This is Lunch!

I need exercise and a healthy diet. The diet is fine but because of our rotten and do called summer weather, getting exercise is not so easy.

Here is my lunch, then: three fruit salad and home made banana tea bread.

Champion

DW

Alms Houses and People's Park in Halifax

I have got a plan for trips this summer, weather willing; and today was the first of them. This afternoon, in excellent weather, I went to the Alms Houses Margaret Street and then to People's Park just across the street from there.

I this the slideshow here is really good: thanks to the gardeners at the park as well as the architects, builders and sculptors who created and maintain the park. You might recognise the music: I think it's about the most appropriate music for something like this!

This is a large file so if you are using a slow connection, please be patient and wait for it to start ... it WILL start!

DW

How to cook rice!

Look what happens when you cook rice properly!

DW

19 Hours

I went to visit my old neighbour Malcolm yesterday and as I left home I noticed the I didn't have any mobile phone service. Poo!

NINETEEN HOURS later the service returned. It will be interesting to see how O2 manages that!

As I tried to find out what was going on I took a look at one or two news sites and after just a couple if hours of loss of service other affected O2 users were saying very aggressive things and threatening to leave them!!

I expect a rebate! Recently I changed gas and electricity supplier because my old supplier kept misbehaving. I have been with O2 for almost 12 years but poor service will not keep me. Their coverage away from home is poor and now this extended loss of service are bad indicators for me.

DW

What a Load of Bull!

On my walk yesterday, I was strolling down a track, in between two fields when I saw a bull ahead of me. Over a bank, so not that clear. I continued walking and then started to wonder, is that bull in the field or on the path? I slowed down, the bull didn't. I was fortunate that I stopped next to a gate going into one of the fields because I could now see that the bull was not in a field, it was free! Talk about Pamplona: I did NOT volunteer for this and turning on my heels to run away did not seem to me to be a sensible option!

I squeezed through the gate into the field ... muddy, Glastonbury muddy! I felt safe now so took lots of snaps as the bull came nearer and nearer. The grunting, laboured breathing as it ambled up the hill even made me feel nervous: is that heavy breathing because it is tough walking up hill when you're a bull? Or was it the heavy breathing of a bull that is getting ready to attack? How little I know!

The bull slowed to a stop, just beyond the gate, my gate! It turned left and came back down to the gate! It pushed its head through the gate. I really was nervous, it wanted to come into my field, my refuge! I pushed the gate as if I could outweigh half a tonne of beef with attitude!

It tried twice to get through the gate and then seemed to remember that all it had to do was to go upward a little bit further and walk over the barbed wire fence: it just walked back into the field. I was astounded: this animal was free to wander and free to come into my field. I squeezed back out through the gate and back onto the track. The bull carried on to join its friends and I breathed again!

Here is my photo evidence of the above!!

DW

I have never heard the heavy, laboured breathing of a bull at such close quarters before.

At this point, when the bull was breathing its heaviest, it stopped and turned round to face me, I was worried! I can't remember concentrating so hard on anything, ever!

Now it wanted to get through the gate: through the gate!

Gone! It looked back at me once but then sallied forth away from me!

I Went for a Walk Today

I think this slideshow is really beautiful: photos and music together that is!

DW

Don't Worry!

I was walking down my stairs this afternoon when suddenly my right slipper slipped. I slithered down a few steps then came to a skittering halt with a thud.

I felt my back being a bit jarred by the thunk as I landed and I am dreading it seizing up so I am moving and stretching a bit from time to time.

No need for flowers or anything! I will be fine!!

DW

Marmite, ma'am!

I consider myself lucky to have found this in the shop yesterday ...

DW

Willy's Wise Words ... the new blog

Everyone here is eagerly awaiting the launch of my new blog. After a bit of admin and so on I have created the blog.

