Working for a government department that has a significant cyber capability, I am frequently testing both their cyber capability and their patience. Yeah, I make sure I keep them busy monitoring their staff, they know that I know they are watching me, so I make it worth their effort. They follow my blog, I frequently see them checking my LinkedIn status and I would be sure they view my Facebook, Tumblr and Pintrest accounts.

As I know they are cyber stalking me, I post material that raises their eyebrows. I post material that goes right to the limit, but I don’t go over that line. Naturally, there have been internal complaints, but they cannot do anything as I do not identify the organisation. Nor will they push me further, if they were to attempt some form of detrimental action, then that would be a trigger to identify the organisation in an extremely negative way, and I do not identify the organisation. I am not going to do that, we currently float in a state of equilibrium, they do not sanction me and I do not identify them. This works for both of us, we have a stand-off of sorts and that is how relationship flows.

They know I will do more than take the cyberstalking to a public forum should they attempt to discipline me. They know they cannot anyway, a former manager in his wisdom took unnecessary and detrimental action against me as a potential whistleblower for misappropriation of government funds, They know that I am well versed in the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2003 and they know that the Act provides protection for disclosers [or incorrectly identified disclosers]. Despite their poor management practices, they are rational adversaries and they will not risk the case being heard in the Equal Opportunity Commission. As I have not identified them in a public forum, they will just continue to monitor me, and I won’t provide them with the means to take action against me.

When I am out chatting to jewellers, they inform me Rolex is the top selling Swiss watch with Omega coming second, Cartier third, Longines fourth, Patek Phillipe fifth, Tissot sixth, TAG Heuer coming in at around about seventh, Swatch eighth, IWC ninth and Breguet tenth. This was a surprise to me as Rolex is relatively expensive, so I expected high margins and low volumes to dominate the Rolex brand. The artificial scarcity they have created certainly works maintaining their price and creating demand.

Naturally, a couple of places change from year to year with Cartier sometimes getting over Omega in terms of sales volumes. This should change with dedicated Omega boutiques taking on Cartier boutiques in luxury areas. This, I assume doesn’t take into account either the lower end tier with Japanese owned Citizen and Seiko timepieces or American inspired Timex and Hamilton brands that aren’t Swiss manufactured.

We all know the Apple watch outsold the entire Swiss watch industry, they are horrible electronic gadgets that are strapped to the wrist. That being said, smartwatches have their role, plenty of people love technology. Even though Hamilton is now owned by the Swatch Group or the high end A. Lange & Söhne from Germany and the aviation inspired Bremont from England is owned by the Richemont Group they fall within the scope of premium watch sales.

Then there are the serious Swiss watchmakers of Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Breguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Blancpain that don\’t move a large number of units but are highly prized examples of horology excellence. Advertising counts and the large brands spend plenty in advertising and although some of these fine manufacturers are not household names – they are excellent editions to any timepiece collections.

How Mitch Marsh became the most hated player in the Australian cricket team is beyond me, it didn’t help that his brother Shaun was universally hated. Fellow West Australian and allrounder Cameron Green was out injured allowing Mitch to slot into the team and take his opportunity after four years on the sidelines. When Mitch Marsh returned to the Australian team in big trouble, he came in to bat just before lunch, not a great prospect for a number 6 batsman.

The other huge comeback story was Mark Wood who was sending thunderbolts down the pitch at an impressive pace. I was looking forward to Wood’s selection, I prefer a contest between bat and ball and the previous two tests were played on lifeless wickets designed to benefit the Bazball style of cricket. Basically, they prepare a road that is easy to bat on – that is not a great contest and I was not thrilled. Mark Wood had a brilliant comeback, his 5-34 was impressive.

When Mitch came to the crease, Australia was in real trouble at 4-85 with Mark Wood bowling menacingly. This was a great contest and I was really enjoying this match. Even watching from the comfort of my living room, I could see Wood’s extreme pace and his ability to move the ball around. Sure, Wood was finally selected for the lively Leeds pitch as England were not going to reveal him for the first two slow pitches. England won the toss and put Australia into bat on a green tinged pitch, finally a lively deck.

Forget Bazball, what we witnessed was Bisonball, Mitch scored his century from 102 balls using his strength to club the ball around the ground. Mitch played correct cricket shots, he was not playing brash Bazball shots, this was correct batting technique coupled with power. As Mitch moved into the 90s I was getting tired, it was late in Perth and I needed to be up at 6am to head to work, I was jumping up and down when Mitch scored his comeback century. Marsh was eventually out for 118 off 118 balls faced, the Headingly test was won by England and I was not concerned, we witnessed a great test match and England were back in the series.

The 2017 Fermoy Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is a pretty decent drop, at $99 per bottle it should be. Rated at 95 points by the Halliday Wine Companion. Some gold medals at 2020 Perth Royal Show, 2020 Wine Show of WA and 2021 Decanter World Wine Awards give it some award currency.

