You have a couple of options of diving in Moalboal, you can dive the walls close to the dive centre for a local dive and then there is Pescador island, a longer banca ride but well worth the trip.

Regardless, you will be back at the dive centre between dives and a multi-day stay should see a combination of local and Pescador Island dives. There are only a couple of restaurants to choose from in Moalboal, they do have splendid views over the water. My favourite time to visit is lunch while the sun is out and shining. It’s now been ages since I have been to Moalboal and another trip is maybe on the cards, I have been there twice in the past decade and it’s about time to head back again.

In what could possibly be my worst nightmare, Philippines based fastfood retailer Jollibee has purchased Californian coffee roaster and cafe The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I sometimes joke about certain takeovers where it it like finding out your favourite restaurant has been purchased by McDonalds.

The Filipinos are extremely proud of their favourite national fastfood retailer, for the life of me I don’t know why, its product is awful. But I have eaten there on occasions, especially when I am in the provinces and lack choice. Jollibee Inc is a big business enterprise supported by a proud and fanatical population. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf isn’t a young business, it has been around since 1963 and operating in many countries with a large consumer base in South East Asia.

What my concern is that executives will want to start playing around with the winning retail formula and try to put their own style on the business and ruin the consumer experience. Without reviewing their financial statements, I can see The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has expanded in many countries and may have not developed their supply chains extensively.

Jollibee has a pretty captive market, sure the fast food business is crowded with American giants McDonalds, KFC, Burger King and Pizza Hut dominating markets, but they are able to draw on nationalistic influences and attract consumers. I hope they just leave the business along and allow it to start trading profitably again.

Am I a right wing socialist or a left wing capitalist? I am really not sure of the answer, I am certainly a capitalist but I also believe in government intervention in markets to a degree to regulate industry to prevent monopolies and oligopolies.

I am certainly not of the Ronald Reagan view that government is not the solution to problems but government is the problem. I have moved between private enterprise and state government employment in my working life and certainly believe in the role of government. I believe government institutions are poorly managed, they have managers running around believing they are running a business with little to no experience in actual business management. I have had colleagues that have never held a position in a non-government job in their life.

I believe businesses have a corporate social responsibility and unlike the Friedman doctrine of business ethics that a firm’s main responsibility is to its shareholders. Friedman, in a 1970 essay to The New York Times argued a firm has no corporate responsibility to the public or society but only to shareholders.

I believe private enterprise provides services more efficiently than the public sector and government services should be involved in licencing and registration providing the regulation for the industry sector. If it is not financially feasible for a private industry organisation to make a profit in a particular sector as margins are not available then a government body can either subsidise an industry or deliver the service themselves.

This may be defense, transport, education, medical treatment, aged care, police, fire, justice, disability services or low income housing. I am certainly a believer in a safety net for those unable to provide for themselves or family that includes unemployment benefits or disability payments. After weighing up the evidence, I am certainly a capitalist, that is without doubt, but I believe the role of government is to create the conditions of a safe and successful society. I still don’t know if I am a left wing capitalist or right wing socialist – maybe they are the same thing?

I can’t say I am a huge James Blunt fan, but what I really like about the guy is how he takes down haters online.

James utilises smart and witty responses to poke fun at his legion of haters and make them the butt of his jokes. What James does is reply to individual posts, he uses his sharp wit to publicly humiliate trolls. He doesn’t engage in trolling himself, he just responds to the ugly side of the internet.

As the story goes, he was asked by his record label to gain an online presence on Twitter, the record label also asked him to tone it down but there was no chance.

We all know the style of music he plays, I won’t be racing out and buying his next album but I do like how he humiliates keyboard warriors.

It is often said that money can’t buy happiness, I think this is a myth perpetrated by people without means and motivation. Being poor doesn’t necessarily make you any happier either, more than likely you lack medical facilities and opportunity. This is just an excuse to explain a lack of means – a cop out.

What money buys is life experiences, I am a diver and I have had the opportunity to dive in a number of countries and regions. Likewise, I am into sailing and have sailed in different locations and I hope to do more in the future. I am not travelling first class, I stay in humble accommodation and use local transport as much as possible. I have worked as a dive guide and dive instructor in a number of countries and whilst the money isn’t fantastic, the life experiences are.

I don’t own the yacht, I know how to crew the various positions, set and trim sails and I race yachts throughout the summer months. When required, I always make my time available to work on the yacht to support the boat owner. I sleep on the boat or stay at cheap accommodation without running showers instead using a small saucepan to tip cold water over my head. You wash yourself and cold water during the summer months isn’t an issue, life experience is everything and you don’t need to travel first class to experience it.

One of the positives to arise from the Chinese economic slowdown is that it may substantially damage their economic growth. Let’s face it, they caused this mess and they should be the ones to pay, there is no trust with China. China relies on exports, they have now wiped out the major economies of the developed world due to their carelessness. They shut down their country early, well before the rest of the world and now they are opening up production again.