New name: Willy's Wise Words
Address: http://wordwisewilly.wordpress.com/

I have created the blog and will start to populate it within the next day or so: it will not only be a book review blog as I have decided to widen its brief. This blog will consider reviews of all sorts of goods and services, including books, restaurants, hotels, airlines, shoes ... you name it and I will consider it for review.

DW

Welcome Home Flower

I got home from my latest trip this afternoon to be welcomed by my Geranium in bloom ... as you can see here:

DW

Additions to my collection of Kitchen Ceramics

Here they are!

DW

White Trousers ... so attractive!

I was drawn to a pair of white trousers recently so I bought them: totally tropical enhancement to my generally poor wardrobe.

The first time I wore them I went to dinner in an hotel and came away unscathed in spite of the soup bowl being a very poor fit for its saucer ... twice I almost had soup all down those trousers!

Last night I went to the MK Restaurant in the Bang Kapi Mall. I wore my clean and pressed white, tropical trousers. The MK food is dangerous for a potential slopper like me so I was extra careful. I WAS careful and came away unscathed by my own efforts.

Then I wasn't reckoning on the talents of the waitress! What follows is true!

I had carefully stacked and arranged all dishes and glasses and the waitress did her job well, transferring everything from table to trolley. Then she got to the little dish into which they pour their fantastic dipping sauce. She poured the remnants of the sauce into her slop bucket and as she then moved to put the dish onto the trolley, she knocked it and it slipped from her grasp. As the dish hit the tiled floor it smashed into several pieces. The pieces flew hither and yon. Yon being my left leg. The left leg of my previously pristine, tropical issue white trousers now sported a decent sized splodge of brown sauce.

I couldn't believe it! How the spirits could have engineered such a result is beyond me but happen it did!

With my own efforts and the help of the waitress I got most of the stain out but let's see what my washing machine can do for me!

This explains the title ... attractive trousers ... they WILL attract a mess!!

DW

Book Reviews ... new blog

Watch out for ... willy's words of wisdom. Coming soon.

DW

I Was 'ere ...

DW

Airport Lounge but Where did I put the Marmite?

I wrote this a while ago but it wasn't posted for some reason ...

I am at Manchester Airport but not flying Emirates or Business Class so I am happy to report that I am still able to rest in one of the lounges. My bank account comes with world wide access to airport lounges. Praise be!

Two weeks ago I bought two jars of Marmite: one for home and one for travelling. I have just realised that I don't remember seeing the travelling jar in the suitcase. So where is it? Somewhere idiotic no doubt. I'll find out when I get back home I suppose!

DW

Eyes and Birds

Not the best snaps ever but they're all mine!

I think birds are mother and child. Snake is unconnected to the birds and no birds were eaten in the taking of these photos!

DW

Duncan Meets The Buddha

Speaks for itself ...

DW

Chocolate Covered Beef ... loser!

I watched The Iron Chef on the telly the other night. Interesting concept with people who look as if they can cook. Not celeb chefs who can only cook "with a twist".

Well, two chefs, one winner, loads of dishes.

The loser decided to cook steak in a chocolate sauce. I wonder why he didn't win?

DW

Using Monte Carlo Simulation for CVP/Break Even Analysis

Take a look at this video ... demonstrating the use of Monte Carlo Simulation for CVP/Break Even Analysis. The video is relatively low quality and I am working on uploading the full quality video.

Your feedback is eagerly awaited!

If you would like the spreadsheet that is featured in this video, please send me an email to duncan@duncanwil.co.uk and PLEASE spell out exactly what you want! Sorry but I have received BLANK messages before and messages that say send me the file ... so please be specific and you can have it!


DW

David Bowie

Fascinating programme on the BBC iPlayer on David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust. The good old songs were there, the make up, clothes and hangers on were there. The sad OLD men with their 1970s long hair were STILL THERE.

I thought it was a good programme done in the usual style: Bowie does something then people who were involved made comments ... then they interviewed someone who probably had nothing whatsoever to do with the case but because they are a celeb or something, they threw them in ... I snooze through those bits.

