Fri 29/11/13 - Jerks Who Talk During Movies, Steampunk Magicians & This Week's Watches.

Friday 8:12pm, AEST

Last Friday Evening

As I mentioned in last Friday's post, I had thought about going to a six-twenty session of "Captain Phillips" at a nearby cinema. My wife told me to go ahead, since she and the kids were going to have a cruisy night at home making pizza and watching a few more episodes of "30 Rock" on DVD.

And so off I went.


Picture courtesy of www.wikipedia.com and Sony/Columbia Pictures.
 

Now, I'm of the generation of movie-goers from before the age of 'allocated seating'. The worst seats I ever sat in were about twelve rows from the screen and positioned against the left wall. This screening was a packed one and this was the only seating we could find. The screen appeared all distorted and quadrilateral. This was at the Capitol Theatre in Swanston Street back in 1974 and the movie I was watching was "The Towering Inferno".

That's when I decided that, from now on, I would sit ten rows or less from the screen, and in the middle of the row.

I got to the cinema and flashed my Village Movie Club card and my student ID card; "One student for the six-twenty Captain Phillips, thanks."

Now, for almost 40 years, I've always chosen my own seat in cinemas. I must have been tired or perhaps I thought it wouldn't be a busy session or maybe just I trusted the judgement of the bespectacled dude at the box office.
So, for whatever reason, I didn't ask to sit in the middle of Row J or less.

He handed me my ticket and change. I headed for Cinema 7 and looked at my ticket; F3.

"Damn you, four eyes!!!"

 

So, I sat in the middle of Row D. Shortly before the film commenced, two young ladies sat in the seats on my right, and a couple in their late Fifties/early Sixties sat to my left. The house lights dimmed. I had on my Omega Planet Ocean, presented to you here in glorious W I D E S C R E E N !;

 

Okay, so the film was now about fifteen minutes in and a mobile phone started ringing to my left. Late Fifties Lady reached into her handbag and pulled out her phone, it's blue screen glowing as she switched it off. 

Intermittently over the next two hours, her husband made comments to her as I tried to concentrate on what was happening on-screen. Now, he didn't  whisper and he didn't talk at normal volume either, but was clearly audible to me, with his constant murmuring,  throughout the movie. Just plain rude.

At one point, I looked over at him while he spoke. He didn't notice me, but his wife turned to look at me briefly, but she didn't say anything.

And on it went. Now, yes, I'm aware that I was sitting in the wrong seat and maybe this was karma teaching me a lesson. However, by now, the punishment was far outweighing the crime.
I spent the rest of the film thinking up cutting remarks that I could throw at this guy when the film was over. He just did not shut up. Just when ten or fifteen minutes had passed without a word from him, he would make some comment.
I had a few options like;
"Thanks, pal. I didn't know I was watching this film in your friggin' lounge room." (too obscure?)
"You know, it's Baby Boomers like you that give the rest of them a bad name, you selfish old nuff-nuff." (too soft)
"Hey, I paid twenty bucks to watch Tom Hanks act, not listen to you talk."
"Pricks like you should stay home and rent the DVD."
"Shaddupp, you mudderfugger" (delivered in my best Arnie-voice)

The film ended and the closing credits begin to roll up the screen. It was now or never. I wanted to leave before he made a move, so I got up and turned to him and said;
"Thanks for talking throughout the movie. It was very inconsiderate of you."
He just sat there with a dopey look on his face. His wife didn't say anything or come to his defence, so I take some solace in the possibility that she thought he may have gone too far as well. I spoke at a volume loud enough for other patrons to hear.
And then I turned and walked out of the theatre.
Sure, it wasn't as snarky as I would have liked, but I wanted to make sure he didn't have any comeback. And I had a few more remarks up my sleeve if he did.
And if, by some incredible coincidence, you happen to be reading this post, you ass-hat, keep your mouth shut at the movies in future!

So how was "Captain Phillips"? It was okay, but I can't help thinking that my opinion was tainted by the talking douche-bag, and the fact that I probably spent about 30 minutes thinking up put-downs to deliver to the numbskull seated near me.
I'm sure I'll enjoy the film more when I catch it on DVD when it's released.

