Israeli Souvenirs

I guess people must be wondering what kind of souvenirs Israel has? Before I went there, I was wondering the same thing too. I thought perhaps they would have local coffee and tea, which incidentally, I bought back one can of Israeli coffee powder for my boss and one box of Israeli black tea for one of my colleagues.

But what about other things? There are beads, jewellery, caftans (lots and lots of them), pashminas, praying scarfs, religious artifacts and Dead Sea products of course! However, the things in Israel are not cheap. Our tour guide himself says that the living standard has gone up a lot, and besides, for a country that uses USD as an "unofficial" currency, how cheap can the living expenses be?

In any case, during our little shopping trips, we managed to bargain the prices down. So I got a beautiful turquoise long flowy skirt that can also double up as a tube dress for just USD20.00, slashed down from USD50.00.

My mum got a white caftan top and a black pashmina. She also got a ceramic plate with the words "God Bless Our Home", which she slashed down to USD10.00 from USD25.00, with a free stand at the same time.

As for me, besides the long skirt, I got some Dead Sea mud masks for myself and friends back home. I also got olive wood rosaries that look like this :

My friend asked me to get her a Jerusalem cross, which is the most expensive so far, costing around USD100.00 (which I managed to slash down to that price) :

This is what a Jerusalem Cross looks like

But of course, my favourites are the fridge magnets that I got to add to my collection, as proof of my travels :

And these that my mum got for me :

This is my favourite so far.

We also managed to buy some candy at the duty free shop at the airport, which I took a box to distribute to my colleagues after I came back. My mum got her neck massager pillow and more Dead Sea products to give away. Hence we came back very happy and satisfied with all our purchases! :-)

Old Notes, New Hand

Finally my mum is back! She came back on Saturday with my maternal grandmother, and praised me for a job well done in cleaning the house. Even my dad said he was impressed with how I took charge of the household! He has to be, since I was cleaning up the mess he made!

My mum and grandma exchanged these with me :

I cannot believe my grandmother still has these in mint condition! For those of you not in the know, this is a rare old S$10 note that is no longer in use. Even rarer is the old S$20 note, that has been decommissioned since the early nineties, so for anyone who even has the S$20 note, it is a real treasure indeed.

These notes are for collection of course, not to spend. Besides stamp collecting, I also collect coins, and notes too for the older and rarer series. I regret not being able to collect the first flower series of the notes, since these were used before my time, and it is hard to find anyone with that kind of notes anymore. Even the bird series is rare (as seen from the S$20 note).

The series immediately preceding our current notes is the ship series (as seen from the S$10 note). The ship series includes the purple S$2 note, the rare orange S$2 note and the green S$5 note. Even rarer is the blue S$1 note from the ship series, as that has been decommissioned ever since the gold S$1 coin came out in the late eighties.

Now I hope I can find the S$1 note, orange S$2 note, S$5 note and the notes of the old flower series! With new series of coins being circulated this year, I have to start saving all my current coins too, as they may just be decommissioned soon! I regret not saving as many of the one-cent coin as possible before they were decommissioned, now I cannot find them anymore as no one uses one-cent coins nowadays!

Lego Magnets

During my day trip to Legoland, I went into the gift shop to check out what is on sale. Surprisingly, I came across a few fridge magnets. There is a set of three fridge magnets featuring the Lego figurine of Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape. There is also the Pirates of the Caribbean fridge magnet collection, as well as the Star Wars fridge magnet collection.

 

Unfortunately, because these are special characters, the collection is also sold at a very "special" price, so special that I cannot bring myself to afford it. Besides, only the Star Wars collection looks nice, and even that do not have my favourite characters. In other words, no Darth Vader, no Luke Skywalker, no Han Solo, and no Yoda. There is only Princess Leia, R2D2 and C3PO.

 

So I gave it a miss. Then I came across another set of fridge magnets at a cheaper price, but they are just Lego bricks, nothing outstanding. I was about to give up, when I came across a button magnet featuring Legoland, and it does not cost that much too! So I bought two of that, intending to give a friend.

 

Here is the fridge magnet I bought, which made my trip to Legoland satisfactory and complete :

Fridge Magnets From Redang

I bought a few fridge magnets during my Redang trip. Redang is known for its beautiful beaches, marine life and turtles, so the magnets I bought reflect these.

The pink turtle is actually protruding out. A pity I did not get to see a real life Nemo though, it was hidden amongst the corals and anemones under the sea. 

 A big turtle with a small turtle on its back. I saw a turtle swimming in the sea on our way out to the sea.

 

 I love this magnet as it is so cute! Can you recognise what this is?

 

Yes, it is a little cute red turtle!

 



 A starfish magnet with the map of the island

 

And also one that Julie gave me, which she bought at a post-Christmas sale :

 



A cute reindeer, but not Rudolph though!

