Saturday, November 30, 2019

Cards From Germany and Elsewhere

Good Day to all. It's Black Friday, so a good day to stay home and blog. Not to mention it's  -20 C.
On to the cards - of course my first card is an Airline / Aircraft card. Arriving from Germany, it shows an Aero Lloyd Airbus A321, registered as D-ALAH. This aircraft entered service in 1998 and has sice seen service with Livingston, Volare Airlines and Onur Air.



Reinhold used an assortment of stamps on his card. There are 2 Flower definitives, 2   ATM or computer stamps and 1 Airplane themed stamp which was issued in 2004. It shows the Dornier Do-X Flying Boat.




My next card is also from Germany. It's a sketch of Fantasia, The Sorcerer's Apprentice , from a Disney film of 1940.



Tani used a Flower definitive along with a 2019 stamp featuring Baby Racoons.




A couple of quite old aircraft are featured on this next card. In the background is a Douglas DC-2 and in the foreground is a Douglas DC-3. Both are in KLM colors.



Calvin used a nice Aviation related stamp from this year. It is 1 of 3 stamps in a beautiful minisheet commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Dutch Aviation. The thing that sets this sheet off for me is that looking at the whole sheet, it seems to me that I am looking through the windows of an aircraft.It looks to me like the sheet has 7 windows to look through. . The other stamp is an International Rate Windmill stamp from 2014.


I think I'm going to have to add this minisheet to my collection. It's just that nice.

Here is a card from Lathi, Finland. This city of about 120,000 is located in the south of the country. Windows and flowers are featured . I believe the writing on the front translates to " Joy and Light of your day " .





Jari used 2 stamps from a 2014 set of 10 issued showing Bridges and Waters.




Time now for a card from India. Nagi sent this one from a Postcrossing meeting at a stamp exhibition, Karnapex 2019.
The card shows a Sukhoi-30 MKI, a twin-jet all weather, long range fighter built for the Indian Air Force.



Nagi used 2 copies of a definitive from a 2016 set of 16 called Makers of India. The large  colorful stamp is from 2017, 1 of 16 in a set called Headgear of India.




Hey , it's one more card from Germany. They must be a busy lot of postcarders.
This card shows an Austrian train in the Alps.



Albrecht used a Flower definitive and 2 other larger stamps. The top one is from 2016 and showcases the Naumburg Cathedral. The lower stamp was issued in 2017 and commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the City of Neunburg vorm Wald.



The last card today is from Hong Kong. It's a look at Chek Lap Kok International Airport. That's a Cathy Pacific Jet flying overhead.
In 2015, it was the 8th busiest airport in the world, with 68.5 million passengers.



Andrew used 1 of 6 stamps in a 2019 minisheet. It showcases the Underwater World of Hong Kong.


Well there you have it - another blog complete. It was Black Friday when I started , but I didn't get it finished until today - Saturday.
Thanks for cards today go out to Calvin, Jari, Reinhold, Tani, Nagi, Albrecht and Andrew.
Thanks for dropping in , see you next time.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Cards from Here and There

Hello again. I'm back with a few cards from all around. Big cards, smaller cards and shaped cards.
 Let's start with this BIG card from Sri Lanka. Ravindra's card show four Lighthouse stamps issued by Sri Lanka in 1996. Left to right top to bottom , they are: Little Basses, Great Basses, Devinuwara and Galle Lighthouse.



This lighthouse card arrived with a nice Lighthouse stamp issued in 2018. It is Galboka Point Light and is 1 of 4 in a set.




Next is this shaped card, although I'm not sure just what the shape represents. It was designed and printed for the Qingdao China Postcrossing Meetup held on September 13th of this year. It shows a ChinaPost mailbox. It was signed or ( actually stamped ) by 9 Postcrossing members.



