When did you become a Stationery Freak?
Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Stationery Freaks with myself, Rob Lambert, and of course.
Helen:And with me, Helen Lesowski.
Rob:So, today's topic, we're gonna be talking about how and when, and if we can actually acknowledge when we became stationary freaks, but certainly some of the stuff that might have led up to that moment. But before we jump into that, Helen, how's your world?
Helen:My world is okay. It's it's quite busy. Some big changes at work, which have meant that my job has changed quite a lot. But fortunately for everybody who was listening to last time's podcast, I had occasion to break out a new notebook. Tada.
Helen:So I need to find a way of keeping track of a load of different projects. So I had to break out a new notebook, which I will have to compartmentalize at some point so that I can have various little projects so I can keep up to date with all the projects that are working. And I used to do that with people and I was constantly talking with people all the time. And there's less people this time and more projects.
Rob:Ah, so you've used one of the How many did you have? Was it 35 notebooks, I think?
Helen:I I I don't remember now.
Rob:About that. For the for those that maybe haven't listened to that cast, we did a and our last episode was on notebooks and, you know, what I guess what makes us break open a new notebook. And as part of that, if you go to Instagram
Helen:Yes.
Rob:And you find us on there with Stationery Freaks UK. And we did a video each, didn't we? We this empty and basically all of our notebooks out. And I think you had 35, might have been 45 notebooks, and I had 116. And so we've got those two videos and it's definitely worth looking at that.
Rob:So Helen, what notebook did you break out?
Helen:It is one of it was a beautiful one. So I did get so I've got an atoms to astronauts one, which I have always coveted. And I was going to buy one as soon as I had a good reason to. But I saw one on Vintage, which meant that I didn't have to think about whether or not I was gonna buy it, I just did. So it's brand new and obviously somebody had been given it or bought it and decided not to use it.
Helen:So it's mine. It's mine. And now it is being pressed into service as a project related notebook for work.
Rob:Very good. So that's a stationary story that we always start these episodes with. I I've got a it's probably more vein related, much more vanity related. I don't know whether you've ever seen a show on Netflix called Let Agency.
Helen:No.
Rob:It's it's the Parisian Agency is the sort of English title for it. And it's a wonderful, ridiculously wonderful show. You've never seen it, it's a family of real estate agents based in Paris. Actually, they're all over the world now. But basically, they're in Paris and they sell high end luxury Parisian houses.
Helen:Okay.
Rob:And so the properties are insane, but they're also very stylish and very cool and very typically French, which I just absolutely love it for that reason. And they always look so well turned out and well organized.
Helen:We love your aesthetic, don't you? You really do.
Rob:And and so I bought myself an old school folio, you know, one of these sort of black fabric containers where you can slide an a four notebook into it and it's got room for credit cards and.
Helen:Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So like a Filofax, but without the ring bind a bit.
Rob:Yeah. But bigger and bigger, you know, it's a sort of folio that you might see in London if you go to London or actually in Paris, of course, where you carry your notebooks around and your pens, etcetera. Yeah. Bought myself one of those, a cheap one off Amazon. I think it was about 12 pounds.
Rob:And inside, I'm utilizing one of my many, yellow legal pads slotted in there.
Helen:Yeah.
Rob:And it's an attempt to a, I think, make myself feel more professional by looking more professional, but also get a bit more organized. And it's all I carry up and down to the the studio now. So the only people that ever see me really is my family, and they take the mickey out of me because I'm
Helen:Well, they would. Yep.
Rob:Trying to look more impressive than I than I do walking across the garden. But it's been great. And one of the positive side effects is everything's in this one place. It's got room for a couple of notebooks, got an a four yellow legal pad in there. And I've actually stopped using Todoist because I'm opening everything in the yellow legal pad.
Helen:So I was gonna say to you, has this solved your problem of always having far too many books on the go and never having the right book in the right place, so therefore opening a new book?
Rob:Potentially, yes. Because it's got the yellow legal pad, which is my
Helen:Go to. Guess.
Rob:Yeah. Working document. You know, I write tasks and
Helen:Yeah.
Rob:You know, just doodle in there. But it's got room for a few of these moleskin Kahir notebooks. Is it Kahir? I can't remember.
Helen:Oh, Kehir. Yeah. I know what you mean.
