Whilst Tissot is an entry-level Swiss watch brand, they have some pretty decent products. Whilst I prefer their vintage inspired timepieces, they have some pretty good contemporary designs. I really like the hand wound movement, the lack of a rotor offers an excellent view of the movement, this is the ETA 6498-1 with 17 jewels, a solid mechanical movement.

The Petite Seconde is an excellent example of a 1948 vintage inspired timepiece. I saw some pictures online, so I decided to check out what they had to offer. There is an exhibition caseback to view the hand wound movement. The ETA 6498-1 automatic movement is well finished, I would argue better than standard Tissot automatic movements. My father has a Visodate with the Swatch Group ETA 2824-2, the winding rotor is Tissot but the finish is reasonably standard.

I have an Everytime Swissmatic and the display caseback shows a very low-cost and highly ordinary automatic movement with what am guessing is black plastic bridges. The general finish of the much cheaper Everytime Swissmatic is ordinary at best. The overall finish of the Petite Seconde is much improved, one has to appreciate this vintage timepiece is set at a higher price range and an unfair comparison shouldn’t be made. I am looking for a decent dress watch, very different from the usual dive and tool watch I normally wear.

At home I have a Nespresso machine, it is an easy way to make a reasonable quality coffee without the need to dispose of coffee grounds. My first real coffee machine was a 15 psi DeLonghi manual pump coffee machine, I loved it for 15 years and when it was starting to get a little old I moved it down to our weekend house. So my DeLonghi manual pump coffee machine still gets a run on the weekends I am down the house.

The machine came with some complimentary illy coffee pads, I believe they were pretty common in Europe but a little difficult to source in Australia. I managed to purchase some coffee pads, they were not the right size for the dedicated holder and did not work as well as I expected so I gave away the idea of coffee pads. At the time I was purchasing locally produced Brazilliano coffee and was pretty happy.

We could not source illy coffee in Perth, the David Jones department store imported the coffee but the cost was outrageous so I limited my illy coffee consumption to trips to Europe or South East Asia. Ironic really, it was easy to source in Asia and not in Australia, fortunately, this would not last forever.

First the major supermarkets carried both ground and whole illy beans, this competition halved the cost of illy beans and people started to appreciate the intense flavours. Finally, illy Nespresso pods were released in Australia and this changed my buying habits. No longer did I need to go to a Nespresso shop to purchase their coffee pods, I could just pick up some illy Classico at my local supermarket, pop them in the machine and have quality coffee at home.

I opened my self-managed superannuation fund way back in 1994 after being totally dissatisfied with the high fee, low return privately managed retirement fund environment. Even to close down and transfer my benefit into my self-managed superannuation fund was going to result in a significant fee based on a percentage of my balance. My old style 1980s era superannuation account was set up to benefit the adviser and not me.

I made a bad decision as an eighteen year old but was able to atone for my mistake as a twenty five year old. Not that a self-managed superannuation fund is cheap to administer. It is 2016 and I haven’t yet taken the financial penalty and transfer my existing funds into my self-managed superannuation fund, the market is in a down turn and against all contemporary advice, I am trying to time the market.

I also maintained a private superannuation fund as the fees were too expensive to warrant exiting early, I also had an industry fund as required by my employment conditions supplementing my self-managed superannuation fund. Running a self-managed superannuation fund is not a cheap option, you need a balance exceeding the average industry fund to see any benefit at all. The advantage of the self-managed superannuation fund is you control your investment mix, you can make investments and you decide on your level of return and ultimately your future.

I didn’t want to join the crony club, I believe in values and personal accountability, so this was never going to be the group I was going to compromise myself to become a part of – not at all. Not that I care, I have options and I am now in and out of this establishment. No longer do I have to put up with these kinds of annoyances. What I can say is, I never compromised myself, I never partook in the activities to become a member of the crony club.

I can safely say I wasn’t compromised, this is essential to equip myself for my next roles. There are opportunities available, you can’t be aligned to misappropriation of government funds, misusing government resources or abusing public privileges. In that regard, I can hold my head high, my personal actions were above workplace standards. I was the only member of the staff who had the knowledge and ability to maintain private sector skills and was freely able to move between various sectors.

The preamble to the laws of cricket is the preamble, the spirit of the game. Ok, so there are laws, better known as rules, so the umpires make their decisions based on the laws of cricket. So when we see the Alex Carey stumping of Jonny Bairstow, it was within the laws of the game and rightly given out. All the spirit of cricket does is undermine the rules of cricket.

So let’s take a look at the spirit of cricket as published by the MCC, let us see how the MCC fared here.
a) Did MCC members show respect to the players forced to walk through the Long Room? No.
b) Did they respect the authority of the umpire? No.
c) What about creating a positive atmosphere? No. Show self discipline even when things go against you? No.
d) Congratulate the opposition on their successes? No.

So who is complaining about the spirit of the game again? Oh, no leg to stand on here.

