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!!

London!!!

I'm off to London today for a grand total of 7 and a half hours!! and I will make sure I visit BOTH the Filofax shops! I will post about the adventures of my day with pictures tomorrow :)

My security blanket

I think my filofax, my main daily one (my Malden personal, which I will review soon) is always with me. I usually carry it in my hand, as when I am on campus I have a huge backpack full of books, and I don't want it to get damaged inside my bag. During term-time, I need it with me all the time because I am always so busy, there is always something to write in it.
But during the holidays, I barely need to write anything in it, except for a couple of to-dos per day (I'm not very busy!). Why do I still  carry it with me? Now that I think about it, I barely open it! I usually leave it in my room when I am at home, but when I go out shopping I carry it with me, I put it in my handbag, but that is a problem because my handbag is getting heavy! Do I really NEED it with me when I go shopping? What do I actually use it for when I am out? My shopping/chore list. That's it! So do I need it with me? No! That is what I bought my mini Finchley for! But I think I don't want to leave it at home because there is always the "what if?" situation. What if I need to write something down? What if I need to check something in my diary, or look at something in my reference lists? It's heavy, it's bulky, it takes up half of the space inside my bag! I can write any notes in my Finchley and transfer them later. I could even use my brain to try to remember diary things etc!! But... I feel like I can't be without it!! It's my security blanket!!

My MA Dissertation planner and Microsoft OneNote :)

Hullo!!

Today I am going to detail my MA Dissertation planner :). I have waited for a few weeks since I set up my planner to write this, because I didn't know if it was 100% set up, but since I haven't changed it in the last few weeks I think it will work for me :). I'm also going t o talk about how I'm using Microsoft OneNote in conjunction with it to plan my MA Dissertation!

I'm not the best person at planning research projects. I can have all the best intentions, but when it comes down to it, I either have hundreds of pieces of paper floating about my room, or little snippets of information in my rather disorganised brain. I HAVE TO make an effort to be organised for the most important research project of my life so far, my Master's Dissertation! This is why I have set up my MA Dissertation planner!

It is in a beautiful raspberry A5 Finsbury filofax :) I spent a few weeks researching which would be the best Filofax for me. I knew it had to be A5, there was no way I could feasibly write so much in anything smaller. The Finsbury was on my short list, mainly because it had 30mm rings. It's pretty packed already, so I don't think 25mm rings would have done at all! My other possibilities were the A5 Chameleon, or the Malden, but I'm happy with the Finsbury (although it does have some damage to it, I'll talk about this in my review in a couple of weeks).

I haven't really used it that much in the last few weeks since setting it up. Therefore, it is a bit plain- it's not 'lived-in' yet. I'm sure as I use it almost daily from September onwards, it will acquire slips of paper and trinkets etc! So far, in the inner side of the cover, I only have some pink and blue Avery tabs. I'll try to fill the rest of the pockets in with lovely cute things :)
In the envelope on the inside I have a cute card from my mum, an index card with my Dissertation title on it, and my thesis-cat picture :)

The first tabbed section is 'Progress'. In here I write what I have done so far to keep track of my progress, any deadlines I have to meet, and agenda pages etc. I also have to-dos. I use some pink and purple plain card (A4 cut in half with Avery top-tabs) to divide this up. It adds a bit more colour to it :)
Then I have my 'Plan' section. I really like this section. I basically have 1 sheet of A5 paper per section of my Dissertation, giving a plan of what that section includes. I add another piece of paper as the plan for that section expands. I can move it around and add to it as necessary; this is why I like this section and prefer using a ringed planner to a bound one :) It's kind of like a computer on paper, as I can add and move things as I need!
Then I have a section called 'Lists'. This is basically a catch-all section where anything in list-form gets filed. It doesn't need to be too structured, as during the day I would think "where is the X list" I would know instantly it is in the list section! It doesn't need to be too structured because then it would get too complicated.  The main lists I have in here are lists of abbreviations of journals I need to remember, a reference list of primary evidence I am using, that sort of thing. I use the 'address' pages that came with the Filofax for this, because I definitely do not have enough addresses to ever need to use them! They are quite good for lists as they are divided into columns, and have that nice box at the top where you can label the whole list.
Then I have my 'Ideas' section. This is just a section where I write down any quick things I need to research etc. This isn't a proper section, I just need somewhere wherever I am to capture these ideas or else I'll forget them. I have a pocket notebook for this too when I am out and about. Ultimately this section will get typed up into my MA notes word document. I have to remember this is NOT the place to write notes for my dissertation- if I did that the Filofax would either be 2 feet thick (quite literally) or I would need about 20 filos! My computer is the place for proper notes. This filofax is a PLANNER. I PLAN things in it! I have got to keep reminding myself of that!!
My next section is 'Meetings', for the notes of my meetings with my dissertation supervisor. This is a good section, and one I need to keep available when I'm sitting down working, because my dissertation supervisor gives me really good ideas of things to look up and I need to keep referring back to it. I will take my Filofax to dissertation meetings, so it is good that I have access to these notes for reference purposes.
Then I have a 'Techniques' section, which is a list of techniques, methods I need to remember when I am researching and writing, e.g. "Lead with the evidence..."
Then I have the A-Z section. I use this as a glossary: summaries of articles and books I have read and am going to use; summaries of primary evidence and its importance. This is a really good section as if I have something in my mind that I am trying to remember, all I need to do is quickly refer to the right letter in the back of my Filo and it's there for me to read!

