Friday 31 October 2014

A weird day.

I must admit to not paying my credit cards for a month as I chose medicine for Jeremy over keeping the books balanced. Since then I have been catching up on the bills (it was August) and have been paying what has been asked for.


I dont own that many only 2. 

The credit card company who I wont mention in this post did on a few occasions kindly phone me to remind me that I need to pay, however when met with 'do you speak English?' promptly hung up and never returned the call. I would imagine that if they had bothered to read the computer screen in front of them my, my details would tell them I am English (Inggris) not Indonesian. I guess they never.

So happily paying what I thought was correct I was visited by a person unknown to hand me a letter. The letter was a photocopied piece of paper with no details or reasons and a handwritten phone number and the total amount I owe on the card. I had someone contact this guy and he turned out to be a debt collector and that I had to pay all the money outstanding by 5pm Friday (today) otherwise something else could happen but we never found out what.
Bemused by that, I contacted the Credit Cards customer service department and after being put through to 3 different people I eventually was told that as long as I make a payment today and next week then there is no problem and I do not have to pay the amount back in full. It seems I have been paying up each month but not in the payment window. But they were very patient and communicated very well in English, which was fantastic.

Now why the bank could not just send me a letter asking me to call them, I don't know. But it added to the fun of the day.

So when life gives you lemons, make lemonade as they say. However, minutes after sorting all that out I was presented with a box of Mangoes ripe and sweet and all for me. Which was nice. The challenge was how to get 5kg of Mangoes home in a box riding a motorbike. Luckily the lack of rain and presence of my rucksack solved that one. And now everyone is eating Mango.

My favourite fruit is free fruit and Free Mangoes top that

Rounding off the day nicely as it had been a weird day was a man who came in to enquire about an English course and he spent 25 minutes asking me every question under the sun about the course and contents of it and also how much media and internet access and useage there was. Despite my best efforts of explaining how we teach classes I had the impression that he really did not understand the concept of books and face to face rather he was more interesting online media presentations. I dont think he will be a student.


Wednesday 29 October 2014

Personal blogging

I have been reviewing my blog and things in it and wanted to share how where it has been read / opened through the world. Personal blogging is often a labour of love and I dont see many personal blogs survive or continue to develop. That does not mean they are not out there, but it means they are not as popular as they once might have been.

So here are maps and things to share.

Flag counter is great because it shows me the flags of the countries where people have accessed my blog from.
It does break it down further if I pay for it. But I wont, it looks pretty enough for me.




Cluster maps, provides red dot locations which show the place of the visits with the yellow small dots highlighting the most recent visits. This looks more impressive in a small scale as all the dots are closer together!