I learned a lot! One point they kept making in the early stages of the programme was how confusing Bowie's early attempts at stardom were ... they were absolutely right about that. I am from the Bowie era and we WERE all confused about his sexuality, for example. His image changed so much. Fantastic performer though with a lot of the enigma about him.

I think I have finally learned who Iggy Pop was!

One vital point that came out and that I just wish everyone has heard as clearly as me came from Bowie himself ... towards the end of the programme he talked about his drug abuse and how it almost wiped him out. Junkies and dealers please note ... many pop stars are dead because of drugs, many pop stars are dysfunctional because of drugs. People like Bowie almost didn't make it because of drugs.


DW

I Find it Scary!

I left Facebook and Twitter because i find them so intrusive.

The other day a friend of mine asked me to remind him of the style of shoes I bought a couple of years ago ... we just happened to be in London together when I bought the shoes. So I told him!

Today I opened up my browser to respond to a message and beggar me there's an advertisement for Church shoes ... same style as mine. Knowing how the web is working these days, this is probably not a coincidence.

This is what I don't like. I don't mind completing questionnaires and giving lots of details as I have always done that. But taking my information by stealth ... no, no, no!

DW

Geranium Photos ... close ups!

I have planted a few geraniums in my garden and put one in a pot to keep in my kitchen. The first flowers are due out any day now ... here are a couple of photos ... macro lens, close up!

As always, zoom in to see some gorgeous detail.

DW

On the way back from town ...

A friend said she had never seen photos of the area where I live so on my way back from town today I took a couple of snaps with my phone ...

DW

Hiccups!

I can't remember when I last had hiccups during the day. I think I only ever get them at night. I know how to deal with hiccups: I sip at a glass of cold water and that cures any attack of hiccups.

Last night, however, I woke up suffering from a fit of hiccups so I dealt with it. Then beggar me, at some later stage of the night I got another attack of hiccups. I had been asleep and I know it wasn't the same attack!!

I think I have never had a double attack of hiccups before.

I also wish I knew the cause of my hiccups. In the old days I would drink some beer and hiccups came with it. I have not had a drink for years ... so???

DW

Lovely Walk!

I have been back home since Thursday afternoon of last week and this afternoon was the first warm and sunny afternoon so I have just been for a walk. I've got a 30 minute route that takes in fields, cows, buttercups, clover, a steep hill going down, walking through a housing estate, a steep hill up that goes through a wood taking in a babbling brook.

I played my walk to the shops playlist of tunes and that was spot on: allowing for the couple of minutes I spent talking to Daisy the cow and hoping that some bees would come and visit the foxgloves next to her! They didn't.

Nice walk!

DW

Will Self Slurs Again

Self publicist Will Self has been on the radio again and he reminded my that he has yet to respond to any of my messages and attempts at exploring with him why he thinks its bullshit for anyone to compete at the Olympic or any other games. That didn't stop him from being paid to travel all of the way to Australia to appear on television there to blackguard the London Olympics yet again.

I took the opportunity to write to Mr Self again, as follows; and I will let you know if he ever responds:

Dear Mr Self,

I have just listened to the book programme on Radio 4 hosted by Mariela Frostrup. I was rather surprised that you didn't mention your plan for investing in London for the greater good. You know, your anti London Olympics £9 billion solution.

It's been quite a while since you announced your grand plan on Newsnight. Maybe you have realised that your grand plan is much more difficult to prepare than your flippant assertion suggested.

I have also read that transcript on your web site of a television programme [on] Australian television in which you appeared. Do I understand it correctly, that you went all the way to Australia for a very handsome fee merely to give a jaundiced opinion on sport and sports people? Why would anyone rational do that? Moreover, your comments illustrate that you have no understanding whatsoever of why people participate in sport and sporting events: whether the Olympic Games or merely running around the local park.

