Seeing that I will be in port and the next few days will be a bit busy, let me wish you all a very happy new year. I hope you all have a very healthy and wonderful year ahead. :)
PS: Eniko! - Thanks for the comment. I had joined this ship in August so it is possible that I missed out on posting you a card. My apologies. But I don't have your address. Drop your address in the comments and I will send you one from Chile and
Nicaragua! Happy new year to you too!
Here is another stamp from the N.A for the festive occasion. I hope you all had a good time.
Merry christmas to everyone out there. I hope you all have a great day today!
PS: Thanks for the wishes people. Best wishes to you all too.
This is the last stamp in the series released for the year of the pig by the Neth Ant. The Warthog holds special significance in the Hindu Religion as it is one of the incarnations of Vishnu and is thus holy by default. Also they do remind me of the Wild Boars that Astrix and his friends keep chasing in Gaul.
PS:Cheers All! Post Call at Panama -
Paquebot -
Gulfman - Taiwan
Benedikt - Iceland
Alexander - Russia
Prazeres - Portugal
Covers :
Lefung - Malaysia
Cotard - France
Eric (Jura) - France
Postcards :
Gem - Canada
Yukiko - Germany
Lenka - Czech Rep.
Please let me know once you get the above. Also if you people on the Paquebot list would like to recv ordinary covers with the local stamps, do let me know and I will put you on the other mailing list.
Sorry for the people I didn't cover this time. Time was limited and will put you one from Chile.
Thanks to Gulfman and Yukiko, its been established that the next year is the year of the rat. Somehow I think even less countries will be lining up to release stamps of the rat, then they did for the pig.
As per Yukikos comment, I think I was born in the year of the Snake. I don't think that can be very good.
Anyway, Since the pig stamp did come up, let me also show you a couple of stamps that the Neth. Antelles released along with the miniature. This is the Berkshire Pig in all its glory. I have read many stories of Wooster and jeeves which simply revolve around the bowel functions of these very intelligent creatures.
I just passed through the Canal after a very long day, so lets do the post call tomorrow.
I don't have many days left for this stamp, so let me present you the sheet of the year by Neth. Ant. 2007 was the year of the pig, and these guys have taken out this sheet with the qualities of the person born in the year of the pig. Among other things , if you were born on one of these years, you are tolerant, gallent, honest , loyal and many more such nice things. Apparently you also cost other people a lot of money because this sheet was about 5 Gilders, which is about 3 Dollars.
Any idea which year is 2008? Eric sure would be glad if there was a year of the frog! :)
Panama comes up tomorrow morning. Will send across some mail over the next day or so.
PS: Cheers all!
Glenn - Great that you got the card. Hope you get the other one soon as well. Best Wishes for the New year.
Yukiko - Thanks & have a great holiday!
Since we started off with Frans Hals, it seems only correct to show you the other stamps released by the NA (Netherland Antilles) in his name. I think it is safe to say that the image of the mach man has changed considerable since the times of Frans Hals.
PS: Cheers All:
George - Not to worry. Will be sending you a Paquebot from Panama, did not send you a cover from Curacao because I didn't send any Paquebots from there. Best Wishes for the new year to you too.
Gem - Thanks for the comment. Hope you get the cards soon.
It took us a long time, but we are finally out of Curacao. The Island is a beautiful place, but is expensive as hell. The place is like Europe where everything is imported. So everything is expensive. Even Fish is expensive on this Island. Baraccuda that I purchased fresh in Togo for 3.55 USD per KG costs 15 Dollars here. If you can't get fish cheap on an Island, something is very wrong.
What I am coming down to, is that the stamps are very expensive. No one is going to debate that this sheet of a painting by Frans Hals is anything but beautiful. But the cost of 550 C equates to about 3.2 US dollars and 125 Rupees. Which really prevents one from buying 10 of them just so that you can exchange them if others later so desire.
But I did manage to track down the only Philatelic counter on the whole Island and got my hands on a few stamps. Let me show you these over the next few days. After all my next visit to a Post office will be in Chile at the year end!
