The Versatile Blogger Award!

I was sort of speechless when I found out I was nominated for this by my dear friend Zarah at her Postcardscrossing blog. Ive never been given such an award before, at least not that i know of, so when I found this out I felt both honoured and thrilled! Thank you so much amiga!

well, here it is:

and there are some rules that have to be met once you receive this:

* Be sure to thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
* Share 7 things about yourself.
* Pass the award to other bloggers who you think deserve it.
* Be sure to let the bloggers know you chose them to receive the award.

well, number 1 is done, so let's go to number 2....uhmmm...7 things...i was wondering what was it that i could let you know about which, first, is not something you already know (or at least not something the majority of you knows), second, something that wont be boring and third, something that wont make you go run away and never come back to this blog again....well, if you are ready to know a bit more about Ana, you can keep on reading :P


1. Im an only child and ive always felt sad coz of that. Despite the fact that ive been told many times that im lucky coz i dont have a brother or sister to argue with and that I could get everything I wanted without worrying I will have to share it with someone, reality is actually different. When I was little, I literally begged my mum to adopt me an older brother :P And I dont think Ive ever been self-centred and selfish and demanding as those stereotypical theories claim only-children to be.

2. Im an anti-smoker...a big one...one of the most annoying things I cant stand and which get me frustrated is the smoke of cigarettes and I always argue with people around me who smoke and dont pay much attention to those around them, if it is bothering them or no. Im GRATEFUL to this law they adopted here with which they ban smoking in the cafe's and all places of the closed kind. Life feels so much better :)

3. Im not a vegan, but I only like fish and chicken products...pork, lamb, beef..and my face immediately gets this *ughhh* expression :) Not fond of Fast Food either. And yes, I do love animals.

4. Im a female, but i HATE shopping. The thought of having to go shopping makes me cringe! :P Really...if you need company of someone to assist you in what to buy and to be there when you try clothes on, trust me, im the last person you should call :) I hate having to go from store to store, to look at things, to try them on and so on and so on...when I need to buy something, I usually have one or two stores in mind, go straight there and hopefully get what I need....or I just happen to pass by a shop and see something I like, I buy it or come later to buy it. When being abroad for example, i am the only one who doesnt go with the group of ladies shopping...i go my own way - music/book stores....now THERE i can spend an entire day without feeling bored for one second. Oh yeah, I love huge supermarkets too with lots and lots and lots of different food :D

5, I suffer from low blood pressure, hence i often feel sleepy...esp. on cloudy days or when the weather gets changeable, i just feel uselees and incapable to do anything as needed. Im also short-sighted but wear glasses only when going to the theatre or cinema

6. I am an anti-music talent. I LOVE music and often wish i could sing or play the guitar but unfortunately thats not for me. When i was in first year of high school, at the music class there was a recruitment for new people for the school choir so everyone had to sing a small piece according to the piano accords the teacher would play. So my turn came, i sang the part and the teacher asked me 'have you ever sung in a choir'? ; me - no; teacher - well, you never will. So there you go :)

7. I collect mugs...I have no room to keep them, yet I keep buying more...I have around 170 right now...I think I would sooner or later need a separate room where I could keep my mugs, postcards, letters, books and CD's :)

well, i think that 7 is not enough, but I guess you shouldnt get too much info about me at once :P

as for who to pass this too...well, I was thinking about it, and this is a tricky thing coz the last thing I would want is to make someone feel neglected or accidentally forget someone. So, if Im your follower, you have more or less regular updates, have written something in the past few weeks and you DO write texts and stories and information at your blog, and we are more or less in touch one way or another, then im handing this over to YOU. And just to mention a few, in no particular order:

dear Bea with her Penpalling and Letters, Glenn and his great postcard blog, Chris and his Wild Postcards (Zarah already nominated him for the Girls go Postal, so im giving him the other one ;), Dani with her current China adventures, Maggie who so selflessly helps me with deciphering Japanese stamps,  Anu and her lovely postcard blog, the generous and kind Heather and her so many lovely postcards, my dear Marta with her postcards (she esp. loves UNESCO in case you can help her), my very dear friend Chrissy whom I really miss talking to...

If you have a postcard blog I dont know of, let me know about it :)

So, if you are in the mood and feel like sharing some bits and pieces of your life, you can play. If not, I still wholeheartedly give you this award :)

Thanks a lot again Zarah!

Hugs to everyone!

