I am pretty impressed with the Tissot Heritage 1938 Reference T142.464.16.332.00. Whilst an entry-level Swiss watchmaker in the Swatch Group, Tissot has a great back catalog based on Tissot’s long history. When you have great designs in the archive, the love of vintage designs by enthusiasts, a watchmaker needs not look far for great designs. Take a look at the success of the Visodate, the PRX, and the Telemeter 1938.

This is a 39 mm diameter 316L stainless steel case that is 11 mm in height. The case is brushed and polished, with a domed front and flat back sapphire crystal. The flat onion-style crown has a vintage Tissot T; the crown is push-in and hence 50 meters water-resistant. The strap is a grey pin and buckle type with quick release pins.

The matte salmon dial has a printed minute track with slightly raised numerals with a black finish. I really like this colouring, there is matte black on the numerals and baton hands. The vintage Tissot logo above the hand axis and chronometre marking below the hand axis with no date window offers a brilliantly clean dial.

What the Heritage 1938 is all about is the COSC certified ETA 2824-2 automatic movement beating at 28,800 vph [4 hz] with 25 jewels and a 38 hour power reserve. COSC certified accuracy ensures a Swiss mechanical movement has been tested by the independent Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres [COSC] with a verified accuracy of – 4 to + 6 seconds per day over a 15 day regime at three different temperatures.

Tissot is mostly using the Powermatic 80 in just about all of its current range of watches, so this is pretty interesting for me. However, the Powermatic 80 that offers the 80 hour power reserve works on 3 Hz [21,600 vph]. So the movement frequency has been slowed to improve the power reserve but comes at a cost of accuracy. The downside of 3 Hz is the second hand is more jerky and accuracy is reduced, but power reserve is what people want now.

The public sector in Western Australia is supposed to be relatively corruption free, well that is the intent anyway. That was all thrown into disarray when further massive misappropriation of government funds was discovered. This corruption really damaged the reputation of the public sector in Western Australia.

The Assistant Director General of the Department of Communities was formally charged by police with the theft of $25 million, not the $2.5 million that I originally thought. I thought this was a misprint, $2.5 million is a whole lot of services not going to the intended recipients. This is $25 million of public money in what appears to be one of the most serious cases of public sector corruption in the country.

There is clearly a lack of financial oversight, an inadequate tender process coupled with intentional abuse of staff. This is genuinely hard to believe, how can a state government organisation misplace sums of money that large. A habit of incompetence is clearly rife in that department with a culture of fear embedded to prevent whistleblower action. The inability to question authority and wrongdoing at multiple levels in the organisation is the unfortunate values the Department of Communities espouses.

The 29.5 mm Longines silver dial Conquest looks great on a woman’s wrist, whilst this is the older model, I think it works well. The silver dial looks dressy for a woman’s sports watch for most occasions with the exception of formal occasions. 

This is a serious sports watch with screw-in crown, screw down-in case-back with winged hourglass offering 300 metres of water resistance. The flat sapphire crystal ensures the crystal is scratch resistant with layers of anti-reflective coating. Index markers are used on the dial with numerals at the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock positions. The Conquest comes with the parallel H-link bracelet and double-folding butterfly clasp with push-type release.

The reference L32764166 comes with the L595.2 Swiss-made automatic movement that is based on the ETA 2000-1 with 20 jewels. The 19.4 mm diameter movement arrangement is central hours, minutes and seconds with the date window at 4 o’clock and hacking seconds for the date setting. The 4 Hz movement beats at 28,800 vph has a 40 hour power reserve that is fitted with a Longines rotor.

What about the freedom of the press? This really irritates the anti-Murdoch brigade, they want a free press as long as it prints views that align to their personal views. Not every broadcaster is going to support your opinions, you have a number of sections in a newspaper from reported news to editorials/opinions. As a subscriber or daily purchaser from a news reader, you read the news aligned to quality of journalism and The Australian is a quality newsprint offered and The Australian hires quality journalists.

