Philofaxy London Meet Up - March 2011

So Saturday 26th March the day of the Philofaxy London meet-up. I had been looking forward to this for several weeks. But someone was conspiring against me to try and not make the day happen.

It started off with delays on the trains to London so instead of going to my local station I drove up to Sevenoaks to catch the train from there instead. No sooner had I got on to the platform after battling with the ticket machine, I realised I had left my mobile phone back at the house... hmm not a good start,  Normally I just grab my 'man bag' and everything is in it.. I wasn't taking that bag today though... I shouldn't have rushed out of the house.

This Saturday was also the day of the Oxford Cambridge annual boat race and also a large protest march in London to protest against the cuts in public sector services and pay by the UK government. But I did a bit of research and looked at the route of the march and thought we could skirt around the route with a bit of planning for our walk from Tate Modern to Neal Street.

In the end I think most of us were delayed for one reason or another and we did manage to meet up at Waterloo and we then walked to Tate Modern to meet up with the rest of the group, in fact we arrived to find everyone outside the building which had been evacuated for some reason! But after just a five minute wait we were able to re-enter the building and get seated in the restaurant for our meal.

Food was ordered but rather than just sitting there chatting whilst waiting, out came the Filofax organisers and they started to circulate around the table!!!  Last time we had at least got the main course out of the way... not that it mattered. We had more time today so people really were relaxed and we all changed seats every so often so everyone got to talk with everyone, which was great.

As you will see from the photos we had a lot of fun, chatting, showing each other our Filofax organisers, I passed around the Filofax Facts book. I also showed some people the Filofax Address Book software on my netbook. We also made our own attempt at a Filofax tower record!!

We left Tate Modern for our walk to Neal Street, the streets were very busy, but no sign of any trouble thank goodness. By the time we were crossing the route of the march they were all in Hyde Park.
 
We were once again made very welcome by the staff at the Filofax store in Neal Street.  We all enjoyed looking through the new stock and items not yet on the website. A few purchases were made. I had made a list of inserts I wanted to get for my various organisers and it was a wise thing to do, I got those out of the way first and then got down to the serious business of looking at the new organisers on offer as well as the existing stock. Yes I made a purchase... but you will have to wait to find out what I bought!!!

We even managed to get a group photo taken outside of the shop and then before we started our journeys home we started to exchange thanks and ideas for the next meet up... May be a picnic for all our families or a two day meet up.. Lots of great ideas to discuss in the next few months. Certainly we will be having another meet up.

I've learnt a few things for improving on this and the last meet up as well to make the next one even better.

So thank you to: Thomas (who travelled from Bonn), Jane, Lucy, Sharon, Kyla, Jess and Adam for making it a successful day.

Looking forward to the next one.... if you want to organise a meet up in your area or in your country contact us and we will give you some publicity to help you get things to happen.

Here is a preview of most of the pictures from today... Click on it to see it full size.. a more detailed set will be added to the blog soon...

Free For All Friday No. 123

Hello friends,

As you read this, I'll be just about arriving in Jakarta. I've never been to Indonesia before, and moving to a country sight-unseen makes me a little nervous. (Ok who am I fooling, it completely freaks me out.)  But, I've done it many times before, so this is just the next phase.  I have my new Filofax to help me in my new life here!

How has a new Filofax helped you in a new phase of life, for example starting a new job, after the birth of a baby, starting or graduating university?

To those of you who are going to the London Philofaxy meetup this weekend, have a wonderful time! The question on everyone's lips: What Filofaxes are you bringing???

As always on Fridays, the floor is yours to discuss anything Filofax-related!

Filofax Address Book Software

I've had the Filofax Address Book Software for over a year, but it's not until recently that I've really got to grips with it. More a case of not having it on my To Do list to use it than anything else!

It's actually quite useful software if you want to maintain your addresses in an electronic format, but you also want them printed out to go in to your Filofax.

Previously I used to maintain my addresses and contacts in Microsoft Outlook. I had about 150 contacts recorded, but I'm now realising that there should be more if I include the number of people I only have email addresses for.

So to get started on using the Filofax software as my central database I exported my contact list from within Microsoft Outlook. Then importing the file in to the Filofax software.

Once imported I have been able to edit the information very easily. You can sort the list in several different ways. The software can handle business and home address, phone and email details. Details such as birthdays and anniversaries are also included.

You can then print out you list in many different ways. You can use the Filofax Computer paper in Pocket, Personal and A5 formats. Additionally there is a Paper File option which will allow you to print on any size paper that your printer can handle.  Additionally it can print on envelopes and mailing labels, useful for your Christmas card list!

For each size there are a selection of page styles which give you a choice of how detailed to make your printed entries. The print preview mode allows you to see your contacts on a simulated page and switching between styles allows you to see how much detail is included.

You can also filter your contacts to include or exclude work, personal or a text based filters. This proves quite powerful if you are setting up your contacts exclusively for your work Filofax.

In the options you can add and control A-Z tabs and the way alphabetical ordering is handled, the number of contacts per page. You can also select which fields to print, which allows you to cram more contacts to as few a pages as possible. You have control over the field headings, font sizes etc.

Here are examples of the eight different print styles available each is previewed on the screen before you print out your address list. They vary from a simple Name and Telephone list to a full contact and address entry for each record.

 

 

Web Finds - 23 March 2011

So some excellent posts for you to read today.

• Filofax Set up 3 months on - Sharon
• Library Planner Sightings - Life Well Planned  - I really liked this post and I might 'pinch' the idea for a regular feature on Philofaxy, may be a monthly post... on the last day of the month. 
• And Yet - Life Well Planned - Malden
• Happiness Binder - Life Well Planned
• Filofaxaloona - Loony about Filofax - aren't we all!!
• Decadent Deco - Caribbean Princess
• New Stuff for my Filofax - Saraccino, also check out the other Filofax posts
• New Filo, more purple - Girl in Maths

Enjoy

Departure Day!

Today's the day I depart for Indonesia! 

Before I go, I just want to thank all of you for your unfailing support as I prepared for this move, and last year's move too for that matter. You must all be tired of reading my moving angst by now!!!!  I really appreciate everyone's kind words.

I'll be back online as soon as possible! :)