Following on with the run-fest on the flat WACA pitch, New Zealand\’s Ross Taylor brings up a double century late on day 3 chasing down Australia’s 9/559, still around 100 behind Australia’s first innings total with 5 wickets in hand. By stumps on Day 3, New Zealand trailed by 49 runs at 6/510 with Taylor not out on 235 and poised to run down Warner’s 253 early on day 4.

Taylor had a wide array of shots against an Australian bowling group lacking penetration. In all fairness, Mitchell Starc had a couple of catches put down as he cracked the 160 kph club. Taylor’s driving was excellent going straight down the ground on multiple occasions, his cut shot was pretty good too. He becomes just the first Kiwi to crack a double century against Australia. He put on a batting masterclass, that\’s for sure.

We had to laugh late on day one of the second test against New Zealand at the WACA, that is the Western Australian Cricket Association ground in East Perth.

After the new ball was taken after the mandatory 80 overs, both David Warner and Usman Khawaja were set and seeing the ball well with a century and a double century already on the scoreboard. Trent Bould is handed the new ball with Khawaja taking a single giving the strike to Warner, showing no respect for the new ball drives the ball to the boundary, takes two runs on the third ball and smashes the ball straight back past the bowler and into the fence.

New Zealand demand a new ball after just four deliveries as they feel the ball has lost shape, we are falling over laughing and even the umpires have a smile on their face. Regardless, they succumb to New Zealand\’s demands and the ball is changes to everyone’s amusement. Delivery 5, Warner drives the next new ball down the ground, yep, it is clearly the ball with the last ball of the over going for a single – that’s 16 runs off the new ball over.

The next over, New Zealand ask for another ball change, the umpires are openly laughing and just tell them to get on with it. Australian are in a dominant position at 1/381 and a run rate of 4.64, closing in on a 400 run day – this is just a great day against the hapless New Zealand cricket team. A breakthrough late in the day, Khawaja is caught by Latham off Bracewell’s bowling for 121, Steve Smith is exposed for a couple of overs late in the day and Warner finishes the day not out on 244 with the Australian total at 2/416.

The latest terrorist attacks in Paris have underscored the danger posed by the porous borders of the European Union. A leading European economic powerhouse, France has been so accommodating to people following the Islamic religion.

For all their tolerance, their freedom and the humanity that the French people offered – the French nation is targeted by religious Islamic zealots intent on destroying democracy. While the immediate aftermath no terror group had come forward, this cowardly attack showed all the hallmarks of Islamic terrorism.

Apologists calling Islam the religion of peace are repeating pathetic and hollow words. The deeds of Islamic extremists living not in the middle east but in the safety of the cities, towns and villages of tolerant western nations threaten the safety of all inhabitants of these nations. Anybody questioning the virtues of Islamic immigration are immediately dubbed Islamphobia despite all evidence to the contrary. Described as “an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share” by US president Barack Obama, this is indeed an attack on freedom and humanity. We are all French today, we support France and we stand united with the French people.

So Woolworths, the supermarket giant with 872 stores and a workforce exceeding 110,000 people across Australia is rebranding. Founded in 1924, Woolworths is the largest retailing business operating in Australia with grocery, fuel, liquor, fuel, hotels & entertainment, home improvement and general merchandise – this is a serious retailing business. Woolworths Ltd, despite sharing a name with the British Woolworths Group, FW Woolworth Company of the United States or Woolworth Holdings of South Africa, no affiliations is undertaken with international retail stores.

The Everyday Rewards program was the reason many of us shopped at Woolworths; now with the revamp of the program, the Everyday Rewards program will be taking on a new set of rewards. Woolworths feels confident retailing rival Coles will not run take on the program after their tie in to the Eithad Airlines program was announced.

Qantas, an iconic brand was linked to the Woolworths Everyday Rewards program; by shopping at Woolworths you could generate frequent flyer points under the Qantas frequent flyer program. For many of us, the links to Qantas was the only reason we shopped at Woolworths. What they fail to account for is many of the nation’s supermarkets have both Coles and Woolworths supermarkets. Without the tie in to the Qantas frequent flyer program anymore – there is no longer a need for me to shop at Woolworths or Big W stores.

The Indonesian islands have much to offer the travelling diver; as the best known island in the archipelago. Bali has solid infrastructure, a choice from luxury 5-star hotels all the way through to backpacker accommodation, a vibrant restaurant scene and a choice of well-equipped dive operations all over the island.

Needless to say, as a major international destination; the island is well served with international flights from South-East Asia and further afield. The Diving & Snorkeling Guide to Bali by Tim Rock and Simon Pridmore informs the reader of Bali’s aquatic realm from world renowned sites to less well-known sites; this guide is an essential reference to get the most from a Bali dive trip.

The worst decision of the Abbott government has now been repealed, the new Turnbull government has ditched knights and dames from the honours list in a modern Australian society – yay.

