As soon as I saw the eagerly awaited announcement of the #HiveCollectors monthly theme in early February, which mipiano introduced for us in her post, I knew I would participate, but I thought that my collection, unlike the stories of other Hives, would probably be a little more "sterile" and cold...
And then today, February 11, 2026, I opened one of my notebooks at work and saw the first written date, and understood.
I give the post a bit of emotion and a personal story.
And I have to write it today 🙂
In the company where I still work today, I started my first working days at the end of 2008.
I lost the notebook that I took and started writing in at the beginning of 2009 at one of the fields I used to go to.
Honestly, I think someone stole it from me, because along with the notebook, I was also left without a pencil, but also two screwdrivers.
The year 2009 began, and a friend of mine, the owner of a company with which we had cooperation, gave me his schedule.
And I, on this day 17 years ago, started writing plans, activities and completed tasks in the company.
Since I put in that notebook all the knowledge about the systems I was dealing with until then, as well as some important contacts, phone numbers and email addresses, in order not to risk losing it, I leave it in the office and use it as needed, to read some of the instructions or to write down some new details and contacts, and for the "daily" notebook, the one I carry with me everywhere, I take another one...
And so year after year, notebook by notebook, I fill them with daily entries, almost as if I were keeping an engineer's diary, until a few years ago, the accelerated transition to paperless form began and when entries became reduced to a minimum.
And so, at the beginning of 2019, I take a notebook in which I continue writing, but with much less intensity, because here, I've been using it for 6 years, and I haven't filled it yet. 15 years ago, that was unimaginable :-), I had to write the content in small letters, so that everything for the year could fit in one notebook...
Interesting things in these notebooks, in addition to a useful calendar, were maps, as well as some international abbreviations, which I could not quickly find on the Internet at the time.
Since I write less and less, I switch to writing in the Cyrillic script, which takes a little more time, but is good for practice (because Cyrillic is a script that is less and less used, and it is the script of my people).
Of the notebooks that I have in my collection, either at work or at home, the most common ones are those that I received from partner companies or various operators.
Some of them will be used at some point, but the vast majority will remain as a memory of some distant times, when pencils were used much more.
I have a few at work, not enough to call it a collection, but at home, it's a big pile...
Multicolored, patterned, with a spiral and soft cover or hard cover, with decorative leaves in the middle of blank sheets of paper, with interesting details, all these notebooks were received as a gift, and have not been used until now.
And they are designed interestingly. They have pen holders, they have nice decorative clips, they have a great inscription, which is what I'm going to name this post 😀
And there is one that, in addition to blank sheets of paper, also has postcards that need to be colored before sending, I Feel Slovenia.
I received them from the operators who did the rebranding and name change from VIP to A1, from the old well-known MTS, from Orion Telecom, from Boma (the company from which we buy equipment for security systems), from the SMATSA agency for flight control and Amadeus, the company that sells airline tickets.
Dozens of notebooks, without a single pencil stroke, crouch in display cases and wait for their chance.
Well, let's at least remember them here, in the monthly topic of Hive collectors.
I saw in the posts of other collectors, some Hive notebooks appeared.
If I had it, I would probably keep a record of my Hive trip in it, and I would certainly write in it the names of those of you, whom I would have the opportunity to meet in person.
Until I get hold of a Hive diary, I salute you and close this February story.
