The best mining job I had

The best mining job I ever had was brutally cut short, I was recruited for a job that never eventuated although the role partially came through just as the whole structure was crumbling but not with the conditions promised.

What made the job was the team, I was surrounded by high quality individuals with a worldly knowledge that they brought to the organisation. Whilst I wasn't overawed by the depth of the team knowledge, I certainly appreciated being surrounded by such a strong knowledge base and I felt I could hold my own.

I was technically a Coordinator but was working as a Superintendent, I attended all the Superintendent meetings, signed documents to Superintendent level, made decisions to Superintendent level and stood in Superintendent positions when the incumbent was out on break.

As it turns out, after 8 months, the job was over and all western (white) expats were out with low-skilled and low-paid Chinese workers brought in to replace us. Non-western (non-white) expats were retained though, so only white people lost their jobs.

As the Chinese owned the company, I have no issue in answering to Chinese manager, I would hate to think I suffer from racist tendencies. I do have issues answering to incompetence and that is all I saw in the new management structure.

They were genuine idiots parachuted in place by the socialist Chinese hierarchy that had taken control of the company without any thought about how the place will run. We knew we were gone, even though they lied directly to us - they lack values.

The imported Chinese workers were lazy, unmotivated, low-skilled and lacked the necessary leadership abilities to make the project successful. They were totally clueless with fancy titles with no substance.

The national workforce were not fools, they saw the lack of commitment from the Chinese supervisors including their late starts, hour and a half lunch breaks and flagrant flouting of safety rules.

The Chinese technical knowledge was poor, the national engineering workforce was well aware that their knowledge and skills were at a higher level, so the nationals never respected their new Chinese supervisors.

I maintain contact with my national friends at TFM, they keep me informed about how the place is going and their concerns are real.

The flight from Johannesburg to Perth

The flight from Johannesburg to Perth is always a better flight than the Perth to Johannesburg flight, well that is my experience anyway.

Not including the favourable winds, the flight never seems to be as full, I always seem to get a better seat. The headwinds can add a further two hours to the flight from Perth to Johannesburg, then there is the departure and arrival times.

Departing Johannesburg at 21:30 and arriving at 12:30 local time is so much better flying the other direction leaving just before midnight and arriving around 05:00 the next morning. Sure you are tired, that is more to do with my 04:00 wake up for 05:30 vehicle departure.

The 4 hour drive from the mine site to Lubumbashi is just the start, then there is the flight from Lubumbashi to Johannesburg before spending hours waiting for my evening flight. The best part is the flight never seems as full, you fly with the trade winds knocking a couple of hours of the trip and are home in the afternoon.

Back working for the government

This isn't how I envisioned how this would go, the dream mining job at Tenke Fungurume Mining was a bust, the Chinese owners pretty much destroyed this job, so I returned home.

So all white expats were demobolised, non-white expats such as South Americans and Asians were allowed to stay on. The Congolese nationals were exempt from job losses at this point. Some white expats were willing to take substantial pay cuts to stay on, but we were told no white people were to remain onsite after Christmas regardless of cost.

This had nothing to do with pay rates otherwise the Chinese would have accepted the lower pay rates - they were very clear that they didn't want any white people on site. So where did that leave me? I was to return to my former workplace, the work environment I despised and staff I hated.

I spent a week looking for work before calling up the manager, fortunately they were chronically understaffed so I was welcomed back. This was because I reduced the burden on them and reduced their requirement for overtime. I knew the job and was proficient in application; this dramatically reduced their workload so they can't complain even if they don't like me personally.

Union Glashütte - the German watchmaker

Whilst Union Glashütte might not be ranked in the top echelon of Glashütte watchmakers, they are by no means a poor product. As a region, Glashütte produces some fairly amazing timepieces for such a small area and the baseline quality is extremely high.

Can you really compare Union Glashütte against an A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte Original or even a Nomos Glashütte? We all know they are at a different level, so for me the answer is no, but I like Union Glashütte regardless.

The history of Union Glashütte is interesting, as is the whole Glashütte watchmaking community. Post World War II and the Russian occupation, the German factories all formed part of the communist industrial machine.

