Friday 26 September 2014

Fri 26/9/2014 - Overdressed for Lawn-Mowing, Knocking Off Assignments, & This Week's Wristwatches.

 - Friday 10:14pm  AEST -


Sunday
             It was a sunny day. I was wearing jeans and a white Henley t-shirt. I was going to mow the lawns. But first, I added a bandana into the ensemble;

 
"Hmm, you look a little too continental for mowing the lawns in the suburbs, T", was my wife's first response. That's a shame. I was actually aiming for a look similar to this --->;

This is French actor Yves Montand in a still from the absolute classic, The Wages of Fear ( Original French Title "Le salaire de la peur", Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953).
If you've never seen this film, then I envy you. The story starts off fairly slowly and it concerns a group of layabouts who are offered the job of driving trucks carrying nitro-glycerine over some very treacherous terrain in South America. There is an oil field on fire a few hundred miles away and the nitro is needed to put out the flames.
The first hour moves quite slowly as we learn who these men are and what their reasons are (besides money) for taking on this dangerous gig. Once they board the trucks, however, the viewer is in for some nail-biting scenes as the men attempt to manoeuvre these old and decrepit trucks across bumpy roads and rickety bridges. It is a classic lesson in suspense in film. I had it on VHS and have yet to replace it on DVD, but it's available as a Criterion Collection version, so I'll get around to it one day. 
Anyway, needless to say, I didn't quite look the same as Yves Montand as I mowed the front lawn. But I was wearing a proper watch for the job. The Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean.

I'm about 60 pages into The Thirty-Nine Steps and I'm liking it so far. The hero of the story, Richard Hannay, has a great voice, as he's on the run through the Scottish countryside after being framed for a murder back in London. 
Wednesday
                  Finished Assignment 2 yesterday. It was only a response to a list of questions, but it required some hunting around for the answers. Then got started on Assignment 5, which is where I had to write about any collections that I have and the ways that I store and look after them. 
Hell, where do I start?, I thought to myself. 
First thing I did was grab the 1945 Smith-Corona Sterling. I have six assignments to do for this particular subject and at least two others for my other subject. That's going to mean a lot of time spent staring at computer screens. So, to minimise the chances of me going screwy, I thought I would use a typewriter for  this one. However, I made a few too many typos, so I figured I'd start again and concentrate a little more. I also decided to switch over to the 1966 Olympia SM9, since it's a smoother typewriter to work with. And, to get into a more business-like mood, I switched over to the Longines Expeditions Polaires;

I had some 35mm photos developed on Monday and they offered me the option of having them burned to CD for an extra two bucks. This seemed like a good idea for archival purposes. Even though I bought one of those Wolverine film-to-digital scanners off eBay a few months ago. I'll use that someday to transfer the photos that were taken with film up to 2005 when we got a decent (enough) digital camera. 
But back to the assignment. I sat down and started writing. Ninety minutes later, I had a headache and three pages done. Good enough. Perhaps more than what my lecturer had asked for, since she stated that it could be done in point-form. But if I was going to this much trouble, then it was going to be more than just point-form.





         
Thursday
               My son showed me a comic that he bought yesterday. It had a very cool 3D cover art. looking at it front-on, there's Batman standing there, black cape flowing;




















Angle slightly and the cape seems to disappear and a bunch of Batmans (or is it Batmen?) appear in the background;




















Anyway, I thought I'd take a break from study today. One of my other assignments will be a report on silverfish. Man, the research is gonna be riveting for that one. Either way, I'll spend part of the weekend looking up info online and taking notes. When I hand this one in, I'll then have to deliver a ten-minute talk to the rest of the class. Could have been worse, I suppose. It could have been mould.

Today
           Busy.

 

The finished product.


With the book safely tucked inside. I'll hand this in when I go back to class in two weeks. My lecturer had better not lose this book. I haven't read it yet.


And this book arrived in the mail. Can't wait to start it. Charles Cumming has been very well regarded in a very short time. Some folks are saying he should write the next Bond continuation novel.


I'll have to finish The Thirty-Nine Steps and then I'll get started on this one.

Headed into the city with my daughter to the National Gallery of Victoria. I still had a few notes that I wanted to take and I wanted to get some better photos than the ones I took with my phone a couple of weeks ago.
This particular painting had an effect on me. I think I had my very first 'art moment'




I don't know whether it was the story behind the painting, whether the futility of Sophonisba's predicament was particularly tragic, the expressions on the faces of those in the painting, or something else, but I was moved by this painting.











