Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

well, despite feeling rather unwell, i hope to manage to do this update...coz if I keep postponing it, there is a great chance it won't see the light of the day for one more week at least....so here we go :)

First comes a fantastic piece from a very rare country....I didnt really believe I would get a card from Papua New Guinea, but then somehow the stars collided, and one arrived in my mailbox! Happy, happy happy!!! :)

btw, recently I created a FB page to share updates or for anything mail related...I just needed to distinguish it from the actual profile...so feel free to follow us there if it is of any convenience for you:

the Facebook Page

Anyways, the card comes from Port Moresby, the country's capital, where you can see the National Parliament House, whose construction started in 1980, and was completed and opened in 1984.
The main feature is a tall façade in the haus tambaran style of Sepik Art. On one side there is a circular building in Eastern Highlands style with conference rooms and facilities for the members of parliament.
The small plane picture shows Air Niugini, the national airline of Papua New Guinea, which operates both on domestic and international flights (Asia, Australia and Oceania). Im not sure what is the aircraft type, but maybe Glenn could help me out on this one :)

and i really love the stamps! The top left stamp was issued in 2012 in a set of 4 stamps + 2 additional sheets, representing sports' legends, and here you can see Stanley Nandex, also known as the PNG pride, the Headhunter and a kickboxing champion.
The stamp below shows a PMV truck and comes from a set of 9 public transport stamps issued this year. And then, at the right we have the adorable dolphins! I sooo much love dolphins, i just cant explain it!! The stamp was issued in 2003 in a set of 6 dolphin stamps. On this one, you can see the Bottlenose dolphin, which is the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphin. Love it!!!!

Maho Bay, St. Maarten

well, I was just reminded that it's been like 15 days that I havent had any updates here....which sounded a real lot to me...with all things going on, I seem to lose track of time (again)...plus I had several attempts to make an update, choosing cards and all, and then it all is left for the 'next day' and of course, the next day other things happen and the update is postponed again....plus we've been enduring awfully hot temperatures lately...of almost 40 degrees, and at times like that I just feel so lazy and so inspirationless...even my dear postman seems to be having difficult times with this heat and stops by just once a week...when he overflows my mailbox with fantastic stuff.....so yesterday I said to myself that it was about time to get out of that frame of mind and post some cards....

 

...and here is where I wish I was at the moment...or at least any place like this (though I would probably skip the plane-thing)...near the sea/ocean/lake..first of all to get away from this unbearable heat...second, I really need some mental rest...

a fantastic card sent by Jean-Pierre....who sometimes I think has the magic wand actually, since he manages to send postcards from all those different spots in the world...this one here in particular is the Maho Bay in St. Maarten (the Dutch side - the other one is French) and shows also how this plane lands at the Juliana Airport...as much as the plane seems surreal, if you take a closer look, you will actually see some people looking towards the sky, taking pictures with their cameras....so there IS something there, and this American Airlines guy hasnt been photoshopped.. ..Ive experiences something similar back in Montenegro...at one of the beaches we got the chance to see dozens of planes flying over our heads since the airport in Tivat was very near...however, none of them was THIS low and close to us...if i got to experience something like this, I cant tell if id be terrified or hyper-excited and feel the adrenaline rushing up through my veins...most probably, it would be the latter...you know, the scarier, the more exciting :)

people at the St. Maarten PO seems to have been rather lazy to open their stamps' folders...what makes me laugh about these stickers is that they actually weigh the postcards too.. though maybe they still dont have stocks of the new stamps, since this is a rather newly formed country, bearing its own stamps (St. Maarten used to be part of the Netherlands Antilles). Well, maybe there is no real stamp, but thats why there is a great cancellation, showing this was indeed mailed from St. Maarten :D

Thank you so much Jean-Pierre!! You are amazing!

Tokyo, Japan

Well I dont collect plane cards, but it was very funny to receive this one.

If you take a better look, you will see that this plane belongs to the ANA airlines :D I know it sounds self-centered, but it was really cool to receive a card where an airline bears my name. You can see it on the tail of the plane :)
The card in particular shows Haneda Tokyo International Airport, which is one of the two primary airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area. By passenger throughput, Haneda is said to be the second busiest airport in Asia and the fifth busiest airport in the world.

the stamp is from a set of two birds stamps issued in 1997.

Thanks a lot to Relie for this nice surprise :)

Palmer Land, Antarctica

Whichever adjective i use in order to describe this card, i still wont actually express how i feel towards it...fascinating? Yeah, it is fascinating, but it feels as if its more than that as well....maybe you cant get the ACTUAL glimpse of it thru here, but this card is just absolutely AWESOME!!!

The Antarctica itself is more than appealing to me, something i want to explore, get inside its secrets, depths, mysteries....extremes of the world actually fascinate me in general.
This card is called: BAS Twin Otter flying low over a crevasse field.
This is the English Coast of Palmer Land, which is broad southern part of the Antarctic Peninsula about 640 km east of Peter I Island (in the Bellingshausen Sea), claimed by Britain as part of the British Antarctic Territory. It is named after its discoverer, Nathaniel Palmer,  captain of a U.S. sealing vessel, who led an expedition to Antarctica in 1820.
A GREAT GREAT GREAT card! Simply GREAT! Not just coz its the Antarctica...i simply love how they caught that plane..i love its reflection in the snow...and its just a feeling one of a kind, a plane, flying over a deserted area, having in mind that unlike the Arctic, on Antarctica there are no permanent human residencies...except for scientists and explorers....