It’s well documented that I’m a stationery addict. My recent obsession, however, came as a shock even to me. I’ve never been a Moleskine person. Oh, I’ve bought them on and off, and they languish on shelves. I have a watercolour one, a medium-sized lined notebook and a screenwriter’s one, but the practicality of them has just never done it for me. I think, basically, that I found them dull.

I know, I know, they have special editions and some even come in colours, but I’m a fussy customer and it takes more than that to float my boat. Then enters my new favourite thing, Moleskine Passions. They come in twelve different varieties – baby, book, cat, dog, film, gardening, music, recipe, style, travel, wellness and wine.

I bought a Moleskine Passions Wellbeing Journal a whole year ago. I looked at it briefly, didn’t write in it after the first day and then totally forgot about it…. until two weeks ago, when everything changed. I’m on a health kick (aka ‘OMG I’ve put on how much? WHAT! NO! I will not tolerate this. I will get a plan!’) and I suddenly remembered my Wellbeing Journal existed. And, get this, I have used it every day.

It has areas for your weekly goals, to record what you eat, any exciting competitions you might take part in, to log your daily exercise and to stick your inspirations (Misha Barton in case you were wondering – obviously not the actual person. I thought pictures would do.) Then there are customisable tabs, where you can add your own or use one of the many stickers provided. My extra tabs are recipes, routes, books, health food and I still have space for two more! The outer is a traditional Moleskine hardback but with added embossed exercise images. The design of each journals cover reflects what you are passionate about! I love it. The only criticism I have is that it’s a bit big to be lugging with you everywhere unless you have a huge bag. It sits on my desk in the office and comes home with me at night – trust me, it’s much harder to log everything you eat and drink than you would think, it requires instant writing down. However, if I go out for the day it stays at home, my bag is heavy enough! One person in the office has purchased one for themselves and another has said she is seriously considering one. I think that says it all.

After my recent success with the Wellbeing Journal, I decided to make another purchase. This time I bought the Moleskine Passions Travel Journal. I am going to Italy in a few weeks and I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am. And, in a surprise turn up for the books – I don’t go on holiday that much – I have also been to Spain and Dorset this year, and I’m planning a weekend trip to France. You can see how this might be useful for me, can’t you? I kept journals for years, I stopped only a couple of years ago, so this seems the ideal alternative. It’s like blogging your holiday, only in a nifty notebook you get to fill in.

I’m sold. I’d go as far as to say it’s the most useful thing I’ve bought all year. It has the usual pointless pages for your personal details. I don’t think anyone is stupid enough to put their name, address, passport number, credit card number and expiry date in are they? (I feel like this about the info pages in Filofax inserts, too.) But the useful outweighs the benefits for those intending to commit identity fraud. You can note down what vaccinations you have had and when they are due, when your travel insurance and health insurance lasts until, emergency contacts and loyalty cards for hotels, car rental and airlines. There is space for a standard checklist in the front, as well as more space in the trip tabs for a more trip specific checklist.

The whole journal is split into predefined and customisable tabs, like all the other journals in this series. There is space for a wishlist of where you would like to travel to, planning including budgets, weekend trips, short trips and long trips. Each of the trip tabs has space for planning, checklists, memorable moments and photos or clippings. I’ve customised the latter tabs into websites, guides, curiosities, recommended and scrapbook, using the stickers provided. There is not a huge amount of space for photographs, so it’s more for a taster. I have ordered a whole selection of moo.com stickers of my time in Spain so I can fit more images on the designated photo pages. I think for really special trips I’m going to appropriate two long-trip sections so I can fit more writing and more images. We will see.

So what’s next? I think the Moleskine Passions Style Journal is next. I really do need to sort out my wardrobe. And then the Dog Journal I think. How about you?

And in case you are like me and like videos.

Here is the Wellbeing one:

And here is the Travel one:

You can find more here.

Photo by Mátééé on Flickr.

