Do current dive instructor courses offer too narrow a focus? Naturally, the core skills of a dive instructor must reflect their role of dive course instruction, yet an instructor must work in a dive centre or dive resort as very few dive instructors work independently. Do professional level courses need a greater retail sales and retail management focus?

The focus of the dive centre is equipment sales, supplemented by dive trips, starting with day trips and then onto moving to dive travel. Yes, dive courses need to make money but dive courses produce the divers to purchase equipment and dive experiences. Some dive centres have been known to just break even to produce the divers to purchase equipment from their retail facilities.

Dive centres frequently offer cheap air fills just to get certified divers through the door. Alternately, the focus of the dive resort is day trips, supplemented by dive courses and some minor equipment sales. Regardless, the dive instructor must on-sell dive courses, dive equipment and dive experiences or there is no business – there had better be retail training otherwise customers walk straight out the door and to your competitors.

I knew the song all the way back from 1985 as a sixteen year old, but I did not listen to it with the same purpose as I do now. So in 2026 when I listen to this protest song, its message isn’t lost on me. The message has actually strengthened, not softened. Yes, Paul Weller was ahead of his time, fourty odd years later, the words are even more poignant. Co-founder Mick Talbot of Dexy’s Midnight Runners fame, and later The Bureau is on keyboards.

The music video for The Style Council’s Walls Come Tumbling Down was filmed in Warsaw, Poland, specifically at the Akwarium jazz club. The band recorded the video there on March 11, 1985. With YouTube, I can actually watch the video at my leisure now. I never had the video on demand as a young punk, so I could never view on demand. Now, I can study the video [and the song] and relate the film clip to Warsaw in the mid 80s. Whilst the jazz club is long gone, the rest of the architecture is pretty similar to my brief time in Warsaw in 2018.

The beautiful DC Lee singing harmonies on the track is what makes it stand out for me. Whilst her dance moves are pretty bad, when a girl looked as good as her back then, the dancing is not what you look at. The mood in the club was subdued, I expect the crowd had no idea who The Style Council was, just some strange UK band that floated in. My guess is they did not know who Paul Weller was, just some young skinny punk with a dodgy haircut. The scenes outside the club around Warsaw are very interesting, the trams still operate and The Palace of Culture and Science dominates the skyline, a Stalin era building.

Donald Trump is a president who never seems to be out of the headlines, normally for all the wrong reasons. Trump has diminished the US presidency, this will take multiple terms of new presidents to return the prestige of the US President to world leadership status. Donald Trump in his wisdom has halted the annual military exercises with only half the exercise complete.

For his latest fiasco, Trump has infuriated longtime friend of the United States, South Korea. There are numerous US bases in South Korea, this is an important strategic partner in Asia. Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, close to Seoul is the South Korean headquarters. This is designated the United States Forces Korea [USFK] and largest overseas US base with over 41,000 personnel on site. Camp Humphreys hosts Desiderio Army Airfield [K-6]; a busy airfield hosting the 2nd Infantry Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade.

There is the Osan Air Base, the primary base for the 7th Air Force south west of Seoul with F-16 Fighting Falcons of the 51st Fighter Wing and A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft affectionately known as the Warthog. The Osan Air Base also hosts There is also the Kunsan Air Base, further south of the Osan Air Base on the coast hosting the 8th Fighter Wing with F-16 Fighting Falcons. There are also air support operations at the base, so this is a serious installation in South Korea. Then there is Camp Walker and Camp Henry in the south east region providing logistical support.

Trump called the military exercises “inappropriate and hostile” towards North Korea. This is, of course, the same North Korea that is sending weapons and troops to aid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Donald Trump believes he has a special relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un whom Trump will meet with again later this year. Trump has some affection for dictators, his special relationship with Vladimir Putin allows him to be played like a puppet on the world stage. Trump even stated that as South Korea refused to assist the US in its attack on Iran, it is not a true ally of the US. This is another strategic blunder by Trump, not deterred by his failure in Iran, he believes countries such as South Korea should commit themselves to pulling the US out of the quagmire that Trump himself created.

