Below the upper stationery shelf, the entry for which I have just added a photograph to (thus discovering just how indifferent people are to the series) is the lower stationery shelf. It looks like this:
On the left is an old box that used to hold dot matrix fanfold paper, but now holds old felt-tip pens, batteries, coloured pencils, matches and a calligraphy set from when I was in my teens and a teacher insisted that all I needed to improve my handwriting was a decent pen (HA!). There are some sticky labels in the box, too, along with some Letraset letter transfers from a bygone age when I couldn't just print fancy fonts directly onto paper when constructing my home-made games.
Underneath the box are a few document wallets, some transparent A4 pouches for me to put in wads of paper that are too thick to staple, and some throwaway cardboard. The cardboard is for resting on when I'm cutting things up with sharp knives, because my wife gets cross when I brutally scar the table.
To the right of the box is my sticky tape dispenser, behind which is a weird hole-making clip device I inherited from my uncle. There's a nice stack of metallic pens behind that, which I used to colour in pound coins in the days when my kids wanted tooth fairy money.
To the right of the stapler is a pile of old notebook entries in case I ever need to look back and find cryptic messages I wrote myself in 1993. My supply of big post-it notes and reserve of small post-it notes is on top of the notebooks, and underneath it are some sliders that I can use to hold together large academic papers that I have no hope of getting a stapler through. Behind the post-it notes is a two-hole punch that was originally my wife's, and behind that is a can of spray-mount adhesive that I use to stick paper onto card (the paper being from board games I make - I print the playing surface onto A4 paper then stick the paper onto card). Oh, and to the left of the spray-mount adhesive is a pile of record cards I use for games-making sometimes, on top of which are some roulette chips I use as tokens. I guess I should really move these to my games-creating kit box...
At the right-hand edge of the shelf is the lid of an old fanfold paper box. Inside this is a bunch of old MUD2stuff — maps, stickers, credit card sized cards with a MUSE Ltd format account number embossed on them, copies of newspapers players wrote, advertising material we used to send out — that kind of thing. There's a small two-ring folder on top of this pile, which is going to come in handy one day, just you wait and see...
Finally, underneath the box are some folders and large envelopes containing original artwork. Some of it is for MUD2, and some of it is for other projects such as The So Book of Spoons. All were drawn by my brother, who had Artistic Ability. I loved his cartoon style, and these little guys he used to make out of plasticine. Ah well.
Next time: the upper computer games shelf.