Author: Pete Denison

Stirling Gooseneck Kettle — a middle aisle gem

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment
Every journey has a destination…

An example of Aldi’s middle aisle at its finest. You know, a come for the barbecue sauce and leave with a cordless tyre inflator type of purchase. You’ve got to grab them while you can.

When an Aldi catalogue appears with some coffee items, as you can imagine, I’m likely to take a look when next in store. On this occasion, it was a special trip for one of the Stirling Gooseneck Kettles. Why? Well, first and foremost you can never be sure how popular any particular item might be, yet the remainder of the answer needs a little more explanation.

As an enthusiast (of anything), I’m sure we’d all agree the likelihood of owning (or at least having owned) quite a few iterations of similar products is quite high. Coming along before the subject Aldi kettle were stovetop versions of the Hario Buono Drip Kettle, followed by a Fellow Stagg Pour-Over Kettle. To date though, I had not yet had the pleasure of owning a dedicated electric, temperature controlled model to boil (or near boil as the presets allow…) and hold my water at temperature. Not specifically being in the market for a replacement, this had to be decidedly within the “non-significant purchase” price tag to comfortably be an incidental pickup.

Overall, I find kettles an interesting part of the whole coffee journey, as they of course all do the same thing. They heat water. It’s difficult to find any sort of perceptible way they each do that particular function differently. Sure — faster, quieter, stovetop, or electric — but the result is the same. It therefore becomes very difficult to justify a higher price tag. At $59.95? Justified. A week later, a little further down the aisle in the clearance section at $49.99 — even more so. A bargain indeed. At the time of publishing? Still there…

You’ve still got a shot if you’re quick

What it does well

Boils water. In fact, from a room temperate 24 degrees Celsius to 100 degrees boiling in 3 minutes and 20 seconds. I assume this is not the fastest by any stretch, however gets the job done. It certainly doesn’t feel slow. Though quieter than our larger, more traditional Russell Hobbs kettle, it is however perhaps a tad louder than my Stagg Stovetop. That said, I have no qualms about using it pre-dawn when the rest of the household are fast asleep.

It maintains the set temperature for up to an hour before automatically switching off. For someone who had not owned a kettle where the default setting is to stay “on” once boiled, this took a little getting used to, however now I cannot imagine it any other way.

The presets aren’t infinite though certainly more than adequate

It looks similar to many other more expensive kettles. While purchased in my preferred coffee bar colour of matt white, a black version was also available. Once on the kitchen bench top, it has a similar shape and baseplate style as the Fellow EKG to a glancing eye.

So, while the specs are available for viewing in the attached images, I’m simply here to say it looks reasonably good and completes the task at hand perfectly. All for the princely sum of $59.99, compared with 4–5 times that for the Fellow Stagg EKG upon which it would appear to pay homage.

What could be improved

Certainly not the price — that’s the point here. You get what you pay for, and what you get is a great, functionally adept kettle. However in getting what you pay for, there certainly are compromises which I wouldn’t pay $100+ for, but $59.99? Absolutely worth it.

Build quality will always be a factor here, and it is evident. Generally, a cheaper version will feel as though it is just that. While that’s the case here, I’ve no issues with that affecting performance, you can simply feel it. The slight flex in the plastic handle when the kettle is full; the good but not great click of the on/off dial; the lighter weight lid and baseplate.

The only other areas I’d mention here are perhaps aesthetics, which are again pretty good, though not quite up to something like the Fellow Stagg, particularly when viewed side by side. That said, it isn’t far off. A couple of other considerations include the volume and pouring. Whilst no one in our household ever said: ”make a large pot of…” — at 600 ml it’s not the most efficient way to boil a large amount of water at once, whereas both the Hario and Stagg are 0.9–1.0 litre at maximum fill.

I’ve had a couple of instances of a slightly scalded foot from tipping the kettle a little too far and drips escaping the lid, though I’d emphasise this is most certainly in the category of user error. Come to think of it, so is overshooting the far edge of a cup a few times whilst becoming familiar with the angle of water exit when the kettle is particularly full.

Wrapping up

Is it the world’s best built kettle? No, but it’s solid enough. The best looking? Perhaps not, though it’s comparable to most others, and I’d say an improvement on some. Does it boil water and maintain it at temperature for up to an hour? Perfect, and arguably equal to any other kettle at any price point for what it does.

I make a daily V60 into my Fellow Carter mug to take to the office, and had long given up on bothering with my stove top Fellow Stagg Kettle. It was simply easier to boil our standard electric kettle and do my best to control the flow when pouring from a standard spout.

