into Savurnabumi International in Bangkok...

This is another Cessna Grand Caravan 208B...

This is the beach of Hua Hin from the air...

Hua Hin Interantional Airport. Notice the huge crowds and the lengthy queues...

This is the separate check-in area inside. Again, bustling with people and the wait was enormous.... hahahahha....

This is the actual plane that we will be flying in september. So a few work trips to go, to Saudi Arabia, Brazil next week and possible Turkey and then off to Thailand. They better get some more supplies of Singha beer in...

Cheerio,
Alex.

Finally a nice summer...

Good afternoon,

Just a little update with some nice summer shots. The last few weeks have been reasonably nice weatherwise and as I am always out with my dogs in the countryside I got some nice shots here and there.

This first pair of pics are of a nest of ringnecked doves. This is the second brood that the adults have managed this year. Yes it makes a lot of crap on my patio area but of course I haven't kicked them of the nest.

It looks like it won't be too long before they fly the nest, they are getting nice and fat now...

This was a piccie of some weeds in a field where I take my greyhounds. It was early evening and the sun was picking out the small purple flowers quite nicely...

Here is another one of some of that purple stuff with a white bindweed flower amongst them...

I quite like this pciture. It was taken into the sun which was low at that time and it casts a nice sheen over the fluffy seed heads...

The same seed heads with bug...

Some kind of thistle, again shot with the sun behind giving a nice backlit effects on the sharp thorns...

This is my back yard with the wife's hammock in the background. Everything is in flower at the moment and everything looks green, I guess the wet spring helped...

This is Jay posing... Again, later in the evening so that his coat looks very red...

A shot of Little Cornard through some bullrushes...

Some more purple weed...

And a last one of the bindweed flowers. At the moment all the fields around us are beautiful, all the crops like wheat and barley is yellow and golden and ready for harvest. The weather being nice helps enjoying this stuff...

Next week my travels begin again. I'm off to Belo Horizonte in Brazil for a week. I'm flying with Air Puke again (Air France) so I'll probably get there but my luggage probably wont... I've never been to Brazil so having a chance at seeing the famous Brazilian women shaking their booties is something I am quite looking forward to hahahahahaha!!! I'll update when I get back from Brazil.

Take care,
Alex.

Boating on the Broads!!!

Wheyhey!!!

Look at that bird! My missus managed to photograph one of the rarest birds in the UK, the Marsh Harrier... This was one of a pair that we spotted just south of Dilham...

And she even got a shot of one flying... They are big birds... See below for the story about getting them on camera...

This is the start of the Broads update, I'm still having trouble with getting pictures to appear in the right place on Blog entries. I don't seem able to cut and paste pictures where I want them... Anyone with ideas, leave me a comment...


Afternoon all!!!

This is the belated update of my boating trip on the Broads in Norfolk. It was fantastic! We had a whale of a time. Luckily for us the weather helped us out by being beautiful for the first few days. I managed to get a suntan in England! The piccie above is me steering the good ship 'Mermaid'. It was an 40 year old tub with a small diesel in the back.

We took our two greyhounds Izzy and Jay with us as well and we were not too sure if they would take to boating but as Jay shows here asleep on his back while motoring down one of the rivers they took to it like a greyhound to water?!!?!?

This is one of the shots I took that I was pretty impressed with. It was a large Norfolk Wherry. This is the type of ship that was used a long time ago as cargo ships on the broads. They are still around and they look stunning under sail...

As some of you might know I am originally from Holland and this view of the River Yare towards Yarmouth has a very dutch feel to it. Windmills, reeds, water, you could be on the southern rivers of Holland...

This is the stepson James at the helm. Mainly because we spend the afternoon moored up outside the Swan Pub in Horning where I drank a few too many of East Anglia's finest beer Adnams Broadside... James stayed one night with us moored at How Hill where we proceeded to lighten the load of the boat by drinking all of the beer supplies hahahahaha...

