For a country known for its whiskey, Hendrick’s Gin certainly got it together as an alternative to the Scotch whiskey normally produced in Scotland. That being said, distillers William Grant & Sons are known the world over for Glenfiddich, Grant’s, Tullamore Dew and Drambuie; so gin is an unusual addition to their range.

I rarely drink a martini anymore but a gin and tonic is my choice of a refreshing drink on a hot summer day. According to Leslie Gracie, Henrick’s Gin Master Distiller, Henrick’s is best served with tonic water over ice with a cucumber garnish instead of the more traditional lime or lemon slice. Gin is flavoured with juniper berry as the main ingredient; Henrick’s Gin is additionally flavoured with rose petals and cucumber infusions to add a distinctive flavour. I also read that Henrick’s utilises a marriage of two spirits produced from a Carter-Head and Bennet still to create a smooth gin balancing subtle flavours.

There is nothing subtle about the Oris Aquis Date, this is a large chunk of watch and exactly what I am looking for; so for this purpose – I want overstated. I am somewhat of a watch collector and although I currently don’t have a Patek Philippe, Audermars Piquet, a Vacheron Constantin or a Rolex in my collection – I am happy with my timepiece collection.

I don’t have a watch with a display case-back showcasing the intricacies of the mechanical movement. The Aquis is fitted with the Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement. Oris has stated that they have never produced a quartz watch and never will – a bold statement. The 2016 is constructed with the chunky bracelet whilst the 2017 model is described as more elegant shaving the bracelet thickness significantly.

The bracelet connection to the case is somewhat unusual as compared to standard dive watches adding to the uniqueness of the Aquis. The weight of the timepiece doesn’t match the bulk and I am left wondering about the grade of stainless steel used, still, it doesn’t appear soft. So I will more than likely add a Oris timepiece to the collection if I can secure a decent deal. Searching for the Oris on dive trips in the Philippines, I noticed that the Oris brand is significantly discounted as compared to Australian prices.

This is unusual as prices for both mid-range and high end timepieces such as Rolex, Omega, TAG Heuer, Breitling, Blancpain, Breguet, Tudor, Tissot, IWC, Longines, Bremont and Patek Philippe being significantly higher in the Philippines. I put this phenomenon down to the rich in the Philippines being readily willing to flaunt their wealth and willing to pay the going price whereas the average Australian prestige watch buyer is more price conscious.

This doesn’t explain the discounting of the Oris range, they are a quality watchmaker so I\’m guessing the range just doesn’t sell in the Philippines with numerous distributors willing to immediately drop 30% of the retail price. With a 42 mm case and very heavy-set bracelet, possibility this watch is too big for the average Asian wrist.

This is somewhat contrary to my view, I was sitting at a restaurant and spotted an Oris on the wrist of a diner and he was local Filipino. I thought I might go for the large dive watch look, I have been a diver for 25+ years and had previously selected understated timepieces – time for a change. It won’t be a desk diver, this will be spending time underwater throughout the upcoming summer.

If you push the distributor, they are willing to discount even further although sales staff must receive permission from the store manager to engage in further discounting. What I do see is authorised distributors in a dedicated Omega, a dedicated Longines, a dedicated Rolex or dedicated IWC store.

I am yet to see a dedicated Oris store in the Philippines so the general branded watch stores may be seeking to dump a line that sits in their showcases occupying space and tying up capital. It appears this timepiece is carried by more independent Philippine watch retailers with the larger retailers less interested in carrying Oris.

Knocking the top off a 2010 Vasse Felix cabernet sauvignon, I knew I was in for a good evening. The Vasse Felix cabernet sauvignon has legs, so a 2010 is an aged wine that has softened out somewhat and has plenty left, a further six to eight years is reasonable although the tasting notes listed up to 2021. Winemaker Virginia Willcock has certainly developed a reputation for quality, this an excellent example of Vasse Felix Margaret River winemaking.

As the opaque dark crimson wine flowed from the bottle into my glass, I viewed the dark red hue against my counter top, to my way of thinking, a good cab sav is dark but due to aging the hue is slightly brown at the edge. The bouquet exhibited complex aromas of blackcurrant, bay leaf and some hints of tobacco; the palette is described as medium bodied but I tend to think this 2010 is more full bodied.

Looking at the tasting notes, the 2010 is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Malbec, 1.5% Petit Verdot with just 0.5% Cabernet Franc to round out the blend. The 18 month maturation took place in French oak with 51% new barriques and the other 49% in a mix of one to four year old barriques. I tend to buy in bulk directly from the winemaker and have to check exactly how much of the 2010 I have left as I will take some down to the holiday house to share with the family at Easter.

