mailboxes, Germany

Now, this isn't the kind of card I normally post in this blog. ...which I suppose it's a little strange because I really, really like this kind of cards and a lot of my favourite postcards are not view cards. And yet I mainly seem to post view cards here. O_o Anyway, last year I mentioned in a postcard group on Facebook that when I first started Postcrossing, I received a few postcards from Norbert ('Nordbaer') in Germany and really liked them, and that I missed his cards as he's such a wonderful person. Someone relayed my comment to him and I received a postcard from him. :) This is one of the reasons why I love Postcrossing and the postcard community on Facebook. Well, people I "know" anyway. I must confess I'm not too much into the big Postcrossing group on FB. Some people are not very polite there and have strange demands.. ...and the photo proof requests still nark me a little bit, even though I can understand the reasoning behind them. (You never get these requests on the PC forum, though!) I'm actually more drawn towards official Postcrossing again as I've received some really lovely cards recently, and some very nice messages as well. I like the relative spontaneity of it all. I just wish my address didn't keep getting given out too many times. I wonder if that problem is ever going to be fixed as it's been a few years now. It's my main gripe with the official Postcrossing site.

Anyway, mailboxes! These are so bright and lovely, I wonder if they are still in use.. I might have mentioned it before but we don't even have a mailbox, just a slot in the front door.

Mailbox, Guernsey

You know those 'Touchnote' cards that were really popular this summer thanks to the promotion? I received some of them, too, but only sent a couple as I realised too late that you didn't need to have a Samsung phone to be able to send these cards, grrr. :( I really like the idea, although I wouldn't want "normal" postcards to be replaced with these as there's no personal handwriting or real stamps.

Anyway.. one of these cards I received was a surprise from dear Agi in Croatia. Thank you so much!! :)

I particularly like this one as it's mail related, and Agi was clever to choose a picture of a Victorian wall post box in Guernsey - seeing as these cards are being sent from Guernsey. I hadn't realised post boxes in Guernsey are blue, I wonder if they are all like that over there? ..hhhmmmm...

Taiwan

I had had this postcard in my favourites for quite a while so I was really happy to finally receive it from a tag. It has a mailbox AND a bicycle on it, perfect! ..and the cancellation on this card is pretty amazing as well.



The sender, Sue, tells me this is a vintage mailbox - mailboxes in Taiwan nowadays are square and more convenient for the mailman to take out the letters. There are still some old mailboxes in touristy areas, though.

The design of this mailbox reminds me of some mailboxes over here. I have no idea how convenient they are to the mailman, but they sure are pretty, so much nicer than the ugly modern ones.

The Posting Box, Yockenthwaite, England

I really haven't been too good with this blog recently :/ I'm not even sure where all the time has gone. Some of it has been spent writing letters and postcards to friends, reading and trying to sort out wedding stuff. Not so sure of the rest of it, though, and the pile of cards I want to post about is getting pretty big. Oopsies...

Anyway. In exactly two weeks I'll be in London, attending the International Postcrossing meet-up there (even if it looks like it's going to be slightly less international than was the plan initially, but there should still be people from several different countries attending). I went there last year and had such a good time, it was so nice how everyone was so friendly and welcoming to a newbie like me. I'm really looking forward to meeting some of the same people again, particularly Astrid and Wendy - and Andy (duplevista) who's organising the event again and who also sent me the postcard below two years ago. :)



I had to check Googlemaps for the location of the place on this card - it only says 'Yockenthwaite' on the back of the card and I'd never heard of the place again. It looks like it's in the middle of nowhere and yep, it is, in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales. Mmmmm, I do wonder whether this mailbox is emptied regularly.. Much as I keep complaining about the Royal Mail, at least they still provide a regular service for the whole of the UK. I'm not so sure what would happen if the postal services were privatised (apart from stamp prices probably going up quite a bit)...



The stamp is from a set of 8 stamps issued in 2009, with the theme 'Pioneers of the Industrial Revolution'. The one here shows James Watt, a strong contender for the title of father of the steam age because of his years of hard work in improving the Newcomen design created a ‘steam engine’.

Novel Mail Box Trail, Tasmania, Australia

It's always a treat to receive mail-related postcards, and I particularly love seeing different mailboxes around the world. I kind of wish we had a cool mailbox at home, too, but we just have a slot in the door. :/ Most of the really interesting mailboxes I've seen are from the USA, but here are some all the way from Australia!


AU-86156

There is a really quirky "Novel Mail Box Trail" in the Wilmot Valley in Tasmania, Australia. These pictures show just a few of the unique mailboxes in the area (I did a bit of googling on the subject and saw some really cool mailboxes!). No wonder these mailboxes are a great tourist attraction!