On a train to London!!

I'm on my way to the Philofaxy London meet-up!
I'm so excited! We're going to go to some fabulous shops, and I can't wait to see everyone, some people I have met before, and others whose blogs I've been reading for a long time and I talk to on facebook and twitter!

Currently I'm sitting on the train in 1st Class, and I'm the only one onboard this carriage; but don't worry about me, Mr and Mrs Malden and their adopted daughter Maru Midori are keeping me company!

Bristol mini-Philofaxy meet-up!!

Hello everyone! Uni term has finished and I am now home for Christmas!! I promise I will write lots of blog posts over the next few weeks!

Yesterday was the mini-Philofaxy meet-up in Bristol, organised by the lovely Imy! Coming along were me, Nicola, Emma, and Tali and her husband.
Imy was coming from Cornwall on a train which went through Plymouth, so I went on the same train and she saved a seat for me! We sat there on the whole journey chatting and having fun! Imy was sooooo excited!! She's like a little puppy!!!
Then we arrived in Bristol and waited by the exit for Tali and her husband, then made our way outside to meet Nicola who was picking us up in her car! She drove us over to the shopping centre in the centre of Bristol, Cabot Circus. We decided not to go to the mall on the outskirts of Bristol, Cribbs Causeway, because it would have been packed full of Christmas shoppers and we might not have been able to get back to the train station on time. But Cabot Circus was great! A very impressive shopping centre, with amazing architectural features, sweeping platforms and cool Christmas decorations! Nicola drove us up to quite a high level in the multi-story car park, we went round and round and round and round the corkscrew to get up to that level and we got quite dizzy! But it was really fun!!
Then we met Emma who came in her car, and she gave everyone a Christmas card with a little envelope full of cute stickers in! So kind! And those weren't the last stickers of the day!!
Now we were all together, suddenly we all got very very excited!! We went over to Nandos to try to book a table (Imy wanted to book it under the name 'Filofax'!) but they said we don't have to book, just come back later and stand in the queue. Tali's husband went off to do his own shopping and would meet up with us again at lunch.
Then we started shopping! We went over to House of Fraser because Imy wanted to visit the handbag section which had a Mulberry concession in it- she's a Mulberry addict! But I must admit some of them were quite nice!!
Then we went over to the Paperchase concession! We all love Paperchase!! The concession in House of Fraser is huge, bigger than the shops in both Liverpool and Plymouth!! We were there for about half an hour, and I think we helped to pay quite a chunk of their rent bills for the day!! We all bought a LOT of stickers!! Well, they are so cute and pretty, and only £1 or £2 for a pack!! And we are all children in our heads!!

This is my haul from Paperchase! (+1 lipgloss I got later in the day!) As you can see, I bought LOTS of stickers!! Plus I bought a pretty tin for them to live in, or else I'll lose them around my room. It's supposed to be for pens/pencils, but it's the perfect fit for the slimmer packets of stickers, although the £2 packs that are wider won't fit in. I also bought some really pretty sticky notes, some tab markers for my new MA filofax, and some bookmarks, which I am going to turn into Filofax personal today markers! Possibly the best thing I got from Paperchase, which is saying something because I really love it all, is my pink Lamy Safari fountain pen!! I love Lamy pens, and have wanted a pink one but it's hard to find because they were last year's special edition one, so they're quite rare, although Paperchase do stock them. I'll do a post on this soon :)

Then, after we had managed to pull ourselves away from all the pretty things, we walked out of the shopping centre to the other shops in the city centre. At 1pm we met outside Nandos and queued for a table, finding a table for 6 on a busy Saturday was difficult! Emma took me to a cashpoint, and by the time we got back the others were seated inside :) We ordered our meals, I had a chicken breast burger, medium heat, which was very nice! After that I ordered the chocolate cake, but it wasn't very nice because it was like chocolate mousse made into a cake, and I don't like chocolate mousse :(