PS: Cheers all! Thanks for your comments. The post out of Curacao looked like this:
COVERS
------
Eric Bruth - France
Eric from Jura - France
Alexander - Russia
Cotard - France
Yan Wu - USA
Zhou Fan - China
CHarles Jensen - USA
LeFung - Malaysia
Prazeres - Portugal
POST CARDS
---------
Yukiko - Germany
Gem - Canada
Leela - India
Next up is Panama from which I will be sending out Paquebot mail. New on the mailing list is Benedikt from Iceland. If anyone new wants to get mail, this is where you drop in a comment.
Take Care!
I don't follow football. At all so I'm not really sure if Senegal took part in the 2002 Football world cup. But they sure did come out with a series on the cup. This is the first of the series and shows the world cup and the footbal over a stadium floating in the universe as if out of something you read in a Duglous Adams Novel.
One thing I have not been able to figure out is that the cost of the stamp is 290 + 50. I'm not sure what that means? Does it mean that if Sengal doesn't make it to the finals, we all have to pay 50 extra?
PS : Cheers All! Thanks for the comment everyone.
Eric From Jura : Sad that the stamps were not cancelled. Will send you another from Panama. They cancel it out so much you will be hard pressed to find a stamp underneath! :) Regd you seeing a snap of my ship, I write a regular blog called the "Bills
of lading" which you can usually go by following a link on the right of this page. These days I have taken the page out of circulation for a while. Once I put it back up, you can see all the pictures of the ship and the sea and the birds and all.
Alexander : Glad you got the Paquebot and glad you liked it. My address is also on the right of this web page. you can send the mail there. I will see it in a couple of months. You can send me miniatures on , Military, comics, Dinosaurs, fishes or ships.
Have been absent in the near past and the trip was rather hectic. Infact I never got to show you the stamps I got in Senegal during my visit. I had gone to their main city of Dakar and it is one of the biggest cities of West Africa. A beautiful city but one where we stayed for only a day.
The Dakar Rally is the only reason why I had heard of Dakar before this and it was good to get my hands on this stamp.
THe stamp features two SUV's and one bike on the top left. For some reason, one camel is also shown there. As if a stamp on India needs to have an elephant in the background!
Also of interest is the wordings of Senegal , which are in the colours of the Senegelese flag.
360 cfs roughly equates to 36 Indian Rupees and 1 US dollar.
PS: Cheers all! Thanks for the comments people. I'm glad that the letters from Togo & Dakar have started reaching. It always is a gamble with the Paquebot mail that it might very well end up in the garbage bin of the post office.
Cees - Thanks. I should be celebrating New Years in Chile. A beautiful country that one.
Yukiko : I should be back home in Jan or Feb. Hope you have a great holiday back home. Thanks for the comment.
The last few days have been passing very fast. I must be having a lot of fun because the Atlantic seemed to be a much smaller place this time around.
Anyway tonight find me drifting off Curacao waiting to go in. At the end of the voyage, its kind of fitting to put up this sheet for you people. I sadly don't speak french, but many of you do so you will probably know more about these.
The main Sheet claims it to be the 50th year anniversary (1945 - 1995) of the end of the Guerre Mondial, which I assume must mean the World War & shows the English Churchill tanks crossing the Rhine into Berlin.
The top left stamp is nice and fits into my Aeroplane collection. It is apparently the "La luftwaffe Lance une attaque finale desesperee"
The next one to it is about the allies gaining supremacy in the Atlantic.
The third one is about "Le pont ludendorf est pris intact". I think it is about capturing something lookling like a bridge intact.
The final stamp in the series is about the Katyusha Russian missiles hitting Berlin.
The russians are again active in the bottom row of stamps with their tanks rolling into berlin and by something sad in the next stamp which describes the scene as "Les Russes reprennent Varsovie devastee"
The bottom end are about peace with the left bottom announcing the Italian Cessesation of hostilities in the "Ravagee par la guerre", & the bottom left showing us the flag of the UN.
I'm not sure that we've actually stopped fighting since. Lets hope one day we actually do and stamps such as these become obsolete.
