Just say hello!

We went to a restaurant that we had been to before as we were working out where to have Christmas dinner. The owner/chef had spoken to us before so I felt put out when we arrived and he saw us and blanked us. 

I find that a real turn off so we ordered the meal we went for and decided against Christmas dinner there.

DW

29/12/2022

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas Eve so it's time to wish everyone a merry Christmas.

I made this cake:

DW

Short what?

I sat next to an engaging gentleman from Wales on my flight from London to Bangkok. We chatted for much of our waking time on the 11 hour flight.

As we got off the plane he said, I hadn't appreciated just how tall you are ... 

A bit later, as we walked to passport control, height came up again and I said, Well, it will be a dark day for someone if you get to call them short house! He found that funny. He's 5 feet 7 or thereabouts!

DW

Why no sign up

Hello to you!

I have had a blog for 20 years, if not more. I used to have a very busy blog that was managed by an organisation with a wacky name that had something to do with an animal. Then one night, they disappeared without warning and took all of my blog posts with them. There was nothing earth shattering there but I would have liked to have been given the chance to save them all.

I then started this blog using Blogger a number of years ago and here I still am although I don't post here anywhere near as prolifically as I did on the other blog. I post her, on twitter, Facebook, Quora and on The Times comments forum.

Now, why did I write this? Just a few weeks ago I realised that no one was signing up to my blog because I didn't have a sign up button or anything like it. I couldn't believe that. I used to have but never noticed it had gone. I have no idea when it went or why.

So, here is your chance to sign up and follow me. By rights, I should have hundreds, if not thousands of followers. After all, my chats here are fun and my business stuff is high quality and it is all free.

Please sign up and join the throng and if ever you ask me a question, I will answer it.

Best wishes and looking forward to seeing your sign up email.

DW

6th November 2022

Repaired the Wardrobe: nailed it!

We moved house, from Isan to Prachuap Kiri Khan and we took some of our furniture with us. Since we are renting this house, we kept some of their furniture, including a wardrobe.

I did a few repairs to a bookshelf we brought with us and that went well. So, onto the wardrobe.

We worked as a team of two to hold the frame square as we hammered in the panel pins that held the back boards in place that, in turn, strengthen the whole piece.

We did a good job and we ended up with a sturdy, albeit IKEA style, chipboard cheap looking thing. It's functional.

I am starting a work trip so it was time to gather shirts, ties, trousers, suit: that order.

I got to the suit jacket and felt some resistance as I tried to take it out. It wouldn't move. I thought we'd just nipped it between the frame and the back board. We did nip it. More than that not only nipped but nailed. Two panel pins had been driven through a sleeve that had been nipped as we did our work!

It took us 10 to 15 minutes to extricate the thing and there are two pin holes in one of the sleeves and a pin hole in the edge at the back of it.

Hey ho! Ever done that?

DW

5th November 2022

HM the Queen

My Brief Reflections

We have just witnessed the death and burial of HM Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. When her death came it was swift and largely expected. The period of national mourning befitting of such a monarch was appropriate, in my opinion.

What we have lost is a monarch who was driven by duty: based on a promise she made in 1947 to serve us for her entire life. And that is what she did.

The funeral was a typically British affair: a success by any standards. Billions of people around the world are said to have watched the funeral, let alone the lying in state. We were treated to a ceremony that no one else on the planet can conceive, plan and carry out so well. I am not being boastful about that and I am sure I am not wrong in my assertion.

Prince Charles has become King Charles III and I wish him well in his new role.

The Naysayers

I was brought up at a time when we would hear the phrase, "It's a free country" on a daily basis. It was, too! We had freedom of thought and freedom of speech: we could think and say what we liked. That is not so true today as everyone questions our right to say much of what we believe and say. To some extent that is good because we are forced to think more carefully about some issues whereas before, we would just blurt it all out.

However, at a time of national mourning, large numbers of people have crawled out of the woodwork to pour scorn on the notion of a monarchy, the legacy of the Queen, the costs of supporting the monarchy and so on.

Many of the comments were just parroting: someone merely repeating what someone else said, however ludicrous that might have been. Other comments were more considered and they stemmed from sincerely held views on the monarchy, republicanism and so on. Nothing wrong with anyone having and expressing such views.

