Cape Byron Lighthouse, Australia

So, one more card for today, this one from down under, sent by Heather.

This is the Cape Byron Lighthouse veiled in some early morning mist. It is an active lighthouse located at Cape Byron in New South Wales and is Australia's most powerful lighthouse, with a light intensity of 2,200,000 cd. Cape Byron is the easternmost point of the mainland of Australia.

And more lovely stamps with this card as well!! Two adorable WWF stamps from a set of 4 issued in 2011. This set is an Australian Territories Joint issue (so one of the stamps is from the AAT).
The other two stamps are actually issued by the Cocos Island. They are from a set of 20  Marine Life stamps issued in 2011. So beautiful!

So guys, enjoy the weekend ahead! And thank you fro dropping by :)

North Reef Lighthouse, Australia

A great maxi-card I received as an official this year, plus it is a lighthouse ♥

AU-471392

The maxi-card shows the North Reef Lighthouse in Queensland, which was first constructed in 1878.

Its construction is unique, having a hollow concrete base that both gives it resistance to the shifting nature of the sandbar and serves as a fresh water tank. As such, it is considered one of the major achievement in Australian lighthouse construction.
It is also notable in that due to the harsh conditions and remote location, only bachelors were allowed to serve as lighthouse keepers. (bachelors as in 'unmarried men' in this context). Does this mean that the conditions were that harsh that they thought these lighthouse keepers may not survive, and may not go back to their wives and children?!!

 At 24 metres  it is also the tallest of Queensland's timber framed iron clad lighthouses.

there are two stamps on the back which I find a bit confusing, since this is one of those postage prepaid cards, and as you can read it yourselves, it refers to delivery worldwide...so why would one need to use more postage then, I don't get it?
Anyways, till someone solves my mystery - the upper stamp was issued in 2008 in a set of four Tourist Precincts stamps and this one shows The Rocks in Sydney. The other stamp is from 2007 from a set of four Australian Wildflowers - here you can see the Green Spider-Flower.

Thanks to Margaret for this lovely lighthouse!

Hastings Caves, Australia

an official card from Australia...

AU-326795

the back of the card says: Newdegate Cave is a dolomite cave with impressive caverns and chambers formed more than 40 million years ago. Nearby, a natural spring maintains a thermal pool at 28°C.

n.b - it is the largest dolomite cave in Australia open to tourists...

a number of nice stamps...these are actually an entire set of 4 farming stamps issued in 2012. Lovely!!

Melbourne Park, Australia

Next is this beautiful maxi-card showing the tennis courts of Melbourne Park, issued in 2005, to commemorate the 100 years of the Australian Open Tournament. I wish this post was done in a more cheerful and ecstatic tone, but well, it still makes a suitable thing to post today :) And yeah, it is gonna be a yada-dada blabber, so you may just skip this one :)