Saturday
It was the Summer Fete/Fair at my daughter's school and my wife and I were pencilled in to operate the Fairy Floss machine at 2:00pm. I left the Planet Ocean on my wrist...

...which soon got wisps of sugary thread over it. Those amusement-park Fairy Floss jockeys make it look easy. Takes a bit of practice. And the sticks are so flimsy.

Here's the machine;

By the time I was done, I felt like a Carnie!

Monday
I switched over to the Tudor Oyster hand-wound on a tan strap. I would be travelling light.

Went to visit my old next-door neighbours. Haven't seen them since my Mother died early last year and my wife said it's "good continuity" to stay in touch with them, although I must say it felt strange looking at my old house knowing that other people are living there at the moment. As I cast a quick glance at the front porch, the roof tiles, the side fence, the laneway right next to it, I saw half my life reflected back  at me.

Worked a little more on my final assignment in the late afternoon. Still have quite a way to go and not sure how to go about it.

Tuesday
Last class for the year! Took my laptop in and wrote non-stop for about two and a half hours...and got the bulk of it done. Five hundred and fifty words. Doesn't sound like a lot, but I had to make every word count. Felt good. Still had the Tudor on my wrist, but switched the strap over to a black lizard-print one for greater contrast;

 

 

Then I thought I'd give the garage door an undercoat. Time to change wristwatch. Sure, I could've done the painting without wearing a watch, but where's the fun it that? So I put on the quartz-powered TAG Heuer Formula 1;

 



I've always maintained that every watch collection should contain at least one quartz watch, for those times when you just want to slap it 'round your wrist without having to re-set the time or date. So glad I didn't get any paint on it.

After dinner, I organised my watch, pen and tie for work the next day.

Wednesday
A lady came in and purchased four ballpoint pens. She was so happy with my service that she came back ten minutes later and gave me some French macarons from a nearby biscuit boutique. Later, on my lunch break, I nipped out and picked up a William Maxwell novel that some consider one of the finest novels of the last century.

My feet were killing me when I got home that evening, and I was absolutely starving. All I wanted to do was sit down and eat, but Madame wasn't going to give up her spot so easily.

"You want to sit here? I don't think so, baldy."

Thirty seconds after I started eating (seated elsewhere, natch), she got off the chair. I thought I heard her laugh.
Later, it was time to bust open a fresh shirt for the next day.

 

Geez, manufacturers still put about 63 pins in these things before packaging.

 

 

Thursday

A guy walked into the store wearing a light brown pair of trousers and waistcoat (although I always call them 'vests'), a golden brown coloured shirt with a striped tie, and a fawn coloured hat with a narrow brim. He had a goatee and a thin, waxed moustache that was curled at each end. He approached me and asked what time the store would be closing, because he was hoping to set up out front. He was a magician.

While he was there, he took out a deck of Bicycle Playing Cards and a polished copper penny. He asked me if we carried a pen that could write on both of these. I immediately thought of the Fisher Space Pen and went to fetch one for him to try. I was about to hand him the pen to try out and he took the deck out of the pack and made a perfect fan.

"I gotta learn how to do that", I said.

"Public transport is my friend. I've had a lot of practice", he replied as he took the pen and wrote a symbol onto the five of spades.

"Yeah, that writes really nicely, but the only thing is it's too thin. I need something that can be read from five or ten metres away by the audience", he said.

He took a Sharpie from his vest pocket. "This is what I use, but it doesn't suit the rest of my look."

"I understand", I replied.

We then chit-chatted about various ways to make a plastic Sharpie look a little more steampunk;

 

Me- "Get a cheap and nasty trumpet off eBay and cut it down. Or maybe a woodworker can whittle down something so you can fit the Sharpie into it."

And then I remembered something;

"Wait a sec. I went to ComiCon a couple of months ago and there was a guy there who makes steampunk clothes and stuff. I've got his card somewhere at home. I'll e-mail it to you."

He seemed happy with that.

