Maps and Stamps

Part of the reason that I am so open about my nerdy interest in stamps is that I work in an extremely nerdy office. I work for an archaeology consultancy based in Melbourne, and I have truly found my people there. At work, there is a girl with a sand collection, a girl with a rock collection and a boy and a girl who are both crazy about Lego. My boss collects vintage jigsaw puzzles with English country scenes on them. We are all complete nerds - there is no two ways about it.

But being around nerds is quite liberating, and I am in a place where I can vocalise my love of stamps without being laughed out of town. Well, almost. Ben, who is a rock art nerd, thought stamps were off the scale of nerdy. An 11 out of 10 on the geek-o-metre. Humpf.

It is also known around our office that I am particularly fond of maps. I like making maps, I like looking at maps, I like collecting maps (particularly Melways). Ben, the rock art nerd, was one day scoffing at my love of stamps, and remarked "Ha! Imagine if you had a stamp with a map on it! Your head would explode!"
Hell yeah, I thought. Maps on stamps would be TOTALLY COOL. What an awesome idea!

Luckily the lovely Kris was in the room to back me up when Ben was busy mocking stamps (and me). That night I went home and did a little big of googling and discovered that I was not alone, that there was a whole society dedicated to maps on stamps: the CartoPhilatelic Society! Who knew?!

The next day I very excitedly mentioned the CartoPhilatelic Society to Ben, who was not impressed; and to Kris, who may not have been impressed, but very kindly let me rabbit on about maps and stamps anyway. I did not think much more of this exchange and happily went off on a two week holiday to Samoa. But when I got back from holidays, waiting on my desk was a little packet. A little packet full of stamps, each one featuring a little map!

Kris had mentioned the maps on stamps thing to her Dad, a philatelist whom I have never met, and lo and behold, he had gone and put together a collection for me. How truly sweet! It made my day - actually, it made more than my day, as that was about six months ago, and I am still smiling when I think about it. Certainly having a little packet of stamps all with maps on them, sitting there, waiting for me on my return to work, made the transition from holiday-mode back into work-mode all the more bearable. Maps and Stamps. What a beautiful combination! Thank-you to Kris and her lovely Dad!

And that, friends, is the story of how I came to have a whole collection of stamps all with maps on them!