Filofax Blue Personal Finsbury Review

I never thought I'd own a Finsbury again after selling my red pocket a while ago, but alas, here I am again with another. However, there's a twist: for one, it's Personal sized, and for another, it's blue! My red Finsbury didn't give me any trouble previously. In fact, it was probably the first Filofax I actually used for an acceptable period of time before I got myself the Holborn. The one thing I didn't like about it was the fact that it could never lay flat. And so, I did have my hesitations about getting the Personal sized. But after seeing some pictures online (and handling a pink zipped one in store), I decided that the extent of its 'flatability' wasn't as bad as the pocket.

Not to mention, the blue Finsbury is a discontinued stock, which means it's a current rare find... so naturally, I had to have it. I was actually surprised to be able to find one on Filofaxshop (at the still discounted price!), because I distinctly remember selecting the blue option without getting any luck. And the icing on the cake: right after I bought it, the item went out of stock. Talk about right place, right time.

But anywho. My Finsbury arrived promptly this morning, just in time, as I was about to head out. And now without further adieu, let me introduce to you, the newest addition to the family, the blue personal Finsbury:

Finsbury arrived!

Back

I can't seem to get the colour right. It's a nice blue, a little different from what I've seen in pictures (is there such a thing as an aqua Finsbury?), but still acceptable. However, I can't seem to get my pictures to the correct tone. Not to mention, I cannot, for the life of me, get it to lay flat - even with bluetac! This Finny will definitely need some hardcore training exercises! Here's the maximum it could open, and even then it was slowly closing on itself:

Does NOT open flat

I must say though, I love the colour, and it really matches my mood these days. I reckon though, with a little wear, it might look a little bit better.. After all, the main reason why I purchased the blue was because it brought some colour into my life. I've been looking through Filofax's website only to realise that they greatly lack colourful leather Filofaxes (excluding the Original). Every coloured leather Filofax has been discontinued, which is quite disappointing. The major colours available now are the usual black, blue, brown, purple, and red, which can get dull. Don't get me wrong though, these colours would be useful in a formal setting (and to avoid getting that unwanted attention), but when all you want is something fun to brighten up your day, a coloured Filofax does the job.

But enough jabber, time to bring on more pictures of Finny:

Inside - the only way to get it to stay open was to use a paper weight & my finger

The insides are plain and simple: 6 card slots and one vertical pocket on the right, and one zippered pocket on the left. For some reason, the Finsbury seems a lot more thinner than other personal organisers I have, despite having the same 23mm rings. Maybe it's because it's hard leather, so it doesn't have that puffiness to it. But the fact that it's hard means it's durable. And it could probably be dropped from a 5 story high building and survive... it could probably even be used to hammer off predators and survive...

The rings are gap-less and lovely:

Gap-less rings

The diary came with the usual week-on-two-pages 2014 diary, addresses, notes, to-do lists, website lists, black ruler, A-Z address tabs and 4 unnamed tabs, which are all going to be replaced with my own creations.

I was quite excited about seeing the pen loop as I thought it was going to be elastic from all the pictures I saw, but I think that only applies to the compact version... Oh wells. I guess I'll just have to use my self-made (Leuchhturm 1917) pen loop. I haven't tried fitting a pen through the loop, and I don't think I ever will...

Non-elastic pen loop

After all the forced opening of Finny, it has actually opened up... slightly. It now stays open at a wider angle without slowly closing on itself. Success! More training sessions will be on the way:

Forced opening has enabled Finny to open at a wider angle without closing on itself

Now all I have to do is move into this organiser, create new dividers, decide what to include and I'm done! No pressure. But that's the blue Finsbury!