While we were eating, we got our shopping out and played with our stickers and things!! Again, we're like little kids!! And we got our filofaxes out and made a mini stack!! Nicola brought lots, including the WHSmith one masquerding as a filofax at the front! We compared filos, and they were sent around the table for people to write messages in! Like a proper Philofaxy meet-up!!
Then we went back to Paperchase! Yes, I know, we were addicts!! But Imy had seen some cute highlighters Nicola had bought and wanted some for herself, and my sticker tin was a bit dented so I wanted to exchange it. But when I got there, there were none left! Oh well! Then we went to a few more shops like WHSmith (more filofaxes!), and I went in Boots while the others went in Build-a-Bear workshop.
Then we made our way out of the shopping centre again, and went into Harvey Nichols. We found our way over to the Chanel hand bags, and there was the Chanel man there. Rude rude man, insulting our non-Chanel hand bags, and saying living in Cornwall must be like living in the fashion middle-ages!!! Imy was upset and we were all very angry at him!! We walked straight out, and were fuming about it for a good few minutes! We wanted to slap him with our 'cheap' handbags!
Then after a bit more walking around, we went to Starbucks. Everyone ordered their drinks, but as I don't drink hot drinks like that, I had a quick look around the Christmas market for presents, and finally got my mum the present I couldn't find in Plymouth! Yayyy!!!
We got back into the cars and went to Staples!! We are stationary geeks!! We all had a good look around, although I didn't buy anything, Nicola found a good pen that was made by Franklin Covey and is a multi-pen, with black, blue and red ink and a pencil all in one! I have been looking for a pen like this for ages! But Nicola got the last one, and the shop assistant phoned the Plymouth store for me, asking if there is one in stock, and there might be, so I'll have a look soon!
We had a while to wait until our trains, but we went to the station anyway because we were all shopped out! There wasn't a McDonald's/KFC/BurgerKing in Temple Meads station, and knowing I wouldn't be able to eat until 10, I bought a sausage roll- which was huge!! Well, it kept me filled up, so I could only eat 1 slice of the pizza my mum cooked for me!
On the train Imy found out we had free wifi! So we spent most of the journey on the internet on our phones, and chatting! :) It was a really fun journey!

It was a very very fun day, I really want to do it again soon!! Thanks everyone!! Have a great Christmas!

Philofaxy Meet-up London November 2011!!

Hiya! Sorry this is quite late, the time flies when you're researching your dissertation!!

Last Saturday I went on my very first Philofaxy meet-up!! And it won't be my last! It was so much fun!!

I woke up very early on Saturday morning to finish getting ready and get an early train to London. I'm used to trains, and I'm used to much longer journeys than this, it's 6 hours from Plymouth to Liverpool, or the other way around, so 2 and a quarter hours to London was a breeze! The only problem was 3 chatty, noisy ladies in the same carriage, but I managed to get on with some work on my netbook, which was really good!
I arrived in London on time!! which is amazing for British trains! But then the troubles started! Euston overground station was the station I arrived at, and then went down onto the underground- only to find the tube route I had planned was unusable because of engineering works! I had to get to Marylebone station to meet my brother, and the changed route meant it took me double the time to get there!
I found my brother and we went back to his flat and he showed me around. My mum had left a bag there for me to pick up, which had my winter coat and A5 raspberry Finsbury in it, which I had left at home but wanted to bring to the meet-up because Steve said he would have a go at fixing the rings for me.
I left my brother's flat later than planned, but still thought I could get to the meet-up on time. I wanted to go back to Marylebone station, but my brother was walking another way and wanted to chat with me while we walked, so I went to another station. The trouble was, the east-bound part of the line I wanted to get on was closed, so I had to get on the west-bound train to double back on myself! But the west-bound train was delayed with some sort of technical problem on the line in front of us! And it was getting close to 12pm by this time, the time we were supposed to meet! The train finally arrived in another station, I crossed over to the east-bound track, then had to wait for the train to take me to the south bank. After a couple of changes, I got there, very late, and then had to go through a very busy food market packed with hundreds of shoppers and tourists, and lots of cobbled streets for my wheeled suitcase to struggle over, then more tourists to weave through on the south bank!
Then I remembered my promise to make a video of the day, so I took some panning shots of the Thames and St Paul's and the bridges. Finally, I found the Tate! Quite an ugly building... but I'm sure there are some lovely pieces of art inside (unfortunately I didn't get to see!!)
So I made my way over to the cafe... and look who I found!!

