Move Over Moleskin

I admit I am obsessed with notebooks. I have some deeply (wrong) belief that a new notebook will help me write. This is seldom the case. Just when I was starting to like Moleskins because in France lined paper n'existe pas - that seemingly convenient folder in the back of my Moleskin gave out on me and was the final straw in a long list of complaints.

Last week while walking back to the flat from the Albert Hein, blasting Joy Division in my ears I looked into the window and became entranced. There lay what seemed like a simple leather chapbook. I went into the shop (Tenue des Nimes) and bought two Traveler's Notebooks. One in dark brown  pour moi and the 5th Anniversary version in camel pour le monsieur, who I thought might love it every bit as much as I did.

I've just taken a big batch of photos because I wanted to spend some time with my Traveler's Notebook, especially since that is the premise of the whole shebang. You bring it everywhere with you. The leather outside gets aged by your hands and its experiences on the road of life with you. It becomes more beautiful. You can add new notebooks and other additions as - when you need them. It's better to see it.

The Traveler's Notebook as I saw it in the window which cost 39,90 euros.

I didn't notice my hand was in the photo.

The notebook open from the back.

Here is the #008 (the plastic folder, which cost me about 7 euros) and the #001 (the lined notebook, which cost about 4 euros).

The paper is wonderful to write on. I've used ink pens and ballpoints and all feel beautiful to write on and the pen just glides. I love Japanese paper!

The blank pages, #003 which costs about 4 euros.

The inside of the leather part with all the elastics going haywire.

Traveler's Notebook containing: 1 #001, 1 #003, 1 #008, 1 #010, and 4 A4 pages folded in a trifold using 1 extra elastic (that came with the leather bit, but extra elastics can be bought separately)

#010 the double-sided stickers for sticking things into my #003 blank page notebook.

The sticker backings.

Like this postcard from a friend as a going away present for my trip to Amsterdam so that I can still read what she wrote on the back.

Other goodies with the leather notebook. A muslin carrying bag, cute box (which contains another elastic if you want to destroy the box), and documentation regarding the quality and product.

All the extras I bought including #009, which is the repair kit and probably a good idea to buy and cost about 10 euros.

Instead of pulling out the elastic from the packaging as I suggested before you can do what I've done which is use the packaging to store the extras.

If you want more information on the Traveler's Notebook and the company that makes them, Midori (which has been making great stationary since 1950) you can look at the following links to buy and read more about the product.

Midori Japan (In English):

http://www.midori-japan.co.jp/tr/english/

For more information to buy, etc.

http://www.travelers-notebook.com/

For those in the UK who want an online retailer of the Traveler's Notebook:

http://www.glassworks-studios.com/shop/designers/fashion/midori-japan/

Simply put, I love this notebook. It allows me to work on writing and to collage my ideas at the same time. I've also thought of some different uses for it, such as carrying printed pages with me by simply tri-folding the papers and tucking one end under the elastic. Overall I'm more pleased than I have ever been with a notebook.

There are a few downsides however. I think my major complaint will lessen with use, which is the fold of the books make it difficult to write margin to edge. I wish there were more inserts, but I'm not sure if that's because I love to accessorize?

Plus it looks so cute with my little wood and brass ballpoint pen that Monsieur Redacteur found while walking the hound in the forest.

If you do end up getting one, please email me a picture of how you customised your notebook. Maybe we can swap ideas!

Adieu Moleskin, you have been replaced and overall neither my pen nor my pocketbook shall miss thee.

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The Westerkerk's bell is ominous. . .

I haven't been blogging because this trip to be honest, I haven't been doing much of anything except staring at a Word document and wishing words of brilliance would just magically appear (they don't). Sitting in a bamboo chair with a bright purple cushion, staring out at the balcony full of plants (including a naughty plant), and the words aren't coming.

The backs of the houses I can see surround a private garden shared by those who have property on the street level called a hofje in Dutch that is sort of like a courtyard. In Amsterdam the most famous hofje is located on the Spui, called the Begijnhof. There will be, next to the Esprit Cafe a beautiful wooden door and a miniscule little sign. You might see people coming in and out of it. Go inside and take a look.

But for me this view is a bit like Hitchcock's Rear Window, except of course I hope I don't witness a murder. I can see so much of what is going on inside that it's too tempting to not look from time to time (and to be fair I leave the curtains open in case anyone wants to have a look at me). It does inspire me a bit since back at home the view I get when I look at the window is mostly windowless building walls.