I notice that you are involved in something to do with Disability in the Media. Let me advise you that one of the most revealing and emotional events I have been to recently was a national swimming competition in Sheffield in which able bodied swimmers and disabled swimmers performed turn and turn about. We saw young people of all levels of ability swimming for no financial reward whatsoever. We saw very fine physical specimens ranging from 16 to 20 years of age. We saw swimmers who represented the 10 or so levels of disability that UK and Paralympic Sports divide their sportsmen into.

If you search your mind you might find that your view on the motivation of sportsmen has nothing to do with reality. You might then understand why you have found it absolutely impossible to come up with anything resembling your putative £9 billion alternative solution to the London Olympics.

As your failure even to acknowledge any of my messages is obvious, I will, as before, be posting this message on my blog where many people will see that I have been attempting a dialogue with you for a long time now but in spite of your drunken rallying cry on Newsnight your views are, to paraphrase your own words on the Australian television programme, bullshit.

Yours etc 

DW

Good News and from Microsoft, too!

I bought MS Office 2010 just after it first came out. I installed the software and used it until late last year. Late last year I had a major hard disk disaster and whilst I had backed up the vast majority of everything, the people who repaired my laptop installed Office 2007 instead of 2010 on the new HDD.

Over the last few weeks I have been pondering how to get my MS Office 2010 back. Today I got it and not only downloaded the software but I was able to retrieve my product code and therefore install the software and run it.

At last Gates, something went right!

DW

So Sad but Such Hope!

I don't have a television set connected to any television services so I watch programmes either when I go travelling or on the BBC iPlayer or the ITV iPlayer. This morning I saw a programme on the BBC iPlayer on the Great Ormond Street Hospital. Great Ormond Street (GOS)  is, by all accounts, a world beating hospital that specialises in the treatment of sick children and benefits from the bequest of JM Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, inter alia.

In this programme, we followed three children each with their own horrific cardiac problems. One child had been flown in from Germany and not only had a hole in his heart but his trachea was far too thin to allow him to breathe effectively. This tiny baby was on the verge of death at all times and had already had one cardiac arrest with concomitant potential brain damage. The question was whether they should operate: was it dangerous now and/or in the future. Anyway, they performed the operation and we saw the baby being taken home to Germany with huge hope for the future. This must have been so emotional for everyone concerned: parents, nurses and doctors. Huge praise too for the highly talented international team that works at the hospital.

Another case was the boy who only had, as I understand it, half a heart: they knew this from before the boy was born so that when he was born he was taken immediately to split his heart into two and he was given a chance of survival. Again, parents and grandparents in evidence giving unconditional love to a baby even before he was born. The same was true of the medical team: a baby has not even been born but everyone is fighting for its life.

We also saw a baby who had been in GOS for almost every day of his 6 month life being made well enough to be taken outside for a walk in the park. So good to see.

Whilst our politicians are attempting, full steam ahead, to make a complete mess of the NHS, it is fantastic to be able to see such high quality care from what is clearly a dedicated and talented team at the hospital.

DW

Hooray, it's sunny ... oh! no it isn't!

I arrived at Manchester Airport and it was sunny. The drive home started out well and then deteriorated to the state where dark clouds were looming by the time I got home.

Within half an hour of having made my first cup of coffee etc, it started raining and almost two hours later, there are still rain drops on my windows.

So, from 42 degree Riyadh to 13 degree Halifax.

DW

Oh no it's BMI!

Just remembered that the flight from Doha to Manchester is with BMI on behalf of Qatar. Let's hope I don't have to wait two months for my suitcase after this one.

DW

How Odd!

Here is one of those PC, stupid PC, things that we hear about from time to time. Just study the warning notice on this packet of peanuts: I got it in the UK.

DW

Grr! The Clot Forgot

Take a look at this photo ... what's missing?

You are right, it's my travelling bottle of Molton Brown Ziao Jao shampoo ... my favourite. I am very careful these days with my things as my history of leaving things behind is prolific ... forgive the grammar.

Well, in a bathroom (that's a room with a bath in it) in an hotel in Jubail, I left that bottle which has doubtless been thrown in the bin by now.

