Muji Aluminium Fountain Pen

The simplest of pens and also one of the more elusive for me. 

I had seen it raging from RM30 to over RM200 the internet. Anything on the internet, the saying is buyer beware. Unless it is from a trusted seller. As it is mostly shipped from overseas, review varies and the knockoffs (if any), I was not willing to take the plunge.  

We have local Muji stores here in Malaysia but for some strange reason they do not carry it. They have the plastic versions but the aluminium ones, no where in sight.  

So when my lovely wife went to Japan, I pounced on the opportunity. As the currency of the Japanese Yen is as bad as us, my wife told me it would cost RM40.00.

Generally everyone felt in love with this pen, cheap, durable, minimalist and functions well, what more could you ask for. Figboot on Pens and Peter Draws gave to glowing reviews, so it seal the deal.

Here is it in all its glory. I must say I am indeed surprised that something so cheap can be so good. It even puts some of my other pens to shame.

By the way I just received it yesterday, 8/9/24.

Packaging is bare basic, which is what I wanted. I have enough of the fancy packaging and boxes, which most of the time ended up being in the recycling bin. Simple packaging means cost is kept down.

This is it. No! Not the Michael Jackson 2009 film. I mean the pen. As simple as it gets. This fountain pen would be a good EDC.

Comes with a single cartridge. Mine was a type of almost blackish dark green.

Only qualm was the treads were a bit industrialised in noise. Was a bit rough and had that construction noise when screwing the cap. But the treads were smooth to the touch and I believe the "noice" would go after some usage as the pen was bran new.

The Schmidt nib is only available in Fine. But it is super smooth. I have a few other Fine nibs on my more expensive FP's but none of them as smooths as this. It is indeed a delight to write.

The step-down to the nib from the barrel is quite pronounced but my writing style fits it perfectly as I write resting my finger tips on the treaded section of the barrel. 

No insignia or logo anywhere, so people may wonder what is the branding. But those who know, know.

Top (above) and bottom. Simple to say the least.

The pen can be posted for those requiring to do so. The pen fits my hand nicely as I am not big in stature. But those with larger hands may find it cumbersome to use and write.

One of the best purchase I have ever made. Thanks to my lovely wife.

Enamelware

Enamel is widely used throughout the world without us realising it.

We may only be privy to the cookware or cutlery that we use or are accustomed to on a daily basis but enamelware has been used since 1870's in the US.

In fact enamel came around existence in 1230 BC in Cyprus. 

Being in Malaysia and seeing them being used when I was a kid patronise Chinese coffee shops, I was always of the view that it originated from China.  

Enamel which was once loosing its popularity is now back in demand due to nostalgia and the internet. It is now more easier than ever to access or obtain enamelware online.

It is not only durable, retains heat well but if it is properly looked after, it turns into a heirloom to be handed down to the next generation.  

Heat retention is most important when you are camping or having outdoor activities. You want your coffee piping hot and to remain hot for longer periods. Which is why you see lots of cowboy adds using enamel cups sipping piping, smoking hot coffee.

Enamel cups or mugs are basically cast iron or steel, coated in liquid enamel glaze. They are not only durable but the coating prevents the iron from rusting. Available in an assortment of beautiful colours.

This I purchased when we had our dinner at Bungkus Kaw Kaw @ Pavilion Bukit Jalil on 26 August 2024. RM39.90 promotion subject to purchase of meal. They had a beautiful pink version that my daughter wanted but it was sold out. So I got the traditional colour. 

The inside is well coated 

I noticed that the joints need better welding process

Picture from the internet (Malaysian Chinese Kitchen). This is how I remember eggs were being served back in the old days in the authentic Chinese Kopitiam.

Do not confuse enamel ware with Porcelain products. Porcelain products command a premium and it is formed out of ceramic material out of clay.     

I will share in future post on some other enamel cups that we are using. 

M & W Grooming Products

26 August 2024 my daughter has a 1 day school holiday and wanted to explore Pavilion Bukit Jalil. 

I came across this grooming outlet on the 4th floor, lot P2.24, Pink Zone.

The sales personnel Ah Keong was very professional, patient and not only explained but demonstrated the products diligently. A mere intention to make a short stop to enquire about personal grooming products, turned up to becoming a half hour stop and spending more than RM1.5K sales for him.

These are the items I purchased.

The products were excellent and great. Compared to Zwilling, Victorinox and some other brands out there that I had personally tried, in my personal opinion, this is the best by far.

Price wise they are on the higher side but considering the quality and most important, I saw the results for myself, it was indeed a calculated purchase.

