PC#164 Australia, Ice Flowers Maxicard,

This one is from set of three showing Ice Flower types. I'm so surprise how beautiful they are!

Thank you Xue!

PC#162 #163 Czech, Noel mails,

 Christmas is arriving very soon. It is not a special event to me as Im not a christian. But I have many memories about Noel. When I was a boy, my father oftens took me to the central Church to enjoy christmas time and saw their decor.

Sent: 28/11/2016

Arrived: 21/12/2016

Sent: 3/12/2016

Arrived: 21/12/2016

Thank you Trung!

Cover#205 Taiwan, Year of Rooster 2017

Sent: 07/12/2016

Arrived: 21/12/2016

Thank you, Maggie!

Vietnam, Saigon Shaped cards,

Rooster year stamps are released today and I went to philatelic shop to make some items for my lunar year collection as precedant years. I met director of Vietnam stamp company. We talked a bit about shaped cards that Vietnam post issued recently. She confirmed that in next time, there will other interesting shaped card designs about different topics such as 4 seasons, Vietnamese cuisine, ethical people,... that the sale in Saigon is better than that one in Hanoi. I am so excited about designs next time.

She gave me these cards as a pretty gift. (Coz I said that I hadnot seen them on sale in Hanoi. They are Saigon site cards).

These 3 cards show well-known sites in Saigon. Bến Thành market - biggest one in Saigon; the Cathedrale and The central Post Office. They are all french colonial architecture in Vietnam.

Thank you so much Mrs.Hang for this gift.

Cover#204 Vietnam, Year of the Rooster 2017,

 Today I went to stamp company as we have new issue: Year of the Rooster. Actually this issue have been delayed. It should have to be issued on first day of December but the designer got some problems with the copyright of his another creation so they lated release.

The set is composed of 2 stamps showing the silhouette of a chicken family in “Tò he” – an ancient art in Tonkin. “Tò he” is made of rice powder with natural colors (from floral such as orange from carrots…).

The both are designed by N.Du – the same one with design of Year of the Bufle 2008, Year of the Cat 2009, Year of the Monkey 2016.

How to create a Tò he?

To create a Tò he figurine, the craftsman needs a mixture of glutinous and ordinary rice powders which is easily to knead into different shapes and edible for children, bamboo sticks to plant the shaped Tò he and his own skill in graphic depicting.[2] Modeled by the hand of the craftsmen, the forms of Tò he figurine are drawn from animals, flowers and characters in folk stories such as Tôn Ngộ Không, the Monkey King in Journey to the West. There are seven basic colours of Tò he figurines which are green, sea blue, red, purple, yellow, white and black, those colours come from rice powder mixed with food dyes which are used to replace colours from trees or ashes in order to ensure the edibleness of tò he.[3] In the past, tò he was steamed after being kneaded but today the figurines are made directly from preboiled paste so that the craftsman can reduce the time for making one Tò he figurine.[4] The paste is made from glutinous and ordinary rice powders, it was kneaded with fresh water before dropped in boiling water for one hour and finally dyed with food colour.

The procedure of Tò he making requires utmost patience from the craftsman, but almost all Tò he makers are men and there is an unwritten law in families of Tò he craftsmen that secret in making Tò he is only passed from father to sons and daughters-in-law, not to daughters. There are no lesson of Tò he making, sons are transmitted the skill from their father solely in watching and self-learning. Nevertheless, nowadays tò he making is also taught to the handicapped so that they can live on making tò he and other forms of traditional art.

Source: Wiki

Uncut stamps:

Specimen stamps: 

20 Dec 2016 (#110430) is the first day the philatelic bureau of stamp company postmark is officially valid. But it seems that the postman didnot know that news so they chopped another postmark on my cover.

 Here are 2 private maxicards. I used rooster year cards of Japan to make. They are really nice. Thank you Masako for this support.

Cover#203 Czech, Commemorative Handstamp: Number50: God's gift (Christmas Ornament)

This time I got a christmas cover with the Christmas ball handstamp on. The postmark is made of several ice flowers. Inside is a fold card showing a snow view. I always enjoy to see view of snow on forest or on mountain.

Sent:1 Dec 2016

Arrived: 19 Dec 2016

Thank you so much Trung!

Cover#202 Czech, Floral Cover,

Sent: 03 Dec 2016

Arrived: 17 Dec 2017

Thank you Trung!

Vietnam, Shaped cards serie from Vietnam post

 Today I went to philatelic bureau as we have new stamp and I saw they had released new shaped cards. So until now, the Vietnam post had released 5 shaped card: Ancient bridge, Lantern, Aodai - tradional costume, Conical hat and the earliest one: a postal box issued last year as the official maxicard for the 70th anniversary of Post and Telecomunication issue.
I hope Vietnam post will have more for this serie to present about our country.

