Turkey - Thani Joint release

Location - The Atlantic

 

I know that some people like Eric from France like to collect joint issues. So today I wanted to show you the set of joint issue released by the turks and the Thais. Featured are soem of the most popular sights of the countries. If you look a few posts back on my regular blog, you can see pictures of the Mosque at Istanbul. The last I had seen the temple in Thailand was when we went there in 2006.

 

I suppose they must have released a miniature sheet on the occasion, but sadly I only got my hands on these individual stamps.

 

 

Turkish Fort

Location : The Atlantic

 

Today since I put up a picture of a turkish fort on my regular blog, I though that I might as well put up a few of my Turkish stamps. I don't think that I have put up any TUrkish stamps here in a little while. This stamp I picked up when I passed through Turkey last time somewhere in Late June.

 

The turks are serious about their flags. Every vantage point is adorned with their huge flags. And this stamp is another good example of that.

 

Algerian football

Location - The Atlantic - 35 47 N /  023 34 W

 

During my last visit to Algeria, along with the FDC of the Algerian national anthem, I also managed to get my hands on this nice miniature. I like it firstly because the stamp is based on football and is thus round. Such things give me inexplicable pleasure. A fact I'm wary of investigating too deeply incase the pleasure stops.

 

Also the black & white picture and the green tint gives it a very nice flavor. The stamp seems to be commemorating the fifty years of the creation of the Football team of Algeria. I don't follow the game much, so am not too sure how good their team is now, but they sure did seem a happy bunch back in 1958. :)

 

Is it only me or are most of the Algerian stamps of a nationalistic theme?

Gibralter - Bonelli's Eagle

Location - Atlantic Ocean   

 

The day before I was refueling at Gibralter. Gibralter has an amazing collection of miniature sheets if you look it up on the net. But as I reached late at night on a midnigh, the only stamp I could source out there through the agent was this one of the Eagle. Stamp is obviously from a series of stamps "The birds of the rock". The adjoining literature says the following about these birds:

 

" Bonelli's Eagle ( Hieraaetus fasciatus) - Formerly resident in Gibralter, it still breeds in Spain and young birds are sometimes seen on the rock. It bred here untill the early 20th century, its disappearance probably a result of the disturbance caused during the construction of the runway. A lack of hunting ground in Gibralter and nearby Spain makes the return of this species unlikely. Bonelli's Eagles are a charecteristic species of the rugged country such as the cliffs and crags around the Mediterranean. It also breeds in Africa and across asia all the way to Indonesia. "

 

About the stamp itself, the painting is beautiful, except that the Eagle seems to be dozing off to sleep. In the background we can see the Rock of Gibralter as seen from the south and on the top right corner, you can see the Spanish coast behind the rock.

 

For a better view of the rock, please check out my regular bog (link on the right) where pictures of the area are posted.

 

Cheers all !!  Post cards & covers sent out to the same bunh of people as from Algeria, so not posting your names again. Let me know once you get them.

 

 

Algeria - Anthem

Location - Approaches to Gibralter / 36 09 N / 004 33 W

We left Algeria the day before and now are on the way to the US via the
Gibralter straits. Sadly Algeria doesn't allow seamen shore leave so
couldn't set foot on the land. But the trip wasn't a total waste because
atleast the agent was able to get me some post cards and miniatures.

As a bonus, I even got one first day cover. This one pictured above is the
FDC comemorating the national anthem of Algeria, I don't suppose you can
make out the stamp in much detail, but this stamp, released in 2008, has the
Algerian flag and the whole of the national Anthem (Hymne - as it calls it)
written across it. I'm not sure what 1er Jour D'Emission, but maybe Eric or
some other kind soul can explain that to us.

But all said, this is a beautiful piece to add to my collection.

Cheers all!

covers sent to the following from Algeria :
France - Eric
Russia - Alexander

Cards sent to the following from Algeria :
France - Mr Cotard
Portugal - Mr Almeida
Canada - Glenn (sent two your way)
Thailand - Charlie
Malaysia - Lefung
Taiwan - Wu
China - Mr Zhou fan
UK - Brett
Germany - Kalpana
Czech Rep - Lenka

Hope you all get them and sorry for all the others I missed out. Do put in a
comment if you want to be added to the mailing list.

Rats from Canada

Location - Algeria

In sequence to the rat stamps sent out to me by Eric, is this sheet sent to
by Glenn Moores from Canada. Glenn has a great blog running at
gemsworldpostcards.blogspot.com where he is trying to have a collection of
postcards from all corners of the world.

This miniature is an amazing piece of art. There are etchings in the stamps
that don't come out on the scan, but the thing is breathtaking. Which is why
this senseless cancellation is all the more befuddling. The fact that a
postal worker would put his rubber stamp on something like this is sad.

But all the same, thanks for this sheet glenn. Have sent across a couple of
cards youtr way from Algeria. Hopr you get them.

Cheers all!

