BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

Yes it's a very Busy weekend and I'm trying to get this update in before something else comes along. Today is Valentine's Day , I 'm taking My Lovely Teena out to dinner this evening. Two grand kids had a sleepover here last evening. I just put up a new Canadian Flag outside to celebrate National Flag of Canada Day tomorrow. Our red and white maple leaf was raised for the first time 49 years ago tomorrow in 1965. Tomorrow there is a birthday party for 2 more grand kids , one celebrating his 8th and one celebrating his 6th. This weekend is a long weekend here in Alberta as Monday is Family Day,  a local holiday. And finally, there is the Olympics, especially now that hockey has started. So getting to postcards has taken a bit of a back door this weekend. But, typing quietly like this may help me get through it .

Let's start with this fine Airline / Aircraft postcard. It's an Air Inter Europe Airbus A300, shown at Paris Orly in March of 1996. Air Inter Europe operated as such between Jan 1996 and April 1997, when it was fully integrated into Air France.

Not only is this a great aviation card , it also arrived with 2 First Day of Issue, 2014 Year of the Horse stamps from France. And special cancellations to boot. All thanks to Jean Pierre.

This second card is again transportation themed , but this time it railway related. Grand Central Terminal in New York City.   Grand Central Terminal is a commuter railroad terminal at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Built by and named for the New York Central Railway  in the heyday of American long-distance passenger rail travel, it is the largest such facility in the world by number of platforms with 44 serving 67 tracks along them. They are on two levels, both below ground, with 41 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower. Although the terminal has been properly called “Grand Central Terminal” since 1913, many people continue to refer to it as “Grand Central Station,” the name of the previous rail station on the same site.

Evelina , a Postcrosser originally from the Ukraine, used a couple stamps that are quite unknown to me. As a regular reader of Linn's Stamp News I usually know what's new in U.S stamps, but have to say that this issue escaped me completely. Next to the Tiffany Lamp definitive from 2007 are 2 stamps from a 2005 mini/sheet of 10 called "To Form A More Perfect Union ", Seeking Equal Rights For African Americans. Also on this mini/sheet are the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. "For in A Real Sense, America is Essentially A Dream . A Dream as Yet Unfulfilled . It is A Dream of A Land Where Men of All Races , of All Nationalities and of All Creeds Can Live Together As Brothers ".  

My next card is of the Lennusadam Seaplane Harbour, part of the Estonian Maritime Museum. The seaplane hangars here  were initially constructed as part of the naval fortress of Peter the Great in 1916-1917. The hangars are the world's first reinforced concrete shell structure.

Here's another picture , along with the prepaid postage that Meelis used to post this card in Rakvere, a town in northern Estonia, 20 km south of the Gulf of Finland. The prepaid  worldwide postage is of an early seaplane, very appropriate for this card's subject matter.

Time is ticking away here, and I have to go to dinner with My Lovely Teena, so it's just one more card for this time. This one comes from Sri Lanka. It is an Antonov An-158, a stretched version of the AN-148. This card shows the aircraft in the livery of Ukraine International Airlines, I believe. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Fellow postcard blogger Ravindra used a 2010 stamp celebrating Vesak, a holy day observed by Buddhists around the world. This stamp is from a set of 4.

Okay , that does it for this time. Thanks to all for their cards.

Now it's off to Paros On Main with My Lovely Teena for Dinner to celebrate Valentine's.
Later.