I think that I'm naturally cynical and grumpy so am an infrequent visitor to this thread... the 'Daily Moan' much better fits my personality.

But... despite losing most of my fish the last couple of days to oxygen deficiency, even I must admit that four great things have happened today. Great things can come from adversity, as they say...

1. I went to Singapore last week and for a while today it looked as though my daughter was going to be excluded from her (very expensive) school for 14 days from my return due to imposed self-quarantine procedures. It also looked as though my mates kid was also going to be excluded since we share transport... me the driver. I was on my way to pick the kids up when the school phoned to say they had decided it only counted from the 24th... when the education guy in Bangkok made the declaration. I did a U-turn and came back home... result!

2. Our latest dog, Yogi, has always been a bit frigid and hates to be touched, but to be fair has never shown the slightest bit of aggression. All of our dogs have ticks (hebs) at the moment and after I'd managed to pick up Yogi and sit him on my lap he was as good as gold while I plucked his ticks off and plopped them in a glass of Hong Thong.. No problem at all and no sign of aggression. He even let me pluck out a few big ticks from inside his ears using my wife's eyebrow tweezers with no complaint at all (no complaint from him, that is). I was so pleased, and since this bonding session he's been a lot more open to being touched. The daughter's sworn to secrecy and the wife will never know, so all is good.

3. Tonight I was watching yet another episode of Dad's Army on Youtube (yes... that's Korat for ya...) when I realised that my daughter was singing along to the theme tune and knows all the words...

"Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler, if you think we're on the run ..."

I was so proud... there can't be many kids in Korat who can do that!

4. Before shutting up tonight, as usual I went outside to check on the dogs and the gardener was waiting for me and gave me a huge glass of his Ya Dong! He knows I'm pissed off about all our fish dying and he wanted to cheer me up. That was nice!

What a day of cheer!