The once prolific German watchmakers were still producing timepieces and precision engineering, but these were not the luxury products we see today. These were requirements of the centralised economy of the Soviet regime in post WWII Germany.

Union Glashütte as we now know it was founded in 1996 as part of the Glashütter Uhrenbetrieb GmbH group that includes high-end watchmaker Glashütte Original. However, the brand's roots stretch back over 125 years to 1893, when watch wholesaler Johannes Dürrstein created the Union watch factory in Glashütte.

His goal was to offer high-quality watches at affordable prices. Union Glashütte remains true to that concept to this day. I really like the Union Glashütte branding, this is a quality German brand that I really hope gains the recognition of the watch community.

The Junghans Max Bill - understated elegance

From my perspective, the simplistic design of the Junghans Max Bill timepiece is constantly being ripped off by the fashion watch industry. I had to do some research, did max Bill create the first Bauhaus watch or did he design the most iconic timepiece of the 20th century?

I love this iconic design, I am a minimalist and this simple yet elegant design really resonates with me. Everyone from Daniel Wellington, Orient, Timex, Tissot to Skagen has adapting this iconic design created for Junghams in 1961 and it still looks magnificent.

The Bauhaus movement is quintessentially German, that is a minimalist approach of function and usage. The Bauhaus art movement dominated European art through a number of mediums. The art genres such as surrealism and abstract expressionism have been argued predominantly favouring painting whereas Bauhaus influenced architecture and household accessories.

From what I can determine, the Junhans kitchen clock was released around 1953 and of course designed by Max Bill. The designer of the clock didn’t create the Bauhaus movement, Max Bill himself attended Bauhaus in Dessau but is credited as being the most influential exponent of the Bauhaus movement.

Perth to Johannesburg

The Perth to Johannesburg flight is always full, there is crying babies, children darting in and out but never seeming to get in the way or trill my up. I find this a pretty decent flight considering I don't enjoy a flight full of children. 

The flight departs at 23:40 and is a very popular route, for many this is a connecting flight to the O.R. Tambo International Airport for other African destinations. For me, this is a work flight for my eight weeks on, two weeks off leave rotation. I am only new to the company, but I already feel like I have been making this commute for a while.

Looking at the clientele, these are not really workers in the sense that I am used to, these are families looking like they heading off on holiday and in a relaxed mood. I am already starting to switch on, my mind is looking to the job, I already have my hand-over notes and I am beginning to address the pertinent issues in my mind.

For me, I will be arriving around 04:30, heading through immigration, picking up my bags and straight to check-in for the company flight to the Democratic Republic of Congo. I have a little time to burn, check-in opens at 05:00 and closes at 06:00, so I have a little leeway here.

I know my way around the airport, I know where I have to go and I can get there in time without too many hassles. This trip is beginning to become familiar, I know the routine and I can just get on with it.

Lost in Translation

Whilst I have never watched more than a handful of scenes from Ghostbusters, I must admit I also haven't closely followed Murray's comedic filmography career. Bill Murray is an internationally known comedian who has been able to apply his craft as a dramatic actor.

I have been taking a number of flights of late and decided to watch this amazing movie again on the inflight entertainment system. I prefer the dramatic movies as I am not at all interested in special effects or action movies.

Lost in Translation (2003) is an interesting movie, Murray playing Bob Harris is a jaded actor brought over to Japan to make a Suntory whiskey commercial. He is treated with a fair degree of reverence and respect from his Japanese hosts, yet he is indifferent to the attention and is bored even though he is aware he is well past his prime.

Scarlett Johansson, then 18 playing Charlotte is the young, articulate, highly educated and pretty wife of John, an entertainment still photographer who is on assignment in Japan. Away from home, Charlotte is isolated from family surroundings and friends whilst not receiving the intellectual stimulation she needs so strikes up an unlikely friendship with Murray's character.

Interestingly, director Sopia Coppola, daughter of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay based on her own life experiences. Charlotte’s husband John was loosely based on her then husband with the screenplay written specifically for Murray.

Sopia Coppola was nominated writing, directing and producing the film winning best original screenplay and also picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director - Motion Picture whilst the film won the Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical category. Amazingly, the film was shot in just 27 days and was Murray’s first and only Oscar nomination losing to Sean Penn in Mystic River.

