Guest post – vintage Filofaxes

Janet has invited me to write as a guest on her blog. We have been in contact since I wrote her an e-mail a while back, asking her to keep me in mind if she was selling some of her Filofaxes. Since then, my wife calls her “The Pusher”…

I got my first Filofax in the mid-1980s and over a period of years I picked up a few more. The first one was a brown Winchester and the next a black, Morocco grain, Buckingham. Early 1990s a tan York was added. All in Personal size and I still have them. The Winchester was used a lot – to the point of needing re-stitching, the Buckingham was not used much and is as new, and the York is somewhere in-between.

I was studying to become an architect and spent free time in cafés trying to look intellectual. Pitch black coffee, books by Sartre and Seneca on the table, writing and sketching in my Filofax, I thought made me interesting to the opposite sex. My scheme had limited success in that regard I must confess. Luckily croquis-classes were mandatory at the architect-school…

Years past and, as for many others, the Filofaxes were substituted for other means of looking smart.

It all started again quite recently, the Filofaxes, and this time for other reasons than when young and hanging around in cafés. I found an urge to write things down. As in using a pen or pencil. I wish I had never stopped. The thought process being totally different. More quality than speed and production.

Took the trusted old York apart and gave it a good cleaning and some natural content leather treatment. It darkened nicely.

I started to use it at work. Tried to have some fun with my younger colleagues by “synchronising” the York to the computer. The joke was wasted on them as they just did not understand it… “Uhh… OK..”

I have been travelling a lot in my life and I should have kept a diary. At 60 I wish I would have notes of my experiences from all over the world to read. I often struggle with the thought of maybe having enhanced my travel-stories through time. Losing track of what really happened and what I, today, believe happened. And of course – I fear forgetting people, events and places.

I am retiring in a couple of years and travel is going to be our – me and my wife’s – main goal and interest. This time I am going to keep a travel diary. Hence the renewed interest in something smart to write and sketch in! At cafés!

I do have some different hobbies and I tend to start collecting when I get interested in something. It is a sort of romance period when everything is new and exciting. I read up on the subject being very focused. Enter the world of Filofaxes! Soon I was trawling the net for information and more Filofaxes. Picked up a York, an Ascot, a Tejus – and more, at local auctions and my interest grew. Read as much as I could at Filowiki and enjoyed many of the older articles at Philofaxy.

When studying the old Filofax catalogues I found some interesting models that I “needed” (you know…) and however I googled the same site came up again and again – “This Bug’s Life” and its owner, Janet. She seemed to have them all! It took a good while before I understood that she lives in Sweden. Until then I was convinced that I was the only binder-addicted person in Sweden…

I started this guest blog post with – Janet is “The Pusher”. As all good pushers, she started off with dangling a nicely-priced York in front of me and I took the bait – as you can never have enough Yorks. When I was hooked, she waved the good stuff in front of me and I could not resist. And I am forever thankful.

The two Filofaxes on top of my wanted list I have now got from her. A Burlington in teak brown and a buttercup-coloured Ostrich. Both are in splendid, almost as new, condition.

The question is – where do I go from here!?

Janet’s note: It was a pleasure waving off some of my beauties to a good home. I am downsizing my collection because over the years I have returned over and over to a few favourites, and I want my other binders to go to homes where they will be appreciated and used.

The York I set free has the most amazing texture I have ever seen on a Filofax. I am so glad it will be handled and used. I hope we can see excerpts from Guest Poster’s travel journal one day, including beautiful sketches.