How to Use Chopsticks

How to Use Chopsticks

1. Hold your dominant hand as if you are going to shake hands with someone.
2. Secure the first chopstick in the crook between your thumb and index finger.
3. Place the second chopstick on top and hold it with your thumb and index finger.
4. Tuck your ring finger underneath the first (lower) chopstick.
5. Tuck your middle finger underneath the second (upper) chopstick. To pick up food, move the second chopstick up and down to grip pieces with the ends of the two chopsticks.

unused, from 2004

This is from a set of 30 postcards about dim sum.

Bob Marley

Bob Marley (1945 - 1981)
The cover image from Songs of Freedom, Bob Marley's fiftieth birthday celebration book.

unused

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Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley (February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician.
Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited for helping spread Jamaican music to a worldwide audience.

His best known hits were used to make, The compilation album, Legend (1984), released three years after his death, it is reggae's best-selling album, being 10 times Platinum (Diamond) in the U.S. and selling 20 million copies worldwide

Marley had 13 children with 8 different women. His final words were to his son Ziggy: "Money can't buy life.

Vina del Mar, Chile with Wulff Castle

Vina del Mar Vista parcial
Chile

(that is Wulff Castle in the front, center)

postmarked in 1971 with a stamp from Chile

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Viña del Mar, commonly called just Viña, was developed in the 1870s as an exclusive residential and summer area for Chile's well-to-do. It is still that, but has evolved into Chile's premiere seaside resort, often called Chile's Riviera.

Viña offers all the amenities of a resort city: luxurious estates, including the summer home of the President of Chile, waterfront hotels, a municipal casino and theater, sport facilities, beaches, lively nightlife, and fine dining.

Rocky Mountain Wildlife - Bluebird

Mountain Bluebird - Sialia currucoides.
Nesting in tree cavities and preying on insects, this species is commonly encountered inhabiting woodland, meadows and tundra. the male is a striking sky blue and the female is brownish-grey.

1991 Wendy Shattil and Bob Rozinski
Published by Rocky Mountain Nature Association

from the set:
Rocky Mountain Wildlife
Twelve Postcards

Wendy Shattil and Bob Rozinski have worked as a photographic team since 1981, specializing in wildlife and nature photography. They are international grand prize winners of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competion. Other credits include National Wildlife, Audubon, Outdoor Photographer, Natural History and National Geographic Publications.

unused

Happy New Year!!!

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo
(Merry Christmas and Happy New Year)

correos
Costa Rica

postmarked in 2008 with two Costa Rica Stamps - one with this same image for 240 Colones
and the other for 40 with a child's drawing on it

World of Coca-Cola, Atlanta Georgia

World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta Georgia

this looks like an old room divider! It's very large and shaped like you see here

postmarked in 2008 with 41 cent 'Louis Comfort Tiffany' stamp

Traditional dress, Hardanger, Norway

Hardanger, Norway

Axel Eliassons Konstforlag Stockholm No 5124
(printed in Stockholm)

postmarked in 1906 with a one cent Benjamin Franklin stamp to this address:

Mrs. Mary Jarns
Quaker Street
N.Y.
(no house number or city)

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The Hardanger bunad is the most famous of all the Norwegian folk costumes. In the romantic era of the last part of the 19th century, it became the national costume, and it was copied all over the country, although usually simplified. There is also a difference of a married woman and a young girls bunad. The woman wear a headdress and a silver belt, and they look more dressed up than the young girls.


interesting fact about the apron:

The oldest skirts were either open at the front and closed with hooks all the way down or only with a hook at the waist, leaving a long opening bellow. The aprons main function was to hide the opening . The opening down the skirt was not considered "nice". An unmarried girl who had a child would have "lost her apron".

Arenal Observatory Lodge

Arenal Observatory Lodge
An Explosive Destination!

Arenal Volcano
from the Arenal Observatory Lodge

unused, from 2009

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Arenal Volcano, which lay dormant for centuries, erupted in 1968 and has been continuously active ever since, making it one of the world's most explosive cones. Arenal Observatory Lodge was originally built in 1987 as a Smithsonian Institute scientific research station. Unlike other La Fortuna hotels, this volcano lodge is the only Arenal Volcano observatory situated within Arenal National Park, protected from danger by the deep gorge of the Agua Caliente River.

The volcano lodge sits on top of a ridge overlooking Arenal Lake and the looming volcano only 1.7 miles away.