Here's a close-up. I'm always amazed at the detail and the lighting in oil paintings.


I took a heap more photos, but I think it needs its own post.
My wife and son met up with us a couple of hours later and we went off for an early dinner at a bistro that I worked at 20 years ago. Where my wife and I first met. I was still wearing the Omega Planet Ocean. Here's a shot that I tweaked with the iPhoto app.
Man, you can waste a lot of time with these apps.


Thanks for reading and have a great weekend, all!

Wednesday 24 September 2014

Adventures In Eyewear : Part One- "Nice Glasses, Four Eyes!"

 Screen-cap taken from Bringing Up Baby
(Dir: Howard Hawks, 1938)

I first noticed it during a Maths class in 1982. Mr. Lindsay wrote some algebraic formula or other on the blackboard (yeah, with chalk) and it looked a little blurry to me. I tried squinting. It sharpened up a little, but I couldn't go through my school life squinting at everything I saw.
Never got the hang of algebra, either, for that matter.
A few days later, my Dad booked me an appointment with his optometrist. I went through all of the "Alright, now read the letters on the third line from the top, please" and "Right, now which circle looks sharper? This one? Or this one? This one...or this one?"
The verdict? I would need glasses. Great. Just great. Skinny build. Asthmatic. Now we could add short-sightedness into the mix. I would never be cast as Bond now.

"Now, what kind of frames are you thinking of?", the optometrist asked me in a slightly clipped tone. I actually hadn't really thought that far ahead. I was still coming to grips with having to wear glasses.
"Most young people tend to go for the swept-up look of something like these", he went on, as he reached for a glossy gunmetal set of frames on a display rack near his chair.
They looked a lot like these;












    

 Picture courtesy of almondtreevintage on Etsy

As you can see, they were very representative of the era. Very 'suburban-bank-branch-manager, circa 1980'.
And I wore them without any issues for the next two or three years before deciding to get on the big plastic frames bandwagon. It was the '80s and everything was big. Big shoulder pads in men's and women's tailoring (remember "Dynasty"?), big hair (remember "Dynasty"?), and big spectacle frames. 
Like Judith Light in "Who's The Boss?";

                                                    picture courtesy of http://www.fanpix.net, posted by Samual, 
                                                    screencap from "Who's The Boss?" (Created by Martin Cohan 
                                                    and Blake Hunter, ABC Studios, 1984-1992)

 This style of frames was everywhere. I ended up getting specs very similar to these;

picture courtesy of www.eyeglasseswarehouse.com


However, I had one major change made to the lenses and opted for those new-fangled photochromatic ones that darkened when exposed to UV light. This would instantly turn my specs into prescription sunglasses on sunny days. There was just one big problem with these types of lenses - they tended to darken even on overcast days. So, after wearing them for about a year, I found that I would squint on cloudy days in winter if I didn't have them on. And I looked like I was wearing sunglasses in winter, too. Wanker!
Big mistake getting these lenses. Aside from the reason above, the frames were also too damn big for the shape of my face. My mug is quite thin and these specs occupied almost one third of my face. I didn't notice it so much when my hair was long, but with a shorter hairstyle, these frames looked a little too dominant. But like I said, it was the '80s.
It was time to go for something else that would be better suited to my face shape. It was now around 1986 and I was at the height of my fascination for Old Hollywood movies, classic American noir crime fiction, and Art Deco design. So I found myself particularly drawn to the Beaufort-style spectacle frames. 
These frames positively screamed "1920s book-keeper"...


...or Dr. Jones, circa 1945;



These were an English-made brand called Algha. They had 12k gold-plated temples (arms) and hinges. They were a nice frame. Only problem was the temples ended in those curved coils which curled behind the ears. After prolonged wear, the backs of my ears would ache.
Still, they were a nice frame. I have a sneaking suspicion that I still have them packed away someplace, but there's no way I'm gonna try looking for them now.
EDIT: 24/8- Found 'em!  Which meant that I could take the photo above, rather than search the web.





picture courtesy of http://www.sunglassesid.com , taken from
"Indiana Jones & The
Last Crusade"  (Dir: Steven Spielberg,
Paramount Pictures, 1988)

This style of frame is not currently in vogue, but fashion is cyclical. They'll be popular again one day.


