You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat, And eat three pounds of sausages at a go, Or only bread and pickle for a week, And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
And our ability to laugh at ourselves is one of our great national characteristics, just as well, you may say so, given some of the vicissitudes I have faced with frustratingly failing fountain pens this year.
You have to develop that so that whatever questions come, even strange questions about pens and pencils, or fishing, then you can react and be flexible in your use of English to give confident answers.
Absurd as it might seem to me, a thousand miles from any human habitation and in danger of death, I took out of my pocket a sheet of paper and my fountain pen.