I have been living in Rouen, France for more than twenty years after a few other places.
I'm still paid (not that lot, tax-payers be assured) to teach english,(or a few basic tools inherent to that subject) to some young people aged eleven to ... whenever they really get tired of the whole building.
I also taught at Portora Royal School of Enniskillen (Northern Ireland) a school where people of some fame have been (Oscar Wilde, Samuel Becket, me) and that has that little something that makes it different.
I was born in Paris the very year the Land Rover was first commercialised, 1948.Since then a few improvements have been made.
My father introduced me to a way of life that I have tried to make mine.
Like spending some time choosing the favourite pen of the day, the "right" ink (the one that matches the colour of the barrel, that flows well through the nib,...) not to mention the paper...
He handed me a Parker 61 that I took out to my exams.
I passed all of them.
Thank you Dad.
In the mean time my pocket-money (after some time of saving...) went into a Parker 54 (just British model?) and a few Waterman (Ladies Models or Dinkies? French market anyway).
As for now the list ranges from a few Rotring Renaissance, Monteverde and Sheaffer with custom ground cursive italic nibs, the odd Parker 51 and Pelikan Souveran 400 (Tortoiseshell, of course) to some others that have no name (given away free as part of a subscription for an unreadable magazine) that I put on an Arkansas stone and that eventually ended up as being as joyful to use as the others.
I had been using a Rolleiflex 3.5F for some time when I went out looking for a motorbike. My Maico MD 125 SS took us all, camera, sweetheart, folding toothbrush, to a good part of France, Ireland and some other exotic places in Europe.
Nowadays, I tend to travel a bit less.
My Land Rover Discovery would happily accommodate my Fender Stratocaster and an amplifier (Roland Blues Cube, Carvin,...another choice to make) but my future temporary neighbours might like me spending as much time as possible in the local pub.
So far, nobody has ever loudly complained about my using a fountain pen, even if unscrewing the cap andÊposting it can slow down the queue in the supermarket.
Other interests include listening to live recordings of blues, rock, ...
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