One Week Old

Here they are after one week, the puppies!

DW

Step One

We are here ...

Hope you can read Siem Reap on that plate!

DW

Shoulder, Shoulder ...

Although my shoulder/chest pain is still with me and I have spent a lot of time in agony over the last few nights, I slept pretty well last night.

I know a lot about the problem I am facing but fully beating it is proving to be a challenge.

This morning my left arm is aching a little but it is inconvenient rather than outright agony. Looks like I might have started to beat whatever I did to start this torture.

By the way, the pain has been so bad that paracetamol and NSAIDs have not helped.

DW

When I'm Cleaning Windows!

Well, I will, once they've put the glass in. Anyway, this is the first window to be fully installed, glass excluded.

I asked to be framed! Suave as ever 😳

DW

Puppies Arrived!

Slutty the dog became pregnant after the dog of her dreams bounded into her life one afternoon. I saw the dog at the same time as she did. I wanted to beat it with a stick but she swooned and ran to him.

I had seen her with other dogs while she was in season and she rejected them all. This one was different: tall, brown and with a hint of ridgeback. I assume he is the father of her pups and when pup number one arrived I said, aha! I was right!

That's why I call her Slutty: a bitch of easy virtue!!

The pups arrived early on Saturday and I was the first person on the scene. My torturing shoulder was keeping me awake and I could hear squealing coming from outside. As I walked out through the back door, the family dog bounded over very excitedly and as I walked on he ran backwards and forwards and led me to a place just behind the washing machine. His look said, look what I found, what do you think?!!

Slutty was hiding in the bottom of an old wardrobe when I walked past and she came over to us too, looked at the puppy, rolling around and squealing. Her body language said, this just sort of popped out ... no idea what to do with it!! The little thing had been licked clean and was already dry so he had been born a while before.

I called for backup and within minutes there were four people, two dogs, the kitten and Slutty's first born.

I couldn't sleep because of my shoulder so I hung around for a while until puppy two  arrived. I had seen the waters break   for this one so knew it wasn't far away. It took a while though.

Photos done I went to bed and managed to sleep.

In the morning there was great excitement outside as puppies three and four had arrived while I had been asleep. They arrived together, literally inseparable, as they were conjoined twins. I had never seen such a thing before and there they were: six legs, two tails and they didn't, they couldn't, survive.

Two healthy puppies, two unhealthy puppies. A decent result for Slutty, first time mother!

Photos below.

DW

Discombobulated Chest and Brain

By the time I got onto the plane to Bangkok the strained muscle in my chest was annoying me and the sleep cells in my brain were shouting ... we neeeeed to go to work ... go to sleep!

I had checked in the lounge if there were business seats available and they said no but check once you're on board. I checked and there were a coupe of seats free so i bagged one!

We were delayed taking off for an hour and i slept all of that hour and continued to sleep for another two hours or so. I did need that sleep!

DW 

Windows ... Who Wrote that Sh*t?

In transit at Dubai airport and the phone hooked up with the wifi in the lounge. The laptop wouldn't connect: Windows couldn't  connect ... Loose cable ... See the administrator ...

So I rebooted and tried again. After a few twiddles, Windows' prognostications were looking expensive.

I went to the connections list, right clicked the one I was trying to open and found ... the password that had been saved was wrong. I changed it earlier this week but it looks as if that loose cable was preventing the saving of it!!

DW

Julius Nyerere Airport Tanzania

I have to say a big thanks to the men and women at the JN Airport, Dar es Salaam.

I arrived with $50 to pay for my visa ... it was $250!

After some faffography I enlisted the help of a kindly member of staff and she got me through the airport to the ATMs but it wasn't her fault that there was no money in either of them. She went out of her way for me!

Then there was the rather severe acting immigration officer who allowed me to get a visa with an IOU stamp in my passport! Bark worse than bite: thank you!

Today I learned that I should have paid the extra $200 in the office in the city. 😳

Another severe type man went out of his way at the airport and was very helpful as he took me through the airport to solve my problem. Again, thank you, sir.

A positive experience all told!

DW

We Made the Bed!

For reasons i will report on later, we decided to build our IKEA bed. I meant to take a photo at every stage but of course I couldn't. Here are the photos I did take!

DW

Yellow Tie

I am the one wearing the yellow tie!

My group in Dar es Salaam this week.

DW

Speed, Distance, Time Left, Petrol Consumption

Average Speed

This is not complicated but it's what I did as I was travelling from A to B on a long bus journey: I set up a spreadsheet to deal with the following.

Although there should have been nothing to worry about, I wanted to be sure that I would make my connection at my destination.

