Giant Pandas - Singapore

The Singapore Philatelic department has released stamps to celebrate the coming to Singapore of a set of Giant Pandas (on loan) from China for the next ten years.


The stamps released include the pictured one for 50 cents and also a much bigger stamp with two pandas on it, which is sold as a miniature sheet for 12 dollars.

I got myself a sheet of the 50 cent pandas as my daughter will love them and also because they are exactly what I need to paste on postcards to other countries.

The pandas are housed in a special section of the zoo and I do plan to take my daughter to see them in the coming weeks once they come out of their one month quarentine.

For more details of the Pandas arrival in Singapore do check out this link. If you scroll down to the bottom, you can also see the different stamps and coins released to mark the occasion.

A post office video

I'm not such a big fan of the Indian postal service because it works so well. Rather I'm a big fan because of the staggering fact that it does manage to work so well. Here's a short film i discovered on the G+ on a five year olds first visit to an Indian post office. 

The Blue Crowned hanging parrot

After the upside down dragon-fly, I was getting a bit irritated when an upside down parrot landed on my desk today. On closer look, it turned out that the bird actually hangs around upside -down.

It is a beautiful little stamp and since I haven't been to the post office in a while, I didn't know it had come out. 

Dragonfly- Singapore

A dragon fly landed on my desk today. Seems to have been flying upside down because the post marking has been made upside down. Stuill I'm glad that he's indoors, because its no weather for an Dragonfly to be flying about in Singapore.

This stamp is part of the set of stamps on pond life that I had written about some time back.  Its a nice set, though the miniature sheet was too expensive for me to buy. :)

Japan - Ducks

Received a mail with my name on it at office. It always is a grand occasion for me to get official mail with stamps so am putting it up there.

A simple duck stamp, but I like it. what would be cool would be to send across tens of these stamps bunched together so that it looks like a flock of ducks floating around on an pond. :)

Cyprus Bunny

Received some stamps form Cyprus in the official mail today.

Don't you love a philately department that issues Bunny rabbits on their stamps?

Christmas

Started receiving the christmas greetings ( for the office) and don't you get a kick when the stams match the content of the mail?

Have a good season & the year ahead!

Norwegian stamps

Got some stamps in the office mail from Norway that I snitched! The poor bird seems to have taken a pot shot taken at it.

Unless the shot was actually taken at that bald chap and hit the bird instead.

Hope you all are well.

France - History of Bicycles

Its been a year since I came here and I received my first philatelic mail. This was sent by Eric, who has a great blog that your really must visit.

I had sent him some stamps on frog some time back and he was kind enough to send a spectacular sheet across. I'll put that up in the next post.

In the meanwhile lets focus on the beautiful stamps that Eric put on the cover itself. These bicycles are part of a series of french stamps called "2011 - The bicycle from its origins to today".  The link is in french so you may have to translate it. The stamps themselves are beautiful and love them.

Another point of interest is that the back of the envelope had this stamp that is probably the creation of Eric himself as he is nuts about all thins froggy!

Thanks for the cover Eric. Great Fun receiving it. Will send you across the cover you included inside soon.

Joint issue - Bridges

Another short one today - An joint issue for between Singapore and Phillipines and Singapore. Bridges are an favourite subject of mine because I used to go over and under them often enough, but don't you think that bridges are a very apt subject for to countries to send across an joint issue over?

The Australian dollar coins

People who collect stamps will agree that the stories behind stamps are as interesting as the stamps themselves. As I was emptying my pockets after the recent Australian trip, I wanted to check what the story behind the coins might be.

The coin on right is the standard 1 dollar coin. It has the distinction of being the only coin in Australia to replace a circulating note. The design on the coin is called the 5 "mob of roos' and was designed by Stuart Devlin, who by all accounts is a rock star among coin designers and is as big as an gold and silversmith can get. 

The coin on the left is the 2 dollar coin and has a whole lot more interesting storyline. The Aboriginal  on the coin is supposed to be based on a painting  by Ainslie Roberts, of a man called "one pound Jimmy". Apparently he was called one pound Jimmy because any time someone asked how much it would cost to buy something made by him, his answer would be "one pound boss".

In line with our topic of Philately, one pound Jimmy also featured on two stamps of 1950 & 1952 for about 8 pence. Judging by the rate of inflation, I think One pound Jimmy has pretty much maintained his prices over an amazingly long period. 

Hong Kong - Lighthouses

A miniature of lighthouses today from Hong Kong. Even though I did make a trip down to Hong kong last month, this sheet was picked up in Sing post as part of the foreign postal series.

Its always fun to pick up stamps of light houses and the fact that the positions are plotted could even help some loser go on google earth and actually plot these lighthouses.

Anyway, it is sort of cool to imagine the sight from these lighthouses. Check out the tug dragging around a sand barge if front of the first light house.

Singapore - Monuments

Just a quick one today. For some reason, I'm not connecting with the stamps in Singapore. The stamps are a bit expensive and they cost too much. And on top of it some of them are pricey too.

But some of these are pretty. I like this stamp because of the Sepia and mossy look to it, which is rather apt for a stamp based on monuments.

Australia - Year of the Rabbit

Here's another set released by Australia. I love it because it adds to my Chinese years collection & also because it is so beautiful. Would I actually preferred it to be a miniature sheet, but since they only released the stamp set, got an FDC for it.

Don't you think the Tiger in the sheet is cool? :)

Down under - Kate - William Wedding

Went to Australia for three days to attend a vessel. Sadly though the trip happened over the long weekend and though down under they decided to have a winter in June, I report with regret that postal employees in the southern hemisphere also take holidays on the weekend.

As such managed to only get my hands on a few stamps. One of which is the above sheet of the recent royal wedding. Such fun.