It's jacaranda season

Leading into December, Jacaranda season is in full bloom, but we don't expect this to last all the way to Christmas. Jacaranda season runs from late spring to early summer and we all love the purple, the streets come alive.

Jacaranda trees are not native to Australia, the sub-tropical tree is native to Central and South America and have been here for about 150 years. Seeds were transported to Australia among other countries by seafarers, the jacaranda is pretty much an international tree now. In Perth the trees are deciduous, they look terrible in winter stripped of leaves and foliage but this time of year the explode in colour bringing plenty of Christmas cheer, just a shame it never lasts all the way to Christmas.

Corporate social responsibility

I note with increasing interest the inclusion of units in business and management courses requiring completion of business ethics, sustainability and the effects of globalisation on society. The business world is taking corporate social responsibility very seriously - this is a fantastic outcome.

Viewing course overviews at a number of universities; as a signatory to PRME, that is, Principles for Responsible Management Education, the steering committees consist of the United Nations Global Compact, Association of MBAs, Association of Asia Pacific Business Schools and other professional associations - this apparently is taken very seriously in the academic community.

Corporations such as Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns collapsed spectacularly on a worldwide basis. While more specifically in an Australian context Bond Corporation, Qintex, HIH Insurance and the One.Tel communications corporation all committed corporate fraud - that is one part of the ethical framework business must adhere to.

To meet the rigors of sustainability, employing an ethical strategy observing ethical principles need to embed the concept of triple bottom line into business activities. The corporate world is involved in development, major corporations have a role to play in sustainable development, aid programs and social inclusion.

I am very much in favour of ethics training with corporate social responsibility included. These principles should also extend to the corporate world paying its fair share of tax in the country of earning, what is currently happening is just wrong on so many accounts.

The Rolex DateJust

Is it just me or is the Rolex DateJust an old man's watch? Nearly thirty years ago I purchased a fake Rolex off the street in Kuta, Bali and I reckon even now I wouldn't be paying full price for a DateJust. Naturally, the DateJust is the quintessential Rolex, released in 1945, this timepiece is pretty much the workhorse of the Rolex range. The innovative DateJust was named after the date just jumped at midnight to the new numeral instead of the slow sweep over a number of hours as had been the case. The jubilee bracelet, cyclops over the date and oyster case pretty much guaranteed the DateJust would become a modern day classic.

Possibly what skewed my view of the DateJust was the fact that I thought this just couldn't be a real model because it looked so ghastly. I actually thought it was a run of the mill fake watch with just a Rolex crown logo attached to it; you could imagine my surprise when I found out this an actual model. I just wanted a fake Rolex to bring home for a bit of a laugh for friends and family; naturally they saw straight through my guise and my joke watch didn't get as many laughs as expected. Needless to say, I had no idea of the Rolex line although I was well aware of the branding but I had never seen one in the flesh.

I don't actually think I would have had the same reaction if the first fake Rolex I came across was a Submariner, a GMT Master, an Explorer or a Cosograph Daytona. What I really hated was the serrated, or what Rolex describes as fluted bezel, the gold and silver jubilee five-link bracelet let a lot to be desired and I didn't much care for the cyclops over the date. Rolex uses 904L and 18 ct gold for both the case and bracelet, the describe the metal combination as Rolesor, The monobloc 41 mm middle case has a screw-in crown, a screw-in case-back and is rated to a depth of 100 metres.

The COSC chronograph certified 3235 Rolex in-house movement falls within a -2/+2 second a day precision. The winding is a bidirectional self-winding perpetual rotor with a paramagnetic blue paracrom hairspring and a power reserve of 70 hours. Needless  to say, the DateJust doesn't come cheap due to the engineering that went into the in-house movement and manufacture of case and bracelet. But unfortunately, the DateJust will forever be in my mind, maybe unfairly, an old man's watch easily replicated throughout South East Asia.  

My old High Sierra traveling bag

Having picked by my High Sierra oversas traveling bag via reward points from my credit card use sight unseen, I have had an excellent run from my points purchase. I am aware many travel bloggers write about their old backpack in order to secure some form of sponsorship from a manufacturer or supplier. I have no such sponsorship nor am I seeking any deals, I just like what this manufacturer produces and I am happy to acknowledge their excellent range of traveling bags.

