Sunday 30/9/2017 - My Eyes!, My Back!, and My Recent Wristwatches.

Well, gang, here we are, last day of the month, and it seems that life has gotten too busy for me to do weekly posts. Try as I might, I just don't seem to have the energy or time to sit down on a Friday evening to hammer out one of these posts.

I might try creating a new post on the Monday night and leaving it as a draft that I can add to each night for fifteen minutes or so. Maybe this way, I'll have something worth posting on the Friday or Saturday.

Anyway, Spring has slowly begun to blossom here in Melbourne and we've had a few sunny days here and there. I decided to wear the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean, since it has been some time since I last wore it. I immediately noticed that it looked a little larger on my wrist than it did the last time I wore it. I'm pretty certain that I've lost a little weight or muscle (such as I have) since the beginning of this year. 

Most of my wristwatches tend to feel just a tad looser on the wrist than they did a year ago. Now, you may know that you can't beef up your wrists by exercising or weight training, but you can thicken the forearms a little. 

I briefly wore the Omega Seamaster 300 on a TrueBond NATO strap. I've managed to accumulate quite a number of NATO straps over the years and they're all in unworn condition. Might be time to leave one on a watch and really put it through its paces. Thin out the collection a little. 

A lot of watch collectors don't like NATO straps. Their argument being that why would you put a cheap, ten dollar strap on an expensive wristwatch? My answer is that a cheap, ten dollar strap takes away some of the pretentiousness associated with an expensive wristwatch. Not only that, but these cheap nylon straps are also one of the most secure methods for keeping the watch on your wrist if one of the spring-bars come off.

As the weather slowly begins to warm up now that spring is here in Melbourne, I begin thinking about gin and tonics. The cupboard was a little bare, that half-bottle of Bombay Sapphire that I bought in Rome a year ago is empty and now sits on the bookshelf in front of a stack of Jim Thompson noir fiction paperbacks. 

I hit one of the larger liquor chains and got a bottle of Tanqueray and some tonic water. I wore the Seiko SKX031. I bought this one back in 2002 for around a hundred bucks. I wore it from time to time for garden work, workouts at the gym, and other handyman jobs around the house. This would explain why it's still in pretty good condition. The bezel has seized up a little and is very hard to turn, but maybe all it needs is a rinse under some warm water. 

In health news, I took delivery of a pair of multi-focals a couple of weeks ago. At the tender age of 51, I have now reached the point where I need glasses to see the computer screen clearly at work. I've been in this job for the last 18 months and it's the first job I've had where I stare at a computer screen for such a large part of the day. 

The optometrist told me to start off by wearing them for about two hours of the day, but the job is just too busy. Should take a couple more weeks to settle in, I suppose. 

Started going to a physiotherapist too. I've been feeling some sharp pains in my right shoulder blade. Felt like an arrow was stuck in it. 

He told me that my spine is a mess and gave me a series of exercises that didn't involve Pilates. Good! That was week one. 

The second week involved something called dry needling. This treatment uses an acupuncture needle, but rather than being left in, it is pushed in and out for a few seconds, causing the muscle around it to spasm slightly. It's a very strange sensation as you feel a dull ache for a few moments as the muscle contracts reflexively. 

The physio told me that I might have a good sleep that night as a result of this treatment. He wasn't wrong. 

I'm not sure how long this treatment will take, but I'm looking forward to getting a better range of movement. It was getting to the point where I couldn't turn my head to check for traffic while driving, without wincing in pain. Reversing out of the driveway every morning was becoming excruciating. Something had to be done.

I wore the Omega Speedmaster Professional at some point since my last post. This is an old photo, but I like the lighting in it, and the timber bench-top has aged nicely, with the help of some varnish streaks. 

Photo taken in subdued lighting in the afternoon. What professional photographers call 'Golden Hour'. 

Not a perfect photo, I'm sure. The silver sections of the bracelet and clasp look a little washed out, but it's perhaps better than most of my efforts. 

Which is why I tend to adopt the view these days that 'lighting is everything' when it comes to taking a decent picture.