Revamp

Well as you could notice, this blog has "suffered" some outlook changes. Ive been wanting to do it for a long time now, but either i couldnt find a nice template or in most cases, it was impossible to arrange the widgets properly, and the page just looked messy with things overlapping each other.
With the coming of spring, i really liked this template and feels cheerful and happy as well...the other template just felt soooo plain that it was so much annoying me. But there you go, finally it happened.
Im not sure if i will keep this one permanently....might switch to something else if i find it much more appealing or interesting, and if i manage to make the settings work (playing with html can be fun, but frustrating as well:))
Well for now i do like it how it looks and the positive energy it has....hope you like it too :)
Will come back with some cards later hopefully

My new blog...

Well, before I get the decent time  to post some new cards, just wanted to share some news with you...I have finally created my new blog dedicated to philately...the idea has been roaming in my head for quite a while and there we go...it finally happened.
Still no actual posts there, except for the welcome....and it will still need some remodeling and adjusting....but as for now, maybe you would just like to have the link :)

so here we go:

Let me take you on a philatelic trip.....


you know you are more than welcome there too :)

Small Notice

Before i get down to the update, need to make a small notice....

Starting from tomorrow, im not sure how often i will be able to update here...until another notice. Also, i may not be able to have internet access or have a very limited one and therefore, in case you message me, i may not be able to reply. You can still mail me/message me, but it may take a while for me to read it. In case its something urgent, you can always text me (if you have my number...you can ask for it as well if we are friends...even virtual ones :)).
I dont want to say WHEN i will be able to update here and how frequently...i dont want to make promises and fail to fulfill them and also, i dont want to say i cant make updates and they i appear out of nowhere. So we'll just have to see how it goes.
Cant talk of any details regarding stuff, mainly coz i dont want to talk of anything ahead...so i need to see first how things develop and then give you the details. I was craving for a change? Yeah, well....this can be one. And its literally eating me on the inside.......

To those whom i had to mail stuff...here is a list of people to whom i have mailed things these past few days, so you neednt worry :)

Ana - Serbia
Janek - Estonia (tag & swap)
Sissel - Norway
Nataly - Russia
Grzegorz - Poland
Dengbin - China
Aga - Poland
Shevanti - India
Jude - NMI
Nasia - Cyprus

So you should all be getting your mail any time soon....if your name is not on the list, then it means i havent managed to mail your stuff, so it will have to be postponed...sorry :(

regarding letters....a huge apology to all my penpals out there but due to overall things, havent managed to write a single letter lately...ill try and organize it somehow and at least move slowly with it...i hate it to be late with replying to your letters, but you know me...=| I just hope you are not mad at me and would still look forward to hear from me in your mailbox :)

Well, with that said...we can move to the postcards.

Going Away....

Hello everyone.

This is just a short post to let you know that i will be away for a while, and once im back, hopefully ill be able to post more regularly here.
Sorry for the latest lack of updates, sorry if i owe you any mails or messages but you know how hectic life can get sometimes :)
To whomever i owe a message, or whoever had felt neglected from my side, im really sorry...and unfortunately i know there are people in both categories here.

All my mail will be taken care of in the meantime, so no worries if you had sent me something...its gonna be safe and sound here :)

Ill be back in more or less 3 weeks, so i hope you wont have forgotten of my by then :D

wishing you all a great summer, wherever you are!

Notice!

Hello everyone!
Just wanted to make a small post and tell you that im not sure when the next update (along with the Uzbekistan card) would be able to see the light of day. I had got some severe back pain today and everything i do is followed by enormous pain in my back...i cant move properly, cant lean forward, cant sit, cant stand...basically, i feel incapable to do many stuff...sitting at the pc, typing is also not pleasant...not to mention that my focus is totally distracted...
I also wanted to ask you if you have any advice about conditions like this....massages? ointments? Any sort of helpful suggestion would be welcome...i may have to go to the doctor's as well, but first i wanted to see if i can work this out in some more natural way...i know rest is a must, but so far, it hasnt been much helpful, coz the condition remains the same...
Thanks a lot in advance to everyone! And hopefully, will see you soon at the updates....

Sort of an explanation...

I dont know why each time i say how 'these days i have more free time and more time to update things' it ends up being totally different. This time due to work...ive been cramped with it ever since 2nd January even though i was supposed to actually have a break till 21st...well, not having any kind of obligations till 21st is not also desirable, but being shot with deadlines and going to sleep at 8am each day is certainly not on the list of good things to do either....so from now on, i will keep my mouth shut instead of getting excited that i have the time for updates and eventually turns out totally otherwise
During this time i also received a plentiful of cards, BEAUTIFUL cards...some of the cards i thought got lost, had also arrived (2 months to Jamaica and Portugal is my newest record) and i also enriched my collection with new countries....but step by step....I just want to thank you all for your patience during this past week :)

Happy New Year!!!