But where will this production go? The very markets they export their goods to are caught up in the mess they created. They are a long way from becoming a consumer economy, maybe they will realign and ramp up domestic production. No one can believe that these wet markets with exotic animals can go on without government knowledge in such a totalitarian state. They know and for too long they have allowed this to continue, this must be the point where they shut this down or face economic sanctions.

They monitor and mark their very own citizens for their adherence to strict communist guidelines. Therefore, it is implausible that they could have these markets operating without official sanction. The Chinese government must swiftly move to close down these cesspit markets for the sake of not only China but the world. Their lack of hygiene has caused the developed world to endure this calamity – get your act together.

Returning to dive Mactan Island, I have to check my memory as it was some time ago, the best way is to check some old certification cards. I was passed out as competent based on the dives I did back then for the cost of PADI registration.

The walls are pretty much vertical, there is nice soft coral growth and some pretty decent gorgonian fans. The grey sky encountered on every dive really didn’t allow the walls and corals to light up as well as they could. That being said, the walls were pretty good, the marine life was pretty decent and the currents not too savage. What I did see was a build-up of silt on the wall, corals and fans, there were suspended particles from the water movement that clouds visibility but I still found it fairly decent.

As Mactan Island is the site of the international airport, flights from Asia are landing on a regular basis. Chinese, Hong Kong, South Korean and Japanese tour groups are regulars on the Mactan walls after arriving on short haul flights, spending a couple of days in a resort diving before jetting home. Mactan Island is a fairly decent place to dive, it is not really world class diving, but more than acceptable for a short-term dive holiday. The Mactan walls are well preserved, there are numerous dive boat operators moored in the bay and from what I experienced, they don’t have to travel far to drop divers on a decent site and they use moorings.

I was pretty athletic before, mind you I had a couple of things going for me. I was young, I trained like a semi-professional athlete and I had very active employment.

I am older now, I traded the outdoor lifestyle to study and I have an office job. That being said, I completed my study over a year ago yet I haven’t regained my fitness. I was working full-time, studying part-time and trying to get some fitness activities in where I could. Even though I was studying I got to the gym twice a week, ran 5 km twice a week and did some extra weight sessions at home. That wasn’t enough, the study commitments got the better of me and I reduced the weights to one session a week before finishing all together.

Weekends were about study and writing up assignments, there was no social time and what time I did spend out was always getting done quickly so I could return home to work. I stopped driving to work so I could use my time more efficiently by catching the train to work so I could read required text and note take. So now I embark on a career change, a new job includes a new lifestyle and I am positive I will change my lifestyle and regain fitness. I will be back in the gym, back running and I have purchased a new mountain bike to start cycling again. I am really excited about my renewed vigor and outlook.

Our retirement savings are taking a beating, I haven’t lost my life and so far none of my family have and that is the primary issue. What has happened in Italy is just terrible, while I don’t know anyone who lost their life, I cannot imagine how their families feel.

At some stage we are going to have to take a look at the financial ramifications of this mess, my and everyone else’s superannuation fund is looking very sick. Sure, you don’t make a loss until you sell so I am in no distress in that regard. What gets smashed is earnings and dividends, I will seek to buy quality blue chip shares with the cash saved over a long period. I thought the market was overpriced and coming to the end of a long bull run.

I can’t say I predicted this financial meltdown, I thought there would be a slowdown and a six to eighteen month bear market. There is a US presidential election this year, I expected the bull run to continue throughout the 2020 election year and into 2021 before the inevitable correction. But this has all changed, I will follow this market down and look to buy. This time I will be all in and although I won’t find the bottom, this could be the buying opportunity I have been seeking. We have mass unemployment, people will be glad to go out again so restaurants and bars could pick up.

The international economy will be depressed for some time, growth will be slow and I am sure some economies will seek to rebuild their manufacturing base. We have binged on cheap imports from China too long and neglected national supply chains. The world was in a slow growth phase, wages were stagnant across the world fueled by debt and the growth of money. What we have seen from this virus pandemic is more sovereign debt so unless nations engage in infrastructure investment I just can’t see any changes in the short term.

One of the great American trucking brands, Mack is a robust, no-nonsense prime mover, the Americans call a tractor, built on a foundation of rugged Allentown engineering is undoubtedly the best known truck brand. So Mack is now in the fashion wear business moving from industrial themed advertising Mack branded caps, jackets, shirts and boots into more mainstream fashion – they call trucker apparel. I have lightweight Mack safety footwear with protective top capping so I can wear in heavy duty workshops.

These were once built steel caps but with technology flowing into safety products, a carbon fibre protective toe is both strong and lightweight. We all once wore heavy duty work boots and this added to the fatigue at the end of every shift. I’m glad Mack is moving into fashion wear, Mack clothing is no longer restricted to the Pennsylvania heartland. Mack products are being identified as cool by the young set and worn out as casual wear – a great product is now moving mainstream.