It’s the time of year when Pattaya hosts a wide range of events, and things kick off this weekend with longboat and buffalo racing. The buffaloes are not doing their thing until tomorrow; but we went along to the long long boats this afternoon and once again I found them very difficult to photograph.

Capturing the whole boat is pointless; the thing is so damn long that you don’t provide any detail:

Today will go down in history. It will be featured in future school text books for snails that live in our garden. For today is the day that the snail population of chez Spike was decimated in a brutal act of ethnic cleansing that makes the “2012 great ant slaughter in a saucer in our condo” look like a petty scuffle. Naturally, it is all down to she who must be obeyed.

Baan Kok Sai is a small village not far from Roi Et; and there is not much to see. A village shop, a few narrow sois; and a very smart house owned by Khun Peter and Khun Toon who hosted us for our stay. The village is surrounded by rice fields…

Over lunch we watched an episode of the wonderful new BBC wildlife series “Life Story”. This week there was some stunning footage of an Artic Fox diving into snow in pursuit of Lemmings. At the end of the programme we learned it took a team three years to capture this small segment of video. That’s dedication.

Suitably motivated, I set out on my own great expedition this afternoon is search of wildlife; a walk around the garden. After nearly three years (actually, five minutes) I was about to give up when I stumbled upon two butterflies having a shag.

Naturally I remained at a respectful distance (as close as I could get) and then gave them the full paparazzi treatment. Not surprisingly, they soon flew away, with one of the them doing the flying and the other hanging underneath, presumably attached by what is scientifically known as “the naughty bits”. But not before I got a shot.

At least I think that is what it is called. During our trip to the north, we were led into a dusty shed where a fantastic contraption was removing the husks from rice. Reminiscent of the Lancashire textile factories I visited in my youth in terms of noise and obscure machinery; it demanded to be photographed.