Stationery

You all know how much I love books but another of my favourite things is stationery. I have a wonderful collection of it, some of which is in the photograph above. Whenever my children need something for school or university, before they get to "Mum have you got....?", they know that I will have it in a box or a drawer somewhere.

Next to book shops my favourite place to visit is a stationers. I can feel the excitement build as I walk in. I have never lost it from childhood. In my teens I used to love shopping in Blacklers Bargain Basement where you could buy everything seperately. I would have multicoloured paper and envelopes that didn't match, scissors that cut in different patterns, stampers,staplers, holepunches and I would rush home to write letters and use them all.

My favourite time at school was the first day of a new term when I arrived with my bag filled with new pens, pencils, rulers, erasers etc. I loved the feel and smell of the new books. I especially liked the fact that they were perfect. I had a whole new start without any crossings out, ink blots or work marked wrong and they were going to stay that way all year, Of course they never did but I still had the same hopes the first day of the next new school year.

That September excitement still stays with me now. The beginning of autumn always makes me want to go out and buy new stationery. So I rush out to Paperchase, W H Smith and that lovely art shop by the Blue Coat Chambers and I stock up. I don't actually know what I am stocking up for but I stock up anyway.

My house is filled with notebooks with records and lists that I've made, my cupboards are filled with lists - jobs for the day, week, month - feel good activities for each month- weight loss targets - menus for the week, all multicoloured and ticked off with highlighters. Don't laugh, it makes me feel content.

I still have a collection of fountain pens. Nothing writes as well as a fountain pen. I love my fountain pens. I think it stems back to handwriting lessons at school where you were not allowed to progress from pencil to fountain pen until your handwriting was up to scratch. I progressed to fountain pen, it was a big achievement and so I still want to write with a fountain pen. I still think the move to biros at the local comprehensive school was a bad move. My presentation was never as good.

You've probably gathered that I am a total Luddite. I have a selection of writing paper, stickers and pencils for writing proper letters. I got out of the habit for a while with the advent of email but I was never excited to receive an email from anyone. I have a friend who sends me proper letters and, as they come through my letter box, for my excitement she may as well have sent me the crown jewels (which incidentally I wouldn't be excited about at all). This year I put 'write a real letter' on my monthly feel good activities list. I have a whole host of new stationery - pens, pencils and stickers to do this with and I am loving writing proper letters again.

This year when we go on our summer holidays, besides my books, my stationery is going with me. I shall write letters, draw sketches of places we visit and colour in my lovely colouring books. It may not be cool but it's me. My Mum always told me that everyone is different and that's what makes the world such an interesting place. As I have gotten older I have realised she was right and these days I'm just me and I accept other people for being them, even if they don't like stationery.