Have a Happy New Year everyone!!!

I wish that you all have a great New Year's Eve and a very very great year ahead of you! I wish that its one full of joy and love and that you'll have the strength and will to fulfill all your wishes and desires and if needed, overcome any kind of hardships you may stumble upon. 

Im sorry for the lack of updates lately...or better said, sorry for their inconsistency, but i just couldnt really juggle with all life had served...so this is one of the things in my life that had to suffer a great deal, but hopefully, ill get back on track once the new year walks through the door and that you'll see things more regularly here.

I also want to thank you ALL who had been coming around in the past 9 months and who actually helped this place to get going...i hope you will keep coming in the following year as well, coz i do need your support, suggestions, critics, help, comments and contribution....coz if i didnt have that so far, this place wouldnt have been what is it today....so thank you ALL for giving all those things to me in such great amounts!!! You just make my time and efforts in this soooo worthwhile!! Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!

Have fun tonight everyone, or a nice calm evening, whichever you prefer.

Ill bring you a new post next year as soon as i can....having in mind im having a short holiday and break from work, it should be any time soon.....so stay tuned :)

Hugs to all of you out there, and thank you for everything!!!

Here I am! :)

Yup, exactly! After almost two weeks of silence i am back here :)
Well, usually when i get to "disappear" for a while i tend to first give a rant of excuses of why i havent been able to make any updates here and i tend to do it along with the first posted card...well, i thought that its actually more convenient to do it separately, so first of all you can just scroll down to the next post instead read thru it all so that you get down to the line where the story about the card begins, and also it feels neater and cleaner this way.....plus lets face it...my rants always feel so endless that compared to the story about the card, the card just feels insignificant :)
Soooo...where ive been this time...hm, well, ive been around, and uber-busy...whenever i disappear from here its coz im busy and have a lot of work to do, and i always say  how "this is the busiest ive ever been"...and i know i said last time that live has been never so overloaded with work and blah blah blah...well, my friends, compared to this time, last time cant even come close to it...in general, when i have a lot of work, i do skip in here and make a small update and all...this time i felt physically incapable for it...first of all, regular working schedule extended a lot...On Monday and Wednesday ive been workin from 8am till 9:30pm...yeah, you;ve read it well...so thats almost 14 hours of being outside the house...Fridays, which i had free, now i had to work from 8am till 4pm and afterwards go to my German class...so again, no home sweet home until at least 8pm....Tuesday and Thursday were slightly more relaxing, but just slightly, having in mind how much Monday and Wednesday would exhaust me, i would have given anything to be able to oversleep Tuesdays and Thursday...and as usual, working weekends...i think that i havent had a day off in the last 4 months...there is ALWAYS something that needs to be done, and there are always some deadlines..and frankly it feels really stressfull to be working under deadlines...
But...after sleeping just two hours last night, i can finally say that one of the HUGE tasks that has been stalking me lately is finally DONE!! Yaaayyy!! You just have absolutely NO Idea how relieved i feel...i can finally BREATHE!! Really! I feel as if i had been imprisoned for a long time and now they had let me go into the fresh air and i can breathe breathe breathe!! I havent felt this relaxed in months!! Its not that i have no work to do now.. i actually do...but leaving this big task behind me feels sooooo soooo relieving that i cant explain it! Even though i had slept just two hours last night and my eyes are somewhat closing, i dont wanna go to sleep coz for the first time in a long while i have some time for MYself and for the things i urge to do, like take care of this place of mine...yup i have sooo much urged to be here, and i just hated it that for a long while each time i opened it I saw the same image...well, it is a nice image actually, i love that Belarus card...but it just bothered me a big deal that i had no time to make any kind of an update...even a tiny tiny little one..I mean look at the amount of text i had just written...it would have been unthinkable to do it until today :)
 Well, for the time i hadnt been here, i got a lot of nice postcards and as usual, i couldnt have let you know about it...Im not justifying myself or anything, i dont like it at all...but sometimes its just really impossible...especially since im one of those people who want to write more than just one line...i like to make it more personal, i like to say why i liked the card or make a comment about something written to me, or anything..now, if it was one postcard i probably would have managed, but when you pull out 10 postcards out of your mailbox, thats when the problems begin...and those 10 end up being 15 by the end of the week, and then 20, and they are just piling up...and right now i owe a huge number of such messages...as usual...well, ill do my best to write to each and every one of you in the following days.unless i get stuck in some working madness again
Btw...i definitely need a new pc...particularly a lap-top....it proved to be necessary during the past weeks....well, the problem with me is that i have to first love it on the outside, and then i get down to the characteristics (im trying to figure out if i do the same with men)
I found one, for which my heart goes upsi-dupsi (or whatever it should be in English :)) If there is a perfection for how a lap-top should look on the outside, then its this one..performances are also ok...if just the keyboard wasnt white...it really doesnt fit in the whole image....some sort of silver would have been perfect...blue...black...but not white...so thats what put me off from buying it.....
but if there is something you can recommend me, which looks like this one the outside, with more or less the same characteristics and for a reasonable price, im open for suggestions
here it is...my heart beats for the blue one :