I read about this watch here on the right a few weeks ago. Its design is based on the compressor-style dive watches of the 1960s and '70s. These watches featured an internal rotating bezel which was operated by a second crown, usually positioned at the 2 o'clock edge of the dial.
The brand is called Dan Henry. Mr Henry himself is a watch collector with a phenomenal collection of pieces which date back to 1900. He has them listed on this website;

TIMELINE | Vintage Watch Collection

Dan Henry decided to make his own small collection of watches based on classic designs of the past and this is his latest model, known as the 1970, for the year of the design on which it's based. There was a 44mm model released some time ago, but Dan Henry had always felt that it was too large. So, he's released a newer version in a sober 40mm diameter, which is fine by me. 

As soon as I read that it was forty mil, this brand had my attention. Under the bonnet beats an automatic Seiko NH35 movement inside a 200m water-resistant case with a sapphire crystal. 

And the price was another deciding factor; $250USD, with free shipping to Australia. Sold!

It arrived four days ago and I've been wearing it since. It's a great size on my wrist. 

Well, another week down. I got a dinner date with my wife next week, to celebrate our 21st Wedding Anniversary. 

Should be a very pleasant evening. 

Okay, so the weekend's half over where I am. I hope you've had a good one so far, folks. 

Thanks for reading!

Sunday 10/9/17 - Recent Wristwatches

I've bought up a few different Rolling Stones bumper stickers from various eBay sellers lately. The first seller was selling reproductions that he had printed himself. I say this because the shade of red seen in the Stones tongue logo was a little too pale compared to the real thing. And the sticker arrived in a plain white envelope. I was going to leave negative feedback, but decided not to leave feedback at all. 

The next seller covered up the fact that he was selling 'removable' stickers. He didn't mention this in his listing, and when I messaged him about this, he told me that "all stickers are removable sooner or later". I left him neutral feedback. He messaged me and sarcastically thanked me for doing so. I explained that I though it odd that he covered up the 'removable stickers' text on the packaging in his listing, and I told him that if he'd like me to retract my neutral feedback, he needs to go through eBay channels and make a request. I will be happy to alter or remove my feedback. 

The third seller stated in his listing that payment via PayPal was accepted and then he sent me a message after I had won the auction to say that he preferred Bank Deposit and he no longer had a PayPal account. 

By now, I was beginning to lament these purchases. They weren't expensive, five or ten bucks for each transaction, but I couldn't help thinking what a struggle and drama it had all become. 

I just wanted a friggin' Stones sticker to put on my car's rear windshield. 

With so many Mazda 3 hatchbacks out there, I want to put a few stickers on the car so that I can distinguish it from other similar cars when I've, for example, parked it at one of those confusing car-parks - like IKEA's- where all exits and entrances look alike. 

Anyway...

- Watches that I've been wearing lately -

The Camy Club-Star, on a Speidel Twist-O-Flex expanding bracelet. This look always gives off an Uncle-in-the-1970s vibe to me. I recall seeing more than a few friends of the family or relatives at weddings who wore this kind of set-up. 

An expanding watch bracelet belongs to a particular era, one where the bathroom cabinet contained a jar of Brylcreem and an ashtray sat on the bedside table. A time when car windows had to be cranked open by hand and the gear stick jutted out of the steering column. 

I wore the Oris Diver SixtyFive for a couple of weeks. This one is such a well-made watch. I've been so impressed with it since I got it last November and I'll have to start writing a review of this piece soon.

Been some time since I wrote a review, but I'm just waiting for the 'hook' for the review to show itself. 

I have one idea kicking around at the moment and I may go with it.

A few months ago, I was considering selling this watch because I wasn't getting much wear out of it. However, I wonder now if perhaps putting it on a leather strap might change it up enough to the point where I might wear it a little more. 

It's certainly a nice watch. Although, it can be difficult to read the time on it in real life. The steel hands can tend to get lost against the glossy black dial. This photo was taken at a slight angle, with a sheet of white paper held over the watch to create a reflection off the steel hands and markers. Believe me, if it were this easy to see all of the time, I'd be wearing it more often. 

Still a nice watch, though.

And that's this installment done and dusted, folks. I'm hoping for some sunnier days coming up over the next few weeks because I have a few items that I'd like to put on eBay and I need to take some sharp photos in good lighting. Spring has begun and my wife and I aim to get this house ship-shape, and that means some serious de-cluttering coming up. And the kids will be helping out a little more this time. 

