Ticktock

A little effort to wrap happiness in a small box... to make someone happy.

SOMEONE REALLY important to me deserves the best gift I could give – the gift of time.  My time.  (I’m surprised I’ve managed to keep a straight face while writing that opening line.  The cliché wasn’t seeping at all.  It was gushing.)

But seriously, you will know just how much I care about you the moment I give you a wristwatch.  Of course I espouse the concept of giving my time, of “being there” for someone.  This is something that has been inculcated in me, in part, by an essay I read in Reader’s Digest as a kid.  But just the same, I also believe that it wouldn’t hurt to give special people in our lives a tangible reminder of that commitment.  And it doesn’t matter what brand because if there’s anything at all that makes a gift – or a hand-me-down – really thoughtful, it is that it is something the recipient will really appreciate.

Through the years I’ve amassed a sizeable – no, just ‘decent’ – loot of wristwatches.  And through the years, I’ve let go of a lot of them to new owners who were/are quite special to me.  And back in the day when “Wish Upon an eNTeNG” was still a tradition, I’ve given away those that I knew were the most fervent desires of some people.

Here’s a look back on timepieces that have, at different points in time, found themselves ticking away strapped on my wrist.  Then, on other people’s.  I’m throwing in snapshots of some that were not mine, but caught my fancy.  Here’s to time and to sharing it with those that we do love and care about the most!

Two Philip Steins – Green Lantern's and eNTeNG's.

 

Two Technomarines – Bom's and eNTeNG's.

 

Two Tag Heuers – IronMan's and eNTeNGs – and a Technomarine!

 

Swiss Army and Tag Heuer

 

Presents from Italy! Chocolates and a Morellato all-stainless steel Master wristwatch from Brother!

 

A really beautiful face for a wristwatch!

 

Philip Stein and Morellato Master formed as if "arms raised in a 'V'"... as Eddie Vedder would say.

 

Piled 'em up!

 

Another pile! From this group, two had gone to Superman, one to my brother, one to a photograher-friend, and one to Green Lantern.

 

Four in a row – my Philip Stein and Technomarine with The Tycoon's Tag Heuer and IronMan's Kenneth Cole.

 

Partner's Omega Constellation and "Return to Tiffany" silver bracelet, and The Boy Wonder's Shrek and Fossil wristwatches.

 

Lovin' this Fossil on The Wonder Boy's wrist.

Wearing a Swiss Army and political colors.

Really elegant Philip Stein!

 

I'm not familiar with this one, but I love it! Saw it on our Finance Manager's wrist. He said it is his son's!

 

My good friend Tenz's blue Fossil.

 

Look at the stars... Look how they shine for you... They were all yellow...

 

Totally unrelated to this post – oops, not entirely (see wrist!) – but I'm so lovin' this solo shot, taken by Rey Floresca at our company Christmas party. Thanks a lot, Rey!

 

 

Copyright © 2010 by eNTeNG  c”,)™©’s  MunchTime™©.  All rights reserved.

Yellow

“LOOK AT the stars,

 Look how they shine for you,

 And everything you do,

 Yeah they were all yellow…”

– from the song “Yellow” by Coldplay

 

"Tie a yellow ribbon 'round that old oak tree..."... somewhere at Alabang Town Center, 2009.

 

Nike yellow baller ID, together with a blue and an orange one.

 

Yellow ribbon, yellow Guess? Jeans "DIVE IN" shirt, and yellow Technomarine.

 

Yellow ribbon 'round a Joseph Schmidt Carrot chocolate box.

 

Nike yellow baller ID, together with a blue one, and a Philip Stein on a friend's pink day.

 

Royce' Nama Chocolate in Banana (seasonal)

 

Yellow Technomarine

 

Technomarine Raft Chronograph with Yellow Gel Strap, orange and yellow baller IDs.

 

Swiss Army automatic wristwatch with yellow and blue baller IDs.

 

Yellow and blue, a good combination.

 

Yellow and blue, with a Morellato.

