seasoning

oh, so that's what it's like to get a facefull of pepper....

interlude

I've been looking for a new watch for a while now as my old Tag Heuer 6000 is beginning to look a little tired.

Of course, there is actually nothing wrong with my 6000 except that it has always bugged me that I didn't opt for the automatic Chronometer version of the watch and lately, I've been hankering for something more classical looking compared to the highly designed thing that the 6000 is.

In fact, I had a very specific image of the watch I wanted.

Black leather strap.

Black dial.

Stainless Steel case.

Whether it was a Chronograph or just a watch wasn't that important.

For a while, these three had caught my eye.

Oris Artelier.

Maurice Lacroix Pontos

IWC Portuguese

Now all three had something I liked.

The Oris caught my eye because it is so simple looking on the wrist. The grey with black centre instead of plain black dial adds a nice dimension to it along with the markers instead of numerals.

Last year when my sister was hunting for a watch, I found myself mentally rejecting some of the ones she was looking at purely because of the numerals used so plain markers looked the way to go.

The Maurice Lacroix on the other hand, stood out the most because of the sharp edged case.

The Chronograph buttons being "hidden" or even disguised as a crown guard is a nice touch and again, you'll notice the use of markers instead of numerals.

However, I found the watch face to be a little too busy perhaps.

Finally, the IWC blew me away when I saw one in the metal because of its simple classic elegance. It seemed to tick all of the boxes with the exception of the use of numerals that I had previously thought I didn't like but on a classic looking watch like this, it works.

The two plain looking subdials and markers on the inner bezel are also much cleaner looking compared to the Maurice Lacroix. Of course, this isn't a chronograph like the Pontos is so maybe it's a little unfair to say that.

So which one did I go for?

Well, the answer is: none of the above.

This is my new baby.

Tag Heuer Carrera Calibre 1887.

I did actually have a look at this whilst I was in Hong Kong but somehow, when I got back to the UK, it had completely left my consciousness and I have no idea how/why.

I mean, just look at it.

Pure Gorgeousnessliness.

Nice sharp edges case (doesn't photo well because it's also a rather delicate looking thin outer bezel).

Plain black face with two very simple polished steel rimmed sub-dials with minimal markings.

Polished markers for the hours.

I love the old fashioned stop watch style buttons for the chronograph.

I also found out that they have slightly modified the design of the watch and would be slowly rolling out the new one soon too so if I wanted this one, now is the time.

The watch also has a clear back.

All the better to see the (sort of...) Tag Heuer in-house movement.

So now, my old and slightly battered 6000 is probably going to take a little more battering now that there is a more fragile mechanical younger brother in the house.

Such is the way of things; the newer, younger and prettier model gets treated much better than the older, familiar and slightly used one that's been around for a while.

predicting the future

I once said to Miss C that some people only make an effort to say hello when they want something from you.
So far, it has proven to be true.

Is that me being cynical again or just me being perceptive?

whoa... a glitch in the matr...

oops, there I go again.

Somehow, it is impossible for to quote anything that Keanu Reeves has said in any film without it having "whoa..." attached to the beginning of it and yes, in my head, it also takes on a Ted "Theodore" Logan voice.

Anyways.

Lately, Miss C seems more eager than usual to say Hi.

Ok, I am always well, secondary to whatever plans she had for the day/night before buy still, it's nice that she's making some sort of effort.

But yes, on a cold and lonely Thursday night, I got a very unexpected message from her asking about Saturday.

Since I got back from HK, I've been rather blind to the news not having been in front of a telly or even having checked BBCnews at all so I was at a bit of a loss when she told me about the March that would be going on and Lo and Behold here they were when were looking for lunch.

and of course you don't have a march without a load of riot police...

things were looking good until we hit the full mob.

I was hoping that we'd be able to avoid because I foolishly assumed that any protest about government cuts would be directed towards the government and that they'd be heading towards Whitehall but nope, for some reason that I couldn't figure then, they were heading towards Oxford Circus.

Great.

After lunch and a brief wander we managed to hit the groups again except this was when the troubles were beginning to start. All around Oxford Circus we had spotted random RBS and HSBC having been attacked and just as we turned off back into Oxford Street, I noticed a plume of smoke rising from what looked like the centre of the Oxford Circus crossing.

Double great.

With that said and considering how big the march actually was, I think we did well in avoiding it for the most part. Admittedly, most of our time was spent sitting down eating a rather tasty burger and chatting.

Still not sure what I think of it all really.

I suppose I am equal parts surprised at how quickly things seem to happening on her end but at the same time, I can see why it would. I mean, if both parties are serious about it, as you would be, then of course it's natural to be looking towards the future and making plans and making moves towards achieving that plan. I mean, if you're not serious about the future then why start something now, right?

