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New Year Resolution for 2008: Swim faster, Run longer, maybe return to cycling.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Resurrecting my Stamp Collecting Hobby

I remember we used to state "collecting stamps" as hobbies and interests. Those were the days when it was common to be a stamp hobbyists (philatelist). We'd write to penpals and proudly bring our stamp collections to school to exchange stamps. It was so cool to cut out stamps from envelopes and dipping them in water so the gum between envelope and stamp dissolved, and then we dried the wet stamps on tissue paper. Dad started me in this great hobby.

Oh yes: the process... and the joys of stamp collecting!

In early secondary school (that was in 1988), I decided to concentrate on collecting Scouts on stamps. Since Scouting was a global movement for boys, and I was (am) a scout, I made sure to collect only stamps that featured scouts from all over the world.

Then came the world of internet and the we seldom hear of stamp collecting and enthusiastic kids having honest-to-goodness stamp exchanges. ('twas a form of barter trade too!). My interest for stamp collecting kind of died with the the advent of internet, except for my first purchase on ebay in 2001 when I tested the system and got myself a set of scout stamps, which honestly I have no idea where they are now.

A trip to the Singapore Philatelic Museum on International Museum Day (27 May 2007 - incidentally my birthday) piqued my interest in collecting stamps again. And so the return of collecting Scouts on stamps all over again. JQ got me some from a starter topical pack to revive the collection.

Today, I realised that there's a philatelic agency (Happy Philatelic Agency) near my office. It's a dying hobby, really, so philatelic agencies are hard to come by. I got myself a refillable album, a pair of tweezers, the 1985 Republic of China (Taiwan) triangle Scout stamps, and the 2007 Centenary Hong Kong First Day Cover and Miniature Sheet.

By the way, 2007 is the Centenary of World Scouting, so there'll be quite alot of countries issuing stamps for Scouting.

And now... to find ways of getting connected to stamp clubs all over the world.....

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