SiShanglong used 3 stamps on his card. Unfortunately , because of the way he positioned the stamps, you will need to move around a bit to look at them. Let me start at the top left - 1 of 4 in a set in a minisheet issued in 2017. Three of the four are China stamps and the 4th is a Hong Kong stamp. They were issued to Commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Return of Hong Kong to China in 2017. It was a Joint Issue with Hong Kong. The next stamp, the grey one, was issue in 106. It is 1 of 4 in a set showcasing Chinese Scientists. Here we see Ding Wenjiang. The final stamp shows a Sailing Ship and it was issued in 2013.




Now here's a card showing a few sites in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At top left is Jamek Mosque , dating from 1909. At bottom left is the former Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, built in 1910. At right is The National Monument. It was unveiled in 1966.



Nurhafizah used a Garden Flower stamp .
from 2010.




Hong Kong is up next. Featured on the card is a Chinese junk in Hong Kong harbour, a traditional Chinese wooded sailboat, dating back to the Han Dynasty. Back a number of years ago, during our visit to Hong Kong, we had the pleasure of sailing on a sampan but not a junk.



Zero used a wonderful selection of stamps on her card. At top left is 1 of 6 issued in 2019 highlighting the Government Flying Service. The top right stamp, from 2018, is 1 of 6 Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Fire Services Department. The middle stamp , also from 2019, is 1 of 6 celebrating the Underwater World of Hong Kong. The triangle stamp was issued this year, 1 of 4 Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Chinese People's Republic.





Now here's a card that's apparently been on the go quite a long time. It arrived from Zimbabwe and shows an artist's rendition of an antelope, possibly a roan antelope.




Here's the thing about this card. Bruce wrote the card on 08.02.2017 , which I take to be Feb 8, 2017. It arrived in my mailbox on Now 19, 2019 . That's almost 3 years - where has it been all this time ? Lost under a desk, stuck in a mail bag , who knows ? Let's have some fun with this - come up with an original idea where this card has been and leave a comment with your idea.

Bruce used a stamp from 2005 on his card. It is 1 of 4 Birds issued that year. Shown is the Mombo Double Collared Sunbird.



This is the last card for today. It's a cool look for a jet aircraft- shaded in black.



Bogdan sent this card from Poland. The two same stamps are from 2015, part of a continuing Flowers and Fruits definitive set. The other is from 2019 and features Polish Footballer Kzimierz Deyna.




O.K so ends another update. Thanks for today's cards go out to Ravindra, SiShanglong, Nurhafizah, Zero, Bruce and Bogdan. Thank you all.
Take care, drop back soon.


Monday, November 18, 2019

Cards From Jean Pierre Only

In my last bog I showed  cards from a number of regular contributors . I left out one of those contributors on purpose. I have received so many cards from Jean Pierre this last while, I felt a blog of his cards alone would be the right thing. So here we go

First though, I want to show this great cover I received from Jakarta, compliments of Jean Pierre. The set of 4 stamps are from this year and celebrate Indonesian Festivals. Great First Day of Issue cancellation on the stamps.



Here's today's first card and surprise, surprise  , it's an aviation themed card.  Here we have a Royal Jordanian Lockheed L-1011 Tristar.   Registered as JY-AGA. It was first delivered to Royal Jordanian in September of 1981. It remained in their fleet until July of 1999 when it went in service with Amerian Trans Air. It was stored in 2002 and later broken up .



The large blue stamp is 1 of 4 in a Minisheet issued in 2018 . It commemorated the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The smaller stamp on the left, I wrote about in my last blog, so I'll leave it at that.




Today's second card is from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It's a partial look at the Burg Al Arab Jumeirah Hotel. Set on an island in a striking sail shaped building this hotel has a man made beach, an infinity pool terrace and the world's tallest atrium. It is close to Wild Wadi Water Park and Mall of the Emirates.



The stamp is from 2017, from a set of 7 issued for International Year of Sustainable Tourism.



Nice circular cancel.


Here's another Airline / Aircraft postcard. This time it is Malindo Air, founded in September of 2012. It is a Malaysian airline owned by Indonesian Lion Air Group. The airline operates to 65 destinations with 800 flights a week. The aircraft shown on the card is a Boeing 737-900 ER. Aircraft 9M-LNL is 6.2 years old and was delivered to the airline in September of 2013.



