The Mares icon dive computer

The Mares icon dive computer is a piece of rubbish. You are overcharged for a second-rate dive computer with a fancy screen offering little else. I owned the first series, the one before the gas transmitter was included and I regret purchasing it.

Ok, sure, I am annoyed that this expensive dive computer failed to live up to marketing hype. Well before the premature failure of my high priced dive computer that failed to deliver, I wasn't happy with it. The fact was, it was an awful dive computer with a fancy screen and Mares wasn't interested in offering warranty - they just wanted to sell me a new computer. 

The algorithm unduly penalises a diver who is diving less than an ultra-conservative profile, you have to be safe, we all understand that, you have to be realistic though. You purchase a dive computer and you start diving side-by-side with a diver until the decompression burden is too great so you ascend and miss a great portion of the dive - yeah right.

The guy you are diving with maintains his depth, see some amazing sights while you are off-gassing in shallow waters - loser. I wont be replacing this useless wrist weight with another icon computer, I will not be purchasing another Mares dive computer ever again.

illy coffee

I first came across illy coffee in the late 90s while living in Turkey. The German clientele of the dive shop where I was employed would bring some tins out for the Turkish owner who had spent some time living in Berlin. He no doubt picked up the love of illy coffee whilst living in Germany.

When I first tried to purchase illy coffee in Australia, I nearly passed out after what the importer was charging, naturally the retailers tried to pass the costs on to the consumer. I contacted the Australian distributor for information on retailers in my area that hopefully don't gouge consumers - they never even bothered replying, such was their attitude of nonchalance.

Most cafes in Perth do not stock illy coffee, this is a shame as I am seeing plenty of illy coffee houses in South East Asia to support my coffee addiction. I love nothing more than to grab an espresso on the run of this flavoursome coffee blend.

Multitasking - an outdated ideal?

We have been constantly lectured on the virtues of multi-tasking, but is it really effective? So what is multi-tasking? Walking and chewing gum? Walking and farting? Taking a leak in the shower or putting on make-up or shaving in the car on the way to work? To my way of thinking, this is a time management issue - instead, why not get out of bed 15 minutes earlier? Then there is always driving and texting, should we really be promoting activities that cause series injury or death?

In management circles, multi-tasking is being increasingly viewed as an ineffectual strategy as the potential to end up with a bunch of half completed and shoddy tasks ultimately results. We came onto a nightshift in an underground mine and there was broken down machines parked in front of the workshop, in the workshop and alongside the workshop - this was a huge hit to productivity. The leading-hand ordered the mechanics to repair individual machines and despite my protests, we all set off to work.

After three hours of hard labour and all machines still parked up, the leading-hand feeling the pressure was open to suggestions. We worked out which machine could be back and running first and hit the job with man-power, we split into two teams and concentrated the work effort. When the repairs were complete, that machine rolled back into production and the team moved onto the next task, when that machine was back working the team hit the next job. Machines now rolled out of the workshop at regular intervals and the production management was reasonably happy. A concentrated effort was the best strategy in this situation and just about every situation.

The learning organisation

Learning organisations are the current management solution gaining traction solving complex training and development issues; learning organisations generate environments open to creative thought and innovation embracing solutions to ongoing problems through team interaction. The learning organisation acquires knowledge innovating at a pace to not only survive but to thrive in a rapidly changing environment to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. 

Learning organisations create a culture encouraging and supporting continuous employee learning, applying critical thinking to problems encouraging risk taking to generate innovation. The learning organisation operates in a blame free environment accepting mistakes valuing employee contributions. The learning organisation encourages experimental learning gained through team experiences; finally, the learning organisation disseminates the knowledge throughout the whole organisation incorporating daily activities.

American business ideals

What I like about the American psyche is their ability to engage in business enterprise with their entrepreneurial spirit. The United States now has a service based economy; you exclaim, that's not exactly true, unfortunately the majority of their manufacturing base has been eroded and transferred overseas.

Design is still undertaken onshore, technology and innovation still rank highly but intellectual property and not manufacturing capability dominates the economy now. Currently, the US market is structured around consumption with retailing, after sales service, logistics and distribution the primary economic strength. Manufacturing in the US is pretty much redundant these days, although not entirely the case, technology and manufacturing capability technology continues to be exported overseas.