Rob:Yeah. The little travel thin ones. So it's got a few of those in there. So I'm sorted.
Helen:I love those notebooks. You know, I I go through loads of them. If you have a look at that video of me going through my notebooks, you'll see that I use that kind of notebook for stationary freaks.
Rob:Yes, yes. That's the one where you, yeah, you pointed that out in the video.
Helen:I know it looks like we throw this together at the last minute, but honestly there are notes, there's plans.
Rob:Yeah, we don't cobble these together. These are all well structured thought through. He's working. Literally literally making notes on this one about ten minutes before the show. But I think, you know, because we love stationary and we're actually stationary freaks, this is just a joyful meander, maybe that's why people listen to us.
Rob:Who knows? The only downside to this, FolioPad is it hasn't got enough room for more than one pen in the middle.
Helen:Oh. It's a
Rob:pen holder. That's really irritating. So I've
Helen:had floor in design, not really.
Rob:%. So I've had to, just sort of slot them into one of the pockets in there, but it works alright. So far so good. And I think I'm looking a little bit more Parisian in the back garden in Winchester in UK.
Helen:From a northerner, looking more Parisian. I would just say to you that I was at writer retreat last week and many, many things happened there that I'm not going to tell you about. But one of the things I did, I snapped a photo of stationary freak in the wild. And this is a man who had a yellow legal pad and he had a Blackwing pencil. And I didn't say to him, hey, you're a stationary freak because he was only there for the day.
Helen:Most of us were there for like four days. And he was only there for the day. So yeah, that was a bit of a shame. But yes, I have a photo and I think we should see if we can collect some photos, Rob. Stationary sweets in the wild.
Rob:I think so. I think so. Because every episode we start with our stationery stories where we're usually buying stuff or, you know, some random kind of stuff around stationery. I think having a little slot straight after that, which you've just covered, which is stationary freaks in the wild would be quite entertaining.
Helen:Yes.
Rob:But I think you're right. Let's capture with permission, hopefully. Yes. Maybe we can tag people as well. Various pictures of stationary freaks in the wild.
Rob:In fact, if you were listening to this and you're on Instagram, drop us yourself in the wild or other people that you've seen with permission, of course, and obviously abide by the laws in your own particular country about taking pictures of other people. And then maybe at the end of the year, we can cobble something together like a free ebook for the listeners and
Helen:Oh, so they can download it. That'd be cool. Yeah. Let's do that. Just
Rob:to see the vast array of stationary that's out there. But I will say that guy, he's got it all together. He's, he's locked in as my kids would say, yellow legal pad, black wind pencil. That's potential that's gonna be unleashed for sure.
Helen:I have to say he did not have any trouble. He's always writes beautifully and he didn't have any trouble with his writing and recording that day. So obviously that was down to the stationary.
Rob:100%. One hundred %.
Helen:So the other thing I've done there, Ro, just while we're on stationary stories, I have discovered a new game, a new thing to do. So it turns out when I was sorting through the many, many notebooks that I have, of the things that I did was find a pen that I haven't used for ages. And it sent me off on a whole little wormhole, little rabbit hole thing, where I was looking for things that I haven't found for a long time. So it turns out I've got quite a lot of stationery and all I need to do is shop at home. The Helen Lesovsky stationery shop has many things that I love.
Helen:And in fact, I love everything. All I have to do is go and find it. So I have now pressed back into service, something I mentioned ages and ages ago. I have a rollable pen, which uses fountain pen ink. And it means that I can change the ink.
Helen:And I stumbled across this. This was the pen I found. And I thought, why did
Rob:I stop using this? It's great.
Helen:So I filled it with ink again, and I'm using it again. I'm using it for my stationary freaks notes actually at the moment. And I love it. Why did
Rob:I stop using it? I don't know. Because you wax lyrical about that pen on. So you're basically advocating for, you know, hardcore stationary freaks to shop in their own home.
Helen:I think that there is they have plenty of inventory to do a solid couple of shops before they even notice that this is not new. Really.
Rob:I think you're right, because I've got three kids and I leave my stationery around. I went up the other night from the studio up into the house to find that my wonderful little canvas bag with tons of coloring pens and all sorts of cool pens in that was being used by the kids to do their homework. Obviously, I resisted saying anything because they're doing the homework. This is cool. Know, not going to challenge that at all.