That has all changed now, and while the Aldi Stirling Gooseneck Kettle may not be the star of the bar (though it could be), for boiling water it’s perfect (well it is a kettle, you could rightly say…). Whether looks, build quality, or brand name carry much weight in your purchasing decisions is a matter for you to decide — I certainly wouldn’t disagree if they did. Heck, they do for me, and I’m delighted with this kettle given what I paid for it.

So if you are any way inclined to consider picking up one of these the next time they hit the middle aisle, you won’t be disappointed. Given I’m only a couple of months along, an opinion on long-term durability will have to wait, though for now, it’s perfect.

I will, however, continue to occasionally check in on Fellow’s “smoke green” Stagg EKG. Which incidentally (and perhaps somewhat tantalisingly…) I’ve also found on sale locally here.

Coffee equipment, where purchases quickly turn from the objective and rational, to the emotive and starry-eyed…

Happy brewing.

Bouncing Back to Gel Pens

/ Pete Denison / 2 Comments
Gel pens! Though one could certainly make the case the Alpaka Pencil Case Pro is the real hero here

Did I ever really leave? Really? Well, no I didn’t — not quite, however the relentless march of everything pen and stationery towards fountain pens is — rightly or wrongly — hard not to fall into. We each have our path (it just seems to be the same one, and boy is it worn…). I’d simply say, progression towards a fountain pen habit doesn’t always need to be at the exclusion of all else.

One area gel pens continue to flourish is in the planner community. Those people gel pen hard — and good on them. There is much joy to be had. Speaking of planners, as I mentioned in a recent post, it was a foray into the Traveler’s Notebook and Hobonichi Weeks which triggered my own renewed vigour towards gel pens. Those Hobonichi Weeks daily entries are not overly endowed with page real estate, that’s for sure.

The pens

Having a certain fondness for the Pentel Energel over the years, you’d be right in thinking these feature fairly prominently in the current line up. Incidentally, I’ve also harboured mostly the opposite feeling towards the Jetstream line of ballpoint pens, and part of this process involved throwing out the last one remaining in my pen drawer. I don’t know, I’ve just never really liked the overall feel when I write with them.

It’s here that we should acknowledge the term ”gel pen” is quite a broad one. After all, we have the EnerGel’s “liquid gel pen”, and the pigment archival quality of Uni’s “Super Ink” being just two manufacturers’ riffs on the category. No doubt there are plenty more, however we’ll go with the origins of the family tree and stick with “gel” for simplicity.

As for tip size, well, 0.38 or 0.4 mm are a little too fine for me, and to be perfectly honest, I feel if more existed, 0.6 mm would be my goldilocks size. In the absence of a widespread, spoilt-for-choice line-up in 0.6 mm, I’ve settled on 0.5 mm as my go-to. There are of course some 0.6 mm options further afield (the Schmidt P8126 refill for example, of which I own several), however there is simply not the any-colour, any-type of pen range which exists in the other sizes.

Delineating at a glance through colour

Colour? Go wild. Anything goes really, and I’ve found within the confines of those daily entries in the Hobonichi Weeks (minimal, tight, feintly ruled lines and separators) colour is my best bet to delineate each one. As you’ll see from the associated image, it carries a certain rainbow-like joy.

Writing performance

Comfort in the hand is fairly important, and the diameter of the Energel I find to be most comfortable. To be honest, nothing I write with a gel pen typically runs longer than a couple of hundred words at a time, so I wouldn’t say there are any real limitations here.

Perhaps the Uniball Signo DX is a little thin for longer than a few bullet points, yet there are all manner of ways to obtain these in a thicker package (say the Uniball 207 or 307 series of retractables). This does bring me to one caveat of my “no real limitations” statement above.

I’ve never enjoyed using a pen where the grip section runs thicker in diameter than the rest of the barrel (or at least that portion of the barrel immediately preceding the grip) — a reverse taper, if you will. Many plastic barrel gel, ballpoint, and liquid ink pens seem to have this design. The retractable Energels and Signo DX you see in this post have successfully incorporated that rubber grip in a way that minimises any perceptible change in diameter. Enough said on that, however it is another (subtle though it is) factor in my lack of fondness for the Jetstream.

When available, my preference is probably 0.5 mm

The need for quick drying (those Energels a tad longer than the Signos mind you), fine-ish tipped, comfortable enough, colour varied pens was satisfied with the fistful I picked up from my local Officeworks. I’ll no doubt work my way back around to others I’ve had before from Zebra, Sakura, and the like.

