Postcards From The Edge!

Yes, this is a day late, but yesterday ran away with me! It was such a lovely day that I decided to do a spot of gardening and had every intention of blogging after lunch, and did in fact start one. But, then Andrew whatsapped to ask me if I was watching the tennis final, and I abandoned my computer to cheer for Djokovic. But, not loudly enough obviously, as he sadly didn't win.

So, here I am!

Saturday was Catherine's birthday, so I phoned her and Rob and I sang to her and we had a chat and then her mobile phone was ringing, so we left her to it. As it turned out, she had put a photo on her Facebook page and had over a hundred comments by the evening! Plus she had texts, emails, whatsapps, and probably a tweet or so, all safely and electronically delivered. Instantly!

Isn't technology wonderful?

But, I don't think that she had one actual card. Where the sender chooses a card, writes a touching or humorous message, addresses it, sticks a stamp on, and physically finds a post box or post office and sends it on its way! And then hopes that it will get to its destination without being opened, stolen, lost or destroyed!

How many of you have posted a card to someone in the last year? (Not many here in SA I bet, as the Post Office has been crippled with strikes where the post piles up, and people lose confidence in sending something that may never arrive!)


But, I can confidently raise my hand! The only cards I send now are  to my beautiful grandchildren. I try to slip a small gift in so that when they open it, there is a surprise. (Maybe the surprise is that the card actually makes it to its destination!) I send stickers, or a small hand made felt gift, something to let them know that I love them.

Last year my card to Mateo took about three months to get there and I was beginning to despair, but then, out of the blue, I received the following photo from Andrew........

It finally arrived!

I used to love getting post on my birthday. (I used to love birthdays too!) I would wait for the postman, listen for the flap on the front door and the sound of the letters falling onto the mat. I remember the joy of physically opening the cards, checking carefully in case there was money enclosed, and then standing them on the mantelpiece for a few days so that everyone could see them.

I was chatting to my sister yesterday about this and she mentioned something called 'Postcrossing' and how it has taken the world by storm. I was confused, I had no idea what she was talking about. So, I did the obvious thing and Googled it!

And yes, there it was,

'Postcrossing is an online project that allows its members to send and receive postcards from all over the world. The project's tag line is "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!”. Its members, also known as postcrossers, send postcards to other members and receive postcards back from other random postcrossers. Where the postcards come from is always a surprise. By June 2015 Postcrossing had more than 554,570 members in 213 different countries who had registered and exchanged over 30 million postcards that have traveled over 151 billion kilometers.' (Thanks to Wikipedia)

Russia heads the list of countries with the most users. Over 62 000 people sent 2,669,475 postcards in 2014! South Africa doesn't come in the top 15 countries, so we obviously have better things to do with our time, and no snow-bound winters to keep us inside......and bored! Germany heads the list of 'most sent postcards', with 2,884,279 sent from 36,138 users!

The whole project was started in July 2005 by Paulo Magalhães. He basically started it as a hobby because he liked to receive post, especially postcards. The idea caught on and once the media became aware of it, then the news spread! (Presumably by post!!)

The postcrossing stamps! (Thanks to www.postcrossing.com)

'On October 11, 2011, PostNL released the first set of Dutch Postcrossing-themed stamps at the philatelic exhibition Postex in Apeldoorn. The sheet of 10 stamps was designed by communication agency The Stone Twins, and depicted different types of postcards seemingly strewn about (as if scattered on a doormat)' (Thanks to Wikipedia)

Fascinating stuff!

I wonder how many of these people involved in sending and receiving postcards are serious Deltiologists?

My sister used to be........................