Academic Moleskine Diary 2022-2023 (Red)

This has been some year!

In June 2022, I became the EIS National President just as the, now legendary, Pay Attention campaign began. I could not have envisioned how amazing it was going to be, but one thing I did know for sure…it was going to be busy. I also knew that such a special year deserved some top-notch stationery. Buying The Diary is an important part of the back to work ritual for me. I figure that if I’m going to be looking at it a lot, it may as well be a nice one. And so, with the same logic that applies to buying a new lipstick to give you confidence in the delivery of an important speech, I treated myself to an A5, week to view, red Academic Moleskine Diary.

Why Moleskine? Well, I might not hanker after designer handbags, but I am impressed by good stationery, and Moleskine is pure class. The pages are velvet soft. Writing on them is the scriptural equivalent of walking on a plush, deep pile, woollen carpet in cashmere socks. And it has a red elasticated fastening that has a soft, satisfying snap when it closes. Why Academic? Well, despite, not having been in a classroom for six years, I’m still a teacher at heart, and so the year begins in August. Why red? Well, socialism, obviously.

I’m not a complete Luddite. I do know that electronic diaries are a thing – and I do use mine as well. But my A5, week to view beauty is more than just a thing for holding appointments. It’s part diary, part planner, part journal, part confessional, part organiser. Salient points that need to be brought up with a politician sit alongside shopping lists and newly discovered beauty secrets shared by sisters. I see the week at a glance. I see where the gaps are. I see when I can do prep, and when I’m going to have to develop some skills in bilocation.

In June 2023, as my term as President drew to a close, the real value of my little red beauty came into focus. As I held it in my hands and thumbed through the pages, I looked with pride over the pages that recorded the year I’d just had. Physical proof that it happened. A tangle of different coloured inks. Writing that was neat in August, progressing to barely legible, hurried flourishes by December. Appointments that took me all over Scotland, delivering pay campaign speeches, talking to members and politicians, are forever enshrined. On the pages is testament to the fact I was in Harrogate,

Killarney, Liege, Warsaw, Melbourne and Sydney- meeting people, making connections, being an ambassador for the EIS.

I see the days when I genuinely prayed that I would be able to get it all done. I see wellbeing meetings that were done from carparks, and Executive meetings that were chaired from airport lounges. I took part in two Strategy Sub Meetings from the comfort of the hairdresser’s chair – robed in black nylon, mulling over the intricacies of the campaign while waiting for my colour to develop. It felt like trade unionism and womanhood were in competition. I’m happy to say, I made room for both.

It wasn’t just the meetings and rallies and the rooms I was in when it was happening that my diary is witness to, it’s also the things that were crossed out. Nail appointments were cancelled, rescheduled, cancelled again, then eventually stopped appearing. Weekends with pals were sacrificed for sister union conferences. There were birthday teas that were tentatively pencilled in, knowing full well by the time I got there, there would be little cake left for me. I don’t regret a single thing.

When I was in Sydney, I took out my diary to check something, and a Tasmanian teacher, called Rowan, laughed disparagingly, “You still use a paper diary?” I felt like he’d slapped my child. Yes. Yes, I do. And I’ll keep using it. 

My diary is a record for years to come of a year when I wholeheartedly and willingly served the members and helped them win on pay. And looking through my diary, the evidence is there: I did with grit and glamour, perseverance and passion, and hardiness and humour. And my red Moleskine diary.

Written by Andrene Bamford, EIS