Eye Candies = Shotglass + Toy Truck

I said I will write updates, and I did one on my pens and notebooks the other day. I am yet to write about the books I've read and the movies we've watched lately, yet I'm so giddily excited about these two eye candies that I'm writing about them now before those books and movies. *Wink.*

First, this shotglass. A new shotglass!!! Yey! I haven't gotten anything new in so long I forgot when. This shotglass is a gift from W, a good friend who truly surprised me when she sent this through someone in a brown bag (another brown bag!) with a yellow Post-It tab as a gift tag that said: "To CSD, For your collection. From: W."

I held my breath as I opened the bag because it took me so long to rip out the newspaper it was wrapped with. *Chuckles.* Then after the newspaper wrap, it was again wrapped in a thick bundle of soft paper for extra protection. And I deeply appreciate that. And when I saw the shotglass... Ah, I was just speechless. It came from the Philippine Military Academy, the country's premier training school for future officers of the Armed Forces. The crest/seal states: Courage, Integrity, Loyalty. Wow. This is my second Pinoy shotglass, and it now sits among my growing collection. Thanks, W!

Now this toy. This truck is Tomica No. 36: Nexco self run type mark car, with an Isuzu elf body scaled at 1/64. This is my first toy in a long break off collecting toy trucks. My last toys were #51 (Toyota Crown Comfort Taxi) and #68 (Isuzu Snorkel Firetruck) bought in September last year. I know I've been left behind in my other collections, with my last elephant in August last year, and the shotglass and toys in September.

I got new stuff latety, though. Aside from new pens and notebooks and inks and papers, I also got Christmas stamps and tea. Yes, tea. The ones that come in bags with tiny colorful tags? But that's reserved for a another post. Later. Ahem.

Read More

Pens + Notebooks = Things New and Wonderful

I have new pens... *Grin.* And I got new notebooks... *Grin.*

I wrote about my upcoming pens in my 23 February post. I was so excited about the four pens that I wrote about them even before I got hold of them. The vintage pens came within the week, thanks to Sir Butch Dalisay's prompt mailing and to LBC's efficiency. Just in time before my Dusit Thani workshop the week after, where I learned that I won't have the Lamys, yet, which is sad. They're out of stock, and have been like that for the last three or four months, according to my friends from Malaysia who scoured the shops in KL for me. But they assured me they will send the pens as soon as they are available.

Then again, as the old saying goes, lose some, win some. Huh? *Grin.* No Lamys from KL, but I got new pens from India! Yipee-yey!!! The same afternoon I learned the sad news about the Lamys, I was at the lobby of Dusit Thani when my Indian friend B handed me a brown bag with four pens straight from New Delhi. Huwow!!! I got four new pens!!! They have separate boxes, complete with their own converters and two short ink cartridges. My gifts are two Montex fountain pens (pink and green), a green Chelpark Moti, and a red/maroon Camlin Trinity. The Montex pens have plastic nib protectors and their nibs are very unique. (The pink one went to someone else, of course.) The Chelpark and Camlin both have brushed silver caps and plastic barrels, but all pens write well, very smooth, and very wet! But that is how exactly I like my pens to be. I love broad, wet pens!

New pens. From left: Parker Vector (F) from NBS Glorietta; Vintage pens: Superior 330 (F), Lamy Ratio 47 (XF); Pens from India: Camlin Trinity (F), Chelpark Moti (F); Pens from Corona: Youth 208 (both F, the teal and green ones), Hero 332 (F-M), Hero 442 (F), Youlian (F); and Pens from Cardinal: Hero 330 (XF), and Wing Sung (F).

The same week, on a stroll at Glorietta after a full day's workshop session, I passed by NBS and saw a white Parker Vector. I had to get that pen! And get it I did, together with a box of Parker Quink Ruby cartridges. I rushed back to my hotel room and wrote a whole page letter with my new white pen inked with Ruby. Amazing! But oh, I forgot that I was supposed to get dinner at Superbowl on that stroll, too, but because it was getting late already, I went to Wendy's instead (which is just across the hotel) and got myself a chili con carne and bacon mushroom melt. Whoa.

Two weeks after, we went to Sta. Cruz, Manila to visit Escolta. On our way there, we missed the stop to Escolta and ended up in Recto. Raffy, a fellow fountain pen collector, helped us via text messaging to go around the area and scour those bookstores selling Youth, Hero, Pilot, Lamy, and Wing Sung pens. Lucky we missed the Escolta stop. Our first store was Corona, where I got five pens: Hero 332 and 442, two Youth 208s (green and teal), and a Youlian pen. They also have a couple of Lamys but I did not buy any when I saw the ugly ink stains on their nibs. Napangitan ako bigla. I also got myself a Waltex 3x folding magnifier for closeups of my pens' nibs and also for my stamps. A few steps further and we were at Cardinal (which sadly closed a week after we were there), where I got a brushed metal Wing Sung and a Hero 330, which is exactly a modern version of the vintage Superior 330 from Sir Butch. They also have Pilot Birdies, and several Parkers. Our last bookstore/pen store was Merriam across FEU, but I didn't get any of their Sheaffers because they were too pricey for me.

