Saturday 9/4/2016 - Turkish Delight, Shortness of Sight, Another Late Night & This Week's Wristwatches.

I've decided that I'm going to sell my Tissot Visodate 1957 Heritage Automatic.

While I do have a soft-spot for this watch, mainly due to the fact that my review of it has had over 456,000 page-views since I wrote it back in 2010, I've found that I haven't worn it much in the last couple of years. Reason being that whenever I wore it, I'd find myself wishing that I'd worn one of my vintage watches instead. 

This Tissot measures 40mm in diameter and I've reached a point where I prefer this style of wristwatch in a smaller size. Something similar to my vintage pieces, which tend to be around 35mm in diameter. Shame, really, because if this watch were just two or three millimetres smaller, or indeed thinner, I would probably keep it.

Having collected watches for so long, I have made a few errors of judgement in my time, but I've also developed a clearer idea of my tastes. 

For the record, I find that dress watches tend to look okay on my 6.5 inch wrist if they measure somewhere between 34mm and 38mm. I would entertain the notion of a 40mm dress watch only if it has a slim case, thereby sitting lower on the wrist. The Visodate is a thicker watch than I care for these days.

As for sports watches, such as dive watches or chronographs, 40mm to 42mm are my sweet spot. 

Like I said, I want to sell it, but the only thing stopping me is the fact that I don't know where the box and warranty card have gone, dammit to hell! 

I've been wracking my brain trying to recall where I put them and I'd hate to think that they were lost during our house move last year. Anyway, I'll just have to keep looking. 

Wore the Rolex Submariner 5513 last weekend. I've been wearing this one sparingly in recent months. Until I get it serviced, I don't want to risk any further mishaps or accidents with it. Problem is, I don't know when I'll get it serviced. 

The lawn mower and the coffee machine are both currently being serviced, and then there's a trip to the dentist (for a crown) awaiting me. So, I think I can safely say that this wristwatch will be with me for some time before it takes a trip to Rolex. In the meantime, it will be worn in the safety of my house so that, should any parts fall off it again, I will know exactly where they land. 

I had a couple of pieces of Turkish Delight after lunch on Saturday. 

Later that evening, we watched Some Like It Hot (Dir: Billy Wilder, 1959) again because my daughter felt like watching it. As I sat there, I began to think how great Jack Lemmon would have been (ya gotta go with me on this, you have to imagine a 30 year old Jack Lemmon living in 2008) if a younger version of him had played The Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. 

Don't get me wrong, Heath Ledger was astounding in the role, but I couldn't help wondering if Ledger had based his performance a little on some of early Jack Lemmon's nuances and mannerisms.  

After the movie, I finished reading Doctor No. I haven't read that one since the Summer of '81/'82. Somewhere, I have a piece of card where I wrote down the titles of every book I read over that Summer period. I think I churned through about eleven books. Never been able to beat that record since. 

Still had the Sub on my wrist next day;

I was losing the light when I took this pic on the left. I used the Diorama setting on the camera to blur the soldier's face. 

In the interests of anonymity. 

And maybe one more;

I think last Sunday may have been the last sunny day for the year. Things have certainly gotten chilly at night, that's for sure. 

Ahh well, Winter's gotta play somewhere!

Switched over to the Omega Speedmaster Professional on Monday;

Wore it for most of the week. 

I've been doing some minor watch work at this new job. Nothing extraordinary, mainly bracelet swaps, and I came to the realisation a few weeks ago that I would need glasses to wear when doing this type of up-close work. My reading vision is fine, but if I have to hold something 10 or 12 centimetres away from my face, my vision blurs. This is a little crucial when I have to perform a simple task like removing a bracelet from a watch and fitting a rubber strap on it. Without leaving any scratches on the watch case. 

I used to be able to do this blindfolded, but now- at the tender age of fifty- I finally concede.
You win this round, Father Time. 

So, I headed to the optometrist Thursday evening and had an eye test. I then chose a thin steel pair of frames for use at work. I wanted steel instead of plastic because I can imagine there will be times when I put them on and take them off quickly, and I want a frame that will handle some abuse and rough handling better than plastic.

Since beginning this new job, my commute has consisted of a 20 minute drive, followed by a ten minute walk to the train station- unless I get lucky and manage to find a parking spot at the station's car-park- followed by a 20 minute train trip, followed by a ten minute walk from the station to my workplace. 

Basically, this doesn't allow for any meaningful reading during the train trip. And I'm not yet so dependent on my phone or iPod to keep me entertained. Actually, I have used my iPod to listen to some typecasts, but, in terms of reading, I've not been able to really get into the chapters of novels. 

So, I've resorted to reading short stories lately. I read a great John Updike story called Friends From Philadelphia. I'm tempted to relate the story here, but it'd be better if y'all chase it up and read it yourselves. The ending's great. 

Anyway, aside from re-watching the complete series of Mad Men, I've also been reading some of John O'Hara's short stories. O'Hara was a prolific writer during the post-WWII years right up until his death in 1970, writing a selection of novels, most notably Appointment in Samarra, and many short stories for the New Yorker magazine.

Pic on left taken from a great blog post- http://patrickmurfin.blogspot.com.au - John O'Hara- American Dream Gone Sour

Similar to Mad Men, O'Hara's fiction centres on the broken dreams and aspirations of mid-Century WASPs as the disillusionment of the post-War era sets in and peels back the layers of their veneers to expose their weaknesses, bitterness, jealousies and for some, their downright nastiness. 

My wife saw the book and said; "Another miserable bastard."

I had read some Richard Yates short stories some time ago (Eleven Kinds of Loneliness) and she had made a similar comment. Maybe she's detecting a theme in my reading tastes. Although, I read the Yates book about four years ago. 

Wait till she sees me reading that thick copy of John Cheever's short stories.

Anyway, given that my train commute is so short nowadays, I'm preferring to read bite-sized fiction.

I wore the Tudor Oyster on Friday;

As you may know, these weekly posts of mine usually appear on a Friday night (here in my neck of the woods), but I was writing this one and it got to 10:30pm and I was still writing. I decided to pull the plug and get some shut-eye. 

And so, here I am, Saturday afternoon, almost five-thirty. I picked up the freshly-serviced lawn mower, mowed the lawn, ripped out some weeds, unclogged a pipe on the dishwasher (hate those things) and am once again feeling worn out for the day.

I stepped out quickly to go get a coffee for my wife and I. Our machine is getting serviced and it's taking far longer than we'd like.

I switched over to the Omega Railmaster earlier.

Because it's a cool looking watch. It feels a tad snug on my wrist these days. I think I'll have to add a half-link to the bracelet. That might make enough of a difference to the fit.

Meanwhile, somebody else in this house has the right idea;






Thanks for reading and I hope your weekend's going well, gang.