A Day To Defeat The Dreariness

After another enjoyable and positive chiropractic session with Eloise it was decided that my next appointment could be in two weeks time.

We then deposited four waistcoats and a jacket with White’s dry cleaners in New Milton, afterwards visiting the very friendly, helpful, and efficient Robert Allan, jewellers.

Even I have three devices which, adjusting for break in service, changes in time zones, and British Summer Time six monthly tinkering, automatically display the time of day the minute the screen has been switched on.

So why do I need watches?

First, because I am of an era before digital technology and have always looked at my wrist to tell the time – even when I am not wearing a ticking dial strapped there.

Second, because each of my wrist watches and my one fob watch have emotional significance for me. It will be ten years in October

since my brother Chris bequeathed me his fob watch presented to me in a box of her own making at his funeral.

Possibly 30 years ago, having been sent to walk around Oxford Circus for forty minutes in order to let eye drops settle after an optometrist’s examination at Dollond and Aitchison, I spotted a closing down sale at a jeweller’s which is now a Shelly shoe shop. In the window, at half price, was my

Longines battery operated chronometer which has kept time to the second ever since, unless it runs out of battery. Incidentally, when the optometrist told me there was no change in my sight, I asked why, then, could I see very little in my left eye? This prompted the check. The reason for the deterioration was the result of damage incurred by a cricket ball when I was 14.

Finally, when I retired in 2010 our friend Jessie gave me my kinetic Tissot watch, again a perfect timekeeper, which is beginning to need extra winding.

Within twenty minutes Robert Allan had replaced the batteries and told me that the winder could be operated manually.

We then lunched at Camellia’s restaurant in Everton Garden Nurseries, where we enjoyed excellent, perfectly cooked meals, at very reasonable prices. We joined a fast moving queue where we could see trays of all the meals being presented, making for simple choices. Friendly service at the till was followed by our food being brought to our table by equally pleasant waitresses. The wait was not long, especially considering how fresh the cooking was.

As has become customary, Jackie made these internal photographs

of the outlet itself, making sure not to include any of the customers in the extensively packed dining area;

of the menu and the specials board;

of the splendid cake displays, and the free bottles of water,

and, of course, our meals – her warm panini with tuna, cheese, and onion stuffing, fresh salad and crisps –

and my tender steak in red wine casserole with freshly cooked vegetables.

After lunch we took a trip to the east of the forest where we

encountered damp ponies at East Boldre, but not much else worth photographing.

The header picture is to make Ian wish he were here.

This evening we all dined on pork spare ribs in barbecue sauce and Jackie’s colourful savoury rice with which she drank Reserva Privada Chilean Rosé Cuvée 2021 and I drank Mighty Murray Shiraz.

73 comments

  4. Norm and I still wear watches. As well as a battery wrist watch, Norm has a wind-up wrist watch. Hos watches look similar to yours. He also owns a fob watch which I bought him for his 70th birthday. Love the meal choices but how on earth did you eat so much in the evening as well?

    Reply

  5. Those are excellent reasons to keep watches. I enjoyed the sight of them, as the styles are all classic and remind me of dusty memories. I no longer use that kind of watch, since my phone has become an appendage. Funny though, I wear a FitBit to assist with keeping active. It has a time display, and now that it’s on my wrist all the time, I find I prefer to look at my wrist than the phone. FitBit has a neat feature where a black and sleeping screen will wake up when you twist your wrist to look at the face. Rest your arm and the screen goes back to sleep. Clever.

    Reply

  7. Your neck sounds as though it’s vastly improved.
    I like your collection of time pieces.
    Lunch looks lovely and a new venue too. I thank you for the review and Jackie for the images! 🙂

    Reply

  14. Most of my life I didn’t wear a watch at weekends, which used to drive my dad wild. Why, I asked him, did I need a watch when my time was my own? I even stopped wearing a watch at work over the last few years as I don’t need to know the time. If I do, it is on my computer screen. However, when i do need to know the time there is nothing to replace a watch as I automatically look at my wrist when I need to know the time. Like so many things, the young are a different species.

    Reply

  15. It’s been decades since I wore a watch, but I remember feeling important wearing them when I was younger. Camillia’s patio looks very comfortable. I’d love a fruit scone. 🙂 So glad your chiropractic session was enjoyable and positive!

    Reply

  17. I still wear an analogue watch and feel lost without it: a mere glance tells me the time. When we were in the UK last year I deliberately did not recalculate the cost of anything for the pound/Rand exchange rate is not at all favourable to me. I have just converted the cost of a single scone shown in your photograph and smile to think that only yesterday the iced cappuccino and an apple slice I bought fitted in well with the cost of one of those scones 🙂

    Reply

  23. I used to love the very colourful Swatch watches in the 1990s. I had lots of them to match different outfits. I have kept one – a purple watch with the Rosette window of Notre Dame in the dial. The wrist band has gorgeous gold and purple gothic scrolling all over it.

    Reply

  24. I am with you all the way about watches. I, too, am used to looking at my wrist when I want to know what time it is. Those watches are beauties, especially the watch from your brother, and it’s easy to understand why you want to keep them running.

    Reply

  25. Beautiful watches! I have always enjoyed my watches. But I have surprised myself recently by neglecting to don them. I have actually gotten used to looking at my phone to check the time if there is not a wall clock nearby. ~Ed.

    Reply

  26. They are beautiful watches, including the handmade box for the one Chris left to you. I quite wearing watches outside to work when my favorite (and only working one at the time) got damaged at work. I am getting better at gauging time by position of the sun.

    The ponies look a bit soggy, but stoic. It is the wet season.

    Reply

  27. It sounds like a nice outing and a productive day. Mike has every watch he’s ever owned, including one from graduating high school, another from college, a gift from me, and so on. He lovingly keeps them in working order. Like you, I find myself glancing at my wrist, even if the watch isn’t there. We are creatures of habit, eh?

    Great photos, Jackie, of the lovely interior and those mouth-watering treats.

    Reply

  28. I gave up my wrist watch many years ago because I didn’t like the feel of it on my wrist. I now ask Mrs T if iI want to know the time and she very patiently tells me.

    Reply

  30. I love watches (especially automatic/manual wristwatches) and you have a nice collection. It amuses me that there exist winding boxes that shake watches to wind them if you are not wearing them often enough, and the empty boxes themselves can cost thousands of dollars/pounds. Oh well–that does not seem something I will need to buy: if I do buy some nice manual watch, I will wear it all the time and hence keep it wound that way, especially when dancing around to videos–!

    Reply

  33. Those scones looked good! Every 4 years or so I take my wrist watch into a jewellers in Nice. It’s a long-standing family firm where they replace the battery, clean it and renew the seals (it’s waterproof). It’s almost 40 years old and I miss it for the few days it’s being seen to.

    Reply

Leave a Reply