http://www.gateway.com/programs/mseries/index.php

just..if possible, no Vista for me, please :)

ok...i think its about time to get down to the cards, no....though i still feel i have a lot of things left unsaid...

11-postcards-Saturday

Oh well, im having a problem....a nice one though, but still its a problem...
Mr.Postman was very kind today and dropped 11 cards into my mailbox!


Among them, 4 map cards, and two new countries!!!


And due to number of reasons, AGAIN, im very left behind with uploading cards, and this time, its total of 36! Yup, thats right....just like 10 days ago i finally finished updating cards I had left behind, and now again, i have 36 more to go....im not complaining, i just wish i could get it going faster and all....and this also makes me think that the chances of Mr. Postman visiting me again during the following week, are very very low, since he brought A LOT OF cards in the past week....but, we'll see.
At least, i finally realized that i prefer if I receive a bunch of cards, even if its once a week, than a single card every day....i dont know why, but there is some SPECIAL feeling in opening the mailbox and seeing that pile inside it....and hold it in my hands...and sneak it inside my room coz otherwise ill have to hear my mum saying 'thats too much, what are you doing? poor postman, his shoulders must hurt coz of your postcards'....in general, i show them to her gradually, on days when there is no mail at all, so it doesnt seem THAT much at once :)

Another thing I realized is about my aim of getting a card from each country/territory in the world and of all the UNESCO sites....well, thats a really nice aim, but somehow, somewhere, i lost the itch for it...I mean, im delighted when i get a new country or a UNESCO i dont have, but lets face it....there are over 250 different territories (and with all that independence-getting thing, you can always have a new country coming) and there are over 800 UNESCO sites....the chance i get them all are too little....and frankly, i dont want to just focus on that....somewhat feels too much effort and money, plus i dont find the real excitement in it....I just really want to enjoy this in a relaxing way, and get a lot of lovely, interesting cards from wherever it is....coz focusing in just particular cards will make me miss a lot of other great ones....and im just not in the mood to focus on that....its nice to have an aim, but i dont want to, neither i will put all my energy into it...if i get a chance to have a new country, PERFECT....new UNESCO, PERFECT....but any card of my wishlist will be also PERFECT and fulfilling....so thats my latest announcement....Im a hedonist, I want to enjoy this in all its beauty, not just in particular aims which frankly, dont have any single chance to get fulfilled in the near future.

Well that would be it for now...just needed to make an update here ...I just need to kill this bad mood and get back to the cards....hopefully tomorrow there will be something new (there really are some great cards waiting)....otherwise, ill never manage to keep up with this....I was also supposed to mail out some cards as well today, but.....well, Monday is a must...keeping fingers crossed!

Catching Up

Im taking a break from work....ive got so busy with work and all, that i just havent had the right time to post some cards, even though i have things for posting...plus this very hot weather has made feel really lazy and sleepy in general....
so now im getting left behind and i fear if im gonna be able to catch up :)
I did start some time ago to update the oldest posts here, but right now unfortunately time has been so scarce that i just cant dedicate the proper attention to this, and frankly, i dont want to do it just because...it feels nice when i manage to compose a proper post about a card, so i really dont want to do this superficially...its just that all this busyness will last until some time next week, but i hope to sneak in a certain postcard somewhere in between, while im taking a break or just get fed up with it...like now :)))
I have received a few new countries also these days, some really really nice cards, so i hopefully will be able to show them around soon....and im relieved to see my cards are reaching their destinations...though not all yet :/

A short info

Due to the latest remodelling of the blog, I wont be able to upload postcards as frequently as I used to, though the ones I receive will be uploaded as soon as possible (let me not annoy you again with the story about my scanner :)))
Anyway, so far, I had mostly been uploading postcards i had received over the years before i got into all this postcard exchanging stuff :))
There are many left of those, but hopefully one day they will all be shown here...and it will be a nice mix between newly received postcards and old ones.
For now, apart from uploading the newly received cards, ill focus on writing history and information on the ones already uploaded (there are over 200 so its gonna be a tough job) but i really want to do this, so i dont feel it as a problem...except that i wish i had more time for it :)
So, in case you sometimes have extra time to kill and there is a scarce number of new stuff, you can always check some of the older stuff....some of them maybe will have an interesting thing to tell....and i will start from the oldest posts....so when there are postcards from the same town, they will have some continuity, and it will look as a story in chapters...otherwise it may get hectic or make no sense :)

so, that would be it...