We chatted a little more. He has three typewriters, so he's a righteous dude in my book. His name is Mr Marmalade. He even had a business card. And I found the steampunk guy's card.

 

 

 

Today

 

 



Man, I had a lot to do! Got most of it done. Still wearing the Omega Railmaster. Saw another job worth going for. Busy times ahead.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!





 

If You Build It, Will They Come?- Could A Modern Typewriter Company Succeed?

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sure that there are issues that I haven't covered. After all, I'm no engineer, businessman or entrepreneur. I just thought this would make for an interesting discussion. At the very least, it's a pleasant example of wishful thinking for those of us who'd love to see something like this become a reality.

 

Actually, this is what I wrote this typecast with.

 

Friday 22/11/13- Computer Crashes, RIP Syd Field, Homework Deadlines & This Week's Watches

Friday, 1:17pm(AEST).

Sat/Sun

The weekend was a bit of a blur. I was home with the kids while my wife worked both days. My son and I briefly had a go at playing Call of Duty online and I spent about half an hour getting killed every time I was out in the open. Man, some of these online players fight dirty.

I realised that I probably wouldn't fare much better if this was a real war zone. I still had on the Longines from last week.

 

Eric Ambler's classic is the next book on my reading list. Can't believe this man's work has been allowed to go out of print in recent years.

I spent Sunday afternoon preparing a bolognese sauce to be used on Monday evening's dinner. Then, the kids and I went for a bike ride. I switched to the modified Seiko 7002;

 

 

Here's a cartoonified shot, taken in the laundry mirror;

When my wife got home, it was still a sunny and mild afternoon, so we piled into the car and went to get fish and chips before heading to the beach nearby and eating al fresco by the sea. It was time to switch wristwatches.

We bought the food and found a quiet spot.

With a view

I was wearing the Omega Planet Ocean Co-Axial.

 

Man, I look like I'm being held at gunpoint. Ah well, I was wearing the right watch. And my blue track-top that mimics Goerge Lazenby's ski outfit in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Sort of.

Monday

I decided to hit the gym for a light workout. Went to the supermarket to do a top-up shop (how French) before heading home to tackle the cataloguing assignment that's due at the end of the month. Switched on the laptop and this came up on-screen.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no", I thought to myself. "Not now, not now", I added. I downloaded an iTunes update yesterday. Could that have caused it? No time to waste in trying to figure it out. I took the Lenovo to my local computer repair guys who charged me $49.oo just to look at it before they could give me a quote. Revenge of the nerds, alright. They said it'll take a day or so before to they get back to me. Bit of luck, I'll have the computer back before the end of the week.

Tuesday

Had classes. Did a little more of the assignment. Still have a heap left to do. When I got home, there was a message on the machine. My laptop was fixed and ready to collect. Off I went. Apparently, the crash had something to do with Norton Antivirus and the techies recommended that I switch to Kaspersky. I've never had any issues with Norton in the past, but it looks like I'll make the switch. I've used McAfee, but I was never crazy about its user-friendliness.

Later that night, I checked out BAMF's blog. He writes about the outfits worn by actors in certain films. I have to say that I love his writing style and he blogs about some very cool outfits. His latest post was about Daniel Craig's clothing in the finale of "Quantum of Solace". As soon as I got to the section about Bond's wristwatch, I looked at my wrist and smiled.

Definitely worth checking out his blog; http://bamfstyle.wordpress.com/
BAMF stands for "Bad-Ass MotherF--well, you can guess the rest. Great blog!

I was saddened to hear that Syd Field, the legendary screenwriting guru, had died at the age of 77.

His seminal text "Screenplay-The Foundations of Screenwriting" was the first book I ever read about writing scripts and it's the one that I have often referred to since. Certainly there have been detractors over the years who have called his book simplistic, but I have long maintained that his work provides a great blueprint for the three-act structure of a script. And while there have been others who have written screenwriting books that go against much of what Field outlined, I have always said that first you have to know the rules before you can break them. Thank-you, sir.

Feeling inspired, I busted out the SM3 and tried hammering out a page of my (current) script.