Prof Mauro Guillen

Then we come to the argument about the true benefit of the monarchy and I like to point to the work of Prof Mauro Guillen in this respect. Guillen has researched the benefits of having a monarchy. In essence, what he found, from a study of almost 137 countries over 110 years, is that we are all financially and socially better off under a monarchy. Average GDP per capita is higher under a monarchy. political systems under a constitutional monarchy, like the UK, are more conducive to a better life under a constitutional monarchy.

I am grossly simplifying what Prof Guillen found and said but before we fight for a republic and install the nonsense that they can bring, do consider where we might be about to throw out the baby with the bath water. Read about Prof Guillen's work here. There is a link to a YouTube video dedicated to Prof Guillen's study.

DW

22/9/2022

Ashamed of UK Politicians?

I know there are millions of people in and from the UK who support the current government and who will be happy with the new Prime Minister and their administration.

Right thinking people, on the other hand, know that 12 years of their rule have been and are a disaster.

The new PM, whoever it will be, has proven at their hustings that they are already a disaster waiting to happen.

They burble on with their unresearched nonsense, they invent policies on the fly, they talk in presidential terms rather than in parliamentary terms.

The UK is in for a very bumpy ride and I am aware that you might not be sorry about that at all.

DW

6/8/2022

Diseased World

Diseases Ruling the World?

I know that there have always been diseases: viruses, bacteria and things that go bump in the night. I do wonder about the evolution of these things, of course: why are they here? Like humans, I suppose, they are on an evolutionary path and, like humans, they just get on with it surviving and evolving. I also suppose it is chance that when they latch onto a person they wreak havoc or they usually have a small and short lived life ... but be careful as that is not always true.

Anyway, we are still getting over the Covid-19 pandemic and up pops monkeypox: I don't know a lot about it but it is transmitted, so far, in a particular way and it is getting some attention from the public health community.

Here in Thailand, a non Thai man tested positive for monkeypox a couple of weeks ago and, rather than seeking treatment, he ran away. Why run away when there is treatment available? Well, he ran as far as Phnom Penh, which is well removed from Bangkok and was caught. In the meantime, was anyone else infected by him?

Now, we have Hand, Foot And Mouth Disease here. A friend of my daughter got it 10 days or so ago. On Tuesday of this week, youngest daughter was at nursery when she came down with a fever ... the mother suspected HF and M and the doctor confirmed it. She caught it from a different source to my other daughter's friend!

HF and M comes from the coxsackie virus for which there is no cure but it is normally short lived albeit unpleasant. Fever, listlessness, pain, lack of appetite, then mouth and throat sores, spots on the hands, feet and legs. Children are more susceptible to HF and M and last night our son seems to have developed a fever ... it's almost time to wake him up but I checked him around 4 am and he was still hot.

Take care everyone.

DW

4/8/2022

Travelling Again

After a gap of 885 days, i have started travelling again. For a nomad like me, being trapped for so long was getting to be torture. 

So far, Dubai, Bangkok, Muscat and Dubai. Next destination yet to be confirmed but it wont be long.

Happy tramping, everyone

DW

me, me, me ... I'm first

Power BI is Microsoft software that can be completely free of charge, eg PBI for the Desktop and it is updated every 4 to 6 weeks or so.

Because of social media and the effects of the pandemic, these days there is often a scramble by some people to be seen to be the first to announce their new video or blog page on a new feature.

A lot of the videos and articles are good and useful but yesterday, we witnessed something weird whereby someone tweeted that he'd just seen a new feature, had spent 10 minutes reviewing it and he had thrown together a video to show it. He said, he was excited by it but that as he had spent just 10 minutes on it, he could well be wrong so he careful with what he says.

I watched the video and he told how cool and awesome the feature was and that he'd spent just 10 minutes learning it ...

It looks useful but my PBI has not got that update yet so I couldn't evaluate his work.

I think he has made a fool of himself but, hey: he was first in!

DW

17 May 2022

Excel Statistical Analysis: Quality of Life Analysis

Step by step review of how to analyse data

9 data series, correlation matrix, descriptive statistics, histograms and scattergraphs

Video details - YouTube Studio

Clustering in Power BI

 A review of the clustering process in Power BI: how to do it and some of what it means

Video details - YouTube Studio

An Unusual Excel Table Improved by Power Query

Happy New Year 2022

 Thousands of you visit this blog even though almost no one is a member but let me wish everyone a happy new year 2022 and let's all wish for a much better year than the previous two years.

