2008 Year of the Rat

Hello readers: Just to let you know, that the year 2008 is the year of the rat in Chinese Zodiac. I know some people who are born in the year of rat and they are indeed very ambitions people.
If you are born in that year, you are welcomed to leave me your address and I will send a cover to you at the beginning of 2008.


If your countries issue Zodiac stamps, please send me a cover if you are able to, if not, it's ok with me, it's a token of friendship.

The US will issue this stamp for it's new Chinese Zodiac series in 2008. This is the first stamp in the 12-year series. I don't like the design very much because I think it lack originality. The images of red lanterns are very common in Chinese society. Yea, I am a hard to please girl. :)

The Year Of The Rat - Characteristics
1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996

People born in the Year of the Rat are noted for their charm and attraction for the opposite sex.
They work hard to achieve their goals, acquire possessions, and are likely to be perfectionists.
They are basically thrifty with money. Rat people are easily angered and love to gossip.
Their ambitions are big, and they are usually very successful.
They are most compatible with people born in the years of the Dragon, Monkey, and Ox.

washington 2006 -Russia

Last year, I had the good fortune to attend a world class stamp exhibition in Washington DC. It was the first world stamp exhibition that I have ever attended at that kind of scale. The place was huge, definitely size of a football field. There were so much to see, so much to do and so little time even though I stayed there for a week. I am sure there will be more to come and that I will attend even more stamp shows in the future, but the first is always more memorable than the rest.

One of my main activities during the show was to visit all the different foreign postal administrations. I think more than 50 countries came, more or less, which was great. You know, the chance of seeing new issues from 50 countries at the same time and at face value is rare. Most of the world class stamp exhibitions only take place once every 10 years for the host country.

I stopped by the Russian postal booth because I have always liked stamps from Russia. Maybe it's because of the funny looking Russian alphabets? or whatever it is .. :) but I think Russian stamps are pretty. I asked the lady behind the booth if she can sell me stamps worth the rate of sending a letter from Russia to the USA, but the lady didn't speak English. After about 10 minutes of sign language and body gestures, I finally bought a set of stamps issued in 2001, beautiful paintings of the city of St. Petersburg. I knew it was about St. Petersburg because the lady kept saying St. Petersburg, haha... I bought the whole set thinking the postage will be enough to mail a letter from Russia to the USA but I was wrong!

A while later when I affixed all the stamps on an envelope and handing it to the lady, at the same time, another lady appeared and she spoke English and she asked me if I needed help, so I handed the letter to her instead. She looked at it and asked if I wanted to have the letter mailed from Russia and I said yes. She was like, oh no, the postage is not enough, and she took a 100 p definitive stamp and put it on the envelope. I asked her how much and she was like, it's ok, no need. I was thrilled. About a month later, I received my envelope back. It was very nice, first self-made letter from Russia. Although, to this day I still have no idea why she put a 100p stamp on the envelope, the 100 seemed very high!

Yoda - May the force be with you.

2 weeks ago at our twice-a-year philatelic stamp show here in New York, a new (or not exactly new) star wars stamp had been issued. Guess who? It was our master Yoda! A funny looking, definitely old, but wise Jedi master in the famous Star Wars series. The stamp was originally issued to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the films "Star Wars" One wonders if this is such a big occasion that it deserves to be shown on a stamp? I don't know, the USPS only thinks of money, so I guess it is!

The promotional postcard stamp collectors received from the organizers had a picture of Yoda. I've never created a maxicard before so I thought maybe I can make one out from this postcard since the theme matches so perfectly. It might not be a valid one, but hey, who cares. Here I come Master Yoda!

Can you see him?

Stamps from Thailand

Last week I was very busy yet satisfying because I'd received my order from Thai Post! Continuing my search for postal authorities who use stamps on their philatelic orders, I found Thai Post to be the best among them. The number of stamps used on the covers was incredible. I counted 14 of them and they are complete sets! There is a recent issue of traditional Thai beetle arts, which I like very much. The silhouette of the queen is gold foiled. There were also a set of 4 showing Thai temples. Very nice cover, although I do wish that the envelope is a little smaller.