A handful of shots from today; people and machinery at the windsurfing club.

There is no better life than a life beside the beach. Provided it is warm. I used to live by the beach in Aberdeen; it was nothing like this.

After months of build up, it is finally here. Tens of thousands of fans (red shirts) will descend on Bahrain (Bangkok) for the first (latest) round of the world championship (ongoing battle against the government). Everyone is hoping that the event will be free of accidents (violence), and it is very unclear who will emerge the winner.

OK, enough of the double talk. Bangkok is going to be inundated with protesters this weekend. It’s not my country and I have no opinion on who is right; especially as it is all politics and politicians worldwide are, almost without exception, scum. I just hope that the country comes out of whatever happens without too much damage. The Thai people deserve a stable future, although I doubt they are going to get it.

Bangkok Protests tulsathit - A Thai journalist for The Nation. Not the greatest of newspapers to work for, but he writes in English and is reporting frequently from Bangkok this weekend. A good way to keep in touch with what is happening.

Formula One: Occasional posts from the drivers, apart from Karun Chandhok who is like a kid in a toy shop and is posting all manner of fun stuff. Much more from the journalists and broadcasters, with links to web and images.

We have a new police chief (by “we” I mean Pattaya, nor our home which is already more than adequately policed by she who must be obeyed). He is obviously keen to make an impression and has been calling regular press conferences to announce new schemes.

The latest wheeze is to empower the one thousand plus baht bus and motorcycle taxi drivers to help fight crime in the city. To encourage them to look out for and report suspicious behaviour, they are being offered 2,000 baht if the bad guys they finger are successfully prosecuted.

Before I rolled it, I had a 2 litre Honda Civic. It weighed about a tonne and had 150 horsepower, giving reasonable performance. Of course it would have had significantly better performance (and rolled much further) if it had only weighed half a tonne, and been blessed with twice as much horsepower. Like this:

Asus Aspire One Netbook One careful owner, never raced or rallied, needs some attention.

Down to Jomtien Marina yesterday morning to take a shot of a friend’s boat. There seemed to be more than the usual number of people and lengths of cable: