Wat Lan Kuat, a temple near Sisaket in Thailand. Made of bottles. Take a look at these few snaps I took there today.
DW
Wat Lan Kuat, a temple near Sisaket in Thailand. Made of bottles. Take a look at these few snaps I took there today.
DW

DW
Ever heard of Hasselback Garlic Potatoes? I just made them ... see my photo. They are very good.
I got the recipe from a friend on Facebook.
DW
Stewart is part of the family and has been since is birth. He lives with his mother and although his father and brother met untimely deaths, he seems happy and lively, if a little shy.
Stewart is young but is fully grown: that means he is fit and slim given his adequate diet.
I have to say that I have had misgivings about Stewart for a while now. You know, when something happens and it's a bit off key. Or someone does something and you wonder, did they really do that?
It all came to a head this morning for Stewart. I was just looking out through the dining room window when I saw him and another young lad. They were engaged in the kind of activity that no one should see but between members of the same sex: well, it's just not right.
I didn't feel to be in a position to intervene in any way and the matter was over rather quickly. I did discuss what I saw with Mrs W but she was not so concerned as I was.
After all, Mrs W has been around dogs all her life and Stewart is just another dog as far as she is concerned, gay or straight!
Still, you don't see many gay dogs do you!
DW
My diary. I have kept a diary since I was 14 years old. I kept all my diaries too and read them every now and again. Some trivial things. Some memorable things. Some sad things, some happy things.
When I moved to Thailand last year I threw away my diaries. Over the last few years I have relied more and more on electronic notes and journal items so my diary had become less important. Still, when my blog service provider disappeared without a trace a few years ago I realised that I need to have a diary strategy which is why I have this blog and it is why I use twitter and to a much lesser extent Facebook.
Like many people I take photos of food and people, buildings, landscapes and animals. I include some of them here from time to time. Here's a photo I took about an hour ago ... mother and two week old calf!
Anyway, I bought a diary for 2015 and I will use it for business rather than personal reasons. I think.
DW
Hello everyone!
It is 20:35 on 31st December where I am and that means new year celebrations have started or are very shortly about to start somewhere.
I wish all of you a happy and peaceful new year. It is my resolution to post more pages here in the coming year. As you know, I post something as often as I can and I try to ensure everything is of high quality.
I have upgraded my screen capture video production software and intend to create and post more of them.
Do feel free to write to me at any time, by the way: I always reply to my messages and comments.
Enjoy the photo of the individual cheese cakes I have just made!! And the English trifle that has already been eaten!!
Best wishes
DW
I was buying a diary and postcards in WH Smith in Muscat airport last night and wanted to pay in US Dollars. It came to $6 and I had a $5 note and a $50 note.
I knew I would get the change in Rivals but I agreed to pay with the $50 note.
I hadn't seen her but suddenly a woman in the queue behind me said, you don't want to break that $50 note and handed over an Oman Rial note.
That was so kind and it has never happened to me before. I thanked her profusely and for the record, English accent.
DW
I was buying a diary and postcards in WH Smith in Muscat airport last night and wanted to pay in US Dollars. It came to $6 and I had a $5 note and a $50 note.
I knew I would get the change in Rivals but I agreed to pay with the $50 note.
I hadn't seen her but suddenly a woman in the queue behind me said, you don't want to break that $50 note and handed over an Oman Rial note.
That was so kind and it has never happened to me before. I thanked her profusely and for the record, English accent.
DW
At the end of today's session one of the delegates said my knowledge and skills are impressive.
Then another one said it's so unusual to see someone so old and aged knowing so much about computers!
Pass the walking frame nurse!
DW
These days many hotels have a safe in the room that doesn't work. So itq's sometimes rare for me to put things in a safe but yesterday I did. This morning I got ready for my 6 am departure and checked out. As I waited for my bill they came and said, your safe is locked, did you forget anything?
Well, I had: money and passport.
Praise their checking system and note that I have never left anything in a safe before.
I am in the taxi to the airport as I write this, sunrise ahead of us; and a five Baht coin has just skittered down the back of my seat. Mega photo!!
We are on our way home after a three plus week trip. When we arrive, the dog will come to say hello then run around excitedly for a while.
On the other hand, the cat will drift over and give us a look that says ... and where do you think you've been?
DW
I have just finished presenting a course in Maputo, Mozambique, entitles Accounting and Finance Principles for the Oil and Gas Industry. The evaluations from the delegates were good with many 10 of 10, 9 out of 10 and 8 out of 10. Of v ourselves, there was one delegate who was not satisfied but she was just one of 18.
I saw a little bit of the city on the way back to the airport as I had to find A a Western Union branch so that I could send some money home. I did it! It started with the driver having a long confab with a hotel porter as to where I wanted to go. I thought, he doesn't speak English and he's never heard of WU.
We set off and could not find the WU shown on the map. The driver's English was excellent now and he was very helpful.
I saw an exchange place, we stopped, I got out, dashed over there and found there was WU in IBM bank. We found a branch and I went in. The receptionist said our conversation would be difficult because of her poor English but she was being modest. She came with me to talk to the driver and explain where the IBM bank branch was which did have WU inside and we found it.
It seemed like a lifetime of filling in and signing papers, all for about 60 quid. WU took 20% by way of a fee. Thieves. Still, I needed them in this mini emergency.
When I left the building, no mini bus, no driver. I thought, what the hell do I do now? I moved around a bit and found the van parked behind another van that had stopped at the lights ... I had forgotten that traffic lights are called robots in this part of Africa.
That was it, now we carried on to the airport. Interesting to see the city. All low lying buildings all the way to the airport. Many cars. Pavements. Kerbs.