South African Magnets

My youngest brother is back for vacation, and he spent some time doing volunteer work in South Africa, as well as travelling around that region. I asked him to bring back some South African magnets. He did not buy a lot, and my aunt in Australia had the first pick because she had been taking care of us so much.

 

So he gave me whatever was leftovers, plus some others which he wanted to bring back to his friends. I managed to get two magnets, one that is of a caricarture of Nelson Mandela, and another one of a lion head, that is one of the Big Four, or is it Big Five, or South Africa.

Mr Mandela himself

The Lion Head

 

Incidentally, South Africa is one country I have always wanted to go to. I was supposed to make a trip there with some friends a few years back, but then I changed job so could not take so many day offs, hence missed the trip. I hope to be able to make a trip there sometime soon, to see the Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope, Robben Island, swimming with the sharks, Kruger Safari and Victoria Falls with my own eyes!

Fridge Magnets Galore!

Many thanks to generous friends from their recent travels, I have a few more fridge magnets to add to my collection.

 Fridge Magnet from Hong Kong, showing the harbour and Central area. Sorry for the blurred visual as this is a 3D magnet with frosted glass covering, so the picture turns out this way due to the reflection.

 

 Fridge Magnets from Macau, showing the Macau casino chips in denominations of 100, 200, 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000.

 

And one from Rome, which can also double up as a bottle opener.

 

Besides the fridge magnet, my friend also went to Vatican City and got me a Rosary, even though she is not a Catholic. Which is why I say my friends are the greatest blessings God gave me besides my family. And I went back a happy person. :-)



A Growing Collection Of Fridge Magnets

Julie sent me fridge magnets on her recent trip to Nepal. Thanks so much! Because of her, my fridge magnet collection is growing and already, a quarter of the freezer compartment is filled up! I wonder if my mum notices the new "decorations" on her refrigerator?

 

In any case, these were what she got for me from Nepal :

 I like this! Reminds me of the tarot cards to tell my fortune.

 

 Beautiful view of the Himalayas!

 

Needless to say, during my recent weekend in Malacca, I bought myself some nice magnets too!

 I bought these at the Jonker Walk night market, as I really loved the clogs I saw earlier in a shop. I chose this specially because the Chinese characters mean "Everlasting", and I find it so meaningful as this can mean everlasting love, friendship, parenthood or what not. It reinforces the message that in human relations, it is difficult to be "everlasting", so we should treasure each and everyone of us around us!

 

 Icons of Malacca - the Stadthuys and the ruined church atop St Paul's Hill

 

 And of course, the Peranakan culture of Malacca!

 

So the word is out. I have been telling my friends who are planning to go away to get me magnets instead of other things! At least this way, they do not need to rack their brains wondering what to get, not spend too much and bring back heavy stuff, and at the same time know I will like as well!

Fridge Magnets From Sydney

I was so inspired by fellow blogger Julie that I am starting a collection of fridge magnets. I wish I thought of this long time ago, to buy fridge magnets as souvenirs as memoirs of my travels. Often, when I go travelling, I always cracked my head thinking what kind of souvenirs would be good enough.

 

If you go to places like South Africa, it is easy. For instance, my mum bought back a vuvuzuela from there. Or even for Egypt, we can buy back a papyrus. Or China, where we can buy back a stuffed panda. Otherwise in most other places, just food products will suffice.

 

Trouble is, in most places, due to globalisation and large imports and exports, chances are one can find something overseas that you may probably already have back home. So what then? What can you bring back that is small, cheap and make good souvenirs?

 

Hence fridge magnets. Not only are they small, cheap and long-lasting, they represent the icons of the various countries. Like Borneo, there are magnets in the shape of longhouses, native tribes and orang utans. One can place this on a fridge and gaze at them permanently. These little things represent their respective countries and will never run out.

 

So when I was in Sydney, I bought a few fridge magnets, not just for Julie but also for myself. To kickstart my collection, I bought a kangaroo magnet with a small thermometer to measure the day's temperature, a boomerang magnet, and a pretty pink teapot magnet from the village of Leura in the Blue Mountains.

 One of the native animals of Australia

 

 Another Australian "native"

 

This is my personal favourite, bought from the quaint teapot museum in Leura

 

These magnets are not much, but it is a good start to my collection. A pity I did not get any magnets of koalas, platypus, emus or that of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, but these are enough for now. I believe there will still be chances for me to get those in the future. Hopefully one day I will have enough to fill up my entire refrigerator on all sides, all from different countries!



Of Postage And Stamps

I have always loved stamp collecting in my younger years. Actually I still do now, but with the influx of modern advanced technology, it is getting harder and harder to find stamps since most people just send emails and use franked mails.

