Moving into the new Cavendish

Warning – post is long and picture heavy!

Well, I had wanted to wait until my leather cream (which I’m going to use on the other Cavendish to restore it) had arrived but then, the post came yesterday and there was no leather cream and if I didn’t move into the Cavendish today it would be Wednesday before I could and I’m not that patient.

I bought the Cavendish(es) from eBay and this one arrived in a box!

Box - dated 2005

When I look at the box, it has 2005 on it (top RHS) – does that mean the Cavendish was around on the filofax site in that year?

Anyway, it came very nicely wrapped in tissue paper…

and inside, there he was…

I also bought a couple of new things for him (though have already changed my mind on one of them… see later)…

In my haste I had started moving in before I had taken all the pictures...

Here are some pictures of the ring-size comparison…

side by side, Cavendish on left

with ruler to see the ring size... (baroque)

Um... is that on the diameter...?

Plus, what my baroque looked like before he got moved…

What the Cavendish looks like with the same contents…

And now a walk through of what’s in there…

Credit cards and other loose cards I need in went in the front slots; my guinea-fowl card from Malawi (which always makes me smile) in a top-opening pocket:

Some vouchers in a (new) top-opening pocket (LHS) and stamps in a (new) zip-lock pocket (since abandoned as it makes the other pages stick up too much, so the stamps are now in one of the card slots):

Notes section (which is my ‘collect’ area – all random things get scribbled here and then sorted later):

I wasn't sure if the dividers would be too monochrome, but I like them

Goals section:

In the goals section I have written out goals for each of the main areas of my life – health, work, Chimwemwe, writing etc. – and at the front of the goals section are my goal summary sheets (key area e.g. Chimwemwe, is written next to the key symbol, then under that would be the goal (for example raising £500) and then a list of the projects involved with accomplishing the goal):

blank key area sumamry

Behind that is more detailed planning with a sheet for each project and the project summary on the front and a list of ‘next actions’ on the back. I have blogged about this before in a guest post on PaperLoveStory which you can find here. Things from the next action lists get transferred to my monthly goals sheets (see below) and then to weekly goals/planning sheets (see below again).

Diary section (which has multiple diary versions in it):

First section in the diary is a month to view (printed using the DIY planner software onto blank filofax paper). This lets me do long-range planning and only big things get to go into this (birthdays, events, holidays etc):

Month to view using the DIY planner programme

Then there are the month planning sheets (pink) which list all the goals and to-do lists for the month:

Behind the monthly planning sheets are a series of weekly planning sheets which list the weekly goals and to-do lists. At the end of each week I do a weekly review (which is written on the reverse of the weekly list and which you can see sneaking in on the LHS here):

New week's plan on the RHS; review of previous week on LHS

Then there is a Today marker and some day to page diary sheets where detailed planning occurs for each day:

Then there is a weekly review checklist, then the remaining weekly sheets for the rest of the month, then a monthly review checklist, then week to view diary (usually covering a month back and three months forward, but with the extra space it will move to either 6 months forward or the whole year…). There is another Today marker marking the current week in that section.

Then comes the Lists section (working overtime at the moment planning Christmas – what presents, for whom, wrapped or not, etc. etc. etc.):

Then the Info section which has general info (and all those info sheets that come with the diary) then my list of contacts in an A-Z section:

Right at the back there is a card-holder with loyalty cards for various stores, plus my donor card etc and in the back cover I keep my paper money (plus will use the other pocket for stuffing things in when I haven’t time/can’t be bothered to put them in the filofax properly, like receipts etc.):

The outer back cover has a zipped pocket in which I will keep coins.

So, after all the banging on about the extra space the massive rings give me, what else will be going in there?

Well, other than the extra diary pages already mentioned and the new top-opening pocket for vouchers, there will be some more packing lists. I have a number of packing lists (and yes, they are all slightly different!) written out on index cards – thin enough not to take up too much space but sturdy enough to refer to a lot. I have packing lists for: a weekend away (city break); a weekend away (walking); away for external examining; away for proper holiday (UK); away for proper holiday (abroad); away to Malawi (rainy season); away to Malawi (hot season). They don’t take up much space but they save me having to think about what to pack! Until now, they haven’t lived in the filofax (and I have frequently lost them which is really annoying as I generally find them again the moment I have re-written them!).

What else? Well, some more note paper and in the list section, better lists as to what size my DH actually wears, rather than what he thinks he wears (after a few orders where I have asked him what size leg-length/collar/etc he is and then had to send the things back because his factual recall of the information wasn’t accurate!).

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the tour around my new Cavendish.