By the late 1980s, it was time to go for something different. I had already purchased a pair of RayBan Wayfarer sunglasses in tortoise-shell and thought of getting another pair and having prescription lenses fitted. So I went to see my optometrist and put a deposit down on a pair of Wayfarers with my script added.
I must admit that I was pretty slack when it came to making regular payments on these glasses. I think the total cost was around $130.oo, but I took a lazy 12 months to pay for them. When I finally went to make the last payment and pick them up, I said to the receptionist; "So, do I get some kind of plaque to commemorate the occasion?"
She didn't laugh.
I happily wore these frames in rotation with the Beauforts for the next few years. Here they are, brought out of retirement for this blog post;


Beautiful shape, classic styling that had remained relatively unchanged since their introduction in the 1950s. Thanks to "The Blues Brothers" (Dir: John Landis, 1980) and "Risky Business" (Dir: Paul Brickman, 1983), the RayBan Wayfarer was enjoying incredibly robust sales during the first half of the Eighties. Everybody was buying these frames. Once again, I opted for tortoise-shell instead of black. Every man and his dog was buying the black.


However, one day, I just stopped wearing them.
The reason was simple, actually. I put them on one morning and, as I headed out of the bedroom, I caught my reflection in the mirror...and realised that these frames, on my face, made me look a little like this guy;


picture courtesy of http://www.thevervoid.com, screencap taken from "The Thunderbirds", (Created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, AP Films, 1964-1966)

Yep, I looked like Brains from The Thunderbirds, the classic Gerry Anderson '60s TV series, that used to screen at 6.00am on Saturday mornings when I was a kid.
All of a sudden, these RayBans-as-spectacles looked large on me. I looked like Buddy Holly, which is fine, but not exactly the look I was going for. These frames dominated my face. And that was it. I switched to wearing the Beauforts all the time. Strangely, the RayBan Wayfarer sunnies look fine, but as soon as you pop the dark lenses out, that changes things. To me, anyway. I'll write more about the sunglasses in another post.
By now, it was the early 1990s and my fascination for all things 1930s and '40s was in full swing. I was watching a lot of films from the era, I was reading up on Art Deco design and architecture (the Art Deco period was brief, running from about 1925 to approximately 1940) and my appreciation of clean, sparse design principles led me to a purer type of spectacle frame;


These frames are by Silhouette. I was aiming for this kind of look;

This is the famed Swiss architect, designer, urban planner and true visionary, Le Corbusier (real name Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris), who has often been called the father of modern architecture.
Of course, I wasn't building cities or designing super-cool armchairs. I was waiting tables.
My best friend looked at me when I first got these frames and remarked; "You know, they make you look like Emperor Hirohito."
Yeah, thanks, John.

They were great frames. Very comfortable.

Simple in design, these frames were perfect circles and I wore them for years. One day in 1996, while I was making coffees at a cafe in the city, I decided to give them a quick clean under the steam arm of the coffee machine. Bad move. 
I held the frames a little too close to the nozzle and ended up scorching them to the point where they had discoloured. I think I may have cooked them slightly. You may just be able to make out the slight haziness (in this blurry photo) on the upper edge of the frames and along the bridge. Damn fool thing to do.


It was a helluva lot more noticeable in real life and I soon grabbed a Texta (Magic Marker, black of course) and coloured-in the blemishes. Needless to say, this didn't work well in the long run when I would sweat, simultaneously removing the repaint and winding up with black marks on my eyebrows and nose.
I couldn't wear them like this. It was time to 'retire' them back to their case and switch back to the Beaufort frames for a while. 
A few months passed before I decided to switch back to metal frames. I opted for these thin ones from ProDesign of Denmark;



Spider-thin and almost perfectly round, these were an unobtrusive frame and I wore them for quite a while. However, I found myself tightening the screws on the arms pretty frequently, which got annoying. Still, they served me well. 


But...they got a little bland after a while. Time for something new. It was now around 2003 and I decided to go back to acetate frames. I opted for a relatively inexpensive pair of black Mossimo frames. Sorry, I got no photos of these frames. I wore them to work one day and they just disappeared. I have a theory that they may have slipped out of my shirt pocket and into the rubbish bin when I leaned over one day to reach for something. My manager really couldn't care less as I headed out to the dumpster in a semi-desperate search for them. I think I even saw him smirk when I got back to the store.
Another reason why I quit that job.

