My travel stationary: a Travelers Notebook monthly undated calendar with a plastic zippered pocket thing attached for holding stickers, two fountain pens and a writing board that matches the calendar. On the right is a red pencil case that opens flat which is currently holding a vial of ink, a zippered plastic bag with a paper towel and pipette in it, a pair of thin washi tapes, and a mechanical pencil (pikachu themed)
I don’t travel as much as I used to, so I think this is the first time I’ve brought a vacuum filling pen on a plane. I picked up a Nahvalur Original Plus last year when I was collecting a bunch of different fountain pens mostly to see what would stick.
This is a nice pen. I really love that the sparkles in the black parts are rainbow iridescent, which definitely sparks joy when I use it even though it’s not easy to photograph. I got a stub nib in it because I love the way it forces me to write with a bit more care to get something a bit more elegant. The wider nib might not have been the best choice for travel but I rarely get much time to write on my journeys nowadays so I’m not concerned about using a full tank of ink or too much paper, and I’ve shifted to using a pencil with my calendar so this is just for journal entries. So I guess the only downside for me personally is that I can’t use it as easily with cheaper pocket notebooks, I guess? It didn’t seem like enough reason to choose a smaller nib. The stub in this pen feels a bit less forgiving than some of the others in my collection when it comes to writing at different angles and starting on an up-stroke, but I can train myself on that.
A close up of my Nahvalur Original Plus fountain pen in the “Lovina Graphite” colour which has a clear ink resevoir and black cap/ends that have rainbow sparkles in them.
No leaks on the plane, as expected. I’ll see how I feel about it after more trips, but so far I think it’s what I was hoping for as far as a travel option.
That said, it’s not really a favourite pen for regular use because it holds too much ink! I’ve been rotating my pens and inks monthly and this pen will last a lot longer than that, so once I put something in it I have to kind of work around that in my colour planning or handle the longer process of cleaning it. Good thing the vacuum mechanism is fun, but I have come to accept that this pen is probably not the best fit for me. Still, it is convenient for travel and I’m not sad to have bought it. This time it’s filled with Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-budo which is at least an ink I love to use so it won’t be too bad to make a dent in it before I get tired of it and clean out the pen.
Since I normally switch between 2-4 colours in a month mostly to keep me engaged and also to make it easier to see where the days switch in my journal, I decided to bring a second pen. This trip’s choice was a Kaweco Sport with a medium nib, because it’s small, has a very small converter, and it’s very easy to clean, so I could bring it with a sample vial of ink and clean it out before flying home. Easy peasy! I didn’t love this pen at first because it didn’t sit well in my previous pen case, but it’s been good in this new one and the tiny converter has worked out really well for my usage patterns of late where I’m writing in my journal a bit less (on account of writing more fiction, mostly). This time I brought another Pilot Iroshizuku ink to go with it, Ama Iro. I wanted something without sheen or shimmer to make life easy.
The Kaweco Sport has become among my favourite pens to clean because the converter is so easy, and sometimes my kid will even clean it for me if he’s bored and on the hunt for something. It’s not a screw, so it’s very quick to push it in and out. This is the older style of converter and it’s slightly easier to clean than the folding one but they’re both fairly easy you just have to be a bit more careful with the folding version. I’m actually tempted to get a shiny blue Liliput or one of the AL sport pens because I love shiny colourful aluminum, but I’m trying to cut back on spending while I’m unemployed so it likely won’t be soon unless I happen to catch a nice sale.
On the stationary front, I didn’t bring my current A5 journal because I assumed (correctly) that I’d get very little time to write on this trip and might as well use the blank pages at the back of my calendar since I’ll be switching it out in September and didn’t really need all of them for ink testing. (I use the calendar for tracking a few things and decided I wanted to bring it on this trip, though I don’t always.) I don’t *love* the slimmer format for journal writing when I’m at home and don’t have size constraints, but it’s nice for travel and I really love the zipper pouch attachment I bought so I can carry stickers around and actually *see* them.
And the pen case is the same one I’ve been using for a while now to keep my pens contained in my knitting bag. I definitely could have just thrown the pens in a zippered plastic bag in the bottom of the A5 pouch I use for everything, but I know the kaweco sport has gotten scratched up a bit from me carrying it so it’s nice to have it contained better in a case. And I really like this one!
Overall, it’s all worked quite well for tracking and journal writing this trip! Now if only I had a bit more time to write…
It was likely inevitable that I’d start thinking seriously about having some travel-specific fountain pens. I’m no longer the world traveller I was in my 20s when writing papers and going to conferences to present them was a key part of my job, but I have a certain amount of travel-specific stuff in my life. (I’ve been cataloguing and reviewing some of my favourite travel gear here on the blog.)
Image description: My travel stationery setup: Field Notes notebook, Pikachu mechanical pencil & 2 pikachu gel pens from Zebra, Platinum Preppy Wa with koi, Pilot Kakuno in purple, a teensy pencil crayon set, an eraser in a orange case with ears, Burt’s Bees lip balm, a Fisher space pen, Lanisoh lanolin, all packaged with two Tom Bihn ghost whale pouches and a key strap to clip them into my bag.
For pens, I didn’t want to have something that only got used a few times per year, so I decided my travel pen(s) would need to do double-duty in my backpack for out and about jotting down of notes and doodling in restaurants/airports/cars to keep my kid amused. The picture above shows my travel setup except that I forgot to include the Traveler’s Notebook calendar that I’m currently using for tracking headaches, etc. Sometimes I carry all of that in my backpack, sometimes I slim it down and only carry the pencil and eraser, depending on how much I expect to be on my feet vs sitting. Most of this I already had for my summer trip, the fountain pens are the only part that’s actually new.
Before making any decisions on fountain pens, I read up on a lot of really solid recommendations on types of fountain pens that tend to be better for travel:
Vacuum filling and Japanese-style eyedropper pens are less likely to leak in flights despite their larger capacity.
Smaller pocket pens could be lighter for toting around, and might be less of a mess in case of a pensplosion because they had less ink.
Finer nibs use less ink, if you need what you’ve got to last.
And then some tips for just travelling with what you’ve got:
Travelling with a full pen or a fully empty one both made air pressure changes less risky.