Rob:But it was like, Oh, please be careful with that pen. Don't press so hard. And then and then these pens disappear. So actually, you know, my son's got a stationary box in his wardrobe of, you know, various pens and stationery artwork that gets bought over the years. And occasionally, go through it and I do the same thing.
Rob:I'm like, there's my pen. You know? Hey. You find an old notebook. There's a moleskin in there.
Rob:What what's that doing in there? They don't they don't need moleskins. That's mine.
Helen:They don't need moleskins. No.
Rob:And so I think you're right. I think you're on something. Maybe that's something if you if you're listening and maybe if you subscribe to the newsletter, which you can find at stationeryfreaks.com, let us know. Do you often go shopping in your own home and find some of those stationery that's been missing for a while?
Helen:If you don't, maybe have a crack and see what you come up with. What are your top finds for free in your own home? Because there is stuff in there. A standard I was. I mean, when I went through my notebooks, I was so joyful at some of the ones that I found.
Rob:Yeah. %. Yeah. They're emptying out the my writing bureau out with notebooks. I stumbled across some wonderful little notebooks, half used, first page spoilers, we always look at.
Rob:But then, yeah, the idea is in your brain. It's like, what am I gonna use that one for? Anyway, we covered that in the last episode.
Helen:We did.
Rob:This episode, Helen, we're talking about how do we was there a moment when we knew we were stationed with freaks or or kind of if we think back into our past, which for me and possibly for you is a long time ago, is there anything in our youth or our upbringing or any moment where we thought this is a turning point and is becoming a stationary freak?
Helen:I don't think particularly that's true. I mean, I might have always been a stationary freak. I'm it it was a very big thing. Certainly, I don't this might be sexist. It might be very generational.
Helen:But certainly when I was at school, the girls at school were obsessed, obsessed with those scented pencils. So they're like
Rob:Yeah, remember that.
Helen:Pencils that have yeah, whatever the it wasn't wood that they were in. Whatever that material was that they had inserted the lead into had a scent. So when you sharpened it, it had this scent that got given off. And we'd collect all of these things. And I remember having this prized collection of stuff.
Helen:And we'd use it. It's not like we wouldn't use it. Wasn't collected for having. But then there was the other thing that you could do, which was collect sort of the rubbers. So there was all sorts of fancy ones.
Helen:So these are erasers for those of you in The States. Hello, all of you in The States. Loads of you in The States now. That's amazing.
Rob:I know. Welcome.
Helen:Yeah. So erasers in The States. But we had loads and loads. They did they used to do little kind of different animals or different vegetables or fruit or the most bizarre stuff. It's got really crazy now.
Helen:And when my daughter was little, you can now get ones that you pull apart and rebuild. They're almost like mini Lego figures kind of thing. I don't think they work very well, if I'm perfectly honest, far as rubbing out is concerned. But the joy of having them. And of course, had scented versions of those, too.
Helen:So that's really vivid in my memory of middle school. I don't know what they'd call that. But that was maybe seven, eight, nine, 10 kind of age. So that's quite young.
Rob:And I think obviously, generationally, I mean, I grew up in the '80s at that age anyway, particularly. And obviously, didn't have laptops. We didn't have computers, iPads, Remarkables. None of that stuff was available. And so everything was analog and stationary.
Rob:So, you know, I think to some extent, we've been exposed to that. But actually scribbled a few notes of of key moments I can remember related to stationary in that, and you just triggered one there with the animal rubbers. Mhmm. I remember every time we went on holiday, my parents either didn't have money or or were tight. We're from up north in The UK.
Rob:There's a stereotype of us being quite tight. And and so every time we're on holiday, instead of getting, you know, t shirts or anything like that or even ice creams to some extent, I was always allowed to buy a rubber from a gift shop. And I remember buying one that was a little mouse, eraser, again, you're listening in The US. And this mouse was yellow, and to your point, it never worked. Didn't work out anything, and everything it touched went yellow.
Rob:I remember that. I remember the little shop in the middle of the countryside somewhere in Scotland, I think it was. And, yeah. It's funny these little memories come back to you, don't they?
Helen:I'll tell you what, you was talking about a little yellow rubber. My friend, one of my staff actually at work went to Japan and she brought me back brought me up a couple of lovely pens and she brought me back some of these little rubbers. And they are, it's a two set and obviously Japan is super famous for its stationery. And it's a little cube of maybe a centimeter, just 12 millimeters, something like that. And it is just yellow cube.