Whilst not a pressing issue, the knighthoods originally removed from the honours list by the Whitlam government in 1975 only to be reinstated by the Fraser government just a year later. The newly elected Hawke government axed the honours in 1983 only to see Abbott without cabinet consultation reintroduce knighthoods once again. I hope this was the last reincarnation of an outdated status that has no place in a modern progressive society.

Most of us learn to dive with hire equipment, we don’t want to make such a large and expensive purchase as we are learning – that is entirely reasonable. As an instructor, I used to leave my personal equipment at home at times and use the store hire equipment so I had a taste of what the learners are experiencing. This was usually a lousy experience for me; a poorly fitting wetsuit, leaky mask, ill-fitting BCD, cheap fins and a poorly breathing regulator reminded me of the stress new divers experience.

I do not subscribe to the notion that it is easier to sell equipment to divers if they are faced with the prospect of lousy equipment for their entry-level diver course. This is poor marketing, a variation of the good cop/bad cop routine that the average person sees straight through. So what are the options for a slick dive operation? Not only does selling off hire equipment at the end of the season make good financial sense, it makes good marketing sense. The benefits include learner divers having the opportunity to purchase good quality second hand equipment, the dive centre rotates hire equipment annually maintaining the latest range of equipment they actually retail and equipment failure opportunities significantly reduce.

After the third season, hire equipment has no resale value so you are left with old equipment with no monetary value, increased maintenance costs, increased failure rates and a marketing disaster. Why learn to dive from a facility that pays such scant regard to dive equipment? What does this say about their dive operation? How can you charge premium prices for services, how do you justify your fees? If the equipment looks like this, is the instruction of similar value.

Now I understand a new dive centre does not have the capital for big investments, the alternatives are much worse however; old equipment and a poor reputation. The risk management protocols for rotating hire equipment; namely the regulator and buoyancy jacket carry a high degree of risk and need to be in exemplary condition. Likewise, people do not like to wear old, faded or ripped wetsuits and a number of dive operations I have worked at offer exactly that.

Summer is coming, the days are warming up, already even now in October, the weather for a gin and tonic in the afternoon is close. My choice of G&T is Bombay Sapphire, this unique London Dry Gin is definitely my favourite gin.

During the cold winter months, a trip from Perth to South East Asia is a relatively easy proposition and my choice of locations is the Philippines. After a day of diving, a G&T on the beach whilst completing my assignments or readings is an afternoon well spent knowing full well the weather back in Perth is cold and miserable – cheers.

The Metrojet aviation disaster left 224 Russians dead; this is indeed a tragedy of epic proportions that is not just limited to the Russian nation – this a tragic loss of human life that transcends political and national boundaries.

There is the Islamic State’s insistence that the commercial airliner was shot down by their surface to air missile. As the airliner reported mechanical problems prior to the loss of the aircraft – this claim seems unlikely. However, the gloating of Islamic State of actually holding the technology and capability to shoot down a commercial airliner is unthinkable. Whilst the Islamic State is a master of propaganda, their proficiency in the manipulation of social media is disturbing.

What we do know is Russian president Vladimir Putin must act decisively, will he order a transparent investigation similar to the one that he obstructed in the case of MH17? Or will indecisiveness allow the Islamic State to build a pseudo case of capability adding to the conspiracy theories perpetuated by the Islamic State?

I have really taken to the Google Chrome browser, not only have I downloaded to every device at home and work, I notice my friends and colleagues also utilise the browser too. As I share computers in a teaching and learning environment, I download the program onto every computer in every classroom I utilise.

Once upon a time, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dominated web searches and came loaded on every MS Windows driven computer, now Microsoft’s dominance is definitely waning. This is great news, the Chrome browser is simple and efficient, the advantage is once you are signed into one service, you have access to all of Google’s products. I show a short educational YouTube clip, I quickly search my favourites for future classes, preparation time is significantly reduced.

I only wish the IT department was so service driven, my workplace programs require multiple log in procedures and countless password changes. This is actually less secure as there is no way to remember every combination as your passwords change monthly and you are unable to use previous versions. The solution? Keep written versions close at hand so you can enter the password quickly with most colleagues utilising post it notes stuck to their screen – how secure is that? To even print a page, you need to log into the multi-function printer to print a page, you can imagine a cluster of post it notes are pasted to the wall alongside the printer.

The browser is compatible with every page I download, it hardly freezes up, not like all the issues I had with MS Internet Explorer. When I log in, all my links, favourites and history immediately appears, my browser is customised for my use – this is so efficient. The browser is fast, I am able to search my history for previous searches and downloads, I also keep documents and pdf downloads on Google Drive for reference material. Instead of keeping hard copy versions of reference books at work, just log in and open a pdf version of a reference book, I no longer need to carry USB drives everywhere loaded with all my information. My only issue is to remember to log out when I am finished – even an old school hack like me can remember that.