Having pens nib-up during flight would reduce risk of ink blooping out since air could escape more easily.
Having the option to use cartridges instead of bottle-filling could be convenient and less messy.
I’m really not sure about the cartridge thing — sure, it’s convenient on the way out, but for short trips I’m highly unlikely to finish a cartridge and there’s no way to stopper most of them, so I felt like I’d still be stuck flying with an open reservoir on the way home. But I guess it works for some people who either write more or are more willing to throw away a half-filled cartridge than I am?
After much internal debate and online shopping, I decided I wasn’t ready to buy a more expensive vacuum filling pen (yet) or even a nicer “sport” or “pocket” pen. I felt like buying an expensive pen would undercut my plan for handing this to my kid for distraction and doodles. But I also hadn’t loved my existing stub-nibbed pens with my travel notebook so I didn’t want to just travel with what I had again. So I went the $10-15 starter pen route instead for my trip to Google Summer of Code mentor summit in October.
Pilot Kakuno
First on my travel list was a Pilot Kakuno. I already had the converter for this since I’d intended to try it in my Pilot Metropolitan eventually. I went with the medium nib for personal ergonomics reasons and also because I was still fussing with the Metropolitan CM nib so this gave me an excuse to use the medium and have the option to swap them later if I never got the hang of the CM. The CM and are are getting along fine now, but I did this purchase earlier in September before I was reasonably confident with it. The medium is significantly less fussy than the CM, so much so that my kid and I didn’t have much difficulty drawing stuff with it.
Image Description: A doodle of a Corgi ready to dig in to a plate of bacon and eggs with a fork and a knife. This was a quick copy of some cute artwork we bought in San Jose Japantown.
Image Description: Pilot Kakuno pen disassembled to show the CON-40 converter I’m using and the fact that after the trip I’ve got more than 1/3 of a tank of ink left.
The CON-40 converter that I have is pretty small (it’s one of the big complaints about it), but for a weekend trip with two pens getting rotated this was more than enough. And having a smaller reservoir does mean less risk in case of total pen failure at altitude.
Platinum Preppy Wa
Second was a Platinum Preppy Wa. I could have chosen a cheaper, less fancy edition of the Preppy, but then I wouldn’t be me. (It wasn’t that much more expensive anyhow.) It also amuses me greatly that this is the “Wa” edition as my kid decided when he was learning to speak that “wa time” was his term for nursing, so I spent quite a lot of time hearing that syllable even though it’s obviously a different word. Add on the “Koi no Taki-Nobori” fishy pattern being associated with the koi banners flown for children’s day and, well, clearly this particular pen was the one for me.
Image Description: Platinum Preppy Wa Koi no Taki-Nobori version with koi fish in silver on a dark blue barrel. The cap is off so you can see the spring mechanism a bit more clearly.
Like the Kakuno, the Preppy Wa feels absurdly light compared to the others in my collection and that’s a definite advantage for my purposes. I got a fine rather than medium nib so this would be different (and also because it’s what was in stock) and while I definitely don’t love the fine nib as much for writing, I was really happy to have it for drawing:
Image Description: My drawing of a Western Conifer Seed Bug, done mostly in fountain pen with some pencil for shading.Image Description: A Western Conifer Seed Bug sitting on a green poinsettia leaf. It’s a large elongated shield-shaped bug with long antennae and a pattern on the back that looks like a sketch of a mountain range.
The fine nib is also undeniably nice in my smaller travel notebook and on my calendar, though I mostly use pencil in the calendar anyhow.
I also was amused to see that the patented cap design mentioned in their ad copy includes a spring that’s pleasantly visible through the clear plastic cap, so I can watch it clip into place. Very satisfying. The artwork on the barrel is also raised and textured. I find it pleasant to touch but I do worry that it may get rubbed off over time. I guess I could make/find a sleeve for it?
I don’t own a converter for the Preppy Wa and I’m currently planning to try refilling the cartridge with a syringe. I don’t know that I’d feel super comfortable flying with a cartridge that had been refilled many times (I assume after a while they probably wouldn’t seal as well against the nib) so I’ll likely either buy a converter or a fresh cartridge for the next plane flight. We’ll see how I feel about it once I’ve actually tried a refill.
Flying with the pens
I tried to learn from my experience flying with the TWSBI Eco-T where I did have a leak, so I was more careful about making sure that I tightened the piston before my pens were packed, which probably helped. I also moved things around in my bag so my ebook reader (which I always pull out before takeoff) was sitting next to the pens so I wouldn’t forget to move them to be upright.
I flew to California with the Kakuno very full of purple ink using the converter and the Preppy Wa without a cartridge installed. I managed to put the Kakuno in my pen case upside down, so I flew with it nib *down* (pretty much the least recommended position) instead of the nib-up that I’d planned, but I suffered no leaks anyhow. Though the idea of making sure the air is at the top for pressure changes makes some sense, this makes me wonder how much it really matters in a modern pen. There are ball bearings in that converter to limit flow when it’s nib-down, for example, so my particular setup may not have been hugely different than a ballpoint when nib down. If you’ve ever heard of someone doing a proper scientific experiment on fountain pen orientation vs leakage in flight, I’d love to know about it! (If I had a lot of pens and a pressure pot I’ll bet I could design something…)
I flew back with the Kakuno less full and the Preppy Wa with the original black cartridge installed. This time I was a bit more careful about my pen orientation so they both flew tip up, and again no leaks. Yay!
Image Description: A Platinum Preppy Wa (Koi pattern) and Pilot Kakuno (purple) sitting on my notebook, which is open to a page with info about the Clapotis shawl I’ve started knitting, written in purple ink. The notebook is being held open with help from a brass clip/stencil ruler from Midori
In conclusion…
Both pens worked out great for writing, drawing, and even for amusing my kid. They both flew with no leaks and have tootled around town in my backpack being useful with no incidents before and after the trip. They weigh hardly anything because they’re plastic.
One mild surprise was that I used a lot more ink in the Kakuno than I expected, largely because I wrote more than expected. That does give me an excuse to look at pens with larger reservoirs if I’m planning to be gone for more than week or if I expect to take more notes. But with a larger reservoir would come more weight, so a vacuum filler might wind up in a different niche in my collection — airline travel and journalling at home rather than airline travel and backpack pen.