All the left to right bias testing [if conducted with impartiality] sees the News Corp masthead The Australian coming in as a centralist publication. Sky News is right wing, that is certainly ,not impartial and I admit I do not watch much of their content, just as The Guardian is not impartial for their left-wing perspective.

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald are both left-leaning. Interestingly, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is also surprisingly centralist based on the research. Although they have a number of left-leaning television shows, they are predominantly centralist in their views according to research. Since I reference the research, I accept the findings, I am somewhat surprised with the outcomes presented.

A broadsheet newspaper such as The Australian employs/contracts a broad range of journalists for their editorial sections. This is where opinions matter, you read their analysis and see if it aligns to your views, it doesn’t always. What you should never do is cherry pick articles that support your view.

You should read a number of alternate views that allow you to form your own perspective. You seek to find inconsistencies in their writing and views, you can then review and analyse their writing for flawed assumptions or arguments. This is what makes reading quality newsprint interesting. Do I support all the commentary views, I do not but I still ensure I read a broad cross section of their views for a balanced viewpoint.

I frequently follow Swiss watch sales, Rolex normally leads and Omega and Cartier fight for second place. In terms of luxury, it is difficult to go past Cartier as a luxury goods manufacturer, they have exquisite style.

I have only wandered into the Cartier boutique once, I am aware that Cartier and Omega fight for second and third position for Swiss watch sales, so I am naturally interested in what they have to offer. I know their major pieces from the Santos to the Tank and whilst I am appreciative of their history and horological significance, the styling just isn’t me. The styling is great; however, the style just isn’t me as I am more of a sports watch type of guy. I do have a dress watch and would love a rectangular option.

The history of the Tank is interesting, the Tank was introduced in 1917, and officially released in 1919. Inspired by the introduction of the Renault FT-17 tanks used on the WW I battlefield, the Tank was created by Louis Cartier, grandson of company founder Louis-François Cartier. The Cartier Tank is an elegant timepiece, I can see why people are drawn to this design, it is timeless. The sapphire cabochon crown is not really my style; however, I can see why people like this.

The 2017 Leeuwin Estate Prelude Cabernet Sauvignon is a pretty decent drop pitched at a reasonable price point. is an excellent choice of a Margaret River cabernet sauvignon from a major winemaker. Leeuwin Estate has an amazing selection of wines, the premium Art Series is a very refined drop, they charge a premium price for a premium product.

The Prelude Series is their second line behind the highly regarded and awarded Art Series, but priced within the reach of the majority of wine drinkers. Whilst the rest of the Margaret River was pumping out big Cab Sav, Leeuwin Estate was experimenting with softer styles and they made some pretty big sales and gained a huge reputation.

As many people in Australia are now technically becoming millionaires through residential housing ownership. Although they have an expensive asset, they cannot use that to generate an income unless they rent out rooms, this is something that most families do not wish to do and this is understandable. A millionaire in investable assets is the definition for me, this is difficult for most individuals and families as their income is poured into their mortgage.

Ok, so what is the difference? Well, I consider a net invested millionaire is a million dollars in investments that excludes the primary residence. This excludes liabilities such as vehicles, boats, motor bikes, jet ski, holiday homes, furniture, whitegoods, computer equipment, home entertainment, and other non-income producing belongings.

The depreciation on vehicles, whitegoods, computers and home entertainment technology is high, they just lose money and whilst they produce lifestyle experiences, they are not income producing. Absolutely we need these belongings, they provide recreation and lifestyle options that make life worthwhile. What is the benefit if someone stops working early and just sits around the house watching daytime television? There has to be lifestyle advantages here, taking a boat out fishing, diving, or out on the course golfing. Whatever you like to do, you should be doing it.

A million dollars in assets that develops an income stream and provides capital growth. An investment property differs as it produces an income stream and capital growth that an investor can live on should they retire [or semi-retire]. Commercial property can be held by individual investors and held in self managed superannuation funds. The problem we have now is there are caps on superannuation holdings, this may be better to be held in a family trust or company structure.

