People like you

My name is Con, and I have an unusual hobby: I adore and collect fountain pens. It’s also my most expensive hobby, but that’s another story.

I’ve been using fountain pens since I was nine years old, and until very recently, it’s been a very solitary hobby. The Internet made it a lot easier to learn about, and ogle, and buy pens and inks, but I really didn’t know anyone else in my home town who was as interested in fountain pens as I was.

Yesterday I went along to my second ever fountain pen meet up.

The picture shows the table in the room with some assorted accoutrements.

At one point, I sat in the room and listened as the conversation around me ranged from Visconti quality control issues, through to the costs of Diamine inks, through to getting nibs tuned by nib meisters. One of the guys there noticed me sitting there smiling to myself, and said: “Isn’t it great, to be with others who get it?” I had to agree.

After the meet up I went to my Mum’s. When I said I’d just come from a pen meet up, Mum’s response was classic: “You mean there are other people like you??”