Helen:In the middle, through the middle on one or two sides really, because it goes all the way through to the other side, is a little face, two black eyes and a duck bill. So it's flat, but the idea is that you use it to rub out. And as you go, it becomes more and more round. So it looks more and more like a duck. And I thought this was But unlike yours, Rob, your little yellow rubber didn't work.
Helen:Mine is fab. Absolutely amazing. Thank you.
Rob:That's very cool. That's very cool.
Helen:Anna?
Rob:Yeah. I I don't know about you, obviously we used to do little school trips when we went away anywhere. We go to a little called American Adventure, which is now sadly closed somewhere up north, I think it was. And it was a highlight of the school trip, you know, all the big rides and log flumes and all that kind of cool stuff. But every time I ever went anywhere, I would always buy a notebook.
Helen:Oh. Whether
Rob:you did this just with the logo on the front and it they're usually a little kind of police reporter type notebook, very small. And I remember getting one from American Adventure. And this other place, I actually tried to look up a couple of years ago called the Woolly Mammoth Center.
Helen:Oh, really?
Rob:Yeah. Where they had all these old, obviously old, woolly mammoths and skeletons, and it was all about, you know, prehistoric kind of times and what have you. And their stationery selection was insane. I remember being like, wow, look at all these notebooks.
Helen:Their museum curator must have been a stationary freak. That's all I can think of.
Rob:So yeah, but back in the eighties and nineties, that's pretty much all you could buy at the museum really wasn't. Was a pen and a rubber. That was a very early memory. I think that that sort of love of collecting notebooks or collecting erasers or rubbers or pens, I think that forms in childhood. And I don't know whether we've lost that recently.
Helen:I don't think I've lost it at all, Rob, if I'm honest. I'm just collecting as ever. I I do remember going, yes, if you went on a school trip or something, I'd come back often with a notepad, always with a pen or pencil or one of the rubbers. That, yeah, because they were pocket money cheap and you could buy that, but you probably couldn't buy everything. So yeah.
Rob:Yeah. I think now when I when I take the kids, it's like, boys, do you wanna I I'm I'm the same still. I'm like, boys, do you want a notepad and stuff? But then when you look at the price of the notepads, you're like, actually, hang on a minute. Let's let's not, because they seem to be staggeringly expensive nowadays.
Rob:But the boys just aren't interested. They'd rather have an ice cream. Know?
Helen:I know. It's all about experiences now. Right? That that gathering of stuff seems to be much more of a generational thing as well. Current generation do not seem to want to own anything at all or anything.
Rob:Offer an iPad and iPhone and some Nike trainers.
Helen:Have to say though, I was writing down, scribbling down some sort of memories of like really early stationary memories. And I went to a state young school. I mean, again, we're talking of probably eight, nine, 10 age, so slightly later, but it was still that middle school. And the headmaster there was very fond of writing with an italic ink pen. And he felt this was how students should do.
Helen:So everybody in the school had a lesson a week with the headmaster learning to write with an italic ink pen. Well, that age, you're not really loving it all. But I kind of got into it and he was quite nice. You basically had to do really pretty writing to make a picture. And he would show you what to do.
Helen:And you'd have like a big circle you would draw that was a balloon shape. And then you would write balloon in really pretty handwriting all the way around. And then you'd write basket where the basket was and you do it over and over and over. And it was a way of doing practicing your calligraphy, practicing your lettering. Sounds really lovely, right?
Helen:But the problem is, is that I do not tolerate and didn't then tolerate. If I'm trying to make something beautiful, it needs to be beautiful. And I'm not good at tolerating mistakes and you can't rub out a pen. And in those days even less so, right? So I remember going up to him one day with, because you had to show him what you'd done when you finished and he would have a look and it was fine.
Helen:And he looked at this notebook. He looked at what I'd done. He went, yes, that's very good. And then he closed it and he looked at the thickness of the notebook. And of course, every time I'd made a terrifying mistake over the weeks, I'd ripped the page out and started again.
Helen:And this notebook was noticeably thinner so much so that he noticed. And I remember that moment when he's going, that's a bit thin, isn't it? And I just agreed because what could you say? It's not, it was.