I think what bugs me more is that there is firstly a huge ten year gap from when we last spoke to the last time we said hi properly and then there was another one year gap from us having gone to Venice to us meeting up for lunch last time and in those long periods, so much has happened.

Any news then becomes sudden news to me but the reality is that it probably hasn't been sudden and I just didn't know about it happening... not that she needs to inform me of everything that happens.

Is it a closure thing?

I mean, the first time I was made aware of it was when our Barcelona plans fell through so that would've been October/November last year. It's now March/April so it's pretty much 6 months already so it isn't really new news to me.

I know I am still left wondering if I should've just asked her to come anyway; use it being a sort of "goodbye" as an excuse maybe.

But of course, I couldn't and I didn't.

As much as I would've liked to have had one last holiday with her somewhere, it wouldn't have been right; you can't really take someone else's girlfriend galavanting around somewhere. It's just not the done thing to do. I knew that then so why does it still bother me?

It does feel like I should have tried harder so is that what is bugging me about it?
Who knows?
Who cares?

In a way, I don't even care.

Mostly this is because of how long I've known her and in those many years not much has changed.

She is still pretty much who I remember and I am pretty sure I am still the same guy.

Maybe that's what bugs me.

Neither of us has changed in terms of who we are but it feels like she now realises I wasn't who she thought I was. Then there's that missing 10 years when we could've talked more and she could've joined our little trips to places.

I keep going back to that 10 year gap and it sounds like I'm blaming her for it but I'm not.

I know full well that I also play a part in not saying Hi. It'd be easy to say that I didn't think she wanted to say Hi and use that as an excuse to not bother but the reality is I was busy with other stuff/girls/work/hong kong myself. With that said, even that isn't an excuse really. I just didn't do it. It's that simple.

Sure I sent an occasional Hi via sms and maybe one or two emails but I never really asked if she fancied lunch when she was next in town and it wasn't as if she was never around. For the 5/6 six years that I was based in the office in Wood Green, she'd have been around there because of her ex but I never made the effort of seeing just how nearby she was.

Who is to blame for that?

What makes it worse now is that when she making an effort, she is at the same time moving along with that new guy and sooner or later, it'd start to feel mildly inappropriate again.

I think I had a point when I started this one but I seem to have gotten myself a little lost in what I wanted to say so to make up for it, here's a pic of the rather tasty burger I/we had.

Better than this was perhaps the very tasty fruit smoothie I had.

Melon, Strawberry, Mango, Apple juice base.

What made it very good was that when you drink it, you seem to taste each fruit in succession.

The first hit is of the melon, then you get a sharp strawberry followed by the apple. The mango was missing but the three other flavours coming one after the other was a joy.

Yum.

But alas, my planning did go a little awry with this place.

I saw online a decent looking sharing menu but failed to spot that it was their evening menu.

Maybe next time, whenever that may be.

from nowhere...

...I got a message from Miss C asking if I was free for lunch on Saturday.

As most of you would know, normally, I'd avoid central London on the weekends like the proverbial plague unless absolutely necessary but looking back, it really has been over a year since we last met up for anything so I er... had to oblige.

Ended up at the Living Room because as I was looking at their latest menu, I spotted a rather attractive looking dessert platter.

Strawberries with a chocolate fondue

Vanilla Panna Cotta with Raspberry Coulis

Chocolate Brownie

Passion Fruit Eton Mess.

It was lovely and well worth forgetting where the place is and going around in circles trying to find it in the wrong block on Regents Street. In fact, the last time I saw Miss C look so happy, she was about to devour a rather large pizza...

more snaps

Just got back from Hong Kong with another bucket of photos and have put a few of them through the stitcher to see what comes out.

They're not perfect but at least now I'm beginning to understand where I'm going wrong when taking photos for this sort of thing.

I know that I should probably do the stitching more manually to get a better fit but well, I was never one for too much work...

As before, click through to the Picassa Album if you want a closer look.

questions

In an age of consumerism where more and more you are what you buy, what does it say about you when you hanker to buy something that will be deemed out of date and is to be disposed of and replaced one year later?

What does it also say when you don't actually have a reason to buy that thing beyond "because you want one"?

photo updates

not much of an update but since the last time I posted, I had found myself a simple photo stitcher and have been playing around with some old shots taken specifically for this purpose.

(clicking should take you to larger versions or you can have a better look from the Picassa Album itself)

Florence

Lisbon - Sintra

Venice

Hopefully, when I next post, there'll be new photos of two sort of new places.

The real reason for this is that I've done these and put them in a Picassa Album so that I and maybe you can have a better look at them while I wonder if I really need to get a new camera if what I've got can produce something like these.