20 Friday Oct 2023
Posted in Uncategorized
This is always a very busy time of year for me due to my other major hobby. Presently creating over a dozen documents, some of which require research, and all need printing. The net result is, while I am a third to half way through the creation of a pen review (before photos) I will not get a chance to complete it until mid next week, so hopefully it will be next Friday’s post.
13 Friday Oct 2023
Posted in Pens
The show is now over, so the question some of you may be asking is how did it go. Did I sell enough to cover the cost of the table, what were the pit falls, would I do it again, did I enjoy it. All these questions and more I hope to answer.
Continue reading07 Saturday Oct 2023
Posted in Uncategorized
For those unaware, tomorrow is the Autumn London Pen Show at the Hammersmith Novotel and on this occasion I will hopefully be making money rather than spending it. Well still losing money as all the pens I will be trying to sell are at a price below what I paid for them. Let’s be honest, the vast majority of fountain pens, even from expensive brands, lose money as soon as you pay for them.
Continue reading21 Thursday Sep 2023
The Autumn London Pen Show is just under two and a half weeks away and I will be there, however this time I have finally pulled my finger out and booked a table.
Continue reading08 Friday Sep 2023
Posted in Uncategorized
I’ve been a bit slow with posting recently. Now I have been busy, but there has also been a lazy streak as well. Mea culpe.
Continue reading25 Friday Aug 2023
Posted in Pens
Tags
It has been around four months since the last time I presented this list, and while not many, there have been a few significant changes. The number has increased as a result of bringing some older pens out of storage for the Southern England pen club meet last weekend and deciding I want to carry on using them. There are several other pens on my desk awaiting review and so not seen below. One of these may well join the brigade below.
Continue reading11 Friday Aug 2023
Posted in Pens
Tags
Copper, Copper Pen, EDC, EDC Fountain Pen, pocket pen, pocket pens, Ruth Bolton, Shibui North, Shibui North Pocket Pen
It has now been just over two years since I first reviewed a pen from Shibui North and since then Ruth Bolton’s range has changed and expanded. Come late 2022 I reviewed the first of her pocket pens, the Kitsune (in Japanese folklore a manipulative, magic possessing, shape shifting, multi-tailed fox). Come her first pen show appearance, October in London, an expanded range of PVD and Cerakote coated pens were on display. None quite appealed to me, however come the Spring 2023 show one did, a copper pocket pen.
Continue reading04 Friday Aug 2023
Posted in Travel
And so it was time to return to old Blighty. Simple plan, head to Citée Europe, looks around, have lunch, shop at Carrefour, then head to the Le Shuttle terminal. Simple, what could go wrong.
Continue reading02 Wednesday Aug 2023
Posted in Travel
With the shortest drive of the holiday we were hit by bad weather. In two minds about wandering round old Rouen (if we could find parking), rain and the predicted increase left us with no choice but to leave. Thing is, Calais is not the greatest of areas to kill time, especially as the plan was to hit Citée Europe on the final day before catching Le Shuttle back to the UK.
Continue reading02 Wednesday Aug 2023
It has been a few years since I last went on holiday and the same for my mother who last travelled with my late father the year before the COVID global pandemic. This year we’ll be travelling together, partly following a route my parents would formerly have taken with stops and way points that had been their traditional holiday for their last 3 or 4 years of summer travel.
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