This story is giving me a few headaches. I've decided, however, to just sit down and map out the entire synopsis so that I can work out a decent plot for it. In the past, I've either just taken a few notes before writing the script or plotted it all out on 3x5 index cards, but this one is gonna require a little more thought and planning. This could explain why I haven't finished any of these scripts of mine. However, I like this idea enough to spend the time and trouble with it.

Oh yeah, I switched over to my Seamaster 300 on the Bond NATO strap.

Thursday

I had the Seamaster 300 on when the mailman delivered these Fisher Space Pens. My son has done well in his first year of secondary school and we wanted to give a couple of his teachers a little gift of appreciation.

 

Then I stepped out to get a book for my son for Christmas. And the October issue of GQ magazine. Madame hopped onto the table to check it out. She's interested in the men's winter collections for this year.

Friday (today)

And that's the week as we land on November 22nd. Fifty years since the assassination of JFK. I've sometimes wondered how America would have turned out in the 1960s if he had lived. How different things might have been. Certainly, he was no saint, but I can't help but think that he was a great President. I'm speaking as an outsider here, and perhaps those of you who were around in that time may hold different views on the man and his legacy. Still a shame that it happened.

Anyway, tonight I may head out to catch a session of "Captain Phillips". And I'm thinking that I'll probably switch back to the Planet Ocean.

 

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Friday 15/11/2013- New Scar, New Job & This Week's Watches

Friday 2:44pm (AEST)

Last Saturday
Actually, I don't remember much of what I did on Saturday, but I'm sure it had to do with gardening because my wife picked this passionfruit flower to show me. Extraordinary layout of colours! I suppose this is what is meant by the phrase "stop and smell the roses".
Luckily, to counter-act the appreciation of this flower, I was wearing my ultra-masculine, cool-as-the-early-Sixties Omega Speedmaster Professional. And, just to keep me grounded, on Sunday morning, I hit my head against the garage door and carved a nice little gash into the top of my head. It's one of those old tilting garage doors, and I thought it was raised a little higher than it was. Either that, or I've grown a few inches in the past week.
Of course, I began to panic because I'd be starting a new part-time job on Wednesday and this wound will be visible to all and sundry. On account of the fact that my hair started going South eight years ago, so I'm sporting a Stanley Tucci look these days. Which is fine by me. He's a fine, fine actor and a pretty funny talk-show guest too. Besides, the no hair look puts me in the same company as Mr Connery, Ed Harris (a true badass) and Jason Statham, to name a few. Whatever hair I do have left is actually a little longer than I prefer, but there's no way I'll be dragging the Wahl clippers over my scalp for the rest of this week.

 

Monday

My son had asked me to download the extra maps and costumes that came with his PS3 game purchases of the last couple of months. I'm no fan of all this DLC (Downloadable Content) that many games come with these days, and I really can't be bothered with playing games online either. Our net connection is switched on enough throughout the day as it is.

 

 

 

Tuesday

Got a last assignment in class today. Forgot that there was one more left. I got just over two weeks to complete it and then that's it for the year as far as study is concerned.

And, since I start the new job tomorrow, I thought I'd get my navy blue suit ready for battle. It looks a little worse for wear, but still adequate. And the pale blue cotton shirt still looks crisp enough. The tie should finish off the look. The pattern is Mad Men enough for how I'll be feeling tomorrow. Had to change watch too. It was time for the (wait for it) Longines Expeditions Polaires Francaises- Missions Paul-Emile Victor re-edition.

I removed the black strap that it came with and put a fake croco patterned tan leather strap on it. I think I'm all set.

 

 

 Wednesday

It was an okay day at work. No major highs or lows, a good way to ease into it. Although, I felt a strong twinge of deja vu once I got off the train in the city. Haven't worked in town for a year and a half, but it felt like I had never been away. Not sure how I feel about that at the moment. But anyway, this is a temporary gig until Christmas.

 

Thursday

A bit of a nothing day. Worked a little on my assignment. Doesn't seem as daunting as it did a couple of days ago. Still had the Longines on as I tried starting a treatment of a screenplay that I've been working on.