I had a routine vision test sometime in 2009. The optometrist gave me some great news. I would need reading glasses. By the way, that was sarcasm.
"Can I get bi-focals", I asked, not that I was looking forward to wearing them.
"No, because they eyes have a tendency to get lazy when wearing bi-focals. It's better if you opt for straight-forward reading glasses", she replied. So, I went for this metal set of frames by a brand called Austin Reed. They were nifty because they had a separate frame that held the lens;


Made me look like an architect named Sven or Lars or a European car designer named Hans or Gustav. Which was fine by me.


I was, however, a little ticked off at the thought of having to carry two pairs of glasses. Three pairs, actually, if you take into account sunglasses for the summer days.

And so, I soon found myself carrying the steel ProDesign frames with the flimsy screws, and this new set of reading glasses. And then one day, as I was throwing away some old magazines, I came across an issue of GQ magazine that I bought back in 1986. Staring back at me from the front cover was Mr. Cary Grant;

And it was then that I knew I needed some bold dark frames like Mr. Grant's.
This was perhaps the last major interview that Grant did. He was 82 years old, but looked fifteen years younger. 
Diane K. Shah did a great job with the interview and Grant called her up a few days later to say that, since the article was for a fashion magazine, would she like to meet with him again to discuss clothing? This extended interview formed the closing section of the article.
Cary Grant died of a massive stroke in November that year. I was driving my mother's Datsun 200B when I heard the news on the radio. I nearly hit a tree.
I still have this issue of GQ packed away someplace. No way I'm getting rid of it.
By this stage, my optometrist had closed down, so it was time to find a new one. By chance, I was walking through town when a display in an optometrist's shop window caught my eye. I stepped in to take a closer look. This store had quite a few frames to choose from and there was one brand that caught my eye.

Not the typical kind of imagery that one would associate with spectacle frames. Okay, I had the same hairline as the guy in this photo. And that's where the similarities ended. Sure, I could grow a 'stache and goatee like this dude. And maybe, if I hit the gym (and a lot of protein powder) for a couple of years, I could get the same body. However, maybe I should just start by getting similar glasses. Booth & Bruce make beautiful frames, but they were pricier than I was hoping.
I looked at other brands in the store. I knew what I was after. I wanted a dark tortoise-shell, rectangular frame. I landed on a nice set of frames by Hackett Bespoke. Hackett is a men's clothing manufacturer from England. Generally, I tend to steer clear of brands that are known for one type of product who then launch themselves into manufacturing an entirely different product. Mont Blanc, for example, has long been known as a highly respected manufacturer of writing instruments. Around the early to mid 1990s, it branched out into making wristwatches and is now well known for making some complicated timepieces. But I'll never buy one. For me, the brand is so strongly associated with pens that I can't accept it as a watchmaker. Even though it makes some nice wristwatches. 
Anyway, back to my glasses. I bought the Hackett frames.


These frames were perhaps the most expensive ones I've ever purchased. From memory, I think they cost me about $280 before the extra $150 required for prescription lenses. However, these frames still look and feel brand new. The hinges and temples (arms) are sterling silver, encased in tortoise-shell resin or acetate. Perhaps that is what made them so pricey;


However, I look after my stuff, so I don't mind spending every now and then. These things will last me decades, if my other specs are anything to go by. I've had them for about seven years now.
When I bought them, I had to have an eye examination. The new optometrist determined that I didn't actually need reading glasses.
"So how come the last eye test I had showed that I did need them?", I asked.
"You may have been tired when you had that test done. This can sometimes give a different reading", he replied.
I soon had the reading glasses converted to long-distance lenses. These frames are in the glovebox of my car as a set of spares for those rare occasions when I leave the house without my specs. 

About a year ago, I was surfing through eBay and saw a set of frames that looked interesting. They were made by Oliver Peoples, a frame-maker that was very big back in the late 1980s/early 1990s. I used to see them advertise in a variety of magazines. Here's a pic of a younger Mr. Robert Downey jr wearing a pair of OP-505s;

                                                                 picture courtesy of extinct eyewear.tumblr

The Oliver Peoples frames that caught my eye were these ones;


A nice round, tortoise-shell frame. But, if you look a little closer at one of the temples...


