Our Burmese Cat- A Love Story OR Sleeping Beauty, Wrapped in Fur.

I thought she was laughing at something funny that I'd said, but no, she's just having another yawn and a stretch before settling down to another nap. And it's only three in the afternoon.

If you come over to our house, make sure you roll up your car windows. Missy loves a good parcel shelf.

My wife had put some soil into this glazed pot because she was gonna plant some herbs. Of course, Madam Fleabag had other ideas.

Of course, all this bird killing is bound to make you tired, so it's up into the wardrobe to catch a few "z's". On a nice soft velvety quilt. Dammit.

Late at night, around 9:oopm, we'll hear the tinkling of the bell on her collar and my wife will say in a mocking tone; "See? It's like having a pet reindeer."
"Yes. Quite."

What's left of the foot-stool. Sure, it looks a mess, but I'd rather she shreds this than the sofa. I'll have to get some thread and neaten it up.

Hassling me while I write this typecast. Almost a Hemingwayesque photo.

 But, back to the guy with the beer can story...

When my wife read this page, she said that she didn't just make a threat to throw a stone at his dog just for the sake of making a threat. It turns out that the guy had thrown one at my cat in an attempt to get her to make a run for it so that his dog would see her and give chase. I didn't see that because I was heading for the front door by this stage and he had already made his polite retort to my wife and kept walking by the time I got to the street. The moron.

Isn't there enough wrong with the world already without this type of crap occurring?

Anyhow, let us not dwell on beer-drinking idiots walking their dogs.

Looking this good takes a lot of rest and relaxation.



"I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. De Ville."

Thanks for reading, all!

Yes, Mr Furrier, Sometimes It Does Suck Getting Older. Typewriter-related Back Injuries- More Common Than You Think

 http://cambridgetypewriter.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/sometimes-it-sucks-getting-older.html

Here's a mug-shot of their accomplice. 'Scuse the mess.

You would think that pulling two typewriters out of this boot would be fairly straight-forward, but no....

Actually, there's the answer! I should have been standing straight, not leaning forward. Too late now, I guess.

Don't be fooled. It's heavier than it looks, especially in its carry-case. Which I would swear is lead-lined. Then wrapped in steel.

And here's the other culprit.

These two worked as a team in order to lull me into thinking they were a coupla lightweights. They played me like the sap I was. But I'll know better, next time. They pull a stunt like this again, I'm gonna come out shooting.

But back to the Smith-Corona...

Thanks for reading, all! And Mr. Furrier, I hope your back is on the mend. Take care.

Oh yeah, that asterisk*

Here's an old Polaroid shot of my old car. It was a rare manual (stick-shift) model and, once I had the engine reconditioned, it drove like a dream. I contemplated getting the bodywork repaired, since it had some major rust in some structurally crucial places, but I had just proposed to my girlfriend and there was no way I'd be able to afford repairing this car and saving for a wedding.

So, I ran this picture through Photobucket to give it some old Hollywood soft-focus charm.

What can I say? I'm a romantic, despite the tough, cynical exterior.

Like the say, 'scratch a cynic, blah, blah, blah'.

Oh, one more thing-

***typecast on a circa 1946 Smith-Corona Sterling...which I think I'll call 'Gilda'. Makes perfect sense, why didn't I think of it earlier?***

Thanks again, all, and get well, Tom!

Typecasting about 35mm Film Photography- A Renewed Interest

Man, I just realised that I didn't typecast anything about the next camera, so it looks like I'll just have to write it up the new-fashioned way via laptop.

Anyway, I had gotten a mad bug for a vintage camera from the 1950s, for some reason. It might have had something to do with all those seasons of "Mad Men" that I watched back-to-back, or the last two watches that I had bought which have a strong retro look to them.

So, with this in mind, I hunted the 'bay for something classic from the mid-to-late Fifties up to circa 1964 and landed on this little beauty;

It's a Voigtlander Vitomatic I from around 1958, I think. I ran some film through it about six months ago, but I can't find the resulting photos for the life of me. A solid camera that's quite heavy for its compact size. I'll have to give it some serious usage sometime to see how it handles. Luckily, I got ahold of the instructions for this thing, which just may minimise any poor photography in future.

The detail on the lens rings is superb.

A part of my childhood. I saw this camera used at the beach and birthday parties. Shame that it doesn't work anymore, but then the 126 format film used in these is both difficult to find and expensive to process.

Here are the photos that turned out. Nice colours and the white borders really give them a vintage photo look. Too bad there's nothing in them worth capturing on film. Ahh, well...

Thanks for reading, all!

Smiling in the Dark- A Typecast About Some Movies I've Seen Lately

EDIT; 2 hrs later- Okay, disregard everything I stated above about "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" being directed by J.J. Abrams. Richard Polt (thanks!) has pointed out that it was, in fact, directed by Brad Bird. I plumb forgot about that. Maybe the film had an Abrams feel to it to me, I dunno. Although the pacing of the film reminded me of "Alias". Maybe that was it. Anyway, aside from the fact that Abrams didn't direct this new instalment, everything else I said pretty much stands.

I spent too much time coming up with that code, btw.

This little ol' blog of mine clocked up 11,000 views! Who'd have thought?

Thanks for reading, all!

Lanco Hand-Wound, circa 1953-1962

The detail on this dial shows just how much care and pride even some of the smaller watch-making companies would take with their products. The thin winding crown was common to many watches from the era. Speaking of era, I've been told that this watch dates back to the early 1960s, but there are many elements of its design that would have me believe that it might be from a decade earlier than that.

The case is quite thin, but this is generally to be expected with hand-wound watches, since there is no rotor inside the movement, which tends to add a little bulk. As such, it sits quite low on the wrist, señor.

The case-back is a simple snap-back type, but I was not gonna attempt to remove it myself, since I've found that I tend to leave more than a few scratches when doing so.

Sorry, folks, it's not quite a Panama hat, but it still has a summery feel to it.

Thanks for reading!