Friday 18/10/13- Today's Wristwatch

Right, it's now 10:57am, Melbourne time on Friday, October 18th.

Okay, after last week's inaugural post, you may have gathered that I didn't write just about the watch that I wore last Friday, but covered the watches that I'd worn all week. I think that's how I'll tackle these posts. No point dragging you all here just to look at one picture, after all.
Another reason for doing this more indepth here is because I don't want to fill up my Photobucket account, whereas my Google photo account has more storage space (I think), and seems to be working well, since I upgraded it.
Anyway, here we go;

Saturday
After last Friday's post, I noticed the Omega Aqua Terra looked a little dirty, so off came the bracelet and I gave the whole watch a going over with some dishwashing liquid and an old toothbrush;

Squeaky clean, lemon fresh. 

While I waited for the bracelet to dry off completely, I fitted a Bond NATO strap to the watch and read another chapter or two of Laura by Vera Caspary.

I wanna finish this book soon so I can start on William Boyd's Bond book, Solo. I've avoided all reviews of this book because I want to approach it with a clean viewpoint. I hope it's better than the last two Bond novels. Sebastian Faulks' effort moved at a plodding pace and Jeffrey Deaver's one played around too much with Bond mythology. I'm hoping Mr. Boyd will show OO7 a little more respect.

Montag (Monday)
Switched over to something that has both day and date on the dial. I had two major assignments still to finish and I wanted to keep track of the days. They're both due by the end of the month and it was beginning to feel a little daunting. So, for those days when I switch to 'man-on-a-mission' mode, I put on something with a slight (in my view) military vibe. It was time for the German-made Sinn 103 St Sa chronograph, complete with German day wheel. By the end of the day, I had completed one of the assignments and e-mailed it off to my lecturer later that night. Sweet!

Finally found a decent use for the iPad that I bought a couple of months ago. It proved handy for searching library databases while I wrote the assignment on my laptop, saving me from flicking between a Word document and multiple web pages.
I suppose I can stop calling it a $650 dollar clipboard now.
Maybe, maybe not.

Mittwoch (Wednesday)
I removed the bracelet from the Sinn and put a brown leather strap (with embossed croco pattern) on it 'cos I was aiming for a 1950s Type XX (20) Pilot's chronograph look. There were a few brands that produced chronographs for military issue, such as Breguet;




picture taken from http://www.onthedash.com/thoughts/carrera-calibre-36-flyback/

And this is how the Sinn looked, picture taken at a weird angle...either that or my house is listing drastically to one side;

I wrote a review of this watch shortly after I got it, but I'm thinking I should update it with some better pictures. It's a great watch for the money and it puts some other brand's much more expensive chronographs to shame. Helmut Sinn was a German pilot during the Second World War and he established this watch company in 1961. He's now around 90 years of age and, having sold the Sinn company back in 1994, he now runs another watch company, Guinand, and has no plans to retire. As far as I'm concerned, the man's a legend.

Donnerstag morgen (Thursday morning)

 

 

Luckily, I was on a roll once I got started and managed to knock the first six questions out of the way, although I can already see that Question 10 is going to slow me down a little. I've no doubt that I could find the answer on Google, but this subject is about finding information on the web using anything BUT Google. Still, I don't mind digging around for the answer. It's as close as I'll get to detective work.

 

Thursday - afternoon

Time for a brief switcheroo to remove myself from study mode. My daughter has been the I Sea, I Care ambassador for her school this year and the organisation held a function yesterday to celebrate the imput of school kids throughout the year. I figured I'd wear the Hamilton Khaki Mechanical Officer's Watch.

 

 



At 44mm in diameter, it is laughably large on my wrist, but it's a reminder to me not to take this whole watch collecting schtick too seriously. Definitely as large as I can get away with...just.

 

Here's the review I did some time back;

 

Hamilton Khaki Mechanical 44mm Hand-Wound- REVIEW

 

 

Thursday - evening

 

 

We sat at this function and listened to speeches made by kids from various schools. I had a glass of apple juice, but after the third group finished their talk, I was really beginning to wish it was scotch. Then my daughter went up on stage and delivered her speech. Now, not to play the clichéd proud Dad routine, but she spoke audibly and clearly, made eye contact with her audience, and didn't fumble her lines. My wife deserves the credit for this because she has always believed in the importance of public speaking, stating that there may come a day when the kids are older where they may have to get up in front of co-workers in a meeting or make a presentation, etc.

And my daughter's confidence on stage also showed the inherent value of reading, which allowed her to deliver her speech in a natural speaking voice.

 

Friday morning

This book arrived an hour ago. It's a collection of dispatches from reporters who covered the events of World War II. I was kind'a hoping there would be some actual typewritten documents/transcripts in the book, but no, there aren't any. No photos, either. Still, it should contain some well-written battle reportage from a time when reporters were about journalism, not guest appearances on Dancing With The Stars.

 

 

Hard Yakka nylon jacket, modelled on the classic MA-1 flight jacket. Fifty bucks or so, and warm as all hell. And yes, the Hamilton wears large, don't it? Makes me look like an action figure (batteries sold separately).

 

We're going to a little something called 'Armageddon' on Sunday, but more about that next week. 

Okay, time to hit the books.

 

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