This cabernet sauvignon is matured in new and seasoned French oak barriques imparting some creamy oak characteristics. With a potential of 20+ years of cellaring potential, the tannin structure is fine without overpowering this young wine. Despite the cellaring potential, the wine drinks amazingly well now. The 2017 is 100% cabernet sauvignon that is a tad unusual as winemakers generally blend in smaller percentages of varieties to round out a wine. This is a pretty big wine with a 14.5% alcohol content that does not overpower the blackcurrant and boysenberry flavours.

I like the Hamilton Khaki range, I think of the Khaki range as field watches and I am especially interested in their hand-wound range. I have no issue waking up in the morning and winding my watch before jumping in the shower and getting ready for work. I sit up, take my watch off to wind before hitting the shower and then strap my watch to my wrist as I get dressed.

I like watches and I am drawn to watchmaking history. Hamilton field watches align to my interests as they supplied field watches to the US army in WWII and the Vietnam war. Ok, so what sparks my interest in Hamilton field watches apart from their military history? Hamilton has some pretty interesting history, founded in 1892 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

What interests me in the khaki military range other than the military perspective is that they are uncomplicated and no fuss. I view the Hamilton Khaki range as a solid [and rugged] outdoors style watch that can be knocked around and that adds to the narrative. This is a weekend watch for an office worker or a daily wear watch for a tradie or manual worker.

The H-40 automatic movement is a 2834-2 base movement beating at 21,600 bph allowing a 80 hour power reserve. From what I can see, the lower beat rate makes the second hand pulse, for myself, I would prefer a smoother second hand movement and a shorter power reserve. However, the industry perspective is for larger power reserves so I appreciate my views are of of kilter with purchaser wants. The H–40 calibre has 25 jewels, so that is a pretty standard ETA architecture and a solid base movement.

I had set an objective of dismantling the crony club in 2024, the leader of the three stooges announced his retirement at the start of the year with a mid-year departure so that made it pretty easy. The financial year in Australia ends on June 30, so a mid-year career ending is fine, this gives me time to reset the narrative and expose the perpetrators for what they are.

The era of dysfunction is over, the crony club is being dismantled and the remaining stooges are in disarray, they are really worried. The crony associates jumped off the bandwagon early, they have finally worked out they were being played and they are angry. Throwing their loyalty behind such a structure was always going to fail, it was just a matter of time. However, the damage to individuals by this poor behaviour has damaged careers.

The damage that has been done will take years to rectify, there are serious issues where half the staff wants to leave. People are pushing their retirements forward just to get out early, this is a pretty good indication of the state of affairs of a long-term toxic workplace. The intentional undermining of individuals that has been going on is actually criminal behaviour that breaches the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 and the previous Occupational Health and Safety Act 1984 and exposed themselves to potential litigation.

First I have to turn the workplace bullying situation around, that will be reasonably difficult but not impossible. The malicious gossip will be stopped to begin with, the head crony always denied there was malicious gossip being used as a weapon, he always stated there was no bullying occurring and certainly not by his crony appointments. There was of course evidence, when the manager is manipulating the situation, this is buried in processes in an attempt to get individuals to pack it in and quit in disgust.

There were three major failure areas that were deliberately manipulated for personal gain, that is, 1) the abandonment of quality, 2) a total disregard for safety, and 3) operating a protection racket for crony appointments. The crony club leader selected members not based on competence, instead the crony club preferred individuals that lacked the requisite knowledge and skills and owed their status to the crony club and they know they must behave as directed to maintain their unearned status. The era of dysfunction is over and people are being valued for their contribution.

Plastic straws are a particular peeve of mine. I am aware that they are cost effective for retailers and consumers but they are so wasteful and bad for the environment. They are frequently sighted in rubbish heaps, on the side of the road and clogging up waterways – they are terrible for the environment and their use needs to be reduced.

Plastic straws are single use, they are not recycled and they are another product that is terrible for the environment. We as socially responsible consumers must embrace products that are not detrimental to the environment, we must demand better products and must boycott products and retailers that do not uphold sound environmental policies.

So what is a better option? We do not necessarily have to stop using straws, what we have to do as a society is demand better products. We as consumers must not use plastic products, plastic straws can be replaced with materials that are biodegradable- we as consumers must refuse the convenience of plastic straws for more environmentally sustainable products, even when they incur a cost premium.

I am not a fan of Australian Labor Party Senator Fatima Payman, nobody knew who she was until she decided to vote against the government, was reprimanded and then quit the Australian Labor Party and took her Senate vote with her. She has a duty to represent the people of Western Australia and she has not done that – she has failed us.

Senator Payman was elected as a Senator of the Australian Labor Party, how the Senate vote works in Australia is where you vote above the line. That means you vote for a party and they pre-select candidates, you do not vote for the candidate. There is an option to vote below the line, then you have to vote for every candidate in order and by party. Therefore, the vast majority of people vote above the line.

Therefore, a Senator is a party Senator and we all know Fatima Payman was pre-selected based on the Australian Labor Party diversity policy. That is not the best candidate by the person who meets the diversity criteria. Now she is looking to join a movement to create a party to be named the The Muslim Vote, this is a concern as these racist policies will target Israel and Jews. Their cry of From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free does a disservice to every government fighting terrorism. Gaza needs to be freed from Hamas, but that is not her policy – just her personal ideals that the people have no interest in. 