As some of you may know, the Australian Open took place in the last two weeks...two weeks of great tennis, a lot of drama, and sleepless nights, cos time zones arent the friendliest sometimes...but all that waking up at 5 am was worth it, to enjoy the sight of dear Rafael Nadal. Who after missing last year's tournament due to injuries, showed exquisite performance here, reaching the finals...where to the surprise of many, on the other side of the net he had Stanislas Wawrinka...the Swiss guy who among else defeated Novak Djoković...and who until today had beaten Nadal zero times, out of the 12 times they had met...but the unlucky 13 turned out to be the charm for Stan..
I don't know what to think of today's final...too many expectations from Rafa, that's for sure...and as some called it, a bizarre final...why bizarre? cos of Nadal's back pains...for whole two weeks it was the blister...and now today, out of nowhere, he was struggling with terrible backache..i dont think ive ever, EVER seen this kind of Rafa...totally apathetic...unable to run for the balls...lousy serves...just losing poitns and moving from one side of the court to the other without even asking for his towel...Nadal, who asks for his towel after every single damn point, didnt ask for it once during several games..didnt even care about the placement of his bottles...i was speechless...and sad...and frustrated...i tried to stay realistic...tried not to make too much of a deal...but yeah, the audience was nothing but arrogant for booing him after the medical time out...cos im sure that all those who do not like Rafa, would stick to the story that he faked his injury, cos he wasnt capable of beating Stan, and at the first signs of Stan playing better than him, lets make excuses...no kidding??  You should actually thank him for not retiring...for struggling till the end just to give you a whole match...maybe not what you expected from a final, but at least he did give you an entire match...cos that's what you paid for, no? He did give Stan the chance to say he has beaten him, not that Stan won his first title cos Nadal retired...kuddos to you Rafa for that....for your humbleness...for never making excuses that an injury is the reason you lost...for saying that this is Stan's day, not yours...the greatest reason why Rafa has remained my very favourite is this attitude of his..never arrogant...never smashing racquets...always praising others...so as someone said, I dont care you lost today...Stan may be the winner, but you are the champion...
I do admit that when other players all of a sudden start complaining about injuries, there is this devil inside me that thinks they are just buying time, trying to recoup, to confuse the opponent...but i dont know if i have not done enough search. it is only when it happens to Rafa that the internet population goes nuts about how he is a cheater and blah blah blah...but if someone got the cheers and support from the crowd in the end, that was Rafa...yeah, the same crowd that first booed him :)


I just hope whatever that injury is, that it is nothing serious...I really cant handle another bout of Rafa-less tennis...i just need that daily dose of Rafa fighting on court :) Without him, tennis just wouldnt be the same for me

hugs to my dearest Zarah, who has stayed along with me for the past two weeks, through thick and thin...watching tennis together makes it much more entertaining, and easier to bear the tough moments...Gracias amiga!! ♥

Tjapukai People, Australia

next comes an awesome Australian card!

I love this Aboriginal Australia cards portraying indigenous people and different Australian tribes.
On this one here you can see the Tjapukai (or Djabugay) people (or People of the rain forest, as it is often used to describe them)
They are a group of Australian Aborigines who are the original inhabitants of mountains, gorges, lands and waters of a richly forested part of the Great Dividing Range.
They were nomads within their own tribal boundaries, whose major beliefs are in the Elder’s knowledge and reincarnation.
Even though Tjapukai is seen as a Patriarchal tribe, men did their own business, women did theirs. Yet they would all get together when all clans celebrated or when neighbouring tribes visited.
The Tjapukai community can be seen today as “Village in the Rainforest”, one of the major tourists towns in the Far North Queensland. It is home to the majority of the Djabugay people, if not the outer indigenous communities – Oak Forest, Mantaka, Korowra, Koah and Mona Mona.

the stamp is from a set of 4 issued in 2012, representing road trips.

Pichi Richi Railway, Australia

A great train card sent by dear Heather!

the card shows the NM25 locomotive on one of the Pichi Richi Railway's heritage train journeys.
The NM25 is said to be one of two surviving Commonwealth Railways (CR) 4-8-0 locomotives used to operate the Port Augusta to Alice Springs railway, built by built by Thompsons of Castlemaine in 1925.
The Pichi Richi Railway is operating regular heritage train journeys on the oldest remaining section of the famous narrow-gauge old Ghan railway.

I wonder how many train journeys are out there that id love to take...zillions!

and Heather used three awesome stamps, issued this year in a set of 5 stamps portraying city traffic. The left one shows a train in Perth, the one in the middle shows a tram in Melbourne, while the one on the right shows a double decker train in Sydney.

Thanks a lot Heather!!!

Kuranda Train, Australia

A fantastic card from dear Heather! Not only coz it is a train...but just look at those amazing surroundings! And the panoramic size really fits in here, capturing such a great length of the train!

Here is what the back of the card says: The classic scene of the Kuranda Train at Stony Creek Falls as it makes its way up to Kuranda. On its way the train will pass waterfalls, travel through tunnels and pass many dramatic views to finally arrive in the rainforest town of Kuranda; settled in the mountains behind Cairns".

The Barron Gorge National Park is a part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, so I think this card is eligible to be labeled as UNESCO as well, no?