There was a suprising amount of wildlife about... We saw amongst others: Ducks, Swans, Geese, Kingfishers, Cormorants, Great Crested Grebes, Herons, all sorts... The wildlife is not really disturbed by all the boats and usually stayed put when you cruised by so I had a chance to get some decent shots... A credit has to go to my wife jackie who managed to get some shots of one of the rarest bird around in the Broads, the Marsh Harrier. We were on our way to Dilham and that route took us through some very narrow canals through marsh land and suddenly I spotted a pair of Marsh Harriers but as I was piloting the boat through the narrow canal got my wife to take some shots and she managed to get some half decent shots, which was amazing as they disappeared as quickly as the appeared...

This was a grey heron perched on top of one of the handy signposts that help you find your way around the Broads. Hey, I am no sailor, and an AA road atlas wasn't the most useful map so these signs helped a great deal hahahahaha...

This is the river coming down from Potter Heigham. It was a nice windy day so there were a lot a smaller Wherries out sailing. Kinda tricky to get around as they are under sail which means they have right of way but some of them were tacking up the river, i.e. going from bank to bank every two minutes which made me passing them in a boat that only does 6 mph sometimes a bit tricky. Needless to say, having a few pints down my neck didn't help either hahahahaha!!!

This was on the entry to Ranworth Broad. It was a cormorant drying of after a fishing expedition. Looks quite like the Bacardi logo doesn't it? Or is that just my booze addled brain???

I got a couple of nice shots of herons flying by...

This is myself piloting the boat down some river that I can't remember... Helped by my greyhound as you can see... (Yes, that is a pint of Singha beer on the dashboard...)

Most of the time this was the view that you saw the whole day, quiet rivers with the odd boat here and there... Lovely and peaceful. That was what myself and my wife found to be the best part of this holiday, the sheer relaxation of it, just pottering along at 5 mph is just very relaxing...

I got some good shots of sunsets and sunrises as well... This was a nice sunset while we were moored up at How Hill...

This was the same place but later... Lovely pastel shades and good reflections...

This was the little tub that we drove around (I know it is not 'driving' but I don't know the boating lingo...) It was very comfortable (with the exception of the beds being slighlty too short as I am 1mtr85...), it had a small kitchen, a separate bedroom, a shower room with a good warm water shower and a good working bog, always important! To sum up, a great time was had by us and we will be doing this again. Yes, it is expensive, 700 squid for a weeks boating including all the insurance and fuel, but to us it was worth it. It was the first holiday in a long time where we actually came back rested instead of knackered...

Cheerio,

A rested Alex.

Off on a plastic Noddy boat...

Afternoon all,

Don't ask me why the picture comes up first, I can't get it to shift... Never mind... Wheyhey after the alcohol fest last week with my younger brother it is this weekend time for me and the wife to go on a short break. We are going boating in Norfolk. The map above is of the Norfolk Broads. It is a network of small rivers and peat diggings and most of it is navigable.

We have rented a small plastic bath tub shown above. I believe the picture is actual size of the boat hahahaha!!!

For a week we will be cruising the rivers as shown above. It should be good. I have never piloted a small boat like this but when I was younger I used to have a Zodiac with an outboard which was good fun. It can't be much different I guess... (Famous last words....)

The route goes through some beautiful protected areas full of wildlife...

Plus the route takes you past loads and loads of pubs so there will be planty of opportunity to quaff a few good pints along the way... We are taking the greyhounds as well but I don't know if that is such a good idea... First of all they aren't the greatest swimmers and second off all the are thick as pigshit so will probably manage to fall overboard at the earliest opportunity.... We'll see... As long as I can get some well earned rest and recreation it should all be good fun...

Cheerio,

Seaman Staines.

After the weekend....

Afternoon,

Thank god, he has gone home... One more day and my liver would have given up hahahaha!
My and the bruv had a whale of a time. Thursday night on the booze...
Friday a 4th of July party at my brother-in-law. Which lasted until the small hours of the morning... Saturday night in the Weatherspoons getting legless...

This is my brother and me starting the 4th of July celebrations a few hours early just to check if the Corona was up to scratch... It was...
This is him getting drunker and drunker....
My dog Jay giving Jeroen a stare out competition of who gets the settee hahahahaha!!! Jay won.
This is me trying to look sober. I failed.

A good time was had by all and bring on next week when I finally go on a weeks holiday...

Cheerio,

Alex.