Friday 22/7/16 - Quick Shout-Out for The BAMF, Where's My Damn Cerificate!, & This Week's Wristwatches.

Let's see how long I last this week. This one is coming to you live from my desk in the study. I finally managed to clear the top of it and got a lamp and the laptop on it. Sure, the electrical cord runs right across the room- until we get another power point fitted closer to the desks- but it seems to be working okay for now. 

I thought I'd tip my hat to a blog that I've been reading for the last few years called BAMF Style. Basically, it's a style/clothing blog where its author, Lucky Strike, takes a character out of a movie and then gives a breakdown of that character's wardrobe. The research is thorough, the pictures are great, the clothing detail is nicely explained. Here's a recent example, which is pretty much a 101 class on Indiana Jones;

BAMF Style | Indiana Jones

His James Bond post was phenomenal. It was Lucky's birthday recently, so I'm raising my glass to him. Cheers, pal.

I started the week with the circa 1969 Omega Seamaster Chronometer;

I started this Henry Porter book nearly two months ago. Then I got side-tracked reading that book on the making of Casablanca.

Needless to say, I haven't finished either book!

Time to knuckle down and get back into reading. I kept falling down that stupid rabbit hole of uber-crappy TV shows (Pawn Stars, World's Most Dangerous Drivers, etc, etc) and spending too much time on the internet looking at the same old sites. Neither of these pursuits enriches one's life too much. 

Hey, remember how I finished my Library Studies course last August? Well, I still haven't received my Certificate. And that pissed me off no end. 

I called the institute back in November and was told that I would receive it in the mail in the second week of December. Then I forgot all about it in the lead-up to Christmas. 

Then, I tried calling them again a month ago and spoke to somebody who had just started in the job and wasn't sure of who I could speak to. 

So, I waited two more weeks (it was semester break) and then tried calling again. The very helpful lady sent me a form to fill in and also suggested I call the Course Administrator to organise getting my Certificate. 

This Course Administrator was a tricky guy to get hold of. Took me another week to catch him on the phone. Of course, I could have left a a message for him, but I hate leaving messages. 

He said he'd send me yet another form to fill in and e-mail back to him. I've yet to do this, but I'll tackle it over the weekend.

Gotta say I could probably get my hands on the Gettysburg Address easier than I can on this Certificate. As regular readers may know, I'll never actually use this Certificate, since I have no intention of applying for work in the library industry, but I want my piece of paper that states that I actually completed this course. Successfully, I might add!

Midweek, I switched watches;

Yeah, I wore my hat in to work because it was raining when I left the house that morning. Course, the sun came out by 11:00am and I felt just a tad over-dressed when I caught the train home in the afternoon. 

I even wore a tie. My co-workers are sometimes surprised by this, since we work in an office setting and don't deal with outside customers face-to-face. I explained to them that I have quite a few ties and they don't get worn as much as they used to. 

You know that tired old line; Dress for the job you want, not the job you have?

Well, that's a stupid idea. If you're a waiter, you can't turn up to work in a suit.

I dress for myself. Simple as that. 

So yeah, I switched watches. I wore the Omega Railmaster. I friggin' love this watch. Simple, clear layout, right size for my wrist (for this type of watch), and near-perfect timekeeping. This one's a keeper, gang.

And I think that's about it, y'all. Got a few jobs to tackle over the weekend. I would have done them last weekend, but when I got the cordless drill out and spent an hour charging up the battery, I found that it was still dead. I headed out to the nearby hardware store and basically, it works out a helluva lot cheaper to buy a new corded drill than it does to buy a new battery for the cordless one. 

So I snagged a new Bosch impact/hammer drill for eighty bucks. Looks like a cross between my Dad's old power drill from the '70s and some futuristic sci-fi side-arm. Cool. 

Let's see how much damage I can do with it over the weekend. 

Anyway, have yourselves a great weekend and thanks for reading!

Friday 8/7/2016 - I'll Think Of a Title Later & This Week's Watches. Oh, And Happy 100th, Miss De Havilland!

Okay, now I'm feeling tired. This laptop's running a tad slower than I'd like. Tidying up the photos for this post has taken ages. We'll see how long I last, folks.
And off we go...

I wore the Submariner last weekend;

I have some film loaded up in the blue Trip 35. The Nikon F seen below;

...needs some new batteries for the fotomic head. Problem is, they no longer make the mercury cells that this thing uses. However, there is an adapter that you can get off eBay which is shaped like the old batteries and, what you do, is pop a couple of standard LR44 cells into them and then load them into the camera. These adapters sell for about $16USD. I just have to get around to buying them. I think I'll probably need three or four sets. That way, I can use them in my three SLRs. 

Admittedly, this isn't very high on my list of priorities, but I mat get them sooner rather than later. You know how life is sometimes. You say you'll get around to buying some cheap little item and you keep putting it off and putting it off, and then when you finally decide to buy it, it's no longer available. 