This brings the issue of why is it so hard for me to collect and keep track of my UNESCO received cards....coz in the UNESCO list you have one item called: Wet tropics of Queensland...but that item consists of a bunch of places....so i just dont know how it is possible to collect ALL the UNESCO sites in the world...I mean, same is with Macedonia...you have Ohrid and its region on the list, meaning the Lake, the city and the entire historical and cultural area belong to this list...and do you actually know how many such places Ohrid has?? A LOT!! So seems that now I have to disappoint some of the UNESCO collectors out there, but maybe you dont actually have the complete UNESCO regarding Macedonia....sorry =/

and as usual Heather uses lovely stamps!!! all the stamps were issued in 2010....the left one is a self-adhesive from a set of 4 representing the 150th Melbourne cup - Carbine 1890. The middle stamp portrays the Canonisation of Mary MacKillop while the third one is from a set of 4 self-adhesive stamps showing Australian Kingfishers and this is the Red-backed Kingfisher...so cute :) Thank you so much Heather!!!

Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Another FANTASTIC card from dear Heather. She simply knows to hit me right on the spot with her choices! 

The back of the card has some info...not quite usual for the backs of the cards, but Ill share it with you.
Low Isles. Port Douglas. "An island of paradise. A twenty minute boat trip from Port Douglas. With coral reefs surrounding this island, a clear blue sky, warm tropical waters and where sailors anchor and spend a few days." Tech: mid-morning, polarising filter, 1/125 sec., 100 ASA.

You, photographers, know what this last sentence is all about :)

And lest not forget, that the Great Barrier Reef is actually a UNESCO as well!

and apart from sending fantastic cards, Heather enjoys playing with great stamps too and often adding ones from Christmas and Cocos Islands. So here, at the very right is the Australian LIGHTHOUSE Stamp! It is from a set of 6 Island Jewels stamps issued in 2007, where this one portrays the Rottnest Island, WA.
Now regarding the other two stamps...the middle one is from Christmas Island from a set of 14 issued this year, commemorating the Year of the Rabbit; while the very left stamp is from Cocos (Keeling) Islands and was also issued this year in a set of 4 stamps portraying boats.

Thank you so much again Heather for all the splendid cards and stamps you've sent me!  

Australia

A card from Down Under...where summer is approaching....

And...I got this card as an absolute surprise...sent to me from the First Postcrossing meeting in Adelaide, which took place on 10.10.2010 (cool, eh?:))....and...apart from the fact that I LOVE receiving cards from PC meetings, since it shows that someone has thought of me...this card feels extra special coz it was Vicki herself who thought of me!!! You may wonder, who's Vicki....but if I tell you, it was Mundoo herself, then that should give you a clearer idea....now if you have no idea who Mundoo is, then you are probably not a part of the forum and have never been there....so it would be pointless to go into further explanations since it wont really make any difference to you either way :)
But to me it does...and im more than happy and grateful that she thought of me...and i wanna thank also the other people who had put their signatures on the card...glenasena, gracefool, crizle, apty, maggie 05....

Cute koala stamp...issued in 2009 in a set of 4 stamps, representing Australian Bush Babies.

Great Southern Rail, Australia

An update wouldnt be an update if there is no train card to bother you with :D

AU-92140

And this fantastic maxi card came as an official from Australia (boy, I love the 'official' people who pay attention to someone's wishes).

The card shows the Great Southern Railway (GSR), which operates interstate passenger trains aimed at the tourist market:
The Indian Pacific (Sydney-Adelaide-Perth)
The Ghan (Adelaide-Alice Springs-Darwin)
The Overland (Melbourne-Adelaide)
The Southern Spirit (various routes from November 2008)