"There are no passengers on board, only crew", my wife has told them in the past. This time around, we're going to make them believe it. 

Thanks for reading, all, and have a good week!

Friday 11/8/2017 to Sunday 20/8/2017 - A Pocket Full of Rye, Dusting Off a Typewriter & This Week's Wristwatches

As life gets busier, the windows of free time get a little smaller, and a little more planning is required in an effort to post each week.
Something tells me that it may not go that way, so these weekly posts may become monthly or bi-monthly.
Anyway...

Well, I never quite got there, did I? 

Okay, what else, what else?

Oh, okay, I got a copy of Casino Royale from The Folio Society. They specialise in hard-cover reprints of classic literature. I like them because of their attention to detail, quality of the paper,  and the fact that they commission some beautiful artwork by well-known artists to include in the books. I was wearing the Omega AquaTerra on the day this book arrived in the post. It seemed fitting. Old-school wristwatch sitting next to a hard-back spy novel in a cardboard slip-case.                                                                              The copy of Live And Let Die  was one that I scored a few years ago off eBay. I got The Leopard from a nearby thrift store for 3 bucks. The cover artwork is great. The James Joyce book came as a freebie with the Fleming, so I might give it a read some day, but I'm not sure if I fancy my chances with it. Same thing goes for The Leopard.  As I get older, I become all too aware that there are still a tonne of classics that I haven't read. The time shortens, the list lengthens. Therefore, I get more selective with my choices. Ideally, I should devote a greater amount of reading time to these books instead of wasting time watch late-night crap on TV or getting side-tracked by useless web links. 

And I suppose when I'm not reading, I should be writing. Give those screenplay ideas a good run for their money. Maybe tackle those little Bond fan fiction snippets and see if I can churn them into a few short stories or a novella. Simply for the sake of seeing if I can produce a story with a beginning, middle, and end. The blog writing is all well and good, but I feel like it doesn't really lead me anywhere, since I don't think it's the best of what I could do. As I've said before, gang, these blog posts are a first draft, so what you're reading is pretty much what spills out of my head and onto the keyboard, without any editing or re-working.

In all its glory. 

Sorry.

Switched over to the  Omega Seamaster 300. The clasp on the bracelet is a little fragile at the moment. There's a small steel rod in the hinge that is close to wearing out. If I'm careful, though, it should last me a little while longer before I need to worry about how to repair it.

Been playing a little more of The Stones lately. This happens every year as the weather gets a little sunnier. Thinking about it now, it must have been the Summer of 1986 when I bought Rolled Gold, a double-album compilation of Stones tracks from their beginnings in 1962 through to 1969. I must have worn out a stylus playing those records again and again. 

Although, the reason I'm playing more Rolling Stones is because I picked up a copy of Exile on Main St (that makes three copies on CD now) which had a bonus disc with ten unreleased songs on it. One track is instrumental and not very good, and the other is a Keith Richards version of Soul Survivor with heavily reworked lyrics and Keef on vocals, not trying very hard to sing the song and seemingly making up the lyrics as he goes along;

"I may be a fool,

Hey yeah, you've got my tool"

At least they're funny. And luckily, the remaining eight tracks on this bonus disc are wonderful. Some of them are very bluesy, with Mick Jagger blasting away on a harmonica (Blues harp, to those of you in the know) in fine form.  

One day I'll have to do a post on this band and why they mean so much to me.
Switched over to the Oris Diver Sixty Five and wore it for the last ten days. Of course, I finished playing Exile and then sifted through my other CDs to find some of their other albums. Sticky Fingers is another great one. 
I've got a theory too about this band. Even their most lacklustre albums will guarantee one classic song. This was the case, as far as I'm concerned, until around 1983. 
I'll go into a little more detail if/when I write that post about the band. 

Always been a fan of Rye Whiskey. Used to drink Canadian Club and Coke back in my younger days before I discovered Beam's Rye. I still have an unopened bottle sitting in my liquor cabinet. Not sure if you can still get it here in Australia.