Earlier on, I got lucky to have two Paperchase journals from Booksale. Booksale people said these notebooks are limited, so I'm really lucky to have gotten hold of two. For fountain pen users like I am, it is important that the notebooks and paper we use are friendly to our pens and their inks. Luckily, the Paperchase notebooks are super fountain pen friendly! I wrote on it with my pens, beginning with the finest to the broadest, including my calligraphy pens, and there was no feathering at all! There were minor signs of bleed though, but that's expected with medium and broad nibs like the ones from my Rotring 600 (B) and Schneider Base (M). The paper is white, smooth, and ruled wider than that of my Moleskine's, but that's okay, too. I'd need that if I am to use my medium- and broad-nibbed pens.

My Paperchase notebooks: looks elegant with their black leather cover. Like Moleskines, they also have lovely bookmarkers.

The inside pages of the notebook: white, large-ruled, fountain pen-friendly!

And just last weekend, another strike of luck came by while I was browsing shops at SM, where I found this Eagle notebook at Office Warehouse, the same place where I get my Schneider pens. Again, it's fountain pen friendly, but the best thing about it is its wire binding. And it's got an elastic band too. This notebook comes in A5 and a bigger version which is best for sketching despite its ruled pages.

Eagle notebook: 80 pages of ruled, white, smooth, fountain pen-friendly paper!

I tried writing on it and here's a sample page with scribbles of my fountain pens.

Read More

1 Month

It's been a while. Actually, it's been a month. I've been here and there, I got new pens, new notebooks, new books, new postcards, and a hoard of Christmas stamps. :-) I've watched movies, sang new songs, made new friends from all over the globe. I've been to laharlandia and ruined a three-month old GBX sneakers. I've been to a ship on a trip I almost missed. I'll write updates, as I've always done before.

But what I really want to say is that, life has been very good these days. I've got a lot to thank for.

Read More

Postcrossing Madness

[26 February UPDATE]

My first postcard arrived in the mail today!

This postcard is from Torino, Italy and features one of the Royal Residences when Turin was still the capital city. I couldn't believe it when I saw this postcard. Truly, Postcrossing works!!!

[24 February]

My postcards have arrived! Hurray!!! I sent my first batch of five postcards last February 10 and as of today, three have already reached their recipients. I requested and sent to new recipients in Germany and the UK. Whew! I'm excited to receive my first postcards now that I've become eligible to get them, too. And oh, a friend came home from Jordan recently and brought me a bunch of postcards! Now I need an album for all these... *Wink.*

A screenshot of my Postcrossing page.

Read More

My Upcoming Pens

Amidst everyday's chaos, life's persistent worries, and the depressing darkness inside the tunnel, these lovely things came along like the brightest sunshine after a storm, a rainbow, another Christmas morning...

[UPDATE: YOU know what hell I've been going through, and my pens and notebooks helped a lot to keep me sane, grounded, functional, composed, calm, and reasonable; along with YOUR support, understanding, care, and lots of wisdom, humor, hugs, and cups of hot Milo!]

These two pens are coming to me all the way from Dr. Butch Dalisay's stash of vintage fountain pens, and I just couldn't wait for them to arrive! Both have F nibs, but these are vintage pens from the 1960's, and I simply could not resist them the moment I saw them on Sir Butch's Flickr page.

(Photo and description from Sir Butch.) This is a Superior 330 pen from the '60s, gold-plated cap, gold F nib, aerometric filler, looks like a Parker 61 copy. No country of origin but very likely an early version of the Chinese Hero 330. Excellent to near-mint, no dings or scratches.

(Photo and description from Sir Butch.) This one is a Lamy Ratio 47 from the '60s, burgundy red with stainless steel cap, piston filler, very good condition. Inscribed "K.L.M." Gold F-to-XF nib. No dings or scratches. Piston filler works great (can be seen in ink-view window).


Also coming next week are my two LAMY Safaris, a Special Summer Edition White and a Limited Edition Lime Green coming all the way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia courtesy of a kind friend who volunteered to get them to me for free. (Salamat may mga kaibigan akong mababait.) The Summer Edition Lamy goes to my stash of white pens, it will be my second white fountain pen, and the fourth white-barreled pen after the Parker Jotter and Cross ballpoint. The Limited Edition Lime Green pen may be a starter for a future collection, who knows?

Summer Edition White Lamy Safari. Mine has a Medium nib.

