Wednesday 21 March 2012

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!





11 comments:

  1. You ARE a complete nerd, but I love it!!! I will start collecting stamps on my travels for you...I gave my Mum some great Kazakhstan stamps the other day, will save the next batch for you! :)

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    1. Ooh.. exciting, JD! Kazakhstan stamps sound very exotic! Does Anne collect stamps too? I always knew your Mum was cool, but yet more proof! xx

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    2. Yes she does! But Bozz, please be careful when young men offer to show you their stamp collection, herein I enclose a quote from the '10 most stupid pick up lines for guys':
      “Want to see my stamp collection?” As the nerdiest of the ten stupid pick up lines, this inquiry is a real gamble. Then again, she might take you up on your offer if she’s hiding a geeky streak of her own.
      :)

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    3. ha ha! I will let you know if I run into trouble - but I think that nerdy pick up line might just work on me!!

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  2. I love it when people get all nerdy about things. It makes me feel not so nerdy when I post about standing outside a house where a writer once lived.

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  3. Love reading your blog Helen, it is a genuine nerd-fest in the most loveable way possible! No hipster-irony for you, you truly love stamps. Personally I've never got the allure of these objects, but I am starting to come around.

    They seem to embody adventure, far off lands and exotic people. They also represent kilometers that they've travelled, the thoughts/ideas/stories shared by whoever is sending a letter or postcard, and sometimes even a part of that person [ie. spit].

    Thanks for giving me a different perspective on a quite standard part of everyday life x

    Johanna

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    1. Cheers Johanna! Hipster-irony is definitely absent here! Thanks for getting on board with the blog. And I have to say that I had never really considered the DNA (ie. spit) collection I have building up in tandem with my stamp collection, but thanks for bringing it to my attention! :D

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    2. You can always count on me to lower the tone =p

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  4. Nerds unite! I like stamps of course, but also postcards and rocks - and maps! What a lovely gift you received. I don't know if I have any stamps with maps on them!!!!

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    1. Thanks for checking out my blog, Viridian. You know - I bet you do have stamps with maps on them. Once you start looking, you realise how many there are!

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