When I look at two competing watch brands, I see Baume and Mercier and Longines fighting for the same market segment. The Richemont owned Baume and Mercier compete directly with the Swatch Group owned Longines.

As a duty of disclosure, I own Longines but do not own any Baume and Mercier timepieces, I do not own exactly what I wanted in the Longines product line. I own an older Conquest reference L3.677.4.58.6 that is a decent watch. There are some issues with the crown and crown guard, there are plenty of people who have issues with that styling. The 2023 reference has a much more elegant integral crown guard and crown, I can see that. That being said, pretty robust and chunky, for the best part – I like it.

What I like about Baume and Mercier is their styling, this is the entry level offering from Richemont. The advertising is high quality, they are targeting a fairly refined market and I believe they hit their target market. What Baume and Mercier have to offer is pretty good value for money, there is a sophisticated purchaser who has a high enough disposable income for a luxury watch, but not necessarily the budget for a Vacheron Constantin or an A. Lange & Söhne. The Richemont Group offers some exquisite timepieces in their line-up, Baume and Mercier is their entry-level line up, this is impressive.

Ukraine should consider attacking Kaliningrad, for what reason you ask? Well, Ukraine will have to negotiate an end to the war at some point and they need a strong negotiating base to successfully pursue a positive outcome. The Chinese position is Russia keeps the territory they have gained through aggression, this is an unacceptable outcome.

Putin has his eyes set on retaining Crimea, they illegally annexed this part of Ukraine in 2014 and have held it since. For Putin to give up control of Crimea, if he was to lose control of Kaliningrad, that might be considered a decent trade. We give you back Kaliningrad for a straight swap for Crimea – a reasonable trade.

The loss of Kaliningrad, even for a short period will severely damage Putin’s credibility internally, Russia attacks Ukraine, suffers severe losses, damages the economy, suffers a massive loss of life, and a significant loss of equipment. The reputational damage to the Russian military setting back Russian military prowess for at least another decade. We have learned the Russian troops are poorly trained, poorly equipped, poorly led and are not motivated.

But how would Ukraine pull off such a feat? Already Ukraine has called for a general moblisation, Ukraine for all their fight have suffered horrific losses. If they were to engage in a raid on Kaliningrad and seize the territory, Russia would need to divert forces for a counter-offensive to attempt to take the territory back.

Russia already has Finland on their border as a NATO member, this has been a horrible consequence of their aggression against Ukraine. The small Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are understandably nervous, a short bridge connects Russia to Estonia, it would be a simple maneuver to invade Estonia – even if they destroy the bridge. Russia now has NATO countries at most of their western borders with only Belarus as a buffer.

Yes, the Baltic nations are NATO members, but from what we have seen, NATO has been indecisive and if the US withdraws support from NATO. This is a massive concern if Trump is elected for a second term if Biden is defeated. Trump has previously undermined NATO in his first term, his isolationist policies gives Putin hope that NATO could crumble. Trump is mostly concerned with internal politics and retribution for his political career enemies.

What Putin is hanging out for is the Biden Administration to be defeated and Trump to be returned to power. Putin believes he has Trump’s measure and can easily control Donald. Putin has a point, there is more than a general concern that Trump lacks the prowess to control Putin as he is a one dimensional character with significant flaws who does not put national interests above personal interests.

Following the news updates by Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus of the Israeli Defence Forces, I am impressed by the way he conducts himself. When posed with a difficult question, he offers a rational explanation as to why the Israeli Defense Forces undertake a strategic objective or offers a tactical reply.

I can see him being baited by journalists, he remains calm, he does not get flustered, he does not lash out nor lose his temper. I have to admit, I could see myself getting annoyed and offering short answers to questions posed. There is an anti-Israel sediment, the pro-Palestinian lobby is very strong worldwide, not too many people seem concerned about the Israeli hostages abducted on the October 7 raid on Israel.

There is some irony, for the people who have made the sacrifices and saved for their retirement, they cannot apply for a pension as they may exceed the asset threshold and not be eligible for a government pension. It is my belief that if an individual saves for their retirement, pays tax all their life, provides community services and volunteering – then they should meet public service eligibility requirements.

