My name is Paulo Toste, I'm from Portugal, married to Carla, a lovely Brasilian. We are the proud parents of two boys, Luis and Antonio, and a girl, Maria.
I'm an electrical enginner and I work in the Portuguese branch of a Spanish energy company.
My hobbies are hi-fi, as well as watches and fountain pen collecting.
Love music, almost every style, from jungle to ancient music. My preferences presently go to jazz and XV century music.

Hi Paulo.

Lisbon is a lovely city and I still remember parties from Doks.

Hi, Paulo. Welcome to the friendliest pen forum there is.

Ray

Boa vinda!

And you live, of course, at the
beautiful mirador on top of that hill? :-)

Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden

http://www.algonet.se/~claesg

Welcome to FPN! Glad you found us. Beautiful picture - thanks for sharing it.

You mention that you collect FPs, but didn't mention which brands or models. What's in your collection?

Looking forward to getting to know you on the boards.

Hi Paulo,

You have a wonderful life, obviously. You will enrich our humble board with tales from Lisbon.

Please settle in and enjoy FPN.

Hi Paulo, welcome aboard!

Acho que eu sou o único brasileiro aqui neste forum - há também um argentino, que mora no norte do Brasil e fala portugues, mas nenhum outro.
Como voce deve ser o primeiro portugues, somos os unicos lusófonos...
Aliás, sou também engenheiro eletricista, embora atualmente trabalhe na área de Estatística e computação (espero que este site aceite acentos e não se misture tudo...)

I have been to Lisbon once, in 2000. Great city! Are there good places to buy pens there? Could you recommend a pen-shop in Portugal? I have relatives who visit Portugal every year, and they could perhaps bring me something...

Welcome again, and I hope you enjoy this forum.

regards,
Rique

Hi Paulo,
Sorry for the late welcome but....

Welcome to FPN!

I am just trying to remember if you are our first member from Portugal....I think you may be! Nice to have you here. What type of pens do you collect?

Hi Paulo and welcome to the FPN! It's a coincidence that right now I am listening to a great Jazz CD titled, "April In Portugal" by Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra. This CD was recorded in 1958 in full Stereophonic sound and is fantastic.

You have come to the right place to find those who have great taste in music and fine writing instruments too!

Hi and Welcome!

which is your house in the pic?

Enjoy!

[Edit: horrible spelling ]

Thanks for the welcoming!

I don't live in Saint Jorge Castle (that's the one pictured) but I can't complain of my view over Lisbon!


And fine sunsets!


About my pens, I've been searching slowly. I've got my father's Parker 21 Special restaured, a 51, a Centennial Mosaic black, a Pelikan M800 green striped and a fp and pencil Sheaffer PFM I. I'll post some pics in the forum.

Cheers,
Paulo

Hi Paulo
photographs are wonderful. Welcome aboard, I joined a few days ago and have been intrigued, bamboozeld, overawed and confused by the pen lore. See your a Mosaic owner, my daily writers a blue Parker Mosaic, great to watch others drool over it.
Have fun
Agmn

What a greeeeeaaaaat view! Nice sunsets too!

Wecome again!

Hi Rique,
Where are you from in Brasil? My wife is from Florianópolis, we go there to visit family every now and then!
We have good shops here but prices are very very high. I buy all my pens online for around half the price.
Cheers,
Paulo

Hi Paulo,

I live in Juiz de Fora (Minas Gerais). I´ve been to Lisbon once, in 2000, for a conference; my sister lives there, in Cascais.
There´s a funny thing about buying pens online, in Brazil: the prices online are almost always higher than the prices in shops. I know of three online dealers: www.ecanetas.com.br, www.canetasonline.com.br and www.marianoprieto.com.br, and all three have horrible prices. For instance, the first of these is offering a black Duofold for 920 USD, and an Expert II for 260 USD... (1 dollar = 2.4 Brazilian reais). At the "real" shops, however, the prices fluctuate wildly. That probably happens because the market for FPs is very small (I know of only two pen shops, both in Sao Paulo), and there is a lot of problems with distributors (Parker and waterman, for instance, have been without distributors in the country for two years... ). Most pens you find in the shops are NOS, and the prices vary a lot, though they are almost always much higher than in the US and in Europe.
Are there online pen shops in Portugal?

regards,
Rique

Paulo - incredible view! Neat thing you've got going with the power line tower .

Olá Rique,

AFAIK the only online shop is Papelaria Fernandes www.papelariafernandes.pt
Caderno Diario www.cadernodiario.pt is a bigger network but with no online shopping.

Cheers,
Paulo

Thanks for the links, Paulo! I´ll check them. Incidentally, there´s a very interesting Brazilian FP site I don´t know you´ve seen: www.starfountainpen.com.br. THis is the best vintage pen dealer in the country, IMO.

regards,
Henrique