...yessir, these frames are called 'Gregory Peck' and are modelled on the frames that he wore in his favourite (his own opinion) and perhaps most famous role as Depression-era Southern lawyer Atticus Finch in "To Kill A Mockingbird" (Dir: Robert Mullligan, 1962). And his name is printed in a worn typewriter font as well.
I had to have them. Also, they were a totally different look to the Hackett frames as well. I will admit that I haven't worn them often. I'm trying to find a more streamlined case for them, since the case that they came with...


...is a little unwieldy and takes up more room in a bag.

While in Thailand a couple of months ago, we walked past a store in Bangkok called V Eyewear that sold spectacle frames. I forget the prices in Thai Baht, but they roughly converted to approximately $95.oo AUD. I took a look at what they had and was sorely tempted. A spare pair of specs will always come in handy. My wife said I may as well, since the price was low enough. So, I chose a frame in a style called 'Passaic'. I went for the black version, just as a contrast to all the tortoise-shell frames that I have. These black frames were called 'Night Out'.


As for the lenses, they were an extra forty-two bucks because I chose glare-proof ones. Fine by me. At a total price of about $137.50AUD, it still worked out considerably cheaper than prices back home.

The spectacles industry has undergone a change in recent years. I first read about Warby Parker in a GQ magazine a few years ago. One of the founders (can't recall his name) lost a pair of expensive spectacles while travelling. He decided then and there that he would never shell out big bucks for glasses again and he soon set up his website with a view to selling well-made, nicely-designed specs at affordable prices.
It wasn't long before somebody in Australia decided on a similar set-up and www.oscarwylee.com.au popped up on the web. And Scott K told me about Bailey Nelson, who offer a range of specs at competitive prices. I don't know if I'd wanna buy specs off the web. I prefer to step into a store and try a few frames on. I may have to pop into Bailey Nelson and check them out. Although, to be honest, I think I'm pretty set for spectacle frames at the moment.

But back to these black frames that I got in Thailand. I almost wasn't going to buy them because I didn't think they'd be made up in time. We were in Bangkok for only five days. A pair of specs and lenses usually takes about seven to ten days here in Melbourne. The young man in the store told me my glasses could be ready by 5:00pm THE NEXT DAY.
How could I say 'no' to that? I left him with my own pair of glasses so that they could match the prescription lenses for this new pair, and arranged to come back the following day.
Sure enough, about thirty hours later, I went back to the store and my new frames were ready and waiting.


I would imagine that the reason they are so cheap would have something to do with the materials used. I'd be fairly certain that there are a range of different plastics and acetates that are used in the manufacture of spectacle frames and some would be more expensive than others. These frames are quite sturdy, but I would say that they may warp or bend over time. However, this is nothing that my optometrist  back home wouldn't be able to reshape if required. To play it safe, I perhaps wouldn't leave them in my car on a hot day. Aside from that, I have no issue with them.


And that's my spectacle odyssey. Thirty-plus years of wearing glasses. It took me a long time to find frames that suited my face shape, and that won't date. I think I've gone for clean and classic designs and I see no point in continuing to search for anything else. It might be an idea to snag one or two similar frames to put away for if/when these current ones get lost (hopefully, that's doubtful) or damaged beyond repair (hopefully, that's doubtful too), but aside from that, I think I've got my eyewear covered.

Thanks for reading!


Friday 19 September 2014

Sat 20/9/14 - Visit To The National Gallery, Harrelson & McConaughey Were Robbed(!), Another Lettera 32 & This Week's Wristwatches.

- Saturday 11.41am  AEST - 


I think this'll be a short one, gang. 

Monday
             Not much to report. Planned my day. It was lack-lustre. Had my 1969 Omega Seamaster on.


Switched over to the Omega Speedmaster when I tackled a tonne of ironing.


My wife brought home a roll of plastic book covering. The kind used to cover the dust jackets on hardcovers. I decided I could use the practice.


Wednesday
                 Headed out to the National Gallery of Victoria to do preliminary research for an assignment to do with how institutions house, display and protect their collections. Didn't take my camera. Looks like I'll have to go back. I took quite a few notes, but I think I'll have to see some other exhibits, since I spent all of my time viewing the 17th & 18th Century European Collection. I'll get some pictures next time. I wore my Omega Planet Ocean. I was meeting my brother later on and he expressed an interest in this watch, so I thought he could try it on to see what he thinks of it.


