Did you miss me?
Probably not, since I did not receive a single comment or an email from my trusty one-and-a-half reader.
I have not given up on this blog. I do not plan on monetizing it, because I do not want to see random sex ads on sidebars. I do not have any subscribers apart from my lovely wife. This blog exists only because I simply want a place online to put my thoughts and pictures.
The reason why I did not post anything for two months was because I did not take any meaningful photos. I did not visit or do anything that constituted OLAAF-worthy. Yes, I drank champagne, I visited a bunch of museums, and I ate new things, but it just seemed not worthy of an online article.
But I did write my thoughts down. There were countless times when I simply sat at my table, opened my notebook, took my pen, and started writing. Random things. What I thought about my job at that given moment, why I had terrible dreams, what I had recently eaten or drank, what was happening in my head. I put pen to paper and started scribbling. I do not have the most beautiful handwriting, not even in the middle. If for some reason someone will need to read all of those pages, God bless him or her. I do not know if he or she will be able to understand most of it. When I use a pen I tend to write fast. Sometimes I do not even finish a word when I start the next one. I rarely re-read what I write by hand. I re-read this, when I do it online, but not on paper. Once it is written down on paper it is gone from my mind. That is how I like to think of it.
Fountain pens. A lost art. Barely understood instruments. You rarely see people actually using them let alone buying them. Good fountain pens cost between 100 to 500 EUR. There are also more expensive pens. When we were in Luxembourg buying my Montblanc leather card holder, we saw a fountain pen costing 9000 EUR. Imagine. A pen for almost five digits. Back then I could not understand it.
Whereas now I can. At least I think I can. I bought a Graf von Faber-Castell fountain pen (silver in photos). Presumably handmade in Germany. It is beautiful. I use it every day when I write things down in my schedule when I journal, and when taking notes. I went on two meetings with this pen, and not a single comment from my co-workers thus was. But I think I might receive one in the future. At least I would say something if I would see someone writing with a beautiful fountain pen. Would you not?
Why Graf von Faber-Castell? A good friend of mine said they make good-quality ink mechanisms. Truth be told back then I did not know much about fountain pens. Nor do I know now, but at least I have started to become interested. I have started to use them. That same friend gave me his old Parker pen (gold in photos). I liked it. I used it for a few weeks, but something was not right. It is not like it was bad or anything. I just simply wanted a legitimately my own pen that I have bought with my own money. Luckily, my birthday had just passed and I decided to act. I went to a store that sells good quality fountain pens. I knew I wanted one from the aforementioned brand. I noticed one at a reasonable price (below 500 EUR) and I pulled the trigger. Zero regrets to this point.
Recently a colleague of mine transferred to a different department (almost to a different institution). I believe it would have been nice if we had given her a good pen as a departing gift. Because a pen you will use daily. You will touch it. You will look at it. You will use it. And every time when you pick it up you will immediately think of the person or group who gifted it to you. Would you agree? A writing instrument is something personal. Intimate even. A couple of months ago I did not understand it. I was thinking of fountain pens before. When I was still waiting for the call from my Tudor authorized dealer here in Brussels, I decided that I needed something tangible for my birthday. Something practical and usable daily.
Thus I gifted myself this wonderful pen. With which I write down my thoughts, dreams, aspirations, concerns, goals, and many other things. Most probably none will ever read what I write, but in the odd chance if someone does he or she will read what was written using a fountain pen.
Journaling is my meditation. Try it.
Kind regards,
Olaaf