 

Copyright © 2010 by eNTeNG  c”,)™©’s  MunchTime™©.  All rights reserved.

Brother and Pietro are the best!

Presents from Brother's Italian sojourn!

WHEN YOUR yearnings don’t fall on deaf ears, don’t you just feel so wonderful?  Eversince Friendship gave me that Paulo Coelho book, I’ve always claimed that the universe will conspire to give the things I desire.  And it conspiring in my favor has never felt so good – never so palpable – until today.

Brother is back from his 10-month stint at our company’s Catania, Sicily office.  He comes home bearing presents that include lots of chocolates and – drumroll please – an Italian wristwatch!  Granted that on its face the Italian Riviera sun hadn’t shone, but still, the fact that this Morellato wristwatch comes from the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea makes it all the more special!

My new Morellato wristwatch from Brother!

A tight shot of that beautiful face!

eNTeNG and his new wristwatch. He loves it that all the paperwork on this new timepiece is in Italian!

I’ve had Baci Perugina from when it wasn’t yet part of the Nestlé group.  But the ones Brother brings in today aren’t any less than what I remember.  A shiny dark chocolate exterior protects – but not for long! – a gooey interior of whipped chocolate and chopped hazelnuts on which is ensconced a whole hazelnut.  True to its literal translation (“kiss”), Baci is a most welcome kiss on the lips.

Thanks a lot, Brother!  The same goes out to our great friend the Pietro Leonardi!  I’ve distributed the Baci already!

That's a lot of Baci!

That's a Bacetto... a baby Baci!

A shiny dark chocolate coating, a whipped chocolate center with lots of chopped hazelnuts. And a whole hazelnut sitting prettily on top. (All photos were taken using my friend John Francis's Canon Digital IXUS 100IS compact camera).

"What is love if not the language of the heart?"... Each Baci is wrapped with a special "love thought" like this one.

Copyright © 2010 by eNTeNG  c”,)™©’s  MunchTime™©.  All rights reserved.

But the words got in the way…

EVERY GIFT is your way of expressing how you feel about another person.  Oprah Winfrey said that in her letter in the December 2009 issue of her O magazine.  (I feel the need to be specific with the credit, lest I risk doing a Manny Pangilinan.)

That simple yet powerful line came back to me when I received a couple of text messages over the long weekend, from one of my closest, bestest friends.  I call this my “almost” Morellato wristwatch.  Oh well.

Be still my beating heart...

Oh well...

The brand may not have gained prominence here in the Philippines, but I’ve fallen in love with it still.  It is not mass-produced, and each piece still comes from their plant right outside Padua in Italy where each item is made in accordance with their strictest standards.

The very next day, I texted my friend and asked him to return to the store and purchase the wristwatch!  Language barrier notwithstanding.

Copyright © 2010 by eNTeNG  c”,)™©’s  MunchTime™©.  All rights reserved.

From my Lust List: Morellato MASTER wristwatch

 

LUST IS such a strong word.  It connotes a feeling so intense that one is often left at its mercy, unable to resist the propensity to give in.  Fortunately for me, lust only pertains to materialistic pursuits.  And here is one item that makes it to my lust list.  Hahaha!  And yes, finally, a “wristwatch” post.

 

I first saw this wristwatch at Rustan’s Department Store in Makati.  They were having a thematic display on men’s wear and accessories.  Each glass display was a set of wristwatch, cufflinks, bracelet, necklace and what have you.  I do remember that one of them had a brand spanking new Ernst Benz wristwatch.  But it didn’t catch my fancy really (not to mention the fact that I couldn’t blow serious moolah on this brand just yet!).  And the others didn’t do a good job either in capturing my attention and awe.  Except for one that contained what I later realized to be a MORELLATO MASTER wristwatch.  I love a substantial wristwatch, enough for Brother to quip, “What time is it according to that wall clock on your wrist?!”

 

I wasn’t so keen on really spending that day – don’t you just have days that felt like they were made just for window-shopping? – so after training my eyes on the wristwatch’s curvaceous silhouette carved out of a solid block of stainless steel, I politely thanked the sales associate and went on my way.