Current Country Totals
From 11 Jan 2010 to 28 Oct 2014


 Indonesia (ID)16,507
 United States (US)8,563
 Malaysia (MY)3,794
 United Kingdom (GB)3,332
 Australia (AU)3,114
 Singapore (SG)2,708
 India (IN)1,982
 Netherlands (NL)1,263
 Philippines (PH)1,245
 Asia/Pacific Region (AP)1,170
 Canada (CA)979
 Germany (DE)720
 Brunei Darussalam (BN)630
 Saudi Arabia (SA)529
 France (FR)478
 Thailand (TH)448
 Hong Kong (HK)329
 United Arab Emirates (AE)326
 Belgium (BE)318
 Taiwan (TW)303
 Vietnam (VN)303
 Japan (JP)268
 Korea, Republic of (KR)244
 Russian Federation (RU)234
 Pakistan (PK)230
 Italy (IT)216
 New Zealand (NZ)215
 Spain (ES)208
 Sweden (SE)185
 China (CN)182
 Brazil (BR)161
 Europe (EU)145
 Ireland (IE)137
 South Africa (ZA)137
 Turkey (TR)126
 Switzerland (CH)126
 Poland (PL)120
 Portugal (PT)112
 Qatar (QA)111
 Denmark (DK)107
 Norway (NO)94
 Greece (GR)89
 Finland (FI)83
 Israel (IL)76
 Sri Lanka (LK)74
 Romania (RO)74
 Bangladesh (BD)72
 Czech Republic (CZ)65
 Hungary (HU)63
 Mexico (MX)62
 Egypt (EG)59
 Austria (AT)52
 Cambodia (KH)51
 Ukraine (UA)48
 Oman (OM)46
 Bahrain (BH)40
 Croatia (HR)38
 Kuwait (KW)37
 Mauritius (MU)37
 Serbia (RS)37
 Argentina (AR)36
 Slovakia (SK)32
 Slovenia (SI)30
 Colombia (CO)26
 Jordan (JO)24
 Nigeria (NG)24
 Estonia (EE)24
 Lithuania (LT)22
 Morocco (MA)21
 Chile (CL)21
 Bulgaria (BG)20
 Peru (PE)19
 Lao People's Democratic Republic (LA)18
 Maldives (MV)18
 Lebanon (LB)18
 Nepal (NP)17
 Malta (MT)17
 Algeria (DZ)16
 Yemen (YE)14
 Jamaica (JM)13
 Tanzania, United Republic of (TZ)13
 Tunisia (TN)13
 Trinidad and Tobago (TT)13
 Greenland (GL)13
 Kenya (KE)12
 Ecuador (EC)12
 Malawi (MW)12
 Luxembourg (LU)12
 Costa Rica (CR)12
 Mongolia (MN)12
 Iceland (IS)12
 Myanmar (MM)11
 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA)11
 Macau (MO)11
 Belarus (BY)10
 Cyprus (CY)10
 Moldova, Republic of (MD)10
 Macedonia (MK)9
 Angola (AO)9
 Sudan (SD)9
 Venezuela (VE)9
 Uganda (UG)9
 Georgia (GE)9
 Kazakstan (KZ)8
 Iraq (IQ)8
 Uruguay (UY)8
 Senegal (SN)7
 Bermuda (BM)7
 Ghana (GH)7
 Puerto Rico (PR)7
 Timor-Leste (TL)7
 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (LY)7
 Aruba (AW)6
 Albania (AL)6
 Dominican Republic (DO)6
 Latvia (LV)6
 Ethiopia (ET)6
 Guam (GU)5
 Armenia (AM)5
 Barbados (BB)5
 Panama (PA)5
 Zimbabwe (ZW)5
 Fiji (FJ)5
 Iran, Islamic Republic of (IR)5
 Guernsey (GG)5
 Jersey (JE)4
 Azerbaijan (AZ)4
 Cayman Islands (KY)4
 Gabon (GA)4
 Papua New Guinea (PG)4
 Botswana (BW)4
 Afghanistan (AF)4
 Reunion (RE)3
 El Salvador (SV)3
 Rwanda (RW)3
 Montenegro (ME)3
 Paraguay (PY)3
 Mozambique (MZ)3
 Madagascar (MG)2
 Cote D'Ivoire (CI)2
 Bolivia (BO)2
 Zambia (ZM)2
 Honduras (HN)2
 Cameroon (CM)2
 Guyana (GY)2
 Micronesia, Federated States of (FM)2
 Suriname (SR)2
 Guadeloupe (GP)2
 Haiti (HT)2
 Virgin Islands, U.S. (VI)2
 Uzbekistan (UZ)2
 Palestinian Territory (PS)2
 Lesotho (LS)2
 Andorra (AD)2
 Namibia (NA)2
 Guatemala (GT)2
 Antigua and Barbuda (AG)2
 Martinique (MQ)2
 New Caledonia (NC)2
 Faroe Islands (FO)1
 Isle of Man (IM)1
 American Samoa (AS)1
 Samoa (WS)1
 Cook Islands (CK)1
 Palau (PW)1
 Virgin Islands, British (VG)1
 Mauritania (MR)1
 Saint Kitts and Nevis (KN)1
 Turks and Caicos Islands (TC)1
 Bahamas (BS)1
 Syrian Arab Republic (SY)1
 Bhutan (BT)1
 Kyrgyzstan (KG)1
 Monaco (MC)1
 Benin (BJ)1
 Liberia (LR)1
 Togo (TG)1
 Gibraltar (GI)1
 Guinea (GN)1
 Nicaragua (NI)1
 Burkina Faso (BF)1
 Congo, The Democratic Republic of the (CD)

1 visit is enough for me, it is a registered hit.

And these apparently are all the countries or Colonial countries left where I have yet to be read or visited




Well its interesting for me.