The Young Gentleman and the time keepers

In this time and age, if you are not interested in the mechanical and precise engineering of a wrist watch, then it is just merely an accessory or jewelry for men. For most men, it would be likely to be the only piece of jewelry we would ever have until we get married (which for me, is way down the road). It is true that an affordable timepiece might not be as accurate as your imobilephone which automatically updates the exact time and date wherever you go. But lifting your wrist up instead of whipping your geekily phone out still make a clear difference of a gentleman. As we approach different stage of our lives, an appropriate wrist watch tells people as much about us as our hairstyle, obviously you don't see many 30 something businessmen with a pony tail. And at different times of our lives, the budget for a time keeper would be different too.

Taking out the younger teenagers (16-18), who's best choice would be a Casio G-Shock, cheap, durable, unbreakable (trust me, those are the dinosaurs of watches, i had one when i was 15, now 22, it's still running perfectly). We can classify the phases of a man's life into The Young Gent (18-21), The Fresh Grad (22-25), The Man (25-30), The Careerist (30-35), The Provider (35-40) and The Stateman (45+).

As the Young Gent, you are most likely to live on a pretty tight budget therefore you need something that doesn't cost you an arm and a leg. The budget at this stage should be under $500 for an affordable time piece. Such fashion brands as Armani, Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs should be your aims together with the German watch maker Thomas Sabo. Swatch is also known for quality affordable time pieces.

As the Fresh Grad, you need something to tell your potential employers "Hello sir, i am here, i am adequate, i am professional, i am serious for a job". By now your disposable income should be increased enough for you to afford a watch with heftier presence, you can start looking at $500- $1500 watches. In this range we have bigger fashion brands and affordable Swiss brands such as Seiko, TISSOT and Hugo Boss.

Gathered enough experiences from your first job and now settled into the lower end of the corporate ladder, The Man is young enough to care about his appearance and wealthy enough to afford a $1500 - $4500 watch. From this point on, you should be able to look only at quality Swiss watches. Longines, Frederique Constant, Raymond Weil, Tag Heuer are a few names you should look into.


By the time you are 30-35, you are focus on your career, the little bump in salary might help you with a replacement of your old timepiece in the similar price range, maybe a little bit extra if you are feeling like treating yourself ($2000-$5000). Again, Longies, Frederique Constant, Raymond Weil and Tag Heuer fit into your descriptions nicely.

The next stage in a man's life is when he becomes the new daddy (35-40). You now know what to do, have respectable status and reputable image, some could say you are now a real man. You know values lie in quality and you start choosing your accessories in the premium range. You can get familiar with names such as Mont Blanc, Chanel, Baume & Mercier, Raymond Weil, Omega which are in the $3000-$7000 range.

If you played your cards right til you hit 45, you should be on the higher end of the ladder by now, enjoy your sunday golf.  When money is no object, you can now reward yourself with some Maurice Lacroix, Breitling, IWC. If you really cashed in, there is no stopping you from getting a Rolex, just keep in mind that in some third world countries, your wrist could be chopped off.

Owh and if you are still wearing G-Shocks by now, you either took a wrong turn (or many wrong turns) somewhere or you really don't know how to enjoy your life properly.

Brian Nguyen
- Not a player, not quite a douche, he's a gentleman-

Teaser

Something exciting involving a lot of hot cars are coming to Australia thanks to Marc Edward Agency and European Wheel Source ;).

Brian Nguyen

- Not a player, not quite a douche, he's a gentleman-

Holiday

Had some friends came down from Sydney during the holiday and this was what we've been doing.

Enjoy,

Brian Nguyen

- Not a player, not quite a douche, he's a gentleman -

The Young Gentleman on 2 wheels

Today's entry is dedicated to the exciting world of motorcycles,

Let's start with the purpose of a motorcycle, "transportation"? nope, not really, the car do that job just fine, car carries more people, more stuff, weather proof, wherever you go, you are safe and sound in the comfortable (leather optional) seat with your choice of music, food and beverage, first class air plane ticket don't get better than that.

So why bike? fast, dangerous, and the very high potential to kill yourself. Well that's pretty much the reasons. People don't ride because motorcycles are compact, convenience, they ride because of the thrill. Ever traveled at 120kmph with the wind to your face and the ground centimeters to your knees? Not many experienced that and the ones who did, got addicted.

Motorcycles nowadays, even with an entry level 600cc, have enough torque, power and acceleration to put a Porsche to shame. They are indeed very very powerful machines. And need to be piloted with skills and responsibility. I will not get into details with skills and responsibility today, I would however get into the perfect gentleman's bike.

Let's begin with the bike categories, as you might have known, bikes are categorized into super sport, cruiser, naked, dirt bikes and scooters. So, which one of these categories would be used by a gentleman?


Super sport? Nah, those are for the 18-20 years old who either think riding a super sport can make them like the guy in Tron or get them into bed with Emma Watson. While the truth is, those are for the track and if they are used on the street, be prepared to get use to the constant back ache.

Cruisers? Yeah if you think gentleman and bikies have something in common. Those machines indeed are very pretty and full of characteristics, unfortunately the bikies thought so too.

Dirt bikes? Not everyone of us is Jacob Black (Twilight saga, and no, i do not know his name, i had to ask my girlfriend). Like bmx, dirt bikes are boys' toys when women are not around.