1) Respect is central to the Spirit of Cricket.
2) Respect your captain, team-mates, opponents and the authority of the umpires.
3) Play hard and play fair.
4) Accept the umpire’s decision.
5) Create a positive atmosphere by your own conduct, and encourage others to do likewise.
6) Show self-discipline, even when things go against you.
7) Congratulate the opposition on their successes, and enjoy those of your own team.
8) Thank the officials and your opposition at the end of the match, whatever the result.
9) Cricket is an exciting game that encourages leadership, friendship and teamwork, which brings together people from different nationalities, cultures and religions, especially when played within the Spirit of Cricket.

The Tissot Seastar 1000 Reference T120.407.37.051.00 is a 1000 feet [300 metre] rated dive watch, not to be confused with 1000 metres depth rating. The naming is a little misleading, apart from the US, the rest of the world works in metres and not feet and until I looked at the dial a little more closely, I thought it was 1000 metre rated. Every professional dive watch is now rated to 300 metres of water resistance. 

The 43 mm case is 316L stainless steel with a black PVD coating, screw-down crown and screw-in case back, this is a serious dive watch that looks the part and also is up for the task. The latest interaction of the Seastar comes with the Powermatic 80 automatic movement that can be viewed through the display caseback, this is a solid and proven ETA movement upgraded to Tissot specifications.

The all black case, dial, bezel insert and strap with white highlights really work, the black rubber strap is well suited to this watch. There is Super-LumiNova® on the hands and index markers. I do like the round index markers on the dial with straight markers on the major numbers. The date at 6 o’clock adds to the symmetry for the dial, all-in-all, I think the all black Seastar really works.

The end of the Assad regime was somewhat unexpected in some ways, and totally expected in many ways. What we witnessed was the rapid disintegration of the Assad regime in a timeframe that few expected. With a Russian military bogged down and distracted in Ukraine and an Iranian leadership under bombardment by Israel, two of Assad’s key supporters abandoned support based on their own internal issues.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been a spectacular failure, the 2022 ten-day special military operation will now spill over into 2025. The Ukrainian resistance has been fierce, despite being outnumbered and outgunned, the Ukrainian military has put up a remarkable defense. The ## Ukrainian fighting men and women are not being rotated out of combat, they have held lines and resisted the Russian onslaught.

Iran as the middle eastern regime proxy supporter is being hammered by the annihilation of Hamas forces in Gaza, this could be considered an internal Israeli conflict. The absolute destruction of the Iranian funded Hamas militia is close, all they have done is ensured the destruction of Gaza. Instead of funding hospitals, medical facilities, schools and educational facilities, Hamas constructed tunnels, fortified residential areas and ran military operations through hospitals.

The Iranian terrorist funding was used to train fighters to kidnap Israeli hostages, purchase weapons including rifles and rockets and fund the lavish lifestyles of the top Hamas leaders. All the while, the Palistinians who elected Hamas lived in abject poverty. Their cheering on the streets of Gaza was a little premature and very short-lived after October 7 as the hostages were paraded, making them look like a bunch of morons, what did they think was going to happen? Israel would just roll over and give up? Everyone with half an idea knew the Israeli response would be proportionate to the threat, despite the anti-Semitism and largely successful propaganda battle, Israel would prevail.

The fierce response by Israel against Iranian proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and against Iran directly diverted support from Syria coupled with a declining Russian influence has begun to reshape the middle east. Hezbollah in the southern regions of Lebanon were quickly defeated, the pager operation to destroy the leadership left the terrorist movement in disarray, this was like a plot line from a spy novel. Whilst Bashir Assad has absconded from Syria and applied for asylum in Russia, dictators around the world propped up fascists regimes will be nervous.

David Warner tanked Cam Bancroft’s career and was set to confront Cricket Australia in an effort to return him to a leadership position despite receiving a life ban. I am pretty sure there was no parole period attached to his leadership life ban. It would be a poor decision for Cricket Australia to back down, what message does this send to players and officials, a return to a leadership role should not even be a discussion.

Warner has now played his final test match against Pakistan at the SCG. Of the 112 tests he played, he was rarely out of conflict, at age 37 is getting close to the end of his time in the Australian cricket team in the T20 and one day formats. I wondered why he even pressed for a leadership role at this stage of his career. He never looked like he was not going to go quietly and I suspect once his retirement was announced, he will have more than just a press statement. Warner’s book will reveal some inner workings of the Australian team and its administration, after the Justin Langer debacle, I have no confidence in any Cricket Australia processes or decisions.

Cam Bancroft is playing fantastic T20 cricket for the Perth Scorchers scoring well since his return to the team from injury. Cam Bancroft has scored prolifically at Sheffield Shield level for two years. I began to write this post before the Ashes tour of England knowing full well David generally plays poorly in England and Stuart Broad dominates David Warner. So with his expected poor return in England now realised, there was prolonged speculation if he would retain his position in the team. I was surprised he announced his pre-retirement with his nomination to end his playing career at the SCG.