2007-12-28
13:43
Alright Michael, I get it. Now help me.
I used to take the proverbial out of my husband for the way he’d constantly be fiddling around with his ‘system’. He’d scribble his thoughts and ideas into notebooks, various sizes of filofax, various digital devices, but nothing really sticks and he’s always changing his mind. It seemed quite hilarious and very odd to me, until a week or so ago. As 2007 prepares for the final curtain and 2008 waits in the wings, I also find myself in need of a comfortable and reliable way of recording my food diaries and other bits and bobs.
This year, as I settled into doing Slimming World, I played around with various different ways of keeping a food diary and planning shopping lists. I had a Hipster PDA for a while, various notebooks and two different sizes of Filofax. I ended up settling with a Paperblanks diary that the Organisational Master himself bought for me back in Nottingham last year. It worked a treat. So, you’d think the solution would be easy… get another one? Yeah, I thought that too until I couldn’t bloody find one. Our local suppliers seemed to run out of any diaries around, er, Christmas…
In the absence of the obvious answer, same again for ’08, I went on the hunt for a suitable replacement. It seems no other diary has the same layout as the Paperblanks, and most seem to think that weekends don’t need as much space as the rest of the week. I looked at Filofaxes, and in a moment of utter lunacy bought a cheap ‘personal’ size one. I was happy with this for a while, until I tried using it. It just doesn’t feel right. There’s not enough room, the damn thing’s too big, and it’s not a Paperblanks diary, dammit!
So today I’ve tried going the way of the DIY Planner, making my own special custom diary with space to write everything down, little tickboxes for what day I’m doing and… feh, it smacks. Frankly it requires more time using Excel than I’m willing to when I’m not being paid.
Michael, it’s no good. I’ve got to get a Paperblanks. Nothing else is going to work. You know how it is. That’s why you’ll be asking for your A5 Lyndhurst back in a couple of months, and this time I promise I won’t take the piss. I know how it feels now.
Sounds interesting. Sam managed to get a Paperblanks diary in Taunton yesterday, so that problem is solved, but it sounds like Bath could be worth the trip for general drooling.
Sam, you’ve been to Glastonbury. If you can make the (significant) extra mileage to Bath, take a look in Woods the Stationers, just off the bottom of Milson Street (between Schoon and Cafe Nero). They had a large display of Paperblanks yesterday, but I admit I didn’t check for diaries as well as notebooks, so phone ahead if that’s important. Also good stocks of Moleskines and all (I think) all sizes of Filofax. The shop is a Lamy agent, so they’re a cut above most. Test Stationers in The Corridor (not far away, and near the Rohan shop and Arcania) had an more mechanical pencils on display than I expected, including GraphGear 500, what looked like a Pentel Kerry but side-click, and a Faber-Castell 2011 in 0.7 (Michael will know about these if you’re more interested in notebooks). Also in Bath, that concentration camp for books known as Waterstone’s had displays of both Moleskine and Paperblanks. They’re in the middle of Milsom Street.