Postcards for the weekend 89: Anything you wish

TW-1110457, Sent from Taoyuan, Taiwan
Sent 16 December 2013, Traveled 1,171 km in 23 days

It's been almost 4.5 months now since I took a hiatus from blogging. I didn't totally stop from exchanging postcards though and I have plenty of beautiful postcards to share! Postcards are probably one of those things that I would always love despite the fact that I'm needing more and more storage boxes to keep them neat and tidy.

So the Postcards for the Weekend has now officially resumed. HOWEVER, I'm having issues with the linky tool. Pardon me! I will update this post as soon as that's sorted out.

I hope you've all been well and I'm looking forward to another series of beautiful postcards party!

~maria

For Beth of The Best Hearts Are Crunchy

DE-2880049, 5 Feb 2014 from near Hanover, Germany
Traveled 10,116 km in 11 days

Beth, the lovely host of Postcard Friendship Friday linky party is one of the selected bloggers whom I connected with and made a friendship bond over several years.

My thoughts are with her; hoping her impending surgery will not have any complication and that she would recuperate fast. To send your best wishes for Beth, her page can be reached here.

Happy Postcard Friendship Friday! 

~maria

Loving is sharing joy

Outgoing: SG-221625 to United Kingdom

I have recently decided for a "soft return" into two of my [quite] long abandoned hobbies: postcard swapping & blogging. Postcards have always brought me joy. Writing and sharing these postcards with other postcards enthusiasts, had brought me even more joy. I was inactive at the postcrossing.com website but still swapping with friends I've met from the site, friends from blogging, and sending postcards to myself. My flatmate labeled me "crazy" because of that last one. Perhaps I am! Life has been passing by so quickly and I wanted tangible souvenirs of my days spent jumping from one city/county to another.

I haven't been doing heavy back-to-back traveling for the past 3 months though. I miss the excitement and anticipation of receiving mail. One's love for postcards can never be enough. So here I am, back to "active" status in swapping postcards. In addition to that, I'm also not just going to be back to blogging but will be hosting a weekend postcards linky party. Cross fingers, my subscription to linky tools will be validated soon so I can start the linky party next weekend. Watch out for more details ;-)

For now, please enjoy the postcards for Friday at my friend, Beth's page. 

Happy weekend,
~maria

Nourish The Heart

RU-2207232, Sender: Marya11
Sent: 24 Nov 2013 from St. Petersburg, Russia
Received: 2 Jan 2014, Traveled 8,648 km in 39 days

At first glance, this postcard very well reminds me of a Chinese proverb:

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.

A tree is nourished by minerals from the soil and vitamins from the sun, and refreshed by water and air. Such is the same for the human heart, nourished by past experiences and refreshed by new ones. As I bid goodbye to 2013 and welcome the new year, 2014 - I admit I didn't write down (yet) specific "new year resolutions". But I renewed my yearly promise that I will keep an open and cheerful heart, keen on taking in new rewarding experiences, relearning from wise and trusted people and friends, and learning from new acquaintances and even strangers.

Happy new year everyone! Wishing all of us a prosperous 2014!

~maria

Share the happiness!

DE-235834, Sender: Jardinantoine
Sent: 14 Oct 2013 from Brussels, Belgium
Received: 20 Nov 2013, Traveled 10,517 km in 37 days

Hurray! One of the happiest seasons of the year is almost here -- Christmas!! I'm thrilled to post my first December entry for my blog this year. I'm not a fan of carbonated drinks, I don't drink soda as much as possible but that doesn't prevent me from loving Coca-cola's tagline, "Share the happiness", which is also very appropriate for this holiday season.

In line with this postcard, I'm happy to share, too (forthose who haven't seen this on the news) that Coca-cola Philippines, true to the Coca-cola tagline, have made a very charitable and generous act. Since 18 November, they have suspended advertisement campaigns to route the funds for these instead to helping those affected by the Super Typhoon Haiyan. Here's a link for Coca-cola's press release about this.

This Coca-cola postcard is among the first Christmas-themed postcards I got this year. Together with the cheerful front design, I got an equally delightful treat from the back of the card!

It's a lick-taste-smell Belgian chocolate stamp! When the taste is a bit disappointing, it does smell like chocolate! Wonderful enough... Kudos to whoever thought of this idea (I'm too lazy to run a research right now :p ) I think this is a winning way to get people back into the art of sending letter, postcards, and other stuff in the mail!