Though I still do want to try some fancier pens, I don’t feel like I need to get a vacuum filler or japanese eyedropper before I jump on a plane again. With the magic of zipped plastic bags I don’t really feel worried about taking these two on a plane. I don’t really expect leaks, but no harm in being cautious.
In short, these worked out well for both air travel and around town use! Almost too well because now I have less excuse to buy more pens, but I can live with that.
As I mentioned in my post about my cane, I use a Synik 22 Guide’s Edition for travel because of the cane mount point. But it’s far from the only thing from Tom Bihn that I use, so here’s a ridiculously long and photo-filled exploration of what I carry in my various pouches and bags.
I’ve been a Tom Bihn devotee since I bought their Parental Unit as a diaper bag when my kid was a baby, and we loved having a sturdy bag that didn’t scream “only moms change diapers” (this was an ongoing issue in kid gear — ask my husband about the High Chair of the Patriarchy). I’ve bought a lot of gear from them over the years since and like the way many of the parts are interchangeable or work well together, so unsurprisingly they’ve become my go-to for both everyday and travel bags.
This is just a run down of my travel collection, but it’s still a lot of stuff!
Synik 22
My beloved backpack!
A collapsible hiking cane with cork handle attached to a green backpack with a strap intended for an ice axe.
Things I love about this: the cane mount point of the guide’s edition was really the big seller for me, as I described in the post about the cane. The bottom mount points get less use but are still handy for jackets. I do wish I had a quick-release for the cane: it wouldn’t be hard to make one but I haven’t gotten around to it because I got hung up on seeing if I could find matching clips and nylon webbing.
The luggage pass-through is another accessibility feature for me: being able to put this bag over a luggage handle helps me reduce the amount of extra weight I put on my injured leg, and it makes a huge difference to how I feel during and after each leg of the journey. Before I bought this bag I used to use a bungie harness thing but the pass-through is easier to do in a hurry and there’s no risk of sudden slippage. It’s been a huge upgrade for me, and I look for it every time I consider a bag now.
I also find the full clamshell-style zip incredibly useful during packing, as well as the straps inside the bag to hold things in. We often have to pull out kid entertainments in airports and those straps really help keep things organized so I can pull out just the right thing. It also makes this bag a lot more suitcase-like which I find really nice for travel. (Turns out it wasn’t particularly useful for my work commute, though, so my original Synapse is still my work laptop bag, not that it gets much use since I work from home most of the time now.)
I also appreciate the size: 22L is about the maximum I should be carrying, but it’s better if I make sure not to stuff this. I had a synapse 25 as my travel bag some years ago and it was just subtly too big for me. (Thankfully, it turned out to be a good size for a friend who needed a new bag and it’s working great for her!)
A light green suitcase (Luka mini luggage) sits next to a red backpack (Tom Bihn Synik)
Very observant people may have noticed that I also have a second red Synik non-guide’s edition which I had my kid use on the last trip, again so that his backpack would slip over luggage handles. Honestly, I probably shouldn’t have bought this bag but I didn’t know that a guide’s edition would be coming and I was very excited about the luggage pass-through. (Which, again, is a big deal for me as a cane user.) So I used this red bag for a few trips but then promptly bought the Guide’s Edition when it came out and replaced this one. But its found its niche now even if it’s no longer my primary travel backpack and instead has become my kid’s primary travel bag. When we’re not getting on a plane, it’s also good as a day trip bag and my husband will grab it when he needs a smaller backpack than his own monster travel bag.
Packing cube shoulder bag
I have used the packing cube shoulder bag since back in the days when they used to hold all my breast pump gear. We used them as smaller diaper bags when we didn’t need to carry around as much stuff, and they still get used as emergency kid entertainment packs for short trips or for leaving in the car. We have 4 of them collected over the years: grey, blue, green and yellow.
For travel purposes, I use one as my purse/knitting bag. It’s big enough to carry larger amounts of knitting as well as being a kid support unit (nosebleed cloths, snacks, toys). It’s light and flexible enough to easily get packed into my backpack as needed. We typically use them as packing cubes for amusements rather than clothes, since they’re a bit small for even my kid’s clothes at this point.
When I’m out and about at my destination I do sometimes miss having something with a bit more structure, as well as the slightly larger size of my Paradigm purse-backpack. I love the Paradigm at home because a backpack is easier with the cane, but it’s not quite big enough for the stuff I want to carry on the plane.
I do own a Side Kick that I used to use as a travel purse, but I wasn’t in love with it and the death knell rang when my kid got a tablet and it didn’t fit. I did use it for a number of trips before he turned 3. Thankfully it hasn’t been useless since then: I use it as a bag for my bullet journal and it’s great fit for that with organization for my pens and stickers and space for my fairly large A5 book. So I’m back to the packing cube shoulder bag for travel, which is more volume for less weight.
I feel like I’m still searching for the perfect bag here, but the packing cube is currently the best I have for this niche.
Ghost Whale Pouches
I use these constantly even when not traveling! The ghost whale pouches current come in 4 sizes and I think I have all of them in my travel kit, though the super mini is a little dubiously useful.
Here’s the ones I had on my last trip.
My basic first aid kit: wipes, bandaids, meds. Someone on the Tom Bihn forum recommended these locking carabiners for pick-pocketing deterrence, and I added one as baby proofing when my kid was small enough that getting into the medicine was a concern, though I rarely need to lock it now. I carry this in my purse-backpack unless I’m traveling especially light. (I wish I could claim it’s for my kid but I’m the one more likely to trip and bleed all over everything.)
Description: A small first aid kit in a Ghost Whale Pouch. There are bandages, wipes, antibiotic cream, lactaid, painkillers, allergy meds, tums and sudafed sitting beside the bag, and all of these things fit inside. There is also a tiny locking carabiner used to baby proof the bag.
Knitting notions bag: scissors, measuring tape, yarn needles, crochet hooks, stitch markers and scrap yarn. I have one of these in my purse and a nearly identical set in my knitting bag when I’m at home. If you’re not a knitter you may not realize that dental floss can be used as a knitting tool for lifelines and makes a good emergency thread cutter.