So absolutely this includes industry, private and self managed superannuation funds as they produce growth and an income for the fund holder for retirement. Yes, they must wait until they are 60 years old to access their retirement fund, this is an income producing asset though. This is the problem with superannuation though, you must wait until at least age 60 before you can access these funds.

Likewise, shares, bonds and precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum, private equity, hedge funds, exchange traded funds, and currencies. This could also include commodities that are traded on exchanges such as grains, livestock and meat, coffee, cocoa, frozen orange juice concentrate, oil, gas and forest products that can produce growth or rent.

I was fairly surprised when I learned that I was still able to purchase the Dunlop KT-26 running shoe from large discount retailers such as Big W and Target. Released in the 1970s, the KT-26 was the running/sports shoe that everyone wanted. I had the shoes as a teenager so there was a degree of nostalgia here.

I was informed by a work colleague on site where to purchase these runners, so I trundled off to the shops to purchase a couple of pairs. One pair was for sports that included running and cycling, the second pair was for casual attire around the camp and travel to and from site. The KT-26 sports shoe had plenty of features back then including a cushion sole with pretty decent grip. They had insoles to support the arches, that was unheard of back then.

I get annoyed at work when I hear the term from ex-military personnel talking about serving your country. If you commit to twenty years, this is a career and not service per se. If you were called up for national service, or the draft for Americans then you are serving your country; this is because you did not sign up voluntarily.

Many nations have compulsory military service, normally for a period of two years full-time with intermittent training for shorter periods thereafter. I understand many people sign up voluntarily for active service and get sent overseas to fight and there are many reasons for that. After 9/11, Americans signed up in droves because their country was attacked. I suggest this is significantly different to joining the military in Australia because the Americans knew they were to be sent overseas to fight in Afghanistan and later Iraq. 

I work with a bunch of ex-army guys who have done their twenty years and are now eligible for a military pension. They made a conscious decision to join the military and to stay for twenty years collecting their pension when their time was completed. I attended a less than academically orientated high school with a cadet corps attached, I like others attended cadet training with many of my class mates moving into the army.

This was in the mid to late 1980s with Australia slowly recovering from the 1982/83 recession. Youth unemployment was high and there wasn’t many opportunities available to school leavers. I was lucky enough to gain an apprenticeship, many were not as lucky as me and many of my school mates signed up to four years army duty because they were getting paid.

Reading a Greg Sheridan article, I will lift a line from his writing. “The battle of ideas should be ferocious, the battle of people should be civil and decent and full of human regard.” To use a sporting parlance, play the ball and not the man. There are certain parameters that should be off limits, this is a member’s families and personal issues. When US president Donald Trump mocked a disabled person at a press conference, he should have been pulled aside and told to pull his head in by a member of his entourage. Instead, none of his team said anything and let him get away with it.

Ok, so what is Greg trying to say here? There is a basic left wing/right wing view of the political spectrum where the left-wing Australian Labor Party and the right-wing Liberal Party engage in ideological battles. Within the two major parties are factions that may be centralist, left-socialist and right-conservative within each party. Both major parties form coalitions with minor parties to form government or opposition alliances in parliament. We have learned through multiple elections, the party that strays either too far left, or too far right from the centralist ideals pays with a heavy loss.

I believe we need to have a robust political debate free from personal attacks and/or character assassination. The discussion needs to centre on facts, not individuals. Even if you follow a certain political party, an individual might not agree with all of their policies, or you may agree with the policies of a rival paty. Lets face it, the political party you align personal values to owes you nothing, you really should vote based on the policy that party puts forward during the election campaign.

I suggest the political divide should be a battle of ideas on a variety of issues, both major parties have their strengths and weaknesses as well as perceived strengths and weaknesses in their ideology. There should be civil debate in parliament, individuals should not attack the individual and instead debate their respective policies. All too often, this breaks down and we witness a slanging match on television or radio where politicians act like teenagers arguing. The discussion needs to stay on point and never get personal, it rarely does though and they should be held accountable.