Stationery on a blustery day..

So, today's the first official day back at the (home) office. Rarely have I been happier at the existence of the contents of those parentheses than this morning, when it appeared to be raining horizontally. While it's stopped raining for the time being, the street lamps are still shaking somewhat worryingly outside my window. This is in marked contrast to yesterday's blue skies - the perfect day for a stroll to nearby Stoke Newington, for which I must admit a growing affection despite (or because of?) the way it reminds me of Portlandia...but I digress.

Back in Crouch End, having remained stationary for the entire morning and much of the afternoon, I took advantage of the break in the deluge to the brave the streets (full, as ever, of marauding school children - oh, how I've (not) missed you! - and ubiquitous bugaboos) to stock up on stationery at Office Dog. I don't know the provenance of this shop's name, but it pleases me. Business-based animals are always cats, aren't they? Particularly in the theatre. I like the idea of an office dog, along with other, stranger, mammals. Office chinchilla? Theatre ferret? But anyway, this is what I got:

Where pens and paper are concerned, I fully subscribe to Walter Benjamin's Fourth Writer's Technique: "Avoid haphazard writing materials. A pedantic adherence to certain papers, pens, inks is beneficial. No luxury, but an abundance of these utensils is indispensible." This little haul may not look like much, but it is highly specific to yours truly. For my thesis notebooks, I favour classic Rhodia, but today I was shopping for other things. The red notebook is hard-sided and will be the Spring Term volume of the dramaturgy class I'm teaching this year. Among other attributes, it lays open easily, so I can write class notes on two facing pages in advance and then hold forth in class with dignity, never (in theory) having to flip through frantically while it threatens to close. It has a cloth cover, which means I can label the spine and front cover with Sharpie for easy filing. The yellow spiral notebook is for Czech - again, it has to lay open nicely so that I can copy words into my flashcard app and is small enough that I will (theoretically) carry it with me regularly to foster the acquisition of new vocabulary courtesy of my Ceske zpravy app (note the implicit New Year's resolution to use technology to expedite language acquisition...I will update on this once I form an opinion as to its usefulness). The green pen is for marking student essays - a habit inherited from a former professor, black and blue being too quotidian, red too accusatory. The matryoshka notebook is for general journalling, an activity I haven't engaged in regularly since about 2007. I chose it because matryoshka dolls are my favourite piece of Soviet kitsch (apart from Regina Spektor's, that is). I even own an electric blue and pink matryoshka doll-emblazoned suitcase, which has admittedly earned me the odd stare, particularly when travelling in eastern Europe. It is, however, easy to spot in baggage claim.

To what pens and papers do you adhere pedantically?