Description: A Tom Bihn ghost whale pouch being used as a knitting notions bag. Beside it are scissors, measuring tape, a small black container (for yarn needles, stitch markers and scrap yarn), a lip balm, three short crochet hooks on a keychain, a lolipop, and dental floss.
My personal travel stationary set is new this year. I talked about the ruler/stencil/bookmark and the notebook in previous posts. Previously I used to carry a tiny notebook and a space pen, but I found myself just not using that setup any more since I’ve developed a preference for bigger notebooks thanks to 2 years with an A5-sized bullet journal. I also carried a fountain pen not pictured here. I don’t know how I feel about flying with fountain pens yet, but I *do* know that I didn’t love that particular big-nibbed pen with this notebook so I’ll be switching it up for next trip if I bring a fountain pen at all.
Image Description: A pair of Tom Bihn Ghost whale pouches and their contents laid out beside or on top of them. The larger A5 size has a notebook, pikachu mechanical pencil, animal eraser in a case, Field Notes notebook and a metal ruler/stencil/bookmark from Midori. The smaller case has a couple of gel pens (also pokemon themed), a tiny set of coloured pencils, a lip balm and a lollipop.
Kid stationary set: this is used for amusing my kid when we’re stuck waiting somewhere. We play a game where one of us draws something and then the other person has to guess and draw what the first thing/creature is thinking. It gets very silly. The pen roll is also made by Tom Bihn. It’s got an interesting design where there’s a plastic piece inside to help the pens stay in; it’s actually a little overly sticky and my kid complains that they’re hard to get out, but I’d kind of rather that than having them constantly falling out in my bag. The other advantage of the roll is that it’s easy to tell if a pen is missing. This usually lives in my purse-backpack when we’re not traveling, though I do take it out for weight sometimes.
Image description: A notebook with a lenticular Google summer of Code logo thing, a set of stickers, a rainbow set of washable markers in a bright yellow pen roll and an A5-sized ghost whale pouch.
Battery case: This is just a small USB backup battery for my phone that I keep around for emergencies or for playing Pokemon Go. Having a tiny bag for this is likely overkill but I already owned the bag and it’s handy for keeping backpack lint from getting into my charge ports.
Image description: A very small purple pouch with a very small off-white USB backup battery meant for use with a cell phone.
Key Straps
The Tom Bihn “system” has little o-rings sewn into the bag. The ghost whale pouches can clip to the o rings directly, but I also use a number of key straps so you can pull things out without unlatching them. I like that they come in different colours so I can see what I’m going to fish up, which is especially nice for the keys and wallet (also from Tom Bihn) in my purse but also for the various things in my knitting bag (pictured below but not used for travel).
Image description: A pair of purple and bright orange key straps leading to mysterious items buried in the bottom of my knitting bag. There’s also a narwhal themed knitting project bag.Image Description: A blue nylon wallet clipped to a matching blue key strap. Some American money is visible in the outer pocket of the wallet.
I use my older RFID-blocking wallet when travelling to Canada and miss the clip part frequently! Maybe one day I’ll upgrade my Canadian wallet to something that I can clip a strap too but for a few trips per year it doesn’t seem worthwhile.
Some Other stuff
I bought the clear 3d organizer bag to be the liquids bag for baby shampoo, but nowadays it’s mostly used for toothbrushes and typically gets packed in the checked luggage so I don’t have to deal with security theatre in cases where our legalized bribes (I mean “trusted traveler numbers”) don’t let us avoid that part of things. Kind of overkill but it lasts better than a plastic bag. I did regret checking it when we got stranded in Chicago so maybe I’ll put it back in the carry-on eventually.
Description: A Tom Bihn rounded pouch and two pairs of sunglasses in adult and child sizes. The pouch is purple and sewn from nylon with a zipper opening and a plastic clip on one side.
The pouch pictured above was called the Q-kit (I could have sworn it was the Q-zip though) and is currently on the discontinued list. I think it predates my beloved ghost whale pouches. This is especially nice as a sunglasses case that fits both my sunglasses and my kid’s. This way when I get mine out I can offer his at the same time, which is handy.
Honestly, I didn’t like the Handy Little Thing much when I first got it because I’d envisioned using it in a way that didn’t work out. But I kept experimenting and eventually it replaced my previous charging setup for travel. It fits in the otherwise slightly awkward bottom pocket of the Synik, which is handy if I think I might want to charge on the plane/train while the suitcase is overhead, but mostly I leave it in the suitcase to reduce weight and use a backup battery for charging en route.
Overall
Yup, I’m a Tom Bihn fangirl, and I have a very expensive collection of stuff thanks to being a well-paid security professional with a love of travel gear and bags. But that slowly-grown collection of interchangeable pouches and straps has really helped me have a travel bag setup that grew and changed as my kid’s and my own needs have changed over the past many years since I bought that first diaper bag. I imagine 5 years from now I’ll look back at this and I’ll have a very different setup again, but some of these same components will be part of it.
It feels late in the pandemic to be buying a really fancy mask, but with the prospect of sitting for hours on planes while the US had increasingly significant waves of infection, I decided it was worth trying out a different style of mask to see if I liked it. And I did!
What is it?
Image description: Terri, a half-Japanese woman, is wearing a Flo mask with a cherry blossom decorative cover on it. She is also wearing sunglasses, a hat, and a Google Summer of Code t-shirt and is standing in front of some bushes.
A respirator/mask with a rigid frame and a replaceable filter. I particularly liked that it had a version intended for smaller nose bridges (common for those of us with Asian genetics), as I know fitting glasses can be a problem for me due to nose shape. I also paid extra for the “halo strap.”
I have good disposable N95 masks that I liked, but I was willing to take a chance and see if I liked something else better, especially given that I was intending to spend hours on a plane and in airports to travel so my kid could see his grandparents.
Pain points for me with my existing options:
Straps either slid down my hair or hurt my ears.
Wearing a mask for more than about an hour tended to get kind of gross
Wearing a mask during humid weather (which is most of the year where I live in the Pacific Northwest) meant it could get hard to breathe
Not the most aesthetically appealing
Took a lot of adjustment to avoid fogging up my glasses. Since I don’t need mine most of the time, I often would just take them off
How did it work out for me?
In short: great!