What we know is Hamas is a designated terrorist organisation, they support sexual violence against women. All the funding Hamas received did not go to the people of Gaza, they used that funding to construct tunnels under Gaza, store weapons to attack Israel and hide kidnapped women and old people. We now know Hamas has linked tunnels to hospitals, schools and other public infrastructure to prevent Israeli forces targeting these tunnels and entry/exit areas. The last thing we need in Australia is a religious based voting sponsoring terrorism, Senator Payman needs to pull her head in and do her job, that is to represent the people of Western Australia.

I completed my Safety and Health Representative course at Trainwest, a private RTO in Belmont, Western Australia. This five day introductory course gets me started as a workplace Safety and Health Representative, even though I had been acting in the role for around six months at this stage.

The first session of the first day was pretty much all about the Act and the Regulations, importantly, the questions in the trainee workbook allowed us to navigate these two important documents. This is an integral and important aspect of the course. The legalities and the ramifications are absolutely necessary.

The second session involved risk identification and control measures. We were required to create our own workplace checklists then undertake an inspection of their facilities. I appreciate the purpose of this activity to get us involved in an inspection instead of a passive listening process. I developed my checklist with the real intention of developing a specific engineering workshop checklist that I will incorporate in my workplace instead of the generic checklist they currently utilise.

The facilitator was a Director of the company, I had dealt with him before with my Certificate IV in Training and Assessment upgrade, so I have already had contact with him. He was in quarantine as his kid caught covid at school, so he facilitated via MS Teams, it actually worked well. We were all required to bring in a laptop computer to work from, I used this opportunity to navigate safety websites as he spoke. I was able to hold my attention and I was busy downloading documents related to the issues he discussed.

I had a Google Docs page open, a new page every day where I nook notes and copied links for future reference. I organised my notes under sub-headings so I can review my notes in the future. I also used this time to download resources such as the Act, Regulations, Codes of Conduct, Guidance Notes and Safety Alerts compatible with my industry. I also downloaded other pdf resources as required, using a laptop for the course was great. I set up my folders as I was listening, I was taking notes the whole time, even now, I still refer to this course content.

This is adult education, we were a small but motivated group, we didn’t need to be told what to do. With a remote facilitator, he had a camera so could see what we were up to. The more technology enabled assisted those in the class that were a little slower, we worked as a team and made the experience positive for everyone. It was great as people were there because they wanted to be there, it was a motivated group.

The second day was concerned with hazards and risk identification. In the morning we had to draw up our own inspection checklists, that was easy for me. That was concerned with creating my inspection checklist for my workplace, I now use this checklist in the engineering workshops. We then made an inspection of the premises, that was a good practical project. We actually have a similar project for our first year safety assessment for apprentices,they make an inspection of our engineering workshops.

The later part of the second session was concerned with preparing our face-to-face presentation to the group. I decided on my topic and began to create my PowerPoint presentation. I decided to make mine a modified problem-based learning exercise, this would enable group participation. This couldn’t really be a true problem-based learning exercise, I posed a problem to the group and invited discussion to ensure they were engaged.

We had a limited time frame, so I couldn’t request them to research their learning materials, so I provided them with details in order for them to provide an informed discussion. As it turns out, we had a rigger in the class, so a subject matter expert really made the discussion interesting. He provided real insight from an industry perspective.

So after lunch on day four, the second half of the day was reserved for presentations. With masks on, people were hyperventilating, they were shaking and visibly rattled. I was a little surprised, I am used to this now so I didn’t want to let these people catch me out in the emotion. A number of people wanted to get their presentations out first, I was ok with that – although I wanted to go first.

As my presentation was designed around a workplace learning project, the intention was to include all the participants and make the presentation an active process. The problem-based learning exercise was based on the overhead bridge crane in our workshop, who can operate the crane and rig loads. The feedback was excellent and everyone was involved, I received some differing perspectives and formulated some ideas from the session.

I woke up on Sunday morning and decided to turn the television on at around 8.30 in the morning and flicked the news on, I was shocked with what was being reported. An assassination attempt had been made on the life of former president and presidential nominee Donald Trump at a political rally, whilst I do not support his policies, any person or group that supports violence to achieve their goals should be dismantled.

The attempted assassination of a former president during an election cycle is pretty much unheard of. I recall the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan back in 1981 and was shocked at the assassination of Anwar Sadat a little later in 1981. I like to go for a run on Sunday mornings, as it was training I did not consider going outside and instead spent the morning watching news reports and following up on my computer. Former President Trump has been making big statements so let us see if he winds back the rhetoric after this assassination attempt.

The photographs taken by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci are remarkable, the best of the shots was of a defiant Trump surrounded by the Secret Service with his clenched fist raised upwards. Capturing a shot of the bullet flying past former President Trump’s head is amazing, that captured a moment in time. Evan Vucci had previously been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his breaking photography work during the George Floyd riots, Vucci captured the moment Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi ditched his shoe at President George Bush in Iraq who did a pretty good job of dodging the projectile.