Got together with former officemates from 25by8 for our annual Christmas get together yesterday at Jay-j’s, Ortigas HomeDepot. It was one of the bigger gatherings. As usual the girls gravitated towards each other and started talking about marriage, babies, and other such girlie things. And as usual the boys gravitated towards each other and started talking about computer games and programming languages and other such geeky things. Haha. 25by8 people sure are a swell bunch. Wish I could replicate that in my current company.
Tissot Le Locle
I’ve been looking for a dress watch to complement my outdoors watch, a Suunto Observer. My requirements were standard dress watch: round, simple white or silver dial, and black leather strap. And it has to have good bang for the buck. I started by researching on the net and gradually narrowed down my choice to the Tissot Le Locle. It took a failed online order with Amazon and trips to The Podium, SM Mall of Asia, Rockwell Power Plant, Trinoma, and finally Shangri-La before I finally found it.
The Le Locle uses the ETA 2824-2 movement. It is a tried and tested automatic movement with manual wind and quick date set. Both features are useful for when you haven’t worn the watch for long and it dies. With manual wind, there no need to swing the watch around (and maybe bang it on something) to get the movement started. Quick set allows you to set the date directly without having to spin the hands through the 24 hour cycle. Less stress for you and the movement.
The 40mm case is round and made of stainless steel. The sides are vertically brushed while the lugs, bezel, and caseback are mirror polished. The face, of course, is sapphire. The caseback has engravings and a two-panel sapphire window where you can view the movement in action: the gears, the gold-plated rotor, the incabloc, etc. The view is a little cramped since instead of a one-piece, it has a two-piece sapphire window. The crown is a non-nonsense crown signed with a “T”. Simple and elegant.
The dial is silver with a crosshatch pattern (guilloche I think it’s called) Roman numeral hour markings. It has several other markings. On the upper part there’s the brand “TISSOT” and just below it “1853”. On the lower part, there’s the model “Le Locle” in script and just below it “AUTOMATIC”. Also at the lower part, near the edge of the dial is “SWISS MADE” just in case you forget it is. The three hands are black with a classic design.
The strap is black leather with a polished stainless steel deployment clasp. When closed, the only visible part of the clasp is a small strip with a “T” sign. It’s great, but I still think a standard buckle assembly is better.
The overall look and feel of the watch is that of a timeless classic. Exactly as I wanted.
More comprehensive reviews here and here.
Rating: 5/5
Rodec-Weng Wedding
Last week, Rodec (aka Bob) texted me reminding me about his wedding. He then went on and said he noticed I take good photos and asked if I can be a backup photographer during the wedding :P I’ve never photographed a wedding but who can say no to that, right? Haha.
So during the wedding. I was walking around everywhere in my barong, slacks, and not-too-comfy dress shoes taking photos. At one point, the sakristan asked me to stay back as I was intruding into Jesus’ personal space. Apologies for not knowing the wedding shoot conventions. Won’t happen again :D
Difficulties with conventions aside, there’s also the dim church interior. It definitely calls for a larger aperture or a flash. I dislike the latter though because it’s a bit obtrusive (I’m just a backup photographer after all) and drains batteries (I’m using the pop-up flash and didn’t have spare batteries).
Also, there’s the pace of things. Although things at a wedding mostly go at a snail pace, some things happen so fast you literally only have one shot at it. Yes, I screwed up the kissing the bride part (darn darn darn!). I definitely need to improve my focusing and snap shooting skills.
And thus went my first wedding photo shoot.
The Wet Look
Stupid taxi backed up on me last saturday. Okay, maybe it’s partly my fault, I should have stopped or at least honked him. But what’s done’s done and I ended up with both my left side doors dented. The doors were still working but it irritated me so much. So last monday, I went to The Wet Look, a body and paint shop recommended by Eric. They’re situated pretty far and when I actually got there and got an estimate, I was flabbergasted at the cost. But I was already there and they do come highly recommended so I left the car to get the two doors and the front bumper (which had paint scraped off from another incident) worked on.
This afternoon, I picked up the car. Their work was great. The two doors and the front bumper looked so clean, smooth, bright, and– yes– wet. So they work well and they work fast. Is it worth the price? Yes, but just about. If you look harder you’ll probably find something as good for less. But then time searching is time lost and time costs. So it’s all good I guess.
Makati Standoff
Today, Trillanes walked out of his court hearing, walked around Makati, then decided to check-in to the Manila Peninsula. What the hell was he thinking?!? Or is he thinking at all? Does he and his cohorts think they are the only one who cares about this country? Does he think their approach is the only one that will work? It’s quite obviously no to both questions.
But here’s something that might just work: Go take on Malacanang and the Presidential Security Group. The question is does he have the balls for that kind of action? Or are is he too pampered that he can only execute his grandiose schemes from within the suites of high-end hotels. Apparently it is the latter since this is the second hotel he has taken over. And he doesn’t even pay his bills.
Well now, instead of a suite, he can plan from within a prison cell his obsession of taking over freeing the Philippines from the clutches of GMA . Now if only the military can take care of his rumored abusive behavior while in prison and treat him as the criminal that he is. Now that would be justice served. It’s a pity though that it’s us taxpayers paying for his board and lodging.
He could, of course, very well be right about GMA and her administration. It is definitely corrupt and probably illegitimate. They are also so paranoid and comes down ruthlessly and quickly on any sign of dissent even declaring states of emergencies and curfews on whim. Makes you wonder if it isn’t already de-facto martial law.
As an aside, the press, who should just have ignored Trillanes’ megalomanic antics, was in full force during the whole affair. As usual it’s supposedly for bringing information to everyone aka the the pursuit of a scoop. But did he have anything new to say? No. He just used their camera flashes and spotlights to bask in his imagined glory. And they just served as his unwitting human shields. Serves them right getting cuffed, hustled on a bus, and shipped to Camp Bagong Diwa for processing. That is the procedure for any hostage situation anyway.
Every day certainly is an interesting day.