Monde des Stylos

Finally, I was able to add these two Pelikan M200s to my personal pen collection.  I had missed out on the M200 Smokey Quartz that was first released in 2017 and the M200 Golden Beryl that was first released in 2021. Needless to say, I grabbed them both when I saw them at a store in Kuala Lumpur. Even though both of these pens were the last ones the store had in-stock, I just could not pass up on the opportunity to add them to my pen stash (a.k.a. collection). For some reasons which I can no longer remember, I started to collect the M200/205 series of Pelikan pens that were released each year in conjunction with the Edelstein Ink of the Year.  To date, I have collected 10 out of 11 in the series. The only one missing from my collection is the M205 Amethyst from 2015. The price of this now very rare pen in the secondary market is really high. Therefore, the M205 Amethyst  is likely to forever evade me and remain firmly in my "White Whale List" of pens. Nonetheless, I ...

Pelikan's Edelstein Ink of the Year for 2025 is the Apricot Achat. I do not have any original photos in-hand because the product has only just been announced and has not yet ship at the time of this blog post. However, product pictures are available in the internet and a simple search will bring up lots of similar photos if one is interested to know what the newly announced ink looks like.  What will the ink swap of the newly announced Apricot Achat looks like? We will all have to wait for someone somewhere to get those first bottles in hand, have that ink swap done and to post the photos online. Fingers crossed that this will be a good ink to add to my ink pool!  Pelikan Edelstein Ink of the Year, Moonstone in 2020 and Star Ruby in 2019 I am an avid collector of the M200/205 series of Pelikan pens that are usually released each year in conjunction with the Edelstein Ink of the Year. The first of this series was in 2015 starting with the M205 Amethyst and the most recent relea...

This was my very first time attending a pen show. I did not actually planned to attend this event. But somehow, my travel dates to Japan in autumn of 2024 coincided with the show. Realising this, I gladly took the opportunity to include the show into my travel itinerary and through social media, managed to get in touch with a kind gentleman based in Tokyo who helped me with my event ticket booking. Thus, on 3 November 2024, I attended my very first pen show, the Tokyo International Pen Show (a.k.a. TIPS). I woke up early on the Sunday morning of 3 November 2024. My Japanese friend, a fellow fountain pen user, arrived at my hotel lobby and together, we walked to the Monorail Station to travel to the pen show. Arriving at the venue's reception, we showed the QR codes for our tickets and were assigned wristbands before being led to join the queue based on our ticket numbers which also indicated our schedule arrival time. As with all things in Japan, everything proceeded like clockwork...

Whenever I travel, one of my favourite activities is to write. During these trips, I wrote about anything that simply caught my attention when I had pen in hand. Now, I do not simply sit down and decide on what to write. Often at night when I was back in my accomodation, I sat and wrote about anything that came to mind. It could be a log of the day's activities, people I observed, my personal thoughts, descriptions of the places I visited and if I was really inspired, a short story centred around the places or events that I experienced. The main aim was simply to enjoy putting thoughts to paper, through my pen. To me, my pens are tools that enabled me to transfer my thoughts into words on paper. I take good care of my pens but I also use them. If I imagine my pens to have their feelings of their own, then nothing is likely to excite them more than to have ink flowing through their nibs!  Looking forward to taking more of my pens with me on my travels in 2025 and beyond! 🖋 Myself, ...

My fountain pen journey has taken me from a few entry-level pens to pens that cost a lot more money to buy. Cost is of course relative and when I mention the term "cost a lot more money", I am referring to myself and my pens and stationery budget. Thus, while I may consider a certain pen to be very expensive, it may be considered just an entry-level pen to others. Similarly, a pen whose cost I consider to be entry-level may instead be a grail pen for others. Thus, depending on our personal budgets, cost is rather relative. Every year, I set aside a small amount of money to fund my pens and stationery hobby. This is my so-called pens and stationery budget. Of course, I must admit that I have consistently broken this budget by spending more than the amount of funds I had initially allocated for the year. That being said, being over budget had often resulted in me pulling back on more purchases for the year and that I think, at least indicated that the pre-set budget had done it...

To celebrate Christmas of 2024, I finally bought myself this Pilot Custom Urushi in Vermilion. I chose a Medium Nib for my Custom Urushi. A local pen store was having  Christmas promotion and when I visited the store and saw this pen, I just could not resist plonking down the cash for it. An awesome Christmas gift for myself. I have yet to ink up the pen although I had dip-tested the nib at the store. Now I need to find the time to ink it up and do a proper pen test review. My first Pilot Custom Urushi! 🖋 Pilot Custom Urushi in Vermilion, Singapore (2024)

And so I attended my second Pelikan Hub event in my home city of Singapore on 27th September 2024. My first Hub attendance was last year, also in my home city. As usual with Pelikan Hubs, I got to make new friends in the community, tried out lots of fountain pens that I had never seen or held in my hands before and of course, I allowed my new pen friends to try out my pens as well. This year, I brought along 12 fountain pens for the Hub; mostly Pelikan.  M1000 Black & Green Stripes, M800 Green Demonstrator (Original 1992 version), M805 Black & Blue Stripes, M600 Vibrant Orange, M600 Glauco Cambon, M600 Green-White, M605 Stresemann Anthracite, M200 Smokey Quartz and M205 Aquamarine.  I also brought along a few pens from other make and models including a Pilot Custom 823 "Smoke", a Delta Gallery and a Sailor Shikiori "Manyou". And there were the usual Hub souvenirs courtesy of Pelikan; an event commemorative Notepad and a bottle of Pelikan's 2024 Ink of th...