Philofaxy Edinburgh Meet Up November 2012

I love attending Philofaxy meet ups... If you have never attended one then putting in to words the experience of a meet up is quite difficult. I've been trying to define what the magic of a meet up is for the last couple of years, but I've yet to find the right words...

So Edinburgh... Saturday 17th November.. Another new location, another group of people and another new city for me to visit. Although I had visited Edinburgh once before I didn't get to the city centre in the short time I was in Scotland so I don't really count that as a true visit.

I arrived by train late on Friday afternoon and after a bit of minor confusion on my part I found my way to my hotel in the old part of the city. I hadn't realised how hilly the centre of Edinburgh is, up and down you go like a roller coaster! It's a lovely city even at this time of year. I would love to come back in the Spring or Summer to see the place a bit more.

On Saturday morning we met up in a small cafe adjacent to the station, it was great to put faces to names, and importantly to meet Laurie again... it had been two and a half years since we last met up in London back in April 2010. I suppose having the two of us there was spoiling our meet up group attendees, but they deserved it!

As usual it didn't take long before various Filofax organisers appeared out of bags and rucksacks, and then they started to do the rounds of the table. There was quite a mixture of new and old, which was great to see. We even attempted a 'stack' although it was a little shaky and needed some careful balancing to prevent it from toppling over!

After lunch we made our way to Jenners department store, where the Pen Shop store manager Laura was expecting our small party and enjoyed hearing about the blog and what we get up to. It was pleasing to see she is a Filofax Malden user herself. She was given a stack of Philofaxy cards... to spread the word of course! Although their area in the store isn't very large, the range of stock they had on display was quite impressive, from Temperleys at one end of the scale to the Apex at the other. They also carry a full range of inserts for all sizes too.

Laurie had taken a fancy to my Ochre Personal Malden at lunchtime, sadly I didn't have the Compact Zip Malden with me to compare it with. But we used a Pennybridge to compare the interior and discussed the pros and cons of each one. Laurie thought she was out of luck, but she then discovered at the back of the display a Ochre Personal Malden.... her grip on it was firm.... she wasn't going to let it go or put it back... after some further discussion and consideration, she stepped to the counter and purchased her first Malden.... welcome to the club Laurie!!

We also got to look at some Mont Blanc organisers, these aren't cheap £325 for the personal size I think, but they do ooze quality and the inserts are very nice. We all liked the very large pen loop, naturally big enough to hold a Mont Blanc fountain pen. The Pen Shop have a full range of Mont Blanc products.

We then made our way to the Paperchase store, although it only has a small frontage I was surprised how big the store was inside and also the number of people in there and the queues at the tills. We all had a good look around and it was fun spotting things like sticky notes and stationery we had seem in different You Tube videos and blog posts!

We made our way back to the station to say our good byes and it snowed on the way! But it was the end of a brilliant day and everyone agreed we must do it again.

Thank you to everyone that came along and a thank you to the staff at The Pen Shop for answering all of our questions and letting us rifle through their 'Sales Box' 

And finally some pictures of the day.

Jenners, the home of The Pen Shop

'The Stack'

Natalie and Gavin

Morag and Margaret

L-R Steve, Morag, Margaret, Natalie, Gavin

Just on loan from Steve, he won't miss one from his huge Malden collection?

This Malden is mine... says Laurie...

The terrible expression says it all.... How Much!?