As some of you have observed, I’m a bit of a glass half empty kinda bloke.

Of course, we face Christmas 2023 with much unpleasantness in the world and far be it from me to offer any solutions.

The Managing Director and I recently returned from a sojourn to Canada and Alaska.

The latest accusations of Qantas selling tickets on cancelled flights sounds a lot like the “advice for no service” accusations aired during the banking royal commission, and we know how that ended.

The sense of danger and adventure that used to accompany trips to NZ is no more.

In this age of digital communication, I reckon we’ve lost the ancient art of effective communication.

I find newborn infants interesting. They seem to appear with little personality and a case of sheer exhaustion, presumably due to the rigors of their recent journey.

And now, on to another dog we must learn to love. The federal budget was handed down recently and what an inspired document it is.

Unfortunately, capital gains on units are a double edged sword whereby an increase in the unit value will often erode the total return on investment across the combined business and unit value.

Everything from high-risk lending outside accepted standards of credit assessment to dabbling in crypto currencies are coming home to roost.

As some of you may know I am a late arrival to the pastime of snow sports. It’s not that I haven’t always had an interest in skiing, mountains and snow. It’s just that when you are married with two kids, trying to pay off a mortgage and living pretty much week to week the prospect of mixing it with the snow resort jet set seems one hell of a stretch.

I guess I should start this month’s missive with a welcome to 2023. Doesn’t seem that long ago that we were stressing about the Y2K bug and now here we are, 23 years later.