Switched over to the Sinn 103 chronograph on Monday;

Spent more time than I should have polishing those two 1940s Australian pennies. Although, I must say they came up looking nice and shiny. My wife picked one up and remarked; "This is when coins were coins, and they felt substantial in your hand. You can feel the value of them."

I picked up that hardback copy of The Savage Detectives for three bucks. I hope it's good. When I get around to reading it. 

Midweek, it was time for a switch. I grabbed the Omega Seamaster 300 and put it on a black NATO strap;

Reverend Ted commented on last week's post about my Tower Chieftain. He was wondering if my one still had its nameplate intact on top of the paper rest;

Yes. Yes it does. I'm giving some serious thought to re-painting this one at some point. While I understand that its off-white and grey paint-job is representative for this model, I find it looks a little tired after almost sixty years of existence. 

The more I look at this machine, the more I begin to think how pleasant it would look in a cream and mint-green combo. Might give it a nice mid-Fifties kitchen appliance kind of vibe. Something to think about later in the year when the weather gets warmer. First, though, it'll need some TLC from my typewriter guy, the legendary Tom. 

Got home from work tonight and decided to put on a watch that doesn't get much wear. Whenever I do wear it, however, I love how it looks;

It's the Hamilton Khaki Officer's Mechanical. At 44mm in diameter, it positively slaughters my wrist, but there's just something about this watch that I really like. I may look into getting a different set of hands for it because they've always seemed slightly too small for the dial, but again, that's another frivolity that's low on the list of things to do. 

This guy here is one of my oldest acquaintances. When I was growing up, and my folks had people around to visit, out would come the refreshments and, propped up next to the sugar bowl would be this thing. Instead of pens, it would be filled with a roll of paper serviettes. 

Did I say 'acquaintance'? I meant friend. Funny how little things can cause such wide ripples of nostalgia.

Okay, 9:38pm. I need some tea. I think I'll go rosehip. One more pic of the watch I've been wearing this evening;

I hope y'all have yourselves a safe and pleasant weekend.

Thanks for reading!

Oh, one more thing. I missed this last week, so I'll include it here. A big Happy Birthday to one of the last, if not the last, Keeper of the Old Hollywood Flame. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Olivia De Havilland;

Sure, she may not have had a career like Bette Davis or Katherine Hepburn, but she came to prominence in the 1930s, and that's good enough in my book;

This was her in 1936;

Much has been made of her famous feud with her sister, Joan Fontaine, another of Hollywood's Old Guard, who died in December 2013, but I'm not here to talk about that. 

While I'll admit that I've probably only seen a few of her films, I loved her in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Dir: Michael Curtiz, 1938) and The Snake Pit (Dir: Anatole Litvak, 1948), a film set in an insane asylum. I saw it many years ago and found it a little creepy. 

The Studio system is gone, the stars are no longer under contract, the moguls are nowhere near as flamboyant as the Warner brothers or Goldwyns of yesteryear, so I think it's grand that there still exists a link to the bygone era of Hollywood. 

Thanks for reading.

1/7/2016 - Tiramisu Attempts, The Chieftain III Arrives, & This Week's Wristwatches.

I've been wearing the Omega Seamaster 300 for most of the week. Last weekend, I thought I'd take a crack at making a tiramisu. This has been an ambition of mine for a few years now. 
You need eggs, savoiardi biscuits, cream, two cups of strong coffee, one cup of marsala, and a heap of mascarpone cheese. 
I didn't have a blender or mixer, so I had to whisk the eggs, cream and cheese the old fashioned way, by hand. Took a little longer, but worth the effort.
Once the mix was done, my daughter dipped the savoiardi biscuits in the coffee and marsala before placing them into a rectangular baking dish. Once a layer of biscuits covered the base of the dish, we spooned on a thick layer of the egg/cream/mascarpone mix. 
And so on, and so on, until we reached the very top edge of the dish. 

Then, we covered it with cling wrap and put it in 
the fridge for a few hours. 

Later, I got it out of the fridge and sprinkled some cocoa powder on top of it. Not too much. Just enough to provide a bitter contrast to the sweetness of the filling. 

It tasted fantastic. I'll never have to order it in restaurants ever again!

One flaw- we should have soaked the biscuits in the coffee/marsala mixture a little longer. They still had a slightly hard consistency. This, however, changed over the next two days as the biscuits continued to soften. 

 

I was still wearing the Seamaster 300. 

Wednesday afternoon, I got home from work to find that this had arrived;

It'll need some TLC, but it's a great typer. The carriage return lever on these, and the later Smith-Corona Skyriters, were a vast improvement. And I love the mid-Century styling of that chromed 'Tower' logo.

Anyway, another week down. Tomorrow is Election Day here in Australia. 

I know somebody, however, who couldn't care less. She's been lying on a cushion all day;

I switched over to the Sinn 103 St Sa chronograph when I got home from work. 

Okay, another late one. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!