Rob:It sounds like you went to school in like the 1920s.
Helen:It was just this one headmaster. I don't know anybody else who had that experience. It's really seriously for the, for The US, this is not the usual state system in The UK.
Rob:Not not at all. I remember, I don't know whether I mentioned on this podcast. I remember one of my chemistry teacher. I can't, for the life of me, remember what his name is, but he was a spitting image of dungeon master. Really?
Rob:Do you dungeons and dragons, the the little dungeon master guy? And he had to have a little crate at the front of the classroom so that you could see him over the desk. He was so small. And he he made sure every student sharpened the pencil at the front. We've talked about that with the big windy pencil.
Rob:So before any lesson started, everybody had to go to the front and queue up and sharpen your pencil. Then you were allowed to go back to your desk and you had to drop it from about a meter high onto the palm of your hand with the, obviously, nib of the pencil hitting the palm of your hand. And the idea was that if it didn't hurt, it wasn't sharp enough. And I I remember those lessons, And now I'm thinking you really can't do that anymore. And I'm pretty sure you couldn't do that in the 80s.
Helen:I'm fairly sure that Yeah, that was that was not okay.
Rob:Yeah. So I remember always wanting to make sure my pencil was super sharp and all because of Dungeon Master. So there you go.
Helen:Because of Dungeon Master. Is that why he was known as Dungeon Master?
Rob:Yeah, yeah. Because he was spitting image. And yeah, he nearly blew himself up on the whole class during one of the chemistry experiments, which was highly entertaining. As you can imagine, for an early teenager.
Helen:Yeah.
Rob:Anyway, I remember I remember Christmas eve, used to go to my grandparents and we go for the mass at the church and various things. They were extremely religious, which was actually quite nice, refreshing change for for me. And I would spend all day there. I'd watch, you know, James Bond movie on the TV and then help them get ready for a buffet, and family would all come around. It was it was it was lovely.
Rob:Really magical memories. And every Christmas Eve, I would get a present, and it was usually a notebook. And I think this is where my love of notebooks started.
Helen:Oh, how lovely. It
Rob:was always a notebook and pens, usually coloring pens, etcetera. But I remember one year, I was trying to write in it, and I'd sat there quietly in the corner, little kid, you know, doodling in my little notebook, and I'd written the word hello. However, I couldn't fit it all on one page on one So I'd written hell, and then I'd written an o below, and I remember getting absolutely scolded for writing the word hell. And I was like, what you on about? I've written hello.
Rob:The o's below. And it was like, but, no, they didn't see that.
Helen:Oh, no. I bet they thought you'd done it deliberately. So instead of being the really good boy that you were, you were in trouble for being that boy. Yeah.
Rob:Damien, devil child sat in the corner. But every year I get a notebook. And I think that for me is one of those memories where I knew I was getting a notebook. I was excited about the notebook and I look forward to sort of doodling and bringing it to life. And I think that's an early memory that's triggered my definite love of notebooks now.
Helen:It's really interesting. I don't have that. I think I came to stationery loving stationery because of what it gave me. So I don't think it was like a moment. And I know I've said some history things, but I think that was normal for lots of kids my age.
Helen:The thing that I really think that stationary did for me was help me get a handle on the disorganization that would otherwise be the spiral of my life if I didn't have it. Because it allows me to bring order to chaos. And without that, it would be an absolute it would be carnage, absolute catastrophe in my life. Because if I don't write it down, if I don't have a list, if I don't have even a way of getting my thoughts out of my head, it's like I have to weed my head of all the thoughts. The best way to do that is write it down.
Helen:Yeah. So I think that it was literally a little life ring in that sea of chaos for me stationary.
Rob:But has that been a, I guess at what age did you feel the need to start getting stuff out your head to capture it?
Helen:Early, early teens.
Rob:Was it? Okay.
Helen:Yeah, because I, you know, I would forget everything. You have a timetable at school and you think it means that you can remember what you've got to do each day. And I really couldn't. I really couldn't. And I mean, and now, good Lord, my daughter's timetable, they alternate.
Helen:So they have a week on one timetable and a week on another timetable.
Rob:Holy crap, what chance have
Helen:you got? That would be torture for me. Absolute torture.
