i was making a mental note to myself today of a new series of things i would like to collect. then i was recalling back what i used to collect, and i realised it was a trait since young.





saw these lovelies on a website that i happened to pass by. and i immediately recalled my childhood favourite hobby. brought back soooo many good memories.

before i was born, my dad was an avid stamp collector. he had many stamp albums and was very proud of them. when i was of age to understand what are stamps, he used to show me all his albums, and explain to me where the different stamps came from. he would have this whole stack of uncategorised stamps, and we would spend the whole sunday afternoon categorising them. we would sort them out according to their types, like there was this booklet on faces, another on plants, another on fishes/animals, and just some random ones. and we would arrange them according to their colours.

every other day when my dad opened the mailbox, i would excitedly run to him, and take out all those which had stamps on them, put them aside, and tear out the stamps on the envelopes. we would accumulate one whole stack together. i was most excited when my dad or mum received a mail from overseas, because that meant more stamps, and even more unique ones. i remember i would exclaim out loud if there was any new stamp that we do not have in the albums, and would run around showing everyone in the family.

we would sit down, dad and daughter, with a pail of water, soak all the torn out stamps into it to separate the paper and glue, patiently wait, rub away any excess glue, and lay it out on newspaper to dry. after waiting, sorting them in categories, and slot them into their respective places in the albums. that was one of my favourite days in my growing up time. we do that almost once every month. but every sunday, i would excitedly ask my dad, "can we do the stamps today?!", and my dad would only say yes if we had collected enough.

one of my favourite things was to sit there, and listen to his stories as well. sometimes he could even remember how the different stamps came from, and he would explain and tell me all the details. i really loved that.

eventually, that hobby of mine died away when singapore post came out with same and recurring stamps, without any variety or uniqueness anymore. and when lesser and lesser people mailed letters to my mum or dad, comprising mostly of automated stamped thing that bills and bank accounts use. and finally, we stopped altogether.

it was bittersweet recalling all these memories.. wonder where are all those stamp albums now. its quite a sad thing now all these is slowly dying away, i guess thats why i still love sending mails.. (yes i hear you jiaxin). it was especially bittersweet cos this is one of the few good memories i still have... stamps... :) i guess i always have a soft spot for this kinda thing..