After Labour Day

Hello again, belated Labour Day wishes to all you workers out there. Here in Canada Labour Day is a holiday observed as part of a long weekend and as such Canada Post did not operate yesterday, so no new mail since last Friday. But a good collector always has a few cards on standby for holidays. So that's what you get today - good cards from good places , all with good stamps.

Let's start with a card from David, from his latest trip to Somalia. On his card we can see a part of the city of Mogadishu, the capital and most populous city in Somalia. A few years back Mogadishu was considered perhaps the most dangerous capital city on Earth. I'm not sure if that label still applies , but I would bet it's close.

Now we postcard collectors all know that there is no operating postal service in Somalia, so no this card was not mailed from Mogadishu. But thanks to David's efforts , it received a Mogadishu Somalia Post postmark on Aug 10, 2016 , right in the Mogadishu General Post Office. The stamp on my card was even bought there, it seems the post Office is gearing up to reopen in early 2017. Staff has even been trained in Djibouti for the big day. But of course even after all that David still had to take the stamped and postmarked cards back to Ireland and distribute from there. This is as good as it gets at the moment for mail from Somalia.

Now the stamp , it was issued in 1995. It's 1 in a set of 5 celebrating the Centenary of Film.

A nice looking  set of stamps actually.


Now it's another card sent by Jobbo, this one is postmarked Vientiane, Laos. On this card we see the Royal Palace in Luang Prabang, located approximately 300 km north of the capital. Luang Prabang consists of 58 villages , of which 33 comprise the UNESCO Town of Luang Prabang World Heritage Site. The Royal Palace was built between 1904 and 1909.

Jobbo used a fine selevtion of Laos stamps including this first one , a new addition to my Aviation/Aircraft Stamp Collection. It shops a Sopwith Camel from a 1996 set of 5 Aircraft stamps issued for Capex'96 - the World Philatelic Exhibition held in Toronto , Canada in June of 1996. The middle stamp is 1 of 3 issued in 2008 celebrating Cotton. Over on the right is a definitive from 1984 depicting the Flag of Laos.

One further note on stamps and Laos. Jobbo wrote that Vietiane's only philatelic shop, Paboukham & Sons has closed its doors. Philatelic shops are hard to find these days , just about anywhere. Sad news indeed.


Here's a card just to see who's still awake. It's certainly not spring time any longer, but I guess any time is string time. This is a swap card from Carla in Italy. I send her U.S. state map cards and she sends me whatever she wants. Works for me.

Carla used a recent stamp issued on 27 June of this year. It celebrated Juventus, Italian Football Champs since 2012.

Now let's have a look at three cards from Johan in Belgium. A nice Aviation related card featuring Ostend-Bruges International Airport. The airport, located just 5 km south southwest of Ostend and 25 km from Bruges is served by Freebird Airlines, Jetairfly, Tunisair and Tailwind Airlines. Johan's card shows an older prop aircraft, maybe a DC-3,  at sunset flying over the field.

This card arrived with a new 2016 Para-cycling stamp and a fine Rio inspired Genk postmark. The stamp celebrates the 2016 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup held in Ostend.

   Johan's second card is a picture of Rik Wouters 1912 oil on canvas " Lady With Yellow Collar " .  You can see this painting at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

A beautiful large stamp on this one. It's an image of a Rik Wouters self portrait with cigar, painted in 1914. It's postmarked with a special Rik Wouters 1882-1916 cancellation .

Here's number 3 from Johan. It's a cover showing The Blue Lotus, for many readers the most frightening of all the Tintin adventures.

The stamp is 1 of 5 issued to celebrate 70 Years of Tintin Magazine.

Be sure to check out Johan's fine postcard blog right here .


Today's final cards are both from Nigeria. In my more than 10 years of collecting postcards, they are  just numbers 2 and 3 from Nigeria. So they are welcome additions to the collection.

The first one shows scenes from the Masquerades in Calabar, Nigeria. Masquerades of the Efik people is one of the oldest traditional and cultural events throughout Africa. Its roots are deep in traditional religion. It is full of chants, songs and dances and symbolizes the return of ancestors who come out occassionally to give messages from the spirit world to their people.

Bruce , who was visiting from South Africa, sent this card from Abuja, the capital city, a new planned city built mainly in the 1980s. Bruce used 2 stamps from 2010 , both of which commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Independence from the United Kingdom.

Now for Bruce's second card. It's a little older card dating from 2003, issued by the Nigerian Postal Service. The card was issued to highlight the  Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Abuja in December of 2003. On the card we see traditional dancers from Yoruba Land, Nigeria.

Bruce used a 2010 Hologram stamp issued to highlight the Argungu Fishing Festival. Even though classed as a hologram stamp, the only hologram on it is the square imprint at the right side, but it really doesn't shown anything in the hologram.

There you have it, another update on the blog. Thanks for today's cards go out to Bruce, Johan, Carla, Jobbo and David. Please come by again soon and if you have anything to say about this update, just leave a comment. Cheers.