Rob:That's a bit like the waste collection system, isn't it? It's like what week is this? Is it green bin? Is it black
Helen:I help you with that, Rob. I have little stickers on my calendar. I hope guys put the bins out. Yep. I've got little dragons because that's what I could find.
Helen:Dragons or penguins with a bin. And therefore they are putting on those days on my little It's just like an A four calendar this month to view that the family kind of vaguely try and keep up to date. And yeah, every, I don't know, three weeks or whatever it is, it's got a little sticker with a dragon putting the bins out because that's what you You need to do that today. Today is the day.
Rob:I just wait for the conscientious neighbors to put theirs out and then I have a look and go, well, 90% of them put green out. That guy over there has put the black bin out. Well, can the green pin. I was just thinking then when you were talking about your calendar, I wonder whether there's a there's enough for us to do an episode on forcing stationary onto the people.
Helen:Oh, could. I thought did I ever tell you about the time I forced my husband to use a Kanban board with post it notes to run his business?
Rob:No, that's what I was thinking, not just stationary, but actually our own productivity system. Because I've tried many times to get my wife to join a to do this project to look after the house. And it was a beautiful project with all of the house build stuff and things to And it was just, was amazing. And she just would not, she would not log in and use it. So we had two different systems on the go.
Rob:So yeah, maybe that's a future episode on forcing up productivity systems into other people.
Helen:I definitely think that'll be funny, even if it's not, we don't learn very much, Rob.
Rob:Yeah. But I was thinking back to the, you were talking about teenager, I don't recall ever having that problem of having to get stuff out of my head, when it came to organization. But I do recall spending a significant amount of time writing in notebooks because I always wanted to be a film director.
Helen:Oh, yeah.
Rob:Since I was about 14 or 15, I've been writing TV scripts, film scripts, books, all sorts of stuff, always writing. And I remember when I got my first video camera when I was about 15, 16, and spending my evenings literally instead of revising for my a levels, which I should have done, I was writing the next film that we were gonna make as a little collective that we had. And so I spent a lot of time as a teenager with music on, laid on the bed, writing stuff, just writing stories. And they were always in notebooks. And I remember when computers became very ubiquitous, probably about a year or two after that, and they were everywhere and you could use them for anything you wanted.
Rob:I lost that spirit of, you know, kicking back on the bed and just writing. It just became more of a chore when I went to digital.
Helen:Yeah.
Rob:So that's why I've always tried to maintain the writing in those yellow legal pads. We've done casts on that before. So yeah, those I think that was a moment where I, you know, realized the benefit. And we talk about that. That's the reason for this podcast.
Rob:Yeah. Is to unleash the potential that sits within, you know, the analog stationary.
Helen:I know.
Rob:So yeah, pretty cool.
Helen:It is, isn't it? It's quite interesting. I mean, it's very strange for me. We don't ever talk like memories like that. And yet actually, that's just doing this topic has really made me sit and think about how have I used stationary?
Helen:Why have I used stationary? I mean, all very well of who I am now with my complete stationary obsession. But there are reasons that I got here. And that was really interesting to spend sort of twenty minutes, half an hour thinking about, actually, why did I get here? Where did it start?
Helen:What was my earliest memories? Those are really interesting, I think.
Rob:I think so. And I I guess a lot of people share the same sort of upbringing and same sort of memories and the same sort of triggers and, I guess, reasons for using stationary. But I think it would be really interesting if you're obviously listening to this or you subscribe to a newsletter or you're on Instagram. Let us know. Do you have any sort of, profound memories of using stationary or anything that you think might have triggered that deep love and desire for the analog world?
Rob:Or is it you know, I think a lot of people are fighting the resistance against digital. Know, read an article the other day that people don't wanna watch videos anymore. They just wanna read stuff. You know, instead of twenty minutes explaining in a video, just give me an A four sheet of paper with an outline on.
Helen:I just want a picture. I'm too lazy to read like that. I mean, it requires an A four sheet of paper, if it's not a story and I am absolutely about stories, really I want a picture.
Rob:Yeah, yeah. A visual, infographic or something. Yeah,
Helen:infographics. I once, I can't even remember where it was. I once held in my hands a book that was full, full of infographics. And I have never had such joy and wherever it was, I had to put it down again. And I've always wished, always wished that I had bought that book.
Rob:Ah, there you go. Well, you know where it has some very good infographic learning resources? Domestika.
