Wonka Sweets

Sent by Eutrapèlia (PC).

Handmade postcard made of a box of Everlasting Gobstopper bought in the USA.

This kind of sweets, sold by The Willy Wonka Candy Company, are named after the Roald Dahl's children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In Dahl's story, Everlasting Gobstoppers are purported to last forever. 

Have you ever tasted them? Do they really last forever?!?

Lego Postman

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Have you guessed what it contained?

Yes: a little mail carrier because I missed my former one! :D

Also published in her blog nog meer post! The funny thing is that I saw this post before receiving the letter, and I thought she was sending me a picture of the Lego postman... not a real (I mean, 3D) postman!

I Love NY

Sent by Chi (Taiwan).

Postcard bought in the MoMA of NY (the USA). The title of this work by Experimental Jetset is I Love Stamps / Stamps Love Me / I Love Postcards (1998-99).

The sender wrote that this postcard is 100% NY style.

I love postcards, and I adore metapostcards!

Coffee & Creativity

Sent to Heleen (the Netherlands).

Altered postcard (see the original below). It's an ad postcard for art workshops in Estudio Rossana Zaera. I love these postcards!! They are perfect to be altered (see here and here).
Also published here.

I also used masking tape in the envelope:

The original:

Mail a Whale

Sent by Postmuse (the USA).

It is a thank you card for one of my contributions to her amazing project: Orphaned Postcard Project. I found the postcard really funny. And the postcard is very useful. I mean if you intend to send a whale. But I must add that I once I sent a whale trough mail successfully.

The back:

How Much It Cost

For mail lovers, sometimes the price of the stamps is a handicap. At least for me: I would send EVEN more snail mail if I were rich :)

When I receive mail, I am curious about the price of stamps in different countries. For instance, I have got two postcards from Russia the same day, and both have travelled exactly 38 days (Postcrossing system said). I mean they where sent more or less the same day, so the price must be also the same, mustn't it? But it seems that each sender paid a different quantity of rubles, doesn't it?

LoveLetters

Could a machine write love letters better than people? Dr David Link carried out the successful project LoveLetters to show that it is possible.

The Ferranti Mark 1 was the world's first commercially available general-purpose computer, built in 1951. Dr Link's art installation is a replica which executes the original recovered software by Prof Christoper Strachey, a philosopher and pioneer in programming. Visitors can interact with a functional replica of this old computer containing many of its original components, and gain an authentic impression of the look-and-feel of the old computer. The project has won the first annual Tony Sale Award.

The original Ferranti Mark 1 or Manchester University Computer

The old computer was able to do unimaginable tasks 60 years ago. Now it writes algorithm-generated love letters. These would be addressed to "Darling Love", "Honey Love", "Jewel Duck" or whatever, and signed M. U. C. (which stands for Manchester University Computer). For instance:

  

DEAR DUCK

MY KEEN CHARM SIGHS FOR YOUR FERVENT ENTHUSIASM. YOU ARE MY FOND HUNGER.: MY LOVESICK HEART.YOU ARE MY DEAR FERVOUR.: MY FOND WISH.

YOURS AFFECTIONATELY

MUC

Or 

HONEY MOPPET

MY FERVOUR ANXIOUSLY ADORES YOUR LONGING. MY THIRST PASSIONATELY CHERISHES YOUR LOVESICK YEARNING. MY CHARM DEVOTEDLY PANTS FOR YOUR TENDERNESS. YOU ARE MY PRECIOUS THIRST. MY FERVOUR PANTS FOR YOUR ADORATION.

YOURS LOVINGLY

MUC

(You can read the letters here).

The original purpose of this machine was mathematical calculations. I wonder why Dr Link brought it back to life in order to write such old-fashioned love letters. Maybe only old machines can write love letters?

Collage with Snails

Sent by Kerry (Canada).

Collage.

Murex Shell

Sent by King (Philippines).

It was a postcard received trough Postcrossing. The postcard showed an amazing view ofthe capital of her country at nigth. And I love specially the stamps. I wonder if she knew that snails are among my favourites themes, or she chose these stamps by chance...

B&W Writers

Sent by Laura (the UK).

Writers are among my favourite subjects on postcards. I have recently got the postcard in the right: a portrait of Ian McEwan. Even if I have read some of his books, I had never feel the curiosity of knowing how he looks. Well, this picture dates from 1986, so maybe the man has changed a little...

I have posted this postcard with two more from the same series that Laura sent to me in the past: Sigmund Freud and Fernando Pessoa. This faces were more familiar to me. Anyway, I love this portraits. There is something atmospheric in them

Painted Envelope

Sent by Kerry (Canada).