French Rats

Location - At Anchor, Algeria

Since I showed a stamps I recieved, I might as well show you a few more I
got. This one is from a great guy in France , Eric Bruth. His link is on the
Left, and you can get to him at my-philately.blogspot.com . This is one of
the stamps released by France on the occasion of the year of the rat. Please
also note the cancellation done here, which I find more beautiful then the
stamp itself. :)

Thanks Eric. Once more for all the stamps. Have sent you something from here
in Algeria. Hope you get it.

The bridge from China

Location : Off the Sardegna Island, Mediterranean

Since I put up a post about the bridges at Istanbul on my regular blog, I
wanted to put up a stamp with a bridge here. So I am showing you a beautiful
stamp sent by Mr Zhou fan from China. A person who keeps sending me stamps
inspite of my irregular replies.

To him and my other friends all over the world, I am deeply grateful and
apologetic.

The stamp in question is undoubtably beautiful and is of a set of six stamps
issued by the Chinese govt featuring the Summer palace, in much the same
style. The set includes three bridges, two buildings and a boat house (which
as I understand is the "clear and peaceful boat").

Thanks again Mr Zhou.

Italy - The Scouts

Posn - East Coast Sardegna - 40 30 N / 10 38 E

The institution of Scouts completed a hundred years of its existence in the
year 2007 and everyone other then the Indian govt seems to have issued reams
of stamps to commemorate the occasion. Pictured above is one of the sheets
released by the Italians for the occasion. I am putting this here simply
because so many people have been asking for Scouts stamps on the internet
bulletin boards, that I am sure that I am missing out on their significance.

I actually was in the scouts. I distinctly remember wearing my brothers
hand-me-downs to the parades. The only thing I took to those parades, which
was my own, was this round ferrule type thing through which we knot the
scarf and a fierce will not to parade.

And that is what we did in the scouts, I swear. We paraded, saluted that
three fingered salute and read some rules off some blue book. Which was
immediately taken back as soon as the parade was finished.

Of course the stamps prove that some scouts play the guitar around the
campfire and do canoeing, but I assure you that the only thing remotely like
that in my two years with the scouts was to move some stones near a hill.
And I don't like hills and I didn't like those stones.

The Map

Posn : South East of Sicily - 36 18 N 018 11 E

First off, please forgive me for the long absense off the blog. I wish I
could say that it was for a good reason like global hunger, but I was
actually busy killing friends and strangers on the Team Fortress servers.
After a moth or so of that, I find myself again in the safe sanity of
bobbing along in the middle of the sea. This time in the middle of the
Lagoon - Something the US Navy calls the Mediterian. I don't particularly
like the Medi. Too crowded for my taste and some of the worst weathers that
I have faced in my seafaring life has been in these waters.

But hey new waters translate into new stamps don't they? I had gone to the
beautiful Italian city of Trieste and actually stepped out to visit the
International Maritime Institute to have a look-see, but it turns out that
the place shut down few months back. Just my luck. Someone who knows someone
tells me that there was some scandal. Money taking and all that. But don't
tell anyone.

Anyway, Not to make it a total loss, I went over to the charming post office
in the city centre where they have a really nice postal museum, with
postmarks from as far back as the 1800. Pretty neat stuff.

I got this sheet from there. I love maps of any kind and one of the
bemnifits of sailing at sea is that you are sorrounded by charts, some of
them really old. In my last ship, I came across a chart of New Zaeland,
where the credit for the plotting was given to Captain Cook.

So I'm pleased as a plum to present this map sheet. It seems to tell us the
path from the cities of L'aquila to Foggia and probably the name of the
route is "tratturo Magno. The route obviously passes through mountains and
we see in the stamp a mountain range with sheep in the fore ground. A
beautiful stamp sheet.

75 Years of the Indian Airforce.

Its only so long that I will be able to use to excuse of setting things in order before starting to post more regularly. :)

And it is time I put up some more stamps of India. I have written earlier about the Philatelic account I have with India Post and so on coming back, I was surrounded with the stamps released by India over the past five months.

One of the neat sheets I got was this one released on the Platinum Jubilee (1932 - 2007) of the Indian Air Force.

The Indian Air Force was officially established on 8 October 1932. But by the time they actually got around to flying their planes it was 1st April 1933. So it's probably apt that I got the 75 years of the Air force in 2008! The IAF inetially compromised of six RAF-trained officers and 19 Havai Sepoys (air soldiers) and four Wapiti Airplanes. The Wapiti is thus aptly pictured on the main sheet on the lower left.

The others featured on the main sheet from top Left are the Dhruv, the AWACS and an IL 78 refuelling two Su-30 airplanes.

The neat thing about this sheet, is that on either sides of the sheet, are the pictures of the planes that have accompanied the IAF in this 75 years journey. The planes on the left side from top to bottom are: The Toofani , Mi 26 Helicopter (The biggest Helicopter in the world) , Gnat, Packet (C 119), Hunter and the Jaguar.

On the Right from top to bottom are: Dakota DC-3, Mig 21, AN 32, Mirage 2000, Vampire 52 and finally the Mig 25 (Foxbat).

A very comprehensive history of the IAF can be found here on the IAF website.

