It has been over two years since I last posted about the pens I was taking to work. February 2020. Not long before the COVID-19 pandemic started to spread with the inevitable restrictions and lock downs we still see in many parts of the world. Times changes. I went from working from home several days a week to full time with the result my pen cases went in to a drawer.

What I barely touched upon in social media was my life then changed. Come late August, the Monday on which 100% furlough support by the English Government was stopped, where I worked let go most of their IT staff, both internal and 3rd party. More accurately this was the start of the UK mandatory 30 day consultation period prior to actual notice being given (for me 9 weeks). Timing was actually good for me as it was just four days later when my father died. As I mentioned previously, he had early stage Alzheimer’s and was getting worse, so we considered his passing to be both a mercy and a blessing.

Moving on several years and finding I was in the comfortable position where I was able to early retire (I had been saving to try and do so by 55, though it had looked like it would be when I hit 57), I have now started to do voluntary office work Mondays and Tuesdays for the Hertfordshire office of another hobby of mine. Net result a pen case is back out.

As with my latter days of full time work I am using my Franklin Christoph Penvelope 6 to restrict the number of pens I bring with me to the office. You will notice some have been moved from my daily home set. As to the present load:

• First is the rOtring Initial I had originally bought for my father. As the hobby I am now helping from an administrative point of view is one we shared it makes sense to use this pen. Presently it is filled with Franklin Spanish Blue, but for the last time as I have finished the bottle. Note this has a steel medium nib.
• The second pen is my amber Pilot Custom Heritage 823 with a medium gold nib and filled with Robert Oster Citrus. As I have said multiple times, this is a true work horse pen.
• For black ink I have selected another work horse. My Onoto Scholar with a medium steel nib, filled with Pelikan Edelstein Onyx. The choice of ink was more to start on a bottle that needed using. It does make a good alternative to Lamy Black, however in time I might swap to the latter.
• My ScriBo Piuma with its extra fine 18k gold nib, was always intended for work usage with fine annotation being its key role. It is filled with ScriBo Grigio Scribo, though the original version that was given away for free with the first ScriBo Feels if bought direct from the maker.
• Looking back I noted I had dropped my Sailor Pro Gear KoP from my work collection, however I found myself desiring to use it once more and so it is now my ‘red’ ink option, being filled with Kyo-Iro Moonlight over Higashiyama. This pen has the 21k gold medium nib.
• It has been quite a while since I last used my Yard-O-Led Astoria Grand with its 18k gold medium nib. I previously had found ink flow issues were starting to occur with some hard starting, but could see little wrong. This time I pulled the nib and feed and used my sonic cleaner. So far so good. It is filled with a sample of Robert Oster Burgundy Chocolate Notes that the FPUK group were giving out at the last London Pen Show.
• While I could consider Pelikan Duo ink to be a bit of fun, as it does not work as well as the more traditional Stablo style highlighters, and none work with fountain pen ink (you will always get smears), my Pelikan M205 Duo has come back out to be used as originally intended. I have noted, however, that the steel BB nib is very dependant on paper type for how wide a line it will produce and on a cheap office ring bound notepad, this was not much.