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First off, I tried putting something similar to this on Facebook. Not only did it fail, I couldn't edit it, and FB then ate it, and the bloody homework with it... BAD DOG 😡
Right. Fuck Facebook. It's eaten two attempts at posting today's events along with the photos.The photos are on my phone, and can be reuploaded, but not the bloody text, which was typed on my phones virtual keyboard.
Accidentally left my notebook cover, containing a notepad, and my rose gold Kaweco fountain pen, on the coffee table in the 'output' area at work. Never noticed until I had arrived at my changeover point to drive my first bus, yesterday. When I got back, surprise surprise, it wasn't there. And no-one handed it in. We appear to have a thief at work 😡
What's so $%^&* annoying is that this isn't the first time it's happened. Last time, I lost a notepad cover, and a pair of excellent Rite In The Rain twist pencils, which RITR had discontinued in the interim. So, those were lost forever.
This time, it's the notebook cover that's been discontinued, a rather bleeding good and handy Maxpedition cover, a Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil, AND my Kaweco rose gold fountain pen. I can replace the fountain pen, but it's now 60 quid, not the thirty I paid for it, and I can replace the the Perfect Pencil as well: It's twelve quid through Amazon.
But I cannot replace the cover (3” x 5” Notebook Cover), which has since been discontinued by Maxpedition, dammit 😡 It had very handy velcro sections on the outside, to customise the cover. That had three morale patches on it. I have spares, but I shouldn't have or need to use them.
The reason I'd hauled out the cover? I'd left my usual fountain pen and pencil (both Kaweco) at home yesterday. It was a Monday. Figures. Thankfully, the item I pulled the notepad cover out to use, my emergancy Blaze Orange RITR ball point pen (RITR metal clicker pen, OR97), wasn't lost: I had stuck that in my vest penloop when I got distracted. That's 30 quid I don't have to find, at any rate.
I'm bloody furious for two reasons: One, that it's partly my fault they're gone (I should have put the gruddamn thing back in my vest pocket. I got distracted and forgot), and Second, that there's a $%^&@#* THIEF at work 😡
So. Lesson learned. It's not going to be expensive RITR waterproof paper in the notepad cover hereinafter, and replaceable gear. This means a bland black RITR 3" x 5" notebook cover, plain paper top-bound notepaper, and cheaper, replaceable, pens.
Most of all? I *want* that thief. I wanna do unspeakably KINETIC things to his hands involving bench vices, 20lb sledgehammers, nails, and pungee sticks. I wanna do that until the audience, Crown Prosecution Service, and the Police, scream and pass out from the horror of it all, not just the thief. I wanna go medieval and Inquisition-like on his extremities, and make Torquemada look like a merciful rank amateur.
Moreover? I'm FURIOUS he's made me this damned angry 😡
Lots of the folks where I work are amazed that I use a fountain pen; one of the more printable comments was "Wow, that's well old school!". Well, yeah, I guess. When I went to school, the Parker 25 was kinda popular.
But over the years, I've gone from fountain pens, to ball points, to roller balls, back to ball points, and again, back to fountain pens.
Why back to fountain pens? Simply put, I find them easier to write with. You need less pressure on the tip, the nib, in order to deliver ink to the page. The flip side of that, is that not all paper is alike; some are really good for fountain pens. Others are horrible for fountain pens.
By the same token, some fountain pens are great, and others utterly rubbish.
You pay your money, and you take your choice, as the hackneyed old saying goes.
Of late, there's been something of a resurgence in people taking up fountain pens to both write with, and collect. There are forums and Face Book groups - Fountain Pens UK being one such excellent group.
Small manufacturing businesses have also came into being, to sell newly designed and made fountain pens. One of the ones that I've got a lot of time for is Gravitas Pens, run by Ben Walsh, on the outskirts of Dublin, in Eire (The Republic of Ireland, to give it it's UN-recognised name). Full disclosure, I have no financial links with Ben, I'm just a very satisfied customer.
I've got one of Ben's Pocket pens, in brass, and a lovely bit of kit it is too. It's my daily pen, carried with my Filofax Pocket "Identity" organiser.
However, the Medium nib it came with was a tad, shall we say, "juicy", delivering the ink a little on the generous side to the paper; nothing drastic or horrid, just a smidgen too much, such that ink took a little longer than I really wanted, to dry on the page; additionally, I found that the thickness of the nib was a bit wider than I really liked.
So, I bought a replacement nib in Fine, from him.
As expected, it took about two or three weeks to get to me; he tends, I suspect, being a one-man-band business, to do his dispatching once a week, and an post, the Irish Post Office, isn't well known for speed. Hell, neither is Royal Snail - I mean "Mail" 😉 - come to that, of late!
However, it got to me, in a nicely padded envelope, along with some ink cartridges (Pelikan 4001, in blue), a business card (of course), and a natty little metallic-effect sticker.
Cleaning out the pen, prepping it, and swapping out the nib for the new Fine one was a breeze. Only, I forgot to coat the threads of the nib and feed holder where it mates with the section with silicone grease, so had to do it again 🙄 D'OH.
Anyhow, the pen still works, delivers ink to the nib, and thence to the paper.
Only, now I have to find a darker shade of Olive to write with, as, naturally, while the ink delivery is now properly controlled, it appears a bit paler than with the original medium nib. It's no failing, just one of those things.
I should note in passing that this isn't my only Fountain pen. I have what, nine others? Two Chinese ones, possibly Jinhao-manufactured (one 'silver', polished - HIGHLY polished - aluminium; the other 'brass', likely a lighter alloy of brass, but it's yellow metal, and I like it), which work perfectly well, three Lamy Safaris in different colours (Charcoal, Terra, and Olive), and four Kaweco pens (Brass, Rose Gold, Olive, and Terra) to which something of a saga of problems is attached, but which all work just fine, now).
Y'know, this Fountain Pen thing is beginning to be a habit 😱
And the less said about INK, the better 😂
Interesting.
The London Borough of Bromley (the borough in which I live) election results are in.
There's no real effect on the borough, as the Conservatives still have a majority in council, but still, 2 x labour, 5 x Indies, and 3 x libDems have taken ten Tory seats in the Council Chamber. The Tories still have 35 of those 55 seats, so not an overwhelming majority, but a clear majority none the less.
BBC News story linkIt's well worth reminding everyone that a LOT of people have voted as they did for the WRONG reasons.
This will not affect the way the COUNTRY is run in the slightest, but it may affect local councils (actually, it will: Some have changed hands overnight), but the end result will only affect local areas, not the country as a whole; foreign policy, defence, strategic policing, the NHS, and so on, that are not run by local councils, will NOT be affected.
What MIGHT change is the local election we had yesterday may cause the Conservatives to rethink their election strategies for the next GENERAL election.
And that's it, folks.
Have a great weekend 🙂
Just a quick tip, for those of you refilling short International ink cartridges with your own preferred inks, and using the international cartridge stoppers from Hamilton Pens to seal them when they're yet to be used...
One tin holds three International (Short) cartridges *with stopper inserted*, and held in the tin within a small ziplok bag, just in case. One cartridge is refilled with Diamine Green/Black, for my personal stuff, the other two are refilled with Diamine Blue/Black, for my work stuff.
This keeps them together, and, more importantly, protects them from knocks and bumps that might dislodge the stoppers - and the ghastly results from such a horrific occurrence 😉
Hope this helps someone 😊