Damn! A quick visit to the Jim Beam website shows that the classic yellow labelled Rye is no longer produced. Damn! Now I'm too reluctant to open this bottle, which is silly, after all. It's a liquor cabinet, Teeritz, not a museum.

I Googled this new Rye and landed on a Whiskey blog which outlines the differences between the yellow labelled Rye and the new Pre-Prohibition green labelled one that I purchased a few weeks ago. It would appear that the old yellow label recipe was a little 'mild' for some tastes. This new recipe adds a few more percentage points to the alcohol content of this nectar. I tend to mix my dark spirits with Coke, so I can't really taste a stronger kick with this new blend, to be honest. Still, I am liking the taste of this new green label Whiskey, and the 'Pre-Prohibition' moniker on the label evokes a nice, pleasant 'Hammettesque' vibe too. 
I may not have to break the seal on the yellow label after all. And yep, Jim Beam Distilleries no longer produce the yellow label version. 
Dang it. 

I took a little time on Saturday writing up a timetable for my Monday workday. The plan is to do this for each day of the week so that I have a clearer idea of the ebbs and flows of my working week. This will be a little futile because the wild card in any of this will always be e-mails and phone calls, which can chew up quite a bit of time without my realising it. 

I spent over an hour on the phone to two separate customers one day, explaining the reasons in great detail (again and again!) as to why we had quoted for their watch repairs. Customer service is one thing, and I'm good at it after 22 years in hospitality and another sixteen in retail, but there is a limit to how much time you can spend going around in circles with customers who refuse to accept that their wristwatch requires repairs due to their own mishandling or abuse of the watch. The warranty card can only get them so far and sometimes, some folks have unrealistic expectations as to what a warranty will cover.
Basically, folks, if you drop a wristwatch and it stops working, that's accidental impact and the warranty does not apply. That's the super-short version.

Okay, it's now almost three pm on Sunday afternoon and there are still a few major tasks to deal with. I've switched watches for the day, opting for the circa 1969 Omega Seamaster Chronometer;

* Wash the car - CHECK
* Washing off the line - NOPE
* Fresh washing on the line - NOPE
* Ironing - NOPE
* Bread for lunches - NOPE
* Bathroom (clean) - NOPE

Yessiree, I got my work cut out for me, don't I? 
The weekends just aren't long enough. 
Right, 3:04pm. Gotta bounce.

Have a good week, all, and thanks for reading!

 

Friday 4/8/2017 - This Week's Wristwatches.

Short post this week, gang. And here on the left is the result of the Photoshop Express app on the iPad. 

The Internet - A Whole New Way To Waste Time!
I rarely check my Twitter account these days. I set it up about three years ago when I was studying, as I was informed that I would have to create a social media account as a prerequisite of one subject, on something widely used, such as Facebook. I had no plans in hell to set up a Facebook account. Twitter seemed harmless enough. Although, I'm now at a point in life where I'd like to pare away some of the internet residue in my life and scale back on spending so much time online. 

Anyway, onto the watches. I started with the Sinn 103 chrono last weekend;

Switched over to the Oris Diver Sixty Five early in the week;

I've been preparing that Olympus Trip 35 with a view to selling it. I have two other models of this classic rangefinder camera and figured I didn't need another. This one works just fine, but it has a problem with the red flag function. Basically, if you try taking a picture in low light, a small red cellophane disc pops up in the viewfinder. Now, if you know your way around a camera and basic photography, this isn't an issue, since you'll have a good idea of suitable lighting conditions. I took a screwdriver to this camera and removed the top plate and had a look at the red flag section. Gave it a light sprinkle of graphite powder -courtesy of the tip of one of those little IKEA pencils- which didn't seem to make a difference.
Next option would be to remove the lens and  aperture blades and give them a coating of graphite. I was gonna have to buy some actual graphite this time around.
So, I may spend an hour or three taking this camera apart and giving it the once-over. Hope it works.

This little guy continues to turn the house upside-down. Madame (our other cat) hasn't accepted him yet and I'm beginning to suspect that she may never.
Every time he gets near her, she flattens her ears and hisses at him. He doesn't seem terribly fazed, and I have to hand it to him for his perseverance. And don't let his cutesy looks fool you. Leave some food unattended for a second and it's as good as gone. Anything from chicken to buttered bread, it's all fair game as far as this guy is concerned.