The “halo strap” sits on my head better and doesn’t leave any sore spots, which meant I could wear this nearly indefinitely. It does take a bit of futzing if I want my hair to sit well — I usually pull it over the bottom strap and flatten it before putting the top strap on, although since I often wear a hat (see picture above) it doesn’t matter too much to me.
The short nose bridge option did indeed work for my face! This is exciting, as I have difficulty finding glasses that fit me due to my short/asian nose bridge, so I knew it could be an issue.
The humidity in these masks condenses around the edge (instead of in the filter) and they provide a sponge to help hold it. Wiping out excess condensation with a cloth/napkin helped it from getting too gross. The filter itself never seemed to get that wet, so it was easier to breathe through even in humid conditions.
This was significantly easier to wear with glasses/sunglasses. It’s not foolproof, but typically it only took a little jiggle to fix the seal (unlike before where I’d have to adjust the nose bridge nearly every time).
It still looks kind of dorky I guess, but I like it better than many of my other options.
But most importantly: despite several trips and increasing covid numbers, I did not get covid this summer! (I did, however, get a cold thanks to being around my in-laws unmasked.)
Things that could be better
I really would have liked more colour options. I know you can just put stickers on the harder plastic shell but I haven’t done that yet and I probably would have bought extra decorated front pieces if they had them in more colours. I did get a pretty one with cherry blossoms though!
The condensation was pretty gross at times and the sponge felt inadequate, but it was so easy to deal with by wiping it out and it was so much better than my old preferred mask that it feels silly to complain about it. Still, I feel like there might be room for improvement in the design of the sponge insert.
If you don’t clean and dry the sponge and frame after use they can smell kind of bad, so definitely plan for some cleaning time after any extended use. We’re talking a swipe with a cloth or a wet wipe before putting it away which isn’t especially onerous, but it was easy to forget during travel.
I’m not sure I can sing in it without breaking the seal on my face. This may be an issue for me as I sing with a choir and wore a mask this year since even if I felt fine there was a good chance I was infected with some kindergarten disease. I’ll try it out before rehearsals start in the fall, but if it doesn’t work for that I can always use my disposable masks instead, which have a slightly larger area covering my face.
Overall
I liked this enough that we ordered some in different sizes/shapes for both my husband and kid to see if they like it as much as I do. I’m eager to see how it performs during our very wet winter, but it’s already been an improvement in the few surprise humid days we’ve had in August.
I didn’t get covid this summer while using it for travel, a short conference, and miscellaneous indoors errands. That said, the rest of my family *also* didn’t get covid and they were wearing different masks, so probably most of that was the effect of wearing a mask at all rather than this specific one.
I picked up this ruler to go with my travel notebook. I didn’t use it the way I thought I would, but it found a niche that made it fit perfectly into my travel stationery setup.
What is it?
A metal ruler that also acts as a clip bookmark and a stencil.
Image Description: A Midori Clip ruler: a copper metal ruler with stencil holes in it. The end is folded to make a clip. It is sitting on a larger black Field Notes brand notebook.
I wanted a travel ruler for drawing lines. I was mostly expecting to use it for lines in the knitting charts I was writing out and modifying during the trip. I figured I’d use it for bullet journal type stuff too, such as drawing the monthly calendar I use for tracking.
How did it work out for me?
Turns out that this actually isn’t a great ruler. The stencil meant it felt a bit flimsy on one side as you move it around on the page, and the clip is just barely enough to make a slight bump if you try to draw a line longer than 10cm. This especially was an issue for me when I drew out the calendar I use for a bunch of monthly tracking stuff.
But it is an absolutely *fantastic* bookmark for holding open the Field Notes notebook that I was using. It’s just just enough weight to hold the pages open and it worked quite well when I needed a pattern place marker for the knitting I was doing.
Image Description: My Midori Clip Ruler being used to hold open a notebook and mark a place in my pattern. The pattern is a variant on the Kelpie Etudes charts from Gannet Designs, and it has been written out in pencil. The ruler is made of copper and is holding the notebook open without much difficulty.
It turns out I didn’t need to draw as many lines as I thought I would, but I *did* need to hold the pages open while knitting my shawl for a month during and after the trip. It was also great for just marking my page so I could immediately open to the pattern page I was working on (a bit of an issue as I was working with 4 very similar charts).
It also worked ok as a stencil the few times I used it. It’s very small so it worked best with my mechanical pencil (then I coloured the results with gel pen sometimes). I could probably find ways to integrate these particular icons into my tracking, but many of them are ones I don’t use right now so it’s not super useful to me.
Things that could be better
I feel like there’s got to be a way to design this such that the clip nudges in just a milimetre or so so the full length can be used for drawing lines, but it’s clear that they intended you to use the internal slots for that so maybe that’s on me for using it outside of the design intention? If you look closely in the image below you can see the wobble at the end of the line where I hit the clip while drawing.
Image Description: Close up of the Midori Clip Ruler in use as a bookmark, showing the shape of the clip while the ruler is on the other side of the paper.
The icon choices aren’t super useful to me, so I’m probably going to keep freehanding most of my personal icons. Still, I enjoyed having some of these and maybe I’ll find uses for them now that I have them!
Overall
I was completely surprised at how much I loved this ruler/bookmark!
I nearly talked myself out of buying it before the trip since I already have a few small “gauge swatch” rulers thanks to knitting. But this was significantly better: it’s super small and slender, stays put in the notebook even if I have to stuff it in a bag in a hurry, and as a bookmark and page holder it found a real niche in my life. Despite feeling flimsy as a ruler, it felt satisfying as a bookmark and absolutely stayed put. I’d be afraid to use it in a library book lest I forget it, but it would be great in books I own. I’m debating trying some other metal bookmarks to replace the post it notes I use in pattern books while I’m working out a design.
I’m tempted to get another one with one of the other stencil options because I love it so much and wouldn’t mind having a spare for my larger journal. I just noticed the cat version has a book icon that would be perfect for my book review tracking!
I’m loosely auditioning new notebooks to replace my bullet journal. So I pulled out my fountain pens and inked up a few contenders that I hadn’t tried yet and here they are with the ones I’d already sampled:
Description: A set of 5 notebooks open to a pen testing page showing handwritten samples for 5 different pens in different coloured inks. The pens themselves are sitting on the bottom right notebook.
