Novotel at BKK? No!

Just spent a ghastly night at the Novotel at Suvarnabhumi Airport Bangkok.

Slept really badly.

Air conditioning unit as noisy as a 737 at take off. Switch off the unit and boil to death.

They increased the rate by 10% between saying yes to staying and having checked in. Then I found out it was room only. Add another 12%.

TV remote control packed in at 2300 just when I needed it most: when I was in bed.

All of this and I am a Novotel Gold card holder. Such benefits!

Told them I wouldn't stay there again.

DW


Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Hello, we're from Florida

Ever lived in dread of hearing someone belching out the words, or something similar, in the title of this post?

It happened a couple of weeks ago as I was having breakfast in my hotel in Chiang Rai, Thailand. My partner Tar and I were the only two people in the restaurant when another couple arrived and sat themselves at the table next to ours.

We were eating and chatting and they were organising themselves.

Suddenly, out of the blue, "Hello, we're from Florida. Where are you from?" Well, for Tar it's a bit of a give away as she's definitely a Thai lady!!

I took the bait and responded. A simple conversation took place and it turns out that he's a dermatologist, plastic surgeon he said, from Florida and she's an investor in property in Florida. Quite wealthy between them I think.

I am sure these are good people and no better or worse than anyone else but I have to say I was surprised at a plastic surgeon having brought to the breakfast table a container into which he piled pieces of fruit and into another container bread and meat for their later consumption! Bit tight that with food in the Chiang Rai area being so cheap.

DW

Burnley FC: still daring to dream

The Owen Coyle Burnley Boys at Turf Moor have done it: they won their last game of the season to secure a place in the Championship play offs. Winning the play offs would see the lads playing in the Premier League next season.

They have played very well this season, albeit not as consistently as everyone would have liked but Owen Coyle has transformed the team in his relatively short spell at the club. Well done that Jock!

At the time of writing I don't know the dates and games to be played but I know there are grown men and women including some famous names who are nervous as kittens now as they wait to see what fate has in store for The Clarets.

Just yesterday I got a text message telling me, "John (around 30 years of age!) a nervous wreck at the Turf." A nervous wreck and they won 4: 0!!

DW

Swine Flu Nonsense

I know there are people on this planet who will have been hiding in their house or office as they live in dread of catching the swine flu virus. I also know that some readers of this post will say the WHO did a good job by creating pandemic style awareness of the virus.

I flew from Doha to Bangkok with Qatar Airways last week and we were all issued with a face mask as we boarded the plane. Every member of the cabin crew wore their face masks throughout the flight, although I can't speak for the pilots, of course, since I didn't see them during the flight.

A friend of mine went a bought his own face mask prior to flying to the UK from Dubai.

So, lots of awareness. I think lots of hysteria. I related a week or so ago that I heard of 170 deaths in Mexico from swine flu. I then heard that this figure had been downgraded by a massive amount to around 100 deaths. Major over reporting of deaths in what was only a minor outbreak by any standards.

Now, I have been sent a slide showing the official classification of risks from the UK Government. Swine flu has not registered on that chart and will not and yet every household in the UK has been targeted to receive what is probably an expensively produced leaflet on the topic.

I just wonder who it was who put the world into panic? Who in the UK Government was so scared that they careened headlong into producing the leaflets I just mentioned?

Are there any real lessons from this minor flu outbreak? I will be talking in a couple of weeks to businessmen in Thailand about the post auditing of projects and I wonder what level of post auditing will be carried out following the nonsense classification of pandemic level 5 of this swine flu outbreak?

Nonsense health administrators and nonsense politicians of the world unite.

DW