I was somewhat interested in the Rolex Yacht-Master II, not as a timepiece for myself but more as an example of quality engineering linked to one of my favourite pastimes – racing yachts. So during my research of this masterful timepiece, I took a peek at the price and nearly collapsed. The Rolex website lists the Oyster 44 mm steel and Everose gold Yacht-Master II at $31,950 AUD – whoa.

Whilst I never held any ambitions of owning a new Yacht-Master II, during an internet search I was able to find the cheaper all steel model at the bargain price of $23,650 AUD with the yellow gold model pushing what I thought was the upper limits at $55,250 AUD. Well, that was until I viewed the white gold and platinum model at an outrageous price of $61,050 AUD and I really started to feel giddy. Nonetheless, I see the Yacht-Master II as a stunning example of the Rolex brand and even if I owned one I would never wear it on the boat as too many opportunities for it to be snatched from my wrist by getting tangled in a sheet only to lose it overboard.

It is hard to believe a flu season exists, but that is exactly what it is the flu season? The flu vaccine is a common preventative measure in Australia with a vaccine formulated annually before the beginning of the flu season. Although for many, the flu vaccine didn’t work this year eroding confidence in the vaccine, now I have to decide if I will trial the vaccine next flu season for at least some protection.

The H3N2 strain has hit harder this year than other years, the flu vaccine apparently mutated faster than anticipated rendering the vaccine useless for many people. For the first time in over a decade, possibly fifteen years I had a dose of the flu and it really sat me on my arse. They say you quickly work out the difference between a cold and the flu, I certainly had a decent case of influenza. Even worse, I caught mine just before I went on two weeks leave overseas and it really destroyed my holiday, I had a couple of days struggling to get out of bed, I couldn’t dive and going out to dinner and drinks was pretty much off the cards. I can’t complain though, plenty of people died this year and I just had a slight inconvenience.

Yes, I have had colds in that period but I quickly increase my echinacea dosage and burn it off in a day or two. So what happened? I reduced my vitamin C dosage after suffering kidney issues from what we think was an over indulgence in the vitamin. My resistance was lowered and I was exposed to a colleague coughing profusely in the workplace without covering up. He refused to take any time off saving his sick days instead wiping out over half the office so the lost time was excessive costing the business unit excessive sick leave payments. Like most other employers, every year we lose staff to sickness during the flu season, all thanks to one selfish person.

As an MBA candidate, research skills are high on the learning agenda; likewise, critical thinking, deductive reasoning and self-reflection are key acclimatisation skills for successful candidates to possess.

Leadership is difficult to apply in an online learning format; whilst the theory may be learnt by reading reference books, it is not an ideal learning environment. Likewise, writing assignments and active participation in case studies allows practical application to be considered less haphazard to embed than pure book learning.

Aside from leadership, pretty much all of the skill-sets are eLearning compatible within a learning management system. These analytical skills are reproduced in the workplace allowing core business concepts to applied in a actual business environment. Even team-work is achieved in remote form, the academic staff determine teams from different areas and time zones so candidates must work in virtual teams adapting technology to achieve outcomes.

A key MBA skill is to identify an issue utilising contemporary diagnostic frameworks, apply analytical concepts to determine a course of action, implement a range of solutions and monitor results. After two and a half years of part-time tuition; I found it relatively simple to identify a series of abuses of position, a complete lack of academic leadership, coercion, threats, fraudulent financial reporting and the corrupt promotion of staff willing to engage in activities to support the ringleader.

The critical thinking, deductive reasoning and self-reflection skills I learnt during my course certainly assisted in the identification of the corruptive forces acting against the strategic business unit. A plan needed to be devised to fight the corrupt forces, their strategy was to sideline me, derive me of information and undermine my influence. So the first step is to inform upper management to gain their support so as to address this issue internally.