Sharing this heart-shaped chocolate with Clytie's Guest Heart Thursday. How I wish I can also share my actual experience of "lick-taste-smell" with this stamp, how I wish I took a video! It was my very first time to actually "taste" a stamp! Goodness... perhaps next time ;-)

~maria

PS. And I just realized, 6 December, tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day in Europe. St. Nicholas is identical to the American's Santa Claus. So let me also take this opportunity to greet my readers from Europe, Happy St. Nicholas Day!!!

Letters To & From Finland

Tonight I was writing a letter to my Finnish pen friend, Tuija.

I noticed the design on the letter set I'm writing on -- lots of hearts!

There are hearts on the blue flower pot.

OUT: 21 November 2013 to Finland

The flowers of different colors and design are heart-shaped, too!

IN: 5 November 2013 from Finland
Sent: 24 October 2013, Traveled 9,160 km in 11 days

It was a lovely coincidence that this most recent letter of Tuija,

to which I'm writing a response for, is written on a stationery which is

adorned with hearts too with the most appropriate message on it:

"You will always have a special place in my heart."

All in all, perfect for Clytie's Guest Heart Thursday!

I realized, there should be more random hearts in past letters Tuija

sent to me and in remaining leaves of letter sets I used to send messages

for her. I'm happy to discover tonight that now I've got these letters to look for hearts

in addition to my postcards and stamps collection. I wish you'll keep on

visiting Clytie's and my page for more hearts on Thursdays! =)

~maria

Outpouring love and compassion

DE-2151770, Sender: Uwe
Sent: 5 May 2013 from Speyer, Germany
Received: 23 May 2013, Traveled 10,337 km in 18 days

I am a bit lost as to where to start for this post... I've been extremely busy since last weekend. I'm not feeling well. Last night that the gravity of the tragedy brought by Typhoon Haiyan is sinking in hard to me... Some noticed I'm zoning out the past few days; I'm frustrated I can't really do much more to help because of professional responsibilities.

The good part is that the outpouring love and compassion from many parts of the world is overwhelming, too. I consider myself lucky that I'm able to witness in grand scale, such admirable characters of the human spirit. In my personal experience, I'm grateful for all those friends I've made through blogging and postcard swapping who expressed their warm thoughts and concern over what happened. It's also a beautiful surprise that some random postcrossers sent messages to check if I'm 'ok'. 

Except for the physical and emotional toll of the events lately, I'm 'ok' here in Manila. My family in the province were affected. The damage on our part is insignificant though, compared to the damages in provinces of Samar, Leyte, and Palawan. Chills run down my spine every time I hear news of the situation there. Yet again, I get re-assurance that things will get better because the whole world is helping.

On a different note, for those who are constant readers of my blog: I'm happy to share that by Saturday morning last weekend, the typhoon was past Manila. We're able to push through with the second part of our celebration of the International Day of Medical Physics. The sky was still gloomy but I was impressed with the number of attendees. The discussions were very informative. All in all, it was worth the effort on our side, the organizers!

On Sunday, I was finally able to take the board certification exam for my sub-specialty. I'm really anxious for the result now. From Monday to yesterday, the Philippines hosted the consultancy/ assessment meeting on the implementation of the clinical residency training programs of the International Atomic Energy Agency. It was such an honor to brush elbows with some of the best individuals in my field coming from different organizations.

I got several unattended tasks because of these recent activities so I gotta run for now. I'm sharing this for blog hops of sisters Clytie and Beth -- thank you so much to both of you for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers, and asking about my situation after the typhoon. My sincere apologies if I made both of you worried due to my lack of posts.

Happy (belated) Guest Heart Thursday and Postcard Friendship Friday! Wishing all of you a nice and quiet weekend!

~maria

Sampaguita Gardens

I got this postcard back in early June I believe, as 'pasalubong' or souvenir for me from a friend who visited the Sampaguita Gardens in New Washington, Aklan. This place is the home in the Philippines of the famous Precious Romance dolls, created by Mr. Sam Butcher. More information about the place can be found here.

I am here in Aklan for work since Monday until Saturday. Today, I had the chance to see Sampaguita Gardens: the place where it's always Christmas! Yes, you read it right. That's the tagline of Sampaguita Garden -- the place where everyday is Christmas. They have a Christmas Cottage that I have on another postcard but I'll share that one around December. For now, I'm sharing this card which features some really 'authentic Pinoy culture' on the drawing -- like the tricycle for transportation and the hanging native chicken (to be prepared into a delicious dish for sure!)

