“I haven’t seen one of those for years.” That’s the usual reaction I get when I pull out a pen and start taking notes.
You see, model of consummate professionalism I am, I prefer to use a child’s pen while working. Not one with a cartoon hippo stuck on the end, you understand – just one of those four colour biros that most people last saw in a pencil case at primary school.
There is logic to this. Writing in four colours makes it easier to separate things out. The system I use is that black ink is for attractions and general observations, blue is for hotels, red is for bars and restaurants and green is for shopping/ putting a ring round a particularly important bit of information.
This may sound prodigiously anal, but it makes going through old notepads so much easier. I want the detail about a particular bar? Flick through until I arrive at some red ink. That shop that sold the cute stationary? Ignore everything but the green bits.
See – it makes perfect sense. Even if I do look like I’ve mugged an eight-year-old.
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An inspired post, David. Where DO you find the material?
My choice of pen is dictated by my choice of notebook. I’ve tried all of them. A6 is the only size which fits into the back pocket of jeans, the side pocket of those trousers & shorts that have side pockets, the breast pocket of (at least some) shirts AND the inside pocket of a suit jacket. Flipover ‘reporter’-style and Moleskine bound notebooks are both rubbish – you can either never tell where you are, or you end up having to crack the spine to write properly. So it’s only spiral-bound for me. But notetaking is all about speed – scrabbling around for a pen kills the thought. So the only pens I use are ones which are slim enough to slot into the spiral ring binding of an A6 notebook. It means I miss out on your inspired multicoloured approach – fat pens won’t fit – but I like to think I gain in speed what I lose in colour. PaperMate FlexiGrip Ultra are premium quality – I carry fistfuls of them, in every bag – but the thin pens five-star hotels leave out on their bedside notepads work too. Every trip I carry 3 or 4 WHSmith A6 spiralbound notebooks and dozens of pens (and pick up dozens more). All I need now is an instant “You Won’t Be Able To Read This Later” handwriting corrector alert.
Darn, I should have made a blog post about this.
I know Matthew – I like to debate the big issue of our time on this blog.
Glad to know it’s not just me who’s very pedantic about pens and notepads.
The notepads I get are roughly A7 – and I need to be able to write on the front to say where the notes were taken.
Having lost one big notepad before, I prefer to use lots of little ones. A7 fits easily in my pocket. And they’re spiral-bound, as you say, for speed.
Moleskine notebooks are absurd affectations, and monstrously overpriced…
‘All I need now is an instant “You Won’t Be Able To Read This Later” handwriting corrector alert.’
Amen to that. And I love Moleskine notebooks which are not over-priced as people keep giving them to me, especially tourist boards. I love my current red one from California which also has a penholder built into it.
PS I do think David’s multi-coloured idea is brilliant. I may have to try it.