 

 

 

 

INT: LOUNGE ROOM - NIGHT

 

Teeritz walks into the lounge room. His wife, is leaning against the heater, folding up a towel.

 

                          TEERITZ

                Okay, so, in "*************", they

                don't explain how it all happened.

 

                          MRS. TEERITZ

                No, but you get some information as

                it progresses. Yours is too

                convoluted.

 

                          TEERITZ

                Problem is, I've got the beginning

                figured out and I know how it ends.

                Now all I have to do is put in a

                logical Second Act. Shit, there's

                enough in this for a novel, but I

                don't wanna go that way.

 

                          MRS. TEERITZ

                I still think it's convoluted. You got

                too much going on.

 

                          TEERITZ

                Yeah.

 

And on it went for a few more minutes. When I get stuck like this, I tend to leave it alone for a while and go back to it. Needless to say, I haven't finished anything. But this is one script that I aim to complete.

 

Friday

I dilly-dallied (my wife's words) around the house this morning before heading to the gym for a short workout. Off came the Longines and on went the Seiko SKX031 diver on a black ZULU strap.

 

 

 

And that's this week. I'm waiting to hear back from about five jobs that I applied for. Three of them were cold enquiries, one was for a sales position that I have a feeling I'm too old for (it's a Fossil boutique) and the other is for a library position. That's the one I'm hoping to hear back from.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, as they say.

Friday night is Pizza night at our house. And I've got a copy of an Indonesian action film called "The Raid" to look forward to.

The blurb on the case says "Deep in the heart of Jakarta's slums lies an impenetrable multi-level safe house for the world's most dangerous killers and gangsters. until now, the rundown apartment block has been considered untouchable to even the bravest of police."

A SWAT team is going in, but once inside, their cover is blown and all exits are sealed.

Cool.

I've read that, based on the success of this film, a sequel is in the works. Nice. Now, as long as Hollywood doesn't decide to remake it and botch it up.

After all, we didn't really need an English-language version of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo".

 

Have a great weekend, all!



 

Friday 8/11/13- Poor-Quality DVDs, Traffic Light Buttons, The Melbourne Cup & This Week's Watches.

Friday, 3:49pm (AEST)

Last Friday night.

We sat down and watched a very, very poor-quality DVD version of "Charade" (Dir: Stanley Donen, 1963), since my eleven year-old daughter is going through her Audrey Hepburn phase.

It's one of the best Hitchcock films that Hitchcock never made.

Picture courtesy of http://www.toutceciestmagnifique.com/2011_01_01_archive.html

I had a pristine version of this film recorded off tv on VHS sometime in the late '80s, but that got thrown away ages ago. I bought this DVD a few years ago and the print quality is absolutely dreadful. And so, the hunt begins for a better version of this film.

There's a scene where Cary Grant is chasing after Miss Hepburn and my son remarked; "I wouldn't want him to chase me. He's creepy."

Careful, pal, that's my favourite actor of the old Hollywood era. Well, him and Bogart. I'll have to sit them down to watch "North By Northwest" sometime soon. And maybe even "Only Angels Have Wings", so that they can get an idea of Grant's earlier output. Actually, maybe I'll put on "Houseboat" so that my son can check out Sophia Loren in her prime and see what a real woman is meant to look like. Mind you, it may prove difficult to tear him away from the Playstation, since "Arkham Origins" is occupying his free time. Besides, he's only thirteen and I'm in no hurry to see him grow up faster than he needs to. Every kid needs a childhood. Ten year-old girls don't need to wear make-up or back-stab their friends, and not every boy needs a killer instinct or 'competitive edge'.

I still had on my Omega AquaTerra.