I kind of went up to the window with my camera like a weirdo... but then everyone recognised me so it was OK! Filofax-fanatics must be instantly recognisable!!
Here's everyone as I found them when I walked in!

Going clockwise: Christa, Imy, Tracy, Anja, Adam, Sharon (hidden), Steve and Anita!

I sat next to Anita, on the "excited" end of the table! The other end was quiet and subdued, not like us girlies at the other end!! We were all squeally and chatty, comparing filofaxes and being a bit over-the-top! 

We ordered food...

... and my Filofaxes went away as soon as I splashed a drop of vinegar in their direction :S

They came out again when the food disappeared, and we proceeded to build the obligatory filofax pile!

We tried to make it on the table, but soon it became a leaning tower of Filofaxes, so we built them up against the mirrored wall instead! It creates a lovely effect!

Standing up with Imy holding them :)

I measured the horizontal pile with my A5 page marker, they stretched out to about 94cm!

Then with Filofaxes safely packed away in our bags, we made our way through central London, Sharon shepherding us! Unfortunately Adam and Anja had to leave early, I didn't get a chance to speak to them :(

We saw lots of interesting things on the way, including sand sculptures on the beach of the Thames, a woman who looked like Lady Gaga, and most importantly for me, Cleopatra's Needle! 

We walked through Covent Garden, a place important for both my mum and dad separately- where my dad used to steal potatoes from the marker stall-holders' veg stalls to sell at his block of flats, and where, 20 years later, my mum used to eat her lunch on her lunch breaks!

Then we walked up Neal Street- very exciting of course! I didn't realise it was such a big street, it was teaming with shoppers! I was looking out for the Filofax shop the whole way, and then noticed something I recognised- the MAC shop! I remembered I had been here a few years before with my mum! I can't believe I had been so close to the Filofax shop before and never even noticed it! (this was before I was into filofaxes, though!)

Finally, we found it!!!

I didn't manage to take many good pictures of the inside of the shop, I was too excited!!

I spent ages looking at all the beautiful filofaxes and interesting inserts and accessories. I watched Imy and Tracy making their video, and having a debate over who should buy what colour bag!! We all flooded Dee with questions and sent her looking for obscure things, but she was very friendly and hospitable, I don't know how she does it! She even knows how to handle Imy ;b

When I was there I was looking for 1 thing- an A5 Ochre Malden. But... It wasn't on the display stand, and however had they looked, the staff couldn't find it in the stock room :( But that was kind of good, because epic-enabler Imy had about 99% persuaded me to buy it, and if I got my hands of it I would have found the other 1% and my bank account would have quickly been a lot emptier! So I guess it was good that they didn't have it!

But I felt very deflated, because I had been really looking forward to seeing it, and I didn't want to finish this fun day having bought nothing in the Filofax shop!! I looked around for something I wanted or needed, but bought... NOTHING!!! This happened before, when I went to the Conduit street shop in the summer. Then I was pleased with myself, but this time I was disappointed! What's wrong with me?! Steve says some people can get overwhelmed, and not buy anything. I'm ashamed to admit, I think that's what happened to me!!

So at 17:00 everyone made their way out of the shop, and we went our separate ways to our respective stations. I got home quite late, after a lovely day!! I have lots of photos and memories I will hold forever! I hope to go on another Philofaxy meet-up soon! And I'm really looking forward to the mini meet-up Imy's organising for December, in Bristol! Can't wait!!