Pleased myself today as I managed to fix the rear windscreen heater in the car today. Courtesy of an online discussion list of fellow Beemer owners I was given detailed instructions of what to do and how to do it ... then did it! Here is photographic proof that I was in there and at it! Happy motoring! DW

A relatively minor problem such as the one I caused myself yesterday just goes to highlight one thing: aren't we normally healthy, mobile people a pile of moaners? My finger is a bit of a mess: I will be slightly incapacitated for a few days as it sorts itself out. There are people whose entire lives are dominated by massive inconveniences that most of us can barely dream about let alone experience. So, if you hear me whingeing about my finger, just remember what I just said! By the way, let's record a hearty well done to those plucky rugby players of ours who have just won the Rugby Union World Cup for the first time ever: beating Australia in the final in Sydney by 20 points to 17. I watched most of the match as it was a decent affair. Well done lads! DW

How many of those now I don't believe I wanted to do that moments have you had? A few, eh? I had one of those moments a couple of hours or so ago: I sliced the end of my finger off. Honest, a genuine chunk: nail, skin and underlying tissue. I almost took a pic of it for you but it took me so long to stem the bleeding that I changed my mind. When Mrs W heard about the incident she wanted me to go to the hospital ... it's bad enough but there's nothing for them to stitch or anything so all they would do is what I did. Anyway, here is a pic of a harmless view of what's left. DW

So I've been to Bristol now. Bristol's a place I've been past many times but for some reason have never been into before. My destination was really simple to find: off the M4 onto the M32, follow the road in a straight line and turn left into Berkeley Square and there you are. Couldn't park but there was a decent multi storey car park just round the corner that had a weird pricing policy. Berkeley Square is a nice looking place to work and I imagine in Spring, Summer and early Autumn it's lovely. Didn't get any chance to take any snaps although I did take my digital camera with me. There is a huge church that rises up out of the ground as you approach Berkeley Square from West End and that was snap worthy but I blew it. What is this life if full of care we don't have time to stand and stare? That's me for ya! I didn't get to appreciate the city at all except for one thing. I left the car park and turned left as I'd entered it from that self same direction ... the ONLY road sign I saw AT ALL could have come from the 1930s (cast iron sign, white background, black lines, knobbly glass bead reflectors) and pointed towards Gloucester so I went that way. I didn't see any more signs for around 20 minutes as I edged along the road heading nearer and nearer to rush hour. All of a sudden we came to a bifurcation (that's a fork in the road and that's a Royal "we" as I was alone!) and they announced that the M5 and M4 were thataway ... then it became the M4 and M5 were thataway ... OK small point but which came first the M5 or the M4? The M5 as it turned out. That route was sub optimal but it got me back on track and I got home safely enough so that can't be bad can it? Thought you'd like to know that! DW

For the first time in 18 years I had a migraine yesterday and it was just as awful as always. It always starts the way it has since I had my first frightening atack when I was about 14 years old. I see lines, auras apparently, in my eyes and then I go half blind for a while. Within an hour or so I start being sick and then I can do nothing but sleep and vomit. I have to vomit until my stomach is completely empty. I had a headache yesterday but that's not normal for me and it was no where near as severe as the headaches that other migraine sufferers describe. I can't eat, I could only sip at some water after I'd stopped feeling sick and I just have to wait to sleep it off. Today is also normal as I mope around a little bit with remnants of nausea, remnants of a headache and a bit of a feeling of torpor. Tomorrow will be a much better day! What triggered the migraine? I think chocolate is a trigger for me and I'd just eaten a couple of the blighters! I also have a passionate dislike of bright lights and yesterday morning was a very bright day. So, sitting in a very bright room with two delicious chocolates suitably ensconced could have been the problem. For the first time ever I was at home when an attack started so I was able to go to bed immediately and rest. My eye problems passed very quickly this time and maybe that was because of the rest factor. Otherwise, it was the same as always. It's awful and as any migraine sufferer will probably tell you, it's a dreaded affliction as it's always at the back of your mind. Even though it's 18 years since my last attack and it was 14 years prior to that that I had my previous attack, I know instantly that it's arrived and I know what's coming from then on. You don't forget! DW

I have just had a scan done of dozens of search engines and here are some very encouraging results for my site. If you search for Duncan Williamson on the following search engines, this is how I am placed:

Engine	Placing
www.lycos.com	3
www.msn.com	6
www.yahoo.com	1
www.aol.com	2
www.netscape.com	2
www.excite.com	2
www.webcrawler.com	1
www.alltheweb.com	3
www.lycos.co.uk	1
www.altavista.co.uk	1
www.msn.co.uk	1
www.yahoo.co.uk	1
www.hotbot.co.uk	1
www.aol.co.uk	1
www.excite.co.uk	3
www.mirago.co.uk	2
www.freeserve.com	3
www.overture.com	1
www.allthesites.com	12
www.go.com	1
www.mamma.com	1

Not bad, eh? By the way, if you are interested in homoeopathic medicines and you go to France, you might care to pop into a pharmacy over there. On the basis of a sample of 5 or 6 different homoeopathic medicines, the French sell for around £0.60 - 0.80 what we sell in the UK for £3.75 - £4.00. It's a national outrage! Of course. DW

Here is an experiment. Call me mad or call me sad, you can choose which it is but since today is my birthday and I am not normally given to celebrating such events, I would like to receive from all of my readers a simple birthday wish. All you have to do is to click on the link that follows and then send the thing to me ... all automatic but you can add a message if you wish. Click here to send. That's all! Secondly, please take a look at this if you are even in the least bit interested in how the NHS works. It's my account of a morning spent at a hospital in the UK. DW

I know this much: Judge not that ye be not judged (taken from the Bible from the book of Matthew chapter 7 verse 1). However, I'm going to say this anyway. On Wednesday of this week I was walking through the town centre at a time when children should still have been at school when I came across a young boy walking through town with a woman whom I assumed to be his mother: the boy seemed to be around 12 or 13 years old and this is how he looked: seriously overweight baggy trousers tee shirt four or five sizes too big a baseball cap a ring hanging from his pierced eye brow This boy is coming to epitomise modern Britain where weak parents of single minded children are allowing those children to walk roughshod over everything they see and come up against. This boy is fat and I blame his parents for allowing him to be fat: I work hard with my own children if I think they have a problem with their diet and their exercise levels. The boy was wearing trousers and a sleeveless tee shirt: it was chilly and his mother ought to have made the child wear something more substantial. I don't like baseball caps on anyone but that's my personal preference but it set off this boys attitude and that turned me off, too. That such a young child could have had his body pierced, though, is as much of a crime as allowing him to become overweight. Doubtless the child will have a tattoo by the time he is 18 years old: another crime against the body in my opinion. These are my observations and opinions: I know many of you will think that I am a fuddy duddy who should lighten up a bit; but I can't. In a sense I want to protect these children from their weak and misguided parents and themselves. This nation is following the USA into obesity just as we have followed them into an appalling standard of spoken and written English. This nation has become one where it's no longer good enough, for example, to wear trainers but that they have to be a certain brand of trainers. The trainers are very expensive but yet their true manufacturing costs are very small: we allow ourselves to be cheated out of as much as £50 or £60 a pair in some cases as we pay for advertising, sportsmen's sponsorship deals, multi stage mark ups and retail profit margins. The boy in my story was wearing a "designer" baseball cap, a "designer" tee shirt; and probably "designer" trousers and trainers. Could his eye ring have been "designer" too? End of rant for now! DW

I'm back following a 10 drip to Provence, that's France you know! I've kept a sort of diary that will keep you riveted but first: Joyce from Korea wanted answers to a couple of IAS based questions: done and sent! Natalie from South Africe is receiving ongoing advice on the elements of budgets: doing that! Karin from Austria is receiving ongoing help on knowledge management: doing that! Tom describes himself as a Mature student struggling with bookkeeping and has asked for help with my specimen question ... I need to know which question he means! Sarah from Geordieland has started a dissertation relating to Marks and Spencer and we are discussing her overall plan: doing that! Clive from Birmingham is an accountant who has come across a fascinating Benford's Law type problem involving the Inland Revenue: looks to me as if the IR is making a mess of it and I am working with Clive to sort it all out: doing that! Andrew from Surrey wants a bit of technical help on the bookkeeping aspect of recording bad debts: doing that! Mahmood from India wants to know why LIFO is being taken out of IAS 2: this is what I told him ... Hi Mahmood, Good question: here’s the answer! LIFO was banned in many countries, eg the UK, for a long time and then IAS 2 came along and allowed it. However, after just a few years even the IASC is about to disallow LIFO. The reason is that LIFO provides an organisation with a potential taxation advantage over alternative stock valuation methods. To prove that this is true, set up a simple stock valuation question for yourself by inventing some purchases, usages, costs and sales of some raw materials and then prepare the stock record card using … make sure that you build in cost inflation FIFO LIFO AvCo then prepare the Trading and Profit and Loss Account and compare the answers you get. This will help you to see what LIFO can be a problem. However, the USA has always liked and allowed LIFO and continues to do so as far as I know! Let me know if you need any more help. Best wishes Watch out for the French Trip Diary: a week in Provence I'm calling it! DW