My current bullet journal (the one in the upper right) is a lovely book from Kela Designs. It’s going to run out of pages in a couple of months (maybe sooner if I keep messing around with drawing doggies for doggust). I really love this journal but it’s pretty thick and heavy (160 pages, 160gsm bamboo paper), and I want something thinner that I’ll carry around more and also something that’s closer to 1 year sized for me rather than the 2 years it’s taken to use this one. My desire for a smaller page count has cut me off from a bunch of the more solidly built hardcovers so I’m pretty much just looking at softcover notebooks this round.
Currently the winner is the one with the ivory coloured paper which is from Rhodia (bottom right). Paper’s a bit thicker which makes it closer to my current notebook than the others shown here. While I wonder if the ivory colour is going to go terribly with my stickers, I think I’ll like it for writing and washi tape. It’s also got a slightly rubbery cover that reminds me a lot of the Pentallic notebooks that were my daily travellers for years when I worked at UNM and could pick them up from the campus store. The appeal of this one is a much smaller page count than most A5 dot grid notebooks. It clocks in at 32 sheets / 64 pages, so it’s way thin and I’m not committing myself to 2 years of the same notebook the way I did with my current journal.
The tiny bottom one is a passport-sized one from Goulet that’s meant to fit into the Traveler’s Passport system. I *love* the idea of the system with a leather cover and ever-changing inserts, but the Traveler’s comes in two sizes and I was pretty sure they were “too big” and “too small” but my brain wouldn’t let go of the idea of trying it out. Thankfully the refill notebooks are pretty cheap so I could try it out without actually buying a cover. The paper is nice, but the size is definitely no good for my bullet journal needs. I’d been thinking about it as a travel journal option but holding it in my hands (not even writing in it!) I took a different notebook on my last trip so… it’s probably not a winner for me right now. I’ll likely toss this tiny one into my purse to see if I use it, and I might try the larger size at a future date because I really like the idea of being able to get some pre-printed calendar notebooks, but I may have to accept that while the concept is good they just don’t have quite the right dimensions for me.
Middle left is my latest travel notebook from Field Notes that beat out the passport to get taken on my last trip. It’s big enough that I could work out knitting charts in it, but I didn’t love it with fountain pens and wound up using pencil and gel pen. Since both of those are less potentially risky for travel anyhow, I’ll likely keep it as my travel companion. But it’s not making the cut for bullet journal replacement outside of that.
Upper left is from Clairefontaine. I got this one to see if I liked the paper, and I do! I also was surprised by how much I liked the wider lines for writing, as they work really well with my thicker fountain pens. I also tried sticking it in an a5 ghost whale pouch (from Tom Bihn) and carrying it around in my knitting bag and found that it was a winner for weight and size. Unfortunately, I’ve gotten kind of hooked on the dot grid thing over the past year and some of my habits and tracking rely on it, so after trying it out for a while I decided to buy the Rhodia notebook that’s likely the winner. But I really like this notebook and I’ll find another use for it!
Description: A set of 5 notebooks closed so you can see the covers. In the upper right there is a thick green A5 one from Kela Designs with a corgi on it. Lower right is a Rhodia A5 softcover in blue. Bottom middle is a smaller brown passport sized one from Goulet pens. On the lower left is a black Field Notes one, mostly A5 slzed but smaller than the other 4. On the upper left is a Clairefontaine notebook with a cyanotype illustration on it, also a5 size. There is a test tube sitting on top of it to help you see how much thinner it is than the green notebook beside it; it’s probably more than 1cm thinner.
I noticed at Powell’s that the Leuchtturm 1917 also comes in a smaller softcover with a smaller page count, so I may try that out in future. Honestly, I might have impulse bought it if they’d had it in a colour other than black. But by the time I got home and looked up what other colours were available, I convinced myself that I should start with the Rhodia that I already bought, so I’m trying to force myself to wait until I actually need a replacement (or they go on sale, I guess?).
Also, look at me with those fountain pens! I went from one pen that I found in a drawer to 5 (although one is a disposable one, and the other 3 are relatively cheap). Thankfully my current notebook has nice enough paper to accommodate me in this journey into fountain pens and pretty inks. I’m having a lot of fun!
I’ve been using a cane consistently for about a decade now and I love this particular telescoping model. It takes some weight off my injury and greatly improves my travel and conference experiences, but also having a cane that I feel is a delight to use rather than a chore has really changed the way I think and feel about my disability. I recommend this model to everyone who asks about it!
What is it?
A collapsible, telescoping cane, intended for hiking.
Caption: A collapsible hiking cane with cork handle attached to a green backpack with a strap intended for an ice axe.
What problem did I need it to solve?
I have a pinched nerve in my left hip. If I stand on a hard surface for long enough, it causes first numbness and then pain. The pain typically doesn’t start until hours after the standing, and it can take days before I go back to normal, or even months if I do something like chase my kid around the zoo without rest or stand around talking at a conference for a few days in a row.
How did it work out for me?
The cane basically does three things for me. First, it takes some pressure off my leg, greatly increasing the amount of time I can stand. Second, it serves as a reminder to me that I need to be careful, since I won’t get that feedback from my body until it’s too late. And third, it makes my “invisible” disability very visible to others. That helps a lot in places like airports where people can be impatient about how slowly I move, conferences where people are more willing to sit on the floor with me, and I’m still working on my kid remembering that I can’t chase him when I need the cane.
But those are all things *any* cane would do. What makes this one special?
It’s incredibly adjustable. Many canes use holes and locking mechanisms that allow you to adjust in fairly large increments — maybe an inch or 2cm between holes. But a 1cm difference makes a big difference to my arms, elbows and wrists. Obviously some people must get lucky and the notch is in the right place for them, and I believe the best practice involves cutting the bottom off the cane so that it’s customized for you. So it’s not an insurmountable obstacle but it’s a destructive kind of customization that requires actual tools.