My filofax and Microsoft OneNote!
Last night I remembered I had OneNote on my computer and realised how useful it could be for using with my Filofaxes! This is because I can make the same tabs, sections and sub-sections on my computer as I can in my Filofax! I can even colour-code!
I have created a OneNote notebook to match my MA Dissertation planner! This is great because I am not going to be able to take my Filofax with me to uni every day. On an average day, I have up to 5 heavy books in my bag, and I really can't fit an A5 filofax in it, let alone 2 because I'm also going to have an A5 filo for other MA things! In February I bought a netbook in order to have all my documents with me and the ability to sit down and write some of my MA or other essays if I have a (rare) 5 minute break between lectures and meetings. This way, I have everything in a very small netbook instead of countless notebooks! And this includes my MA Dissertation planner, as a OneNote document instead of in my heavy Filofax! I will bring my filofax to uni on some days, specifically those days when I have dissertation meetings but not much else, or days when I'm spending the whole day in the library only doing MA research.

I would love to take my MA Dissertation planner to uni everyday, but I will have to settle for being able to see it sitting pretty on my shelf every day!

Filofax review #1- Finchley mini

Hiya!

This is the first in my series of Filofax reviews I am going to do over the next couple of weeks. I will review what they look like aesthetically, including any imperfections of my own ones, how useful they are as binders in their own right with their different features and advantages and disadvantages, and other things (that I haven't thought of yet). Then when I have reviewed them all I will do a long post about how I use each one (because hopefully by then I will have perfected each one!)

So my first review is on my Finchley mini in Caramel. Really I should do my Finsbury personal in Raspberry first (as it was the first one I bought), but it's in Liverpool and I'm in Plymouth so that's a problem!!

Finchley, who I call Penny, was the second Filofax I actually bought, but I think the third one I actually received because of a problem with the post. I bought her from ebay for about £16 I think, which was a very good deal because a lot of other Finchley minis on ebay were going for a lot more, and they are £64 on the Filofax website! It's a caramel colour, which I went to look for on the filofax website and found that it had actually been discontinued, I was quite excited to get a filofax that no-one could buy any more! I promptly snapped her up and typed my address in for her to get sent to me... oops! I put my Liverpool address but my Plymouth post-code! For a couple of weeks I waited tentatively for her to arrive in the post! I thought she had been lost and almost gave up on her! But then thankfully she arrived, with a nice note on the envelope "try Liverpool" instead of Plymouth! I'm so glad the Royal Mail worked for once!!

When I unwrapped the package I loved the leather, it's so soft and lovely. The colour is quite orange in reality but that's fine, I love any variation of brown. One thing I noticed was that the leather on the top where the wallet (full-length) pocket is, is quite grainy and seems quite damaged on the left corner. It also smells quite chemical-like, not the lovely leather smell, and I wondered for a long time if this was actually a Second. But a few weeks ago I had the opportunity in WH Smith to smell another Finchley, and that smelled the same, so I guess it is just something unique to certain Finchleys!