So yesterday I got it in my head that I wanted to go scour the Waterlooplein market for vintage clothes. If you love vintage clothes, Amsterdam is a good city for it. Amongst the 9 Straatjes, the Nine Streets (in the Jordaan area) you have lots of shops, but also along the route to Waterlooplein on Nieuwe Hoogstraat there are plenty more including another location for Zipper, which does great mens vintage. On the Waterlooplein you can also find another Episode vintage store, but I think the one on Berenstraat is much better.

I start wandering toward the Waterlooplein, but first I need to withdraw cash. One thing that drives me a bit batty about Holland is that my French bank card isn't accepted at the Albert Hein grocery store or pretty much anywhere else and some of my other complaints are that finding a cash machine, post office, or tobacco shop are pretty tough to do without memorising what is where and how far from this or that.

For example I stay in the Jordan area near Elandsgracht. There are two cash machines on Elandsgracht. One inside the Albert Hein and one outside. There is a tobacco shop on the Elandsgracht, but it's for some reason usually closed which means I either have to go up to the Rozengracht (at Westerkerk) because there's a post office drop off box along the Prisengracht and a tobacconist on the Rozengracht near the other Albert Hein, which doesn't have a cash machine.

And that's just when I'm located at the flat. When I'm out and about, all the other locations come into play. I'm pretty sure how the Dutch handle it is they do everything in their neighbourhood before they go anywhere else. I've been trying to watch the ebb and flow of the locals in my neighbourhood a little bit, and I'm starting to get the sense that why the Amsterdam morning starts later than in Paris is partly for this reason. People are waiting for the tobacconist, post office, and banks to open up at 10 and 11 and since the cafes open at around 8 or 9 (compared to 5 or 6 in Paris), they have coffees and read newspapers while they wait?

These are just some of my observations and they certainly don't apply to all the Amsterdammers. I've seen men hauling garbage and cleaning sidewalks along Warmoerstraat as early as 6 am and there is one place that opens early to accomodate people who work earlier than people living in the posh Jordaan area called Renee's Croissants (it opens at 6h30).

I withdraw cash at Dam Square and continue eastwards. After hitting the shops at Nieuwe Hoogstraat, I continue on to Waterlooplein, but the first thing I pick up in one of the piles on the ground (which can sometimes be as cheap as 1,00 euro a stuk,  piece) that smells like . . . there is no other word for it than butt. It smelled like a dirty butt.

The smell turned me off of looking at clothes (must remember this for the future as was so turned off I could barely even look at my own clothes to put on pj's last night) and thus I turned to books. I turned to books big time.

By the time I arrived home (after a quick stop at the Albert Hein to buy things to cook for dinner) I bought:

The Finnegans Wake Experience, Roland McHugh, Irish Academic Press, 1 euro (Waterlooplein)

A Dictionary of Historical Slang, Eric Partridge, Penguin Reference Books, 5 euros (Book passage*)

Flash and Filligree & The Magic Christian, Terry Southern, 1 euro (Waterlooplein)

White Fang, Jack London, Nelson's Library edition, 4 euros (Book passage*)

Happy Days, Samuel Beckett, Evergreen/Grove, 4,50 euros (Book Exchange)

The Dream Life of Balso Snell &

A Cool Million, Nathaniel West, New Directions, 4 euros (Book passage*)

There's No Business, Charles Bukowski illustrated by R.Crumb, Ecco edition, 6 euros (Book passage*)

* Now let me tell you where this book passage is because it's not far from Waterlooplein and just south on the same canal as Book Exchange on Kloveniersburgwal.

The same booksellers that sell in the "book passage" seem to also make an appearance at the Friday booksale on the Spui. I went of course on Friday and bought three books.

A Good Man is Hard to Find & Other Stories, Flannery O'Connor, 4 euros

Enduring Love, Ian McEwan, 6 euros

The Best of Roald Dahl, hardcover, 5 euros

My favourites out of my two days worth of purchases so far are the Flannery O'Connor stories and the opening to Nathaniel West's The Dream Life of Balso Snell. They're both writers of the grotesques so that might be what appeals to me at this moment. I'm also still enjoying my flirtation with the Beats Burroughs and Kerouac. I'm also remembering why Roald Dahl is such an inspiration to me, hoping to find Anton Corjbin's art book Control in a used bookshop, and planning to write like mad today.

Or at least read.

The cat eats the naughty plant, and apparently that's okay for the kitty. Since I'm housesitting I'm also tending to the naughty plant and you have to break off any of the yellowing leaves, so I couldn't resist setting up this photo (and pressing one of the leaves into my notebook).

Speaking of which, I'll be blogging about my new notebook purchase next!

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