The other option would be to try and cover it up – this was unfortunately their selection. What was needed was more than reporting of corrupt dealings, a series of solutions including an implementation plan and monitoring. Should the second option be pursued then the Corruption and Crime Commission, Public Sector Commission, Auditor General, Training Accreditation Council, Department of Training and Workforce Development, Governing Council, Australian Quality Standards Authority.

Even the Minister may need to be informed if instead of internally rectifying this problem isn’t addressed. If there is no acceptance that an issue exists by senior management then an external team may need to be brought in to clean this mess up. I am offering them solutions, I hope they finally make a smart decision and get serious about combating corruption. The issue of corruption in the public sector is a pressing issue that must not be taken lightly, not when public funds are at stake.

As I battle the forces within the strategic business unit where I am employed; the parasites are taking credit for my work to intentionally undermine my leadership. I ask myself, instead of defending myself, why not go on the offensive and force these very people who believe they are untouchable to defend their actions? I need to put the stress back on them and see how they react.

I didn’t start this action but I certainly have the tenacity to not give up, to not let this group of people to run over the top of me and take advantage of my work. So if I have to act offensively, I have to be ruthless and I can’t be too concerned how these actions will affect this group or their careers – they started it. Let’s face it, they have attempted to sink my career to advance their personal career prospects. So wouldn’t it be ironic if by acting offensively to secure my position, I damaged their career prospects. Now that would be a new take on the rule of unintended consequences.

This is the famous Kuta Beach after some stormy weather; this is not the image the Indonesian authorities would like to be released to the world – you can’t really blame them for that.

It is clear it wasn’t worth getting in the water, yet plenty of people are more than happy to swim in this ecological disaster – I have no idea why.

Walking on the beach is hazardous, the number of syringes I saw washed up in the rubbish is appalling, large numbers of drug addicts randomly discarding their needles on the beach is a bio-hazard, this issue needs to be addressed.

Surfing through the rubbish, I ask myself – why would you come here and surf in the rubbish dump? The fact that Kuta Beach is a top surfing destination is still a mystery to me, yet people arrive daily in their droves.

I can’t say I have traveled the whole world just yet, I haven’t even seen all of Australia although I have seen plenty of the West coast and central inland centres through my employment. I have been lucky enough to explore most but not all of Western Europe and some of Eastern Europe. Likewise, I have spent some time in some Middle Eastern countries with so much more to explore.

Although I have made many trips to South East Asia, I still haven’t explored all of the countries in this diverse region. I have seen some of North East Asia but I know there is so much more to explore, these are future trips I am looking forward to undertaking. I have still to venture to the Central Asian sub-continent countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Africa is large continent with so many countries to visit, yet I have only seen a couple and I have never even set foot in Central and South America but I have seen parts of the North American countries of the United States and Canada.

What I have noticed traveling through developed and developing nations is the attitude to waste management, recycling and the care for the environment. There is a distinct trend where developed nations adapt excellent waste management programs to efficiently dispose of consumer and business waste.

Developing nations, aka the third world choose to not collect rubbish and residents just throw their rubbish on the ground or into rivers where it is swept away and is no longer their problem. The prevalence of developing nations to rely on plastic plastic packaging is immense coupled with poor waste disposal practices of developing nations means this becomes all of our problem.

Unfortunately, nations and individuals solely focusing on their own actions won’t solve the plastic entering the ocean issue and decisive world leadership is required. This is really the domain of the United Nations with more funding, research and education required to address this worldwide issue that now affects all of us.

It is easy to cast blame on the developing world; the degree of pollution I have personally witnessed in developing nations is unbelievable with the residents not only passively accepting their fate, they actively participate in the destruction of the natural environment. This is the world that we all live in, we are all consumers to a degree and the burden of cleaning up the environmental destruction of the earth by the third world now rests on the leadership of the developed world.

I was all excited, today was going to be a walking tour of old Hong Kong to view all the colonial era architecture – well that was the plan anyway. In short – it rained, then it rained some more and then it poured.