Americans are traditionally very strong at marketing and sales, this once again harps back to retail and services, the United States is very much a consumer driven economy. Financial services has been the growth industry, this has however been their undoing in many respects, this was the downfall of American manufacturing manufacturing. The purpose of finance is to raise capital to fund business activities and enterprise, by sending manufacturing and the respective technology offshore, economic capability is inadvertently lost.

The flow of international funds into a relatively stable US economy tends to mask the underlying issues and their causes - they just don't produce anything of substance anymore. As Wall Street is increasingly under pressure as the financial hub of the world; European, Asian and Middle Eastern financial centres are threatening the dominance of American finance and the viability of the United States as a superpower. 

The Singapore MRT

If the Singaporean MRT isn't the best underground rail system in the world, then I would like to see what is. With the British influences in Singapore, I'm guessing their MRT is modeled on the London underground.

The rail system is new unlike the London underground or Berlin U-Bahn, the carriages are all interconnected and the system is driver-less. As a passenger, you are able to wander up to the leading carriage and watch your progression through the tunnels. During the non-peak times, you are able to glance down the carriages to view the train powering along through the tunnels also - it is kind of fun.

The platforms are shielded preventing anybody from falling down on the tracks, that rules out suicides too. The train comes to a halt with the carriage doors opening before the main doors, the floors are marked to position commuters so all inbound passengers wait to the side causing no congestion to departing passengers, free WiFi runs throughout the MRT system - everything about the Singaporean MRT is great.

High performers - not in my workplace

What I love about Dilbert is how close it represents not only my workplace; I am guessing this pretty mush represents everyone's workplace to some degree. 

What I have viewed in so many workplaces is the high performers use this experience to move on to a better position usually in a better business. The mediocre performers hold on to their positions at all costs creating roadblocks, lowering productivity, not sharing important information and building discontent to achieve their goals of destroying workplace culture - he pretty much nailed it here.

The Swan Valley wine region

A Sunday afternoon and we are sitting around deciding what we should do; it isn't a difficult decision to make, we are off wine tasting. For me, a short 30 minute drive has us in the Swan Valley wine region. Whilst this isn't the premier wine district in Western Australia, some pretty reasonable wines are produced on old growth vines.

There are plenty of choices of wineries for lunch, this is a pretty popular weekend activity and places are sometimes hard to find. I prefer to limit myself to wine tasting; in summer, I'll start on whites and move onto reds. On a cold and rainy winter's day, it will just be reds. My choice of red is cabernet sauvignon; plenty of wineries offer shiraz which are normally pretty good and I do like a petit verdot.

There are art galleries, a couple of chocolate factories, a reasonable selection of coffee and then there are the restaurants attached to the wineries. A Sunday spent up in the valley with a trip to a gallery, some wines and lunch is a pretty good Sunday - happy to be alive.

BYO and no corkage

What I thought was normal is BYO in restaurants, that is bring your own drinks to the restaurant. When I have had European, Canadian and American friends over, I grab a bottle of wine to take to a restaurant - they were in disbelief. 

I had never thought much about it until I saw their reactions and realised this is not the norm overseas. The advantage is you have the ability to choose a bottle of wine you have in your cellar for the specific evening such as an aged cabernet sauvignon or shiraz.

Western Australia has strict liquor laws, a business has to apply to the government for a licence to serve alcohol, these licences are expensive and normally not granted to all but the largest restaurants. 

Even licensed restaurants allow BYO although they may charge corkage, that is a fee per bottle to open the said bottle, some restaurants charge per person for corkage but this can be open to negotiation. 

I have never returned to restaurants that have charged corkage per person after discussion have failed - even if they were a non drinking patron. A restaurateur has to ask themselves, what is this customer worth to me? For $1.50 per person, is this worth damaging a relationship that will result in no repeat business? I think not.

Killing workplace culture

It's unbelievable, I was employed in a government department and I, along with some notable others worked long and hard to create a positive workplace culture. It took just one promotion and some empire building to destroy all the work we had done.

