Journal 21 (Left), Notor Daily Planner (Right)I have been using an Exacompta Gulliver refillable and undated planner this year and was excited by the prospect of a daily planner. Thanks to the generosity of Exaclair's Marketing Vice President, Karen Doherty, I was included in a group of bloggers who received review copies.
Overview
This bound 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" (12 x 17 cm) daily planner, part of the Quo Vadis Habana family, features recyclable paper, with a smooth leather look hardbound cover, rounded corners, matching elastic and Quo Vadis signature on the back. It is the perfect size and shape to either carry with you or use as a desktop planner. It is a hand-sewn binding, and does lay flat after some use. The planner is available in black, red and orange and is made with North American components and assembled right in Hamburg, New York.
Content:
At the front is a Personal Notes page (left) with a space for more personalized notes and a blank Notes page (right) includes information like blood type, and insurance policy provider in addition to the normative data often omitted in journals and very helpful for those prone to misplace or forget these bits of vital data.
The addition of international telephone access codes is quite handy, especially for those like me who travel and/or have friends abroad.
The adjacent right hand page with a chart of international holidays may require some review. Omissions and inconsistencies appear for some countries, i.e. Boxing Day is both a Canadian and a United Kingdom holiday; Israel’s Independence Day, which will fall on 9 April in 2009 is omitted as is the Netherlands', Sinterklass, December 5.
Perhaps it is too ambitious to attempt such a varied list of international holidays and instead restrict to the list to a small number of countries.
The Planner pages are nicely designed providing several options for entries, including notes and priorities.
At the rear and immediately following the Daily Pages appears Average Temperatures, several black and white maps, another page for Notes, and an alphabetical address log.
Although many of these are common in planners, I would prefer that address pages be better left for address books, and that maps that can’t be easily read be omitted entirely or provided in color and in a larger scale. The Temperature Chart, like the International Telephone Access Codes, is an added feature that can and will serve the frequent traveler.
A 2010 calendar appears at the extreme rear and easy to read in shaded and unshaded
The Back Cover has an expandable pocket for those stray items of paper we all seem to collect and save. It runs the full length of the cover.
Paper
While the paper is quite nice, the 64g weight is not heavy enough to handle the average fountain pen. With a narrow italic Rotring 600 nib there was evident show through. This was something I anticipated after using the Exacompta journal for nearly a year which also has show and bleed through especially with wider nibs.
My Overall impression is this is a very well manufactured planner that would benefit from a ribbon place mark, heavier weight paper in the neighbourhood of 72g. To offset the heavier paper I would easily forgo an address book and maps.
This planner and/or other Quo Vadis planners are available on line and at many local supply stores. Check the Quo Vadis site for specific locations.
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