You paid how much, for a what?

My husband is concerned that, in blogging terms, I sound like a single parent. In other words, there’s not enough about him in it! So this is for you, LL:

Late last year we were the subject of an identity fraud – a situation I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It’s annoying, time consuming and invasive. The only positive thing to come out of it is that we are now slightly more careful about checking our bank and credit card statements. So when, just before Christmas, I spotted an entry for £90 to a pen shop in London, I was straight on the phone to my husband. “Oh no, it’s fine,” he told me. “That’s for my propelling pencil!”

£90. For a pencil. Not just a pencil, I was told indignantly, a propelling one. Sensing that the ‘propelling’ angle wasn’t really working in terms of presenting this as a value for money purchase, he brought out the big guns: “And it matches my existing fountain pen.” Oh, well that makes all the difference. Money well spent then.

I’m afraid I struggled to contain my amazement at this purchase and over the next few months canvassed opinion from anyone who would listen about whether they too thought this was exorbitant (women did, men professed to find it reasonable.). As a result, his pencil became quite the celebrity among our friends and family.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when last week he announced that his £90 ‘pencil for life’ had broken and he’d needed to take it in for repair!!!! Apparently it had stopped propelling! He returned it to the pen shop and was impressed when it was whisked straight into the back room and repaired immediately. I resisted the temptation to suggest that the back room was probably empty save for a wizened old man operating one of those mechanical pencil sharpeners that Primary School teachers used to have attached to their desks.

Anyway, suffice to say that the lead in my husband’s pencil is now in full working order once again!