Even in autumn, I could not believe the crowds that descended upon Bruges, we struggled to move freely, we bumped into people and we could hardly move at times in the city centre. The train from Brussels took about an hour and ten minutes, I love this European train network.

You can’t complain when you are adding to the mass of numbers, I just wasn’t expecting what I considered to be summer crowds in autumn. As we stepped on the train at Brussels Nord we were guaranteed a seat, we knew the return trip would off no such luxuries as our return trip on the same train just a couple of days before offered no such luxuries.

I could hardly believe Bruges was so crowded for a weekday that wasn’t summer holidays or any other holiday for that matter. I can understand the locals getting peeved at the the congestion in their city. I am not sure what winter holds for locals, there may be some respite from the onslaught of tourists. They might even be employed in the hospitality industry and benefit from tourists.

When the Kellogg School of Management infographic flashed across my computer, this promotes thinking. Well at least for me, in what it takes to achieve organisational success, after moving back into a high performing team environment – I comprehend the team effort and how we grow as a team. Now I have moved back into a low performing environment and the differences could not be more different.

Firstly I need to ask, what is this company Northern Trust? What do they do and are they a leader in their market segment as hailing from the southern hemisphere, I had never heard of them. Northern Trust is a US financial services company providing wealth management, asset management and asset servicing that opened for business in 1889. It is reported Northern Trust is Headquartered in Chicago and has offices worldwide.

This investment banking and wealth management has $120 billion in banking assets, $6 trillion in funds under custody and $887 funds under management – this is a big show. So now I need to undertake some more research, who exactly do they advise? Some searching informed me they had offices in both Sydney and Melbourne – much to my embarrassment. Northern Trust is a seriously large business employing over 14,000 people so it would be fair to suggest Rick Waddell would have a pretty strong grasp on the situation.

I do not believe in this rock star/demi-god CEO notion where the CEO is the absolute leader, what is interesting is the promotion of self-functioning teams making decisions driving the organisation forward through active participation and authority to act. As a financial business, the ability to not only attract knowledgeable and motivated staff is a must, they require the ability to manage clients accounts in the best interests of the people who pay their salaries.

I have been fortunate enough to spend some time with a little dog named Toby. My own dog died just short of her 16th birthday. I always maintained I didn’t want another dog as she was irreplaceable.

I was happy to befriend Toby, I have kind of adopted him as my pseudo dog as I really like his zest for life. Toby was a sick little dog when I first came across him, he had distemper, was bleeding from the nose and we didn’t think he was going to make it. Even when he recovered, he had no energy, was very withdrawn and timid. It didn’t help that at nearly six feet I towered over him so I was imposing. My attitude to dogs is to ignore them and when they feel comfortable around you, they come to you.

I was in his territory one night and walked downstairs to use the toilet. He had wandered over to see me when I walked out of the door and kicked him in the dark, he raced off for cover and safety yelping and wouldn’t trust me again for ages. Time has passed and we are best friends now, he has forgiven my size 12 feet and my obvious lack of coordination. He now has energy and races around. He is not the ugliest dog in the world but could be a candidate, his legs are too short, his tail is too long and rubs along the ground.

He has an underbite, has two teeth sticking upwards, his left eye is milky and his tail is too long when you take into account his short legs. His tail actually drags on the ground, you could say Toby is a genuinely ugly dog yet he is my favourite. He is lucky to still be alive and every day he lives it is a better day when he is around.

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.