The first one issued in Aug 2015. A typical postal post in any city in Vietnam.

These two show Hoian city, an UNESCO site. Issued in July 2016. The Bridge Pagode and Hoian Lantern are very famous to tourists when they visit Vietnam. They are symbol of this tiny and peaceful city.

And these two released recently. Conical Hat and Aodai are a couple which make the beauty of vietnamese girl, women for several decades. There are many poets and writers writting about this topic .

I look for new ones about the vietnamese cuisine as I am a bit gourmand.

Cover#201 Kyrgyzstan, Floral Cover,

 Cover from one of the rare countries to me arrived today.  I love stamps from Kyrgyzstan, they are always so coloful. This one was sent from Sberatel fair in Prague, whe Kyrgyzstan post opend a kios to help collector having philatelic of thei country.

Sent from Prague: 9 Sept 2016

Departure from Kyrgyzstan: 25 Oct 2016

Arrived: 15 Nov 2016

Thank you so much Trung for this beautiful cover!

Cover#200 Czech, Cover with a lot of beautiful stamps,

 This letter arrived today, I got it from my neighbour as I am not at home all the day so the factor gave it to her.

Sent: 01 Nov 2016

Arrived:14 Nov 2016

This one is new fauna issue for this year of Czech post. I love this serie.

 With some other EUROPA stamps for my EUROPA collection.

 This set is from United Nations Post about the LGBT topic. It is in my wishlist for a long time and finaly I got them for my collection.

Thank you so much Trung for your support!

Cover#199 Japan, The year of the Rooster 2017 FDC,

This is the first one arrived for my Lunar year collection: Year of the Rooster 2017. Japan is one of the first countries released stamps to celebrate this event.

The sender used the both stamps of the set from the lottery serie. Traditionally, for lunar new year stamps, Japanese post issues two types: the normal and the lottery ones with a pretty extra price (+3) and the number. The result will be known in middle of January.

Sent: 1 Nov 2016

Arrived: 11 Nov 2016

Thank you so much masako-k for this help!

Legend about the Rooster

The rooster always sought to prevail over others, made troubles and fought all around. When the Jade Emperor selected the lunar zodiac animals, the contributions to human beings were taken into consideration, so the rooster had no chance. One day, the rooster found the horse which had been selected was spoiled by human beings with golden saddle and silver stirrup. The rooster was very envious of the horse, so it asked: "hi, brother horse! How does you win today's honor?" The horse replied: "I plow and transport at ordinary times and charge forward in wartimes. So I have made great exploits for human beings. Of course they love me." The horse continued: "it is not difficult to get human's love if you can take your advantage and work for them. For example, the ox can plow; the dog can watch the gate; the pig devotes meat and the dragon can rain. You are born with a natural golden voice; maybe it is helpful to humans."

After going back home, the rooster thought it over and finally found that it could wake up the sleeping people with its golden voice. Therefore, the rooster got up early every dawn and woke people from sleep by singing. Humans were very grateful, so they decided to ask the Jade Emperor to list the rooster into the lunar zodiac signs. But according to Jade Emperor's standard, only animals rather than birds could be selected as the zodiac signs. Among the six domestic animals, the horse, the ox, the sheep and the dog were all selected except the rooster. So, the rooster was extremely anxious: its eyes turned into red and its throat became hoarse, but still had no effect.

One night, the rooster was unable to get over; it tossed about and couldn't sleep. Its soul came to the Heavenly Palace and complained tearfully to the Jade Emperor that it woke up the humans every morning and made great contributions, but it was not selected, so it was unable to get over. After that, the rooster cried. The Jade Emperor thought the rooster indeed made great contributions and his standard of selecting the lunar zodiac signs was wrong, so he picked a flower in front of the Heavenly Palace and put it on the rooster's head as a reward.

After the rooster woke up, it found there was really a red flower on its head, so it went to visit the Four Heavenly Kings with the flower. The Four Heavenly King recognized that this flower was the one in front of the royal furnace and the Jade Emperor valued the rooster, so they permitted the rooster to participate in the competition for lunar zodiac signs. On the competition day, the rooster and the dog got up and came together. When they approached the Heavenly Palace, the rooster flied to the front of the dog. The dog wanted to catch up but failed, so it was ranked after the rooster. Since then, the dog hated the rooster and chased after whenever it saw the rooster. Even today, the dog is still angry about the rooster and the phenomenon of "the dog chasing after the rooster" is still visible. While the rooster still wakes up people every morning in red face and with a beautiful red flower.