Maputo do be! A good few days. I chatted to a young Peace Corps volunteer who had just finished his stint in irrigation up country. Good luck to him.
Ever since I developed my minor eye problems I should wear sunglasses in bright weather. I did. Then either I lost or broke them.
Because I wear prescription specs I need clip on or flip up sunglasses. But where to buy them?
I bought a pair years ago in duty free at DXB. I accidentally lost them in Siem Reap. I found a replacement pair in Siem Reap too. That was about three years ago and all was well.
Then they went. DXB? No more clip ons there. Everywhere I went I looked. No one sells them.
Two days ago I looked online for these things and found loads. I mean loads. Ordinary and designer alike.
Yesterday, re energised, I went to a sunglasses shop and found a pair of magnetic clip ons. They come with their own plain glass frame as they were magnetic clip ons. Some progress.
As we walked along we passed a small shop that had a few sunglasses in so Mrs W said, try in there. I said, no chance! She went in. Can you believe it? They had several pairs and for 480 Baht I bought a pair ...
You never know, do you!
DW
I don't mean voodoo type curses but things that conspire against in certain situations?
Burnley played Everton yesterday and I found it being streamed live in 365sport. I am a subscriber so, a little late, I decided to watch it.
Slow ... sooooooo slow ... kept getting the blue wheel of death. That was on the phone.
Opened the laptop and logged into the hotel's wifi system. You have opened too many connections ... no I haven't. Tried again. The same. The same. The same.
Called the help desk and she was expecting my call because within seconds she told me she had reset my connection.
It didn't work and using the BBC text service I could see the goals were going in. Frustration unbounded.
Tried again. It didn't work. I rebooted.
It worked. Blue wheel of death. It froze. Blue wheel of death. Half time. It froze.
OK! You win voodoo child, I'll stop trying to watch it and do something else. I didn't even see a ball being kicked.
Modern technology is the best and the worst. Liberating and restraining.
Here is an uncurse: for some reason they were showing the whole of the 2009 - 2010 Burnley v Man Utd game on TV here and I switched on in time to see Robbie Blake's wonder goal. I love watching that goal!
Swings and roundabouts of life.
DW
Talking to Mrs W the other day about cash flow: something she'd neither heard of nor thought about. She came up with these names as she struggled to understand the concept:
Cash Slow
Cash Fly
Made me laugh!
DW
DW
I won't admit to booking into the wrong hotel yesterday of course but I spent a good and restful night in Bangkok last night.
Another early start and now I am on the NHS Gold Class bus to Surin. I should be home by about 4 pm.
See night and morning photos ...
DW
12 hours to go before a course starts and pffffttt! Dead computer. Then my back up external hard drive died too. What are the odds of that happening? It did. Yesterday.
I bought a new laptop and with the help of Gmail and other things in the cloud, a catastrophe is now downgraded to frustration with the prospect of many hours of work to recover.
:(
DW
I have been a vegetarian for about 25 years now. I still have Christmas dinner, though: it is my exception to myself.
In August, for a particular reason, I went non veggie for about two weeks. In fact, by happenstance, I had never eaten so much meat!
My body reacted with a vengeance. I caught a chill from the air con, by coincidence and that was rough. But what was happening in my gut took me by storm and it lasted long after the last bits of dead animal crossed my lips.
I will never do that again.
DW
I have done three jobs for a Singapore based company this year. The locations were excellent and the delegates were very good. Evaluations excellent.
So far, however, I have been paid only part of my fees and I have just received some worrying information that suggests it is going to take some hard work to get the rest ... if I get it at all.
Last year I, along with several others, worked for a company that ran into trouble and we all lost money there too.
This experience is new to me but I never expected to be scammed by a company from Singapore!
DW
I went to Accra two weeks ago. I was working non stop and took no photos. Must go back!
Great people. Great experience.
DW
The fountains today ... macro lens, hot off the press.
Oh! Here's an Oleander Hawk Moth caterpillar ... that was BIG!
DW
I have just been browsing to see how my latest book, The Bookkeeping and Accounting Coach, is doing. I have no idea how many copies have been sold but it is very widely available, world wide.
On one site, it shows reviews of 9.2 out of 10 after 10 reviews. I couldn't see any of the reviews but 9.2 is very good!
DW
You know already that someone broke into our house on Friday: unpleasant and unsettling.
On Wednesday I was working in my office when a small bird flew in and sat looking at me. I flapped my hand a little to try to encourage the bird to leave but it wouldn't. I stood up, grabbed a cushion and moved to try to encourage the bird to leave. It left. No stress. No harm. I closed the window.
Thursday, I was standing next to our fountain in the front garden when I noticed a metre long, slender snake on the ground next to me. Yikes! It moved. Yikes! In the end, after a short spell during which the snake and Ginger the cat sparred, I used a stick to help me to release the snake.
Friday, the snake came back. I was working on the advice of my son Andrew who said, never harm a snake. After a tussle, I got the snake out of the garden unharmed.
If you believe in omens, here are two. Feel free to interpret them!
DW
This is what happens when a young dog and a young cat are left alone with some paper towels ...
UPDATE
They did it again last night: half a roll but much more mess. Then I left them alone to drink my coffee and eat my yoghurt only for Namwan to come and tell me 10 eggs had crashed mysteriously to the floor.
It turns out Pongo chased and killed a chicken the other day ... crikey! She's a Beagle and that habit can't be broken I think.
DW
Some people just don't see the world around them do they?
There I was posing and that old man just stuttered past.
DW
In the airport waiting to leave Angola where I have had a good week. I couldn't take many snaps but here are some.
DW