Cold Chisel - East

Cold Chisel is not the most famous Australian band, actually, Cold Chisel isn't really known beyond the shores of Australia yet this remains the quintessential Australian band. Their third studio album East was released in mid 1980 and was the biggest selling album of the year.

Known as pub rock, Cold Chisel gained their reputation playing live at pubs and clubs with East breaking through to a wider audience without selling out their roots. Is this my favourite Cold Chisel album? It probably isn't, this is really a big discussion among friends as while we feel Circus Animals is a little more polished, East is raw and energetic.

Choir Girl was the first song released late 1979 with Cheap Wine released mid 1980 just before the album came out with My Baby released as the third single later in the year. My feeling is that Choir Girl was the most polished song on the album, the rest of the album was fast and furious based on the strength of their live performances.

The songs from the album:

1. Standing on the Outside
2. Never Before
3. Choir Girl
4. Rising Sun
5. My Baby
6. Tomorrow
7. Cheap Wine
8. Best Kept Lies
9. Ita
10. Star Hotel
11. Four Walls
12. My Turn to Cry

I still love listening to East, my nephew has an unusually strong interest in older music thinks this is a great album too. For me, this is great because it is not just the nostalgia of one of Australia's best live acts, East stands up.

The needless death of a snorkeler

The last time I was at Alona Beach on Panglao Island in 2017, a Chinese woman, Ms Qin Lin aged 29 lost her life at nearby Balicasag Island in an incident that should never have happened. I returned again in July 2018 to another death, this time a Malaysian scuba diver aged 70 at an unregistered dive centre and I have to ask, what is going on here?

In what was a clearly preventable tragedy at Balicasag Island, the young life of a Chinese snorkeler was prematurely cut short in what can only be described as a preventable occurrence. I was staying with a friend who is a dive instructor at Alona Beach when a message was released on social media.

The woman apparently who was not a strong swimmer was unguided when she was found unresponsive and face down in a life preserver by locals. As was explained to me, she had purchased a ticket on a dive charter vessel as a snorkeler and was not a scuba diver. She had gone out snorkeling alone and clearly was not being monitored.

What is known is she was sent out snorkeling unguided and left unattended; at some stage she got into difficulty and the rest is unknown. As no one was looking after her, by the time her lifeless body was discovered by another boat there was little chance of resuscitation.

This is the Philippines and one doesn't expect much to happen here, a young life was tragically and needlessly lost in circumstances that should be considered negligent. When a boat finally arrived there was no resuscitation equipment aboard, no oxygen and certainly no trained personnel.

I don't think it is unreasonable to ask questions of why she was snorkeling solo, why she was left unchecked for so long and why nobody knew she was missing. I understand the commercial requirements of running a dive business and the need to generate revenue. I also know business operations have an obligation to their customers in regards to their safety, this can't be relegated behind safety aspects.

This rings just as true in developing nations where laws and/or legal systems would be considered lax by developed nations standards. Just because it is unlikely any legal action would be successful doesn't mean dive operators should take such an attitude.

Departing from Caticlan airport

I love heading over for a quick trip to Boracay Island when I am visiting the Philippines. But what an unusual airport Caticlan is, the arrival and departure terminals are at opposing ends of the runway - there was no arrival terminal when I last visited and that was unusual.

Upon disembarking from the aircraft, passengers are loaded onto buses and driven around outside of the airport and through the township before reentering the airport again to reclaim baggage before climbing on another bus only to be driven to the ferry terminal. Because this is the staging point to Boracay Island, the airline contracts services from the airport terminal to the ferry terminal.

On departure, the terminal is located diagonally opposed to arrival so not only is a bus required to travel to the aircraft loading area but the bus must drive down the runway as no taxiway or service roads exist. This required us to wait in the bus for two aircraft to land before a convoy of vehicles heads over to the aircraft loading and refueling area. 

I wonder why they can't build a service alongside the runway? There are enough aircraft departures and arrivals to warrant this as this is a major domestic and international tourist destination. This could be all too premature, Caticlan Airport was still under construction when I was last there in June 2017. It could well be just construction induced issues that could be soon sorted when the airport moves to full service, so I won't be too critical just yet.

Now that Borcay Island has been closed to everybody by order of the president, this may well give workers time to upgrade the airport without constant interuption from tourists. I will be returning to Boracay Island some time in the future when the president opens the island again - that I know.

The new Perth Airport underground

The long awaited Perth Airport underground station looks to be open in mid to late 2020. But based on previous government projects, expect this project to be over budget and over time. Still, in the end we will have a usable service that will add value to Perth tourism and internal users.

The underground section will run from the existing Midland line with a new station to be build on the line to transfer passengers. A new station at Belmont will allow a spur line to run from the existing line then linking to the city. If I am flying during the day, I normally take the train to the city and catch a dedicated airport bus, this will simplify my travel easily switching stations in the city. The new train will be more direct saving significant time - I'm really looking forward to this new service.