I wore the Longines Expeditions Heritage on a lizard strap sometime this week;

As I've mentioned in recent months, work has gotten very busy since I went full-time and I find I have less time to devote to long posts on this blog. I was thinking that I should just write a little each night throughout the week, say maybe 30 to 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, I have ideas for other posts and I could perhaps take longer to write those.
There's always something one could write about.

For example, we got word recently that the next Bond film is due to be released. In November 2019! Daniel Craig will be 51 by the time this next one is released and I, for one, will have to wait over two years to see if or how they'll eradicate the memory of SPECTRE. No mean feat.

And now here I am, 9:50pm Friday night, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Dir: David Fincher, 2008) is on TV, but I already have it on DVD and really should sit down to watch it one night soon. Without the incessant commercial breaks.

We may try to catch Dunkirk sometime this weekend. It's gotten stellar reviews. Man, it would be very, very interesting to see Christopher Nolan direct a Bond movie. A fan's gotta dream.

Finished my working week with the Omega Seamaster 300;

Another week done and dusted. So much for a short post. I hope your lives are ticking along smoothly.

Thanks for reading, have a good weekend!

Friday 21/7/2017 - Busy Times, Old Friends, Cat Stand-offs & This Week's Wristwatches.

I've been busy in recent months since my job went full-time. As such, there have been weeks where I've gotten home from work on a Friday and haven't had the steam to write these weekly posts.
So, I'm not sure if I'll keep it up with writing one of these each week. I've also found that, because these posts are written in one hit, I'm never really satisfied with the finished product, which is essentially a first draft.
Anyway...

Picked up the new car a couple of weekends ago. By new I mean a 2006 model Mazda 3. Sure, it's now a ten year-old car, but I have to say that it drives pretty slick. 

Considering that my previous vehicle was a '93 Toyota, I freely admit that I've never kept abreast of new car technology over the years. My Toyota didn't have airbags or ABS brakes. I must have missed some of the main changes that have occurred in the intervening years. 

Therefore, this new car has required that I re-learn some driving techniques. The power steering is very sensitive and the gears and braking system are considerably more responsive than I'm used to. Still, I've stuck to being a cautious driver while I get the hang of this car over the coming weeks/months. 

It's also pretty tidy for its age. The previous owner really looked after it. Let's see if I can do the same.

                                                                                                 

I wore the Omega Seamaster 300  sometime in the last two weeks.

Don't let that pleasant yellow label fool you, kids. That Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey Liqueur packs a slight punch every sip you take.

I've noticed that I'm mainly wearing sports watches lately. Not sure why. Might try a vintage dress piece soon, for a bit of a change.
The weeks have begun to blur a little in recent months. Can't believe we're already in the third week of July. 


And why not throw in another shot of the SM300?

I caught up with an old friend of mine a couple of weeks ago. Having recently set up an Instagram account (again...and I'm not really sure why), I somehow popped up on her Instagram feed. How she figured out Teeritz was me I'll never know.

Must say I find it all a little nefarious the way internet algorithms work. I can only surmise that the world wide web (anybody still call it that?) somehow found a link from my email account, since she's listed in my address book on Hotmail, and linked it to her Instagram feed. Yes, that's right. I said Hotmail. Still use it, still like it. 

The cat situation remains tense. Madame still hisses whenever The Little Guy gets too close to her. She runs off. He thinks it's a game (I assume) and chases after her before she turns and hisses some more. I have to say she's showing this newcomer some absolutely dreadful manners. 

 

I wore the Omega Railmaster at some point;

 

Decided I was overdue for a little bit of Chandler. I'll Be Waiting is perhaps my favourite of his short stories. It concerns a hotel detective named Tony Reseck, who spends the quiet evenings in the lounge down in the hotel lobby listening to classical music on the radio. 

One night, he finds a lady in the lounge, curled up in an armchair listening to jazz on the radio. They get to talking. She's waiting for a guy. A guy who's only just gotten out of prison. She helped put him there. Reseck gets a message from his brother Al, a fella who moves in shady circles. Get the girl out of there. Her ex-boyfriend's coming for her, is the gist of what he says. 

