Time Off

First - a customer service announcement. Clare is taking richly-deserved time off. The UK office will be closed from 3-7 August and 24-28 August. No orders will be despatched during these weeks. By all means order away, and everything will go out on the Monday following. I (Stu) will be monitoring email and social from the mountain hideaway - so any problems, yell.

Secondly - Mrs Nero’s and I are leaving the mountain hideaway to go further up the mountain. A curiosity of living in a hot climate is that we seek cooler weather for holidays. As this publishes - we will be on our way home, but I’m writing ahead of time, clearing the desk as it were.

We’re only away for two nights, but I won’t let the brevity of the break interfere with the opportunity to agonise over what stationery to take away with me.

Overview

Mrs Nero’s will have a wheelie suitcase (a carry-on from Away) and I will have a leather holdall. I will also have some sort of briefcase, as I intend to take an iPad, some paper products and a pencil case. There will probably be some camera kit in there too.

I’ll choose the bag last, once I’ve made the other choices.

Trip Outline

We’re heading to the top of Cyprus to a quiet village that is, in part, given over to supporting a spa hotel that is spread across multiple village houses. It's our wedding anniversary and we plan to take the waters, have a treatment or two and eat some traditional Cypriot food. Mrs N is still recovering, so long hikes will not be on the agenda, but I’m sure I’ll get out to take some photos.

Stationery

Paper

I write in three books every day. My Hobonichi Techo and Standard Memorandum are my journals. The third is my daily driver, in which I use a modified bullet journal system. My current one is a an Endless Recorder, which I carry in my Lochby Field Journal cover (coming soon to Nero’s). Behind the Endless, I will have two books (Baron Fig - Vanguards) relating to the novel that I’m writing, as I hope to get an hour or two writing time. I’ll have a notebook in my pocket

Pencil Case and Contents

Blackwing Pencil Pouch
Midori Metal Ruler
Musgrave Tennessee Red
Blackwing Natural
Blackwing Two-step sharpener
Staedtler Mars plastic eraser
Montblanc John Lennon Special Edition
A Lilliput Fireblue pocket pen

Cameras

Probably the most used will be my iPhone X. Quick snap at dinner? Tough to beat the phone in my pocket.

Ricoh GR III. A pocket sized camera that offers me a little more than the phone. Ideal for an early morning walk. Nikon D3300. A chunky old DLSR. I was tempted to take a zoom and try to catch some nature, but that can be a long process and I probably don’t have the time. I’ll make space for the Ricoh, but the Nikon will stay home.

Bag

Not taking the DSLR takes the pressure off bag choices. I’ll doubtless throw everything into the soft brown leather briefcase by Barbour, which is one of my favourites and fits in nicely with my holdall.