The Story of the Ink that Survived a Winter Journey from Arizona to Toronto

Monday was a public holiday for us - Family Day - and thus, yesterday, Tuesday was the first work day of the week for me. I awoke to the sight of falling snow which was really a surprise as snow was not in the forecast. Nevertheless, I braved the snowy commute to work.

It was a terrible drive and I feared for my life on more than one occasion. I arrived at the office quite late and missed a meeting. Tuesday was not off to a good start but I did my best to make the best of it. I left the office early to avoid another long commute home.

After dinner, evening family activities and getting my son off to bed, I finally had a chance to sit at my computer. I clicked on my Deliveries app and noticed that my package from Pen Chalet had been delivered. My husband was out and had the mailbox key so I texted if he could 'please, please, please go to the mailbox...there is a package with ink. I don't want it to explode.'

I was grateful and relieved when he came home with the mail. I quickly opened up my package from Pen Chalet. Inside, I found some NASA-like packaging material. Interesting, I thought, the previous packages from Pen Chalet did not contain this material.

Let's step back for a moment. 9 days earlier I was listening to the episode of Penaddict with Azizah Azgarali as guest and Brad was going on about the great deal on the Platinum 3776 Sai. I only have the Platinum Cool in my pen collection so the 3776 on my 'later' wish list. After hearing the deal and doing some homework, I found myself putting one into my shopping cart. Well, I couldn't just order one pen and have it shipped from the US...I had to put something else into the cart. I debated and decided to put a bottle of Sailor Jentle Shigure in the cart.

I never ordered ink in the dead of winter before...because, well, I live in the Great White North otherwise know as Canada. Ink is water. Water freezes into ice. Ice expands and can result in broken bottles and an inky mess. But I thought I would be daring since we were having some above normal temperature recently...with any luck the ink would arrive before the deep freeze returned.

Of course, my gamble didn't work because a couple days after I placed the order, we hit the coldest temperatures of the year. Hence, it was with some trepidation that I opened up the box. I was glad to see the thermal wrapping material because, I hoped, with any luck, I didn't have a mess on my hands.

I proceeded to remove the annoying staticky foam bits then extracted the thermal wrapped contents.

I removed the thermal wrap. All looked well.

I opened up the ink...it was not frozen! Nice.

Liquid ink!!!  Note the beading on the glass as the bottle was still cold. — Liquid ink!!! Note the beading on the glass as the bottle was still cold.

So, I quickly flushed out the 3776 and proceeded to ink it up with the Shigure. Did a little writing test. Ahhh, suddenly my day ended up on a high note.

That, my friends, is the end of the story of a ink's journey from Arizona to Toronto. I was so stoked about the packaging that I had to share.

I will do a proper review of the pen and ink later.