The 2 Aviation related theme stamps were issued in 2018 to showcase Air Transport.




One more card from Indonesia. This one shows some of the 72 stupas found at Borobudur. The temple dates from the 9th century. The 72 stupas surround the main temple. Each has a Buddha statue seated inside the perforated structure. Borobudur was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. It is the biggest Buddhist monument in the world.



The stamp used here is in a souvenir sheet, issued in 2018. It showcases a Tourism Festival.




Next up is Lot Polish Airlines. This time in a dual livery - the top half of the aircraft is in Lot Polish livery and the bottom half is in an older Malaysia Airlines livery. This McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 was leased from Malaysia Airlines  from June  1994 until October 1994. The picture on the card is from July 1994 at Zurich.
Aircraft 9M-MAT was delivered to Malaysia Airlines in September of 1977 and flew for various airlines for 29.5 years. It met its final fate - scrapped - in 2007.



Jean Pierre used 2 stamps from 2019 on this card. On the left is 1 from a minisheet of 4 featuring Polish Clematis. On the right , a stamp commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the First Silesian Uprising.




Here's another card from Indonesia - this time a look at the Smokey Volcano . Mount Merapi, at 2910m, is an active volcano in central Java.  It has been erupting off and on since 1548. The last time was in May 2018.



A nice selection of stamps arrived on this card. They were issued in 2019 as part of a Flora and Fauna set of 6. I think I received the best 3. The 3 not shown are trees.



Another card from Indonesia - another DC-10-30 Aircraft card- this time PK-GIE of Garuda International. Delivered to Garuda in July of 1977 this aircraft flew for them for just over 18 years until Jun 1996 when it met its untimely demise at FUK Airport. On June 13, 1996 PK-GIE crashed at Fukuoka , Japan on takeoff after engine failure. Takeoff was aborted and the aircraft came to a stop some 800 m off the end of the runway. The aircraft was destroyed in the resulting fire. Of the 275 souls on board 3 suffered fatal injuries in the accident.



Two nice Elephant stamps from 2015 on this card. They are from a set of 4.




Did someone say Indonesia ? Here's the last one from there for this time. It's a look at City hall in Surakarta. This city in Central Java has a population of just over 500,000 but add in the metro area and the populations jumps to 3.6 million. It is the birthplace of the current President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo.



The stamp here is from 2017 and was issued in a minisheet of 1 for Environmental Care.



From Indonesia, next stop is Thailand. This A320 if from Thai Air Asia . It is registered as HS-ABD and is 11.8 years old. The picture shows it landing at Phuket in 2011. As I write this is has just flown from Hat Yai to Bangkok. The livery on the card was a special " Truly Asean " color scheme  used from Oct 2009 to Jan 2014.



Jean Pierre used a nice Lighthouse stamp from 2019. It is 1 of 4 in the set. The definitive on the left is 1 of 12 in a set issued in 2018 featuring King Rama X.




Changi Airport Singapore is the subject of my next card. Changi Airport has been rated " Best Airport in the World " by Skytrax for seven consecutive years since 2013. It was opened 29December 1981.




Two stamps on this one. On the left , from 2013, 1 of 10 in the Vanishing Trades set.
On the right, from 2019, a Traditional Entertainment , Puppet Show stamp.




Just two more cards to go, so hang in there.
This one is the last Airline / Aircraft card for this time. It's a Lot Polish Boeing 737-500, SP-LKA. At just over 27 years old, it has flown for Lot Polish, Rwandair and Air North here in Canada.



The Bird stamp used is a Europa issue featuring National Birds. It was issued this year.





And the last card is from Bangkok, Thailand. A beautiful panoramic view of Bangkok City.



A number of stamps arrived on this card. On the left is a King Rama X definitive stamp from 2018. Next is a Vesak Day stamp
from this year. The next 2 are Lighthouse stamps , also from 2019.




Well this one has finally come to an end. I hope you stayed until the end, if not you missed some fine cards and stamps.
Big Thanks for all these cards going out to Jean Pierre. Who knew you could get so much mail from one person from all around the world ?
Take care and check in again soon.