RIP

DW

The Cure for a Sloping Floor and a Shoe Repair

Drawers that persistently slide open get on my nerves, how about you? So, the photo here shows my solution for the latest example of this situation.

Kewl!

Oh! It's time to repair my favourite shoes too ...

DW

Late Night Chat Shows

In the UK there was Parky, then there was that woofter Harty (RIP). Much later Wogan came along (never liked his style).

UK chat shows: open plan studio, fireside chat style. Seemed relaxed and friendly as well as entertaining.

In the US they do things differently. Their chat shows ALL seem to start with some untalented man in a suit doing some kind of DEEPLY SCRIPTED stand up routine that is very rarely funny. It would help if they didn't just read from an auto cue of course.

Then the US host will go and sit behind a desk as his guests usually sit to the side of the desk and on a chair that is lower than their host's. Psychologically damaging.

Let's not mention the little musical troupe they all, UK, have. In the US, of corse, their musical leader is always a wacky one!

Finally, back to the US: why does the host always sit in front of an image of a night time city scape? It fools no one!!

Finally, finally, I can see why they are called talk shows in the US and chat shows in the UK. At least in the UK the guests are invited on from the beginning so we don't have to suffer a lengthy and inane monologue by the host.

Just saying!

DW

I Told You!

A year or more ago I wrote in various places that newspaper talk of UK unemployment SOARING to 3million was just tripe: yes it was rising and yes it was getting worse; but soaring it wasn't.

In my inbox today came an email that linked to www.marketoracle.co.uk which reported:

Academic economists producing models in ivory towers detached from the real world FAILED to realise or comprehend the consequences of both the Labour government's employment measures such as the 0.5 million public sector jobs created during the recession ... academic economists still stuck to theoretical models that failed abysmally ...

Read the whole page at www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article20757.html

DW

Blue with Blue? Never thought of that before!

How about this? Normally I wear this shirt with a yellow tie. It looks good with blue though, doesn't it!

DW

... and the tax man taketh!

That's done now, then! I paid my corporation tax today. Big wrench.

Duty done, however!

DW

Zomboid!

Woke like a zombie this morning ... showered like a zombie ... breakfast like a zombie ... gradually woke up after an hour or so!

I should sleep well tonight and then be on top form for the rest of my two weeks here!

DW

En Route

I am sat sitting here in an airport lounge waiting for my next flight. My bank account provides me with an airport lounge access card and it works!

So I can come into a lounge, sit back, relax and enjoy the peace ... and food and drink if necessary.

Boarding just announced.

Au revoir!

DW

Afternoon Tea ... first rate service

I am just finishing afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly. High quality everything and first rate service. Excellent setting too!

DW

Lego ... extraordinary

As I walked past Hamley's in Regent's Street the other evening, I saw this image and just had to stop and snap it.

Her Majesty done in Lego bricks.

Takes me a year to finish a jigsaw!!

DW

Paralympics too!

And don't forget the Paralympics ... countdown clock from yesterday ...

DW

Landan innit!

I have taken a lot of video footage today and not many photos. Here's one of the Tower of Big Ben from an unusual angle!!

Here's the Olympics countdown clock in Trafalfar Square too.

DW

Biodegradable ... what?

Strange but true! It's interesting what one learns when just chatting.

Last night I heard about the Eco friendly biodegradable potty. Yes. Potty.

It's a cracking idea and you can see it here: http://www.becothings.com/newbornpotty.html

There are other such products too that might be worthy of your attention!

You (probably) heard it first here!!

DW

My garden this morning

Goodness ... the weather is warm and sunny in Halifax today. So I took a look in the garden and this is what I have found:

a daddy long legs ... zoom in to see its eyes!
four nascent cherries ... looks like this is will be this year's crop
the apple tree ... not sure whether this plant is sick or not ... what do you think?
the raspberry tree seems healthy
the blackberry tree is very slow to get going but I THINK I can see a new bud now.

Duncan Makes More Bread!