My visit at the gardens was a bit sad because I see the place is no longer well-maintained. I really hope they will do something about it. I heart to go back there one day in the future, and hopefully I can say 100%, "We all had a wonderful time!" Speaking of "heart", can you count how many hearts are in this postcard?

~maria

Je suis amoureuse de toi!

Friendship Gift Postcard, Sender: Sebastien
Sent: 9 Sep 2013 from Cadillac, France
Received: 18 Sep 2013, Traveled ~11,526 km in 9 days

This is a surprise card from a postcard swapping friend in France. He knows that my beau is French. It's so nice of him to gift me this card, together with the bunch we've agreed for swap. He also wrote the translation for the phrase on the card, and it came with an instruction.

I'm writing this post with sweet smile on my face -- I can glance at my beau from time to time, sleeping on the other side of the screen. Thanks to technology, we can be together despite the distance. As I watch him sleep and as I ponder on the events this evening (we had a little misunderstanding), I come to realize even more the essence of love.

Love isn't just about the amorous feelings. Love isn't just about the times when you can understand each other without saying a word. Love isn't just about the feeling of "belonging" and "being at home" with the person.

Tonight I gained more understanding on the need for love to be stronger when you are not in the same page with things. Love is recognizing that the person you're with won't necessarily hold things in the same level of importance as you do. Love is respecting the other person. Love is explaining your side but not insisting that your partner gets to believe the same thing, too.

For more love-ly hearts, visit Clytie's linky part by clicking the meme below.  Also, this is a late link-up for Paulita's Dreaming of France...

~maria

Dutch costumes: Clogs - loving!

NL-1460621, Sender: Ramona
Sent: 29 Sep 2012 from Overjissel, Netherlands
Received 26 Oct 2012, Traveled 10,305 km in 27 days 

Touchnote Postcard, Sender: Wilma
Sent from Leiden, Netherlands, Traveled 10,463.8 km

Whole feet wooden clogs is my favorite among the items consisting the traditional Dutch costume. I recall getting a miniature pair of clogs for a wedding souvenir in my teenage years. Since then, I've always dreamed to try wearing clogs. I believe they're the most durable type of footwear against wear and tear. 

Back in those years, my parents were always annoyed at me because they think I'm careless with my leather shoes. But I don't own the blame! In our province it's always raining for almost 80% of the school year. I had the same pair of shoes for like 2 years to wear every single day, five days a week, 10 months in a year, to school. Plus, my feet seemed to be growing faster laterally than I was growing vertically...sigh. Oh well, so long with my defensive story of my younger years...

Clogs, durable and practical work shoes, are worn in heavy labor environment and for tap dancing. The traditional wooden Dutch clogs, or klompen are hand-crafted. I can't imagine how skillful and precise those klompen makers are! Perhaps my dream now, is not just to try wearing a pair of clogs but also to watch a clog artisan crafting out a pair of shoes in his workshop.

With that pretty heart design on the apron of the Dutch girl, I'm sharing this post with Clytie's Guest Heart Thursday. For more hearts, click on the picture below:

~maria

Assortment of Hearts

JP-373345, Sender: Harumi
Sent: 24 Feb 2013 from Osaka, Japan
Received: 8 Mar 2013, Traveled 2,628 km in 12 days

My submission today for the Guest Heart Thursday is an assortment of hearts. It was sent to me last year for my birthday.

My favorite hearts are:

From the 2nd row - the leaves of different colors forming a heart and the luscious red lips

From the 3rd row - last on the row, the wings of the butterfly

From the 5th row, - the heart on the middle, a fan of a geisha I believe

~maria

Locked in love!

I am really fatigued today but I don't want to miss joining Guest Heart Thursday

twice in a row... My contribution for this week:

It came with a heart postcard, which can be found here. And I just realized,

how appropriate, I entitled that previous post, "Loving through death" and this one

 is "Locked in love!" -- this lovely coincidence warms up my heart 

and really justifies my staying up longer tonight for a GHT entry.

--------------------------------------------------

It's a greeting stamp - pendant issued by Pošta Slovenije on 25 January 2013. 

The description for the stamp at the www.posta.si website reads:

"The latest greetings stamp bears the motif of one of the padlocks whose number 

is effectively growing from day  to day at the new Mesarski Most bridge in Ljubljana. 

By hanging up a locked padlock,  couples make a symbolic manifestation 

of their commitment to eternal love..."