There's a little more to the story, pal, but I ain't here to wreck it for ya. 

As I continue to get ticked off about Photobucket's recent dirty-pool behaviour, I spent a sizeable chunk of my spare time re-doing my watch review photos. I downloaded them off my Photobucket account and saved them to my hard drive. Then I deleted the Photobucket folder. I had already tackled the Omega Railmaster. The Tissot Visodate review was next. As I read through the review, for the first time in a long time, I decided that one or two new pictures were required. So, out came the camera and some props. It's not a perfect photo, but I was aiming to get the logo lit up on the dial, hence that circular reflection in the middle of the watch crystal. 

This review is located here on my blog and also on a wristwatch forum. However, I can't edit the forum review, so I figured I'd just tidy up my own one here. Shame, but that's just how it goes. 

Bit by bit, I'll save any worthwhile pictures, but I have to say that quite a few of my posts on this wristwatch forum are now littered with the Photobucket logo requesting me to upgrade my photo storage plan. Ain't gonna happen, folks. 

Of course, after spending an hour or so taking pictures of the Visodate, I decided to set the time and date on it and wear it for a few days.

I wore it until yesterday. Once I got home from work, I switched over to the Omega Seamaster 300M Professional. This is another watch that I haven't worn for some time. I purchased it in 1999 and only got it serviced for the first time earlier this year. While the overall design of this watch has dated over the years - it was first released in 1993- its strong Bond connection kept sales chugging along nicely over the last couple of decades. 

See that knitted tie? It's silk. Cost my wife a whopping 99 cents from a nearby Op Shop (thrift store). I got home from work one day last week to find it rolled up and sitting on my bedside table. I unrolled it and checked the label - Emporio Armani. Holy mackerel, some guys get rid of some nice stuff. This would have been quite pricey when it was new. And knitted ties never go out of fashion. 

Anyway, I've been hearing the older cat making some low rumbles every time the new kitten streaked past, so I think I'll call it a day here. 

 

Have yourselves a great weekend and thanks for reading!

Friday 7/7/2017 - Kittens of Mass Destruction, New Wheels, Photobucket Can Go To Hell & This Week's Wristwatches.

Last weekend, I wore the Omega Speedmaster Professional.

Geez, this watch looks huge on my wrist these days. Gotta eat a little more protein and get back to the gym. True, you can't fatten your wrists, but I do recall them being a little larger that they are now.

Question: What weighs less than two kilos, moves at the speed of light, and is really breaking my nuts at the moment?

Answer? 

This;

Monday morning, approx. 7:45am

                                                      He hopped up on the kitchen bench-top and knocked over the full jar of ground coffee...before I'd had my first cup of the day. My wife walked in to the kitchen to find coffee and broken glass all over the floor. 

Tuesday night, approx 6:00pm

                                                  My wife made a roast for dinner. Bowie ('cos that's what we've called him) managed to get his greasy paws on to the netting that was used to wrap around the roast and had a large wad of it in his mouth by the time he was discovered. Trying to get the netting out from between his claws was a slightly Herculean task, I'm told. 

Wednesday afternoon

                                   My wife and kids heard a slight clanging sound coming from the kitchen. Upon investigation, they found him with the little steel milk jug over his head, like a knight's helmet. He was stumbling around the kitchen and it was banging against the door. This is a small jug that we use to froth milk for coffees with. The jug was in the sink and had some residue in it and he had knocked it off the bench-top and then licked away at the inside of it. 

Thursday, dinnertime

                                  My wife turned her head away from her dinner plate for a split-second to glance over at the heater. My daughter and I yelled out; "Whoa!" and "Mum!!!"

My wife turned back to look at her plate as Mister leapt up onto the table and began sniffing at the steamed broccoli on her plate. My wife was slightly startled to find him so close to her food. She quickly grabbed him and lifted him up. He dug a claw into the linen place-mat under her plate. As she lifted him further away from the table, the place-mat and plate edged further towards the edge of the table in front of her lap. She stopped lifting him, he held on to the place-mat, while I, my daughter and my wife paused to figure out a way around this pickle without him eating her food or the food ending up in my wife's lap. 