Murray did ok though, he won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical (2004) and a BAFTA Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (2004). Johansson was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical (2004) and won the BAFTA for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (2004).

The movie shot on a $4 million budget grossed $118 million worldwide with the script written in broad description instead of actual lines with the actors improvising as the movie was shot. They had not secured the necessary permits to film in Tokyo and some scenes were shot in secret to prevent the crew being detained by authorities.

2018 Swiss watch market share

So no surprises here, Rolex leads the market share equation significantly followed a fair way behind by Omega and Longines in third place. When non-watch people think about luxury watches, Rolex immediately springs to mind above all others.

The holy trinity of haute horlogerie is Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe yet we see Vacheron Constantin and Audermars Piguet with market shares of 1.9 and 4.0 respectively. Clearly prestige doesn't necessarily translate into sales.

Rolex dwarfs the market share of both Vacheron Constantin and the marketing departments need to lift their game. Whilst they might be bestowed with the title of haute horlogerie, they still have to sell timepieces in a competitive marketplace.

What surprises me is that Cartier has dropped behind Patek Philippe as this brand was sitting equal or slightly above Omega in sales in previous years. Cartier branded stores sell luxury items to a high-end and loyal customer base. Longines is a solid mid-tier brand that sells well for the Swatch Group and is well marketed.

TAG Heuer sits well back at 3.9% with LVMH group brand Hublot with 2.5% market share and stablemate Zenith with not enough market share to register. Entry-level Swatch Group brand Tissot holds a surprising 4.1 market share, one would expect an entry- level brand to hold a more dominant position.

The auxiliary power unit

The auxiliary power unit (APU) on a commercial airliner is mounted in the tail at the rear of the aircraft, this turbines runs when the aircraft is on the ground.

The purpose of the APU is to provide power for the aircraft running electrical systems and most importantly for passengers - the air conditioning system. This was made very clear to me on a series of flights when the APU had failed, sitting in the aircraft sweating away certainly made us aware of this.

I was always aware of the APU but become more interested in its role after this problem. I had questions such as is the unit shut down during flight. What is the size of the unit? What power source is used to crank the turbine to start.

I am aware a start cart is sometimes used to crank the turbines with the power generated by the running turbine to crank the rest of the turbines. The running APU has enough power to crank the turbines without the need of a start cart so I was guessing heavy duty cabling runs from the APU to the turbines.

From some research, I have found out the APU is small enough to be started via electrical means with the APU then providing a pneumatic start using an air bleed from the running APU to fire up the turbines. All in all, it is a fairly effective and cost efficient method to crank commercial jet airline turbines.

The flogs I was forced to work with

I never knew his first name, he was known at work as Ando, I don't know who named him whether it was himself or someone else but I suspect it was him. I worked with a whole bunch of ex-army guys so he was just another one of the flogs I had to deal with on a daily basis in a toxic work environment. 

Ando was a wanker, he caused a whole host of problems at work, a former army mechanic who would never stop talking about guns in the staff room. We were employed at a government college teaching trade based skills.

There were complaints from students with him talking about guns in class and acting in a threatening manner. About the same time he was there a number of racial complaints were made, none before he was ever employed and none after he left.

He also threatened staff members, I helped him as a new starter but there wasn't much point as he already knew everything according to his self-promoted views. So it was no surprise to anyone when he was found guilty of attempted murder by trying to shoot a guy.

Pulling out one of his guns and chasing a motorist whilst hanging his gun out the window firing indiscriminately at the on the Eyre Highway in South Australia in July 2013 will certainly get you locked up. His .357 magnum named precious put holes in the fuel tank of the motorist, so he couldn't argue he wasn't aiming at the motorist.

Indigent to the end, everyone are fools, the motorist whom he described as a creep, the police, the magistrate are apparently all idiots. He thought this would all blow over and he would come back to work, our management were unwilling to fire him so should he got off on a technicality could have well done so.

He received 14 years imprisonment for attempted murder so we won't need to worry about him coming back for a few years yet. I am out of there too, sick of dealing with the flogs that we had to endure, I have a new lease on life back dealing with high performing teams and individuals.  

