Vintage Junghans automatic watch

I unloaded a vintage Junghans in favor of this automatic model. I already have another vintage manual wind Junghans so that's something like one of each type for this German brand in my collection. I thought this one looked sleek and it turned out to be a reliable one that you could use daily. Unfortunately, I have others that are part of my regular rotation so this one's still trying to get a slot in that rotation.

The watch has a date feature

Side view showing the crown

The other side view

Case back showing the watch to be shock and waterproof and the case to be of stainless steel

Wrist shot the first time I used the watch

Wrist shot showing the lumes

The lumes on this watch are in great condition as shown in this photo.

Here's another wrist shot

This watch has a J651.10 movement running at 18,000 beats per hour with a power reserve of 42 hours when used regularly, The movement dates this watch to have been made sometime between 1963 and 1973.

Needless to say but this Junghans watch is safe from the current culling that I am doing to many watches in my collection. Watches in such good condition such as this one is hard to come and this brand is collectible though not like Glashutte, which has evolved to become a luxury brand.

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Simple pleasures

One time we were at the neighborhood mall, we decided to have some soft serve ice cream for dessert after a hearty yakiniku and shabu-shabu lunch. We spotted this stall selling some inexpensive soft serve ice cream and they had many kids as customers so we got one cone each to enjoy while walking around.

Soft serve ice cream on a waffle cone dipped into chocolate syrup (shell?).

Such simple pleasures are typical of what we truly enjoy compared to the more complex (and expensive) treats. I count taho, puto and fishballs as among those I enjoyed and still enjoy from time to time. I haven't tried the "sanitized" scramble I've seen in malls but I had my share of scramble bought from the vendor near the school where I took my elementary and high school.

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On airline food - Manila to Colombo via Singapore

Traveling to Sri Lanka via Singapore was my preferred route over the ones via Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok. Though the last two are great destinations. I bet KL is despite haven't being able to go there yet. I have been to Malaysia and by land but went to Melaka. And I have been to Bangkok many times before. But I consider Singapore as another home; perhaps a close third to Japan's second. And Changi is the best airport in the world, and great for layovers like the one I made between Manila and Colombo. Here's a few photos I took of the inflight meals on Cebu Pacific and Sri Lankan Airlines.

We were running out of seats for the Manila-Singapore leg of our trip so I bought tickets that included a meal. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to change the meal from the default choice so we ended up with Beef Bulgogi for breakfast.

It wasn't bad and could pass off as tapsilog (tapa/beef strips, sinangag/fried rice and itlog/egg)-like meal but without the egg and on the spicy side.

The Singapore - Colombo leg of my trip was on board Sri Lankan Airlines. This was a legacy carrier and not a low cost carrier like Cebu Pacific. In fact, Sri Lankan Airlines is part of the One World alliance so I was able to credit the miles to my JAL card.

I chose the fish and noodles with the broccoli instead of the chicken curry and rice. I was worried by stomach won''t agree with the curry and we still had hours of travel ahead of us. True to form for a legacy carrier, the food was better than what we had at Cebu Pacific even though we were at economy class.

Overall, I thought the food was okay for both legs of my Manila-Singapore-Colombo trip. The Singapore-Colombo leg even had excellent tea after our meal. What would you have expected for a Sri Lankan carrier? They do produce the best tea in the world!

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First impressions of Sri Lanka at the airport

They say a country's gateway provides travelers or visitors a first impression of the country. The following few photos and my observations pretty much describes my first impressions.

Upon clearing immigration, travelers are greeted by duty free stores lining up along the corridor to the baggage claim area

These were mostly shops selling liquor/alcoholic drinks and appliances.

The previous observations on duty free shops showed me what were popular items for returning Sri Lankans who likely wanted to get something upon their arrival to bring to their families. Those included household appliances like TVs, stereos, refrigerators and washing machines, and souvenir items like whiskey and brandy that would be something to share with families and friends (for celebrating their return). This seems to me as a scene from the Philippines at Manila's international airport in the 1980s and 1990s when overseas foreign workers (OFWs) returned from abroad to take their vacations from their work there. Cigarettes, liquor and appliances were also popular at the airport where the prices of these items were significantly lower due to their being duty or tax free. Perhaps the only other item as popular for returning Filipinos at the airport were chocolates balikbayans (returning Filipinos) bought for their children.

That said, allow me to add another impression made upon deplaning at the Bandaranaike International Airport. Instead of heading towards the terminal, we deplaned on the tarmac and was taken to the terminal by bus/transporter. This was much like the local airlines at NAIA Terminal 3 where domestic flights were commonly served by transporters connecting aircraft with the terminal. As one colleague traveling with me observed - parang sa atin lang (it's just like in our country) - upon seeing a bus waiting to take us to the terminal as we deplaned.

