Khun Viraj Na Songkla presents Sivawongse Changkasiri with birthday basket at the SCB Samaggi Insurance Board Meeting. Khun Jiravut, the MD, also gets a birthday basket since Khun Sivawongse and Khun Jiravut are born on the same day. Khun Sivawongse said that the other person born on the same day and year is Samak Sunthorawase.

M.R. Pridiyathorn feeds Seedor Pathorn in the ceremony at our Lampang Camp where Mom Oui donates the elephant to her Majesty Queen Sirikit as one of the 81 elephants to be reintroduced into the wild in honor of H.M. the King's 80th Birthday Anniversary Celebrations.

On the way back from Lampang, I run out of gas in Singburi and stop at a PPT station to fill up. We ask the gas station attendant where there is good eats and he says just around the block. There we find Rampueng Restaurant, a non-descript hole in the wall with the kitchen next to the sidewalk and the dining rooms well hidden in the back. Turns out this is one of the best eateries in Singburi. Best dishes are chicken cashew nuts,"awe suan" or oyster pancake on hot plate, and all kinds of fresh water fish dishes. The river prawns in pepper sauce was outstanding.

We stay at the Vienglakorn Hotel in Lampang this time which turns out to be quite nice. The food is quite good too. From now on we will stay at this hotel during our visits to lampang.

Girls enjoy lunch at Biscotti Four Seasons Hotel.

TISCO Foundation for Charity

Today the TISCO Foundation for Charity presented scholarships to over 700 needy students from the Bangkok area. This year the Foundation will extend over Baht 16 million of scholarship funds to over 5,000 student countrywide.
Looking at the students it came to my mind that all the receiving students were not even born yet when we set up the Foundation 25 years ago with the initial endowment of Baht 1 million from TISCO after some negotiations with Bankers Trust, TISCO's parent. It is a satisfying thought to know that the foundation has extended over 100,000 scholarships worth Baht 145 million from its inception. We feel we have done something worthwhile for the country. (And if some of TISCO's Thai directors had not objected, the TISCO Foundation's endowment fund would have been much higher and we could have done more.)

Green Wave FM 106.5

Patrapa meets "Unn" Puvanart Khunplin son of Khun Malirat Khunplin who was the first Head of Automobile Hire Purchase at TISCO. They were classmates. "Unn" is DJ of the Green Wave radio program which today donated collected funds to the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation at the Siam Paragon.

Volpetti

Mom meets with Claudio Volpetti from the Volpetti Salumeria in Trastevere, Rome,Italy. This is the store near our home in Rome on Viale Marco Polo and near the Piramide, where we used to buy our prociutto, salami, breads, etc. Peter still buys from this shop every week.
Claudio is on vacation in Thailand for a week and has an exhibit and shop at the Siam Paragon supermarket center.

On board the Crystal Symphony cruise ship in Dover, England , we have to immediately undergo the required emergency practise to abandon ship in case of accident.

At Selfridges Department Store where we have sashimi and sushi, we are met by Suphat A., Assistant Head of the Bank of Thailand's London Office. We introduce him to Dr. Snoh Unakul, the former Governor of the Bank of Thailand, and they both have a good conversation.

In London for the night we stay at the Hyatt Regency- The Churchill. Here Rochana poses with the bust of Winston Churchill in the hotel lobby.

Dr. Snoh Unakul and Dr. Nuey go on another honeymoon.

Great grandma Banchob comes to visit with Pavalyn.

Our lovely T bone steak at Khun Karantarat 's birthday dinner.