So what did I get?

Let's start with the Nano Crystal Hair Removal Device. This product with over 10,000 micro abrasive grains scrapes against your skin removing not only dead cells but more important it removes your body hair. I will upload a video on YouTube for readers to see the results for themselves. A word of caution, rub it on your skin gently and not roughly or vagariously. I ended up brushing one side of my arm due to this. But other than that incident due to my negligence, overall, the product did its job well. The hair was removed after a few gentle rubs. The skin was smooth after the hair removal and unlike using a razor, it did not leave behind micro stubs that made the skin rough to the touch. 

The business end of the product

Unscrewed the cap to see how the product was assembled 

Nano Crystal File. Same material as hair removal product above but the business end here is a darker shade of grey and not white. This file is not so much for dulling the edges of your freshly cut nails but more for bringing shine and buffing your nails. So instead of having various products to buff and shine your nails, you only have 1.

Nose hair trimer. Wonderful and smooth. Did not cut the inside of my nostrils even once.

Heel File. Also made of the same material as the hair remover and file. The business end is also the same colour as the file. Works great. Very gently on the sole of the foot to remove harden skin. This product was so much more gentle that the hair remover and no matter how hard and how much I scrubbed it on the sole of my feet, there was no bruises or cuts. Only smooth feet surface. Nice. Caution ya. This alone cost RM499. 

Closer look of the grains for the Nano Crystal 

After the vagarious scrubbing with the above product, use the Ceramide Foot cream with 40% glycerine. Per tube at RM88. I got 2 as it really soothes and moisturisers the skin.

The Claw Clipper and nail clippers worked brilliantly. The file that came with the clippers (covered in blue) worked flawlessly. As depicted in the final picture. Like I said above. So far the best clippers I had tried.

Other products I did not provide close up pictures are the Dead Skin Fork and 360° ear pick. The pictures are located in the first picture with all the other products in the pouch. The worked as intended and I did not face any issues with it.

Overall, all products worked well. M & W is a Sarawak based company selling their products that are designed and made in Korea.

Pelikan M600 Art Collection Special Edition Glauco Cambon Fountain Pen

It has been months since I had updated anything even my other social media platforms. 

Why? Busy, well yes. Business has its ups and downs. Busy with family too. 

But there was another reason. Not being grateful.

Everyone has their own issues in this life. Some may walk through life with a gold spoon in their mouth without a care in the world. Whilst, at the exact moment a small kid may be in a war torn country. Their life lies at the very end of a barrel. 

Even today, 21 August 2024, 8.30am, as I was attempting to buy nasi lemak from a road side stall, I saw a guy just about to climb onto his motorcycle accidentally dropped his plastic containing the breakfast he just bought. it fell on the dirty, sandy, muddy and pebbly road side and his curry puff popped out hitting the ground. I'm sure he felt devastated, maybe even defeated. Life is not fair and maybe even unjust, he might had felt. But, he brushed off the dirt and popped it back into the plastic, back on his way to the office. 

As for me, I could not purchase the nasi lemak as the supplier had not brought it there. 

That is life as we know it. But whatever it is, never loose faith. God answers all prayers.

Although I am always wanting for more, my life generally has been paved and taken care by god. I can get some of the things I want but not all, without much ado. Hence, I should be utterly grateful. But was I? No, I was not.

Let me explain. 

Sometime towards the end of January 2024, I purchased a Pelikan M600 Art Collection Glaucoma Cambon. I have been ogling and drooling over this pen since it was shared over the internet a few months back. Hence, when Mr. Lai from PenGallery managed to obtain 1 piece for me, I was somewhere over the rainbow. Filled with joy and felt blessed. I ignored the steep price as for that price I could have got a Pelikan M1000. Bigger barrel and much, much larger nib size.

Anyhow this was my first Pelikan. So it was even more that GREAT!

When I received it, my heart was pounding with excitement to see how it actually looked like, in the flesh. From the pictures I had previously seen on the internet it was stunning. The design and colours of the pen barrel just sparkled and popped. It was breathtaking. The only thing in my opinion that top its beauty was an Arco Celluloid.

So did my excitement last? Did the pen live up to the hype?

No. I was rather disappointed. I felt although the quality and craftsmanship was there but my particular pen barrel did not have enough red and blue and thus, in my opinion lacked the glitter and sparkle. So I question my purchase but I rubbed it off as the piece was hard to get and it was my first Pelikan.

The box, poster insert and pamphlet on the other hand were spectacular.

Writing wise it did not disappoint. It wrote flawlessly. 

