I wrote this post quite some time ago but I chucked it somewhere and forgotten about it until Moz shows off part of his collection *smiles*

No kidding.

The other day when I was way too bored, I retrieved the only stamp album I have with me from the colour box and had a look at it. As soon as I turned to the first page, hundreds of stamps fell onto my lap and the floor.

It was last year, if I am not mistaken, when I processed the last batch of stamps collected over the years. I would normally cut the stamps off envelopes and keep them in a plastic container before I batch processed them. The only stamp album I have with me now, I bought it in 2004. But it is full to the brim, and I now remember that I actually made a mental note to get a new one. Maybe two.

Collecting stamps started as a hobby because there was no other thing I could do when I was younger. I didn’t like animals, so hamsters were OUT of the way. I liked to read too, and I remember cutting the weekly educational sections of the newspapers and pasting them into a little notebook my Mum gave me. I always had the little notebook with me wherever I went. It was something I was very proud of.

I digress.

So when my class teacher asked about our hobbies, I followed the crowd and told her that I like collecting stamps because I could learn about the culture of other countries (THIS was the standard answer to the “Why do you like to collect stamps” question). It was only much later that I realized the “standard answer” was indeed true :)

People I know also started giving me stamps once they learned about my “accidental hobby”. One of my other post-graduate friends, a Japanese who spent 2 years in Nepal teaching English when he was barely 25 years old, gave me heaps of unused Nepali stamps. He used to buy so many stamps to write love letters to his girlfriend, who is now his wife *grins*

I also used to exchange stamps with my pen-pals. Back at a time when I had pen-pals from Egypt, Turkey and where-not. I would send them a few of the stamps which I had duplicates and they would do the same. But that would be another story for another day *smiles*

When I told my sister that I needed more stamp albums, she suggested that I get myself a drawing block and paste all my stamps nicely on it. AARRGGHH..! Cute sister kills..