Staff canteen,

just after midnight,

4th January 2022

I bought some disposable pens this morning.

My intention at first was to get some ink cartridges for my cheapo ‘made in China ‘ fountain pen. I received the fountain pen as a gift on Christmas day. I love the gift. I had lost my Parker in recent times. Not lost. I mislaid it recently. I am quietly confident that its hiding place will be discovered during the pre-spring clean.

The temporary Chinese fountain pen came with two supposedly standard ink cartridges… The sort of ‘standard’ ink cartridges that seem to only be available by online sellers who sell goods from China.

I am not what could be described as a high earner, so sometimes buying communist factory goods is not all that easy to avoid. I will have to go to a proper stationery shop to see what is what… I was only in the giant supermarket straight after work at seven in the morning.

The two ink cartridges are empty. I would like to say it is because I’ve written reams of top-notch paragraphs of a supernatural futuristic historical thriller, but no…

It seems that China ink evaporates after filling only a dozen or so pages of a narrowly-ruled A5 notebook paper… (It is so hard to find inexpensive notepads where there is not a 39-inch gap between each ruled line!)…I think it might soon be time to write on plain paper!

I couldn’t find the ink cartridges that would fit… So I looked for some sort of alternative pens. Disposables. I don’t like Bic Biros, I am sure they are made by people who hate left-handers. The ink smudges… Half of my left hand often ends up red, black and blue.

My usual go-to ballpoint pens were unavailable.  So I bought some fine-point something or others… I don’t know the specifics… These are in the pencil pot at home, so don’t know the brand name, pen-type etc… These are home pens, pens taken to work get lost…or stolen!  And these are brilliant. I like to write as small as possible. Ideally, fit two or three sentences between the ruled lines of a standard A4 pad. These pens are the best I’ve written with for a long time. I reckon I could write 4 sentences between the lines, and still be able to read clearly what was written.

A pack of 5. Two blue, two black, one red. I am so impressed that when I do recall the name of the company that is responsible for making them, I will see if they have a range of affordable fountain pens.

I almost did not buy them. They were on ‘special offer’, but still seemed a little bit too affordable.

Before deciding whether to purchase them I had to find out where they were made.

‘Proudly Made in Japan’

Not just made in Japan. They were Proudly Made in Japan.

Without hesitation, I parted with what takes me about twenty minutes to earn.