But I just could not get over the fact of its lack lustre barrel. Hence, I did not use it as much.

Every time I looked at it, I thought Ahhhhh! Crap! Not joking at all. That was what I thought.

This is what I was talking about being ungrateful.

So as life would have it. It went missing sometime in March 2024. I searched everywhere. All over the place, like a headless chicken. But to no avail. 

Things pretty much was the same. Search and search but nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zip. Whatever soothes your fancy. It was no where to be seen. 

I asked my wife and kids, just in case you find it let me know. I will reward. But as one could expect, nothing turned up. 

To preserve my life only my kids knew the cost of the pen. Not my wife.

Heartbroken to say the least. It was akin to throwing money into the rubbish bin. Money just gone like that.

It affected me in more ways that I would like to admit. But the gist was, I felt wow! All at once! Why?! I know I'm not the most humblest, honest, thoughtful and holiest person but I am relatively good, sincere and honest. So this had to happen to me? We had already previously lost a Porsche 944 to fire, W202 Mercedes in the flood, Zippo Def Leppard lighter, Pilot mechanical pencil, gold locket with pink gem stone and gold pendant, damaged an M1 iPad Pro 2021 (ongoing repairs now - the replacement screen alone is RM2K) and etc. 

I think you get what I mean. 

Felt pissed and lost a little. Even stopped looking at pens, knives, antiques and even one of my favourite YouTube channel Figbooth on pens. I just didn't have the heart. Heck, I even forgo my intentions of getting a turntable to play LP's. By the way, I only have 1 LP. The soundtrack for Miami Vice. 

To say the least, things were not looking good of me.  

Anyhow, fast forward to today at roughly, 6.30am, my kids had left to school by bus and I was busy looking for my daughter's school locker key. She said she misplaced it and I offered to look for it. I saw her brown fluffy pencil box underneath her study desk and looked inside to see if her key is there. 

The key was not there but what did I find? The said missing Pelikan.

A sudden relief came over me and first thing I did was thank God. God is great. Thank You God.

Now that the mystery had been solved. I had a word with her when she got back from school. Her answer was I want to take to school then I forgot it was in my pencil box. Mind you she is only in standard 6, making her 12 years old.   

The moral of the story although the pen may not be my cup of tea but be grateful of what you have. Everything is a blessing. You will miss it once it is gone.

Aryton Senna

9 May 2024, a date of no particular significance? 

I'm sure if you were to google search 9 May, a lot of events would had taken place all over the world. Even historic events. In fact even today, 9 May 2024 lots of events would have happened all around the world. Maybe, even something significant. 

But to me TODAY, somehow after finishing work and chores, I unwind on YouTube. I saw my Hero's video and the memories came pouring in. I was filled with emotion and it was not easy to hold back. I don't know why but it was like some cosmic interference and somehow it manifested through YouTube. The year was 1994. Lots happened that year. We lost Kurt.

It was also the year we lost 3 Times World F1 Champion, Ayrton Senna da Silva. Born in Santana, São Paulo, Brazil on 21 Mac 1960. Died on 1 May 1994, San Marino Grand Prix Circuit, Imola, Italy. 

In Brazil, his home country, it was a national tragedy and government declared 3 days of national mourning. The Brazilian flag was placed over his coffin and was carried by Military Police Academy Mounted Guards for the 32.2km's journey to the city. The motorcade was led by 17 Police motorcycles and 2500 Policemen lined the route to keep the crowds at bay.

It is believed over 500,000 people lined the streets to offer him their last salute.

After the public viewing, a 21 gun salute was fired by the 2nd Artillery Brigade and 7 Brazilian Air Force jets in a diamond formation as the funeral precession proceeded to Morumbi Cemetery, Sao Paulo, Brazil. 

Senna's championship car, chassis no MP4-8/6 was designed by Steve Nicholas, Ron Dennis and Gordon Murray. Power was derived from Honda's 1.5 litre V6 RA168E turbo engine. Producing 675hp at 12,000rpm. Weighing in at only 540kg. The weight to power ratio made it a monster. Manual transmission.

Not to be confused with the above car, the car that took Senna's life was a Williams FW16 Renault powered RS6 3.5 litre V10. Producing 830hp at 14,300 rpm.   

Senna's iconic helmet was inspired by the Brazilian flag. His last helmet worn during that tragic day was Bell (M3 Kevlar). 

Why Senna's death hit me so badly that even in 2024, I tear up?

