Watch out...

My watch died this week. It really isn't much of a surprise as I have been nursing it along for quite some time - sanding back the sharp bits that have worn on the edges and coating them with clear nail varnish, popping the battery cover back in periodically, polishing the glass with toothpaste. That sort of thing. But finally this week it sort of exploded, sighed a large sigh of relief, rolled over and put it's feet in the air. Metaphorically, of course.

I have a bit of an attachment to my watch. I bought it at Kmart Plaza in Porirua for $NZ35 back in 1989 (when Kmart was still new and exciting in New Zealand) and spent another $20 getting the original computer geek watch strap replaced with a more discreet version. It's done me well. I never wanted it to die. Because that would mean having to find another one.

You see, I've only ever owned four watches in my life up until today.1. The one my mother gave to me when I was about 8 which had been hers when she was young. (I can't remember now if it was a graduation or a 21st present for her)

(Woohoo, how 70s is this picture? How pissed off do I look to have those glasses recorded for posterity?)

Which stood me in good stead for many years until my late teens when it finally died and was replaced with a cheap blue plastic Swatch rip-off ( another gift, I think) which didn't last long at all.3. I bought a Mickey Mouse watch with half the $100 my Gran gave me for my 21st birthday. The other half of the money was used for a wooden step stool that I still use regularly. And I always think of Gran when I do.

(Picture taken at Library school in 1987, the year I bought the watch. Check out that hairdo! I had a hairdresser apprentice friend who used to experiment on me. And look! A walkman! What a poseur!)

Two years later I was in a role where I was the manager of my Library even though I was significantly younger than the other library staff and I started finding it a little embarrassing turning up to Section Heads meetings with my Mickey Mouse watch peeking out of my suit sleeve. And so I bought old faithful, pictured here in May 1997 on my first trip to Australia. (What is this? The "Dodgy haircuts I have known" parade?!)

So, anyway, after much panicking and eBay crawling and visiting shops I've never actually been to (jewellers, that is) and thinking I'd never find a comparable watch I finally bought this today:Ironically, I bought it at Kmart, and it was marked down to $35. I then spent another $10 getting it taken in to fit me.

No, it's not identical. Yes, it makes me want to cry every time I look at it because it's an interloper (I'm sure this feeling will settle down in, oh, about 5 years). But at least it's not a $160 interloper and I can feel happy with the knowledge that I shouldn't have to go through this partiuclar angst again until around 2023...

(Listening to: The Grey Lynn Park Festival Compilation)