I always recognise a High Sierra bag as the luggage rolls past on conveyor belt, they are of heavy duty construction, well made with plenty of pockets and partitions to separate your belongings. The problem I find with the bag is that the heavy construction also adds weight and when I am on my dive holidays carting my dive gear around, I get pretty close to my luggage weight limit - that's my only issue.

Cold Chisel - Twentieth Century

Twentieth Century was the final studio album released after Cold Chisel disbanded in acrimony and bitter disputes in December 1983. Cold Chisel has been described as not the best band in Australia, nor the most internationally renowned band, but Cold Chisel was the quintessential Australian pub rock band with a loyal following.

I have always liked the title song Twentieth Century, a catchy harmonic tune that I understood was never going to be the most popular but I like what I like. Flame Trees was undoubtedly the best song of the album, written by Don Walker and Steve Prestwich, the country town of Grafton was where Walker had spent his youth. Ironically, Grafton is famous for Jacaranda trees but I am informed difficult to fit into the tune of the song; however, Prestwich was the initial writer with Walker taking over. I am informed that the band were so hostile towards each other that the album was recorded in stages. I had always thought Prestwich returned to record the album after being fired on the previous tour  but was surprised to learn that he played the farewell tour and not the album. I had to check this against the CD I have in my collection. 

Songs from the album:

1. Build This Love.
2. Twentieth Century.
3. Ghost Town.
4. Saturday Night.
5. Painted Doll.
6. No Sense.
7. Flame Trees.
8. Only One.
9. Hold Me Tight.
10. Sing to Me.
11. The Game.
12. Janelle.
13. Temptation.

Gemini 4 - Ed White's spacewalk

Ed White became the first American astronaut to undertake a spacewalk on the third of June 1965 as pilot of Gemini 4 along with Command pilot James McDivitt. The American space program was behind the Soviet program after cosmonaut Alexey Leonov became the first human to conduct an extra-vehicular activity on the Voskhod 2 mission on the eighteenth of March 1965.

Interestingly, Ed White wore an Omega Speedmaster timepiece strapped to his spacesuit for the spacewalk. According to Omega, they only became aware that NASA astronauts were wearing their watches after noticing the Speedmaster mounted on the spacesuit of White during his space walk.

Astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young were the first astronauts to wear flight qualified Speedmaster timepieces on the Gemini 3 mission after Wally Schirra, initially from the Mercury program apparently procured a number from a Houston dealer.

After the Gemini program ended, the astronauts moved over to the Apollo program. The Gemini program with two man crew was to develop techniques supporting the Apollo program including docking maneuvers, space rendezvous and extra-vehicular activities.

I was fortunate enough to visit the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in 2014 and look around their fascinating museum viewing both Mercury and Gemini capsules.

The Gemini mission duration were to designed to prepare for length of the Apollo trips to the moon. The six Mercury missions generally lasted a matter of hours although as the program progressed, flights of around 15 minutes for the early flights were gradually extended to a day and a half for astronaut Gordon Cooper on Faith 7.

Sadly Ed White along with Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee lost their lives to the fire on board Apollo 1 during a launch simulation. An electrical spark in the Command Module caused wiring to burst into flames, the pure oxygen environment in the Command Module rapidly increased combustion.

The crew were unable to open the hatch due to design constraints with rescuers unable to open the hatch due to the pressure differential as the cabin was pressurised to 2 psi higher than atmospheric pressure.

The Screwdriver

The Screwdriver would have to be the easiest drink to mix, a 15 ml shot of vodka, some ice cubes and the rest is orange juice. I never really went for the garnish, most bar tenders added a slice of orange and maybe a sprig of mint to add some colour.

I prefer the drink in a lowball glass, I used to use a highball glass but I guess my tastes have changed a little as I like the drink less diluted these days although the standard mix is highball. I can't say I really have a preference for vodka, Smirnoff was my choice as a fairly stock standard vodka but I did have a preference for Absolut straight up. For me, the orange juice was the important factor, I have always gone for 100% orange juice as you can't go wrong with the best ingredients.