 

 Don't worry about the date. It's an old photo;

Saturday
Up onto the roof to sand back the eaves prior to painting. I needed a beater watch that could take some abuse without me shedding tears over it. Time for the Seiko 7002;

 

Afterwards, feeling a tad nostalgic, and wanting to wear something old-school, I put on the Omega Speedmaster Professional, aka The Moonwatch;

 

I've said this before on wristwatch forums- The whole moon landing/NASA association of this iconic watch holds no real allure for me. Its design is virtually unchanged since 1963 and this is what appeals to me about this watch. It's a beautiful example of a classic mid-Sixties chronograph that evokes images of E-Type Jaguars with Ann-Margret or Monica Vitti in the passenger seat, oil pipelines, unfiltered cigarettes, Scotch-on-the-rocks, and cool actors like Michael Caine, Peter O'Toole, Rod Taylor and Paul Newman.

 

 

Saturday night is "Lolly Night" at our house. The kids get a bowl of chocolate and/or lollies (candy) and we all sit down to watch a film. It was probably a huge deal for them back in the days when they considered "Toy Story" or "The Lion King" to be dramas, but these days, we wrack our brains some nights trying to think of what film to watch.

Two weeks ago, we watched "A Good Day To Die Hard" which, I'm sorry, is not a John MacLaine story, but a generic Bruce Willis action movie. Hard to see the resemblance to this character and the one he played in "Die Hard" back in 1988.

Last week, we saw "Silver Linings Playbook". I'd already seen it, and I think it's one of the best films of the past decade. Every performance is flawless. My daughter really likes Jennifer Lawrence, thanks to "The Hunger Games", so we thought the kids could do with watching a film where nobody gets shot and nothing blows up.

Anyway, for this Lolly Night, we decided on Jennifer Lopez's one decent film. Directed by Steven Soderbergh in 1998, based on an Elmore Leonard book, and starring George Clooney.

Yep, the kids were going to watch "Out of Sight".

They liked it. Thought it was funny.

 

Sunday

We were dangerously low on coffee, so off we went. My daughter decided to tag along. I needed her help with something. Near my son's school is a set of crossing lights. What intrigued me about them was the button console that you have to use.

"Geez, this Teeritz dude needs a life!"

I haven't seen one of these since I don't know when;

 

 

It's just one of those things that, as soon as I saw it, it took me back about 30 or 40 years. Doesn't look like much, but it brought such strong memories to the surface. How many times did I run up to one of these as a kid to press the button.

 

 

And the little black screen would light up with the words "Call Recorded". As a child, I didn't know what the hell that meant.

And, because I felt bad about holding up traffic for a photo op;

 

"Just run across to the other side, pixie."

 

 

Monday (lunch-time)

I started watching "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (Dir: Anthony Minghella, 1999) on tv last night, but it finished later than I wanted to stay up so I didn't see the rest of it. I saw it at the cinema when it was first released and forgot how good a film it was. Minghella died suddenly in 2008 at the age of 54 and is best remembered for 1996's "The English Patient".

Given that I didn't get to watch the rest of "Ripley", and still smarting from the shocking DVD copy of "Charade" that I have, it was time for a trip to JB HiFi. And, after watching Matt Damon and Jude Law lazing around in Naples wearing cool 1950s threads, I thought I'd switch wristwatches. My 1951 Omega has some issues with it and my 1955 Omega needs some serious work, so I opted for the 1962 Omega Seamaster instead. 'Cos I'm such a Mad Man.

 

I spent longer at JB HiFi than I'd planned. It's easy to get distracted there since they've always got DVDs and BluRays on sale. I picked up a copy of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" for $6.99 and a (hopefully) better print of "Charade" for ten bucks. Cool. Now, to prevent you all from making the same mistake I made, here's a quick tutorial;

 

 

If you're looking to buy this film on DVD, DO NOT PURCHASE THE ONE ON THE LEFT!!!

The artwork on the packaging should have tipped me off, to be honest.

I bought the version on the right today and played the first few minutes of it and was pleased to see Audrey and Cary in crystal-clear W I D E S C R E E N. Lesson learnt.

 

Felt a little Flemingesque and thought I'd see how much product placement I could throw in. Forgot to include a mention of clothing, along the lines of;

"Teeritz tugged back the cuff of his SuperDry cotton shirt to reveal the Omega Seamaster automatic strapped to his wrist."

 

 

 

Monday evening.

