Sulluzzu
November 18, 2018
This is not a test. Please don’t ignore¹.
Today was the day I started to use my 2019 diary and that got me thinking about the things I choose to carry with me. Some years ago, in a similar mood, I took a set of photographs of my desktop objects to record the little mementos I keep near me that remind me of places, or people, or good times. The photograph above records a few things I carry around with me for similar reasons or because they are useful.
The diary
For the last few years I’ve used a Hobonichi planner as my daily diary for both work and home. For 2018 I decided to split these two aspects — the Hobonichi has worked well for work but is too big for home. For 2019 I bought a tiny Smythson diary that has a week spread across two pages but hopefully I’m more likely to carry it with me. Perhaps because Smythson featherweight paper was invented a long time ago, it’s very friendly to both pencils and wet fountain pen ink. Which brings me to…
The pens
I generally carry three pens from my collection of favourite fountain pens. I recently picked-up this Japanese leather three-slot pen case from eBay and I have to say I love it! The leather is wonderfully soft, the stitching is impeccable and it can hold my largest pens.
The key chain
I used to mock people who carry huge key chains with them but now I’ve become one! I used to only carry a key and an alarm fob but was unable to resist the allure of toys and tools!
Kingston USB stick: Whenever I plug this stick into my Mac, Chronosync silently copies my documents and reference folders to it. I find it very reassuring (and occasionally useful) to carry these files with me wherever I go. My backup strategy is to have as many copies of my data in as many places as possible with the least effort!
A pewter fist clutching a rod. Our house has a gate opener (Edwardian remote control) decorated with one of these and I’ve often seen them in Landmark Trust and historic buildings so they remind me of places I enjoy.
A James Brand keychain tool. Mostly used for opening beers in extremis.
A brass foot.
The pocket knife
I’ve always found it useful to carry a pocket knife but lately find that people look at you askance even when I open a knife that’s compatible with UK laws. This Andre de Villiers folding knife is tiny, non threatening and absolutely beautiful. It’s the perfect size to sit tucked away in that old-fashioned watch pocket in a pair of jeans.
The portable hifi
“He shall have music wherever he goes…” The audio output on my iPhone is perfectly good for podcasts and casually listening to music. However my little Chord Mojo (with its alien space ship controls) and Grado earphones elevate listening to music to a far more immersive experience.
[1] This is my first post to this blog using Blot allowing me to create new articles via any device that can write a Markdown file to me Dropbox folder. Moving from Pelican proved to be really easy thanks to having my content stored locally and in an open format. But that’s not what I want to write about.↑
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