For folks who were asking about the notebook
This little creature has lived in my purse for more than twenty years now.
Under its added-on skin, it's probably a Moleskine (though at this point, to determine this for sure would mean having to undo all the stuff I pasted onto it during its "hacking." So, you know... let's not).
To judge by the associated stuff I glued onto it—in particular the 2005 Hermès packaging ribbon that's been stuffed in there as a bookmark—this is a period when @petermorwood and I were both in the process of making the gradual transition from paper-based "assistants"—like Filofax-based stuff—to assorted electronica like the Palm Pilot and its ilk. ...Around then, though, I can remember P. muttering "Why is all of this stuff either grey or black...??!". So I decided I'd make sure I wasn't going to lose this notebook amid all the darker-colored things cluttering up every flat surface in the house.
Therefore, once I had the to-be-hacked notebook in hand, I cut up a spare Hermès shopping bag, all naturally in the brand's signature orange (because I liked to keep them: they were made of very sturdy stuff because they knew perfectly well that people liked to cart them around well past I Bought Something From Hermès Day) and glued its material all over the little notebook. Once out on the road, this treatment occasionally produced some amused/amusing looks from associates at entertainment-industry business meetings, various of whom found themselves forcibly reminded that the accessories I was wearing to a given meeting—scarves, shawls, whatever, over freelance-appropriate business-casual shirt-and-jeans—were possibly worth, in aggregate, a significant percentage of the entire amount of money the pitching firm was offering me for some upcoming writing deal.
(Because it never hurts for a freelancer to remind media folk, as quietly-but-concretely as possible, that you don't need them: they need you. Rubbing it in can be useful, if you know your audience. Doesn't necessarily hurt to be doing it with something smooth and pretty in a nice silk-&-cashmere blend. Just think of it as the hunted turning hunter: but cozily.)
...And the more beat up the notebook got, the better the effect it seemed to produce. :) So why fix what's not busted? And in fact gets less busted the older it gets?
...Anyway. Assuming that it is in fact a Moleskine and not something like a Leuchtturm or similar, the notebook proper seems to be in a format no longer on offer. (The top-of-portrait "hinge" in particular seems hard to find. But for someone as likely to draw a storyboard in there as to write notes for a story, I find the flip-at-will-from-portrait-to-landscape format useful.) The grid is about 5 boxes per inch. The notebook proper is about 3.5 inches by 5-ish. (Sorry, I didn't bring a tape measure with me on this trip... which now seems like an omission.) ...ETA: I should probably mention that the use of gridded paper for notes in this format is almost certainly a callback to the Magic (Outlining) Note Paper I get from the Migros department store chain in Switzerland. Details are here.
...Anyway. The pen shown with the notebook in the earlier image (reproduced at the bottom of this) is the ballpoint version of a Kaweco "Sport" fountain pen. Peter got the pair of them for me some years back, when I told him (wisely, I think) that I didn't feel comfortable traveling casually with the Mont Blanc Meisterstuck he got me as an 10th anniversary present, officially meant for book signings. ...So he shopped around a bit and finally sent off for something rugged—and if necessary, easily replaceable—that would feel good and heavy in the (writing) hand... and could also, ever so incidentally, be used casually in hand to hand combat. You really would not want that baby side-fisted into your temple.
(And naturally we discussed the best ways to do this. P's RAF unarmed-combat instructor, back in the day, was a very thorough guy. The night the mugger tried to jump the two of us in a quiet empty street when we were walking back to our hotel in Geneva? P. muttered to me, "Got the Kaweco? Let's go. I'll break left. You break right. Ready? Three... two... one... break break break!" ...Most surprised mugger in Genf, when we turned in unison, in mid-stride, and headed straight for him, flanking. Guy was last seen heading in haste in the direction of SBB Cornavin. ...Hunted-turning-hunters is the BEST game.) :)
...And now you know the tale.