My wife and I took the kids to see "Gravity". Wow! Miss Bullock will score an Oscar nomination for this one. It should also get a technical award for Sound. And Alfonso Cuaron is an extremely sure-footed director. His 2006 film, "Children of Men" virtually restored my faith in movies. Cuaron has a great ability for creating tension on-screen. When I find myself constantly shifting position in my seat at the cinema, I know the film is working.

 

Tuesday (Melbourne Cup Day)

Yes, it's here already. The race that stops a nation, as they say. We placed our bets at the kitchen table, money changed hands, I wore my lucky hat (turns out it isn't) and headed off to a nearby pub to put money on a few horses.

 

 

I wasn't actually gonna need the binoculars. I would be sitting only about eight feet away from the tv to watch the race. But, ya know, atmosphere is everything.  

 

I had originally intended a $20 each-way bet on Gai Waterhouse's "Fiorente". That's what my gut kept telling me. I figured it was time a horse trained by a lady should win this race. Stupidly, I listened to greed instead and switched over to a horse called "Ethiopia", which was paying something like $46 to win. Idiot, teeritz, idiot.

"Fiorente" won the race by a head. I was happy for Gai Waterhouse. Nice to see a lady win in a male-dominated sport.

My daughter's choice, "Mount Athos" placed third, so she scored back $21.50.

And that's it for another year of betting on the Cup.



Spent the next hour of the afternoon writing a letter on the Smith-Corona Galaxie II. Check your letterbox, Scott.
Only two typos! Man, this machine purrs along nicely.
Still had the vintage Omega Seamaster on.

 

 

Sat down that night to watch "The Company You Keep" (Dir: Robert Redford, 2012) on DVD. Certainly a well-made film with a great cast. The movie itself was reminiscent of a lot of 1970s political/paranoia thrillers. Not that Madame cared. I tell you, she could sleep on the bonnet of a moving car. Going off a cliff...on fire.

 

 

 

Wednesday (Mittwoch)

As often happens after a public holiday, I kept thinking today was Thursday, so it was time to put on a watch with DAY and date. It was time for the Sinn 103 St Sa chronograph.

Got an e-mail late in the afternoon with the results of those two assignments I did last month. I got 61 out of 62 for the first one and 29 out of 30 for the second one. I think I can live with that. And that's another module out of the way. Seven subjects down, eight to go, assuming I can RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) for modules nine and ten. Those two are Writing Simple Documents and Provide Quality Customer Service. I'm aiming to prove that, through the maintenance of this blog and all of my years in hospitality and retail, I'll be able to skip those two modules because I have 'real-world' experience in those two areas. We'll see what happens.

Thursday (Donnerstag)

There's a sink full of dishes in the kitchen. 'Scuse me.

Okay, still wearing the Sinn 103 today and I had some sanding to do on the garage door. Didn't bother switching over to a 'beater' watch. I figured the Sinn would laugh at paint dust.

 

You'd think that I was planning to infiltrate Chernobyl, but there was a lot of dust flying around once I got started.

 

Friday

Switched over to something vintage. Dating back to somewhere between 1955 and, say, 1964 is this hand-wound Lanco. Time-keeping on this watch is not 100%, but good enough to wear from time to time. Could probably do with a service, but it'll have to wait. I do like the sub-seconds dial, though. Very old-school.

It's now Friday afternoon where I'm sitting. My son got home from school not long ago and is itching to start playing "Call of Duty: Ghosts", but my daughter just started watching the anime "Princess Mononoke".

Surprisingly, this is not a tense situation. My son is patient (as am I) and I've always found that to be a commendable trait to have, especially as the world moves at an ever increasing pace. I hate it when I'm paying for groceries or fuel, for example,  and the person standing behind me starts putting their purchase onto the counter while I'm receiving change from the salesperson. Never used to happen ten or fifteen years ago. I once saw a bumper sticker that read "I'm not in YOUR hurry". I'm gonna say that to somebody one day. They'll reply either "Oh, sorry" or "Get f***ed".

Should be interesting.

 

Well, that's another week wrapped up. I hope yours has been swell.

 

Thanks for reading!