Now we have a fragmented workplace full of mistrust and backstabbing, the empire builder sought to push his own agenda at the expense of everyone in the workplace. This will all change, the corruption enquiry brought the less than ethical practices to a head. A new manager has been appointed, the former manager will be moved sideways without any further thought of promotion.

What I love the most is the sulky actions of those involved, the changes that have been made and the reasons why. They might have escaped the corruption enquiry but the damming investigation took them down, their time is up and change is coming.

Death in the evening

The western media has picked up the current events in the Philippines, the extra-judicial killings orchestrated by former Davao mayor and now president Rodrigo Duterte are a major issue.

So before I am inundated by hate mail from Filipinos; we all know Duterte has an approval rate around or above 90%, we know he is supported internally.

I am against drugs, I am against organised crime and I am against corruption. What I am also against is extra-judicial killings, it's really murder and I'm against lawlessness.

On one hand, the president campaigns against corruption and then hands what is widely regarded as one of the most corrupt organisations in the country the ability to conduct operations with impunity.

This photograph brought it home to me, the human element of organised crime, the targeting of the most vulnerable group in the Philippines - the poor and uneducated.

To get away with murder, all you have to do is accuse a person of drug addiction, gun them down and put a cardboard sign alongside their lifeless body accusing them of being a pusher. I love all the comments from ultra-nationalistic

Filipinos telling everyone to shut it, zip it or they are just ignorant. Government orchestrated murder is still murder. So why do I have an interest in this?

Well, I have a number of friends living in the Philippines, will the lawlessness continue? Once the president tires of the so-called war on drugs, who next is on the hit list? His business competitors maybe?

President Duterte is an unabashed admirer of former president Ferdinand Marcos, he released his body from the mausoleum to be buried in the heroes cemetery - you have to be joking.

In 2003, the Philippine government demanded the return of $683 million USD  from a Swiss bank account that was actually granted by a Swiss court.

Now all they have to do is recover the rest of the $10 billion USD plundered from this poverty stricken country by the Marcos regime - these are not good signs. 

An 2006 Evans & Tate chardonnay

I was able to purchase through my wine dealer three cartons of 2006 Evans & Tate Margaret River chardonnay after the shipment that was destined for export fell through. Instead of the standard screw top, these export bottles came complete with corks for the United States market.

Naturally they were trying to move their inventory quickly and the price reflected this. I also purchased a carton for my brother and a carton for my father, they fortunately knocked their consignment off pretty quick. Ok, so I have cheap chardy, so what?

The tasting notes indicated a bright pale straw colour with notes of cashew, yeast lees and unripe pineapple and nectarines, a crisp acid backbone and unripe nectarine linger in the aftertaste. It was a pretty good drop, I was more than happy with my purchase.

My only concern was that the cellaring potential extended to 2009, on the eve of 2016, I still had a few bottles left and my concern was this chardy may have gone past their prime. Yep, the chardy was still drinking well in December 2015 when I finally knocked off the last of my bottles. This was an excellent drop for a hot summer Sunday afternoon.

Halloween - come on, get real

I'm just not getting it, I have kids dressed up in ghoulish costumes banging on my front door asking for "trick or treat" celebrating some American tradition I know nothing about apart from seeing it on television. Now I have no issues with Americans although I do have issues celebrating American traditions and forgetting our own history.

At dusk on the 31st of October 1917, the 4th Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force charged the Turkish defenses at Beersheba in a decisive battle. These guys were mounted infantry and not cavalry; they would ride their horses to the battle, dismount and fight as standard infantry. The battle had raged all day and a decision was made around 5pm to stage a cavalry charge as the wells were still in Turkish hands.

So with their bayonets in hand as they didn't have swords; their rifles were strung across their back, they charged the Turkish trenches under heavy fire and actually took the town. Now we blindly follow some American tradition wrapped in commercialism handing out lollies and scary stories. I could think of nothing more scary of charging dug in Turkish defensive positions on horseback with only a bayonet in my hand. How quickly we forget the real sacrifices made 90 years ago to embrace foreign traditions at the expense of our own history - unreal.