When I was using a less adjustable cane, I felt often like having a mobility device was more hassle than it was worth because I was trading leg pain for back/shoulder/arm issues. But this cane allowed me to experiment and fine-tune until I found exactly what I needed, and it let me continually adapt as my needs changed rather than involving a one-off cut. This was particularly important to me when I was pregnant and my body was changing for quite some time both during and after. But some days you’re just wearing thicker-soled shoes, so it’s not like this is a pregnant-person-only kind of issue. Feeling like I could always in-the-moment make it work for me was huge: It felt like an awesome tool that I loved instead of a hassle that reminded me of my limitations.
It’s also light. Carrying any kind of extra weight can put extra pressure on my nerve, and I don’t know if you’ve ever used an el-cheapo cane from the drug store, but the ones I tried were designed to feel sturdy and solid. This may be comforting for many cane users (especially for seniors concerned about falls) but the weight was working at cross-purposes for my needs. Despite the lightness and the seemingly less-solid clips on this sporty cane model, I haven’t had it slip closed on me during and I’ve been using this particular cane for 10 years. That said, I’m not the heaviest human, so your mileage may vary if you need to put more weight on it.
As well as being light, it shrinks to be small — I have a beloved Synik Guide’s Edition from Tom Bihn that has the “ice axe” holder that fits it *perfectly* so I can strap it to my bag. (Note: The bag was only available in a limited run and I jumped on it immediately. They use to offer guide’s editions somewhat regularly but they warned us that some parts were getting hard to come by so it might be a while before they do them again.) As well as being easy to strap to a bag, this cane also fits in the seat pocket on airplanes or on my lap on a bus/car/train. These are important for me because it tends to get moved out of sight/reach in moving vehicles and it can be easy to forget it. I don’t use the cane 100% of the time so sometimes I forget that I have it with me if it’s not immediately obvious. You can see the picture of the cane strapped to the bag up above.
Beyond “not losing it” I like the ability strap to the bag when I don’t need it (e.g. I’m hiking on softer dirt trails that are unlikely to pinch my nerve) or when I need both hands free (those few minutes where we’re towing all our luggage in/out of an airport so I’ve got two rollerbags).
I also particularly like that this has a real cane head that’s been designed with comfort in mind: the cork gives a bit of impact cushioning that makes a significant difference over longer periods of time, the head is comfortable in my hand and feels more ergonomic than a stereotypical round hook or worse, a hiking pole.
Things that could be better
I use a rubber end on my cane to avoid slipping on polished floors and to reduce impacts against my hand. The cane itself has a sharp point on the end, though, intended for hiking in dirt/snow/ice. This sharp point absolutely destroys those rubber cane tips pretty quickly. My workaround is to fold up a piece of paper inside the rubber cane tip so the metal point doesn’t push directly into the rubber, and that helps a lot. Before that I used to go through multiple cane tips per year, sometimes per conference.
Also, not the cane’s fault, but I wish the American medical system was better. I had rounds of misdiagnosis, bad advice, and getting shuffled from doctor to doctor, all at great personal expense. This cane has had significantly better results than an entire care team and I’m a bit salty about the whole experience.
Overall
I love this cane so much that I bought a special “cane user” puppy sticker not just because it’s cute but also because being a cane user is part of my own identity now.
When I was first using the cane and feeling super self-conscious about looking “too young” to need it, a lot of other cane users took time to make eye contact, smile and give me “the nod” — instead of feeling uncomfortable I felt *seen* by others. If you think a cane might help you, I highly recommend just giving it a shot.
You know the genre of kids books about a child being upset about needing glasses and feeling uncool until they finally find a pair that suits them and then it’s like magic to have an accessibility aid? I hope everyone gets that kind of magic with a mobility device the way I’ve felt with this cane.
My kid is in that awkward age where he’s too big for a stroller but walking across some of the larger airports can be a lot. I’d originally wanted to get scooter luggage, but after some research I decided we’d get a lot more use out of a folding scooter that would be useful for jaunts to the park and dog walks too.
What is it?
A folding 3-wheeled scooter for kids (max weight 110 pounds). It’s even got light up wheels!
My kid’s too big for a stroller but still short enough that walking all over larger airports is a chore. He can walk for 3 hours at the zoo without problem, so I think it’s more of a mental exhaustion than a physical limitation.
I’d seen some kids with scooter luggage in Chicago on a previous trip and totally coveted it. After a bunch of research, though, it seemed like the quality of scooter luggage was mixed, and for around the same price we’d likely get a lot more long-term use out of a regular scooter. My kid was on the edge of outgrowing his toddler scooter and doesn’t yet love his bike, so this was something he wanted anyhow and would use multiple times a week and not just on trips.
How did it work out for me?
It was great!
Kiddo loved the scooter from the moment it arrived and it got a lot of use on dog walks even before our trips. Hatch was a little less excited about this as he’s afraid of people on wheels, but he’s mostly used to it now and it helped him with exposure.
I was a little worried that we’d have trouble with checking in at the airports or on the train (which has new luggage restrictions), but most gate agents didn’t even question us about it and neither did anyone on the train. Note that we were traveling first class on all flights and the train trip, so they might have been less inclined to give us trouble as a result, and there was typically ample overhead space when we boarded.
We did have to gate check it like a stroller on one of the smaller turboprop planes, and we did have to demonstrate that it folded once. No one gave us a hard time about him using it in the airport (I guess it’s just another accessibility device), we had some fun conversations with other parents, and one of the Canadian customs agents jokingly offered to set up an obstacle course so he could scoot through the line lanes since we were the only family going through at the time.
With the scooter, kiddo moves significantly faster than I do with the cane (probably close to my husband’s walking speed) so we did have to make him slow down or give him a point where he should wait for us. When there was traffic or lots of people, it could be a bit nerve-wracking and we had to get him to hop off and walk, but it was pretty good in safer streets and the emptier parts of airports.
When he got tired, he stood on the scooter and had one of us push him as if he were another piece of wheeled luggage. This worked even better than I expected and it’s pretty stable with the 3 wheels. He also just didn’t get tired as much. Scooting was more fun, I think, and took less energy for him to go at fast adult speeds.
As well as in the airports and train station, the scooter got a lot of use for jaunts to the local community swimming pool, parks, open houses, and “look at the fireflies” walks around my mom’s house. We didn’t use it in Iowa because my inlaws live in a significantly less walkable area.