Drawn envelope showing the mountains that the sender can see from her apartment window and balcony. They are part of the Coast Mountain Range. "The Lions" are in the centre, to the right is "Grouse Mountain" (in British Columbia, Canada).

What a beautiful view! She's lucky!

More Than 40 Postcrossers

Sent by Tami (Germany).

I usually do not publish the back of the postcards. But on this postcard is any personal message. I am happy to publish it, because it comes from the 3rd International Bielefeld meetup 2012. And it is signed by more than 40 postcrossers! (among the signatures, I love especially the little lighthouse...).

By the way, the postcard fits in with one of my favourite subjects!

Sinterklaas

Left by Sinterklaas in Heleen's place (the Netherlands).
Two packets with big letters made of chocolate.

I received these packets last year. I was amazing that Sinterklaas left presents for us!

There is only one little thing I can not understand. He traditionally arrives in Netherlands each year in mid-November (usually on Saturday) by steamboat from Spain. So... had been not easier to left presents directly next our fireplace? Maybe was it due to the fact we had not fireplace at home? 

Mail Boxes in the Museum

Sent by Laura (the UK).

It was one of the first postcards I received in the new post box (not so new now!). I ask my friend to send me a postcard just to check it it worked. Is not it perfect for that purpose? (And, of course, she was king enough to send me two postcards instead of one...).

All these glorious mail boxes belong to the British Postal Museum & Archive.

Old Ironsides

Sent by Postmuse (the USA).

Postcard sent as a thank you for my contribution to her amazing Orphaned Postcard Project.

This ship, nicknamed Old Ironsides had a long life fighting pirates in the West Indians and participating in some wars. Now it is a museum, and Bonnie wrote that is one of her favourites sites in Boston. Easy to believe!

I love especially the matched stamps:

The World

Sent by Ludmila (Russia).

When I first saw this postcard in the mail box, I thought it was very opportune as it shows clearly where I used to live and where I'm currently living. Then I read that the sender had chosen this postcard for that reason. How thoughtful!

Clothlines

Sent by Laura (the United Kingdom).

Just a line... in a clothline postcard. I love clothlines! I've recently got this postcard from Heleen (the Netherlands) with Nijntje/Miffy. Do you know her?

By the way: We still do not have the washing machine in the new house. We should wash our clothing in the kind neighbour's flats! 

New Key

I'm glad to say that now, after the long works in the post office, I have a brand new post office box. I mean really new, just like they promise in the publicity. I even have a key with the logo of Poste Maroc!!

Gorjuss Mermaids

Sent by Laura (the UK) and Heleen (the Netherlands).
Two postcards with mermaids designed by Santoro.

I like mermaids! You can see here my little collection of postcards with mermaids from around the world. There's even an almost-mermaid!

Amazing Rubber Stamp

Sent by Eleanor (the United States).
Rubber stamp coloured by pencils, on the reverse of a postcard.

Welcome

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

This card was sent to welcome us at our new place. Well, we live in a flat and not in a house, but I found the postcard perfect as our door is the same colour and inside...

 

... we are so busy with the DIY and all the men who come to fix or carry things.

Beaney House

Sent by Laura (the UK).

Also libraries and bookshops are among my favourite subjects on postcards. The postcard shows the façade of the historic Beaney building in the heart of Canterbury (the UK), designed by A. H. Campbell and opened in 1899. I was there some years ago (2003?), but it has been repaired and restored. It reopened in 5th of September as Beaney House of Art and Knowledge.

It looks to me as an enchanted house or something...

Poste Anglaise

Sent to Laura (the UK).

I bought this vintage postcard (indeed, a modern reproduction) in Tangier. 

In Morocco, private and international mail started years before the public system was created. French, British, Spanish and German post offices were opened in this country since 1852. 

British post offices were known by the name Morocco Agencies. In the beginning, they used their normal British stamps. But then they become under the control of Gibraltar, so they used the same stamps as in Gibraltar. The stamps were overprinted "Morocco/Agencies" since 1898.

The postcard shows the first English post office in Morocco, established in 1857. From 1872 Tangier had its own postmark. Additional offices opened in various Moroccan seaports during the 1880s, and inland in Fez (1892) and Meknes (1907). On 1st January 1907, the British Post Office took direct control of the post offices, operating them until Moroccan independence in 1956. 

You can read more about Moroccan postal history here and here. 

The Girl in a Wetsuit

Sent by Kerry (Canada).

"The Girl in a Wetsuit" is a sculpture by Elek Imredy placed in the Stanley Park of Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada).

I have received some mermaids so far. By the way, mermaids are one of my favourite subjects on postcards, you know. I have read that this sculpture was inspired by the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. In fact it doesn't represent a mermaid, but the sender said that people usually assume that it does, so I could love the postcard. And of course I love it! It's the first time I have got an "almost-mermaid"!