Saved

Of course some people do enjoy going shopping, but others regard being dragged along for a morning shopping at the mall as akin to…well some sort of torture, and would prefer to...I don't know, maybe volunteer down at the local zoo mucking out the hippopotamus chamber…but today I was saved, for there at the mall, in the window of one of the stores that had an outside entrance was THE SIGN. “Stationery Outlet – Closing Down – All Stock Must Go”. I was freed from my shackles.

Actually there wasn’t much of interest in there, but I was free…and the art supplies store across the road beckoned. I was probably a bit euphoric and I saw some mechanical pencils by Pantone. Never seen those before. Part of the Pantone Universe range of office supplies. Cash leaked from my pockets.

The Pantone mechanical pencils in the store were in a variety of single colours, and in bright combination colours. I bought one where the colours are thin strips down the length of the metal body producing a shimmering rainbow of colour effect.

 Very pretty.

To be honest, whilst the colour scheme is dazzling, and the Pantone name commands a price premium, the pencil is rather ordinary.

No eraser.

There were two models of mechanical pencil for sale – fixed drafting style sleeve and retractable writing style sleeve. From looking at the stickers on the pencils, I think 4443 is the model number for my fixed sleeve style mechanical pencil.