So I wanted to know how fast we were going. There were kilometre posts on the road side for most of the journey and my phone has a stopwatch utility. I found the speed of the bus by combining the distance travelled, one kilometre; and time taken to travel it. I could check our speed whenever I wanted to now!

Then I wanted to know how long it would take us at the last recorded speed to get to our destination B. All I needed to know was the distance to B and then use my knowledge of speed to estimate the time remaining. I could find the distance to B every now and again from the sign posts on the road that told us!

That's all I really needed to know but then I enhanced my spreadsheet by adding these calculations too:

Time to cover one kilometre:

In minutes
In seconds

I considered creating a table to record all of the speeds I found together with distances remaining etc but decided that was academic!

Finally, this spreadsheet can cope with kilometres or miles ... and can convert from one to the other.

Petrol Consumption

As I bought a new car recently I decided I would keep a record of all of the petrol I buy for it. I have also kept a record of the kilometres driven. I record the litres of petrol bought, odometer reading at the time I bought the petrol, cost of petrol, type of petrol: my car can use either E20 or gasohol 91 petrol.

My very simple spreadsheet shows all of the above data and the calculation of kilometres driven per litre of petrol and average cost per litre.

At this stage there are very few data points and the consumption averages have yet to settle down.

Duncan Williamson

Water, Water ... Anywhere?

The water for the house comes from the ground. So they are drilling for it today. As you can see here!

DW

Point to Point

Since i moved to Thailand i have travelled to Saudi Arabia, Mexico, England and Bangkok. All of those journeys essentially started in Bangkok.

Today i am taking a 6-7 hour bus journey to get to Bangkok as I wend my way to Dar es Salaam. 

The bus left 30 minutes late, which is not much of a worry as it can easily make up the lost time en route.

Any stress will come as we approach Bangkok. Last time I did this journey there were horrific holds ups at major road works near Bangkok. 

Whilst i am confident that my schedule has some slack in it, i like to control such things but when I can't I get tetchy! Anyone who has travelled with in times of loss of slack knows what I mean.

So far so good, then: free biscuits already  eaten and free bottle water started. 😁

DW

PS we were well on our way to the bus station when Namwan told me I'd left my jacket behind. Very unusually for me I turned the car round and got said Jacket. Clot!

Kitchen Work has Started

They have started fitting the kitchen now and the skirting tiles are going on ...

DW

Furniture Number One

The first piece of furniture we have built for the house: chest of drawers for the master suite. Being used before we move in, to tidy the space we're occupying at the moment 😁

DW

Book Review: We Bought a Zoo

Benjamin Mee wrote this good easy read. Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson starred in the film of the book.

Surprise number one: the film is set in the USA, the book is set in England and France. The zoo is in England.

Mee is or was a journalist so his writing style is good, his story flows and develops stories and characters very well.

The story gas several prongs that include the death of the father, who we never meet; the death of the wife, who we do meet and the outrageously unlikely prospect of going from journalist to zoo owner and manager!

They do it! That's not much of a spoiler really as they made a documentary series on the Mee's rehabilitation of the zoo and there is that film to go on!

Mee tells stories of cowardly dogs, wild and very dangerous animals as well as people stories.

There's the big cat under sedation, being carried to the surgery ... when it wakes up 😳 everyone scatters as you can well imagine. Mee is left in its sights and groggy as the cat is, it is still a lethal killing machine. All ends well but it is the kind of story that keeps the book going.

As i was about half way through the book i thought that the stories of leadership, raising money, organising the family, learning how a business works, knowing who to hire and why made this as much a business book as a family tale. Much to learn here by your BA (BS) and B Com student.

The book us a few years old now but well worth reading: family and business points of view alike.

DW

Torrential rain Stopped Play

It rained and rained and lashed it down overnight and none of the building team came to work 😔

There was water in the dining room to mop up and dust to sweep: easily dealt with.

Then we spent an hour or so enjoying the peace and potential of this house. Reading my book, checking emails and so on.

We are looking forward to moving in!!

DW

The Rats Dug Deeper

We went to collect the car today from the Toyota repair shop to be told we couldn't have it yet.

The rats had done far more damage than everyone had thought and it will take more time to sort it all out.

😡 We've got to go back to Bangkok on Thursday!!!

DW

T'tiles are bein' laid

Here you are ... they are laying floor tiles now.

The fuse box was installed today ... about 20 fuses/switches altogether.

Progress!

Here's a Universal Truth

When you are carrying out a significant task or project or some such, everyone who has access to your work will tell you what you are doing wrong or that you are just creating problems for the future.

Very few, if any, if these people will say to you, i would like to help you here ... and then, actually give you that help. 

Of course, such help is often not needed in the slightest!

DW