No Pens = Wrong

In what can only be termed as a cruel twist of fate, the arrival of my Nakaya has removed all thoughts of other pens from my mind. My Urushi Piccolo is seriously special, and certainly perfect - but this perfection has been my downfall.

I no longer crave more pens.

It seems appalling to admit this. It seems wrong! So very, very wrong!

There are no pens coming in the mail. There are no exciting eBay snipes. There are no eBay blurry-pictured, bargain-priced mystery pens! There is *nothing*.

The only pen news on my horizon is the fact I have ten (10!) fountain pens set aside to send to Richard Binder. Will some of these ten pens return with nibs so delightful that my interest is rekindled?

I for one, bloody well hope so. Frankly, the whole situation is highly disturbing and odd.

21 Days Off

I finished working for 2006 today, and now have three weeks to myself before I am due back on-site. I wouldn't have minded working over Christmas, because you get a hell of a lot more done with that many people away, but it wasn't to be. The end of year systems-freeze is in place, so my projects will have to wait until 2007.

Ha! The SAP Enterprise Portal work came my way again today. I last looked at that Portal in April and it was a load of crap back then. Unfortunately when I looked at the QA environment again today, I found that nothing has changed.

We're pushing for local site administration so that I can manage our content like I do for the current Plumtree Portal - if we have to have head office manage every little thing, I think we'll kick up a stink and ask to remain on Plumtree...

I cannot believe how ugly the Portal is either. No one seems to have idea how to effectively manipulate the interface, there are scrollbars galore in every single portlet/gadget and the positioning and layout is terrible. As a complete perfectionist, it offends me to even look at it.

Ok, enough nerdy ramble... onto pens!

Except that I have no pen news, other than I intentionally filled my Nakaya with Private Reserve Shoreline Gold, without rinsing out the Copper Burst. The resulting colour is delicious. :)

Pen Ramblings

More of an update today... no new news to share. :)

Firstly, my Nakaya Piccolo. It is incredibly perfect - I love this pen so, so much.

Next, my Aurora Mini Optima. Not long after I bought it, I felt the ink flow was a little too much. The wonderful Pamela B sorted it all out, and in a roundabout way also gave me the opportunity to have an Extra Fine stub nib ground for the pen. I’m really looking forward to getting it. :)

Two cute Pilot 78G's arrived from HisNibs today - a Teal and a Cinnabar with Fine nibs. Being Japanese this means they are more like extra-fine nibs, and so far the dip-test has indicated these pens are winners! Lovely service from Norman, as usual. :)

Perhaps it's just the combination of the EF nibs and dry-writing pens that I use, but my FPN Special-Edition ink isn't really so brown at all. In fact, it's a middle-of-the-road dirty red-orange. I can see with a wet writer that the colour would deepen, but really, there's a heck of a lot of red in there.

Nakaya Urushi Cigar

I took some good photos of my new Nakaya today, and have posted a comprehensive review over at the Fountain Pen Network: Nakaya Urushi - Cigar Piccolo

Enjoy!

My Nakaya Arrived!

I picked it up this afternoon and it is exquisite! I think I will be buying a second one next year. :)

The Kuro-Tamenuri (Blackish-Red) Urushi finish is stunning...

More on this beauty later. :)

December Pens

I've decided to do a post at the beginning of each month which summarises my current pen and ink combinations. Here's what December looks like:

- Bordeaux Pelikan M250, 0.5mm Cursive Italic nib / R&K Solferino.
Not having owned Pelikan Violet, I didn't realize how identical Solferino was to this ink until I tried it. Solferino is a beautiful ink and shades much better than the Pelikan. I don't think this ink colour suits the pen very well but the combination isn't unpleasant.

- Copper Esterbrook SJ, 2550 nib / R&K Scabiosa.
I'm always obsessive about ensuring my inks match or compliment the pens I put them in, so I wasn't sure if I liked seeing dusty grey-purple ink coming out of my Copper SJ, but now it's really grown on me. The 2550 is very fine and nice to write with, though slightly toothy.

- Pearl Grey Omas Dama, EF nib / Levenger Smokey.
Quite a dry writer with a very fine point, the mid-grey hues of Smokey look perfect coming from this pen. As the nib has a moderate amount of flex, the occasional wetter dark-grey strokes make for an interesting look to the page.

- Pilot MYU 701, F nib / Levenger Fireball.
An impressive pen with another superb nib, I take this one to work a lot. The ink is no longer red-orange - it's kind of a dirty-but-nice red-brown now, since there was some black in this pen which I couldn't clean out.

- Burgundy Esterbrook J, 9550 nib / Noodler's Tiananmen.
I had planned to use this pen for my Christmas cards, but it didn't look quite right as this is not a pure red 'festive' ink. While scribbling with this pen earlier today, I remembered how much I liked it and have packed it in my pen wallet to take to work tomorrow.

- Red Sailor 1911M, EF nib / R&K Magenta.
Again, not the best combination of colours. This pen will soon have a bright R&K red ink in it and I'll be much happier. The 14K nib is excellent, so I always have this pen inked.

- Yellow-Orange Aurora Sole Mini LE, EF nib / Stipula Moss Green.
One of my best writers ever, my Aurora hasn't been out of commission since I bought it. The nib just glides on the page and the warm brown-green tones of the ink suit the pen admirably.

I'm at a loss as to what to fill my Urushi Nakaya with though... hopefully inspiration will come when I have the pen in my hands.