------------------------------------------

I'm keeping this short and closing my eyes as soon as I post this...

I still have to wake up at 5:30 AM tomorrow, wish me sweet dreams, please. Thanks!

~maria

...et l'amour

Private Swap, Sender: David Russell
Sent: 27 May 2013, Sent from Lyon, France
Received: 4 June 2013, Traveled 10,765.82 km in 8 days

I am truly grateful that postcard swap friends give it an effort to fulfill postcard preference requests. At the back of this card, David wrote: 

I looked around and finally found a postcard with hearts. It wasn't easy to pick just the right card. I hope you will enjoy it. :) 

-- and of course, I enjoy this card a lot! My favorite heart from this set is the one on the top row, to the right of the letter 'O'. 

There's a phrase in French at the bottom of the card. I asked Mr. Google to translate it for me, and he said it means, "...and love goes around your hearts." I wanted a more comprehensible translation, and from the beau, I got: "...and love is filling up your hearts". It's really complicated for me learning the French language but I hope I can at least comprehend the basics by trying to understand words and phrases.

I would also like to share, that this postcard is double heart-y treat for me. David sent it with a heart-shaped stamp. This is Hermès contribution to the annual 'Heart' collection of the French Postal Service (La Poste). The design is from the brand's iconic scarves, illustrated by Zoé Pauwels. The stamp was released 28 January 2013. I cropped the stamp to show the overlapping postmarks from the Lyon and Manila postal offices. I think they look nice.

For more Francophile posts, Paulita is running 'Dreaming of France' at her page, An Accidental Blog, click the icon below to proceed to her blog.

~maria

Friendly Hearts

   

DE-2142542, Sender: akiregreb
Sent: 1 May 2013, Sent from Meschede, Germany
Received: 3 July 2013, Traveled 10,245 km in 63 days
 

I am on fieldwork in Bukidnon, south of Mindanao. When many people think Mindanao is not a good place to visit because of the negative publicity it gets in the press, not all of it is really dangerous. Bukidnon for example, is a really peaceful part. I love going back here, and right now it's my 5th visit.

I named this card, friendly hearts because every time I visit here, I always meet female souls who resonates with mine. For this time around, I met two, Anne to my right, and Karen, to my left. 

I sometimes complain how tiring my job is: being in an airplane 4-6 times in a month, working even on Saturdays and sometimes even Sundays, and the feeling of not being properly compensated for the effort and time it demands from me. 

But looking at it in a bright perspective, the real reward of my job is meeting amazing people who eventually become my friends despite being with them just for a short time. That's the first. Second is getting to see awesome places. The one where the photo of us was taken is Lake Apo. There's a house by the lake that can be booked for a relaxing stay, away from the stress of the busy life and close to a quiet lake and rolling green mountains. I really wish I can come back here to stay at that house for vacation even just for a few days.

Well, it might be off topic, but third reward is knowing that the sacrifice you give: lots of effort and time but low pay -- results in uplifting the quality of healthcare in the country. I can smile and say that I'm doing something worthwhile and dedicating my strong and youthful years for the greater good.

I'll end it here for now before I get more sentimental... I still need to wake up before the sun rises tomorrow for a long land trip to reach the airport for my flight back to Manila. I don't wish to go back cause I'm truly being addicted to provincial life, but I have to.

~maria

P.S. The photographer is the husband of Anne. I am really grateful to him for these nice photos which are perfect souvenirs of my 5th visit in Bukidnon.

Sunny heart

CH-149695, Sender: Vre
Sent: 22 May 2013, Sent from Lucerne, Switzerland
Received: 5 June 2013, Traveled 10,458 km in 14 days

This is one of my most 'spirit-uplifting; smile-inducing' heart cards, officially received from postcrossing.com. I believe I mentioned in one of my previous posts that when it's summer in the other part of the globe, it's rainy and typhoon season for us. Hence, the choice of a sunflower heart card for today ... I miss the sun ... I miss my sunshine ... and eating sunflower seeds.

I'll keep this short, I got a terrible headache. It's a holiday tomorrow so I'm really drawn into my bed right now, thinking of a long sleep ahead.

Blessed and joyful celebrations of Eid Mubarak!

I'm sharing this post with Clytie's Guest Heart Thursday. Check out her page for more heart photos ;-) I'm honored that she featured on her page today the heart card I posted last week, I'm even more honored with the kind words she has for me. Thank you so much!! 