 

I left that day only to find that I would be back a couple of days later.  I had to be back after failing miserably to sleep through the past couple of nights, as flashing scenes of the MORELLATO MASTER wristwatch strapped on my wrist haunted me incessantly.  I almost killed myself when the sales associate, recalling me from a couple of days before, said with an impish grin, “Sir, it was sold na po.”

 

 

Fast forward to yesterday.  On a whim, I decided to go to SM Megamall and the The Podium.  You see, as Batman and I had been talking about, this Friday will be the start of a three-day, up-to-70%-off SALE extravaganza in the said malls.  So I felt the urge to survey the goods and see if there would be something worth coming back for.  I naturally zoomed in to the wristwatch stores.  And in one of them, I realized that one of my other must-have items on my lust list – the CORUM XL men’s bubble wristwatch in all-stainless-steel – was already “affordable” at Php 99,000.00!  And that new price was still negotiable.  Really negotiable!  I do remember staring at it in true “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” fashion, back in the day when a similar model would easily fetch somewhere in the vicinity of Php 100,000.00 to Php 200,000.00!  See, that’s the reason why I have a lust list.  Because that’s all I can do about them.  Sometimes, we just have to dream about the things we know we cannot have.  It is free to dream after all.  Hahaha!

 

 

Of course, whenever I would find myself in either of those malls, meeting up with Batman would always be a likely certainty.  So there I was – on break from my wristwatch hunting – waiting for Batman in front of one of his fave stores.  He arrived within a couple of minutes from his last call.  And together with a friend of mine from work, we first had a quick eat at Mann Hann at the lower level.  Kim Hiong Food Garden (in Ongpin) and Ma Mon Luk (in Quiapo) are still tops on my list.  But I discovered at least one item on Mann Hann’s menu that I ended up raving about.  It was their chilled tofu!  The tofu was silken and really tasted fresh.  It was doused generously with a soya-based sauce (I caution to use the term “soy sauce” because it didn’t taste like that), topped with century egg and a very generous heap of pickled mustard greens!  It was the greens that did it for me.  Batman loved it too!

 

 

Batman had to leave early so that was when I continued on my sojourn of the wristwatch stores.  Nothing really made me dig deep into my pocket and part with my hard-earned money.  Nothing even made me feel like whipping out my checkbook (as if it was loaded!  hahaha!).  So off I went to The Podium!

 

Once there, I went directly to the Morellato kiosk on the third level.  But of course, I made my requisite stop at the Philip Stein boutique and stared at the oversized ones that I – yes – have been lusting after!  Sigh…

 

The price range of the Philip Steins was a little more than I was willing to spend at the moment.  Yeah, reality bites.  And it does bite hard!  So off I went to the escalators, on my way to Morellato…  but without first bidding my Philip Steins a fond adieu.  Once there, I was so surpsrised to be greeted by the Morellato display, as well as by the very warm and comely sales associate.  I remarked that I have the very same Technomarine chronograph wristwatch (one of three Technomarines I’ve had) she had on.  It was at that point that I realized that Morellato is locally distributed by the same group that brought here Technomarine and Officine Del Tempo (I have a couple of these too)!  I’ve bought watches at their My Diamond store in Glorietta 4.

 

But the most pleasant of all was being greeted by the very same Morellato wristwatch I had lusted after in Rustan’s!  So without skipping a beat, I asked for it!  And I am so pleased with this purchase of what can only be “affordable luxury.”

 

 

My MORELLATO MASTER wristwatch (Reference: S 020E 003) has three hands with calendar date aperture, quartz movement Miyota 2315, is water-resistant up to 50 meters, is in an all-stainless steel case and bracelet with a spring-locking buckle, and boasts (really?!) a 0.01-carat NATURAL DIAMOND on the crown.  Per my understanding, each Morellato wristwatch is made in their plant right outside Padua in Italy where each item is made in accordance with their strictest standards!

 

For its list price, it’s such a steal!  How can I not love this?!  Finally, something I lusted after and had!