Signing off

With things rolling (gelling?) along fairly well in the current Hobonichi Weeks / Travellers Notebook combo, I intend to continue this personal resurgence into the gel pen universe.

And I’ll say it once more. In turning my mind to these matters, I cannot help but again question the all-roads-must lead-to-fountain-pens journey of just about every blog, podcast, and social media feed across the stationery community (I’m also guilty as charged…). If we’re talking fit for purpose, in the couple of notebooks I’ve mentioned above, for me at least, fountain pens certainly won’t cut it.

But I digress. Gel pens — how good are they!

The Top-tier Coffee Drinker Prefers Decaf

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Photo by Chevanon Photography on Pexels.com

James Hoffmann on YouTube:

The decaf drinker to me is the top-tier coffee drinker. They are the purest of all coffee drinkers because they’re just drinking it for the taste. They just like the taste of coffee, and they’re willing to drink decaf — disappointing decaf, often, to get there, and that feels very sad.

I must admit I’ve never really understood why decaf coffee, and by association, decaf coffee drinkers draw so much derision in the coffee community. You know, the whole death before decaf mantra. I’ve never found it amusing, nor understood what you’re trying to tell me.

Is it that you aren’t talented enough to source great decaf, roast it well (it can be challenging), or perhaps don’t really understand the nuances around brewing and serving it? Or, most fundamentally — you don’t understand the customer.

Look it’s ok. We often fear what we don’t understand.

The top-tier coffee drinker in my life? My wife, whom, until we met, was not a coffee drinker at all (what a surprise…). She did, however, push through many of the annoying effects of caffeine for some time before choosing to switch to decaf. Yes, I agree — top-tier wife.

Since that time many years ago, together we have seen most of, if not all of it. The pre-ground supermarket bag of decaf pulled from a cupboard and tipped into the portafilter. Being told in various ways (often politely, though not always) why decaf is not served at a particular establishment, including a bizarre mansplained monologue to my wife and daughter on why the style of roast is the issue — not the caffeine. Standing outside those “destination” cafés I’ve always wanted to visit, with my wife saying, “I don’t think we ask if they have decaf — I don’t want to embarrass you.”

How did it come to this…

Don’t get me wrong. We’re more than happy to be politely told decaf is not served and offered options (as you would for alternative milks, for example). It isn’t necessary, however, to go further and provide a diatribe on why you, as the consumer, are somehow too naive to know what is best for you.

Anyway, enough of that. A salute to all the cafés out there who serve a fantastic decaf. Seeing that measured dose thrown into an EK43? Perfect. A dedicated grinder? Wonderful — thanks for the acknowledgement. Taking up the challenge to serve something truly amazing when it can be a little more challenging? Hats off to you for having belief in your expertise. I’m sure there are more than a couple of us who appreciate you taking the time and making the effort. We’ll certainly be back.

Incidentally — the YouTube video I’ve linked to above provides a great overview of the various methods of producing decaf coffee and is worth a look if you are interested.

Finally, here’s to all the top-tier coffee drinkers out there, my door is always open, where the decaf doses are measured, ready, and ground on demand.

Alternatively, try some of my Brisbane favourites if you want service with a smile, minus the caffeine:

Edward Espresso & Kitchen – CBD

Industry Beans – CBD & Newstead

Anytime Coffee – CBD

Kicking off the year — maybe a list will do

/ Pete Denison / 2 Comments

Yearly planning. Goals. Themes. It’s that time of year again. A time to decide what type of system you might subscribe to, align with, or have a go at this year. At times, the superimposed complexity we add to reviewing the year’s end and planning for the next can be stifling. We force our way into a system or way of thinking we’d read or heard about, only to be left with more uncertainty rather than a clear, well-defined path. Go on, ask me how I know…

With the opportunity comes the dread.

So Far

Over that quiet, relaxing Christmas/New Year Period, I entertained the following, amongst other things:

Some of the above remain ongoing, as you might imagine, and the irony of my introductory paragraph when compared with the list above is not lost on me. That said, it wouldn’t be this time of year without such a list…

Guiding light or railroad

Of course, without some sort of intention, we are just meandering through space and time. Yet, at the same time, perhaps a simple list will do. Or maybe three?

  • More of this
  • Less of this
  • Try this

Wait… the year of the list perhaps?

In recent years I have tended to have a somewhat meandering January followed by some kind of realisation (epiphany?) at the start of February, and then we’re underway. In seeing the same pattern develop again this year, I will simply embrace that and begin whatever it is I settle upon in late January or when the calendar turns over to February.