The Ghan, Indian Pacific and Overland were operated until 1997 by Australian National Railways. As a Government enterprise, it was always unprofitable. The Australian Commonwealth sold ANR Passenger and Freight in 1997. GSR took over the operation of the Indian Pacific, The Ghan and The Overland passenger trains, and has operated them profitably since that time. Costs were reduced by renegotiating staff pay and conditions, and by extending the Ghan, which originally ran from Adelaide to Alice Springs, so that it ran once each week from Sydney and once each week from Melbourne. With completion of the railway from Alice Springs to Darwin, the Ghan now runs from Adelaide to Darwin. While GSR owns the passenger car fleet, Pacific National provides hook and pull (locomotive haulage) services.
The Southern Spirit is a luxury cruising train service, launched by Great Southern Railway on 17 June 2008, with the inaugural service running on 25 November 2008

Ahhhh, I wanna go I wanna go!!!!

Btw, due to some assignments lately, I had to attend this office, which believe it or not has a direct view onto the railway tracks which come in and out of the Main Railway Station in Skopje! Do you know what a feeling it is to be able to watch the trains from so close?!  I wonder what was the impression the people got, who noticed the absolute fascination in my eyes and the way I stared at the trains and followed them as they were moving along....

Australia

A flag card for my collection, which i ended up receiving twice...within just a week time or so...the first one arrived as a swap, the second one as an official...who could have guessed :) And i only have 2 officials received from Australia so far....

AU-72352

The Australian flag is composed of 3 parts:

• The Union Jack (British flag) in the top left corner,
• The 'Star of Federation' in the bottom left corner, and
• The Southern Cross, taking up the right half of the flag.

The Union Jack shows that the first colonisation by Europeans was by Britain. In case you didn't know, Australia started as a penal colony. The Star of Federation is a seven pointed star. They came to the number seven, by giving each state (six in all) a point on the star, and having one more point for Australia's territories (of which there are several). There are two mainland territories, and several overseas, including two in Antarctica. The Southern Cross is a constellation that can be seen from all of Australia's states and territories.

the stamp on both cards was the same, with the same airmail label next to it...so im included just this one which was cancelled actually, and comes from the swap card....it was issued in 2008 in a set of 4 stamps representing waterfalls...and these are the Russel Falls in Tasmania.

Western Australia, Australia

A very cool Australian map.

It shows Western Australia, also called State of Contrast. Not sure exactly why, whether its coz of climate, flora, fauna...or something else....and i will refrain from giving my own ideas and speaking nonsense :)
It is just a really nice map card with even two trains involved :)

and some really nice stamps that differ from the usual ones I have....
The one in the top right corner was issued in 2009 in a set of 8 stamps depicting Corrugated Landscapes, where on this one a Traditional Home is portrayed. The 50c under it is from 2002 from a set of 3 stamps  called Panorama, with this one showing Walker Flat.
The seals' one is also from 2009, from a set of 5 stamps from an Australian joint territories issue depicting Species at risk. This is the Subantarctic Fur Seal.

South East Queensland, Australia

A surprise card that arrived with a bunch of others...just coz i like maps :P

Maybe Australia is too far away, but right now, it would be nice to be there...coz summer is there...and its nice and warm...i know that during summer here i complain about how hot the weather is, but i dont like this cold either...makes me so sleepy and depressed in general....
A short explanation about the pictures on the card:
On the left side:
- Tee Trea Bay, Noosa National Park
- Lake Wabby, Fraser Island
- Urangan Pier, Hervey Bay

On the right side:
- Brisbane
- Main Beach, North Stradbroke Island
- Pineapple fields and the D'Aguilar Range, Dayboro

off to eat something...check on my cats....and write a letter to Sami....and one or two more...so i can post them tomorrow

so lonh....

Melbourne, Australia

This postcard was sent to my aunt by her friend Savica...but i cant tell the year since i cant read it from the postmark...

She says that the city is big and clean and well arranged and that the people are kind. The title of the card is called "Spectacular skyline of Melbourne at dusk"....so no particular buildings or such that i can talk of....Im not sure just if this picture shows the CBD of Melbourne or just some other part with huge buildings and skyscrapers....

I think ive already talked of Melbourne before so i wont get down to details now....just wanted to show the postcard...

