A Pencil Sharpener for Cucumbers
A ‘pencil sharpener’ for cucumbers.
Seen in my local Lidl supermarket.
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2018
Lamy specs vol. 2
Volume 2 of Lamy’s free, augmented reality (AR) magazine is out.
In case you wonder how long ago vol. 1 came out: it was in March.
Much more exciting than the augmented reality 3D Lamy pens, at least for me: Little videos in the articles that will come to life in the AR app, e.g. a video showing different pages in travel diary or a time-lapse video how Lamy’s store in New York is being set up.
Fitting with the article about the Lamy Safari there’s also an AR ‘artefact’ where you can change the colour of the Safari.
You can order a free copy of the magazine at https://specs.lamy.com/.
The Monami 153 – outside Korean, inside German
Today: a quick follow-up post about one of the pencils, the Monami 153, from the recent giveaway.
A few weeks ago the Monami was sent to the winner, but before I sent it I had a quick look at the pencil. What to expect from this ‘review’? This blog post is rather short, as I don’t have the pencil anymore to take more photos. It basically just links to the video review and gives some simple information about the 153.
By the way, if the giveaway winner of the Monami 153 reads this: please let me know whether the pencil has arrived. I kept the receipt from Royal Mail, just in case it’s lost.
Monami
Originally the Monami 153 was a humble, cheap plastic ballpoint pen. This mechanical pencil is part of a release of the Monami 153 in ‘posher’ materials. You’ll find a more detailed explanation about this re-release and Monami’a anniversary in the video review.
The previous Monami pencil I reviewed, the MP-4003, was quite bling. The 153 is much more understated and shouldn’t make you feel embarrassed if you bring it to a meeting at work.
By the way, Monami seems to have switched writing their name to upper case on products. The older MP-4003 is labelled in camelCase, not as MONAMI, but as MonAmi. I guess there’s a good chance that it is supposed to be pronounced French, presumably being based on the French Mon Amie (‘My Friend’), but this is just speculation on my part.
The Pencil
The pencil itself is fairly heavy…
…and it is longer than other mechanical pencils I looked at recently.
The ‘posh’ version of the Monami 153 is based on Schmidt’s system mechanism. You can see more details about this in the video review. The system mechanism means that there only needs to be one type body being made which can then be filled with a ballpoint refill or with a mechanical pencil mechanism.
This ‘one body for different types of pens’ idea is not so unusual. Staedtler’s Concrete, their pen with a ‘high performance concrete’ body, is, as far as I know, also using one body with different ‘refills’ depending on whether you buy the ballpoint pen or the mechanical pencil. I might buy myself one for my birthday. If I do I will report back.
There’s not much more I can add, especially because I sent the pencil to the giveaway winner. Please have a look at the video review for more information.
Well, not only is this Korean pencil gone from our home. Around the same time, I also used up some nice Korean tea I had. I’ll leave you with this image of two nice items from Korean – until next time.
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Italian Stationery (and Hobonichi)
I hope you’re enjoying the Summer.
Last Summer East…West…Everywhere made me aware of Hobonichi Techo’s 2018 Advance Notice.
Well, this year there’s the Hobonichi Techo 2019 Preview Festival – and it started today. What a nice start for August.
My July also came to a nice end: our family was lucky enough to spend a few days in Northern Italy (to celebrate a special occasion). We were near Lake Garda and it was really beautiful. There were lots of Germans and Austrians in that area. I am not surprised. It’s not that far to drive from Austria or Southern Germany. There was of course also some stationery to see, which I want to share with you.
Once I ordered Cotoletta di Pollo. It came with fries which were served on a reproduction of an old British newspaper. 
Did you spot it? Let’s do a close-up.
There’s fountain pen advertising in the corner. Richt click and open in a new tab to see how much you can save on a Fleet Pen ;^P
In Verona, I also came across a shop selling posh fountain pens. I love the Pelikan sign outside the shop.
You might know that Staedtler’s Noris is my favourite. I was happy to see this Noris stand in Malcesine.
In that shop, they also sold other, nice stationery.
I couldn’t resist and brought these items back from my trip: Turkish paper clips, Italian paper and German/Chinese pencils. I have covered Lyra’s Temagraph in the past, but now I also have one in 3B 8^D.
In a Pizzeria I managed to see a calendar hanging from the wall, much like the ones shown in the past. The one I saw seemed to be from the tax authority (I think). Stationery-filled holidays are even better than normal holidays 8^)
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Lidl UK Supermarket Offer
When I went to our local Lidl [1]A global discount supermarket chain, similar to their probably better known competitor Aldi., I noticed a few nice stationery offers. If you’re based in the UK they might of interest to you.
Amongst other items Lidl UK is currently selling German-made Pelikan fountain pens for under £5 (~<$7; <€6).
They also sell pencil cases (including content) from Herlitz, a brand I mentioned in the past, for the same price..
..as well as German-made notepads from Hamelin, the company behind Oxford paper and other brands.
I did manage to resist, but the offers are quite tempting.
References
| ↑1 | A global discount supermarket chain, similar to their probably better known competitor Aldi. |
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