I like the balance of this shot, and the fact that the seller at the top is checking her phone while waiting her turn. Looks good full-size.

For too many years, our New Year’s Eve has been spent sitting at home, only venturing out at midnight to stand on the roof of our condo to watch the fireworks. We decided to be different this year, partly because we had guests and partly because we don’t have a condo roof to stand on any more. So we went to Bangkok.

I still wanted fireworks, and had no interest in spending hours in the Skytrain before spending the last moments of 2014 in a thronging mass at Central World, wondering if I was about to be crushed in a stampede; so we went on the river.

The Royal Orchid Sheraton was the hotel of choice and the rooms offered a good view down the river:

Have not had a chance to put a film through my new old Leica yet; but that hasn’t stopped me pimping it out a bit.

On the top is a Leica SB001 viewfinder, a fine piece of engineering that offers a much clearer view of the world than the built-in viewfinder, especially for someone who wears glasses. The back of this viewfinder, plus the viewfinder and focus screen on the camera, have been treated with liquid electrical tape, transported across international boundaries in contravention of the Geneva Convention by The Son. This gives my glasses a rubber finish to press against, unlike the metal that was originally threatening to scratch my lenses.

On the front can now be found something that is good for image quality but appalling for sexy good looks, the Leica S00PD barn door lens hood for the Summitar lens. Looks cute, all folded up in the supplied box; looks terrible on the camera but I am advised that the Summitar needs all the help it can get to avoid lens flare.

All it needs now is case and strap and I will be ready to go out and shoot with it. Just hope it bloody works after all this procurement.

What to buy for the man who has everything he needs? I refer of course to the editor of Pattayadaze, a man who requires little in the way of material possessions and would not be happy with the diamond-studded Rolex I had initially planned to buy him as a New Year’s gift.

Instead, I presented him with something few have experienced, a sheep placenta face mask:

He tried very hard to hide his gratitude, but I could see he was moved by the gesture.

Time for the annual review of Pattaya Days performance, and it’s a low score for the team of authors who churn out content. There was a significant reduction in the number of posts over the year, mainly due to the condo selling/house moving saga which occupied many months to the detriment of other activities.

In spite of that, readership was much better than 2013 and nearly up to record numbers of 2012; the year of the “Art in Paradise” post.

Between Xmas and New Year we made a trip to Japan; only took twenty minutes to get there. Not the real Japan of course, a place called J-Park on the outskirts of Chonburi.

A collection of buildings in an assumed Japanese style, with water features and trees displaying suspiciously constant autumnal foliage; all designed to attract the happy snapper selfie brigade. There are shops and stalls selling mainly Japanese products, with a supermarket displaying all manner of interesting Japanese goodies. Then there are many restaurants, all offering Japanese food.

It’s a pleasant enough place and worth the trip just to pick up some treats from the supermarket. Follow that with a decent lunch and you have a half-day outing. Unfortunately the restaurant we went to served me the worst plate of sushi I have ever eaten (not the one in the photo below); but happy to go back another time to try somewhere else. Go during the week, I expect it is rammed at weekends.

Unless you live somewhere that is awash with attractions, it can be hard to find places to take visitors, especially if they have visited previously; and instead there is a danger of just sitting at home watching TV and eating vast quantities of Turkish Delight. Fortunately, my future daughter-in-law is an expert researcher and discovered somewhere in Pattaya that we had never heard of, even though we live here,

The Escape Hunt business started in Bangkok, but now has branches across the world; including Pattaya. The Pattaya outlet opened a couple of months ago on Theppraya road in the new complex on the road down to Pattaya Park.