Plenty of good stuff. But as a last visit - some wine and some cheese.
A reasonably educated person trying to make sense of it all, and a little tormented as a result. Thinking aloud, mostly. These opinions rarely reflect the ideas of any of my employers.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Why it's not always about wine.
I dropped into The Winehouse in Langhorne. Here I was reminded how clever it is to have other things to buy. Here I might buy olives for my daughter Mia and Rocky Road for my wife Sylvia.
Verdelho: Challenge me
I am driving back through Langhorne Creek and wanted to challenge myself. Adam, winemake fro Taylors in my MBA class tells me that the big wineries have been really promoting Verdelho as the next big thing.
I can see why it could be. These ones were full flavoured and complex. I sensed that they might have had malolactic fermentation but the cellar door staff couldn't tell me and it wasn't written on the bottle. Perhaps it is a dumb question.
Anyhoo. I'm leaving with Old Vine. $29 vs $18 and worth it.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Spring pruning: a real job
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Too much and I might just shut your channel down
I must add that this person has never called me to tell me they just made my life easier - it has always involved me taking some time out of what I'm doing and turning my mind to their stuff.
No biggie, but my phone is for my convenience, not yours. If it happens to be an emergency then scream the house down - call everyone I know, leave a dozen messages and raise hell. I'll be there.
But if it happens to not be an emergency, then let's remember that I might have some other things on my plate. I only just raised an invoice for $600 yesterday for expenses I incurred in July. It was important but I chose to carry that debt because I had many things on my list that needed to be dealt with in turn. Methodically and calmly.
The fact that my phone rings and your name happens to be on it - that fact makes no difference at all to the things I have on my list. When there's too much on, I might just shut the channel down. Nothing personal.
I say this as I open one of my email accounts for the first time since last Wednesday. I'm nervous - all hell might have broken loose - but at least I did all the things over the last five days that I promised I would. It's just time to see who wants to add to my ToDo list now.
Monday, October 27, 2014
An "in pub" retail shelf
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Mollydooker shared with great family
Sparkling red: Why not Mollydooker?
Merlot flowers and Downy Mildew: Just another Spring
Far flung friends: Wine gave me this



Best from Burgundy!
Cheers,
D


Saturday, October 25, 2014
After class drinks: let's rock the staff room!
Beautiful day, beautiful Adelaide, beautiful cheese.
Some wine for after class?
Friday, October 24, 2014
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Success is not about offloading your problems onto others...
But if there's one thing age has given me, it's a very clear head on what I respect and what I don't. And what I don't respect is this approach to solving a problem:
- I have a problem
- I find a way to turn my problem into your problem
- You solve your problem
- My problem is solved
I think it starts in early childhood. When I was a newborn baby, everything was my parents' problem. Quite simply, I'd die if my parents didn't feed me and protect me. Big trouble for them. As I got older my parents still had a responsibility for me. Feed me, school me, roof over my head. My needs were their problem - to some degree. I suppose it's natural for all of us to confuse needs and wants - and if the line is too blurred I suppose that's where people begin to act entitled.
I've mostly managed to check myself when watching some young people and resisted the urge to say "you don't hear the word 'no' very often, do you?".
Schoolteachers - at times - are held responsible for kids' learning at school, even if the kids are there under sufferance. Not only are they expected to lead their pupils to water but force them to drink.
I think "management courses" have a lot to answer for. It's all about "making things happen" but there is often not enough recognition that "if it's to be, it's up to me" or in the world of Terminator 2: "There's no fate but what we make."
Or at the very most those ideas are just abstract concepts to many people.
I'm reasonably OK when people are dependent on others and just deal with it. But I do find it irksome when I see people who trumpet their independence but do nothing to create the wealth that they're sharing in.
Big tip: It's not a "job" to find some new legal loophole or benefit that you can receive when you're not providing anything of value in return. I don't know what it is, but it's not a workable system.
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Woolies checkout lines six deep: Fail.
I'm not in a particular hurry today. Neither, apparently are Woolworths. I'm here at Marden and the lines are six deep. When they are that deep and I have some time I just sit back to see how long it take for them to open another checkout.
I think we're up to about ten minutes now and nobody who got on then end of either of these lines is through yet.
Op! One just opened up in front of me. Time to hustle.
Yep, I don't think I'll come back here much. They have no self service aisles and they're not snappy enough to make it up with people.
It's just as easy to to turn left to Coles Avenues as it is to turn right towards Woolies Marden when I leave my house.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Instant experts: The reason I love skydiving.
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Sorry, perhaps I don't understand fertility biology |
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Meshach 2006 at $160
Hey I have 2-3 bottles of 1988 in my cellar but I haven't opened my cellar for over 13 years. Wanna try these?
My students: let's do it again today
Friday, October 10, 2014
Fresh eggs: A surprise for the students in tomorrow's class
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
English cricket: A bullying culture is a losing culture

Some of the worst performing teams have had all the opposite. An iron fisted ideologue as "leader" with a string of ducklings all tagging along, squabbling among themselves to be the first behind the boss. The boss duck actively encouraging the squabble. I have always considered that to be a losing culture, but those cultures are also self delusional. Where I've seen it, the scoreboard is so confused that the members actually think they're doing OK.
In business or sport it becomes very clear. If our sales were going down or rival companies making inroads to our customers, the team would be losing. We never did.
But the English cricket team were losers - at least the last time they played Australia. Furthermore their performance seemed to fall off a cliff between the previous ashes series in England and the most recent here in Australia.
Team games are tough. It involves tough people with their focus and drive. Harsh words get spoken. But harsh words are not the same as a cringeing culture of intimidation, exclusion and idolatry. Often there will only be one person speaking out - such is the toxicity - because once you're out you're out for good, an enemy to all. The culture takes good, or ambivalent, people and makes them a part of the machine. Lessening them in the process. That seems to be what happened with the English Cricket team.
I've spoken about this before with Mick Malthouse when I stated you have to love the ones you lead, and why I will forever hold Collingwood in contempt.
But I like to think that where it counts, where the scoreboard accurately reflects a team's performance, the losing teams actually lose. And where people are allowed the luxury of self delusion, that self delusion actually becomes its own cross to bear.
I may look back on this in months, or years, and amaze myself at how wrong I had it. But it's how I feel right now.