Okay, first of all a confession. As a proud and, at times, professional northerner I do not wear jewellery. To me, that shiny stuff that dangles from necks and wraps around fingers is a suspicious item that is only worn by people who are as hard as nails or lift south of Birmingham. As for the stuff that decorates other areas of the human body I really cannot get my head around. Pierced belly button? Sorry, but er, why?
Actually there are two pieces of jewellery that I will wear. One is my wedding ring. There is no way I cannot wear that. Imagine the conversation with my wife as we went shopping for wedding rings before saying our vows.
“I’m sorry, my dear sweet beloved but I cannot wear a wedding ring.”
“Oh, why is that?”
“Well, as you know, I come from Manchester.”
“Yes?”
“That’s it, that’s why I can’t wear a wedding ring.”
So you see, dear reader, how that would not work. Together with other things such as tradition and showing the world my undying love for my wife. The usual stuff.
The only other item of jewellery I will wear is a watch. I love watches. They look cool, they do not impose she selves on the wearer. Even the cheap digital ones have a nice casual “beep beep” for their alarm which is almost apologetic as it tells its host that it is time to wake up from their slumber. They can give off an air of importance to the most unimportant person, like me, when they check the time with a deft movement of the cuff to glance down their nose towards that shiny face looking back towards them, almost winking casually as it confirms that there is still half an hour to go to that important meeting down the pub.
I am a bit of a traditionalist at heart and, although I try to move with the times, I always fear that some ways will lost. I recall once watching an item on BBC Breakfast hat said the art of thatching roofs was dying off. I watched it with some sadness, despite the quite obvious fact that I would never have the need for such a roof and, should I ever visit a house that had one I would spend the entire time in fear of it catching fire.
One tradition that I do fear could die off is the one of telling the time using a watch. Now, stop sniggering at the back, just think of is. How many of you now, when asked the time, check your phone? With the modern all singing, all dancing, walking, talking, laughing and crying smart phone there is practically no need for anything else.
However, a watch looks cool. They can be shiny without being blingy, they can be big without dominating everything and they can be loud without being annoying. Look at these tremendous interest free watches on this website. Don’t they look better for telling the time than a telephone? There’s no messing about, they tell the time. It’s their job, there’s no worrying about data limits or charges for texting the Ant and Dec show after 9pm because watches do exactly what they say on the tin. They tell the time and they do it in a way that looks good.