The journey probably is the destination

Is a successful and robust “system” really a process, or some sort of completed state with a finite end point?

The distinction between having arrived versus being at your destination is likely important. One is simply a point in space (and perhaps time) — a finite conclusion. The other? Well, I think it infers some kind of arbitrary achievement in concluding whatever journey you were on. Perhaps there are others at the same destination; however, no-one can take that journey and arrive for you. That is for you and you alone. Here I am. I’ve done the work to get here, and my arrival marks the conclusion of that.

The problem is, maybe we never really manage to arrive at the destination we’ve set? What if the destination is sufficiently vague to the point where perhaps I arrived 2 years ago (hardly…) or I’m unknowingly powering along to somewhere I’ll never get to. Worse still, what if that destination wasn’t quite right all along, and now here we are and well… it’s a little underwhelming at best?

All that being what it is, if you never ask the question; do the work; consider your options; engage with the journey; then sure, that’s a guarantee you’ll never arrive. It only takes one thing, something, to make it all worthwhile, and you’ll often find that along the way rather than at the destination. I think it’s in accepting the journey never really ends is where the real magic lies.

Keep moving, keep evolving and learn along the way. Ask questions more about where you are now, where are you going, and embrace the journey as the destination. Going through the process is what’s likely needed to improve things. The destination being a perfect system that works all the time and never needs to change? A false god.

Tried and filed

Yes, correct. That’s filed, not failed. I’m a firm believer in that the best approach at any given time may be one you’ve used before and moved on from, only to consider returning as the situation dictates. You’ve got runs on the board. You know how it works and why it would or wouldn’t align with your current needs. Experience counts.

Maybe it’s just the thing to extricate yourself from a situation of overwhelm. Or at least inform your next steps. The airlines had it right all along: “remember, your nearest exit may be behind you…”

A perfect way to avoid yet another foray into a “new” system, which may take a good few months to really bed down.

Just a thought…

My experience has seen me in and out of a few “systems”. Twice filed Bullet Journal escapades (notwithstanding my analogue adoration, there was just too much digital in my life to make this work). A few years running the Theme System and associated journal (I was always too specific in theme and didn’t check in/reset often enough).

There are probably a few more that escape me currently, though my daily journalling habit is something which hasn’t waned over the past few years.

This Year

…to save me from tears — or at least undue stress and anxiety about what I’m going to use, things are a little less systematised, so to speak. That said, I do tend to ruminate a little through January on various topics, themes, plans, and the like (as you can see by that So Far list above).

Funny thing is, between the commencing the initial draft and completing this post (a period spanning much of January), I did manage to organise my thoughts a little better. I must thank you for allowing me to write through this out loud — always the best way to find yourself at least closer to, if not at the very foot of, a solution or answer.

I wish you well on whatever plan or system you might be embarking on this year. May it be a runaway success. If not, the tried and filed category will still serve you well for years to come.

A planner and a plan

/ Pete Denison / 2 Comments
Image courtesy Bunbougu

Sure, everyone has long moved on from planner season and even the “my year in review” posts are done and dusted, though I guess you cannot say this blog has ever really been at the cutting edge of anything. So here I am talking of my initial foray into planners. Better late than never, I guess. Surely having been into stationery all your life and written this blog for over ten years now, this can’t be an initiation into the world of planners. Can it? Well, ostensibly friends, the answer is yes.

Yes, there were the yearly, very cheap appointment diaries of many years ago, and the Filofax years (loved my brown leather Timberland cover) in between, however since becoming really invested in all things pen and stationery over the past decade, I had largely been a notebook only kind of person. At least until now. Honestly, this makes me both excited and a little nervous all at the same time.

Why now?

Well, it’s not been a great year to be honest, and during the tougher times the tendency for me is to turn inwards and embrace what brings a little joy. Something to turn your mind to when it needs an outlet. I don’t think anyone will be surprised when I say the very topic themes on this blog (pens, coffee, stationery and the like) are generally the things that help me do that.

Viewing a few planner videos on YouTube (and wow, dangerous as that is…), I began to see a slightly different angle on things. Maybe trying to develop my creative side a little? What began attempting a few basic drawings and sketches, morphed into accumulating a few stickers and templates. I also shifted gears a little from my fountain pens back towards a case full of gel pens. Needless to say, both my favourite Brisbane pen store, Pen and Ink, and online Japanese stationery site Bunbougu facilitated this transition nicely.

How it’s going

I’d have to say I’m fairly pleased so far. Sure, I’ve ultimately realised I’m not great with the drawing, nor am I overly creative, but let’s just call it a work-in-progress. An evolution if you will. Some days I give it a run, others are just words-only as they always were, and that’s more than okay.