I have worked and saved hard, I now have assets and despite all the tax I have paid, I do not meet eligibility to draw a government pension. The age where a person can draw a government age pension is currently 67, it is likely to rise to 70 in the coming years. That is going to make a lot of people unhappy, they can either take their complaints to their elected government representatives or get action and make changes. Or they can suck it up and get used to the consequences, there are really just two choices.

For me, retirement at age 60 is a must. I am running  7 km on a regular basis, whilst I have my health concerns, I am still reasonably fit and healthy. Sure my running times are not great, but generally, my 7 km running times of 43 minutes is no world beater, just three years ago, I was posting a 38 minute 7 km time and I had hoped to improve on that number. Once I get my leg fixed, that will require some surgery then my times will improve – I am betting on it.

So, as long as I do not have any major health concerns I will be fit enough to enjoy my retirement at age 60. I have purchased an investment property and set up payments to pay out that mortgage at age 60, to coincide with my proposed retirement age. As long as the war in Ukraine has not escalated to a full European war or China has not invaded Taiwan, then I should be looking at retirement and travel in five years time. So I am busy saving for this proposed retirement age in five years time, I will have to get used to living a cheap life for the next few years.

I got home from work, I was tired so I took a short nap in front of the television. I had switched on the Channel 7 news with Rick Ardon and Susanna Carr. I only saw the news headlines before I was out. I have a slow commute home in the afternoon, it tends to make me tired, so I was ready for a nap when I got home.

You can imagine my sùrprise when I woke up, India was well in command of the match, and Virat Kohli was well advanced in his innings. I was not worried, Australia had been in some pretty tight positions throughout the series, especially the matches against Bangladesh and South Africa

Rohit Sharma was off to a flyer, he was out for 47 off 31 balls by an amazing catch from Travis Head that sent Sharma back to the pavilion. Gill was already back in the shed, scoring just four runs from seven deliveries. Sharma had hardly handed over the strike, even when Gill was caught by Zampa, there were 30 runs on the board.

It was a workday so I had to go outside and water the lawn, make some dinner and make my lunch for tomorrow. You can imagine my surprise when I came back inside, not only was Kohli out but more wickets had fallen. I was expecting a score around 220, so 240 was a reasonable score given the circumstances.

When Australia came to bat, Warner failed scoring only seven runs bringing Mitch Marsh to the crease, he was out in short time scoring 15 runs off of 15 balls. Steve Smith was out leg before wicket for only four runs, he should have challenged the decision. That brought Marnus Labuschange and instead of playing a poor innings like he did against South Africa, he was restrained and played cautiously.

Travis Head played brilliantly, I ended up going to bed after his century, I expected Travis to bat through the innings. I was off to sleep as I had to work the next morning, so I could not stay up later than midnight. Head was eventually out for 137 off of 120 balls falling two runs short of victory. That brought Glen Maxwell to the crease who faced one ball and scored two runs for victory. I don’t think we will count his run rate of 200 as gospel. So I went to work the next day knowing Australia would win the world cup.

What has concerned military analysis since the demise of the Soviet Union is the lack of investment in military budgets. This has led to the downgrading of the core European military powers of Germany, France, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The country feeling most threatened after Ukraine is Poland, they are fast becoming the European military powerhouse investing heavily their military to counter the threat of Russia. The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are highly exposed and threatened by Russian aggression. Despite the required national service, the Baltic countries lack the manpower and equipment to counter the Russian threat.

The military capability of NATO weapons production struggles to keep pace with Ukrainian requirements, let alone a broader conflict with Russia. Many NATO nations have supported Ukraine with training, weapons and logistical support. Yet, NATO production has failed to keep pace with Ukrainian demands. Sure, they are holding a strategic reserve, but for the best part, they cannot maintain demand. If the Ukrainian war was to escalate to a broader NATO conflict, this lack of depth would be highly concerning.

Staring down failure, ok, so I was a little premature writing this post, I began on a Friday night at a lonely suburban bus stop. The message is clear, union membership is worth the cost, if you want to take a union member down, then bring your A game.