Now that Qantas is running the direct Dreamliner flight to and from London, passengers will be able to land at either terminal and be in the city eighteen minutes later. For FIFO workers, that's fly in, fly out, no longer will they need to pay the long term parking costs at the airport with associated security concerns of theft and break-ins. FIFO workers dressed in work clothes have added huge capacity to the airport over the past decade increasing services and frequency with flights to regional areas - everybody wins.

The department of no further action

I believe in human capital and the principles of human resources, yet I am so upset at the human resources department of my employer dubiously dubbed as The Department of No Further Action.

A strategy of saying NO to every request is commonplace, then should you pursue the matter further, depending on the pressure you bring then some degree of success is possible. Now when I discuss success, some actions will take up to a year to resolve. Their emphasis is to create difficulty so the average person gives up and the problem goes away.

Applying the principles of game theory, although not in a mathematical sense, you are able to slowly ratchet up the pressure to anticipate their next move so you can counter with either an offensive or defensive move. Most people view boxing as a sport where two people stand in front of each other and recklessly throw wild punches.

The skill of boxing is a tight defence where offensive moves are delivered in rapid succession with precision like accuracy. The same principles apply when undertaking a game theory scenario in my workplace, much to the annoyance of senior management.

The Department of No Further Action doesn't have the strategy or counter-moves to last the twelve rounds. Just like a boxing bout, you don't throw all your best shots in the first round against a strong opponent. You work your way in applying pressure using a strong technique to create opportunities for offensive actions so they make mistakes and then you apply the offensive move.

They want to play the long game in the hope that I will just give up, this isn't going to happen and one day they will wake up to this realisation. But to be honest, I don't think this will be anytime soon so they are just going to learn to live with the inconvenience of me being constantly right and them trying to shut me down.

Diving with the Omega Seamaster Diver 300

I believe the classical and timeless style of the Omega Seamaster Diver 300 is difficult to supersede; functionality unfortunately is a whole new discussion.

The 300 metre depth rated dive watch is somewhat obsolete as an effective dive time monitoring device as personal dive computers effectively calculate depth, time and decompression obligations. Who actually dives with tables anymore?

In what was once a required dive instrument, the dive watch along with dive tables are now superseded as dive monitoring tools. Despite the obvious declining functionality of the dive watch as less and less people use dive tables and a depth gauge.

I love the aesthetics of the Seamaster Diver 300 reference 212.30.41.20.03.001. The deep lacquered dial and ceramic bezel of the Diver 300 is bold and extremely mesmerising. The brushed and polished stainless steel case sits well on the wrist.

Despite the fact that for most recreational diving applications, the dive timepiece is pretty much obsolete; we all know that - for many it is required dive equipment. A new model of the Seamaster Diver 300 has recently been introduced at Baselworld, despite the excitement, I prefer the previous model.

As 2018 is the 25th anniversary of the Diver 300 and the 70th anniversary of the Seamaster range necessitated a revamp. I still believe the dive timer is an essential back-up device and a great day to day timepiece.

Whispering Jack - John Farnham

Johnny Farnham burst onto the scene as a pop/rock singer in the late 1960s with his popularity skyrocketing during that period, he was a household name in Australia.

When John first hit the airwaves in Australia I wasn't even born yet, then as I grew up in the 1970s we all knew who Johnny Farnham was although we tended to think he was washed up after his teen idle status morphed into more of a TV personality.

John made a comeback of sorts with a stint replacing Glen Shorrock from the Little River Band from the early to mid 1980s so you tended to think he was trading more on past frame than current form.

That all changed when Whispering Jack was released in 1986 with the album gaining notoriety when You're the Voice was released. We all knew who John Farnham was and once this single received radio airtime the album's success was guaranteed, You're the Voice is a brilliant song and remains popular to this day.

I was working away in a remote area as I was asked what's happening in Perth? My reply was Johnny Farnham had released an album and it looked like it was going to be big, little did I know how big this album was going to be.

Naturally, like everyone else I had a copy in vinyl. My favourite track was Reasons as I really identified with the lyrics, the tune was pretty special too. A Touch of Paradise was very popular gaining plenty of radio airtime as well as Pressure Down.

John's stalled career had been resurrected and his transformation was complete, he was once again a recording artist in his own right held in high respect by pretty much everyone.

We were all overjoyed, he had been trying hard for so long and his persistence had payed off, he is a good guy and his success was well deserved. Thirty two years after Whispering Jack was released, the singles from the album still get airplay.

They don't feel dated and despite his constant assurances that this is his last tour, John still performs live to adoring fans. Maybe I will finally get to attend one of his concerts, then I will be annoyed I didn't do it twenty years before.