She who must be obeyed frequently expresses a desire to do or obtain something. A second-hand Toyota Camry, a working knowledge of the Spanish language, daily attendance at a yoga class. I have learned that these are just vague yearnings spoken out loud and, if ignored, will disappear to be replaced with some new desire which can also be ignored.

Occasionally, something sticks, and yesterday a recommendation from our physio, which has been bubbling around in the wish list for a month or so, came to fruition as I was manoeuvred into the crap gadget section of Big C and we came home with this:

Things continue to go badly in Bangkok, with another death being recorded this afternoon. The reds have also been busy in the provinces; blocking roads, surrounding town halls and generally being a pain in the ass.

Thankfully, things continue to be quiet in Pattaya, with the reds and the ABRs (Anything But Red) taking it in turns to conduct shouting sessions outside city hall. But then it all turned a load more sinister on Jomtien beach road this afternoon.

The BBC iPlayer is now my medium of choice for watching Formula 1 races; their coverage and commentary is simply the best. Having watched a qualifying session, I noticed they were covering the boat race live, so I watched that too.

The Oxford and Cambridge boat race has been run for more than 150 years, and there are worse ways of idling away twenty minutes on a Saturday afternoon, unless you are actually sitting in one of the boats, in which case it looks like reasonably hard work. Anyway, it was an closely fought race, I quite enjoyed it and I vowed to be really annoyed next year when I discover that I missed it.

But then a call from Polo Escape; we are having a boat race! Come see!

The chance to experience, first hand, the precision rowing of athletes who have spent the previous year in training. The surge of the boat as multiple sets of oars work in perfect harmony. The tension as they race neck and neck to the finish. I was on on my way immediately.

It wasn’t quite what I expected. There were three boats rather than two (Oxford, Cambridge and Leeds perhaps), although the all-Argentinian crew of one boat had a level of excitability and South American passion that exceeded the stability rating of the boat. Or to put it bluntly, they capsized at the start line. So that was Leeds out of the running.

The hills around Pratumnak are some of Pattaya’s more pleasant locations. A look-out point across the city, a big Buddha, a small temple complex, and plenty of trees and bushes. No surprise then that City Hall decided to bugger it up by ripping up the greenery and building this:

It’s almost two years since the first comment was made on this site. Fitting that it should come from Billy, who was the catalyst for my starting Pattaya Days. His comment was: “I will”. I took this little phrase to my heart and have since tried to use as a mantra for my life; although I have modified it slightly by adding “probably starting tomorrow” on the end.

Fast forward to today, and the prestigious award (to be announced later) for the 3,000th comment goes again to Billy with the memorable:

Yesterday was Earth Day; kindly pointed out to me by the revised heading on the Google home page.

It goes without saying that I am a very environmentally aware; mainly because I am not. I am not convinced by global warming, I drive a smoking truck and I’d rather eat a pig than a carrot.

Still, I am sufficiently aware that the occasion is meant to be a day where you do something to be nice to our planet.

Today is the start of she who must obeyed’s weekend. Except it isn’t, because she has urgent stuff she has to do and heads off to her office. This leaves me at an unexpected loose end and I ponder how to spend my morning. I fancy pointing my camera at something and remember that one of the tech sites is running a competition for their “iPads around the world gallery”. The prize winner will be based upon a draw rather than on photographic merit, so I am in with a chance and decide to have a go.

This is what I came up with:

A warning: This is a long post. It’s about a product in which you may have no interest, in which case please read no further. You may have already decided it is not for you (hi Lloyd!), in which case please move along. There are no jokes and the only thing that gets photographed naked is the iPad.