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As the old Chinese curse goes, “May you live in interesting times”, and for 2020 this has been true for most of us. Personally my family has not been hit (so far) by Covid and those friends of mine who’ve caught it have all recovered, however as previously mentioned here I did lose my father at the end of August, so not a great year. As a result I’ve split this article up in to four sections, and many of these pens will appear at pen clubs once life returns back to normality (or what ever is considered the new normality).

Pre March 2020 London Pen Show

The year started with the purchase of five pre-owned pens from their former owners and one gift, along with the purchase of the Netuno:

March 2020 London Pen Show

Little did we know just how much of a drastic change would take place around the world at the time of the show. Italy and China were in lock down, however many of us still believed COVID-19 would remain regional and area controllable, as had been the case with the previous SARS outbreaks once they had been identified. As I covered in my piece on the show, here are my purchase:

Post Pen Show Purchases

At the time I thought life would carry on as normal, little did I know how things would change, which also included my job and the need to cut back post being made redundant towards the end of the year (IT has been hit hard as companies have looked to reduce costs across the board). Out of those listed below I used the excuse of needing to make myself feel better to justify the purchase of the SciBo, the other was just the addiction kicking in with a cheap (by comparison) must have, which many of us have gone for:

  • 1811 Gold Dancing Fathers in Cosmic Storm
  • Franklin-Christoph 02
  • Platinum Curidas
  • Constellation88 Elements Morange
  • Constellation88 Indian Pen Show Gift (was given by Constellaion88 for being understanding as to why it took so long for them to be able to send me the Elements pen – I did explain to them I had Indian colleagues in my team so fully understood the situation over there however they still insisted including this as a thank you extra).
  • Visconti Homosapiens Caput Mundi (I considered this a grail pen until one came up for a very good price from a person near me who was trimming his collection)
  • TWSBI 700r Iris (was actually the last pen purchased, but I got the order wrong when laying out for the above picture)
  • Franklin-Christoph 46
  • Scribo Feel Zucca

From My Father

At the end of August my father passed away. It was not COVID related, nor connected to Alzheimer’s from which he was suffering. We actually consider it a mercy as what happened was sudden and quick, in addition to which most of the time he was still himself. Reality was lock down had not done him many favours and almost certainly he was subconsciously probably aware of what was happening to him. I knew he was a fountain pen user, right to the end, and as no one else in the family uses them (aside from my nephew for formal stuff – with the present I gave him for his 21st birthday) there was no objections to me having all of his pens:

  • Parker ‘New Duofold’ Senior (he received either as a 21st birthday coming of age present or for going to university and he still used a part of his daily writers)
  • Three Parker 51s
  • rOtring Initial (which I had previously bought for him as a present and was still part of his daily writers)
  • rOtring Varioscript (forerunner to the Isograph and Rapidograph pens)