And this is the Limited Edition Lime Green Lamy Safari. I've had the opportunity of using one last December when I tried Sir Chito's during our Pen Meet at the Dome. My upcoming Lamy may be a "panganay" to a future collection of green-barreled pens. Like its white brother, this one will come in Medium. I get fountain pens with Medium nibs as a minimum requirement because I find my penmanship ugly when I use Fine nibs. But the two vintage pens are exception to this rule. Who knows I may learn to write better using a Fine-nibbed fountain pen?

Gee, I'll be swamped with pens next week, but I could't complain. I won't. Why should I? I've been blessed with so much already... Pens, notebooks, toys, and otherwise. *Wink.*

Read More

Postcrossing

A friend from Fountain Pen Network - Philippines recently introduced me to my new passion: Postcrossing. Postcrossing is a project that allows anyone to exchange real postcards (not electronic) from anywhere in the world that can be reached by postal mail. As a start, one must register in their website, postcrossing.com. Once registered, a user can request for a maximum of five addresses (postcard recipients) from Postcrossing's member database. Each address has a unique code for identification later on. The user then mails the postcards. As soon as the recipients get the postcards, they will register the code in the system to signify that they have already received it. The new user then becomes eligible to receive his/her own postcards from other Postrossing members. Easy, right?

I never thought I'd spend more than a hundred pesos (~$2) in postcards. But because of this exciting project, B and I trooped to the nearest NBS last Saturday and picked a couple of postcards. I mailed my first batch of five this morning, and they're going to Belgium, Finland, Germany, Russia, and the USA. Oh, how exciting it is to send postcards to complete strangers from faraway countries, and later, to receive the ones sent to me by other members too.

The first batch of postcards I mailed today.

Read More

A(nother) White Pen

What do you call it when you were searching for something and then you’d find something else that you weren’t actually looking for? Serendipity? Chance? Luck? It could be. But with my pens, I’d like to call it fate. And it was fate that brought me another white pen yesterday afternoon.

It was half past six already, and I was on my way home when I chanced upon an old, familiar school supplies store in San Pablo. I browsed through their selection of pens, notebooks and specialty paper, and even got several postcards for my Postcrossing project. As I paid for the postcards, something interesting caught my attention. Out of an old and battered box inside one of their glass cabinets, the silver clip of a pen is peeking out. I rushed the salesclerk to get the box for me. Lo and behold, the box had two identical pens of different colors: red and white. Yes. White. I prayed that it would be a fountain pen but I was disappointed to find out it was a ballpoint. And it had several dirt specks on its barrel. Then again, because it is a white pen, I asked to try it. It was my second shock that afternoon: it is a Cross ballpoint. And it is white. I tried it and it wrote smoothly. I checked the ink cartridge inside and it says A.T. Cross Medium. And so I went on to pay for it without even asking about its cost. And Holy Mother of Jesus. What a bargain it was. The original price tag says it is selling for 260 pesos, but since it doesn’t have a box anymore, and that it comes as an old stock item, they’re selling it for half the price. So I got a white Cross ballpoint for 130 pesos, or roughly less than $3. Oh, wow.

My white Cross ballpoint, on top of my Moleskine leather wrap. It's a joy to have this pen, never mind that it's a ballpoint.

If anyone is wondering why I got a Cross ballpoint when I have just indicated that I have made the switch to full fountain pen use, well, it comes from something personal. And of course, the pen is white. So I got interested. And it is a Cross pen. Then it gets personal. Because it is a Cross pen. Hm. Way back in college, one classmate had an army of Cross writing instruments: ballpoints, pencils, and rollerballs. He’d even come to class holding his pens instead of putting them in a pen case or pen holder, as if showing them off for all to ogle at. He would proudly display his pens on his writing desk and decline anyone who’d ask to try any of his pens. Hmp. I secretly wanted to have similar pens then. The glitter and shine of all those gold and silver pens with beautiful set cases is indeed difficult to take off my mind.

Through time, I got my hands on several Pilots, Parkers, Rotrings, Staedtlers, and even a Sheaffer 0.7 silver mechanical pencil that my classmates envied, because at that time, those were still hard to come by. (I still have the pencil now, and in very good condition, which should only be the case because being one of Tatay’s few gifs to me, its preciousness is unrivaled.) But I never got to own a Cross. Not one ever. And so this Cross pen is a surprise, a gift from a fateful encounter. My now chance to a past denied opportunity. And it’s a white pen! Aw, shoot. How many times have I already said that?

Here are several more photos of the pen (middle one), together with my other two white pens already, my Schneider Base medium-nibbed fountain pen (left) and my Parker Jotter (right). They are on top of a page off Esopus 8, Spring 2007, page 122. The painting is Gustave Moreau's "Salome Dancing Before Herod". For a better image of the painting, see it here.

Read More