Post by markj on Nov 17, 2014 0:04:38 GMT -5
Or, Sawadee as they say here...
A bit new here -- I had joined Stamp Bears right before the crash and have only just now rejoined. I'm nothing if not a procrastinator!
Work and life intruded and I'm now returning after yet another hiatus from my collections. I'm trying to jump back in using both feet.
I'm American but I live in southern Thailand. I arrived two days before the Boxing Day tsunami and have been here ever since. Can't believe it's been almost ten years now...
I started collecting as a kid. The memory's a bit fuzzy now (I'll turn 50 next year but something about this tropical sun..) -- I vaguely remember having a worldwide album before being given my mom's old Scott Modern from her childhood when I was around 10 years old. It was a 1935 edition in the blue cloth cover and instilled in me a love of the classics that persists to this day. Later, I switched to US and the UN (had H.E. Harris albums for each) and it wasn't until recently that I began collecting the world again; trying the "A Stamp from Every Country" endeavor.
My collections expanded quite a bit in early adulthood and at the time that I attended my first international show (Pacific 97 in San Francisco) I was concentrating on 19th century Great Britain stamps and postal history, mint issues of Aland and the Faroe Islands, and New Mexico Postal History. I was living in Albuquerque at the time.
Alas, I left all of these collections when I came to Thailand. It was intended as a short holiday trip. But I was affected deeply by the disaster and stayed on in a volunteer capacity. I eventually decided to stay on as an English teacher and instructed my sister to sell off my stamps and other collections (coins and music mostly) to help pay my relocation.
My collecting pursuits here have come and gone a bit. I collect Thai new issues but will go several months between purchases (love most of the subjects on their stamps although recently some have become a bit too cartoonish for my tastes). As mentioned before, I started collecting worldwide issues (ASFEC) last year. I also have dabbled in early Barbados and Falklands issues, among others.
The catalyst for returning to Stamp Bears was stumbling across a thread on making album pages started by Mike of DCStamps.com that I found utterly fascinating. Indeed, the biggest stumbling block to spending more time collecting is the difficulty in obtaining supplies such as catalogs and albums here as the shipping is prohibitively expensive.
Well, sorry about the long intro. Looking forward to spending a lot of time here...
A bit new here -- I had joined Stamp Bears right before the crash and have only just now rejoined. I'm nothing if not a procrastinator!
Work and life intruded and I'm now returning after yet another hiatus from my collections. I'm trying to jump back in using both feet.
I'm American but I live in southern Thailand. I arrived two days before the Boxing Day tsunami and have been here ever since. Can't believe it's been almost ten years now...
I started collecting as a kid. The memory's a bit fuzzy now (I'll turn 50 next year but something about this tropical sun..) -- I vaguely remember having a worldwide album before being given my mom's old Scott Modern from her childhood when I was around 10 years old. It was a 1935 edition in the blue cloth cover and instilled in me a love of the classics that persists to this day. Later, I switched to US and the UN (had H.E. Harris albums for each) and it wasn't until recently that I began collecting the world again; trying the "A Stamp from Every Country" endeavor.
My collections expanded quite a bit in early adulthood and at the time that I attended my first international show (Pacific 97 in San Francisco) I was concentrating on 19th century Great Britain stamps and postal history, mint issues of Aland and the Faroe Islands, and New Mexico Postal History. I was living in Albuquerque at the time.
Alas, I left all of these collections when I came to Thailand. It was intended as a short holiday trip. But I was affected deeply by the disaster and stayed on in a volunteer capacity. I eventually decided to stay on as an English teacher and instructed my sister to sell off my stamps and other collections (coins and music mostly) to help pay my relocation.
My collecting pursuits here have come and gone a bit. I collect Thai new issues but will go several months between purchases (love most of the subjects on their stamps although recently some have become a bit too cartoonish for my tastes). As mentioned before, I started collecting worldwide issues (ASFEC) last year. I also have dabbled in early Barbados and Falklands issues, among others.
The catalyst for returning to Stamp Bears was stumbling across a thread on making album pages started by Mike of DCStamps.com that I found utterly fascinating. Indeed, the biggest stumbling block to spending more time collecting is the difficulty in obtaining supplies such as catalogs and albums here as the shipping is prohibitively expensive.
Well, sorry about the long intro. Looking forward to spending a lot of time here...
back, I am from Canada 
looking forward to having you with us and share in some conversations,