~maria

Love-ly cats

FI-1724304, Sender: mam-mam
Sent: 7 Apr 2013, Sent from Oulu, Finland
Received: 26 Apr 2013, Traveled 8,801 km in 19 days

As promised, I am back after 1 month of absence. :)

I am overwhelmed to share that the final assessment for my clinical residency went well. It was a grueling 4-day ordeal and I'm glad it's finally over. It's just the start though. I still have a few documentary requirements to finish. Then there's the certification board exams in November this year. It was a great experience. It allowed me to pin down my strength and weaknesses in regards with my development and training into the professional in  my field that I hope to be.

For the past 3 years of being into the program I learned that it's truly beneficial to work as a group; to always seek to study and learn together. There's truly great value in collective efforts. Hence my choice of postcard to feature for this first day of August and my first post for Clytie's Guest Heart Thursday after being gone for a month. It shows two cats joining their heads; in my mind, they could have been holding hands in a few - drawing strength from each other.

It's my second postcard of the artist, Minna L. Immonen. The first one can be found here, it features a hydrangea wreath.

I would like to express my gratitude to Grace of Le Blog de Grace Bailhache and Beth of The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for passing by my blog even though I didn't post any entry for a month. It's heartwarming to know that I was missed. Hugs to you both!

I'll end this post for now. Ciao! It's great to be back!

~maria

P.S. Let me share a goofy photo of our group from Monday, 29 July - the last day of the assessment. My co-residents and I are standing at the back, the clinical supervisors, members of the national steering committee, and our expert assessor from the International Atomic Energy Agency are seated in front. Here we flash our 'winner pose' with triumphant smiles. I am the one standing behind the woman in fuchsia pink top.

The First Training

FI-1481431, Sender: Konkajo
Sent: 15 July 2012, Sent from Jarvenpaa, Finland
Received: 10 August 2012, Traveled 8,922 km in  26 days

It's Sunday, so this is really a very late post for Beth's Postcard Friendship Friday. However, I don't want to lose the chance to share this postcard for June since I've promised to keep romance as a theme for the entire month.

My laptop didn't want to boot. It was a long and tedious (and scary) process getting it backed up and working. So it's now working again, thank heavens! 

And I'm glad I still have one day of June for the roll of PFF and GHT. I have this vintage card that I've been planning to post since the start of the month, but I decided it's best as a month-ender. Plus I delayed posting cause I really can't find information about it. I can't figure out the information at the back of the card:

It might be hard reading the words; they're written vertically. Konkajo wrote, "The first training" with the rest of his message. I am not sure if that's a translation for one of the Finnish words or it refers to the young girl and boy sharing a kiss...

I didn't want to rotate the image cause I also want to share the beautiful stamp that came with the card. This one is for  Clytie's Guest Heart Thursday.

~maria

Loving through death

Sl-77760, Sender: Leonardo
Sent: 20 May 2013, Sent from Ljubljana, Slovenia
Received: 30 May 2013, Traveled 10,069 km in 10 days

What it's like to be a human --

It's dying without love

It's loving through death.

- Funny, Anna Kamieńska

~maria

Heart Mailbox

Touchnote Postcard, Sender: Roberta
Sent: 9 September 2012, Sent from Faenza, Italy

Rainy season is here. Too bad, that's exactly the same as saying, flood season is here! Just today, my usual 45 minutes commute from the hospital to my apartment became 2 hours. Half of the trip, I was wet with flood water.

Moving on, since I started collecting postcards 2 years ago, I've always feared for my postcards and other stuff from the mail will get wet during rainy season. The postman puts them in the slit of my apartment door. Whenever someone opens the door, the postcards and other stuff (letter, etc.) falls on her head. I like it that way actually, like a shower of postcards. But during rainy season, it's not a very nice idea because sometimes they fly outside the door. And when they fall on wet surface...that's gonna be extremely sad.

It's not possible for me to have my own mailbox though. For some reasons I wish not to discuss. But if I can, it would be something similar to this card Roberta sent me. She said that this wood mailbox is from Trentino Alto Adige in South Tyrol.

Linking with Clytie @ Random Hearts. I wish all of you a better Thursday than mine.

~maria

Life was a box of chocolates.

US-2204290, Sender: Carochan
Sent: 29 April 2013, Sent from Marrero, LA
Received: 23 May 2013, Traveled 14,066 km in 24 days

Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.

- Forest Gump's mum

Check out Random Heart's blog by clicking the meme below

for more posts with adorable hearts.

~maria