Quo Vadis Textagenda (UK edition)

My new Textagenda is here!  This is the UK edition of the Quo Vadis Textagenda.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a long time know I have a special fondness for Textagenda diaries.  I keep coming back to these diaries because they are excellent.  I have a Textagenda from the US, one from France, and now one from the UK!  It's becoming quite a collection!

The Textagenda is Quo Vadis's day per page diary in the academic-year format.  This UK edition has pages of UK-specific information.  I'll walk you through the book.

Interestingly, according to the inside cover, the diary was made in the USA and the cover in Canada.

The next page is Personal information, and a reference calendar for July 2010 through June 2011.

The next two 2-page spreads are for recording your weekly schedule.

Next is a feature I absolutely love in Quo Vadis diaries: the Anno-Planner, with the entire academic year across a two-page spread.

I find the Anno-Planner extremely useful for planning out my year.  Near the back of the book there is another Anno-Planner for the following academic year for future planning.

Next comes the day per page section.  The Textagenda's unique layout has several excellent features.  (Click to enlarge photo.)

The schedule area at the top of the page is good for those of us with few appointments.  Below that the Priority box highlights the major event of the day.  There are lines over most of the page, and at the bottom of the page there is a boxed out area to highlight important notes.  The bottom corner of the page is perforated to tear off, so that the book opens directly to the current day's page.

I was very glad to see that US holidays are printed on the day spaces as well as the UK holidays.  The holidays are shown in the priority box, without taking up too much space:

Scotland-specific holidays are indicated (which I appreciate very much).

Even Equinoxes and Solstices are printed, which I love:

There was a debate awhile back on the Quo Vadis blog about whether people like the blue ink color (in the Textagenda and Notor), or if they prefer the gray ink that was used in previous years.  As I commented on the blog post, I think the circle looks nicer in blue ("more cheerful" as Gini Cooper commented).  The blue lines interfere with my color-coding system a little bit, but really not enough to be an issue.  The lines are dotted and fairly inconspicuous. 

As we all know, I love the monthly tabs at the edge of the pages.  I mean, I really really love them.  I wish every planner in the world had these.

After the last day's page (which is August 4, 2011) there are lots of pages of very useful information.

First are the maps, and Quo Vadis makes great maps.  There is a very useful and accurate Time Zone map, and maps of North America, Canada, South America, and a map of Europe that explains who belongs to the EU and who doesn't (which I never can keep straight).  There's also a good map of the British Isles which is very handy for those of us who live here.

After the maps there is the Anno-Planner for the 2011-2012 academic year that I mentioned before.  After that are some pages of UK-specific information that I find very useful.  There is a chart of "distances between principal UK towns," which I was a bit miffed to discover does not include Aberdeen. Next is a page of emergency and other useful phone numbers, which I really appreciate.

Next is a chart of international telephone codes, and a chart of international holidays.  I really like having this information in my planner.

There is a page of conversion tables, which is especially useful for me since I'm not all that used to the metric system.  There is also a page to record your website usernames and passwords but it seems too risky to keep such sensitive information in a book that I carry around with me. I'll find a different purpose for this page.

This is very handy: there's a page to record birthdays for the year:

After that there are several pages to record addresses and phone numbers, which I will definitely use:

At the very back of the book is a reference calendar for the 2011-2012 academic year.  At the right you can see how the cover of the book fits into the refillable Club cover. I like to stick papers and cards in this back pocket.

In my opinion, the Textagenda is the ideal size for a daily book.  At 4 3/4 by 6 3/4 inches (12 x17 cm) it's the perfect size and shape. It's pleasant to hold in my hands, it fits easily into any of my bags, and the page has plenty of room to write. It's smaller than A5, which can seem too big for a daily planner (unless you're using it as a journal), and it's larger than A6 which might not have enough writing space each day.  The Textagenda's size is just right, substantial yet portable.

The Textagenda has that super-smooth, extra white Clairefontaine paper that is my very favorite in the world for writing. There really is no comparison with any other paper. The paper used in the Textagenda is a little thinner than the paper used in the Quo Vadis weekly planners, to make the daily book not too chunky.

I ordered this Textagenda from the Quo Vadis UK website www.quovadis-diaries.co.uk, and I have a few issues.

When I placed my order, second class postage was included in the price, which was nice. However, I wanted my diary faster so I tried to find a way to get Airmail, but that was not available as an option.  (Maybe there is a minimum spending amount you have to reach to get the option to buy faster delivery?)  I placed my order on Sunday, got the notification Monday morning that it shipped (which is superfast processing), and received my diary today (Thursday).  Like I said, that's great for free shipping, but I would have liked the option of buying faster shipping.

This is the Club cover in Grenadine Pink, which turns out to be not at all what it looks like on the website. On the Quo Vadis UK website (click on Swatches) Grenadine Pink looks like a true pink (on my screen at least).  But in person it is a reddish orangey pink that I would call Coral Pink.

I'm very disappointed that the color is not what was shown on the website, and if I had known the true color of this cover I would have chosen the Aqua color instead. It's not a terrible color, in fact it's bright and cheery, it's just not to my liking and not what I expected the color to be.  As it is, I will probably remove the cover and instead use the purple cover from my Textagenda I bought in France in 2001. I hope the books are the same thickness so that the purple cover will fit.

Another misleading thing on the Quo Vadis website is the image of the inside pages of the Textagenda.  On the Club cover Textagenda ordering page, the image of the pages is actually of the EuroTextagenda, which is a multiple language format.  I did not want the multiple-language version, and I had to download the Quo Vadis catalogue and look through it to verify that the Textagenda in the Club covers has the English-only pages (like the US version seen here).  QV, please update your website accordingly.

I'm absolutely thrilled that my Textagenda is here, and I've immediately put it to heavy use.  My next post will detail how I'm using my daily Textagenda diary alongside my weekly planner.