Friday 14/8/2015 - Another Assignment Done, Interesting Watches & This Week's Wristwatch

Still had this strapped to my wrist last weekend;

 

Then on Monday, I thought I'd switch over to something else;

I took a few photos of one of my watches in the lead-up to selling it. The Tudor Prince OysterDate. This watch will need a little work from whomever buys it, but it will be a nice watch once it's fixed. I've poured too much time and a little too much money into it in recent years. Perhaps somebody else will have better luck with it. At any rate, I'll list all of its flaws and see how it goes. 

Worked through this major assignment during the week. I'm happy to report that I finished it just prior to writing this post;

So now, all that's left is a short one or two page assignment and a ten or fifteen question online quiz and then I'm done. Bit of luck, I should have it all done by Monday or Tuesday. Cannot wait. 

Tuesday night

                   Sat down to watch Taken (Dir: Pierre Morel, 2008). You know what? It is basically what would happen if James Bond were a modern 'helicopter parent'. 

Here's the pitch;

- Liam Neeson is Bryan Mills, ex-CIA/Special Forces type dude. 

- He dotes on Kim, his seventeen year-old daughter, whom he didn't see much of during her life because his job often took him to far-flung corners of the globe.

- His ex-wife is cold towards him, and has re-married some successful business dude who hasn't always done business on the up-and-up, but that's really neither here nor there, for the purposes of this movie. 

-  His daughter arranges to meet him for lunch one day, to let him know that she's going on a trip to Europe with a nineteen year-old girlfriend of hers. 

-  Bryan doesn't like this idea, because he knows what a dangerous place the world can be.

-  His ex-wife tells him that he has to give their daughter some freedom, in order for her to mature, and that she'll be travelling with friends and everthing will be fine.

-  Bryan relents and permits her to take the trip.

-  He goes out and buys a mobile phone for her to take with her. 

-  He has programmed his own number into this phone, which he gives to his daughter after he has driven her to the airport.

-  He tells her that he expects her to call him every evening, to let him know that she's safe. 

-  On the first night of her trip, she doesn't call him, so he calls her. There's no answer, so he tries again, and she picks up the phone only to be lightly reprimanded by him for not following his simple instruction.

It is during this phone call that his daughter Kim sees some men come into the apartment and grab her friend. Bryan instructs her to hide under the bed and place the phone on the floor. He tells her quite calmly that she is about to be taken by these men and he wants her to yell out as much information about their descriptions when this happens. It's a clever scene. One of the men (unseen, as we witness the effect of this girl's kidnapping on the face of her father five thousand miles away in California) picks up her discarded phone and we get a classic 'I'm coming to get you' speech from the film's hero, beautifully delivered by Neeson;

MILLS

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

Basically, if James Bond were some overprotective parent, this is how it would play out. I wasn't too impressed with this film when I first saw it, but I must say it plays considerably better the second time around. This is largely due to the great Mr. Neeson's portrayal of a man who will stop at nothing to save his daughter. The second sequel (sometimes known as Tak3n) was released earlier this year. I haven't seen it yet. I'm hoping it is better than the first sequel, though. 

Wednesday

                 Continued working on the assignment. Spent more time fiddling with the bibliography, using Harvard Referencing rules, than doing the actual assignment. So, I then switched to pen and paper to continue with the draft. Still had the Seamaster 300 on my wrist, seen here with a 1962 Pan edition of Goldfinger (1959).

Anyway, got enough of it done before calling it a day. It's meant to be a report of 1200 words, but I've already gotten up to 1,395 words and it's not quite near finished. Ahh, well, and here I was a week ago wondering how I was going to get past six hundred and fifty words. 

Thursday

                I've been trying to get in touch with a Human Resources Manager at a particular company and have had no luck all week. I think she screens her calls, since any attempt to contact her results in getting her message bank.  Tried again today and left yet another message. I think I'll call her again next week. I daresay I don't think she'll have anything to offer me, but I'd really like to hear her tell me this herself. She may as well earn her wage, after all.

Caught up with my watch guy Mike later that evening. He had a couple of interesting pieces to show me. This 1960s Tudor 'Snowflake' Submariner once belonged to an abalone diver who clearly used it on the job. The dial has aged nicely over the years, helped along by some water entry at some point. The hands look they've been replaced at some point, but it would seem that this was some time ago because they have begun to age as well. Exposure to salt water and sunlight have also faded the bezel from its original black shade. This watch has certainly led a life.

Next up was this rare Longines Nonius Chronograph from the mid-to-late Sixties. I've never come across one of these. 

This one was in pretty good condition and measures a respectable 42mm in diameter, which gives it a very modern feel. As good as it looks on the outside, Mike just couldn't resist popping the hood on this thing to show me the movement inside. It's a hand-wound 30CH (L538) chronograph calibre in beautiful condition. Apparently, never been serviced, either. They don't really make them like this anymore.

This is from back in the day when Longines made their own in-house calibres and were a real force to be reckoned with. 

Anyway, that's another week done and dusted. Bit of luck, I'll be done with the schoolwork by next Wednesday. Busy times ahead, that's for sure. 

Think I'll leave you with two more pics of this week's watch;

<---------- Monday morning

Wednesday night ------------> 

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!