Helen:Ah, really?
Rob:Not mentioned Domestika for quite, it must be about eight episodes now. But yeah, there's there's a really good course I sat on designing infographic that gave you the, I guess the principles of a good infographic, which was really helpful. Certainly in the workplace, when you're looking at these workplace infographics and going, this doesn't work. It didn't work because it doesn't hit the sort of key principles. And it's been really helpful.
Rob:Great course that was. Yeah. Some really good courses on there. I think that's, probably enough about our history.
Helen:It probably is, really.
Rob:Your very tweed nineteen twenties are bringing in mine rather rough, growing up in Yorkshire with Dungeon Master. I would just like
Helen:to say that I am not that old, just so we're really clear up.
Rob:I was hoping the audience would realize that, but maybe they didn't actually. And they did think you were what that would be, about a hundred years old.
Helen:Really, really not that old.
Rob:I'm more than a hundred if you're at school at that
Helen:point anyway. Yeah.
Rob:No. We're not that old. I think we grew up both broadly in about the same decade Yeah. Of the eighties.
Helen:Give and take.
Rob:Alright. Cool. Helen, any final thoughts, comments before we close out?
Helen:No. I am quietly using a little bit more of Instagram. So honest to god, people, we will we will look. We've said this lots of times before. But I am actually using Instagram.
Helen:And I will I will reveal information, about my writing pen name at some point.
Rob:Yeah. That'd be cool. We've talked a lot. We've had obviously, Helen Callahan on the show as well. And I know you're doing your writing retreats, and I've got a brand new creative sort of outlet going on as well.
Rob:So maybe we will start to sort of share that sort of stuff with the community because it's all tied % to what we talk about here on Stationery Freaks. Yeah. But I had been noticing when I because we've got a shared Instagram account for Stationery Freaks UK. And I had been noticing that when I log on, which is not very often, I'll be honest, that you've already been on there and answered questions and responded to comments and posted stuff. And I'm like, crikey, she really is getting into social media.
Helen:I get I know. Well, I, yeah, it's not my happy place. I am an introvert, but yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay if I don't have to do it all the time. I'm quite happy to do it.
Helen:And it quite suits me at like 6AM when I get up and I've got coffee. Instagram's a good thing for 6AM. So yeah. I
Rob:definitely, we used to have a LinkedIn page. We've still got it. But I find that every time I open LinkedIn, I get massively depressed.
Helen:I do. I don't open LinkedIn anymore. I find it really quite overwhelmingly sad. And that's not because it used to be such this amazing environment and you could learn all sorts of things. And I think it's me, I don't think it's them.
Helen:But I don't wanna engage in that way. But we should do more stationary freaksy stuff, maybe.
Rob:Possibly, yeah. As soon as I open it up, I just get wildly depressed at how successful everyone else is.
Helen:Yeah, maybe that's what it is. Maybe that's what it is. But I mean, I think we should all define success differently. I think it's really important to decide what success means for you at this moment in Because I think chasing somebody else's decision of what success means, you end up working really hard and not enjoying the outcome because it's not what you really wanted. And I think that's possibly the biggest learning of being an adult.
Helen:Maybe I'll go and share that with my daughter. Hey, I have some wisdom to lay on you girl.
Rob:Yeah. She's probably not ready for that right now.
Helen:Does not care. No.
Rob:Thanks, Helen. That's been a really nice little jaunt through our history. So, yeah, you can catch us on stationeryfreaks.com. Our Instagram handle is stationery freaks u k. And the reason I'm sort of making a point of that is we've noticed, haven't we, Helen, that there's a couple of other stationary freaks nine and stationary freaks seven and all sorts of stationary freaks stuff, we think.
Rob:We've definitely notified we we've definitely alerted to one of them that has our logo and is sharing stationary for sale. That is not us. We are Stationery Freaks UK only. That's the only place you'll find us on Instagram. StationeryFreaks.com for the, podcast and the newsletter, and The newsletter tends to go out broadly in line with each of these episodes, isn't it?
Rob:So, yeah, that's where you'll find us.
Helen:Yeah, we can't manage one Instagram account, never mind more.
Rob:So with that, we shall catch you in the next episode. Thank you.
Helen:Okay, have a
Rob:good day. Bye. Bye bye.