Rather than roots. Maybe we’ll deal with them another day, after I’ve been gardening or similar. What I am thinking today is how to we know where we are going, how do we decide where we are going and how do we get there? At what point do we shut doors for ourselves and close off certain options forever. This is something that plagues me. How one small decision can influence your whole future.

For example how do you know when it is right to apply for a new job or change career entirely, and when it would be a terrible idea and you’ll end up homeless and careerless? Or in a board room somewhere, discussing how to sell earwax remover and make it ‘hip’. Or how do you know if that person you smiled at across the train station platform in a shared joke over the announcement about the late train when you’ve already been waiting two hours, is the ONE, or even if there ever is a one at all? Who knows, maybe you could go for them thinking they were the one and they turn out to be an axe murderer, and you would have been so much better just getting on the damn train.

That’s the thing about life. There are so many choices. One of my favourite poems is ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost. It pretty much sums up how I feel about decisions – you just never know. And that’s not good or bad. It’s just life and how it is. And maybe it’s even part of the fun of life, I mean there would be no fun in knowing how things turn out really. Life would be really boring. But sometimes, in those low times, it would be nice to be able to take a peek. Although I suppose it might be worse than where you are and you might consider that life was no longer worth living. I take it back. That would be a terrible idea.

Or… maybe you would steel yourself for what was coming and be able to cope with it better. Life is throwing me a whole lot of difficult curve balls at the moment and I wonder if I had known sooner whether I could have coped better…

Anyway, below is The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost. I wish you all the best in your routes in life, and I hope the twists and turns are exciting and fruitful. Enjoy the poem.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

But I won’t be blogging everyday, unless the mood takes me. Volume over substance is something I am saving for November and the challenge that is NANOWRIMO. (That reminds me, I need to start planning a plot). More thoughtful, meaningful posts will be coming your way. That is assuming that I feel meaningful thoughts. That part I can’t control.

Fingers crossed I do ok!

Photo from ceiling's Flickr photostream

A few years ago, I had a brilliant riding instructor who progressed my riding further in two years, than all the other instructors had in over fifteen. Her impact remains with me, and today I suddenly remembered the turning point in my learning. For some reason I had blanked it from my mind. I often talk about a chestnut mare called Dancer, with whom I bonded virtually instantly, and who taught me a great deal, along with my instructor, about lateral work, classical riding and how to build a relationship of trust that can be transferred to the most difficult and stressful situations. After all, if you don’t have trust then a chestnut mare is not going to do anything for you. If you are horsey, you will know exactly what I mean.

Today I realised Dancer was not the turning point I thought she was. Riding her was not that moment. The progression with her was great, but it wasn’t that second of realisation. That realisation came with another horse (and the same instructor) called Clown.

Clown was temperamental, big, white and highly strung. He towered above the other horses and was stocky like a train – or maybe that is just how I remember him. He was a livery and was only ridden by the very top rider in our lesson, Livia, and my goodness he looked beautiful with her riding him. He was the untouchable. Then, one day, my instructor let me ride him. And I. Was. Terrified.

But I was determined to prove to my instructor that she was right to let me take him, so I listened intently to everything she said, did it as best I could, and he was AMAZING. It was with Clown that I had that moment when I learnt what the right ‘feel’ was, and how a horse should feel when it is working correctly. He also taught me what was the right and wrong way to ask for movements and bend, but the important bit is that moment. When you know you have it right.

Since that moment, I’ve had the same feeling with other horses and it makes my heart soar. But without having felt it in the first place, I would have no idea whether it was right. I would probably push past the point where it was correct.

I think this holds true throughout life. Without writing a great piece of writing, you will have no benchmark for your own great writing. Without taking an amazing picture, usually completely by accident, how will you learn about your own creative composition.

Maybe these examples are not the same, because there is truely no way to explain that feeling when a horse is moving correctly. It just feels right. Maybe it should be more compared to falling in love; if you haven’t fallen in love, you won’t see it coming.