My friends in the wine industry are relieved
05 May
Posted by Sandra as australia, economy and finance
I have quite a few friends in the wine industry here in Victoria and I can tell you it was a big relief for family owned wineries across Australia last Sunday. Our government has done the right thing in keeping the status quo tax wise and not to follow the Henry Tax review recommendations, at least in regards to wine taxes.
I found this article on one of my favourite blogs downunderwines for those of you who would like to get more insight.
Enjoy and open a bottle to celebrate tonight,
Cheers Sandra
The wineblog Downunder Wines has all it takes to learn about wines from Australia. A team of wine enthusiasts explains the wines without the big fuzz, some wine critics normally take for granted. And that’s what I really like about the site - it hasn’t got this ‘up stiffer lip’ wine lingo, but an easy going very personal touch.
There are reports on the wine regions in Australia, the top wine makers, the cellar doors or other people involved in the industry. ‘Baby you can drive the car tonight‘ is one of the preferred posts the blog has posted in the past months. It tells the story of Sandy, who is a owner-driver of a limousine service in the Yarra Valley in Victoria. Great fun to read.
The latest on the blog is a series called ‘my drink today’ where readers of the blog present their current drink, such as Amber from Adelaide.
Enjoy responsibly.
With the 90-minute finale episode drawing an incredible 3.7 million viewers last Sunday it was the most watched non-sports TV show since ratings began.
A recent MX newspaper mentioned runner-up Poh was seen as the winner in the marketing race, having more market appeal among young people and intrigue than the winner. Producing interesting, sometimes crazy dishes in the eyes of the average Australian such as rice congee with 100-year-old egg, along with her quirky personality, makes for a popular appeal.
As an avid fan having followed the contestants’ journey from the very beginning, it was hard not to form favouritisms, whilst observing their transformation in cooking knowledge and skills. I think what makes Masterchef so unique in comparison to other reality shows such as Big Brother and Australian Idol, is the realisation of talent. All of the contestants did not have prior expertise in cooking, but with guidance from chefs with years of experience, it was interesting to see what became of them throughout the series.
Watching the finale episode and barracking for Poh, I was interested to see what thoughts everyone had during the advertising breaks. Logging onto Twitter, “Go Poh” and “Go Julie” were trending topics!
It was only in the final break before the announcement I was horrified to see people publicising the winner with posted links to the Sydney Morning Herald articles. Curiosity got the better of me and the articles concluded Poh the winner. This made me ecstatic but very disappointed that after three months of weekly followings, it was all spoiled by one Tweet!
Having not been true at all, I was again, bitterly disappointed. This is one major downfall in real-time social media. Sometimes the good ol’ fashioned way of finding out news yourself, is best. I’m just glad that Twitter was not invented when the last Harry Potter book was released.
Last week we all had a good giggle at the wife of the new head of Britain’s spy agency when she posted personal information, including photos of her husband and their friends, on facebook. But, after the initial laugh, I had a serious think about what i was posting online.
Sometimes, it is easy to forget that the internet has no erase button. For my generation, and those that come after, our entire existences will be documented and easily accessible just by keying in the right google search terms. However, ‘facebook stalking’ a term which has innocently entered the Gen Y lexicon, isn’t just used by uni students wanting to scope out potential dates for the next faculty ball, but is also used by employers wanting to check up on job candidates, and potential clients, wanting to see if you can walk the walk as much as you talk the talk.
So, what is appropriate (and inappropriate) to post online?
For personal information, I always ask, ‘would my mum want to see this?’ And, if your mum is complete free spirit ask, ‘would I like my friends parents to see this?’
In terms of your business: incomplete or inaccurate business information can be particuarly embarrassing, so double, triple, quadruple check your facts before you post anything that could not only impact on you, but also on your clients, partners and workmates. Also, especially in the case of company blogs and websites, always ensure that you have the rights to all the information and images you post online.
Really, there are no rules, especially as its becoming more and more accepted that individuals will have their own online profiles, blogs and twitter accounts, and the more entrenched this becomes the more lenient the watchers may become. However, when you’re dealing with your reputation, not just for now, but in the future (who wan’t to be doing damage control for something that you posted 20 years ago) caution is key.
In the modern world, when there’s a buring question that you need answering, what do you do? You turn to the internet of course.
After the news of Michael Jackson’s death hit the world’s media last week, Google recieved so many searches for The King of Pop that they actually thought that they were under attack. We’re more than used to getting the information we want and with smart phones and wireless internet, we’re used to getting that information quicker than ever.
But there are still some questions that the internet can’t help us answer, right? Like ‘what books would I enjoy?’, ‘what places should I see before I die?’ or ’should I get that nose ring I’ve been thinking about?’.
Wrong. Not only can we send those question out to the Twitterverse and get some pretty quick and honest responses, or even float ideas amoungst our other online networking groups, we can also ask Hunch.
Give the website some ideas about yourself, click on a query you’d like answered, maybe give the site a little more feedback, and it will give you its ‘hunch’ of things you’d enjoy, from young adult fiction novels to which mobile phone would best suit you (apparently between an iPhone and a Blackberry, I should buy an iPhone).
Are we giving the internet too much power? Maybe we should ask hunch.
