Thursday 4 July 2013

We Have Split Today's Post Into Two,

as there are a lots of pictures,


for me first thing in the morning I was out for my 08.00 appointment at the hospital for a blood test, where I had lots of good news,

 but I had to wait an hour for the results,

 so off to the restaurant that we went to before on Second Road, the Yiam, but first I took a walk on Second Road passing one of the shrines on the pavement,

 before arriving at the restaurant,

 it appeared I was one of the first customers of the day,

  so I sat at the front where we were before and watch the world go past,

I mentioned a few posts ago that the yellow and blue taxis seem to have taken up residence outside of the Friendship supermarket,

it also appears that they have another taxi stand between Central Festival and the traffic lights on Second Road and Pattaya Tai, they were continually driving along the road parking up then driving off,

I ordered the same meal as before, the English breakfast, knowing I will be waiting I also brought along a book, The Keys of Egypt, I had read it before, it is a fascinating read about the race between scholars to decipher the hieroglyphics that were left on tombs, temples and papyrus,

from the review,
'The book tells the true story of the early nineteenth-century race to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs and how it came to obsess the brilliant French scholar Jean-François Champollion, whose painstaking work finally solved the mystery of the hieroglyphs. He faced bitter academic and political opposition, at a time when France was often in turmoil with the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. His greatest rival was Thomas Young, the exceptionally gifted scientist and physician. Champollion's discoveries started a process which revealed the incredible history of ancient Egypt',

from another review,
'Jean-Francois Champollion's biography is neatly interwoven with Napoleonic history and the functions of Egyptian hieroglyphs in The Keys of Egypt. A gifted bookseller's son born in Revolutionary France, Champollion was to become "gripped by energetic enthusiasm" for Egypt. By the age of 12, he was studying several ancient languages, and, amid a "wave of Egyptomania," he would beat rivals to discover the key to deciphering hieroglyphs. If this was a race, it was a marathon. The breakthrough came after "20 years of obsessive hard work," not through the quick-fix solution often thought to have been provided by the Rosetta stone.

The Keys of Egypt details Champollion's life and work, which were hampered by politics, poverty, and an almost hypochondriacal series of health problems. Its sources include letters and journals, the authors having undertaken researches in major libraries and museums',

if you like non-fiction books as I do that deal with historical facts this is a book for you, extremely readable and enjoyable,

then back to the hospital, firstly both my high and low cholesterol were fine along with my triglycerides, my blood sugar was normal and I was also surprised to find both my liver and kidneys were 100% OK, the only slight problem I had was that my blood pressure was little high so I have an appointment in one months time to be checked again,

 home for a cup of coffee, then the afternoon post arrived, in it our Internet bill so off to the 3BB office on Thepprasit Road,

the whole area looks completely different when the weekend night market is not here, on the way back home a quick call in at the 7-11, for some ice, then home where we then watched some television for the rest of the afternoon, but all too soon it was early evening, so glad rags on and we were out.

2 comments:

Daryle said...

Stan,

A glass of OJ in the morning will assist in reducing your BP, or if your inclined to go the a alternative remedies treatment, garlic capsules.

Daryle

PattayaStan said...

Dear Daryle, sorry to have taken so long to reply, I keep off juices as they may have an impact on my blood sugar levels, but we do snake on one most days in the afternoon making sure to eat some of the pith just on the inside of the rind, I will have a look at the garlic capsules you mentioned though, many thanks, Stan and Diana.