My new (and somewhat justified) fountain pen addiction

Recently, Po regained her passion for drawing, so I started encouraging her to draw using my iPad and Procreate. This meant almost every night after dinner, she’d quietly commandeer my iPad (or as she likes to say ‘her iPad’ now) and start doodling.

While this gets me one step closer to brainwashing Po from a hardcore Android/PC user to the Apple family and fulfil my evil master plan (she actually pre-ordered the new M1 12.9-inch iPad Pro). It also means I don’t have access to Ulysses to write my blog at night.

But let’s face it, it’s just another reason for me to procrastinate on writing

So, what better way to justify my budding fountain pen/ink addiction hobby than to write my blog post draft in my under-utilised Moleskine notebook then type it up on my mechanical keyboard (another one of my addiction, hobby okay I only have 3 mech keyboards, so not really an addiction…yet)

I wrote the draft of this blog post using my very first foundation pen — the Pelikan M205 blue demonstrator with Waterman’s Harmonious Green ink. See exhibit A below for an example of my horrendous handwriting

I’m also a proud owner of a super bright yellow Pikachu LAMY fountain pen that my sister and brother-in-law gave to me as a birthday present a couple of years ago.

Po also gave me a beautiful green LAMY Al-Star (M Nib) for our 4th anniversary which writes really well in Waterman Serenity Blue. Yes, I put the blue ink in the green pen and green ink in the blue pen, it confuses Po to no avail (evil chuckle).

Recently, I chanced upon a beautiful ink called ‘Azure Kingfisher’ made by a Tasmanian company called “Van Dieman’s ink”. They have a wonderful range of colours, categorised into different series, all of which I’m excited to try.

I was going to go with a sampler pack that I found from Pulp Addiction, but decided against it after nearly ruining my M205 when I took it apart for cleaning. Even managed to get ink behind the piston mechanism that I can’t get to. Given that, it’s probably best if I just stuck to the one colour for now before gathering my courage to take the pen apart again. Plus, it conveniently gave me an excuse to buy another fountain pen to put the new inks in (Yay!).

I ended buying the TWSBI 580 Diamond RBT — it’s inspired by the Taiwanese flag, so I can pretend to be somewhat patriotic.

It also looks like Police Sirens/Optimus Prime which is a big added bonus for me (yes I’m a child, and I’m not afraid to admit it).

Ultimately, whether its fountain pens or mechanical keyboards or paying $62/year for the Ulysses subscription, if it encourages me to write more, it’s a worthy investment in my books. (Yes Po, this is totally a justification for my purchases if you are reading this)