DW

01012022

covid Jab Two

I had my second anti covid-19 jab today and it took a lot less time than before. All went well, however.

A bit of drama as I waited to be released after the jab. An extension cable shorted out with a bang and burst into flames just a few metres from me. They switched off the power going to it but then a plastic sign caught fire. They brought out a fire extinguisher and put the fire out very easily.

Extension cables in Thailand ... every house seems to have them trailing everywhere and in the hall we were in today, there must have been hundreds of them all cobbled together.

HBTM

I don't normally do this but let's celebrate my birthday. Another year older and another candle on the cake!

DW

Christmas 2021

Well, it is just 9th November 2021 and Starbucks in Surin has Christmas music playing, Christmas drinks and food are on the menu, too. That's early!

Quarantine

We spent a couple of weeks in Hua Hin, returning last Sunday and we have been in quarantine ever since. We already had a wall around 3 sides of the house then built a fence to close it all off last month. Easy to stay within and easy to keep dogs, chickens and people out.

OK, the chicken can jump the fence. The dogs learned to squeeze through the old gate we built years ago. The chickens will always come and go but I put up some mesh to keep the dogs out ... well, I think I have kept them out now!

DW

18/10/2021 

covid-19 Arrived

Jungle Drums Were Silent

It was a heart stopping moment, to be told that someone exposed to covid-19 was living about 100 metres away from our house in a tiny village of just 45 houses. Normally, the jungle drums around here are very active and they can transmit messages within seconds of hearing or generating news.

This time, it took the drums over a week to share this news. In the meantime, goodness knows how many interactions there have been between the contacts and the rest of us, bearing in mind that the contacts own and live in a building with a shop attached. Hundreds, if not thousands of interactions in that week have possibly taken place.

That was a week ago, so about two weeks since the exposures happened and, touching wood, no one here is reporting any sickness.

Foreigners Out

The other aspect of this is the moratorium on foreigners like myself being eligible for any vaccination against covid-19: even if I were prepared to pay for it.

Other countries have given vaccinations to everyone and anyone if they were considered to be vulnerable because of age and health concerns. Not here: no foreigner should be vaccinated while there are unvaccinated locals. That is a policy that deserves to backfire. The point is that anyone who succumbs to covid-19 can pass it on to anyone because in the early stages of infection, no one knows they've got it. So, we all go our own way, masked or not, hands washed or not and blindly spread the virus.

Ah! but, you are a foreigner so keep out of our hospitals until we are all done.

Ah! I say, but most of you are not vaccinated either and I am in the vulnerable category so you'd better watch out. Whether I like it or not, whether you like it or not, we are sharing the same air space and surfaces. The virus couldn't care less who you are and who I am.

The moratorium is being ended now. The penny has finally dropped.When I will be vaccinated, though, no one knows yet!

Thailand covid-19 Confirmed Cases

I don't say that all of Thailand's covid-19 problems are because of their moratorium of vaccinations for foreigners by any stretch of the imagination and the graph below shows Thailand's confirmed cases record from March 2020 to August 2021. I am hoping that the signs of a downward trend will continue, for the benefit of everyone.

Singapore

Remember gold standard Singapore? The shining light of covid-19 best practice. Until they weren't. Singapore had an impressive regimen for dealing covid-19 cases in the early stages of the pandemic. Truly impressive. Then the infections started to rise. Then they realised they had a problem.

Then they realised where the problem lay: xenophobia. Like many countries, Singapore relies on what is called migrant labour in these parts. Typically, in this region, such labourers are housed in ramshackle dormitories where 8, 10, 15 people share one room or dorm. They are migrants. Foreigners. Let them take care of themselves.

It bit Singapore but credit to them, once they realised how stupid they had been, they took care of the problem. You can see the bite marks on the graph below that shows the confirmed cases in Singapore over the period March 2020 to August 2021.

DW

28th August 2021

Colour Blindness

Colour Blindness: ever thought about it as you create your webinars, handouts and other support materials? Me neither.

I came across a really good article on colour blindness this morning and that inspired me to create the file that is attached to this message.

Make yourself colour blind aware or as many as 10% of your male audience might not see what you are saying!

Click on this link to see a PDF version of a PowerPoint Presentation I just created on the subject

DW

6/7/2021