I was very close to my late grandmother. Back then my late father was an Immigration Officer attached to the Immigration office in Johor Bahru. Needless to say we regularly watched Singapore channels. We stayed in the Government quarters and due to my father's rank we got a nice house. Me and my grandmother shared the room together. She had an old National transistor coloured TV. The ones with the knob to change channel and volume. With the build in antenna at its back. It had a funky orange silhouette. 

She watched her favourite shows, Golden Girls, Murder She Wrote and etc. 

I on the other hand was obsessed with F1, 500cc Moto Grand Prix Racing, Miami Vice and etc. 

I was a big fan of F1 back then. I watched the greats Senna, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher battling it out. Race after Race. It was pure adrenaline. It was nail biting. It was pure excitement. Week after week, I would look forward to the races on TV.   

It was never the same after Senna died. I just lost interest in the sports and just like that I rarely saw F1 thereafter. Within a few weeks after Senna death, I stopped watching F1 altogether. I never saw a complete race from start to finish. And it has remained so. Occasionally I may catch bits and pieces on YouTube of current races but that's about it. I just lost interest. 

Seeing Senna drive was magical. He defied physics. He was brilliant. He was extraordinary. He made his car dance in corners. He took corners at breakneck speed. He gave his all for the thing he loved to do.

Never again will I watch F1 races from start to finish. I guess it was meant to be. 

The tears today when I was watching Senna on YouTube was not only remembering the Greatest Driver in the World but the memories of yesteryears in the room watching that TV at night with my grandmother nearby.

To add salt to injury, it was also today that I found out that on 1 March 2024 Lego had released its Lego Icons set (no. 10330) MP4/4 as a tribute to Senna. Immediately I checked all local outlets, only to find that it is completely sold out. 

God Speed Senna I love U Amamma. 

He was a master of the rain. Although he hated racing in the rain. He was noted saying this to his trainer that he could not see anything in the rain only the previous car's tire lines. The difference between him and the other drivers was that he never let go his throttle. He kept pushing it even in the rain.  

Seeing him driving in the rain was truly astonishing. 

Now when I see rain, I think of Senna. As a tribute.

By the way, every 1st May is Malaysian's Labour Day.

Comparison Victorinox and Zwilling Nail Clippers

Which is better? We put it to the test. Victorinox cost about RM50 with a leather case. Zwilling cost about RM88 after discount. Results may vary by users but this is what I found reflects my usage. 

These are travel size friendly so many do carry them as part of the ECD for impeccable grooming.

Side profile. It's obvious the Zwilling is bulkier in stature but both are sturdily and solidly built.

Front view. The cutting profile is visibly different. The Victorinox is straight while the Zwilling is curved. Looks can be deceiving as viewed from this angle, the curved profile seems to have a better cutting edge as our nails are curved just like our fingers. 

Ready to commence the test

The Victorinox has a better and bigger filing surface. Don't get me wrong, the Zwilling does its job well although with a much smaller surface. 

Verdict? To me the Victorinox is much easier to use, with its straight cutting profile. The cutting edge is also sharper. The Zwilling with its curved edge at times takes a little getting used to adjusting to the natural curvature of my nails. The profile of the Zwilling may be a little too curved for my nails. 

I don't know if the picture does justice to the Victorinox but if you can see the cutting of the nails are smoother 

The Zwilling still has some rough edges, visibly seen.

Dunhill AD2000 Sterling Silver Pen

Those gen X kids who like me grew up in the 80's would be familiar with the motto Gaya, Mutu, Keunggulan. "Style, Quality, Excellence". Belonging to the brand Dunhill.

Back those days, cigarette brands would be attach to football, F1, etc. etc. etc. They were everywhere.

These cigarette brands would have a luxury arm making branded goods, always at a premium price.    

Alfred Dunhill, the founder was born on 30 September 1872. In 1893, Dunhill inherited his father's business and the rest we can say is history.

This I purchased in PenGallery thank's to wonderful marketing. It was strategically placed at the entrance and it caught my eye as I was leaving the permise. Wonderfully displayed in a transparent case. The shining torpedo shaped pen immediately caught my attention.

It is under the AD2000 sterling silver series. Most of them on the internet have clips. However this is the clipless version.

Here are some pictures. I hope you enjoy them. Beautiful in every way.

Under magnifying you can see many scratches testament to its age.

2 sides of the pen are flat. Testament as a roll stop as it does not have a clip. It does not align straight. It runs by a couple of mm.

The rest of the barrel is round and smooth.

Dismantled. All beautifully crafted and screws in smoothly.

This will be one of my treasured possessions.

A picture of Alfred Dunhill taken in 1893, quite a sophisticated and dashing man