Meanwhile, our other cat is still hissing at him if he goes near her. We've been careful to keep the two of them apart, but it's becoming a logistical headache, making sure one is in another room when the other appears. I will say, though, that Madame is hissing and groaning less and less than she did a week ago, so she just might be getting used to the fact that this new little guy is here to stay.

Or she's leading us on and plans to murder us all in our sleep one night. 

I prefer the first theory.

Wore the Speedmaster to start the week...

And switched over to the Hamilton Khaki Officer's Mechanical midweek. 
This is one piece that doesn't get much time on the wrist.Might have something to do with its 44mm diameter. If I'm thinking that the Speedmaster looks big on my wrist, then this thing is absolutely huge. However, I love it's cartoony look on my wrist. 
The photos I took of this watch when I wrote a review of it here a few years ago are being held hostage at the moment. See below. 
Looks like I'll be taking some new photos and updating that review sometime soon.

If you have a Photobucket account, you may have see this in some of your hosted photo locations on the web;

This blog of mine is now riddled with this graphic. I have about 360 blog posts here, many of them with photos hosted by Photobucket. In order for Photobucket to continue hosting my photos, I would have to upgrade to their P500 package which would cost me just shy of $400 USD a year. 

Not a chance in hell. Yes, I understand that they couldn't supply this free service forever, but I wasn't expecting that they'd hold me to ransom either. 

I don't respond well to blackmail. 

So, it will be a slow process, but I plan on replacing a tonne (or possibly all) of the missing photos on this blog, starting with my wristwatch review pictures first. Meanwhile, I'll remove my pictures from Photobucket and then ask them to close my account. Thanks for the nice service over the years, PB, but you really turned into a jerk towards the end.

It's now 9:00pm Friday night.  I'll be going to get a cheque from the bank tomorrow morning before heading to the Mazda dealership to pick up a 2006 hatchback that I took for a spin earlier this week. It was a sedate little test drive. Tomorrow, I plan to get this car into fifth gear.

Anyway, now it's 10:20pm and I need a cup of tea. Gotta say this computer of mine is really running slow these days. That last Window 10 update, coupled with our new NBN (National Broadband Network) setup has done nothing but slow this thing down. We switched to NBN about two months ago. We've experienced three outages to our internet (and more importantly) our landline phone. So far, this faster internet hasn't set my world on fire. Especially since I have noticed not one lick of difference in our internet speed around here. 

'Night all.
Oh, I wore the Oris Diver SixtyFive to work today;

Thanks for reading!

Sunday 2/7/2017 - Cheese, Keys & This Week's Wristwatches.

Too many late nights begin to catch up on me after a while. Winter is well and truly underway, work is busy and this new cat of ours is keeping us all on our toes.
I had started this post on Friday night, but I ran out of steam early on.
Saturday was busy as I headed out to check out some cars. When I got home and tried to continue this post, the photos wouldn't load up properly. I decided to leave it all alone for the rest of the day.
Anyway, Sunday afternoon rolled around and I got back to it. So here it is.

We had pasta for dinner on Monday night. My wife and I later went for a quick walk while the kids cleared the table. Any unused cutlery was put away, as were the place-mats and a small bowl of grated parmesan cheese was put away in the fridge. 

Lady Teeritz and I got back from our walk a little later and I went to the kitchen to flick the kettle on. I looked down and saw a small shape on the floor under the table. It was about the size of a matchbox. Next to this were some scattered crumbs. I crouched down and saw that it was what was left of the soap-cake sized block of parmesan cheese that had been grated into the bowl before dinner. 

Our new friend had gotten his tiny fangs into it. Ate about two-thirds of it. After we all spent a few minutes of "Oh my God, that little..." and "This little furry creep eats anything!"  and "Where the hell is he?", we went looking for the little so-and-so, and found him huddled under a stool in the study.

My wife brought him into the lounge and parked him next to herself on the couch. Soon, he started shivering a little. 

I called the nearby animal hospital, not really looking forward to having to take him there unless absolutely necessary.

The nurse that I spoke to told me to keep an eye on him over the next few hours and if he got worse overnight, it might be wise to bring him to our vet the next morning. 

