Returning home late last night soaked from a thundershower that let loose mere steps from the front door of my guesthouse, I was heartened to be handed TWO pieces of mail — the new issue of USA Philatelic (the quarterly mail order catalogue published by the United States Postal Service) and a small brown envelope festooned with Russian stamps.
Inside was a postcard bearing Postcrossing ID#RU-1941609 and showing snow-covered fir trees. Veronica wrote:
Hi!
On the postcard shows a real Russian winter š
Cold and snowy, br-r-r š
22 08 2013
Veronica
The photo looks like it could have been taken in New Mexico as well! And I’m intrigued by the printing on the card — “Thanks Mr. Postman!” in both Russian and English. It gives me an idea for the cards that I’m designing.
Another slow-mover (Phuket P.O., again?), taking twenty-four days to travel 6,951 kilometers (4,319 miles), from Sovetsk — a city in Russia‘s Kaliningrad Oblast — to Phuket. I remember learning the name of Kaliningrad from having a few East Prussian stamps in my childhood stamp collection.
At least I’m starting to receive mail. It’s only taken 26 months at the same address for that to happen!
Mark Joseph Jochim 