Popular illusionist Joe Conrad is heading for Phuket’s Heart of Darkness, Patong. In fact he’s already here quite a bit of the time, overseeing creation of a 700-seat theatre in the Jungceylon complex

Local ladies tuned out in their very best traditional outfits and lots and lots of jewellery for the second Phuket Traditional Costumes Contest at the Provincial Museum near the Heroines monument today (August 8).

A raffle to win a unique signed painting valued at 60,000 baht by Australian artist Christopher Hogan is raising funds for a school in Phang Nga province supported by Laguna Phuket’s “Developing Sustainable Schools” program.

Jaguar Cars has chosen Phuket over everywhere else in Asia for the regional launch of its new luxury, superfast XJ model, which has an electronically limited top speed of 266 kmh and a 0-100 kmh time of 4.9 seconds.

Now here’s the deal, y’all: Ya bah a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and ya git another one free. Or, if you’re of the girlie pre-suasion, bah one of Suh-then Cumfut – and git one fer free. Or ye kin bah a Glass of Independence and git a second one free. And if all this drinking makes ye hungry, git yeself on the ahtside of 12 inches of patriotism – the classic Red White Blue Burger (nope – the meat is the red part, not the blue wun).

Laguna Phuket is about to launch its annual Summer Family Festival, with a new twist – families can now star in their own professionally-produced Hollywood-style motorbike tour of Phuket.

There’s another lot landing here on June 22 (a Tuesday) for a one-night stand-up at the Mercure Hotel in Patong.

July 24 has been set as the date for this year’s Third Worldwide Photo Walk and, as with last year, Phuket will be joining in with at least one walk.

Western films set in Thailand up to now have all pretty much had the same characteristics: The stars are Westerners and Thailand is simply an exotic backdrop. Thai actors and actresses are all taxi drivers, gangsters or gogo girls.

Bitter/Sweet, which had its Thailand premiere in Phuket last night (June 11) as part of the Phuket Film Festival, deliberately sets out to break that mould.

The final was between Australia and Iran, but the match the local crowd came to Surakul Stadium to watch yesterday was the battle for third place in the Seniors World Cup, between Thailand and New Zealand.