31 Jan 2018

my fountain pen wishlist for 2018

Though I'm trying really hard to be good this year and not add too many new pens to my collection, there are a few pens which have caught my eye. Here are five pens which have made their way onto my wishlist.

Parker 51 Vacumatic

This vintage fountain pen has been on my list for a while now. It's tempting to buy one off eBay but this is a pen I'd quite like to inspect quite thoroughly before handing over some hard-earned cash for. Trawling local charity shops and vintage shops has not yielded anything yet and my aim is to attend a fountain pen show this year to track one of these babies down. The holy grail would be one in a true fine nib.

Pilot Elite 95S Burgundy

A pen that isn't readily available here in the UK unfortunately! My only concern with it is that the pen might be a bit short. My hands are a little on the larger side for a female so small pens can be uncomfortable for me. My aim would be to go to the Far East at some point, try the pen out in person and then make up my mind.

Noodler's Ahab

Flex nibs are something that have always scared me but this offering looks like a gentle ease into this new fascination of mine. Whether or not I take the plunge and order one is another question. I'm not quite sure I can justify another new pen at the moment!

Possibly the 2018 Limited Edition TWSBI Eco 

I acquired a turquoise Eco in 2017 and I really love how smooth the extra fine nib is. It really is a pleasure to use and it's tempted me into collecting all of the colour variations, as and when they pop up on the market...

Possibly the 2018 Limited Edition Lamy Safari (colour dependent!)

Every year, I'm pretty sure I say this to myself - that my purchase of the limited edition Lamy Safari depends on the colour of it. Having bought last year's petrol green, I do have a little tinge of regret as the colour isn't one I am particularly fond of. Only time will tell if I make the same mistake again...

- - -

This is my wishlist at the moment. I try and keep a maximum of five or six pens on it. I'm trying to weigh up purging my collection to purchase some of these beauties or just keep them on the wishlist for now. Or until a major life event occurs where I can justify an addition to mark the occasion...

Let's wait and see...

24 Jan 2018

valentine's day gift guide for the stationery lover, featuring Pen Heaven

With Valentine's Day coming up, I thought it would be a good time to talk about gifts for the stationery lover. Here are a few gift ideas from Pen Heaven. Most of their products can be personalised too - an added bonus!

Otto Hutt Design #06 Pink


Picture credit: Pen Heaven

This pen epitomises romance in my opinion: the powder pink barrel and cap, accented with rose gold... In the words of Chandler Bing, it is 'perfection'.


Parker Sonnet Pearl Pink Gold Trim Fountain Pen

Picture credit: Pen Heaven


Parker Sonnets just have this air of luxury and sophistication about them, and this pearl pink offering is no exception. The rose gold accenting is on trend and would look lovely in any setting.



Lamy LX Rose Gold Fountain Pen


Picture Credit: Pen Heaven

Can you see a theme here with this blog post? Everything has a slight romantic edge with this rose gold/pink theme. This Lamy offering is priced to attract everyone and the rose gold design is offset by the slightly harsher black grip and nib. Lamy fountain pens are solid, workhorse pens so if the recipient of your gift writes an awful lot, this may be the perfect gift for them.


Sorrento Large Leather Journal in Pastel Pink

Picture Credit: Pen Heaven

I'm a huge champion of journaling and as someone who does it at least once a week religiously, I will always feature a journal or two in a gift guide! This one has a lovely leather cover (which comes in a range of colours - not just pastel pink!) with high quality bleed-resistant and acid-free paper which is designed to take all kinds of ink. And priced at £17.99, why not get it embossed for an extra few quid?


Leuchtturm 1917 Medium Hard Cover Notebook

Picture Credit: Pen Heaven

No gift guide would be complete without a Leuchtturm 1917 notebook and here is the chosen one. A medium sized, hard cover, dotted notebook in a lovely gold colour - for that number one person in your life. 

Leuchtturm 1917 are renowned for their high quality paper which can take fountain pen ink without fuss and I am a huge fan of them. This is a gift which will please most stationery lovers.

Or why not go the extra mile and gift both a pen and a matching journal...?

17 Jan 2018

new pen! jin hao x750 shimmering sands in a medium nib

After I started my job as a junior doctor in August last year, other doctors would comment on how I always used a fountain pen (usually my trusty Lamy Safari Coral Pink in extra fine, inked up with either Diamine Blue-Black or Lamy Black or Diamine Denim). Comments included: 'I knew you were on-call because I recognised your fountain pen and handwriting in the notes' and 'You're not using your usual colour of ink!'. (The second one was after I briefly ran out of Diamine Blue-Black.)

These comments triggered me on a quest to find a cheaper pen which I could potentially use at work. Especially because I once had to lend my TWSBI Eco (review of that coming later) and cringed when I watched them use it.

This is where this Jin Hao X750 comes in. I saw it for just over a fiver on eBay from a UK seller (because I'm impatient and did not want to wait for it to ship from China for the sake of a pound or two) and the shimmering sands design is just gorgeous.


When the pen arrived, it came in the barest of packaging: just a plastic bag inside a padded envelope but that's ok - I wasn't expecting much for a pen of this price. The pen also weighs a lot more than expected. The expectation was cheap, flimsy plastic but instead, I received a bulky pen of a decent weight and build.


The nib is a medium and it writes quite a thick line. I'm a lover of fine and extra fine nibs so this was something a bit different. It won't be the pen that I carry around with me every day but it has made itself useful. Having purchased Diamine Blue Pearl and struggled to find a pen that it works well in, this Jin Hao X750 has come to the rescue. More on that in another blog post!


The pen comes with a converter which I've been refilling with a needle and syringe. Below is a scanned copy of the page seen in the first photo. The paper isn't the best so I make apologies for that!


Though I rated the nib 3/5, this was before I realised it worked super well with Diamine Blue Pearl. I guess the rating depends on the ink chosen!

All in all, I'm very impressed with this pen. It is of a decent quality for the price and it will serve me well for when I want to use shimmer inks.

10 Jan 2018

2018 goals: 100 things I want to tick off

For the last two years, I've written a list of 100 things I want to achieve over the coming twelve months and this year is no different. Last year, a lot of the goals were medical school oriented - 'pass finals', 'start work as a doctor', etc but this year, the goals are all about getting through this first year as a doctor.


Do you set goals for yourself? If so, how regularly do you set your goals? And how are you doing with them? :)

3 Jan 2018

hello! a re-introduction

A new year and after a brief unexpected hiatus, the intention is to start blogging again regularly. I do feel like I lost my way with blogging over the last year so I've taken that time out to re-focus on what this blog is really about. Paper Lovestory started out as a blog about stationery and then a blog about being a university student whilst at medical school but then things went a bit downhill. Now, we're returning to the roots and we're back to stationery, pens and all things relating to paper, though there may be sprinklings of other lifestyle posts too.

Anyway, to re-introduce myself with this new start!


Hello! I am Angela, a twenty-something girl who lives in London but grew up in the country. Two degrees later, I now work as a junior doctor within the National Health Service (NHS).

Fountain pens and ink are a huge love of mine - I definitely own too many pens and bottles of ink (then again, is there such a thing...?). Another love are notebooks and all things relating to paper. It may be because of my Hong Kong heritage that has fuelled this as stationery shops over there are very different to shops here in the UK. They are usually small, family-run stores, crammed to the rafters with stationery with aisles narrower than a plank of wood.

This is essentially what this blog is about. A twenty-something girl working as a doctor who has a huge amount of love for stationery. If this sounds like something you can get onboard with then I welcome you on this journey with me :)