A right royal pain....

Moments after I wrote this, I pushed on a particularly soft piece of metal on the FP, and broke it. DOH!

Another thing to fix now....

Ribbons! Ribbons! Ribbons!

Tee hee! 

Is it wrong to be excited about... ribbons? As a male? Am I betraying my masculinity? 

Well.... if anyone has a problem with it, I dare them to tell me to my face. 

But I've got ribbons! Actually, more accurately 8 ribbons and some correction film. From the USA. And not just any ribbons. I have a variety of ribbons here, courtesy of Jay Respler at the modestly named Advanced Business Machines in New Jersey - USA. The service was excellent, and I highly recommend him to anyone. The special ribbons seem very heavily inked, but considering the machines they are going in, this is probably a good thing. 

I have only a vague inkling of where New Jersey is, but apparently it looks something like this:

So I asked google maps about how to get me there, in case I ever wanted to drop by on the way to getting some milk, and pick up a few more typewriter supplies.  

Nearly 26 thousand K's! I'd better pack some lunch. 

Hmm..... And my Kayak. 

Oh hang on, there's a few too many toll roads in Japan for my liking. Better look at the map again, and figure out if there's a better option... (click to enlarge if you can't see)

I might have to re-think this plan. Not that I mind a bit of a swim. 

True story!

Anyway. I now have.... PURPLE RIBBONS. Oh, how good is it that I can get a purple Ribbon! Now I can complete Project FP, with its finishing touches! Lets not talk about how purple is my favourite colour. My masculinity is already feeling a touch dented. 

I bought a bulk amount of ribbons from Jay for a reason. It's cheaper. They are now sealed in a nice metal tin I bought from Ikea, for future use - when I see fit. Mind you, I have 4 typewriter needing ribbons, so of that 8, 4 are going into service... kinda soon. 

Locally, I can only source black ribbons. They are of a high quality, but I need something with a little more... pizzaz. Standard black and red ribbons have been costing me about... ohhh. $15 each at a time (postage included). when I have gotten them online. Where as buying this amount from Jay worked out far more economically, even if I payed more than I payed for 'The Royal'. And they WILL be used.

I'm happy to be buying from Jay, despite the tyranny of distance. Typewriter supplies at the moment are more or less a boutique service, and are likely to continue to be so in the future. There's plenty of people out there trying to find ways to re-ink or rejuvenate old ribbons, but honestly while we still have these boutique services available to us, I think we should be giving them as much business as we can, to encourage them to keep supporting our hobbies - be that collecting or writing. While there's still money changing hands, there's going to be people willing to provide a service. 

So... cheers Jay! Thanks a heap for the ribbons. 

interestingly, as you can see in the photo Jay slipped in some advertising slips of a Corona electric typewriter unit. He must know of my love for unexpected curiosities of history, because I found these very fascinating!

I haven't been to the USA since the 80's but I always do enjoy getting packages and letters from there.

So here's to an excellent business, with excellent service.