Quote cards and postcrossing

I've been sending out so many letters and postcards recently that I rather wonder what the man at the local Post Office thinks of it all. I seem to be in there every day buying a stamp or two.

The two postcards above are ones that I sent to somebody from postcrossing. She mentioned on her profile that she likes all things Alice in Wonderland. The first postcard I sent her was a photo I took of some black and white stencil art.

When I came across the two postcards above, which are actually old advertisements for an exhibition at the State Library of Tasmania, I decided to send them on too. I like "finding a home" for things which I keep because I like them, but just sit in a box somewhere.

I bought some peel-n-stick postcard backs from the only aussie supplier I could find. They do the job, but they really are stickers and so offer very little support to flimsy photos & are thin enough to see through when placed over ads or other writing on a postcard. I'm still playing around with different ideas... one that works quite well is just collecting 'free' postcards with little advertising on the back and simply gluing your photo over the top :)

Another batch of postcards I send out recently Quotecard Postcard swap on swap-bot. It is a monthly swap.

I've been jotting down bits and pieces from books into a small exercise book as I read. So I went through (from the beginning) and chose the first three that I thought suited the three recipients based on their profile. Here's what I ended up sending out:

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints.

Alas, as we get up in life, and are more preoccupied with our affairs, even a holiday is a thing that must be worked for. To hold a pack upon a pack-saddle against a gale out of the freezing north is no high industry, but it is one that serves to occupy and compose the mind. And when the present is so exacting, who can annoy himself about the future?

-- From "Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes" by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1879.

Rachel is unlike any woman he's ever had before. To begin with, she's a respectable woman, his first; and respectability in a woman, as he's now discovered, complicates things considerably.

-- From "Alias Grace" by Margaret Atwood

Mary said I might be very young, and as ignorant as an egg, but I was bright as a new penny, and the difference between stupid and ignorant was that ignorant could learn.

-- From "Alias Grace" by Margaret Atwood

Old Canberran postcard

I won't be discussing every postcard I send out, but I particularly like this one. I've been stashing postcards for a long time now, and am loving being able to send them out to others. This one is old - I think I may have gotten it from my parents.

You can tell its age by several things. First of all, the telephone number on the back is (062) 88-3508 now there have been several phone changes since then. The 6-digit phone number became a 7-digit one, and then an 8-digit one. (I remember this last transition as a child). So that phone number would probably be (02) 6288-3508 nowadays. Also, the style of the postcard. Nowadays, a lot of available aussie postcards seem to be Steve Parish or Murray views ones, and there are lots of fancy fonts, fading effects, etc. No-one proudly proclaims to have taken a "colour photograph" anymore or bother to name small ferries in photos.

So in brief, I love the ridged edge, the colours, the RED BOLD ITALIC title, and the little message in the stamp-box: "I LIKE TO BE SEEN - please don't send me in an envelope".

Four Australian postcrossing postcards sent

I've just sent my first set of postcrossing postcards... I especially like the two top ones. There are a whole series of postcards with stamps on them ("First Day of Issue") which cost AU$1.50 each including worldwide delivery... a pretty good deal considering stamps cost AU$1.35 anyway!

The top left card is from 1920, and the other black & white Surf Life Saving card is undated. The two bottom cards are fairly typical shop-bought ones. The kookaburras on the left can be seen (or rather heard) in the outskirts of cities. I love their call. The landmarks on the right are nice, but don't feature the A.C.T.