 

as for the stamp...it was issued in 2005 and comes from a set of 4 stamps portraying the Bush Wildlife, where here in particular you can see the famous Australian symbol, the Koala....

Perth, Australia

*WAVING*

Helloouuuu!!! :) Yeah....what a silence here...totally unexpected...since i totally unexpectedly got some working assignments that had to be done in insane deadlines (as always)...well, i still have something pending, but being that im done with the majority of it, i think i can finally take a break and post something here...
It was also my birthday few days ago (July 28th to be more precise)...I wanted to make a small post here, time and I were running after each other...and eventually, i was finally done somewhere in the evening...gave myself a HUUGEE ice-cream treat, and zonked out at 11 pm....what a party eh? :) Well, ive never been fond of my birthday either way, so its not much of a big deal....i start to really not pay attention to such stuff and dont let them bother me...and it feels better that way (and no, this is not ignoring things....its just accepting them the way they are...)
Well, i had received some great mail in the meantime as well, but i already had these 3 cards prepared to post over a week ago, so ill proceed with them, and we'll see what will be on the menu from tomorrow on :)

A nice card from Perth (my only Perth card)...which on the left shows the London Court, while on the right, on the top you can see a Perth Skyline, and on the bottom a Kangaroo statue, which, as Brandon says, is almost a real size model.
What really caught my attention and fascinated me in a way is that, the back of the card says that Perth is the most isolated city in the world! (and here my 'most-extreme-place' button gets activated). Can you believe that the nearest city to Perth is Adelaide, which is ENTIRE 2,104 km away!!! Ok, sorry, but this is rather hard for me to comprehend...i just cant make this image in my head of living in a city where the next one to it is 2000 km away...i mean, hell, thats more than the entire Macedonia from north to south or from west to east...Even Belgrade is some 450km away from Skopje.....this is like from Skopje till somewhere in Central Europe (?!)....Well, there are some small cities located near Perth....but i dont know how small they actually are...probably too small since they are not taken into consideration.
It is said that Perth is actually closer East Timor and Singapore than it is to Sydney and Melbourne..
Well....i know i say i want to live somewhere where i can get my peace of mind and somewhere away from the street jungle, but i dont think i would like to live in Perth :) Im curious to know, if there are nice natural places near Perth where people can go to at a weekend or just relax...and get away from the hectic daily routine...but i still wouldnt want to live in a city where the next one to visit requires a plane ticket...

a pretty common Australian stamp i think...at least on my mail :)
It comes from a set of four stamps issued in 2008 under the title Gorgeous Australia. This one shows the Grose river Gorge in NSW. A special feature of this set of stamps is that this is the first stamp issue to feature the new smaller blue International Post indicator.
There is no cancellation unfortunately...

Australia

I dont know if im unconsciously choosing the cards for the updates, but ive been posting maps in every single update...well, not that i mind, it feels nicer for me to have a little bit of everything, but now that i realized it, i felt weird about it.

Its a really nice map, as well as my other Australian one...I would love to visit Australia one day (well i would love to visit every single place in the world actually)...but i dont think i would love to live in Australia.
I dont know if you knew, but many Macedonians live in Australia...the thing with them  is, i dont know if they get culturally over-enlightened, but they really feel very self-centered with themselves. A friend of mine went to Australia several years ago to visit her relatives who are Macedonians but have lived there for their whole life. And this is what happened to her. She wanted to watch something, and one of the relatives did this.."So, this is a V-I-D-E-O R-E-C-O-R-D-E-R...you use it to watch films....and this is a T-A-P-E! You take the tape, and, see this opening in the recorder??? Weeeelll, you put the tape in it and you GEEEEENTLY push it inside. Then you take this, which is called a R-E-M-O-T-E C-O-N-T-R-O-L...It is used to change channels, like this (and he shows her how to do it.)
And my friend was just speechlessly watching him...she couldnt believe it that he treated her like a retard and she wondered if she should tell him how many videos in her life she had actually watched...i guess thats coz of the lack of information people have about Macedonia...we are far from the greatest or most developed country in the world, but we are not from the Stone age either...funny though, many Macedonian immigrants do treat us like that forgetting they come from here as well....its an absurd situation...not to mention the Australian-Macedonian language they had invented...its a mixture of English and Macedonian, and its just....awful and ridiculous. I wonder how shocked they would be if they actually knew we have iPods as well....
Well that would be all for today....see you soon...hopefully

