Shakespeare's Mum's place

This purchased in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. Arrived at the train station and the employees couldn't say how to get to his house. Pretty funny.

Snapped the picture above before getting told off by the people in his house.

Mathew Street Miracle

While in Liverpool recently I went to Mathew Street where The Beatles were "discovered" playing the Cavern. Most of the original Cavern was torn down, but it has been rebuilt next door.

I went to a Beatles souvenir shop to check out whether they warrant a floaty pen.


Indeed -- among all the commercial rubbish, was a box of Abbey Road floaty pens. I told the man in the shop that I collect floaties and that I have a blog about them.



He laughed and laughed, evidently thought it was insane, but he gave me a discount on the pens! I got them for 2.50 instead of 3 pounds.

Unfortunately, I had already found an Abbey Road pen at Windsor Castle.

Weird find in Windsor

Went to Windsor Castle last week.

On the way out of the castle, after checking in about three gift shops on Her Majesty's premises, I mentioned to these men that there were no Windsor Castle floaty pens to be found anywhere.

They are in charge of taking back audio guides as visitors depart the castle. They also ensure that tourists behave themselves.

The man on the left shouted at some tourists to get out of the way when these soldiers marched past.


"Tourists think they are just for show," he said. "But they are working."

He also said: "I think you'll find some of those pens in the shop across the road."

The man next to him gave my friend and I a mint from the bag he's holding in his hand. He's got relatives in Winnipeg, he said.

We went across the road to a pub and then went into the shop. Lo and behold there were floaty pens made in Denmark:


It seemed weird that one of them was an Abbey Road Beatles pen, but I snapped one up anyway.

China Syndrome

This pen was a gift from a fan of the newly renovated Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. It has the appearance and attributes of a pen made in Denmark, but it is actually made in China.


There was something not quite right about the way it felt and looked. The bubble in the liquid raised my suspicions, but it was when the clip bent to the side that I checked to see where it was from.

The clip is made of a soft aluminum instead of a harder metal such as the type used by the Eskesen company on the real floaty pens.

The ink tends to create mini blots on the paper. The image is very pale.

This pen is a troubling find. It means the purist floaty collector must be ever more vigilant against the incursion of substandard pens.

London loot

I found these London "made in Denmark" pens in a shop on the Strand. I wandered in expecting nothing as usual, but found a great stock of Eskesen brand pens.


I was so taken aback to find them after so many months spent looking for Danish-made London floaties that I asked the shopkeeper if they were knock offs. He obviously thought I was a lunatic of some sort, smiled and pulled out an extra stash from underneath the display area as if to placate me.