This wasn’t just a light sprinkle, it poured all day and well into the evening; this is where it was decided that this day was going to be spent indoors. Well, what what can you do? I still enjoyed Hong Kong and I didn’t need to worry about sunburn I suppose. The shopping malls along the strip at Hong Kong central were very nice, but I didn’t fly to Hong Kong from Perth to hang out in shopping malls; but that’s exactly what happened – oh well.

It is often argued that the top MBA business schools use their reputations and branding to attract the best candidates to their schools. The Stanford Graduate School of Business has a 6% acceptance rate, Harvard Business School has an 8% acceptance rate while Oxford’s Said Business School not only recruits 95% of candidates outside of the UK, the school has a one in four acceptance rate.

Getting accepted into INSEAD, IMD, IE Business School, ESADE or the London Business School are all outrageously difficult – the better the brand, the harder the school acceptance is. The question is, do the best candidates really benefit from MBA education or is the networking opportunities and school reputations the key to success post graduation? It can be strongly argued that the acceptance rate ensures only the top candidates are offered positions, as they are already high flying individuals with financial means. They are not turning base employees into leaders, they are attracting highly connected individuals to their programs that bolster the business school’s reputation and exclusivity.

I worked an extra shift, I was rostered on, yet I accepted the overtime and made my life really difficult. I was off for a long weekend in Hong Kong with a layover in Singapore – it was definitely worth it.

I stayed back at work and printed out all my readings for my last uni unit, my flight and hotel details and a HK MRT map that included directions to my hotel. Then in my rush to leave work full of joy, I stupidly left all printed material in a neat pile on my desk – arrrgh. So I arrived in Changi Airport at 4:30 am, I was really tired and found a quiet length of carpet for a short sleep, there wasn’t much going on in the airport at that time and most shops were shut.

I had my alarm set for 6 am and got going to an airport also just waking up. Over the years I had spent so much time in Changi Airport so hanging around was an option so by 7:30 am I was on the MRT headed for Chinatown. Lugging my hand luggage, I had already gotten in trouble for being 2kg over weight. I felt the ache in my shoulder; 9kg isn’t that heavy so what was this soreness in my shoulder? I wandered the streets of Chinatown before heading across to Boat Quay and a short walk to Marina Bay.

By 9:00 am the Singapore tropical sun was causing plenty of sweat, I was enjoying watching all the office workers scurrying like mad trying to get to work on time. By the time I was walking past the Merloin. The novelty of late office workers had already worn off, I was covered in sweat and ready for the air conditioned comfort of the Marina Bay Sands shopping complex.

My plan was to have breakfast at TWG Tea, wander around the shops for a while and then catch the MRT back to Changi Airport for a 3:15 boarding. I really enjoy their red berry South African tea and whilst a red curry barramundi is an unusual choice of breakfast – I thoroughly enjoyed it. Catching the morning train ensured the carriages were crowded but I was planning on the afternoon rush to not start too early leaving me plenty of time to get back. For me, this was an ideal way to spend my stopover in Singapore, all I had to do was not miss my flight.

This same sex marriage plebiscite is more than a joke, the yes camp is certainly vocal but they have really overstepped the mark. I am receiving vote yes messages on my mobile phone, there is advertising on television and people are getting outlandish. I hate to judge a person based on his appearance, but he even looks like a fuckwit and his actions would support this impression.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott was campaigning for the no vote down in Tasmania. When walking down the street, a man approached him and held his hand out to give the impression he wanted to shake his hand when he headbutted the former Prime Minister. This pathetic loser who supports the yes campaign pretty much sums up the yes camp. This is the highlight of his life, a coward act against a former Prime Minister, a dirty act needing to assault a person who isn’t looking.

This raises a serious questions, the United States has a whole department to protect the President. The Secret Service is tasked with not only defending the current President, former Presidents also receive a security attachment. Do we need to provide increased security for former Prime Ministers? This loser who is proud of his actions may have provided the impetus for a security overview. He needs to see a serious charge he is required to defend, this is an assault of a public officer and should result in automatic imprisonment.