Sunday evening and a busy philatelic weekend. Writing IPDA Newsletter, sorting some stamps and finally filing all those Isle of Man MUH issues I listed in my Bidstart store  Hope you have time to look at  my Store at  

http://www.bidstart.com/stores/michaelatcddstamps   or if you are looking for a particular stamp from one of the countries I have stock in please look at   http://www.cddstamps.com/bidstart_store.htm   easy from there.

While sorting some material today I came across the Aerogramme shown above. It is as new, considering I think it is close to 35 years old. Lovely condition. I know nothing about these. Anyone advise if it is collectible and maybe a catalogue value?

Hope your weekend was good.

best wishes.. Michael

Hello, well another week shot past pretty quick didn't it. I did nothing with my stamps this week although I did manage to buy these. Notice anything different about them?  Look hard although it is really quite obvious when you know.

This was issued on October 2nd and is the 'Air Mail Postage' stamp for items weighing not more than 20g irrespective of the zoning destination. I am using this on all orders from my Bidstart store, plus other stamps to make up the postage value as required     http://www.cddstamps.com/bidstart_store.htm

have a great weekend..   Michael

Isle of man tonight. This past week I have had an hour or two in the evening and my relaxation has been to look at many Isle of man stamps I collected years ago.  All of them unopened from when I received them and since I had looked after them they are Post Office fresh, so to speak.  You can view more here if you like.  Maybe even fill a few gaps in your collection :-)

http://www.bidstart.com/shop.php?keywords=isle+&category=0&userid=105545&advsrc=&submitsearch=

One thing that did surprise me was the high catalogue value these Isle of Man stamps have. Although as we know these can be thought to be inflated somewhat, all the same they are higher than I expected. Stamps are from 1985 through to 2006.

Some very nice issues I thought.

Have a great weekend... Michael www.cddstamps.com

PS click the image to see larger and more detailed picture.

Changing theme tonight because after a few nights of sorting and scanning I have listed some really nice Flight Covers to my Bidstart store.  You can search aircraft to see some of them. Sadly all do not show as I got the word aircraft too far into the description. Dumb me.

Anyway you might enjoy looking at some. For more, search Coronation , or Cover. You should see most. Lovely selection in my view and at good prices, some 25% less or more than I saw on eBay as think they were a bit too high.

Hope you like the cover above.

click on image to see larger view

I fly to Sydney tomorrow so may be offline for a few days. have a great weekend.

Best wishes.. Michael

http://www.cddstamps.com/bidstart_store.htm

I spent a very pleasant few hours in Hong Kong Park today and visited the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware. Really very interesting.  

Flagstaff house itself was the office and residence of the Commander of the British Forces in Hong Kong. The house was built between 1844 and 1846 and is the oldest building in Greek Revival style in Hong Kong.  

It became a Museum, a branch of the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 1984  and is the first specialised museum in the world devoted to the collection, study and display of tea ware.

What is that you may ask. Well China has had a very long history of tea drinking, remarkable teas, and even more remarkable rare ceramics associated with the Chinese tea culture. The museum displays all this in a very professional way, and in a way that makes it easy to understand and enjoy.

Well worth a visit if you are ever in Hong Kong. Oh and do have a late dim sum lunch in the gallery restaurant next door. Delicious and with tea served, very correctly I might add. and just in case you are wondering, no, it is not served with milk, or evaporated milk. It is truely, Chinese style. hhhmmmmmmmmmmmm

I had trouble finding a stamp that really captured the visit but the above is one of a set from Hong Kong issued in 2012 on the theme of  "Hong Kong Delicacies" .

This one was to recognise Egg Tart and Milk Tea ($1.40 stamp) - Egg tart and milk tea are the two signature items of Hong Kong-style tea restaurants. Egg tarts have two main types of outer casing: short crust pastry and puff pastry. An oven-fresh egg tart consists of an outer crispy pastry crust that is filled with egg custard and baked. A perfect complement with an egg tart, milk tea is made of black tea that is strained through a distinctive cloth bag. The tea when further mixed with evaporated milk and sugar is a cup of rich and velvety smooth milk tea.   Very different form the Chinese style served tea I had but the best I could do for a tea stamp at short notice.

And below these 4 stamps from Taiwan, issued in 1989, and showing some traditional tea pots, much like some I saw today.

Have a great weekend. I will be enjoying some Jasmine tea because I bought some. J

Michael

http://www.cddstamps.com/bidstart_store.htm

Something from my 'box of stamps I am sorting'. Interesting double O marking. Does anyone know anything about this?

Sadly the stamps have trimmed perforations and right hand two are pretty creased. Perhaps I should list on eBay as rare in this condition.  hahahahah only joking. :-)

write me your thoughts.

Have a great weekend. It is Friday again. Yes the week just shot past.

Michael
http://www.cddstamps.com/bidstart_store.htm

One stamp to say what I am saying to you all. Hello. SG 2568.  I do like this issue. 2005 Smilers from the booklet issue. Useful catalogue price as well. I have a few for sale in my Bidstart store if this or others from the issue are gaps in your collection. Please have a look http://www.cddstamps.com/bidstart_store.htm  under GB of course
Of course my favourite is the Love stamp. :-)  SG 2569a :-)
One correction from a previous post. I wrote about the GB £2 stamp the other night. I got the issue wrong.

The £2 stamps I showed were of course the recess-printed version (engraved by Slania). These don't come with the missing pound sign variety, only the gravure-printed ones do. Thanks to the very knowledgeable Adrian Keppel who writes a great piece every Friday for  Stamp Magazine  - do read him  - I know you will enjoy his writings at http://blog.stampmagazine.co.uk// Friday tomorrow, then more stamps on the weekend. Hope same for you

Best wishes.... Michaelwww.cddstamps.comoh!,  and if you haven't seen my October Newsletter and want a copy just email me at cddstamps@gmail.com and i will send it to you. One page of easy reading.. 

my October newsletter is now published. If you are not already on the mailing list and would like a copy please email me at cddstamps@gmail.com

best wishes

Micheal    http://www.cddstamps.com/bidstart_store.htm