A share investor instead of a share trader

Well, I am not a share trader anymore but I am a share investor; sure, I might gather better results as a trader and not an investor but I cannot complain. My returns, whilst modest beat inflation on a regular basis.

So, where does that leave me? Well, whenever I generate excess savings, I divert them to the sharemarket for investment purposes. Have I made mistakes? Well, yes, who hasn't? Have I learnt lessons? Yes - plenty of those.

I did previously engage in margin lending and trading, these days I am somewhat more conservative although I do direct funds towards growth shares. I just don't step in and out of trades anymore, now I engage in a longer-term viewpoint.

What I am now doing is purchasing an income stream, I grow my investment through dividends. Every investment-level share I now purchase must offer not only a dividend, it needs to allow dividend reinvestment where I receive automatic shares.

So now I don’t need to go to the market to purchase shares saving transaction fees and steadily increasing my holdings compounding my returns. Whilst a long-term view needs to be observed, I am happy with this strategy and can always trade again in the future.

Ok Boomer

In what was supposed to be the ultimate millennial putdown, the Ok Boomer comeback lacks original thought, is inarticulate and devoid of composure or wit.

What really makes me laugh is the millennial generation use the Ok Boomer catchphrase without even putting much thought into a response. This may come as a shock to some millennials, not everyone who is older than them is a baby boomer - this may come as a surprise for some.

The baby boomer generation was born between the years of 1946 to 1964, before them were the veterans - described as the greatest generation. As a generation, they lived through a depression and fought in a world war and then rebuilt the ruins.

Then there is Generation X who were born in the mid 60s through to the late 70s who received none of the benefits of the boomer generation yet never complained. They grew up in the cold war era, stagflation and aids epidemic generally missing on the free love of the 60s.

So if you are going to try and portray yourself as a smart and witty individual with a stunning yet simple comeback, how about coming up with some original material and humour me. We would love to see some actual application of dry and cutting wit delivered with comedic timing.

Instead, all I see is a person unable to respond in any way, shape or form to any situation and having to rely in a robotic manner. It looks like that is all they have, they seem to lack the ability to think and respond constructively.

The Frederique Constant Horological Smartwatch

A Sunday afternoon in Manila saw a trip out from Ortigas to the Mall of Asia in the Manila Bay area. Wandering around the mall, we came across a dedicated Frederique Constant retail store so I marched straight in to enquire about their Horological Smartwatch.

I wanted a hand's on experience on how this smartwatch fared against the TAG Heuer Connected smartwatch. I like TAG Heuer as a brand and have made a number of enquiries regarding their Connected smartwatch so I wanted a look at what Frederique Constant had on offer.

The first thing you notice is the style, the Frederique Constant is an elegant timepiece and a genuine quartz watch complete with a standard watch face. I must admit I prefer mechanical timepieces but in this instances the quartz movement makes sense.

The TAG Heuer Connected smartwatch is larger with a superimposed watch face screen on a digital display - not to my taste. My taste is the more elegant but less functional Horological Smartwatch over the Connected smartwatch.

As a comparison, the Frederique Constant is connected via bluetooth to a smartphone but I was having difficulty downloading the app so I wasn't able to fully appreciate the functions of the smartwatch.

So I went online to find what I could actually upload from the smartwatch and found it is pretty limited. This is an early version and I believe the idea is sound, this is a watch connected to a smartphone and not just a pure smartwatch.

Functions such as sleep patterns, heart-rate and step-o-meter are fairly limited for a smartwatch. So as much as I like the standard quartz watch design, the integrated printed circuit unfortunately has limited functionality.

I think I'm not going to recommend the Frederique Constant smartwatch to any of my friends as the style of the watch is good but the functionality is lacking compared to a genuine smart watch.

What we may find out is future models may well indeed include enhanced options so I hope Frederique Constant sticks with this concept and builds on the existing architecture. This platform has plenty of upside - the concept is good.

I would rather recommend a cheaper mechanical watch and a dedicated smartwatch for connectivity. I would tend to think this is the probable future of the quartz/smartwatch and as functionally improves will become more popular.