Lashing rain yesterday and driving winds made for a happy to be at home feeling. I was disappointed yesterday to find that the software I was hoping would help me to automate the conversion from Word file to HTML with all sorts of bells and whistles won't run with Office XP. I'm disappointed since I have to do a lot of manual work now until they sort out that problem. DW

I was a very happy chappy yesterday as I solved a problem that the whole world was befuddled by: my CPU usage is 100% problem. I've bored you with this before but my Task Manager kept telling me that my CPU was constantly 100% in use by something inside the SYSTEM process. NO idea what that meant and even having asked a number of techies I couldn't get rid of the problem UNTIL I found that the computer worked OK in Portsmouth and then again when I moved it from downstairs to upstairs at home ... I got the link: if I boot in battery mode or switch from mains to battery mode when the problem arises, the problem disappears. I can then reconnect the power supply and it will be fine for a while: maybe hours. I don't know the root cause of this problem but I am sharing my little success with as many people as possible in the hope that someone, somewhere will help out! DW

Someone somewhere in Abingdon Council has decided that they need TWO new Pelican crossings: light controlled pedestrian crossings. They have put one near where we live and I think it is in one of the most inappropriate places possible: I don't believe anyone crosses the road there. I'll monitor it ... must cost thousands and thousands to erect things like that. A Zebra crossing would have been much more appropriate and much less costly. The other one they built is on a BEND in the road nearer to town. Who are the people who think of these things? DW

My lawn looks really nice now: at night ... reminds me of tha brilliant lines from Gilbert and Sullivan about the young man who finds himself a wife: he fell in love with the rich attorney's daughter and she may very well pass for 43 in the dusk with the light behind her Still, the daffodils bulbs I planted last year are all coming into bloom now: the crocuses appeared a couple of weeks ago! Mrs W has led me to generate the phrase See man, give man job. Dima and I are being hounded at the moment as soon as we heave into Mrs W's view! Lovely weather in Portsmouth as me and my mate John took a walk along the prom in Southsea: huge P&O ferries floating by, massive tankers saling along into Portsmouth docks. The parks and gardens department down there keep their parks and gardens in excellent condition, even though the gardeners park their vans and lorries in the most outrageously illegal ways and places. The drives down and back were good, incident free and not busy and cluttered at all. Mrs W suggested that since I was there, I could call into the Chinese restaurant we ate at a while ago and order a take away ... since she'd thrown away the take away menu, we negotiated what I should order over the mobile phone as I stood outside in blustery cold weather with lorries hurtling past, passers by wondering what on earth I was doing ... worth it though and we tucked in on my arrival home at around 10pm. DW

Germine wanted information on accounting in Malaysia and how to meet a Brazilian accountant! Here's what I wrote; and having seen some of the goings on at the Carnival in rio this week, I'd like to say that there are some Brazilian looking accountants that I'd like to meet, too! Serious now: Hi Germine, Well, I don't know much about Malaysia and its accounting regime, but this is what I suggest you do: I went to www.iasplus.com and found that Malaysia doesn't use International Financial Reporting Standards (IAS). However, search this site for Malaysia and you will find a very useful page at http://www.iasplus.com/country/malaysia.htm that lists all of the latest changes in Malaysian accounting over the last two+ years. They also list these web sites: The Malaysian Institute of Accountants and The Malaysian Association of Certified Public Accountants. They also tell us that Malaysia is included in the IFAD GAAP Convergence Studies and they have a link for that too. Go to www.kpmg.com.sg which is KPMG's Singapore office which seems to be the headquarters of their work in Malaysia and you can see that they have links on Malaysia ... do a search on this site for Malaysia. PriceWaterhouseCoopers are at http://www.pwcglobal.com/: you can find their site for Malaysia from the country link and go to http://www.pwcglobal.com/my/eng/main/home/index.html As for finding Brazilian accountants, I suggest you follow the links I have given in my page on Brazilian accounting and find the contact us details and write to them: someone will probably reply! Best wishes and let me know if you need any more help on this: as a matter of interest, what is you interest in Malaysia and Brazil ... they don't seem connected to me!! DW

Have you been to see my page on how to begin the financial analysis part of a case study? Go on, ruin yourself ... the case is in the financial accounting section and it's called PhotoInd Ltd. I've had rave reviews! Off to Portsmouth tomorrow: let's see what that brings. That follows on a visit to the Quack to see if he needs to remove some skin!! All will be revealed! DW

Good grief, the weekend came and went and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday came and went, well Wednesday almost. I learned about raclette from a lilly pad of Frogs ... sorry, from a room full of very nice French people. Joke ... don't be offended in the slightest. I spent a really nice Saturday evening with some friends in Didcot and they introduced me to raclette and raclette cheese. One of the party had done a round the Sahara Desert trip in 1985 and it was interesting talking to him about that: Michael Palin wasn't the first! We played scrabble and I didn't win: the only native English speaker in the room and I came second. Along the way we had attempts at fobbing us off with 'goy' and 'jean'(!) among others ... all other players were French. How could I lose? Well, I came second and only lost on the count back when I had to have my left over 'Q' deducted from my score. I'm making progress with my ideas for books (e books?) and presentations and goodness knows what. I am about to reveal my first one: introduction to management accounting. It's now late on Wednesday and I have been suffering from that computer problem I thought I'd got rid of a while back. It's a real puzzler but it's back now and won't go away. Not a virus, not a parasite ... who knows? DW