Charity auction for Chimwemwe

The fabulous people over at Philofaxy are auctioning a gold Filofax, incredibly kindly donated by the excellent folks over at Filofax, in aid of Chimwemwe Children's Centre. You can see the details here.

Chimwemwe Children's Centre are in the process of building and equipping a Skills Centre for the children to be able to do after-school events at, have space to do homework in, to read in, have a space to learn life skills in and get vocational training at, so that they are equipped to support themselves in the long run.

All money raised by the auction will go towards the Skills Centre and will help some of the poorest people in the world to break free from the cycle of poverty.

Thank you so much to Filofax and to Philofaxy for their incredible generosity.

Stationery prize: World Cup bundle from Bureau Direct

A few weeks ago, I saw that Bureau Direct were running a competition to win a World Cup Stationery bundle and I entered it. I then thought nothing more about it (in fact I had actually forgotten all about it, as I was on holiday!). Then one day I was checking my emails and there was one from Dominic at Bureau Direct to say that I had won Spain 2010 in the Classic World Cup bundles. It was duly posted off to me and was there waiting for me when I arrived back from my holiday.

The bundle comprised:

• A medium lined Leuchtturm notebook in red
• A Leuchtturm pen loop in yellow
• A Lamy Logo ballpoint pen in blue

The Leuchturrm Notebook:
I assume the interior is identical to the interior of the berry red one I reviewed in May (read that review here) so I won’t review it again. The red of the cover is a nicer red than the equivalent Moleskine (which has a hint of orange to it) and the elastic closure is a darker red (which matches well).  The ribbon marker matches the cover well, but is lighter than the elastic closure. In many ways, it would have been nicer if the elastic and the ribbon had matched (even if they were slightly different from the cover), but then, I am ridiculously picky about things like that. I will certainly use the book for book-plotting!

The Leuchtturm pen loop in yellow:
I’ve had several of these pen-loops. I have a black one in my Leuchturrm Line a Day 5 year diary, another black one in my de Villiers slimline binder, a red one in the Moleskine diary (the diary I hated) and a pale blue one in another filofax. They are great – make sure you stick them in exactly the right place because the adhesive could hold an elephant up and you won’t be able to reposition it if you get it wrong!
My main gripes with them is that 1) there is always, always adhesive inside the elastic loop which then gets all over the pen you have in the loop and 2) the loop is really quite small – only a pen with a diameter of about <1cm will fit in it. The sticky adhesive inside the elastic eventually runs out but the one I had in my diary got glue on my biro for at least half the year. It rubs off okay (in a sticky sort of way) but it’s annoying that it does it.

The Lamy ballpoint biro:
I got a heap of despair from a good friend when I told him that the only pens I took on holiday with me were some bic crystal biros (I don’t trust my fountain pens to play nicely in bags). Anyway, the Lamy is lovely. It’s heavier than a bic crystal and has a very satisfying click to pop the ballpoint bit in and out. I haven’t written screeds with it yet, but it doesn’t (so far) seem to bleb anything like as badly as a bic crystal does, so maybe I will have to upgrade as the blebbing does annoy me!

The colour combination between the book, the pen-loop and the pen is delightful. Bright and summery!

All in all, this was a lovely little bundle to get! Thank you Bureau Direct!
[no affiliation, just a perpetually happy customer]

SO proud of my hubby...

... who has not only got a picture in the Fife calendar (September) but was also awarded the front cover too! This picture was taken last year and sadly, the doocot has since started to disintegrate and is now held together with ugly iron bands.

Front cover of the calendar - no copyright infringement intended!

All of the pictures in the calendar are fantastic - please do go and buy a copy if you're nearby.

So proud of my DH!

Review: Platinum Plaisir fountain pen

I actually bought this a while ago, along with a second Tombow Object pen (in a different colour from the first one). I won’t review the Tombow, because my review of the first one I bought (you can read it here) still stands! It’s a great pen and I love it.

But, I’ve still to review the Platinum Plaisir, so here goes.
It’s actually the second version, as the first one refused to write so was returned. I bought from The Journal Shop (no affiliation, just regular, happy customer) and there was absolutely no fuss or bother about returning it and getting a replacement and the replacement works just fine.

I bought it in a pale lilac colour (on the site it is just described as ‘purple’ – listing is here).

The length (capped) is 143 mm and uncapped (but not posted) is 123 mm, Uncapped and posted, it is 153 mm (but I never post my pens – the weight always seems too far back in my hand). The cap closes with a very firm and satisfying click. You can get adaptors to use bottled ink with it, but I haven’t. There is a small plastic insert to allow standard cartridges to be used with it (which is what I have in it). The small downside is that you can’t pop a second cartridge into the barrel, ready for when the cartridge runs out, although as I tend to use my pens at home, at my desk, with all my inks to hand this isn’t a problem.

The cartridge slots in to the insert, which is connected to the nib through a plastic barrel (nib feed). The main downside with the pen (for me) is that the ink bleeds into the nib feed and is sitting in the space between the outer barrel and the inner part. I can’t see a way of getting it cleaned out and even if I did, I presume it would leak into it again. It’s not a major issue as I will probably only use poussier de lune in it (an ink I adore) so there won’t be any mixing of ink there, but it’s a shame it leaks into the space there at all.

Pen uncapped and unscrewed - you can see the ink leakage if you look closely

 The rest of the pen is aluminium, so the pen is incredibly light in my hand. There are a variety of colours available for the barrel. The clip is a darker purple than the barrel (in a very pleasant, complementary colour). The silver bit has Platimun Plaisir Japan on it.

The writing experience:
The nib is described as medium but is a finer nib than all my other medium nibs – maybe not quite a ‘fine’ but a ‘medium-fine’ I would say. The nib is smooth and the pen is light and comfortable in my hand. For £12, it would be hard to beat this as a pen! I have written a few long letters with it now and it has left my hand un-cramped. I think the combination of a reasonable sized barrel with a light pen works well for me.

Overall, I would recommend it as a good, lightweight, cheap pen. The only niggle is the leakage into the nib feed.