So the General Manager waltzed into the office sprouting how we were best practice, I have to admit, I nearly fell off my chair laughing, I was glad I was sitting down. Only the night before, I had sent her an email citing our actual deficiencies. The terms of reference in the communication were scathing, our safety record moved from shambolic to a low standard where we were inspected by Worksafe and were served with formal improvement notices.

This dragged on for some time but they had to come up with a response, if you require a staff member to justify their actions, then human resources has to review and provide feedback. They were unable to justify their actions as the defence I devised was simplistic as it was effective. How could the accused be held accountable for breaching safe systems of work when the organisation had no formal safe systems of work, there was no training, no internal skills assessment or accreditation.

Furthermore, I had been advising the management of our deficiencies and provided solutions to how we can become compliant. Yet, instead these safety and risk mitigation strategies were ignored and not acted upon. This indicates an indifference to staff safety requirements, state legislation and the core foundations of a safety culture. So, this is where we find ourselves, we are under increased scrutiny and we seek to find individuals at the shop floor responsible.

What I am viewing under the Marcos Administration in the Philippines is interesting. I was initially suspicious of having the son of Ferdinand Marcos as president of the Philippines. I was really concerned this could once again end up in martial law. However, under Marcos there has been the expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) first negotiated in 2014 enhancing the Philippines strategic importance to South East Asia.

The major alignment with China under Rodrigo Durerte was a disaster for the Philippines strategically. There were concerns the new Marcos Administration could take the Philippines even closer to China given his ties with Duterte. Rodrigo Duterte made no qualms about his disdain for the United States, but as a leader of a nation Duterte should have put his personal feelings aside and acted in the best interests of the Philippines.

What Marcos has done was side with the US, unlike Duterte who was very pro-China, Marcos has widened ties with the US and opened a whole bunch of military bases throughout the country. Now the Chinese need to think and respond differently to Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea. The US military presence in the Philippines now acts as a strong deterrence against Chinese aggression with naval and air force assets once again stationed on Philippines soil.

The Philippines once again acts as part of the first island chain preventing Chinese naval forces from breaking out into the western Pacific. With expanded bases in Lal-Lo air base and Camilo Osais in the north and Antonio Bautista air base in Palawan and Balabac Island south of Palawan where the US can bring in equipment and construct infrastructure. The naval bases and airfield to the north of the Philippines are an ideal location to defend Taiwan and the bases in the west defend Philippines interests in the Sprately Islands.

I view the tragedy unfolding in Gaza, looking at what is happening to the people who live in Gaza. They have been told to move south, that move was fraught with danger. We all knew Israel would engage in a military assault of Gaza, there is no way they are going to just bargain to get their hostages back. These are Israeli citizens, there is no way they are going to not use every resource available to bring them home to their families.

I am watching news bulletins and seeing the faces of the people is difficult to watch. Palestinians are losing their lives when bombs are dropped or missiles land. Yes, they have had fair warning and they knew how intense the Israeli response will be. They did not help their cause by cheering in the streets when the hostages were paraded around Gaza, they need to think a little further forward past this point.

The utter distress of the Palestinians as the full realisation of the bombs dropping and destroying their homes is devastating. The Palestinian people have been played by Hamas, these people are just pawns to be sacrificed. When a tunnel network has been dug under hospitals, schools and mosques with entrances opening into these facilities, you can bet Hamas is using Palestinians as human shields.

Senator Katy Gallagher made a real name for herself in a Senate Estimates Committee on June 4th 2021 attacking Linda Reynolds over the Brittany Higgins case. Having seen the Senate committee, it is clear Senator Gallagher was really going for Linda Reynolds, she didn’t hold back.

Naturally, Senator Reynolds could not answer the questions as they were part of an active police investigation, Reynolds answered the questions accordingly. When Reynolds responded with a little offense calling into question Katy Gallagher’s motives, she was met with a “how dare you” when it was pretty clear what stunt Gallagher was trying to pull. Her body language throughout the questioning was outrageous, Senator Gallagher did not attempt to hide her bias.

It was clear after the sms messages between Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz were leaked that Katy Gallagher was not only informed, she was briefed on the matter. Despite her denials, Senator Gallagher used the Senate Estimates Committee as a conduit to further their political motives. It would appear Senator Gallagher misled parliament. This is now a significant matter for Senator Gallagher, she could and should be censured.