I think it is a lovely size. It is perfect for little bits of information like shopping lists, this is mainly what I use it for! The size of the paper isn't too bad, I'm small myself so it doesn't seem that small to me. It is a bit of a problem when I get to the bottom of the page but I'm not bothered if my hand writing gets untidy on shopping lists!
I like the clasp as it is quite long and sturdy, unlike the Kendal strap I think.
As I said, the leather feel is lovely. The 2 card slots on the inside are perfect for me for when I go shopping as I only really use my debit card and carry my student card.
The rings are 13mm in diameter. You can fit a surprising amount of paper/inserts/refills in there, I have 2 packs of WH Smith pink lined mini paper and a WH Smith week-on-2 pages diary and they fit in there very well!
I like the zipped section on the back as it is made of mesh instead of leather so I can see what I'm looking to fish out of there! It's not a very big section but I mainly keep coins in my pocket so this is great for some emergency coins and other bits and bobs!
The full-width wallet-pocket is good but I don't really use it, I think if I did I would forget I had cash in there because I am used to keeping it in my pocket! Yes I am one of those girls who walks around with bulging jeans pockets!

I use Penny for quick shopping lists, mainly Tesco ones. Tesco is 5 minutes from my house in Liverpool so I don't need to go through the fuss of bringing everything there, all I need is keys, my glasses and Penny with my debit card in! I am trying to wean myself off my main filofax for trips like this and Penny is a good substitute! I have plenty of notepaper in here, which is of course perfect for making shopping lists, and I can also write other things in here. Walking to the shops is often a time when good ideas for my uni work pop into   my brain and I write them down in here then transfer them later! I also have a list of "Lovely Shops in Liverpool", and a "Things for other Filos" list if I think of something important while I'm away from my other filofaxes. I write it down in here with a tag of which filofax and which section it belongs to, and transfer that later e.g. "Malden: stuff to look up: ..." I have solved the problem of writing on the back of the notepaper, specifically with my shopping lists (because the leather on the left side of the Finchley is bumpy and difficult to write over) by turning it upside-down so the holes are still on the left and the paper is still on the right where it is easy to write. I bought a mini week-on-2 pages diary for Penny which I now regret because I realise I can't really handle more than 1 diary at a time. But it is useful for quick things like writing down times etc if I am taking Penny out with me instead of my main filo, e.g. "film starts 6:30", but next year I won't buy her a new diary. Maybe I'll buy her some more pretty notepaper instead!

Ancient Egypt books!

Hi!

Here I'm going to recommend some Egyptology books for people interested in starting to learn about ancient Egypt!

These books are for adults, children will find it hard to understand them sometimes because of the academic language.
They are the basic text-books any new Egyptology/Egyptian Archaeology student needs to read, and are also very good for amateur Egyptologists or people who are generally interested in ancient Egypt!

Egyptian history: The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. This is a brilliant book, with chapters written by excellent scholars, each on a particular period of Egyptian history. It was the main book used as the basis for our Egyptian History in university. So it is a brilliant book for both Egyptology students and interested amateurs!

Egyptian monuments, architecture, and archaeology: An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. This is a very good book, which tells very interesting information about specific sites and monuments which are key to the study of ancient Egypt, and ties in with Egyptian history and society etc.

Hieroglyphs: (that is, Middle Egyptian) How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs This is an excellent book to teach amateurs (and I do mean amateurs) how to read some hieroglyphs. I'm going to write a separate review of this book because there is just so much to talk about. But just for starters, if you want to learn hieroglyphs and have never learnt any of it before, definitely have a go at this book!

A narrative pulling together aspects of Egyptian history, society, architecture etc: Anatomy of a Civilization This is very good as it makes all the separate topics of ancient Egypt tie in together to try to recreate ancient Egypt on the whole.

Daily life: Village Life in Ancient Egypt This is a book of translations of many of the texts found at the famous village of Deir el-Medina (the village where the workmen who built the kings' tombs in the Valley of the Kings lived). It is very good, very funny at times and extremely interesting and insightful. It is starting to get more and more expensive, so if you want to read it and find a cheap copy (under £20), snap it up! You can always sell it for a lot more later!

I could recommend a lot more, but for now that is a good start. It covers many of the most important areas of Egyptology- history, archaeology, monuments, society, hieroglyphs etc, and is a brilliant starter for anyone starting in the Egyptology business, or interested amateurs. Some of these books can be bought very cheaply and are well worth a read! Anybody who is starting off on an Egyptology course will probably need to buy the first 4, they will be on your reading list and highly sought-after in the library, and even if they aren't on your reading list, if you read them you will be ahead of the class!

Happy reading!