The First Cards of 2017 and Other Stuff

Hello again. Hope everyone is doing well and keeping any resolutions made. I don't make so I don't break any. Works great for me. It has been  2017 for a week now so it's time to have a look at cards that have arrived this year. So far only three have found their way to my mailbox.
The first one for the year is from France, and it shows the Moulin Rouge in Paris. This famous cabaret dates back to 1889.

This fine card was sent by Dominique and he used a 2015 stamp celebrating Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a town of approximately 2,500 in the south of France.

The second card arrived from the Netherlands and brought Christmas and New Year's greetings from Barbara. I'm not sure if that's Mrs Claus or not on the card. I never pictured her looking quite like that. But she does have a sack of toys over her shoulder , so who knows ? I do think that's Rudolph with her though.

Barbara used a number of different stamps and maybe even a 2015 Christmas Seal. The lower left stamp was issued as a personal Christmas stamp in 2004, or so my catalogue tells me. The top right stamp is a semi-postal Christmas stamp from 2005.  The small one in the top left is the one I believe to be the Christmas seal. If anyone knows for sure, maybe you can leave a comment to that effect.

The third card received so far this year is from Yangon, Myanmar. It's a picture of a historical heritage building, which housed the Yangon Division Courts at one time, I'm not sure if this is still the case or not.

This card was sent by Jobbo. He used a couple of stamps, on the  left is a 2007 stamp from a set of 3 celebrating Myanmar's Constitution. On the right is another mystery stamp. This is the second stamp from this set I have received. Had no information on that one either. I do like the cancellation though " FOREIGN AIR MAIL OUT 12 Dec 2016 " . There's no excuse for mistaking where this card should go.

There it is, that's the 3 new cards for the first week of 2017. Thanks to Dominique, Barbara and Jobbo.

Now as a bonus, I have 2 Maximum cards from Transkei. They celebrate 10 Years of Transkei Airways. For those of you out there that do not know  - Transkei , officially the Republic of Transkei, was a Bantustan- an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity - and nominal parliamentary democracy in southwestern South Africa. It operated from 1976 to 1994.

Thanks for these 2 cards go out to Bruce.

Now I guess most of you thought that was the end. Sorry, but I have to vent or rant a little here. To say I'm pissed would be an understatement. Back in late November / early December My Lovely Teena and I partook of a cruise in SE Asia. As always I make a point of sending postcards from the many ports to my postcard friends around the world and also to myself in Canada. To make sure this all went off without a hitch, I even ordered and received stamps for each country we would be visiting. So I brought with me beautiful , large and interesting stamps for Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam.   I even had a supply of Singapore stamps , but unfortunately I never got to use them. I sent a total of 82 cards while on the cruise. Many , many of them have arrived in France, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Turkey, Belgium, Ireland, South Africa and Macedonia. And I'm very happy that they have. Even a few, a small few though, have arrived in Canada. Here now is the problem. Sixteen cards have not arrived in Canada and I have been home over a month. Four cards from Thailand, four from Cambodia and eight from Viet Nam are still missing. I could understand if it was just 1 or 2 cards - cards go missing all the time, although I don't know why. Considering it's only cards to Canada missing, it doesn't take a genius to see the problem lies on this end. Were the cards too beautiful, were the stamps too beautiful for Canada Post to deliver ?   Are they being held for a ransom, maybe , but I haven't yet received any demands ? Even My Lovely Teena is mad at the post office for me. I'm not one to talk as you all know, but this is so disappointing. For weeks now I walk down to my mailbox and return empty handed. Teena asks " anything today ? " My reply for weeks has been " maybe tomorrow or next week . "
Who am I kidding?  Guess I should take off my rose colored  glasses. This is just another example of wonderful Canada Post service. Let's not forget their wonderful marker or pen stroke cancels, or their many times not having new stamps on their actual first day issue. Frustrating for sure. I'd like to see the results of a postal service satisfaction survey, for post offices around the world, if one actually exists. I'm pretty sure where I'd look for Canada Post. Did someone say near the bottom, sounds about right. Anyway, to those of you who received cards from me, consider yourselves lucky , me not so much. That's it, I'm all in .

Take care now . Thanks for reading.  See you again soon. COMMENTS anyone ? How about some explanations for the missing cards - all reasons welcome - no matter how far fetched or out there ?