On a pre-Christmas holiday flight from Perth to Denpasar, a flight I always dread owing to the clientele this flight attracts, I was once again left dismayed. Poking through my armrest and into my seat area was the bare foot and painted toenails of the person behind me.

Unbelievable, do people have no boundaries? Firstly, this is an armrest on my seat, the foot rest resides at the lower section of the seat in their space. So rubbing against my elbow was the foot of a thoroughly disgusting individual, needless to say I jammed my elbow back yet they refused to withdraw their foot. I tried to jam a book in there to form a barrier but it wouldn’t stay there.

I couldn’t raise the armrest as it was fixed and they didn’t get the hint. I couldn’t recline the seat either or I would have considered thrusting that back in a forceful manner so they jam their legs in the space and hopefully learn their lesson. Maybe I might take my shoes off and sit them on their armrest, so this how air rage starts?

Even with my headphones on I was unable to drown out their accent of their German language they decided to project across the cabin at maximum volume. Not that I have anything against Germans – just keep the decibels to normal speaking volume – this is how backpackers get a terrible reputation. These budget flights space their seats in a very close proximity so they are able to squeeze more passengers in so space is at a premium.

I am ok with this, I like cheap flights to a holiday destination as much as anyone and understand a critical mass of people reduces costs for everybody – great stuff. However, this isn’t a license to act in an anti-social manner, show some respect for other people in the cabin you self-centred arseholes. We have to deal with you as well, we want to go on holiday too, yet we still have to deal with you fools.

Globalisation is heralded as a new concept and chided as the destroyer of jobs and livelihoods in developed higher cost nations. Are high standards of living being eroded in developed nations through high costs and benefits?

Nothing is further from the truth as trading has been around since ancient time with the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Phoenicians as every nation must remain competitive in international markets. It wasn’t just the Mediterranean seafaring nations engaging in international trade, further east the central Asian nations were pretty adept at trade as well.

The Silk Road was an ancient network of trading pathways and communication channels linking the countries of Eurasia to not only merchandise and commodities but ideas, knowledge, values and beliefs. The Silk Road was not just limited to overland passage but also included maritime routes through a network of ports and coastal villages.

The overland thoroughfares linked the Greco-Roman civilisations to the far east with passages traversing the deserts of Syria through Iraq, Iran and Mongolia to China. This wasn’t a single route but a network of paths and roads purely linking China to Europe as India, Indonesia and the gulf countries were also connected by sea and land routes.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced in 2013 an ambitious plan to build a new Silk Road known as the Belt and Road Initiative requiring the largest infrastructure programs the world has seen. An expected trillion dollar budget with Beijing announcing up to 8 trillion dollars will be lend to participating nations.

So, who stands to benefit from the New Silk Road? Naturally China, their manufacturing base has an over capacity and seeks not only new markets but higher value industrial goods. The Chinese manufacturing sector was pretty much the creation of western nations seeking to outsource their manufacturing to low cost centres, this was a mistake.

Chinese engineering and transportation is poised to benefit with construction and heavy equipment required during not only the construction phase but also ongoing maintenance. Nations that may have been seeking to move into cheaper low-cost manufacturing had been looking to undermine current low-cost Chinese manufacturing will undoubtedly be suspicious.

Some nations have expressed concern that this is domestic Chinese policy with geopolitical consequences. It is argued that whilst some countries are moving to a more self-centric policy withdrawing from international affairs. The Chinese government is seeking to build bridges and not walls. So who else benefits? The China Development Bank has set aside funds for infrastructure projects including gas pipelines, roads, bridges, ports and rail. A number of poorer underdeveloped nations appear to be the biggest beneficiaries although the terms of capital input.

There appears to be plenty of concerns with claims of a lack of transparency, negligible contract arrangements, high debt burdens and possible inabilities to repay loans. The question then arises, who takes control of the assets in these countries with poorer nations possibly losing sovereignty? It is fairly clear that China is the main beneficiary here, they appear to be buying votes at the United Nations.

There are claims of neo-colonialism and the expanding military presence seeking to economically marginalise the United States whilst expanding Chinese cultural influence. Whilst China has assured nations their intentions are pure, are richer developed nations concerns driven by paranoia or fear of marginalisation?

With all due respect to wildlife photographer Brent Stirton, this is his award winning photograph of a de-horned black rhino in the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Reserve.

I understand the poor communities of not just South Africa but the whole continent of Africa hold a short-term view of the majestic wildlife inhabiting this planet. The more animals we kill, the rarer they become and the demand for their ivory, horns or other body parts becomes more lucrative. The black rhino is critically endangered, pretty much solely due to the illegal black rhino horn trade.

This black market trade needs to be eradicated to prevent this disgraceful and wasteful environmental crime. There are guards but apparently the poachers entered the park under the cover of darkness using silenced rifles and shot the animal hacking off it’s horn before the patrol discovered the crime. According to the photographer, this was one of more than thirty slain whilst covering the story – this is an absolute blight on humankind.

