Sunday 28 June 2009

the choice... is GRAF..

after having coffee with CSS yesterday, i went back home, washed up and made my way to bras basah complex: the land of books .....

by then it was close to 4 in the afternoon and i just had to grab something eat ..... my legs were getting soft haha.....must be too hungry as the only substance that filled my stomache till then was coffee and nothing else.....

after a simple meal of dumpling noodles, i browsed at a few bookstores before stopping over at fook hing...... within the complex, they have the best selection of fine writing instruments..... they have mont blanc, dunhill, parker, nakimi, acme, waterman and so on......... and i spend the better half of an hour looking around......

it seemed that my choices were limited bcos of my demands ... haha somehow i made life for myself difficult.....

firstly the ideal pen for me must not come with a cap..... i dun like to handle a pen cap and the extra effort to uncap and recap...... i very much prefer a twist-action pen..........so that more or less ruled out many of the fine pens available.....

next: no fountain pen for me...... number 1 choice is roller ball/gel and followed by ballpoint pen...... the ideal is of cos the ability to interchange the refills......

so i discovered that...... there are NOT so many roller ball pens with NO caps........... now that seriously was a headache.....OUCH!!...... but i wasnt really deterred and continued looking around.......

in the end, i was presented with a few choices......

a very affordable LAMY in aluminium..... less than $50
a colourful ACME roller ball pen...... about S$150.....

during those minutes of writing and signing off, i think both are OK .... but i wasnt KEEN on getting either of them....... the ACME is too colourful and i dun think it looked serious enough for use at work........ and sorry to say that although the LAMY is good for the money, i also wished for something more substantial in price and weight.......... and so i continued to scout and as i looked around, i saw IT......



a GRAF von Faber-Castell Guilloche Chevron in black resin and rhodium-plated metal....

as i held it in my hand, i could feel its perfect balance..... and having the right balance is more important than judging a pen by its weight alone.........as i got to know it better, it seemed to grow more beautiful...... not only was the finishing excellent, its twist mechanism was as smooth as butterrrrrr....... and the awesome appearance didnt disappoint at all.. i felt great using it to write......... it certainly made me wanna write more.... haha.... isnt that cool.....

to square things off...... i pitted the graf against the mont blanc starwalker in resin....... which was a S$295 vs S$500 challenge...... in terms of comfort, smoothness and performance, i prefer the graf...... and the graf is cheaper by a large margin......

and so it was decided.....

stay tuned as pics will follow.....

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