PS. Congrats to Russia for the Eurovision win..;-)

Annoucement

Ok...I can finally say that, from today on, officially, this blog is gonna take a different turn, i.e postcards are gonna get some history, references, thank-you notes and so....and simultaneously, ill slowly give some history to the ones previously uploaded, so eventually, ONE DAY, they will all be updated :)
Some will get more history, some a very brief one, it all depends....
Each card will still have its own respective post, instead putting a few under one title....it feels somewhat neater to me that way, plus its like each card has its own personality :)
As for stamps, for now i tend to exclude them...though there may be exceptions...

So that will be all for now.
Thanks to the ones who expressed their support and participated with ideas and suggestions.
It is highly appreciated!!

the lazy postcard collector

thats me, by the way :)))

apart from being quite busy the past few days, i also somewhat got lazy to upload postcards round here, plus under the recommendation of a fellow postcrosser, i started using the forum there, even though i had joined when i joined postcrossing, but never had the time to take a look at it...so now ive been exploring it in general and time flew pretty fast......and here is another Monday...and oh do I hate Mondays :((((

anyway....lately ive been considering things about this blog and i realized (again) that im not satisfied with it (the perfectionist in me speaking) and i need/want to do some changes about it, and that for starters id actually love to find the time to write something about each postcard, not just upload the cards themselves...ive seen blogs around where people actually dedicate some time to write something about the history/significance of whats portrayed on the picture and say how they got the postcard and all and i really admire those people....I know its gonna take IMMENSE amounts of time to write something about all the postcards i had uploaded so far and the ones that are in queue to be uploaded (hence one of the reasons why i got lazy to upload...i just keep thinking, its gonna be more cards to write about eventually :))) But actually i would prefer to have a blog like that....it has more depth and meaning...so im not sure how thats gonna develop, and whether ill start soon and slowly do the posts one by one or ill wait for the holidays when time will be more available...but i know that i definitely want to do it that way.
Another thing is, i really need to do something about all that infinite list of labels and archive links on the left, coz hell, doest it look lame like this....and the more postcards i upload, the more they will extend...and then again, i dont like to exclude any of the labels...and im honestly feeling really stuck at this point. Plus id like to add links from other postcard blogs, which if i do it now, they will just get lost in the crowd and it will make the left side even more chaotic....so i really dont know what to do, yet im in a desperate need to start making changes here.
So if any of you who come by here frequently or from time to time, or just happen to come astray here for the first time, if you have any ideas/suggestions/concepts etc etc etc, please help!! :)
Either leave a comment or mail me....any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank You! :)))

ps. Ive started getting paranoid...a number of postcards i had sent/had been sent to me like 3 weeks ago or so, hadnt arrived yet :S :S :S

pps. Hopefully soon my collection will enrich itself with several new countries :D :D :D

ppps. Hopefully it wont take eons before i upload anything again :)

pppps. Thanks to everyone being a part of expanding my collection!

ppppps. Hell, do I LOVE postcards!!!

to fill in the gap...

i have just realized what a mess this blog is actually....it needs things fixed/added but i guess it will go one at a time...i need to start with re-uploading certain postcards, since they actually look as if they have 'waves' over them and have their blur moments...i realized that for at least some of them, its due to the scanning options so i had to re-scan those in higher resolutions...that maybe wouldn't have been so annoying to do if the scanner worked fine with my pc...but unfortunately i have to 'walk' the scanner around the house since the other pc is in the living room, so i have to do all the scanning there....and for the rest...well, i don't know...they keep ending up with 'scales' :-((((
i thought i would upload postcards more often, but not everything turns out as you plan, does it?
plus, the thing i find most annoying is the 'arrangement' of postcards according to country/city once you upload them...don't know why, but that part is simply killing me :)

and these couple of days I've come across several blogs with postcards and i am full of envy :)) i want to have all of them :S :S :S plus, i can't believe to myself that I never actually realized there are many places out there for postcards-exchange...sometimes i really feel like I've dropped down from another planet and am completely unfamiliar with things going on...ain't good, ain't good..
well, it would be really nice if I could enrich my collection...I absolutely love getting postcards...and there are still so many places out there in the world from which i have no postcard....
lets get down to some work...my other blog is a mess too :S :S :S
(i need emoticons, definitely)