Friday 2/10/2015 - Curtains Call, Catching Up With Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and The Thin White Duke & This Week's Wristwatches.

- Friday 8:20pm AEST -

This week has been another blurry one. Much has been done as we slowly settle in to our new house. There are still plastic tubs of stuff scattered throughout every room as we unpack them and decide whether to keep or get rid of stuff that we've accumulated over the last ten or fifteen years. 

Anyway, there were (and still are) about a million tiny handyman-related jobs to do around here. 

Last weekend

                       So I got started on a few of them. I wore the modified Seiko 7002 and by the time I was done, Mr. Budweiser was waiting for me;

I have to say I like this watch. I only wear it when there's a risk of damaging a more expensive wristwatch in my collection, but I reckon I'll be devastated if I ever damage this piece badly. 

Monday

              More odd jobs to be done around the house. The sun was out so I continued. We bought some new curtains for the bedrooms and I spent the better part of the day putting them up. By the time I was done, it was Gin & Tonic o'clock. I checked the drinks cupboard and Oh-My-God, no gin! 

Luckily, I had a small sample bottle of Gordon's Gin that I bought back in the late NINETEEN EIGHTIES(!), which has sat on various bookshelves of mine over the years. Well, it was gonna come in very handy right about now. I'd already used up the Jack Daniel (that's right, it was for that post about Mad Men or something, from a couple of years ago. I haven't the heart to throw away the empty bottle since it's made of glass and I think they only sell these now in plastic), but the Johnnie Walker is still there on standby. I think I'm pretty well stocked up with scotch at the moment, though. 

A few minutes later, I switched over to the Rolex Submariner 5513 and parked myself outside. That straw hat that you see in the photo belonged to my brother. When he was about thirteen. I had a similar one, but it fell apart decades ago. We used to wear them back in the early 1970s when our Dad would take us to the nearby (as in a one-hour walk) public pool. There used to be a bowling alley next door, but I think it's long gone now. 

Tuesday

              The Omega Railmaster adorned my wrist today. I rigged up an improvised studio shot using a stool resting on the kitchen sink. The newly-installed curtain provided a nice pearlescent background. And because it had been a while since I had some, a shot of Glenmorangie Single Highland Malt. Gotta work on my photographic skills.

Thursday

               My wife got home from a short shift at work and then we all headed into town to see the David Bowie Is Exhibition at ACMI, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. 

              

The first rock concert I went to was part of Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour back in 1983. When I heard that he was touring, I felt that his was the first concert I should go to. I had purchased his newest album Let's Dance and I liked it, and I was aware of some of his earlier songs like Heroes, Young Americans and Jean Genie, but not much else. 

Needless to say, I became a fan of his after this concert and when he toured again in 1987 with The Glass Spider Tour, I was there. Three times.

This exhibition was extraordinary. Aside from the various costumes and outfits that he's worn throughout his 45+ year career, there was a plethora of other items that showed just how extensive his output has been and how influential he was in the world of music. 

Upon entry, we were given a set of headphones. As we progressed through the exhibition, we would hear excerpts from interviews, comments about Bowie by other artists, as well as songs from his vast catalogue. 

I stopped at one glass cabinet to read his handwritten lyrics to Starman. The song began to play on my headphones and I got a little bit teary. I felt like I was close to the man's greatness and that here I was looking at an artifact that David Bowie had created with his own hands. It felt a lot more immediate and intimate than handling one of his CDs or reading an interview with him in Rolling Stone. 

I'll admit that I haven't kept up with his musical output since the early 1990s, but I consider him to be one of the most important cultural icons of our time. He and his music were always ahead of their time and whether you like his music or not, there has never been an artist quite like him. 

Today

          Continued with the odd jobs. I switched back to the Seiko.There are two or three tubs filled with DVDs, but I don't have the shelf space to put them on display just yet. I snagged a paperback copy of Trigger Mortis, even though I have already read 165 pages of it on my Kindle app. I still prefer the feel and look of a paper book. Call me old fashioned. 

Put up the final curtain. That's that. Onto the next job, a set of shelves for the en suite. I'll have to get a little more timber, methinks. 

My daughter got a bottle of mojito flavoured iced tea from the supermarket. That gave me an idea. After I took a quick shower, I filled a tumbler with some of this tea and grabbed a lemon and the Bacardi Rum. And some Angostura Bitters for colour. Oh, and I switched back to the Submariner in order to bring a little closure to the handyman stuff for the day.

The rum didn't kick in until I was almost finished, but it wasn't half bad. Anyway, back to the tools tomorrow. It's the Grand Final here in Melbourne. It's our SuperBowl. I don't follow the game, but I'm sure this town will get pretty festive and slightly out of control tonight and tomorrow. 

'Carn the Hawks!

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!