The Humble Filofax Versus The Mighty iPad

Ipad

My mum always said I was an advertiser's dream. I only have to see an ad or a product that I like and I fall for it, hook, line and sinker. I have always been like that.   

About a month ago I treated myself to an iPad. I had wanted one since the day they were launched and finally decided to bite the bullet and get one. I got an iPad2 only to discover, of course, that two days after I ordered it, the 3 was being released a week later but - such is life. I am aware that the display on the 2 is completely inferior to the 3 but, to be honest, I don't really care. I love my iPad! It's the best thing I have bought in years and I now can't imagine life without it.

It took me a few days to get used to the iPad. I don't have an iPhone - yet - so I hadn't seen the layout etc.  but what I quickly realised was that it can do just about anything you want it to. The app store is huge! You can find things in there that you could never have even dreamed it might have. The iPad itself came with Calendar, Notes, Reminders, Contacts...can you see where this is going? Yes. I fell for the iPad so hard that I decided to abandon my trusty Filofaxes. All 14 of them!

Personal Siena with Waterman pen and pencil

Within a week I had transferred all my appointments, notes, to-do lists, contacts, in fact everything onto my iPad. I didn't even bother putting my trusty Siena and Finchley back into their boxes. They lay abandoned in a corner whilst the iPad and I continued to get to know each other better. We spent a wonderful three weeks together. We had a lovely time! The iPad came everywhere with me; lunch, the pub, lessons, rehearsals. I didn't give a second thought to my Filofaxes left alone in the house, wondering when I was going to come home. Wondering if I was going to come home.

A5 Finchley

But, as with any new relationship, it wasn't long until the honeymoon period was over. A niggling feeling had started to build in the pit of my stomach. You know the feeling when something isn't right but you can't quite put your finger on it? I began to think of all the lovely times I had spent with my Filofaxes over the years. They had been there for me day in and day out - making sure my life ran smoothly. I began to miss the smoothness and the smell of their leather. I missed their cotton cream paper and I missed my lovely fountain pens. I realised that the only time I ever wrote anything was when I wrote in my Filofaxes and I began to worry that I may actually lose the ability to write if I carried on like this and so my Filofaxes are back in my life.

The iPad is fantastic! I love it to bits and as I said, I can't imagine not having it now. I am hugely into Social Media and I'm now able to keep up with everything that's going on even when I'm on the move but in this technological age where everything moves and changes so quickly, I feel my Filofaxes keep me grounded. They are timelessly elegant and allow me to hold on, in some small way, to a time when things weren't quite so fast and frenetic.

Oh - and the fact that their batteries never need charged is huge plus!!