It seems I am not as much of a freak as I first thought I was. Since the last edition when I confessed to being a Stationery Lover I have been contacted by a number of people who also secretly share a passion for the Rexel Easy Touch Low Force Half Strip Stapler with flat clinch technology…and all other things stationery.
It is starting to get much busier for me at work now, which is good for the company and hopefully an indication of an improving economy, but it does mean that I have less time to indulge in my passion and more often than not have to look for tenuous ways to use as much stationery as possible whilst working. My best effort was last week when I volunteered to update all the signage around the building with covid-secure messages. To be honest, I think my boss was just expecting me to quickly download a few images from the web, plonk them in Microsoft Word with a few images and then print them out – Oh how he doesn’t know me!
First off, I spent ages looking through the specialist Infection Control catalogue sent to me by our office products supplier where I selected a number of ready-to-go signs (some of them are up to a metre long – massive!) and then for the rest of the more personal signs I raided the stationery cupboard for laminating pouches – well, raid actually makes it sound like a quick in and out, I managed to spend upwards of half-an-hour digging through the piles of post-it notes, files and assorted pens, deliberately taking my time to see if there was anything else I could use at my own desk.
Once I had found enough pouches, GBC Fusion High Speed of course, I then reverted to quickly printing off some signs on the printer before preparing myself for an hour of sheer laminating delight (I kicked myself afterwards for choosing the high-speed pouches, I could easily have made the job last over two hours!). I don’t know if you have experienced the sheer delight of laminating? It is so soothing, satisfying and relaxing. Some people might choose a jacuzzi or sauna; not me, give me a pile of laminating pouches and a GBC Fusion 3000L Laminator and I am as happy as Larry.
I do sometimes wonder if there is something abnormal about my obsession for stationery. Driving home the other day I found myself trying to remember the names of all the colour ranges in the Post-it Notes Super Sticky range. Miami, Bangkok, New York and Rio De Janeiro just rolled off my tongue; Marrakesh took me a good couple of miles to recall, but I just could not remember the name of the assorted pack that contains Poppy, Neon Green and Aquawave colours (It’s the Bora Bora Collection for anyone interested).
By the end of the journey I was really quite jealous of the person who had the job of coming up with the names of the different colour collections – Where do they get New York from? I’ve no idea, but I love it! I tried to get the landlord at our local pub to include a round on Post-it Notes in the monthly quiz, but he just told me to go away and get a life! Hey, the cheek of it, him telling me to get a life? I bet he has never punched through 180 sheets of paper with a single staple.