If you can’t sketch… then stamp. The Everyday Explorers Currently Inked stamp set

The usual crew

Planner season or not, it’s always notebook season… in some form or another. So, at the current time, things are looking like this:

  1. Daily Journal: Black Leuchtturm1917 A5 Hardcover in dot grid (a left over from a second failed Bullet Journal experiment earlier in the year)
  2. Everyday Notebook: new addition outlined below
  3. Novel Writing Notebook: Montblanc #149 lined notebook (sounds grand, though when your last story was 2014’s NaNoWriMo and this is a follow-up — it has been a long time…)
  4. Pure Capture: a mix of 2. above and a Field Notes Pitch Black
  5. Travel Diary: again, that’s integrated with 2. above as well…
  6. 2024 Diary/Planner: the second new addition, further details below

New additions

Traveler’s Notebook – Olive Regular Size

I guess this is where things get a little more interesting — at least in terms of the purpose of this post. In the context of some of that list (numbers 2,4 and 5) above, it perhaps comes as no surprise I have delved into the world of the Traveler’s Notebook system. Having purchased an Olive Regular size Traveler’s Notebook cover in August before a 10-day trip away, it has now also become my everyday notebook of sorts as well. I’m still tinkering with various inserts and thinking about how I might “section off” various aspects of my writing life (travel, commonplace, general note-taking, writing etc) so I’ll say the TN lifestyle is also still a work in progress.

Notebooks and coffee – that theme thread is strong… the pen is a Caran d’Ache + Nespresso 849 ballpoint pen

Things seem to be working well at the moment though, and I have embraced various pockets, clips, and other accessories in my quest for something a little different to my typical standard notebooks of the past. Inserts are your standard dot grid, blank, and grid, though I’ll be adding a lined version soon. The slimmer, taller nature of the regular inserts seems to suit me fairly well, and a 0.5mm gel pen has turned out to be the tool of choice (currently a couple of Uniball Signo DX, however there are quite a few 0.7mm Pentel Energels’ that emerged from the second drawer when this all began).

Behold the results of sending your sister and niece all over Tokyo searching for additions…

The Olive leather on the Traveler’s cover is certainly something to behold, and is already showing a little lived-in wear which looks fantastic, and will no doubt become even better with age. I do have a matching Traveler’s Company pen loop attached, which is 50:50 both useful and annoying, though I think it will stay given its utility. I of course also could not go past Mal’s perfect monogramming for that personal touch — love it.

First comes the creativity…

You can say I’m very much enjoying the change so far.

Hobonichi Weeks 2024 Hardcover Planner

This one I’m a little less sure about. Not because I have any doubts about the planner itself, just what I’ll use it for. I have a few ideas, and they are mainly around the wellness/habit tracking type of area, and I’ve been noting down some ideas over the past month or so.

Then comes the structure…

I seem to have mostly settled on a combination of personal development/self-improvement/wellness journal/health/habit tracker. I lump them all together because I’d like it to be more than a simple tracker, yet terms like “wellness” though valid, give me Instagram snake oil/supplement seller — vibes. Whilst I realise that sweeping generalisation is unfair; I simply cannot comfortably call this anything ”wellness”, and it will be more than simply a healthy habits’ tracker.

So, in the interests of something meaningful and relevant to the task at hand, the working title which has meandered its way into my consciousness: my TG37 Journal. This is simply based upon the writing of James Clear on “tiny gains”, and the “1% better every day providing a 37-fold improvement at year end” theory. We’ll see how things go.

The tracking options are many

For my first foray into Hobonichi land, I went with a cover design by Japanese illustrator Hiroko Kubota, called Another night of falling star sparklers. I was looking for something a little unique and upon seeing a shared birth year with the cover designer, it seemed a pretty good fit.

Something a little unique for the cover design

I think the challenge here will be not overthinking things, though it has indeed been a while since I’ve entertained the structure of a dated planner in my analogue tools. Overall, I’d say I am fairly optimistic though.

Wrapping Up

It can be a little funny putting together a post like this, in that when summarised on a page, what feels like a significant change in reality, perhaps doesn’t sound as grandiose when outlined on a blog. Then again, it isn’t meant to be either. Our interests, plans, and realities take many forms, and how we document this is unique to each of us. Thankfully, we have as many options for tools as there are approaches to doing it.

I hope the finish to your 2023 is a good one, and 2024 is looking promising as well — however you intend to plan, log, track, or document your own journey.