Today my daughter of 10 had a free day of school so we decided to have some quality time together. I took a day off and we went into the city. We live in Amsterdam. I took here to me grandparents house, my former university and house and we had some drinks in the centre. I must admit I looked kind of shabby. But it was a sunny day. And I often look shabby... Anyway, I also took here shopping and I showed here the most expensive shopping street in Amsterdam. Suddenly I saw a IWC boutique and I remembered I needed a shorter bracelet for my IWC. I never was in a high end watch brand boutique before. So we went in and the seller looked at my outfit and apparantly she was not impressed. My daughter explained me I need to dress better when walking into the most expensive shopping street. But I tried to explain her I'm a (salon) socialist and money (or looking rich, which I'm not by the way) is not important. After some waiting the IWC employee asked me: " Sir, is it your first IWC?" Without hesatation I said: "No, I probably had around 30." Now I'm a member of the mailing list of the IWC boutiqe. I've never been handled with so many egards. And my daughter heard for the first time her fathers obsession with watches. She decided there she will collect watches as well when she's older. Just like me and my father (who was a collector too and looks shabby as well). Lesson of today, dont judge a man by his clothes. And I've ordered a shorter IWC bracelet...
One of my favorites is as follows.... Told by the man himself John Higholt ""I graduated when I was 17 and I took my drivers test in a 86 GTI VW. I got an inheritance when I was 18 and I invested some of it and blew some of it. I will tell the story when I bought my F-40 it was 1993 and it was the day of the Newport fires, we went to Newport Ferrari and the did not have a F-40 so we drove to Beverly Hills Ferrari and pulled in to the hotel next door. I walked in with long hair a Grateful Dead tye-dyed shirt torn jeans and Birkenstocks, you know your average Ferrari buyer. There it was on the showroom floor with ropes and a "DO NOT TOUCH" sign on it, so I moved the ropes and tossed the sign and open the door and sat in it, just then as you could imagine a not so nice salesman came out and asked me what the hell I was doing to which I answered " I want to buy this car" he laughed and proceeded to tell me this was a "Half a million dollar car" I told him "No S*#%!, go get the manager" This guy comes out of the office and in a prickish manner says "May I help you?" and I said "How much out the door?" he told me like "478,???.01" The penny I remember because I reached into my pocket and handed him the penny and said "Don't sell this car for 30 minutes while I go get a cashiers check" to which he agreed with a scoff. So I haul ass to my bank First Innermistake on Wilshire a couple blocks away and I get the cashiers check and return in 20 or so minutes. I hand him the cashiers check which he took and went to his office, I followed and he called the bank to make sure that it was real, to which my banker replied "Do you know who that is???? He could buy your whole store!" You should have seen the look on that pricks face look up from the phone and look at me and said "Sir, I, I am so sorry! I didn't know Uh, Uh," he runs out to the show room floor and proceeds to yell "Get these Fuc***g cars moved" referring to the rest of the cars on the showroom floor. This is when the service department was in the back there not down the street. Boy you should have seen them tripping over their own dicks at that point!!! It was the funniest thing I had seen. The manager asked if I wanted anything to which I replied in front of the first guy who did not help me and said "Yeah, as a matter fact I do. I want HIM fired!" and pointed to the prick who did not help me. You should have seen the look on his face, because the guy was going to do it! He really was. After about a minute of the guy trying to say everything under the sun, I looked at him and said "I was just kidding, you did not like that did you? Hope you learned a lesson, now get my car ready I want to leave." I signed the paperwork and drove off into the sunset back to Rolling Hills where I lived. And yes I ran that thing through its paces the whole way home. They still have not forgotten that at BH Ferrari, I was there recently and asked them their strangest sales story, to which the guy replied "This kid came in here looking like a Hippie and bought an F-40 CASH........." To which I replied "So how did you treat him?" "Well..."The guy said. I said "I know how you treated him, cuz you’re looking at him!" We laughed a little and talked, but still I don't think they learned a thing!" Kind of an a-hole, but had a point hah. Also ended up with a Yellow Enzo with tan interior. Died in '09 I believe at 33 years old I think.
So true, so true... next time wear your IWC when you walk into the boutique and perhaps the salesperson will have a different approach. I have always found Europeans to be better dressed and more formal then most Americans, but, I also believe that is changing over the years and Europeans are becoming, for the lack of a better word... laid back. Was in Amsterdam a couple years ago with my sons... what a wonderful city. Great culture, architecture, history, public transportation, and people. We stayed in the Plantage area which was a beautiful neighborhood. Hope to go back soon. Another IWC fan...
Plantage area is beautiful. My grandfather had a house there so my daughter and me visited the house and took a quick detour through Artis (the Amsterdam zoo). Today it was 30 degrees in The Netherlands. A heat record was broken. So Amsterdam was at it most beautiful. It was great.
It was over 40C not too long ago in Los Angeles where I live, 105F in the city and 121F in outlying areas. We also visited the Artis, walked the neighborhood streets, stopped by the Bondsgebouw ANDB, visited the Theater, Hollandsche Schowburg, which is now a holocaust memorial, ate at a number of restaurants, none of which served Dutch food, in the area. Our hotel was adjacent to line 14.
Yes. My aunt helped jewish children, who were kept there, escape from deportation during WOII. She was in the restistance. Eventually she was caught and deported to Ravensbruck. My daughter is named after her.
Many many years ago I was driving through Edinburgh in my van and as you could in these days I parked opposite the main BMW dealership and went in with the serious intention of purchasing but within minutes it was blatantly obvious i did not suit the customer mode and was totally ignored If my memory serves me correct we had eleven vehicles on the road and eighteen employees and to cut the story short a couple of weeks later I was in Ayrshire and popped in to a branch of 'Harry Fairbairn' where I was treated like royalty and even given a tour of the workshops and the result - plus several others over the years. If I remember correctly Neiman Marcus was a great believer in never prejudging your customer.
A courageous woman and a wonderful tribute to name your daughter after your Aunt. We took a WW2 walking tour and our tour guide’s Mother was friends with Anne Frank. Our guide’s family was Jewish and her Mother survived the war. She showed us a number of historical photos from the war and discussed the occupation. My family and my wife’s family all left Europe because of the political ramifications just prior to WW2. My Grandfather was from Germany and left prior to the war. My wife’s family relocated to Barcelona from Essen in 1936 and eventually came to the US. My father has a first cousin who survived the war, she has homes in Amsterdam and The Hague...lives mostly in The Hague. Fenced off Ghetto Inside of Theatre Where Your Aunt Rescued Children Today... the front of theatre remains but back is open... building demolished in 1962 because of history and desire to turn into memorial. Family Name on Wall of Remembrance