Version One Misery

So I may have been neglecting the blogging shamefully, and rather neglecting the proper handwriting practice too (also shameful), but I have been plugging away at the Zibaldone and - horrors - have come to the end of another notebook. Zoicks!

But no worries; I came across a spiffing deal on Rhodia goodies early in the new year and scooped up, among other things, a couple of (unfortunately orange) lined Webnotebooks. Not ideal, but really cheap. So away I go, in an orange haze.

Except, er, no I don't. I'm actually off in a turquoise mist - a rather smarter "Rhodiarama" webnotebook has to be unexpectedly plucked from the "gifts for others" pile and pressed into use.

Why? Because the Orange Peril is, unhappily, a "Version 1" Webbie, which does not have fountain pen friendly paper. It bleeds, it feathers, it does many things that might as well make it a blasted Moleskine. I was slow off the mark on this one, and only started to realise all was not well when I opened it up and saw the logo on every page.

Uh-oh - that's either a V.1 or V.2. V.2's binding isn't great, but the paper is okay; it could still be all right. Fingers crossed... Oh, blast. It's the 80gsm V.1 which is just no good at all for my purposes.

Their 90gsm is the stuff that suits fountain pens. Sigh. Of course it used to be that all paper was fountain pen okay, but we all end up writing on toilet paper most of the time now. Given that the only reason for stumping up the exorbitant costs of things like Rhodia is because it's reliably FP-friendly, this is not conducive to happiness.

The only thing in V.1's favour is the length of the marker ribbon. Look at that luscious length; isn't it lovely? The stump on the current models is frankly pathetic.

Anyway, there's a lesson. You'd have thought five or so years after the last 80gsm version ones were made, it'd be a pretty safe bet you wouldn't be able to find one even if you wanted to. I'd actually go back to the seller and inquire 'What the H***, dude?", except they went out of business about five minutes after I'd received the order. Which, clearly, was because they weren't shifting very, very old stock.

Apart from the financial pain (and let's face it - it could have been much worse), I'm not actually that unhappy that I'm down two Webbies when it comes to actual use. I've really not warmed to it; you wouldn't know I'd used the thing at all if I hadn't Washi-taped the page edges. The cover is unmarked and the whole thing looks so un-lived-in it's almost sterile. Now that resistance to wear would be a plus to most people, I know, but meh. Where's the character? So in about three months I shall probably be off on the hunt for the "perfect" notebook again. That'll be fun...

Update: Would you Adam and Eve it?! This darn thing bled-through! After all that. I threw up my hands, threw the notebook to the wall, and picked up a weird notebook made in India which is all the wrong format but does have glorious paper. Except, it turns out (several pages in), not for every page. You can probably hear me grinding my teeth from over there. But it's just feathering, and I can cope with feathering, I suppose. So I will carry on with it to the bitter end and just gnash my teeth periodically. Ack. This would not be a problem if I was still devoted to nothing but fine points. Or gel pens. Sigh.