I was checking my social media on a Saturday morning when a Euromaidan News flashed up, the video was of a Ukrainian Mig-29 fighter taking out a Russian Shahed drone without firing a shot. This was a risky move that created the turbulence to disrupt the flight of the drone causing the drone to spiral out of control and crash in a field. It was a high-risk maneuver, but ultimately a successful move that brought the drone down.

In what could be argued was a second world war tactic, Flight Officer Kenneth Collier of No. 91 Squadron RAF was the pilot who used his wingtip after exhausting his ammunition in his Spitfire, successfully tipping a V-1 into a nosedive in June 1944. Collier was on patrol and intercepted the V-1 crossing the coast into England. He raised the speed of his Mark-14 Spitfire to the speed of the V-1 rocket to destabalise the gyroscopic mechanism in the V-1 rocket, sending the rocket crashing toward the ground.

This is a difficult position for the federal government, we have the Islamic women who voluntarily left Australia to move to the calipate in Syria when ISIS was in control of the region. If these women are so fundamentally hard-line that they would willingly move to a war zone to live the ISIS life, then they have no business returning to Australia when the ISIS caliphate collapses.

However, this is where the situation becomes difficult, if they are Australian citizens then Australia has an obligation to return them. Naturally, these women are a security risk to the nation, they have been radicalised. So the government has an issue, they hold a fundamental obligation to Australian citizens, even ones who engage in terrorism or terrorist ideals. What we as a nation are not allowed to do is leave a person stateless, this is an international agreement between nations. This is controlled by the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, therefore, governments cannot revoke a person’s nationality if doing so leaves them without a country.

So after years of stalling, the women are being returned from Syrian refugee camps to Australia. What a performance this is, the return of the women through Melbourne airport flanked by supporters is almost obscene. The behaviour of the ISIS brides reflects not only poorly on the supporters, but the Islamic community in general. This is the same group of people marching in the streets for the anti-Israel protests. This pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel cohort group openly support designated terrorism groups. With foreign interference occurring in Australia funded by terrorism groups, this is a national security concern.

So what is the Ukrainian leadership trying to do? We know they are targeting the Russian version of Amazon, there have been warehouses burning across the country, we have seen the smoke billowing into the air. This is something Putin and his Kremlin cronies cannot hide from the Russian population in Moscow and St Petersburg, the drone attacks are very visual, the Kremlin is in a degree of crisis now, this is evident.

The business concept is interesting, Tatyama Kim started the business in her apartment whilst on maternity leave in 2004. She was unable to buy clothes for herself when staying at home looking after her newborn. So, with her IT technician husband, they built the platform for the Russian eCommerce site. This was the largest taxpayer in Russia in 2022 prior to international sanctions, there is also the warehouse capacity loss that will affect that apparently the Russian military utilised.

The argument is Wildberries is supplying military gear to Russian soldiers on the frontline, there is probably some truth in that. There is body armour, tactical clothing, navigational equipment and drones being moved on this site. But the real reason is the Russian entrepreneurs who are being bankrupted, this is bringing the war home to ordinary Russians who have their entire business inventories tied up in Wildberries warehouses, they take the entire liability on here. Wildberry had a recent clause written into contracts where they would not be liable for force majeure that included drone strikes.

There is some discussion that Wildberries is the most indebted company in Russia, if the Ukrainians bring down this company they will bring down the Russian banks financing this company to create a domino effect in Russia. VTB Bank and Sberbank are most exposed with an estimated $10 billion to $14 billion debt. There are reports that Russians are withdrawing their funds from banks across Russia over fears the government will seize their money to fund the Ukraine war.

An estimated 80 to 100 million Russians are affected with $57 billion of goods traded on the platform, about 3% of Russian GDP. We are looking at mass bankruptcies in Russia with between 500,000 to 800,000 small and mid-sized sellers operating through the Wildberries platform. These entrepreneurs have had their entire inventories wiped out, this will have a knock on effect from the gig economy from drivers to warehouse staff, everyone is hurting now.

I find the Tissot Visodate an excellent vintage example of revisiting a classic watch style. The Visodate has an excellent vertical brushed dial, The text on the dial is minimal, this is well done and the use of the old Tissot logo is a nice touch, Tissot has a pretty decent catalog of vintage timepieces to draw upon.