Australia

Hello all! You are just in time for another update and for another nice Postcard Friendship Friday hosted over at Marie's Blog...dont forget to have a stop by there :)

Im somewhat managing to have a grasp on how to do my posts when Friday comes...i just need to organize my cards/themes better...its nothing spectacular, in case you expect it to be so...but i just want to arrange it somehow regarding friends and friendship and stuff...i think i especially got inspired today after on a day of SNOW STORM..yeah, you read it right...we are having lots and lots of snow falling here, which is ridiculous....during the week it was nice and warm and sunny and today, one day before we need to walk into the sprin season, we are having lots of snow! But what i wanted to say, that even though the day has been awful when it comes to weather conditions, my mailbox had an extra treat, after a long while...lots of great mail, from so many dear people out there...and that just brightened me up, despite i felt so dreary on the inside....im really really thankful to them all...they all know who they are, and i dedicate this PPF to them :)

The card itself is called "A Warm G'Day" - From the Land Down Under, by Bruce, Sheila and the Endangered Species Gang.
You know, sometimes, i really think that true friends are a species in extinction....but my dear pals from all over the globe just prove me wrong! I wish my pals from where i live, proved me wrong as well somtimes....

Australia

And another great card for today...a map-card from Australia! So just as my flag collection is growing, just as the number of the countries in my collection is growing, so does the collection of my map cards! Problem is, all this 'growing' just makes me feel more and more addicted to postcards than i already am....that aint good :)

Well, as most map cards, this one as well shows the bigger cities/places and their significant features.
Ive never been to Australia and i dont know if its due to its remoteness or something else, but i dont have an itch to go there....though if for example, right now someone came and gave me a plane ticket to Australia and a ticket for the Australian Open, i would go there without thinking...or for the F1 Grand Prix in March....and speaking of F1...you would never ever guess what i received today!!! Unless ive already told you about it :) But today was a great postcard day...and this card just made me smile from ear to ear!
Its unbelievable how such small things can sometimes add so much significance to your ordinary dark days :)

see you soon!

Sydney, Australia

I got this card in the UNESCO-tag thread....when one gets terribly busy and doesnt have much time for arranging swaps or making blog updates, he or she gets addicted to tags so they keep him or her sane and provide the required postcard-dosage....which is nothing but an indication that im addicted to postcards....heh, as if the rest of you reading this, arent ;-)

This card comes from Yvone in Australia, and this picture is actually a photo take by her husband...and then they convert their photo into postcards...which i think is great...especially since it makes me somewhat privileged to know i have received something more unique :)

The card shows the Sydney Opera House, and one thing that made me shiver and gave me the creeps was that, Jørn Utzon, the Danish architect who designed the Opera House had died just 2 weeks ago, or at the time this card was sent to me...He died having never returned to Australia to see the completed opera house.  Now, isnt this sad??!

The thing i really like about the card is the Queen Victoria coming into the image...makes it a somewhat different aspect from the Sydney Opera House pictures im used to...plus the ship's grandiousness, just gives an extra feeling :)

Melbourne, Australia

This is from my friend Biljana, from her trip to Australia in 2000....she has relatives both there and in Canada, and of course brought me cards...

The back of the card just says "Twilight over Melbourne"...no description of what those buldings actually are.

btw, yesterday she said that she is due to be very soon, that is next week....yup yup yup...she is going to have a baby girl....hahhahaa, i got so excited to know that she is finally counting the last days....I still havent gotten anything for the baby, and I had this idea of getting her some nice winter clothes and accessories...i just need to find some spare time and have a look at whats around stores...and find something which is actually appropriate for a new-born....hope i wont make some clumsy mistake :D