World Stamp Expo Fun Times!

 

So this blogging game has gotten away from me recently, and as a result there is a bit of catching up to do. About a month ago I was very excited to attend the World Stamp Expo, which was being held in my hometown of Melbourne. The WORLD STAMP EXPO!

The Expo was held at the Royal Exhibition Building, a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage listed building located in the Carlton Gardens. I dragged my dutiful boyfriend along, who patiently accompanied through the myriad stalls from various postal authorities from around the globe. I also dragged my friend Grant along - but he chose to lie in the sun for a couple of hours in the Gardens instead. Each to their own (but you missed out on some fun, Grant!).

As you could well imagine, I made a few purchases over the course of the day. My little bag was full (and my bank account empty) by the end of it. I got a souvenir minisheet to add to my royal kitsch collection, embossed with the Expo logo on it.  And I just couldn't help myself, also adding to my royal collection I got a Wills and Kate FDC.

Moving away from my tacky fascination with royals, I also indulged my love of maps, and found this amazingly beautiful minisheet from Greenland. What a find!

I also visited Deutsche Post, and purchased this lovely minisheet as it features both a map element and the Antarctic, and I love the Antarctic. The combinations of boats and ice always make for beautiful images. Would you agree?

I also found these awesome Indonesian stamps, which I saw when I visited there last year, but resisted buying at the time due to budgetary constraints.

The stamps depict traditional fabric designs from around Indonesia. They are quite lovely, in my opinion.

Anyhow that is a sample of my many purchases from the World Stamp Expo 2013.  It was a very fun day out for a big stamp nerd like me.

And now this stamp nerd is signing off for the time being. I am about to head to Turkey for six and a half weeks! I am very excited and will be working on a Roman archaeological site on the south coast. It is an absolute dream come true and I can't wait to be archaeologising on the other side of the world. So I will try and post to this blog (probably fairly irregularly) over the coming few weeks, but the posts will be archaeologic rather than philatelic in nature. But watch this space!

Something Special for Sunday Stamps

Today is the 100th edition of Sunday Stamps on Viridian's postcard blog, and so therefore the task for participants today was to share something "special"... worthy of the centennial milestone.

So, I have shared a lot of 'special' stamps on this here blog in the past, but today I thought I would whip out this sheetlet, which I didn't even realise I had until I found it amongst a miscellaneous box of 'stuff' at my parents house a few months ago. Therefore I don't actually know the provenance of this sheet - but I suspect it was a gift from one of my host families from when I did an exchange to Japan in 1999.

The ten stamps illustrate world heritage sites in Japan, several Shinto Buddhist temples, as well as some of the artworks that adorn the temples. It is a beautiful sheet. I think all the stamps are lovely, but I like the traditional Japanese image of a temple scene behind the stamps the best. I haven't been back to Japan since 1999, but looking at these beautiful temples makes me a little nostalgic, and definitely makes me want to return.

If you would like to see what special-somethings other bloggers have found to share for the 100th edition of Sunday Stamps, click on the button below to find their blogs. Thank-you Viridian for continuing to organise Sunday Stamps every week, it is a lot of fun to participate in!

It's a long way to the top, if you wanna rock'n'roll *

Music features this week on Sunday Stamps, so I thought I would go a bit rock'n'roll on you all. In 2006 Australia issued the above stamps that pictured iconic posters from rock gigs. I think the posters make good stamps, as the images are bold, eye-catching and colourful. I am not sure if many of the festivals or bands would necessarily be recognisable to audiences beyond Australia - with the exception of the poster for the Rolling Stones tour.

Midnight Oil are a legendary Australian band - who had some international success, and had a massive hit with the song "Beds are Burning." To remind you all about the song, I have included the video below. It was taken during the 2009 Sound Relief concert - not a gig immortalised in the above stamp release, but an amazing gig that I happened to attend, which was in aid of bush-fire victims.

The little mini-sheet of rock posters belongs on the page of my stamp album with other rock music related stamps (and some bug stamps that kind of fit colour-wise).

The other music stamps on my album page include these ones from 2001 (but I only have five of the eight stamps in the series):

The 2001 issue celebrates legendary songs, and the artists include Kylie Minogue, INXS, silverchair, Yothu Yindi and (puke) Savage Garden. Midnight Oil's song 'Power and the Passion' also features in this series, but  it is one of the stamps I don't yet have.

Australia Post also paid homage to local Rock'n'Roll in a 1998 issue, which featured Johnny O'Keefe, Daddy Cool and, as pictured above, the legendary AC/DC and Skyhooks. And I wanted to finish off with the ACCA DACCA stamp, so I could conclude this post with the very apt declaration:

It's a long way to the top... if you wanna rock'n'roll.

I heart acca-dacca. It's true. People who know me might be surprised by that. But seriously, how can you go past them?

Bagpipes: Tick.

Angus Young in his school uniform: Tick.

AC/DC on the back of truck driving through Melbourne: Tick.

My Sunday was just totally made, with that little dose of AC/DC. Hope you enjoyed it too, Sunday Stampers. :)

 

* With apologies to Bon Scott for appropriating his legendary rock'n'roll adage to the title of this week's post on a nerdy stamp blog. Sorry about that.

Guest Collection: Phillipe's Tongan Stamps

Hello friends, fellow stamp enthusiasts, nerds and hipsters...
This week here on iheartpost we have an exciting new development: I'm featuring a guest collection!

Spot the map stamp! :)

Phillipe, the 9 year old son of my work friend Meredith, collects stamps. And because he is a total champion, he was good enough to let his Mum bring them in to work for show and tell. (I love show and tell).

Click on any image for a better view!

As you can see, Phillipe has a fantastic collection of minisheets from Tonga. Aren't they pretty? Explorers, space and sheep. And a little bit of royal kitsch, just to make me especially happy:

It is possible that the King of Tonga one could be my favourite of all.

As well as the issues from the Kingdom of Tonga, one of the Tongan islands, Niuafo'ou, issues its own stamps.

Niuafo'ou was once known as "Tin Can Island" and it still issues its own stamps as a historic throwback (ahem) to when the mail delivery was thrown overboard from boats in tin cans, and bobbed to shore on the current! Or so Meredith tells me (and I believe her). Thankfully, their mail now arrives slightly less sodden, in a different sort of tin can (one with wings):

Thank-you, thank-you Phillipe for sharing these brightly coloured philatelic pieces of an island paradise with us!

In other iheartpost news... I am heading off on a little sojourn to Indonesia for the next couple of weeks. I am skipping the last two weeks of winter (I am SO OVER winter) and searching out some beach/sun/adventure etc. So, until September peeps... keep it real. Nerd out.