The gardener who valiantly undertakes the Sisyphean task of taming the wild vegetation chez pplater is an immigrant from Poland. He was an engineer in his own country, but too old and too tired to re-train and qualify as an engineer in his new home. So, he turned to his passion - gardening. And he is a very, very good (if sometimes slow and forgetful) 70+ year old gardener. Let's call him "Stanley" for the time being, because his very long name has no vowels in it and 'Stanley', which approximates the unpronounceable, is something to which he cheerily answers. (Actually, he answers to 'Stanley 1'. On another occasion you may hear about 'Stanley 2', an equally Polish lawnmower friend of his with an equally vowel-challenged name to whom he introduced us. They don't converse, they 'shout fight', but that's a story for another day).
Stanley 1 has had a colourful, international life. Somewhere along the way he lost Mrs Stanley 1 #1 and collected Mrs Stanley 1 #2. (Are you keeping up? There may be a test later...). When many other men would be thinking of hanging up their Wellington boots (trans.: galoshes) and sipping mulled wine by the fireside, Stanley 1 was blessed with a daughter by Mrs Stanley 1 #2. She is, understandably, the love of his life. Through her childhood (which we were fortunate enough to witness from the sidelines) Stanley 1 doted on Daughter-of-Stanley-1; she wanted for nothing, and was given a marvellous education on the strength of her father's gardening prowess and canny saving. And what a woman she has become! Daughter-of-Stanley-1 is a statuesque, confident, multilingual (5 languages) young lady shortly to qualify as a lawyer (trans.: attorney).
But to qualify as a lawyer, here, a student (no matter how good or how confident) must complete a period of articles (trans.: internship) at a law firm. Such positions are not easy to gain. It was a simple matter, though, to arrange such a position for Daughter-of-Stanley-1: to be perfectly frank, she could have just about named her choice. It was also something willingly and freely done, for Stanley 1 and Daughter-of-Stanley-1 have been in our lives longer, and deeper, than we care to admit.
On the day that bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed Daughter-of-Stanley-1 commenced her articles, Stanley 1 turned up at the door and presented the Certina as a 'thank-you' gift. It was, he said, with tears in his eyes, his father's watch. He wanted nothing more than for the watch to be accepted as an expression of his appreciation for the facilitation of his beloved daughter's career ambitions. Of course, refusal was not an option - it would have been a crushing insult. Equally, however, no reward was asked or needed, and this is a watch with great sentimental value.
You can see where this is going, can't you? This watch will go off to the spa. It will be given a very thorough service and a good clean. It will be fitted with a satin (or similar) strap. It will be placed in a new box, wrapped and bow-tied, and on the day that Daughter-of-Stanley-1 is admitted as a lawyer (trans.: passes the bar) she will be given her grandfather's watch as an admission gift from us. It is just barely possible that Stanley 1 won't be the only one with tears in his eyes on that day. Just a Certina; an 'unmentionable' watch, for sure, but also an unforgettable watch.
Cheers,
pplater.