Scooters? A Vespa, yes. The rest of the scooters are worth a good laugh or two but they are no gentleman's bikes for sure.

Now, what could a gentleman's bike be? The correct answer would be NAKED BIKES. Why?

Well first, there's the word "Naked". If that isn't awesome enough then here are the reasons as of why naked bikes are my choice for gentleman's bikes. To begin with, they are super sports for the street. I said so because naked bikes use the same engines as super sports with some modifications or detuned to make use of most power in the lower rev range, that is perfect for street riding. The riding position is different thanks to the flat handle bar which gives a comfortable seating whereas with super sports you would find it rather tiring for your back after a few hours of riding. Down to pricing, as they are"naked", which means less fairing, most naked bikes are a few thousand dollars cheaper than their super sport equivalent. For under $14,000 AUD, you will be taking home a brand spanking new entry level urban warrior.

Most motorcycle companies nowadays take part in the naked bike sector so you would have plenty of options. Yamaha with the FZ8N, FZ6N, Suzuki GSR 750, Triumph Speed Triple, Ducati Monster, Kawasaki Z1000, Aprilia Shiver 750, so on and so forth.

Brian Nguyen

- Not a player, not quite a douche, he's a gentleman-

MORR Wheels - My Shameless Self Promotion :D

If you are driving a BMW, these wheels are a MUST!

A few year back a wheel maker genious Carlos and his crew gathered up in Miami for the begining of the legendary MORR wheels. To this day MORR wheels equals class, status, taste and quality in the BMW society.

European Wheel Source is proud to be MORR's exclusive authorised distributor in Australia.

Enjoy,

Brian Nguyen

- Not a player, not quite a douche, he's a gentleman-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/morrwheels/5812764332/in/set-72157626792087853/

MMA - the new Gentleman's sport

Hard to believe right? But it really is, let me tell you why.

Recently i've been hooked to MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). It started one day when i was walking down a small alley way in Adelaide CBD thinking about the all weights i've put on recently. Out of nowhere i saw this little Boxing ad on the wall.

Boxing eh? Interesting... So i walked inside, had a little chat to the guys in the gym to find out that there are boxing, kick boxing and MMA training every Saturday 10am-12pm. Alright, MMA training it is.

Like most people, with no experiences in martial arts, when i thought of combat sport, the first thing to my mind was "brutal". But let me assure you, it is not at all what it seems, unless you go pro, then there will be blood. So i rocked up the following Saturday for my first training session. Things went quite smoothly, started with skipping, push ups, stretches, then i got to learn some techniques, a little sparring to wrap it up. Everyone were very nice and the punches and kicks are only executed at 40%-50% power, just so you get the reflexes and techniques right, nobody was waiting to beat you to a pulp. I really enjoyed the session so training has been on my schedule for every Saturday since.

As time goes on, i found that one session a week isn't enough. Iwant to get better, faster, stronger. About a month ago, i found out that Cameron Hill, a mate of mine is actually a pro fighter. So i called him up, asking for some tips and advice. The guy was nice enough to tell me just to come over his place and he'll train me for as long as i want. When someone offer free training, you say yes please.

So we picked a date to start and i drove down to his house to find this.

Is that the coolest shed ever or what? The guy has all the needed gear for practice and his skills and knowledge on this sport are impressive.

Why would i call something this violent a "gentleman's sport". Let me break it down to you.

1. Golf is way overrated (and Tiger Woods kinda ruined it for everyone already)
2. MMA help you build confidence. You don't go out and look for trouble but you know you can manage if trouble looks for you.
3. It is way better than cardio and weight lifting. 2 hours of dancing with your gloves on is more exciting than jogging for sure.
4. You will be trained to stay calm and actually think in critical situations ( let's say when someone is pounding you).

To the costs:

MMA is not an expensive sport if you really make your money worth. Let's break it down to 2 basic costs, gear and training fees.

- Gears: to start you would just need pair of gloves. Synthetic ones are abour $40, leather are about $80 depends on brands. A few known brands in MMA: Everlast, Title, Throwdown, Hayabusa, Tapout. Later down the track you might want to invest in some more protective gear such as shin guards, mouth guards, head guards, wrist wraps etc. Those are NOT NECESSARY when you first started.

-Fees: Fees varies from each gym. Mostly because some only do "fitness" MMA where people practice just to keep fit and most of the time what you will be doing would be skipping, push ups and so on. There are others who provide specialised training, they will show you how to perfectly execute a take down, how to really make some damages. Now those are the expensive ones. For me however, my training cost me $10/session every Saturday. For the other 2,3 session my mate Cameron trains me for free so i didn't have to pay much there.

Another thing to remember with training is that the more people you train with the better as everyone has different style and techniques. 

Brian Nguyen
- Not a player, not quite a douche, he's a gentleman-

P/s: i recently switched to Mac so i'm still struggling with the photo editing softwares :(

Euro vs JDM

A quick photo shoot i did earlier with a mate. I'm no expert in JDM but i think the Accord is as sexy as it gets.

Enjoy,

Brian Nguyen
- Not a player, not quite a douche, he's a gentleman-

Play this while viewing for dramatic effects ;)