Everybody loves Raymond

About 8 or so years ago, after I’d been living down here for a couple of years, my old boss came to Melbourne for a conference. He had plenty of issues. He was an alcoholic. He lived with his wife, but had a younger girlfriend, survived a plane crash in Africa, in which everyone else died, then watched as his toddler son got hit by a car one afternoon as he was at a party with his wife. He was pretty messed up.

He was also obsessed with me. Gave me gifts, took me to dinner once (I went to shut him up), and watched as I lost about $350 of his on blackjack one night at the casino in Brisbane. I left my favourite umbrella (that cost about $100) at the bar that night, so I suppose it was sorta fair in the end. He drove me nuts, but I was only about 21-22, and didn’t really know how to handle it…except to completely antagonize him. I accepted the gifts. Who knew you were allowed to say no? The advances? Well, I guess in that respect I did know where to draw the line. He never got what he wanted. He knew that I went out of my way to annoy him. He never gave up.

I kept in touch (still do) with two women I worked with, when I moved down here. He asked one of them to give him my number and he contacted me when he got here. He asked me to dinner. I thought, well you’re an idiot for continuing this stupidity, but fine, I’ll pick the place since you’re paying. I chose the most expensive restaurant in the most expensive hotel….the kind of place you pay $45 for a microscopic sized scallop on a platter sized plate.

Despite the fact that he drank way too much and I had no respect for him, we got on fairly well. I’ll give him one thing, he respected my intelligence and we had some good conversations during the time I worked for him. So dinner that night was ok. He then said he had something for me back at the hotel. Um…yeah, ok. Truly, the guy was a slow learner. I said sure. I wanted to see how the rich/er people wasted their money.

He’d just come back from a trip to Singapore and gave me the most beautiful smelling perfume I’ve ever had….and I’m not a perfume person at all. Most of them give me hayfever or headaches – or both. He also gave me a Raymond Weil watch. It cost so much that I didn’t like to wear it, even though I loved it. I still do. But I haven’t worn it for years. I lost one of the pins for it and never got it repaired, because I never wore it.

Today, I decided I should try to get it fixed and start wearing it instead of keeping it wrapped up in tissue and bubble wrap for eternity. Apparently, it’s not just a watch and it’s not just jewellery. It’s a ‘piece’ and there’s nobody in my area who can simply put a new pin in the band. After talking (with the half a voice I currently have) to 6 different jewellers, one finally said I’d have to call or email RW themselves to find out what to do….oh and that it generally takes 4-8 weeks for repairs to be done. Huh?! Of course, I couldn’t get an answer from anyone about how much that little exercise might cost me, but I’m starting to think it’s going to be a tad more than I first thought.

I think it’ll help if I go with the “it’s an investment” mindset.

Oh, if you want one, I could only find one other the same on the net. On ebay, of course…and a ridiculously good price! Probably how much the damn pin is gonna cost me! Ha!