Marks and Spencer, UK Retailer, has been at odds with HM Customs and Excise over VAT on teacakes: no really, it's gripping the nation! M&S argued that teacakes should be zero rated for VAT purposes and HMC&E agreed. What they disagreed on, however, was the recovery of the VAT already paid on the teacakes already sold that had been subject to the tax. M&S said: we overpaid therefore we should get it back. HMC&E said: you overpaid but you cannot give it back to the people who actually paid it. In the first move of its kind, Customs invoked laws on unjust enrichment which prevents the government repaying VAT to companies if it means they would benefit unfairly because it is impossible to pass the recouped VAT back to the people who paid the tax originally. It is the first time Customs has successfully argued unjust enrichment. accountancyage.com See? HMC&E is arguing that M&S would need to be able to reimburse the exact amount of VAT to exactly those people who bought the teacakes when they were subject to VAT! Nonsense? Of course! Solution? You might have your own solution but here are just two from me: either HMC&E or M&S pays the money to a charity: since HMC&E probably can't do that for legal reasons, let M&S do it give the money back to M&S and let them TRANSPARENTLY reduce the selling price of the teacakes they sell now until the money runs out Has HMC&E kept ALL the money? No: The court ruled 90% of the VAT should be retained by the government. accountancyage.com How much money is involved? The BBC provides that answer to that: ... it could be worth £12m to M&S ... Including backdated interest ... M&S believes its claim dates back to 1973 ... The retailer claims it paid £3.3m too much VAT on teacakes £1m too much on bottled water £800,000 on gift vouchers and £500,000 on tinned biscuits news.bbc.co.uk Please note, the BBC article is dated October 2001 so any claims for interest on the amounts owed must be updated to allow for that: another £980,000 at 4% per year compound, possibly. Is this the end of the matter? Not necessarily as M&S could take its case to the House of Lords but it is waiting to learn the outcome over the referral of part of the case to the European court. 'We are considering our position,' said a spokesman. accountancyage.com DW

This just came in and I'm really chuffed about it: Hi D I just wanted to thank you for your VERY informative website. I live in a small town on the South East coast of South Africa called East London (yes, I know, rather British sounding but we used to be a part of the British colonies). I am studying Accounting and Financial Management via correspondence and our local library doesn't have much in the way of Economics or Business. Your website has really helped me with my assignments. Don't worry, I have given you credit in my bibliography! I have done really well so far - all A+ or A's. Nice to know, isn't it. I wrote and thanked Natalie for such kind and unsolicited comments. DW

Update from 27 September. Not only did I paint the front and back door steps but I repainted the front door: looks very smart now, even better than when we moved in. I also painted the garage door: colour = stone. At first Mrs W was horrified and as I was around one third of the way through the first coat she was making plans for an alternative colour. All of our neighbours came to marvel: especially our next door neighbour who realised that he would probably have to paint his own adjacent garage door as his will now look extremely shabby ... it does! After the second coat the following day even Mrs W conceded that the garage door looks smart and the colour is fine. Mr Next Door is unhappy but at the time of writing has still managed to avoid having to paint his own door and the first frost has now struck! He could be safe until next year.