He stayed put on the couch and we later gave him some water. Shortly afterwards, we brought him to our daughter's room where he's been living since he got here. Then we opened the front door to let our older cat in. She still hasn't accepted this little guy. 

Early days.

I wore the Oris Diver SixtyFive. Regarding Batman - The Dark Knight Returns, I read this classic graphic novel (I still call 'em comics) back in 1989, prior to seeing the Tim Burton Batman film starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. 

This comic is much closer in feel and mood to the Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale vision of Batman. 

In this story, we find Bruce Wayne in his early '50s, having hung up his cowl and cape years ago and now seemingly courting some kind of death wish as he engages in risky pursuits befitting a younger man. The Joker has just been released from Arkham Asylum, rehabilitated, and Superman works for the government. The streets of Gotham City are populated by gangs of vigilantes, neo-Nazi punks and mutant thugs and a thirteen year-old girl swings acrobatically across roof-tops at night in an effort to emulate Batman's off-sider Robin, who died years ago.

Written by Frank Miller, artwork by Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley, this was a seminal work when it was first released in 1986 and it almost single-handedly helped usher in a new breed of comic artists and writers who were intent on proving that comics could be more than just vertical rectangles, and could say more than "POW!" and "Kerrchannggg!!!"

If you ever only read one graphic novel in your lifetime, read this one. 

Tuesday morning, I had another dental appointment to have a new crown done. One more appointment in a month to get it fitted and that will, hopefully, do for the time being. 

I headed off to a late start at work and managed to lock my keys in the car. This was a hassle I didn't need. I was wearing the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean;

I walked in to the office and asked the accountant for his car keys, since he drives an old Mercedes-Benz and it has a similar double-sided key to my car. Took me a few goes, but I got there in the end. 

Basically, the boot (trunk) key of a 1983 Merc will open the driver's door of my 1993 Toyota Corolla hatchback. 

I got a theory that every kind of key has been cut by now, so sooner or later, you're gonna run into a key that's a double of one that you already have. 

Today was a busy one. I had a tonne of stuff to get done. Stayed back late writing an e-mail. Got home and had dinner and a glass of red. I was wearing the Omega Speedmaster Professional. Wore a tie in my never-ending battle against casual Fridays, but by the time I got home, it was time to take it off.

That glass of Cab Sav hit the spot. I was thinking of putting this watch on a leather strap and leaving it on for a couple of years until it falls apart. I have enough watch straps at the moment and I should start using them up.
Although, it's got such an iconic look on its bracelet that I sometimes think I should just leave it be.

Meanwhile, somebody sticks close to us all whenever we walk into the kitchen, and he's gotten very good at recognising the sound of a plastic lid being taken off a container.
Which is when he starts with an incessant and impatient meowing.
It's also pretty difficult to get a sharp photo of him because he rarely sits still.
Remember when we all had that much energy?

For his English Literature studies, my son has just reading Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and he's seen Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. We sat down last night to watch Coppola's 2001 re-cut version of this 1979 epic. Titled Apocalypse Now - Redux, this print adds 49 minutes to the original release.

Set in the Vietnam War, the story concerns Captain Willard's (Martin Sheen)  mission to travel deep upriver into the jungles of Cambodia to find and 'terminate with extreme prejudice' rogue Special Forces Colonel Walter Kurtz, who has reportedly gone mad. A small gunboat crew is assigned to take him on his journey and there is an increasing uneasiness among them as they are kept in the dark about Willard's true mission.
I haven't seen this film since the late 1980s, so I was curious to see what this extra footage would contain. There is a long scene where Willard and his crew meet a French family who have owned a rubber plantation in Vietnam for generations and, while it is an interesting scene which touches on colonialism and France's place in historic conflicts, I did feel that it was a very long scene that didn't really move the story forward. Still, it's Coppola's film and this is the version that he originally wanted to release back in '79.
The film holds up extremely well after all the years of hype and myth. It's often a good idea to watch a film years later, after all of the hullaballoo that surrounded its original release has died down. You develop a new appreciation for the film. Usually, anyway. It didn't work when I last sat through Tim Burton's Batman.  
That film hasn't aged well at all. 

Thanks for reading!