Things that could be better
The method for locking/unlocking the folding is a big plastic sleeve that you pull up and down to release a clip inside. It tended to get a bit stuck and needed jiggling and two hands to operate most of the time. Not a deal breaker, but I do wish it was less finicky. We’re pretty fast at getting off the plane through experience and it felt bad to get hung up on a piece of recalcitrant plastic when you’ve got a grumpy travel kid and passengers streaming by you.
This scooter is technically a bit over our airline carry on limits in the longest dimension, but so much smaller in the other two that I don’t think anyone even noticed. If we’d been forced to put it in a luggage sizer that might have been an issue, but we flew first class so they weren’t really examining our luggage closely. We treated this as kid’s larger carry on and we only had one other small carry-on suitcase between the three of us, which may have contributed to it feeling like we weren’t carrying “too much” in the eyes of the gate staff. It would have been nice if the manufacturer had made the scooter just a little shorter, but I don’t think they designed it with carry-on in mind. (Their ad copy mentions putting it in the trunk or school locker. Plus they actually sell scooter-luggage for carry-on.)
My kid is very safety conscious but it was still nerve wracking to let him use it in Toronto street traffic or some of the busier parts of the airport so we had him hop off and walk in some places even though he really didn’t want to. This could have been more dangerous with a younger or less careful kid.
Overall
Kid loves it, I love it, and it made out travel easier!
I was surprised by how infrequently anyone challenged it. Some of that may be privilege, but it drew so little attention that privilege may not have played a big role. We did see some other kids with scooter luggage and similar so it’s obviously something airlines have seen before.
Even if it hadn’t been a travel win, it’s been a win at home in similar situations: it’s great for going to the park where kiddo might otherwise get tired on the walk home after playing, especially since he can stand on it and get a push from an adult.
How I travel has changed a lot in the past few years especially since I started using a cane and my growing kid means it’s different every time now. So I’m trying to note a few things that worked (or could be better) from my last couple of trips.
I have resisted the urge to call this “lame luggage reviews” on account of my literal lameness, but if you’re also a cane user you might find my experience useful!
What is it?
This is a spinner-style “underseat” carry-on suitcase. I’m not sure if it’ll actually fit underseat in too many planes, as the 9 inch depth is a bit large and the frame doesn’t have any give to it, but I really just wanted something smaller and intended to leave it in the overhead so that wasn’t a concern for me.
I prefer to have a suitcase over just doing a backpack because I have a pinched nerve in my left hip and extra weight tends to leave me in a lot of pain for weeks or months. This helps some by letting me put heavier stuff in the suitcase, but mostly it helps by letting me slip my favourite backpack over the handle so it’s not putting weight on my nerve at all. I also use a cane to help manage the same problem (this also makes my “invisible” disability visible when needed).
My previous small suitcase was a two-wheeled affair and it was hard to maneuver while using my cane, especially if I had a backpack slipped overtop of the luggage handle. The weight of the backpack then went on my arm, which was less painful but still tiring. It got even worse in our trip to visit the American grandparents because I was often moving not only my own backpack but also my kid’s backpack while my husband handled the more awkward luggage.
How did it work out for me?
This was *considerably* easier for me to move with the cane, and the 4 wheels supported the full weight of whatever backpack was on it. Absolute win in terms of improved accessibility for me! This was the most important goal and it solved the problem perfectly.
It fit a *lot* of spare toys, games and chargers and stuff that we used in long layovers and on the train, as well as spare clothes for me and kiddo (which we didn’t use this trip but we’ve needed in several past occasions), and spare crafts for me (embroidery, spinning, knitting) where I was too nervous to leave them in checked bags. It was probably a bit bigger than we needed for this trip, but it was awfully convenient to stuff things like my kid’s neck pillow in there so he could get other stuff in and out of his bag more easily, so maybe it was just the right size? I imagine it’ll be big enough for weekend jaunts in future.
I liked the layout and the large straps for holding stuff in when it’s opened, as well as the design where you can velcro/snap the front panel so it opens only partway when unzipped. This was great in the airport so you can pull out a laptop in security without making a mess. I briefly wished the side pocket was big enough to hold my noise cancelling headphones, but in practice I had those in their case in my backpack anyhow, so I mostly used it to hold a heavier spare battery. It would have been big enough to tuck my phone in there with the battery to charge.
I didn’t try it under the seat but it fit ok in the overhead bins on all 4 planes (including the shortest flight) and the VIA rail train. No questions from airport staff so I didn’t go around shoving it into the luggage sizer things. That said, we were flying first class and boarding first so it wasn’t like I was competing much for overhead space when I got on, and the airlines were no doubt inclined to give me a lot more leeway than they might with other passengers.
My kid also had a good time moving it when he wasn’t using his scooter, though he was most excited about pulling it on 2 wheels for some reason.
Things that could be better
I didn’t love the available colours, and my kid still insists that it “could be more green.” It’s definitely light coloured enough to pick up some dirt from being in the overhead bins, but I don’t like black so this is the colour I chose.
It was honestly a bit deeper than I’d like: it would be nice if the depth was maybe half an inch less so I didn’t have to worry about overhead bins. I realized it had paper stuffed in the padded outer pocket to make it stick out, so it fit better on our return flights than the ones on the way there. Still, the rigid frame is pushing the limits of airplane spaces and won’t compress, so I expect occasional problems with it in the future (particularly if we wind up flying on smaller jets).
My travel laptop (a lenovo A275) only *barely* fit in the laptop sleeve built in to the side panel. It’s a 12.5″ but fairly thick: maybe this could handle a 13″ ultrabook but I wouldn’t want to carry a 14″ this way. This is ok for me since I love tiny laptops and can’t carry heavier ones any more with my leg injury, but it might be an issue for other people.
Overall
This absolutely made it easier for me to get around the airport with my cane, and even made it easier to manage with multiple suitcases when struggling in and out of the airport. It carried a bit more than I needed, and it fit in all the places I needed it to fit. I’m thrilled with how it worked out and excited to use it on my next trip.
Is it the best possible luggage for me? Who knows. I’m not a review company so I’m not spending $$$ to try more suitcases. But if you want me to start up “lame luggage reviews” for real and want to send me a free suitcase to try on a future trip, let me know!