Some of my latest efforts: what I have been up to: Dear DW, Thanks for sending me the answers to the questions concerning IAS1. They have been very helpful to me. have a nice day. Daniel Karin from Italy/Austria continues to get the DW help and assistance treatment. Tony from Liverpool is back and asking about auditing and risk: a huge thanks to Chris Lamb of London Metropolitan University for helping me out with this one. My ImageCorp or PhotoInd spreadsheet is still a popularly requested item: still free of charge! My financial accounting case study is selling well: still only costs £5 and it's a real snip at that. The price WILL be going up soon! My answers to the IAS questions on my site are still popular: still free of charge! Ari used to be confused about capital rationing. Beeny couldn't unravel some basic capital budgeting questions until I came along! And so on! DW

The CBI (Confederation of British Industry) announced that it is furious with the UK government over the UK business tax burden. It says that ... the country's main company taxes stands at around 9% of GDP, above the average of its main trading rivals. . Then the CBI goes on to say The report says the UK is not that different from Germany, where business taxes are 10.1 % of gross domestic product. But worse than the US with 7.3%, with only France taking a significantly higher share of national income, at 14.4%. Well, I reckon the average so far is 10.6% so the UK is doing well. That's an example of how NOT to present an argument: sorry CBI, must try harder! In its defence, The Treasury has criticised the report's calculations and accused the lobby group of being contradictory. Treasury 1 CBI 0 DW

I came across this word in an email just now: who can tell me what gyming means? Seriously, I'd like to know what you think as I present it out of context. Just write to me duncan@duncanwil.co.uk by clicking on this link and then adding your definition! DW

If you're a follower of this glorious WeBlog you might be forgiven for thinking that I've not been updating it ... Blogger.Com and my ISP have been conspiring against me and refused to allow my posts for a while. Here we are again, though: all sorted out ... famous last words! DW

If Hameed from Canada reads this: I tried to reply to your request but my messages were returned as undeliverable ... let me know how to reply successfully and I'll do that. DW

I spent a couple of hours preparing my front lawn for the winter: mowing, raking, mowing and will add the dressing on Wednesday or Thursday. Let me advise you all now that my lawn is the best lawn on our estate and the best that I've seen in our town this summer bar none. The secret has been constant and careful watering and proper feeding and weed control. It's not the best lawn there is since there are about 10 different types of grass in it but it looks a lot better than most and vastly better than some! I close cropped the back lawn too but didn't have the strength to rake and double mow it! By the way the second raking, to get rid of the thatch, produces a shocking amount of materials that would otherwise lie there undiscovered and anyone who is serious about their lawn should do what I did: advice comes courtesy of a wise gardener on BBC Radio Oxford that I tuned into accidentally yesterday around midday. DW

I am spending a bit of time in the Birmingham area at the moment and last week actually spent a night there! My business takes me to the Solihull area but I stayed right in the heart of Birmingham: Broad Street to be precise. I followed detailed directions to get from Solihull to Broad Street but got lost and it took me around an hour and a half to drive the 12 or so miles from door to door. I found my own way back the following morning and took only 45 minutes to accomplish what was a really simple journey by a totally different route. I stopped off in Solihull on Friday morning and relived part of my youth at their market: Eccles cakes, custard tarts, lemon curd ... I had to buy them all. I also invested in some nice Cox's Pippins and Bramley apples, marvellous. Broad Street is a cultural centre: bars, cafes restaurants and hotels abound. I had a decent Indian meal for around £20 in the evening: not especially good value and not the best meal I ever had but decent decor, good service so it wasn't bad. In the morning I needed to go to an internet cafe since I knew someone needed an email response urgently. Hooked up, logged on to the slowest connection since around 1995 in Almaty! I had been there for about 20 minutes when a cheery chappie from BT rocked up and started larging it into his mobile ... switched us all off! I didn't achieve my objectives in full but at least they didn't charge me either! Good business that! DW

Ever heard of Glist? It's a product that you can use in your dishwasher to get your dishes clean ... unless you speak Russian, in which case you think that glist relates to a worm that crawls out of a certain orifice located in the nether regions of your own fair anatomy! You choose!! You might remember that I returned from Ireland last year via Stranraer in Scotland to make sure I could buy some Scottish bread … I have just pulled the second loaf from the freezer and it’s providing more breakfasts of delight! I think it’s survived pretty well and I’ll miss it now as it filled a tidy corner or our small freezer! That’s the last of the Scottish bread in this household but I did notice that Tesco were stocking the self same source of carbohydrates the other week. Trouble is, or it it good news, I’m the only one who likes it chez moi! You'll be fascinated to learn that I painted our front and back doorsteps yesterday: second coats today. An instant hit as it made such a big difference. If only my digital camera weren't at the repair shop again you could have seen the fruits of my labours. DW