I find it distasteful, we have entitled young millennials from rich western countries who are begging on the streets of South East Asia expecting others to pay for their life experiences. These flogs set up GoFundMe pages so supposed rich idiots can pay for their alcohol abuse, drug taking and general laziness. That’s why I pay taxes, so I, as part of the working community can pay for their lifestyle and support their petty indulgences, I find it pretty annoying.

Clearly these self-indulgence arseholes expect either other tourists to pay for their university gap years or fund their frivolous lives or alternately they expect the residents of these impoverished countries they visit to kick in for their travel. These are the same inhabitants living in poverty attempting to scratch out a living where no or limited social security or safety nets exist.

They can utilise their expensive smartphone to take pictures to sell as postcards or maybe play their musical instruments and expensive sound equipment to entertain crowds. I have no issue with backpackers who work hard to save funds to travel the region. I have backpacked myself and understand the requirements of juggling a career, paying the bills before I go, paying the bills at home while I am away as I still run a household and pay my tax.

Maybe these loafers need to gain a little perspective and not expect everyone to pay their way and learn to look after themselves. The upside is maybe they move out of their parents house so they reduce the burden on them so they can plan their own retirement and travel. Just don’t expect other people to pay for their travels and especially don’t beg from poor people struggling to feed their families.

Soon Qantas will begin direct flights between Perth and London and everyone seems excited; me less so, but I appear to be in the minority. The original Australia to London trip back in 1935 took 12 days departing from Brisbane, this included 31 stops along the way.  The kangaroo route kicked off in 1947 taking only 4 days with stops in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo and Tripoli; an improvement but remaining a somewhat arduous journey.

Still, a 17 hour flight is going to hurt no matter how you look at it. However, this new service has plenty of support with upgrades to Perth Domestic Terminal nearing completion allowing inbound domestic flights to link with international flights. This has required immigration facilities to be built at the domestic terminal with multiple internal terminals to operate from Perth Airport and one suspects upgraded duty free shopping and restaurant/bar facilities.

Qantas dropped the kangaroo route in 2013 due to financial difficulty instead allowing Emirates A380 to carry it’s passengers from Sydney to Dubai with Qantas picking up the Dubai to London route. After regaining a healthy profit and loss statement, Qantas recommenced the kangaroo route delivering record profits before announcing the new direct service from Perth to London with the new reconfigured Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.

Perth can never be an international hub like Singapore, Hong Kong or Dubai based upon it’s location at pretty much the end of the world. However, what Perth can become is a domestic Australian hub to launch services to Africa, Europe, the Middle East and central Asia along with the standard destinations of South-East Asia. Then there is the standard domestic travel within the state driven by the resources industry for both the mining and oil/gas sectors including exploration and production.

This is an exciting time to travel from Perth, our once sub-standard facilities are much improved with new terminals, a rail link currently under construction and dramatically increased services all driven by demand. Flights are becoming cheaper, routes extended, increased frequency and better infrastructure will hopefully also attract a greater share of inbound tourists.

I got to use some of the public transport whilst in Adelaide including some buses and the tram. Unfortunately I missed using the heavy rail as the line was out where I needed to travel for long term maintenance. Fortunately, I found the tram to be an excellent service that is a really cost efficient mode of travel, this was really a great service.

Adelaide only has a single tram line running from the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, through the CBD, that’s the central business district or downtown to Americans to the beachside suburb of Glenelg. This is simple tram line, one can’t really call it a network but it is highly effective and I was pretty impressed with its patronage. If you stay within the confines of the CBD then travel is free, you can’t get any more cost effective than that. I would hope in the future they would look into an east/west service to complement the excellent north/south service running now.

2017 saw the release of a new Hugo Boss fragrance named Tonic. This eau de toilette is a fresh daytime edition to their range of quality cologne. According to their advertising, this fragrance is intended for ‘modern men who aspire for success’ – I kid you not. I am sure advertising is a tricky business but I have to wonder when advertising borders on comedy.

So, I found the eau de toilette a little lackluster insofar as the concentration of an eau de toilette is much weaker than an eau de parfum but still apparently stronger than an eau de cologne. As such, an eau de toilette doesn’t last the day and has to be reapplied but I won’t be doing that but it a light fragrance that’s not too over-powering.

Described as fresh but not too intense, containing citrus notes of grapefruit, lemon, apple and bitter orange over-layed with ginger and cinnamon. This offering has a woody base and considered earthy, dry and elegant. The bottle is light blue and coming from Hugo Boss is undoubtedly reasonably expensive. The question that needs to be asked though, is Tonic worthwhile? My answer is yes, this is worth the outlay.