London Baby!! part 2

Here's part 2 of my London adventure!!

After I had dragged myself away from the sale section, I happily made my way over to the main wall, where all the new and current filofaxes are! They are all so beautifully positioned on the shelves, in size order and so pretty! On the left-hand side of the shelves are the cheaper, non-leather varieties. I didn't spend much time looking at these.
    Instead, I immediately went for the Osterley! It's a gorgeous filo! I love the plum colour, the pattern on the leather, and how professional and stylish it looks! I found the leather better than the Amazona, but I still didn't like it as much as the buttery leather of the Malden! Being a big fan of the personal size, I picked up the two that looked like personal sizes. I had forgotten the Osterley was available in the Compact size, and when I saw it I really liked it! It would look brilliant with a whole year of day-per-page diary in it, so professional! There is a noticeable difference between the compact and the personal sizes, not only in the thickness of the filofax because of the smaller rings, but the filofax itself is also narrower (see the differences on the filofax website). It would fit very well inside a brief-case! Personally, I didn't like the inside pockets much, but then I am a fan of zipped compartments rather than card sections, but that's just me! I think the design is great, and would suit a range of people- business people, anyone who likes to look well-dressed and wants accessories to match, or anyone really! I would be VERY happy to receive one! I think it's a gorgeous piece of leather!!
    When I dragged myself away from the gorgeous Osterley, my eye immediately found the vintage pink Malden, which I had wanted to look at for ages! I am a huge fan of pink, and LOVE LOVE LOVE the Malden- I have 3 of them (2 personal and 1 pocket)!! I had wanted to see the vintage pink Malden in person since some of the people who went on the Philofaxy London trip described the colour as looking like Pepto Bismol! I had a look at it near the window to try to see the natural colour, and although I don't think it looks like Pepto Bismol, it's not one of the various shades of pink I like. I am quite glad I didn't like it, because a few months ago I was wondering how to justify buying ANOTHER personal-sized Malden, and I really don't think I need to buy another one! I am very happy with my crimson and ochre-coloured ones!
    Speaking of the ochre Malden, I was interested in seeing another one. I had my ochre Malden with me that day, as it is my daily filofax at the moment. I had read that other people had complained about the leather, as it is a bit different than the leather of the black and crimson Maldens (I'll talk more about this when I do my review of my Maldens), and I had also read that because of the nature of the leather, the colour and wear pattern on every ochre Malden is slightly different. I compared my ochre to the one on the shelf, and I think mine is nicer- the colour is more natural-looking, and slightly more worn and antiqued looking (a good thing!)! Mine came from America, I don't know if that made a difference!
    I looked at a few more filofaxes, I can't remember them all now! It was a very busy and stressful day, so I can't remember a lot of the minute details. I wish I had made a list of the ones I looked at in the shop, but I was just so in awe that I couldn't take my eyes off the filofaxes! I think the shop is so brilliant that there is definitely too much to look at in one trip! I wish I had been in London for more than one day! I wish there was a filofax shop in other places- I don't know why they have 2 filofax shops in 1 city! Maybe they should build one in another city, for example Birmingham! That is quite close to a number of other cities and is easier for some people to get to than London. Being in Liverpool for most of the year, I would definitely make an effort to get to Birmingham a few times a year just to go to the filofax shop!
    Now that I think back at it, I can think of a few filofaxes I wish I had looked at more, or looked at at all, as I can't remember if I even saw a few of the newer models! But I'm very glad I got the opportunity to go to a filofax shop and see a lot of the filos I had been longing to see!!
 

London Baby!! part 1

Wow, I never knew "tomorrow" would turn into "5 days", sorry!! I've had a bit of a stressful week waiting for my degree results, I'll tell you about them soon once I've received a letter I'm waiting for!

So last Thursday I went to London to help my brother move out of his uni Halls of Residence. I left him to finish packing and went off for my mini adventure in London! By the time I had left his room it was 1:30 so I didn't have much time, we had to meet back up again around 4 to eat dinner, finish packing and get a taxi to the train station!
Of course I used my filofax to help me plan my day in London! I wrote down all my train times, then wrote down the addresses for the two filofax shops and also the British Museum. I used maps online to work out which order I would go to the different places, and a free tube map picked up from one of the Underground stations to plan which tubes to take! Unfortunately I don't have a tube map that clips into my filofax permanently, but the little free foldable one worked fine for one day! I wrote on a nice piece of filofax pink notepaper all of the tube stations I had to go to and even colour-coded the Lines I needed to take, e.g. Piccadilly dark blue etc! I had some fun! But then I got annoyed and stressed because after all my planning, when I looked at the map of London my mum gave me, I realised it was too complicated! The journey I had planned was too long and I wasn't doing things in the right order! So my filo behaved admirably, while it was my own brain which failed! So I just used my brain on the day to work out where to go and how!

First off, I went to the Filofax Centre in Mayfair! It was off the lovely Oxford Street, but being so time-constricted, I managed to resist going into any of the shops! I was quite proud of myself! I followed my map towards Conduit Street...

Every filofax fan will know what this means!!

I anxiously looked out for the Filofax sign, and got very excited when I finally saw it!

I walked into the shop and knew I had to control myself! There was so much to see, and I kind of felt like it was all going to run away if I didn't look at it quickly enough! It was amazing seeing a whole wall full of filofaxes; I have only seen small stands in WH Smith and Staples etc before! I immediately saw a few I wanted to have a good look at, but first I somehow managed to take an overview of the whole shop. I went to the back and saw the Flex stand and the sale item, and decided to start off here!
I looked through the sale items first, and there are some really lovely filofaxes there! I don't know why they are discontinuing them! Some I had only read about, some I only seen pictures of, and some I very much would have liked to buy!! In particular, I would have liked to have bought the Teal Finchley mini and the Spring green Chameleon personal! But unfortunately fortunately I am taking part in Caribbean Princess' No Shopping Detox, plus my mother would have killed me!! I also got a look at a couple of filos I had always wanted a good look at in person, in particular the red Amazona personal. I have liked the look of this from the pictures I've seen and Imy's video. I came close to buying one online a couple of times! But now I'm really glad I didn't go ahead and buy it without seeing it in person. When I held it in my hands, I didn't like the feel of the 'crocodile-print' leather- it felt kind of plasticky to me! I've heard other people call it luxurious, but it didn't feel like that to me!
I had a quick look at the Flex and now I realise that I definitely don't need it, it's just a glorified notebook holder! Yes, it may be useful and flexible, but I don't NEED it! I'm glad I can save a lot of money by putting that one out of my head!

That's all for today, I'll write the second half of this tomorrow (I promise!) because otherwise this post is going to turn into an essay!
I'll leave you with a photograph of the Filofax shop I took from the door (I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside).

Have a lovely Wednesday everyone!!