Here is the volcano at night:

Bruges, Beguinage, Belgium - say that 3 times fast!

Brugge: Lngang Begijnhof
Bruges: L'entree du Beguinage
Bruges: entrance to the Beguanage
Brugge: Eingang des Beguinenklosters

This postcard is postmarked in 1978 with two 'King Baudouin' Belgium stamps.


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The Beguinage is one of those typical areas in Bruges where one can find more peace and quiet than in the sometimes busy and overcrowded streets of the town center. The Beguinage is a group of houses around a little garden covered with large poplar trees. It was here that during the last seven centuries lived the beguines of Bruges. In 1937 the beguinage became a monastery for the Benedictine sisters who still live here now.

The Beguinage of Bruges was founded in 1245 by the Countess of Flanders, Margaretha of Constantinopel, daughter of Count Baldwin who conquered Constantinopel (now Istambul) during the crusades.

Visitors enter the place via a bridge over the canal. The entrance gate bears the date 1776. A lot of houses, however, are much older than that. Most date from the 17th and 18th century. Some houses were built in the 19th century in neo-gothic style. In the southern part is a little dead end street where still some houses of the 15th-16th century can be found.

Elvis Presley, Cirque De Soleil, 'Viva Elvis'

Elvis Presley

bought at the Cirque Du Soleil 'Viva Elvis' show in ARIA Resort & Casino at CityCenter in Las Vegas, Nevada

unused, 2009

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Viva ELVIS, a harmonious fusion of dance, acrobatics and live music, is a tribute to the life and music of Elvis Presley. Nostalgia and raw emotion provide the backdrop for his immortal voice and the exhilaration and beauty of his music.

Created in the image of The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll – powerful, sexy, whimsical, truly unique and larger than life – the show highlights an American icon who transformed popular music and whose image embodies the freedom, excitement and turbulence of his era.

Significant moments in his life – intimate, playful and grandiose – blend with the timeless songs that remain as relevant today as when they first hit the top of the charts. Viva ELVIS focuses on the essential humanity of the one superstar whose name will forever be linked with the history of Las Vegas and the entire world of entertainment: Elvis Presley.

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We saw the show on the second official day it was open to the public :D

It's A Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life

unused, bought in 2009

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A few quotes from the movie:

George Bailey: [yelling at Uncle Billy] Where's that money, you silly stupid old fool? Where's that money? Do you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal and prison. That's what it means. One of us is going to jail - well, it's not gonna be me.

Nick: [ringing the cash register repeatedly] Get me. I'm givin' out wings.

Nick: [slamming a bottle on the bar] That's it. Out you two pixies go - through the door, or out the window.

George Bailey: Now, come on, get your clothes on, and we'll stroll up to my car and get... Oh, I'm sorry. I'll stroll. You fly.

George Bailey: What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary.

Clarence: Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?

George Bailey: [praying] Clarence! Clarence! Help me, Clarence! Get me back! Get me back, I don't care what happens to me! Get me back to my wife and kids! Help me Clarence, please! Please! I wanna live again. I wanna live again. Please, God, let me live again.

George Bailey: Ha, ha, ha, ha! My mouth's bleeding, Bert! My mouth's bleeding!

Man on Porch: Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death?

Zuzu Bailey: Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.

George Bailey: Well, you look about the kind of angel I'd get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren't you? What happened to your wings?

Clarence: [In book inscription] Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.

George Bailey: [on Mary being caught naked in the bushes] This is a very interesting situation!

George Bailey: A toast! A toast! A toast to Mama Dollar and to Papa Dollar, and if you want to keep this old Building and Loan in business, you better have a family real quick.
Cousin Tilly: I wish they were rabbits.

Real Estate Salesman: As I say, it's no skin off my nose. But one of these days this bright young man is going to be asking George Bailey for a job.

Happy Birthday Jesus :D

Birthday joys this

Day be thine

And every blessing

Sweet

Is the one

Heartfelt wish

I send this happy

Morn to greet.

Best Birthday Wishes

postmarked in1920 with 1 cent stamp

Christmas Greetings Poem

Christmas Greetings

The Christmas Day brings memories
And kindest thoughts untold,
Of friends we may not often see
But hope to always hold;
So may the greeting be a link
In friendship's precious chain,
And may there be a Christmas Day,
When we shall meet again!

This is postmarked in 1932 with 1 cent '1732 Washington 1932' stamp. This is from the 'Washington Bicentennial Commemorative Postage Stamp' set.