As you can see the FDC released on the occasion is a stunner as well. When taken with the previous released stamps and FDCs of the humble Gnat, 16 Sqn of the Air force and the sheet released on the 100 years of Man's first flight, the sheet finds itself in good company.

New links

Over the last few months I have been mailing to a lot of new friends and today I added two of their links on the left out here.

The first is Glenn from canada who has a nice blog about postcards. He is trying to collect cards from all over.

Secondly I have put a link to Zhou fan's blog. He is a new friend from China and has been sending me covers from that country on a regular basis.

Thanks to the both of you!

In case I have missed out links of any of you, please do write in and I'll put it up.

Tintin

I don't think its ever going to be possible to show all the mail that has come in during my absence, but I'll try to put a few of them over the next few days. Today I'm showing this amazing cover and sheet sent to me by Kalpana from Germany. I had posted the sole Tintin stamp on my blog earlier and Kalpana had offered to send across the sheet. I collect comic stamps and am a huge fan of Tintin, so I was thrilled to receive this.

Cotard and Eric also sent me the sheet in mint condition (Thanks to the two of them) but enclosed in the cover was the sheet of Tintin comic covers that I didn't even know was out. It is an amazing sheet and I am eternally grateful to Kalpana for this.

Tintin is one of the most recognisable figure in all fiction and since his first arrival in 1929, he has sold more then half a million comics in more then fifty languages. It seems improbable that most of Tintins travels were conceived by an armchair traveller in the early 1900's when media was so restricted. It wasn't before the "Tintin and the Picaros" (1976) that Herge actually went to some of the places he showed us all a long time before that. The last stamp in the series of the comic cover is of the comic called "Tintin and alpha Art" - A story that herge couldn't finish before he passed away in March 1983.

Personally I haven't been able to read the first three comics as of now. Something I plan to correct very soon.

Thanks again Kalpana. :)

Paquebot mail

Paquebot Letters posted in Dakar & Lome

As the last post said, I am back from the trip at sea. It was pretty eventful trip by all means and we throughly enjoyed it. But on the Postal front, it was an exciting time. I was able to visit a lot of post offices in foreign lands and posted to a lot of people from obscure spots on the globe.

One of the things I am happiest about is the use of the Paquebot mail that I tried for the first time. I had written extensively about the use of Paquebot mail before I left for the ship and let us do a slight recap of the concept before we go any further.

The ship is considered as part of the country of the place that it is registered in. So technically letter's posted on the ship are considered as posted in that particular country and hence are legally accepted as proper means of postage as long as the vessel hands them to the port post office on the first port of arrival.

The beauty of the Paquebot mail is that the cancellation of the stamps is done by the country through which the letter is posted. This would normally never happen. In the picture above you can see two of the Paquebot mails that i posted to myself. The top one is posted in Dakar (Senegal) and the bottom one was posted in Lome (Togo).

Paquebot canceled at Panama

A bit about the envelopes themselves. On the top of the envelope is the marking with the "Paquebot Mail - Posted at high seas" By all accounts I could have written this by hand as well, but this gave a better look, so dad sent it across to me on the ship.

The stamp on the left top is the stamp of the ship and this ship was the M.T Maroni, registered in the port of Willemstad in Netherland Antilles (This is why the stamps are from Netherland Antilles). The notations below the name refer to the GRT (Gross Registered Tonnage), NRT (Net Registered Tonnage), DWT (Deadweight) and the BHP (Power of the vessels Engine).

And finally the stamp on the bottom right is the stamp of the vessels captain. As per Paquebot regualtions the letter has to be signed and stamped by either the ships captain or the purser.

I did try to send these mails from pretty much every post that I went to, and surprisingly the mail reached from most of the places. The best were the African countries of Senegal and Togo, where they were decent enough to put nice cancellations and send it across. A month late, but still in one piece!Paquebot canceled in Corpus Christi, USA

Panama topped the list of countries that requires to put some money into making new postmarks. You can see why by the picture posted up there. I had heard that posting Paquebot through the US would be a pain, but surprisingly the only mail that I posted from Corpus christi, Texas did reach in good order and I was surprised to see that they even put a hand-stamped postmark and not one of their usual machine made ones.

Some of the other chaps who were nice enough to put the Paquebot on their blogs were Eric from the My Philately Blog, and again Eric from Jura. Thanks to the both of them for the nice write ups along with the pictures. George from Taiwan had also put up the pictures on his blog but I can't seem to open his page right now.

Thanks to you all!

Back Home !

Hi All.

As the title says, I am back home. The last few months were great and I did cover a huge chunk of the globe in those months. But the time was very hectic and it feels great to be back home and wind down for a while.

Firstly, it was simply amazing to come back home and see the pile of letters that you folks have been sending over to my address for the last few months. I loved all of them and thanks a ton for them. It will take me a few days to deal with them and I will be putting up a lot of them on the blog over the next few days.

Anyway, thanks again to all of you & I want to let you know that I'm open for swaps again of Indian stamps.

Cheers all!