There’s a story behind this pen and it goes something like this;
Travelling back home via Zurich airport last year, my wife and I had a few hours stopover, so we window shopped for a while. As my wife wandered off toward glitzy stores that sold completely unnecessary things, such as handbags and scarves, I took the whole process much more seriously and looked at things that one might actually need. Eventually, she caught up with me and enquired why my saliva was dripping all over the nice young man’s glass presentation case and discreetly whispered that my tongue would be better placed inside my mouth, rather than drooping, listlessly out of the side of it.
Well, the object of my desire was what you see in the picture above but that day wasn’t to be my day of ownership. Fast forward 2 months and I was flying home, solo, from a business meeting via Barcelona. As luck would have it there was also a store selling Mont Blanc, who would have known, in an airport of all places! After some negotiation and the downloading of the RED duty free app, I had what I felt was a good price, here’s the conversation with my wife.
“Hi love, remember that really beautiful, limited edition pen that we saw in Zurich?”,
“Yes”, she replied, cautiously,
“Well, they have it here for 2000 less”, I said, trying to curb my emotion, “that’s almost a bargain”, I added.
Now, my wife is far from being dull, she has a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering and is a trained negotiator, so this ruse was hardly going to get me very far.
“Yes but how much is it? I don’t remember the price”. she asked, in a manner I can only describe as “probing”.
Again, I trotted out the same sentence as before but with much more emphasis on the word bargain. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depenedent on one’s point of view, this had no impact whatsoever, so I had to resort to pleading, not a good look in a busy airport, in view of several hundred commuters.
As you can see, I am now a very proud owner of the Limited Edition (8185), Rudyard Kipling Mont Blanc. What I had to give up in return shall never be divulged 😉
The business manager 