Passengers deplaning from our Sri Lankan  Airlines plane

A view of passengers deplaning from the rear door of the plane to an awaiting bus

Another view from the bus of passengers and crew deplaning from the front door

More on Sri Lanka soon!
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Another Glashutte spezichron

A more recent acquisition for my vintage watch collection is another Glashutte spezichron. I think this was my 6th or 7th vintage Glashutte not counting one that acquired for spare parts to repair my diver. That one was sold as a defective unit so it wasn't running in the first place when I bought it. My repair guy kept it as a future source of parts if one of my Glashuttes with the same movement needs repairs.

The cream dial is set on a cushion case. The watch has both day and date features.

Side view showing the crown and giving some emphasis on the raised hour markers.

The other side view

Case back showing the watch to be of stainless steel, shock and water resistant. It also states the watch to be Made in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Note, too, the lug size for this piece.

The obligatory wrist shot

Close-up of the cream dial showing it to be in great condition

This watch is powered by a GUB Cal. 11-27 running at 28,800 A/h with a potential power reserve of 37h. Its the same caliber movement as my two spezichron divers.

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Sri Lanka!

I just arrived from a recent trip to Sri Lanka. Although I was there for a conference, I made sure I was able to go around to a few places including the old capital in Kandy (Sri Lanka's capital is Colombo). That means a lot of photos taken when I was there.

We arrived at Bandaranaike International Airport via Sri Lankan Airlines through Singapore Changi.

I will be writing about Sri Lanka and some of its attractions in future posts. Abangan!

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Chocolate review: Charbonnel at Walker Milk Sea Salt Caramel Truffles

The other box of chocolates was this one with the difference mainly in the other being pralines. They look the same but this one was more chocolatey than the other.

Similar packaging in the form of a box that's reusable (we kept them as containers).

Four pieces inside usually meant 2 for either of us but then our daughter's developed her own taste for chocolates. She liked the pralines but somehow didn't like this as much. So the wife and I split the 4th.

These chocolates are exquisite by themselves and I believe should not to be eaten in large quantities. You should enjoy these. You savor the taste and texture in your mouth rather than flick them in, chew and swallow.

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Chocolate review: Charbonnel et Walker Milk Caramel Praline Sea Salt Truffles

There were a couple of boxes of fine chocolate that the wife took home last year. These were also given to her by her colleagues from their international offices as they often exchange souvenirs when they meet up in conferences or meetings. Again, we sort of forgot they were in storage as the chocolates in our refrigerator accumulated and we haven't had the time recently to check which ones might be expiring. This wasn't but we were curious about how this one looked like and tasted so we opened one.

The case reminded me of souvenir chocolates I got from friends in Tokyo back in 2014.

Inside were four pieces of chocolates

The chocolate certainly did not disappoint. It was exquisite with the right mix of salty (from the sea salt) and sweet (from the caramel). These were pralines so each had fillings. The time in the refrigerator didn't diminish the taste though the texture was affected (hard fillings). The clincher, of course, was the truffles part. I haven't done some research on where these chocolates are available and how much they cost but these are definitely must buys even just for the tasting. 

There's another one I will be writing about soon.

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Jitaku Japanese Restaurant, Marcian Garden Hotel, Zamboanga City

We are always looking for a new place to eat at whenever we visit Zamboanga and this time around, we spotted this restaurant from across our workshop room at the Marcian Hotel. Before we headed to our hotels after the workshop, I decided to check out their menu and saw a lot of familiar items you'd expect from a Japanese restaurant. Seafood is excellent in Zamboanga so you can assume that a resto located at a quality hotel will have the ingredients for good sushi, sashimi or tempura.

We were not disappointed when we had dinner there. The staff were friendly and attentive. The servings were very generous and the seafood very fresh (we had sashimi and sushi). This was a nice find for us who had not gone to a Japanese themed restaurant in Zamboanga.

 

Seafood curry

Yakisoba or Japanese fried noodles

Maguro (tuna) sushi

Tempura

Chicken katsu curry

The place seems to be popular for meetings and for dates. We saw examples of these at the tables around ours when we had dinner there. Price-wise, we though that their prices were very reasonable considering the quality and quantity of the food they served us. This is definitely a restaurant to include whenever you're craving for Japanese food or tried and tested dishes in Zamboanga.

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Vintage Helbros self-winding watch from the former West Germany

We open September with a watch post. This one's a vintage Helbros automatic watch that caught my attention for it being automatic and made in West Germany. I have many watches made in East Germany (German Democratic Republic or GDR), where the Glashutte factory and many others were located prior to the re-integration of Germany. And it was the first time I same 'West Germany' explicitly stated on a watch.

Watch dial with day and date features

Side view showing the crown

The other side view

Case back showing this watch to tbe made in West Germany

Here's the obligatory wrist shot

Close-up of the dial - "selfwinding" is another term for "automatic"

Another wrist shot

I have only two Helbros watches. The other is a manually wound alarm watch (my only one now after I let go of my Seiko Bellmatic).  I intend to keep the two for a while so these are safe from the recent culling I've been doing to my collection. I have not had this watch serviced and so have not seen the movement. I assume this is running at 18,000 beats per hour, which is common for watches this old (I also assume this was from the 1960s to 1970s). The sweeping second hand though makes it look like this one's got a high beat movement.

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