Come to think of it, I ought to sort out my stamp collection one day. I keep telling myself to do it, but procrastination always gets the better of me. Just like the visit to the Philatelic Museum. I keep saying I want to go, and it was today that I finally decided to make a trip there.

When my friend first proposed going to the Philatelic Museum, I was really excited. I have wanted to go for ages, but no one else I know collect stamps or would be interested in going to a museum, and a stamp museum at that, that I have not been able to find anyone to go with.

So when she said she wanted to go, I jumped at the opportunity to go with her. We decided to go to the Philatelic Museum today. It is a museum filled with old stamps, postcards and first day covers. There are even commemorative stamps from all over the world. Luckily we did go as there was an Iron Man exhibition going on at the same time so we were able to see some mint collection of comics on display too!

The entrance of the Philatelic Museum is marked by an old post box. How appropriate!

The entrance to the Philatelic Museum

Mini postboxes on display

When we stepped into the museum, it is the shop area where lots and lots of stamp collections of the same series are displayed. It was practically stamp heaven! I even found unique stamps like the Hans Christian Anderson Fairytale collection, as well as chocolate-scented stamps, Walt Disney collections and Simpsons Collection!

The various stamps on display from all over the world

Fairytale Collection

These stamps were the definitive series in the 1980s

These were the definitive series in the 1990s

Mickey Mouse stamps

As stated, chocolate-scented stamps

Simpson Collection

Garfield collection

Mini postbox at the counter

Apparently we could use this mini postbox to send letters too. Letters sent at the Philatelic Museum will be specially franked with the words "Philatelic Museum" on it. They just require a donation of fifty cents per letter.

After looking at all the display of stamps, we decided to get the entrance ticket. It is S$5.00 per adult. Even the ticket looks like a postcard!

The entrance ticket

We then stepped into the first room, where there are displays on the first stamps used in this country.

The postman scooter

We then went on to the Iron Man 2 exhibition, where there is the display of collectible art, figurines and comics.

Next, we went into a room filled with limited edition stamp collection, like the Harry Potter stamps.

We even went to play around with this display to "Be A Stamp" for S$1.00!

The museum is a small two-storey colonial style building. After we were done with the first floor, we went on to the second floor, where we stepped into a room full of old stamps from the Straits Settlement times.

Just for information, Singapore was part of the Straits Settlements in the 1800s, together with Malacca and Penang. These three "villages" were part of the British colony, hence the stamps issued would be rare collections with Queen Victoria's profile.

Sorting boxes for letters

Mailbags

An old-fashioned postman

An old postman's uniform

Same as police officers, postmen wore shorts in the past.

The old post office at Fullerton

The building lasted for more than a hundred years, before it was converted into where Fullerton Hotel now stands.

The new, modern post office at Paya Lebar

There is also a nostalgia room where remnants of the past were displayed.

Display of a shop in the 1960s selling magazines, cigarettes, stamps, candy and stationery

Display of an old-fashioned barber

An old-fashioned kitchen cabinet display

Anyone remember these clogs?

Display of melon seeds - my favourite are the black melon seeds!

Next to the nostalgia room is a room displaying Indonesian traditional things like wayang kulit, masks, gamelan, and of course stamps!

There is also a Victorian room, displaying the first kind of camera, photos taken from the first kind of camera, postcards and stamps.

Along the corridor, there were displays of mini postboxes from countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Britain, United States, China, Japan and Thailand to name a few.

Back downstairs, when we wanted to go to the washroom, I realise that there are even stamps in the washrooms!

This stamp was displayed on the wall when we stepped into the Ladies

These were all wall displays in the Ladies

This is the door of the toilet cubicle of the Ladies

The two stamps above are behind the cubicle door of the Ladies

I was curious about the Gents, so I got the dear to go into the men's room to take photos of the stamps on display.

This was on display when one stepped into the Men's Room

These were all displayed on the wall of the Men's room

This is the door of the cubicle in the Men's room

These are behind the cubicle doors of the Men's room

At a corner of the museum, there is also a display of the wedding collection stamps of Prince Charles and the then-Princess Elizabeth.

There is even a display of postcards of cinemas of yesteryears!

And my favourite - quill pen! I have always wanted a quill pen, I wanted to know what it feels like to write with a feather! Unfortunately, the quill pen set on display are too costly, hence I decided not to get any for now.

There is even a religious stamp collection!

All in all, it was a pretty good trip. Definitely this is one place I want to bring my children to, if it still exists by then! A pity not many people I know like to collect stamps or like to go museums, otherwise I can recommend them to go to this place!

My dear, for one, has no stamp collection. Each time he receives an envelope, he will take the letter out and throw away the envelope, with the stamp. What a pity! Luckily he does not mind exploring museum, so at least I can still get him to go with me if I ever want to go again in the future!