Another very hot day although there were some early morning monsoonal rains that attempted to cool things off. Didn’t work as it was once again roasting inside by around 10 a.m. I couldn’t sleep well so I booted up the laptop around 4:30 and spent several hours working on school prep, completing another set of lesson plans and materials. Much of the time was spent tracking down clipart for “Leisure Time Activities” flashcards. Of course, I made one for stamp collecting. Not long afterwards, I discovered that the Ministry of Education has decided to delay the start of the school year once again. 14 June is the new prospective start date.

By noontime, I had returned to the bed to read and to allow my office chair could dry off somewhat. In this heat, one tends to sweat into the vinyl chair and fabric cushion rather quickly. It is not a good feeling. I have decided that this rash must be prickly heat; it is still quite red in areas but seems a bit less itchy today. Hopefully, it’s on the mend.

I did not feel like blogging about New Stamp Issues today but will resume this task tomorrow. Although today was a Buddhist holiday, Thailand issued a set of new stamps to mark Makha Bucha in a new series style using flowers. I do not know if the Phuket office received its shipment from Bangkok as many vehicles are being held up at the bridge checkpoint onto the island with new restrictions in place starting yesterday. Apparently, a lot of food deliveries are not making it in now and this is driving up local prices on fresh produce and meat.

So, I did some reading this afternoon and spent a couple of hours working in “Big Blue” (my worldwide stamp album with Part 1 covering 1840-1940). The album is so old that it spells Yugoslavia “Jugoslavia” and that is where I began today, on page 598. I added 96 stamps to the album:

• Jugoslavia: Bosnia and Herzegovina – 1 stamp
• Jugoslavia: Slovenia Carniola – 3 stamps
• Jugoslavia: General Issues – 14 stamps
• Kenya – Uganda – Tanganyika – 5 stamps
• Latvia – 8 stamps (although I did not mount any of the stamps printed on maps or currency as I want to display the backs as well as the fronts)
• Lebanon – 5 stamps
• Liberia – 32 stamps (the bulk being Official overprints from the 1906 and 1909 series)
• Liechtenstein – 31 stamps
• Luxembourg – 5 stamps

This brings me to page 655 of the album, roughly the half-way point. The next entity to be added will be Madagascar.

It isn’t easy to work on stamps in this heat. I do not have air-conditioning so I have to position the floor fan so that it is not constantly blowing stamps and hinges across the room or trying to turn pages in the album. It doesn’t take long before sweat starts dripping off my nose. As you can perhaps tell from the photo, I wear fairly minimal attire while working on the stamps in this heat. I was surprised that I lasted two hours with the album this afternoon before deciding to do something else. I really should work on the stamps early in the morning while it is still relatively cool. Still, I was glad for the distraction today.