PS: Cheers all. Thanks for the comments Lefung & Yukiko. Good to see that the Dakar & Lome cards are reaching. The people on the mailing list are going to remain. If anyone else would like a card / Paquebot / cover from Curacao / Panama / Chile /
Nicaragua / Honduras , drop in a comment here with your address.
I always like marine sheets and if you remember I had some time back shown you a sheet from Thailand that Charlie had sent over to me. This reminds me of that sheet, but is not of that neat standard.
My particular favourite in this is the Hammerhead Shark with the anchor. :)
If the last few stamps have lead us anywhere, then it is to this sheet. This sheet is my current favourite and by all standards other then puja's, one of the best sheets ever made. Puvilaand excels himself in this sheet and depicts the scene when the asteroid / comet hits the Earth, bringing in the Ice age and the subsequent extinction of the Dinosaurs.
People with a scientific inclination of mind may note that the Dino's depicted on the top of the panel from left to right are : Plateosaurus (Trias) , Sceudosaurus (Jurassic) , Kentrosaurus (Jurassic) & Heterodontosaurus (Jurassic).
The dino on the bottom left, in whose eyes we can see the reflection of the comet (neat touch Puvilaand!) is the Compsoganthus (Jurassic), and the one in the stamp perforations and thus the star dino of the sheet, is the Velociraptor. Enthusiasts will recognise this last Dino from one of the Jurassic Park movies in which they create some ruckus.
All in all one great sheet!
PS:
Kalpana - Glad you got the Paquebot. BTW, which one was it? I have sent you three of these mails and I was wondering if this was the one sent from Curacao or Togo. Have a good time in India.
The Polacanthus is exactly the kind of stuff that a toy makers dreams are made of. One mean looking dino with sparp horns all over to kill, maime, gouge and in other manners incapacitate any living creature that might habitat in the vicinity.
Like all heavily armed things, its not hard to imagine how they must have gone extinct. It must be pretty tough to get any procreational activity going on between all those horns!
PS: Cheers all! Thanks for your comments.
The next port of call will be the Island of Curacao and mails will go out from there. I shall not be sending out Paquebot from Curacao so people who have asked for a paquebot will be sent one from the next port.
Benedikt - Got your address little late for Senegal. Will Send you a Paquebot from Honduras
Kalpana - Yes I did recv it at my home. It is said to be one stunning peice of postal package. Thanks a lot. I will miss seeing it for some time till I return.
Eric Bruth - Yes Thanks. I did recv your Letter and sheet as well. Thanks. Did I mention that I send you something from Togo?
Lenka - Got a nice envelope from you as well waiting at home. Thanks.
Finally we see a mean looking dinosaurs, I had previously classified Dinosaurs as either "Eaten" or the "Eating" types. The Coelophysis definitely seems to belong to the latter group. Watch out from those mean looking claws and sharp teeth!
PS: Cheers All! post call Ex Senegal:
Paquebot mail :
Alexander - Russia - Got your address in time. Paquebot on the way.
Kalpana - Germany
Eric from Jura - France
Mr Prazeres - Portugal
Covers:
Lefung - Malaysia
Post Cards:
George - Taiwan - Sorry ran out of Paquebot stamps this port. Did send you a card from here & one also from Togo.
Gem - Canada - Got your address just in time. Postcard on the way.
Kalpana - Germany
Lenka - Czech Rep
Cotard Stephane - France
Ms Yan Wu - US
Charlie - Thailand
Yukiko - Germany
J - India
Please drop a comment once you get them.
PPS : Eric Bruth - Thanks for the comment. Sorry could not send you a cover from Senegal, but did send you a cover from Togo. Hope you get it. Plus I'm not sure if your sheet made it to Home. Hopefully it will. Thanks for putting up my paquebot on your
blog. Will check it up once I get online in a month. Cheers & good health!
Let's take a break from the dinosaurs today. Today is world Aids day and its only fitting that I put up this stamp up here. It was released by India on the World Aids day of 2006.
There are more then 5 million cases of Aids in India alone. If we don't do something about it, rather then me putting up stamps of Dinosaurs up on the net, we might have someone else putting stamps of humans on their blogs.
PS : Eric : I'll send you a cover. :)
