Dateline: East London, South Africa

3D Postage Stamps

Okay, All you philatelists, pay attention!  This is for real.

I would never have picked it.  Who would have?  Imagine!  3D stamps!  They come with their own 3D glasses, which are festooned with pictures (of dinosaurs, of course) to match the stamps themselves.  What I don’t get is, do the people who receive the mail with the 3D stamps get the glasses? Or are they supposed to have their own?  Does it cost extra to enclose the glasses in letters to send them to the recipient?  These are international postage stamps, intended to be placed on post cards, so that seems unlikely.  I just don’t get it.  But I’m sure they must be a real treat for collectors—with or without the 3D glasses.

Does any other country sell 3D stamps besides South Africa?  I don’t wish to seem cynical, but it did occur to me, when looking closely at the stamps, that they could have simply been a misprint, and rather than throw out the whole batch, some clever post office person suggested issuing them with 3D glasses and pretend they were printed that way intentionally.  Somehow I don’t think the idea is going to catch on.

Forget Balloon Animals

I have something new for you.  Towel Animals.  My butler (we all have butlers on the Silver Whisper) recently left me a sweet note welcoming me back on board after a day ashore, and with the note was a cute fluffy animal, with a rose in its hand (?) and wearing my sun glasses.  I thought it was adorable, and thanked her for my pig.  She erupted into peals of laughter—it wasn’t a pig, said she.  It was a dog.  Nevermind, she was pleased I liked it.  I hadn’t disturbed it, leaving it sitting coyly on my sofa.  I’ll leave it to you to decide whether I was right to think it was a pig…

Well, folks, today the Pig was joined by a new animal.  This time even I could work out that it is an elephant.  She tells me it is called Jumbo, so naturally I have named the Pig “Mumbo.”  I await further develoments in the Towel Animal Department.   I shall keep you posted (though not with 3D stamps).  As you can see, having a butler is a definite plus.

Mumbo & Jumbo

Meanwhile, I am trying to get my head organized to tell you about CapeTown.  It is a special place and I do want to share a bit of it with you.  Stay tuned!        MM