Thursday
               Started watching HBO's outstanding True Detective miniseries, starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as two Southern detectives investigating a gruesome murder in Louisiana in 1995. 
The story begins in the present day, where former detectives Martin Hart (Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (McConaughey) are being interviewed separately over Cohle's presence at crime scenes which bear a strong resemblance to the ones that they both investigated back in the '90s. The authorities are curious as to what Cohle, who quit the force shortly after the investigation wrapped up in '95, is up to and they think that his former partner may have an idea. These interview scenes are interspersed with flashbacks to the 1995 investigation.
Written and produced by Nic Pizzolatto, this is a dense and multi-layered story which takes many well-known elements of a police procedural and turns them upside-down. For starters, this ain't no Lethal Weapon/ Bad Boys buddy-cop movie. Harrelson's character, Marty Hart, thinks that McConaughey's Cohle is a pain in the ass. Cohle is nicknamed "The Taxman" in the department for his habit of carrying a large A4-sized binder where he writes down copious notes and drawings at the scene of the crime. He talks in a particularly existential manner which, as you can imagine, wears down the patience of his good ol' boy partner, Hart, who calls a spade a spade. 
Director Cary Joji Fukunaga elicits outstanding performances from his cast. There is not one ounce of bad or cliched acting to be found in this show.
It is amazing to watch Harrelson and McConaughey in this. One could be forgiven for thinking that Harrelson is merely a competent actor when one thinks of his debut in TV's Cheers back in the early 1980s and his subsequent roles in comedies in recent years, usually in supporting roles. However, he got rave reviews for his role in The Messenger in 2009, as an army captain tasked with delivering the news to families of soldiers killed in action in the Middle East, and that role was perhaps what helped him land the role of Martin Hart.
Matthew McConaughey, fresh from his Oscar win this year for The Dallas Buyer's Club, is another actor who has been mistakenly labelled a lightweight in the past. He spent the first decade of this century making films such as Fool's Gold, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and  Failure To Launch, but thankfully, he did a film called Mud a couple of years ago and garnered good reviews for his work.
In True Detective, he turns in a wonderful and complex performance of a man often misunderstood, a man with his own demons and a fondness for Jamieson's Irish Whisky and Lone Star beer. And Camel cigarettes. My God, how much he smokes in this show! I hope they were herbal.
 It's no coincidence that McConaughey's character is named Rust. He is both persistent in his quest and corrosive in his relationships.
These two leads are electric. Both actors give their characters multiple layers and various levels of frustration, self-justification, righteousness, selfishness and determination.
Although, I have to say that the entire cast is flawless. Michelle Monaghan plays Hart's wife and she doesn't put a foot wrong. Another great performance.
True Detective scored 12 Emmy nominations earlier this year, but the statuettes were all pretty much scooped up by the final season of Breaking Bad.
How in hell Harrelson and McConaughey didn't win, I will never understand. HBO restored my faith in television a long time ago and this show, particularly the performances of the two leads, helped make True Detective the best drama I have seen in a very long time, in either a cinema or my lounge room.

Friday
          My wife bought me a Holy Bible from an Op Shop. I ain't overly religious, but she thought I'd like this copy because of how old it is and the inscription inside it;

Ahh, such flourish. Meanwhile, I picked up a Lettera 32 earlier that day. The paperwork that came with it was pretty cool.

Sadly, this machine, while in very good working condition, has an issue with the ribbon reverser, which doesn't appear to switch over to the other side when you get to the end of  the ribbon. I've given the mechanism a dab of sewing machine oil, but this doesn't seem to have made much difference. It may require a trip to Tom for some light repair. The descender on the lower-case letter 'q' doesn't print fully on the page, either, but I'm not game enough to start messing with that. Tom has a tool that should sort it out easily.
Aside from that, it works very well. The plate on the back says 'Made by Olivetti', but doesn't mention a country. I'm guessing this machine dates back to the late Sixties/early Seventies, based on the paperwork above, but I haven't looked up its serial number yet.

Today
          The kids finished up school yesterday for this semester and they have a couple of weeks off, as do I from my own studies. I got a bucket-load of assignments to get done and I have to go see a couple of people this week about some part-time work later in the year. Things are getting busy.
I also plan to keep the kids busy over the next couple of weeks. It's not gonna be all Playstations and internet make-up tutorials, let me tell you.
Tomorrow is my Dad's birthday. He would have been 88. I'll light a candle for him. 

Thanks for reading and have a good rest of the weekend, all.
And here I was, thinking this would be a short post!



Special thanks to IMDB for the movie info. While I can usually remember film titles and years of production, sometimes I need a little help.