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.

The Visodate was a 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 version better. Whilst I am aware the typical watch purchaser wants a longer power reserve of 60 to 80 hours and I am willing to forego accuracy to achieve this, I prefer a higher frequency 4Hz compared to 3Hz with a 38 hour power reserve.

I like modern incarnations of vintage watches, they have new materials such as sapphire crystal, silicon balance springs and incorporate quality assurance principles. The styling of a Visodate with a scratch resistant sapphire crystal is hard to beat. The inclusion of high-tech materials in the movement is great, the addition of a display caseback to view the automatic movement is a definite improvement on modern watches.

So a vintage inspired Visodate with modern materials is a vast improvement. This is the great advantage of re-releases of vintage inspired timepieces, they incorporate modern watchmaking principles on classic and proven designs. The Powermatic 80 is an upgrade over the older movement, yet I contradict myself frequently. I like the ETA 2836-2 movement reference T1184301627100. I love the older style Tissot logo on the upper section of the dial and Visodate Powermatic 80 in the lower section of the dial.

So revisiting the Tissot Visodate, the day/date display is an interesting addition. Generally, I am not a fan of the date function, when possible I prefer a model without a date. My preferences are clear as I cannot read the date without putting my glasses on, so it is more of an annoyance to me, I can see the day display on the Visodate so this is a function I actually like. The sapphire crystal is a welcome addition to modern watchmaking, whilst the crystal can still be broken if I drop my watch, the chance of scratching the crystal is virtually eliminated.

So this was liberation day, there were plenty of people thinking Donald Trump was just talking big, he would back down at the last minute like he has bben known to do. So when the tariffs were formally announced, it did take many by surprise. This was thought to be a classic Trump hard sell and turn around. Not exactly a typical bait and switch tactic, but not a great negotiating tactic nonetheless.

As a result, the sharemarket tanked, the boom Trump has promised Americans was now closed down. Elon Musk was running riot with DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency was firing government workers en masse, in some cases then rehiring them weeks later when they dawned on them that services would be shut down. This is a classic Elon Musk move, he pulled the same stunt at Twitter, now renamed and remarketed as X.

When the sharemarket tanked, the correction was large and investors were cutting losses and fleeing equities. There was concern all round, following the US lead, share markets around the world corrected with trillions of shareholder value destroyed. The markets were correcting firstly on fear, secondly on revised earnings based on tariff hits to earnings and profitability. I watched my retirement savings decline for no real reason, I am sure Americans watching their 401(k) decline were raising similar concerns.

Whilst this sharemarket was correcting, the bond market was also in turmoil. The bond market is viewed as less volatile than the sharemarket, considered a safe haven when equities are correcting. This was not the case here, investors were also fleeing the bond market as well, US government treasuries were being sold off too. US bonds have been viewed as the defacto bond, the standard that all other national bonds are priced against. Whilst borrowing costs are lower for US bonds, the riskier the nation, the higher the bond yields and subsequent repayment costs to governments. The US was raising its own borrowing costs and that of other nations.

So when Trump came out and stated “I thought that people were jumping a bit out of line … they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid” you know he had been told to address the issues and get this problem under control by his financial advisors. This failed tariff strategy was sending equity and bond markets down in unison. The United States has a number of economic ratified agreements in place with numerous nations, this is including a free trade agreement with Australia.

What this states, the message it sends is Trump is unwilling to honour previously negotiated and ratified free trade agreements, this is difficult to justify as the US/Australia free trade agreement offers a surplus to the US. Generally, Trump claims any trade with the US where a nation has a trade surplus with the US, then they are ripping them off. Here, the US has a trade imbalance with Australia when the US enjoys a trade surplus.

Typically, equity markets offer greater returns at greater risks, bond markets whilst offering a lower return is considered a safer option. So when equity markets soar, funds are transferred to the higher returns from equity markets. Likewise, when equity markets decline, we see fund inflows into the safer bond market. What we saw during the Trump Slump was equity market wealth destroyed and funds flowing out of bonds. This is a highly unusual situation that has everyone concerned.

The Russian-Ukrainian war rolls on, what I noticed is Europe has failed to adequately support Ukraine. Yes, Europe has provided resources to Ukraine but many would argue it is too little, too late. European nations have been remiss in their somewhat wishy washy support of a nation under attack by what should be branded as a rogue nation. Many non-European nations such as Japan, South Korea, Canada and Australia have supported Ukraine. Whilst a non-European nation, the United States under the Biden Administration has provided Ukraine with weapons and support.

Europe is hopeless in some regards, it was clear there was a presidential election in 2024 and the Biden Administration was faltering. So there was a very good chance Donald Trump would be elected, European governments had plenty of time to plan. Furthermore, NATO has been aware of Russian aggression for three years now so they have had plenty of time to increase military expenditure. Europe should have been increasing production and capability supplying weapons and intelligence support to Ukraine.

The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that it is unreasonable to expect 300 million Americans to defend 500 million Europeans against 140 million Russians. That is a very astute comment; however, to be fair Russia is nuclear armed and the majority of European nation with the exception of France and Britain. If Russia wishes to engage in a conventional war, it would like be a series of tank battles supported by artillery. The time is now, Europe must unite to present a force to deter Russian aggression against NATO nations.

I prefer action-learning projects as both a learning activity and an assessment process. As action-learning projects are workplace-based where knowledge and skills that are gained are transferable to actual workplace scenarios. Instructional design is a profession, the old chalk and talk aligned to rote learning well and truly history for the new skill-sets required by contemporary learners. 

So now I am designing new learning strategies, writing the learning resources aligned with these strategies and the assessment documentation is interesting for me too. So ok, where does this take us? Contemporary workplaces recognise the requirement for a skilled and productive workforce and are willing to take proactive steps to achieve workplace competency.

Workplace learning is an important facet of a multi-structured learning strategy. Modern workplaces are hiring instructional designers to develop and implement structured workplace events to ensure learning actually takes place. It is absolutely imperative learning events are designed to maximise on-the-job projects. Learning must align to workplace tasks with skills matching workplace requirements. Engineering trades require both knowledge and skills with behavioural training principles embedded in programs.