The Visodate is a 1970s vintage inspired timepiece that was upgraded with sapphire crystal and ETA 2836-2 automatic movement. Whilst the latest versions feature the Powermatic 80, I like the ETA powered version better. There has been online discussion that the Powermatic 80 is difficult to regulate with watchmakers not all that happy to repair the movement. The base ETA movement works wonders, the styling is brilliant 70s, this is a popular style reinvention, I am glad my father is wearing one around. The case and dial aresimple yet elegant, the day/date function does not overpower the dial and the small index markers do not clutter the dial with the cathedral hands.

The H-50 is an interesting movement for me. I wanted a Hamilton, a field watch and a hand-wound movement, so the Hamilton Field Mechanical was an easy choice for me. I also wanted a NATO strap for a watch and the Field Mechanical came with a NATO strap so the choice was easy.

The H-50 is an ETA C07.701, I am trying to work out if there are any differences between a standard ETA movement and the Hamilton version. As Hamilton is a Swatch Group brand, ETA is a movement manufacturer within the Swatch Group, so it is an in-house movement [of sorts]. When I purchased my Hamilton Field Mechanical, a very large factor in the purchase was the hand-wound movement.

The H-50 runs at 21,600 vph [3 Hz] and has an 80 hour power reserve and has 17 jewels. I really like the no-date version, clean dial and I can never read the date anyway. The H-50 is a workhorse type movement, not fancy by any measure, there is no finishing as this is a) a field watch and b) there is no display caseback. The advantage of a hand-wound movement is a thinner movement than a similar sized [diameter] automatic movement, this offers designers a thinner case.

So I needed to look deeper into the ETA C07.701, this is built on the framework of the ETA 2801-2, this base ETA movement had a frequency of 28,800 vph [4 Hz] and a power reserve of 42 hours. This is a hand-would three hand movement with no date, one could argue a date is important in a military watch, one could be on patrol for a number of days [or weeks], so tracking dates could be important.

After sailing at Royal Perth Yacht Club for many years, I finally decided to become a member, I had been using their facilities pretty much free of charge and I felt a little uneasy about this. As I am not a boat owner, getting full membership was a little silly, so becoming a crew member was a great option for me so I can use the club faciities without paying pen fees.

However, full membership was somewhat difficult to obtain and prohibitively expensive, this is pretty much a rich man’s club – I just have a love of sailing. The club, located in Matilda Bay has perfect views of Perth city, after a day’s sailing, heading up to the clubhouse for a couple of drinks. We sit up the club and have magnificant views of Matilda Bay, King’s Park and the city.

The grassed area in front of the club offers wonderful opportunities for parties and barbecues, the mid-week functions are legendary after twilight races. There have been some pretty decent functions that I have been lucky enough to attend, they hold many private functions too, so the club is utilised during the week, not just weekends.

Viewing the pens from night, this is very much a boat owner’s club, but I always ask, who gets the greater joy from yachting and boating, the owner or the crew? I reckon the crews racing these yachts have a pretty good time, they really get the fun out of boating.

The famous scene during Australia II’s 1983 America’s Cup win over Dennis Conner’s Liberty, Prime Minister Bob Hawke enjoy the atmosphere stating “Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum” to the raucous roar of the crowd.

I loved hanging out at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, it was a decent way to spend an afternoon, depending on the location, I could spend hours here. I had all my tools with me when I was visiting the Philippines, I would bring my laptop computer and tablet with me alomg with my textbooks and printed materials for writing up my assignments.

For members there was a membership card, this would give you the internet connection along with some other benefits that I never bothered with. For me, the internet access was fine where I could set up my laptop computer, flick through textbooks, browse through printed material in the form of academic reading and start writing assignments and case studies.

Then there was the double espresso, this was my favourite, a good strong espresso in a proper espresso cup. Sure there were extras such as cake or eggs benedict, that would take me away from what I had to do so that wasn’t a great option for me. Working online at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was a pretty decent way for me to get my work done and it is always a good time.