Black is the new Invisible

Of late I have been going to and staying in places with dark furniture, low level lighting conditions, carrying black lined suitcases.

Here's the thing.

Trying to find a black wire attached to a black charger in a black lined suitcase in a dimly lit room with no windows is a thorough nightmare.

The hotel I am staying in at the moment has a dark wood panelled theme. I open the wardroobe door and even though the light  outside the wardrobe is on, it takes me a while to find my black socks!

Lighten up world!

DW

Coffee Makers

You don't want to forget to put the cup under the spigot of the coffee maker in your hotel room.

Otherwise i can imagine the complete mess you would have to clean up!

Another top tip from ...

DW

The Bard of Bangkok

Our Secretary of State for Education has pronounced that children of 5 to 10 should learn things like poetry and stuff. In a discussion forum on the internet, I penned this ode. Oh! Flippin' 'eck and misery me What ever can that Gove chap be? Is he a gadfly or a pantomime horse? I doubt that I shall pass HIS course. I cannot deny that literature fair is something grand, even debonair but forcing children as young s five to read this stuff just cannot jive I quite agree with that dandy Gove that learning is one's treasure trove but there is just one thing to take as a rule the majority of us do not go to public school In other words, Gove out! Duncan

Oh! by the way ... about your lost luggage

... we'd like to tell you that we've done it to you again! Hope you don't mind. See you soon: pip, pip! For the third time in a row, one or other airline and/or a national security system has decided that I don't need my clothes, toiletries and so on when I arrive at my destination so they have kept them in New York. For a while. The people at the airport here were very nice and informative. The concierge at the hotel has taken my document and is poised ... I took the view after the KLM/Egypt Air debacle in April that there will be no more stress and no more chasing of delayed luggage. If it comes it comes. I will certainly never spend £120 of my own money again to solve a problem that they caused. If necessary, I will wait until I am going home and see what they tell me at every airport I touch on the way back. I have lived before for a week in the same clothes ... washing smalls in the evening and then drying them overnight. I travel dressed in a smart casual way anyway and my clients are very tolerant of lost luggage. I never travel in jeans. So let's see what happens this week. They told me that the next flight from New York would arrive at 5 am today ... and they would deliver my case to my hotel. Someone else at the airport told me that the security people in New York often hold bags back for special analysis ... well, good luck to them. I'll keep you informed.

UPDATE Sunday 7th August, Andy Murray Day, my suitcase arrived! It took me ages to break the seal the airline had secured it with. All is well.

DW

Panoramic View from my Window

I have used the panorama setting on a few cameras now and here's my latest effort ... from my hotel bedroom window just now.

DW

With Bulldog Tenacity Like this, how on Earth did the Banks ever get into such a mess?

Every now and again my bank, nem con, blocks my Visa Debit card and either calls me or sends me an sms to tell me FRAUD ALERT FRAUD ALERT FRAUD ALERT ... we have noticed unusual activity on your card and have blocked it for your security. Call this UK number urgently ... It's happened so often that I just slept on it and then called a few minutes ago. They took me through the usual stuff: date of birth, card number, house number and post code la la la. Then they list the latest transactions on the card and ask, did you do that? Yes, yes, yes ... is my usual answer. So I passed that test and she said, put the phone down and you can use the card straight away. I said, can say something? She said yes. I said, if you look over my account for the last n years you will see that it's not unusual for me to go from Thailand to Dubai to New York to Mexico City, where I am now; and because of that, a few years ago I made an agreement with you to give me worldwide clearance for my transactions. She said, that agreement is still in place but your activity triggered our fraud alert. I asked which one or other transactions and she said, the online transaction ... it was that one that we blocked. She then said something about systems, coming into place next month and I stopped listening. I was thinking, it's going to happen again, laddie! So I simply said thank you as she said thank you. I am grateful that they are looking after me but when I put the phone down I roared with laughter because the transactions they were querying were for >£200 for cash (to pay the rent), <£400 (at Dubai Duty Free), £6.5 (for on board access to the internet, which I have never done before) and £10 (online to top up my UK phone number). It was the £10 online transaction that spooked them!!! Ten Pounds out of about £650!! Take care of the pennies!! DW