New additions to my collection of philatelic passports

Philatelic passports are issued at stamp exhibitions. Collectors stick stamps in them and get them 'cancelled' or postmarked. Sometimes the postmarks are as interesting as the stamps (see this example I posted about in 2023). I did a presentation about them to my stamp collecting association a few years back too.

In the past couple of weeks I've received a couple of new philatelic passports, including my first one from India. That was issued in 2011. I also got an American one released in 1996 when the big international stamp exhibition was in Atlants, where the Olympics were being held that year.

The Olymphilex passport is interesting because it includes a lot of detail in the write up of the countries inside - both their philatelic heritage and their Olympic performances. 

There's a nice commemorative cancel on the USA page.

Meanwhile whoever owned this passport chose a Romanian miniature sheet that was too big for the space where it was meant to be stuck in.

The gymnast on the stamp in the middle of the sheet is Nadia Comăneci, who was the first ever gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympics (in Montreal in 1976). 

There was also a Britisb Olympics stamp in the passport, but the postmark is upside down. Come on, Royal Mail employee, you had one job!

There was a supplement issued for the passport, which also has a few stamps in.

The Monaco stamp in the supplement also ticks another interest of mine - baseball on stamps!

The Indian passport is much smaller. The heyday for these style passports was definitely the 90s when stamp collecting was much more popular and every big show had a big passport. This has died off now, as fewer national postal administrations go to the big shows (like Europhilex that I visited last year) and many of them don't bother with passports any more.

Philatelic passports have been a lot thinner in the 21st century. But there are some interesting countries in the Indiapex passport, and some interesting stamps. I particularly liked this Danish of a kid who's foot has turned into a sock puppet.

A cool rabbit on the Malaysian postmark.

A mischievous looking truck on the Swedish postmark (over a rather dull looking owl).

My favourite stamp in the passport is this round one from the Pitcairn Islands. I'm a sucker for round stamps. There's a lovely flower on the cancellation too. Unfortunately there is a huge error on the page with two spelling errors in the heading rendering them as the the "Pitcrain Inlands."

And the British page is very weird. An old, pre-decimalisatiom stamps, that was issued to celebrate the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) in 1967! 

I'm guessing Royal Mail didn't officially go to Indiapex, as the cancellation is by Stanley Gibbons, one of the world's best known stamp dealers. Quite a cunning way for them to dispose of quantities of old stamps!

Holy cards and Easter hoods

I like trading cards. When I saw "Holy Cards" on sale in Malaga, I had to buy a pack out of sheer curiosity. I felt the frisson of excitement opening them, same as I do with football stickers.

You get 7 cards in a pack for a Euro. I got some big names.

I got Jesus

Jesus

Jesus on a donkey

Mary

These two things (your guess is as good as mine)

And the equivalent of a team badge

There are also binders for sale to keep all your cards in. I didn't buy one. 

I also bought a packet of La Liga trading cards. It also only cost €1 but there was one less card and zero Jesuses in it. 

Malaga had several shops selling Catholic religious merch. 

They all had little figures of people in the traditional garb worn during the big Easter Parades every year. The robes and pointy hoods are, well, let's be honest, creepy-looking and makes it look like the Ku Klux Klan are coming to town. 

They do their best to make the hooded guys look cute. It doesn't really work. 

There were also some life-size effigies around. It wouldn't persuade me to go into a shop if I saw one of these. But it takes all sorts!

One day I'd like to go back to Malaga. But maybe not at Easter.

Dydd Dewi Sant in photos

I went to the St David's Day parade on Sunday, joining the Yes Caerdydd group. There were lots of different people taking part and celebrating all things Cymru.

We started by City Hall, walked down to Caroline Street and back up to the castle, where there was a stage, some short speeches and a performance by Nia Tyler, who was recently on Y Llais on S4C.

I took loads of photos, including with a celebrity supporter of Welsh independence. 

My February 2026 round-up

February is always a short month and this year it felt really short. The big highlights were a weekend in Malaga with my friend Jim and a bucket list gig in Bristol. But lots more happened too, like going on a pancake day date with Cathy and fielding a new team in my monthly Blood Bowl battle with Bryan. 

On the blog, my second Book of the Month in 2026 was also a second science fiction book of the year. My album of the month was a heavy metal band from Mongolia.

In other news I made it to February's community litter pick organised by Keep Grangetown Tidy. 

Fiona, the organiser of KGT, took a sneaky pic of me and my friend Neil extricating rubbish from one of the big hedges! So here we are in action:

It was a big month in politics generally. I was pleased to see the Green Party win a by-election in England. I'd talked about it with Jim quite a lot in Malaga - he had been part of the campaign. More close to home, the Plaid Cymru conference at the end of the month went really well. I missed out on going as I had other commitments but it seemed like everyone else I know went and had a great time. 

The campaigning has continued in Grangetown.

I enjoy my early morning sessions leafleting at railway stations, and sometimes I indulge myself taking pictures of trains. I liked this juxtaposition of old and new rolling stock at Eastbrook.

And at Dinas Powys I spotted this train named after Gavin and Stacey!

I made it to three football matches in February. I've already posted a full write up of the game I watched in Malaga. My two other games were a disappointing home defeat for Barry and a great home win for Cardiff Dracs. I watched the latter with Scott and Nick and made them smile for a selfie!

 Time marches on... into March.

Bucket list gig: Thousand Yard Stare

I discovered Thousand Yard Stare in about 1992 when I bought a copy of Vox magazine that came with a free cassette that included one of their songs, Wideshire. When I moved to Cardiff in 1994 I found their album Mappamundi in a sale in HMV. I played that cassette to death in my room in uni digs. 

Mappamundi was their 'difficult second album'. The band split up almost immediately after releasing it and the 'shoegaze' scene they were part of declined rapidly. Over the next couple of years I collected most of their back catalogue. But I resigned myself to never seeing them live. 

Then about 10 years ago the band reunited and cut a new record. I had lost track of what they were up to and didn't realise until a couple of years ago, so I had another back catalogue to collect!

This tour was meant to happen last May but got postponed due to one of the band having health issues. It got rescheduled for the last day in February, which means it was my first gig in 2026.

I'd not been to the Louisiana before. It's a (lovely) pub with a gig room upstairs. A couple of years ago I met an online friend called Dave at a football match. Dave is also a gig-goer. He lives in Bristol and advised me to get close to the front at the venue. He wasn't wrong - it's a long room with no slope to the floor and a low stage. I ended up about 3 rows back and got a great view.

It's a standing only venue and Cathy found that hard so she headed back downstairs where there was a comfy sofa she could curl up on. She says the staff were all very kind when she said she wasn't feeling well. 

It might have been for the best that she went downstairs because the gig got a bit "moshy", no mean feat considering most of the people there were in my age bracket. Me, I felt 19 again, listening to songs I thought I'd never hear live.

And wow, they were good. They played a couple of post-reformation songs, but they knew what we wanted to hear and belted out the classics like Comeuppance ("our only hit"), Buttermouth, Wideshire, 0-0 (aet) and Version of Me. 

Stephen, the singer, introduced my absolute favourite track, What's Your Level? as "a song I wrote in response to people calling me a 'wordy twat'". They played it quite early in the set, and that's when it first got a bit moshy and sweaty. 

He is also the only singer I know who snacks on apples during a gig.

Stephen is heavily involved at Bristol Manor Farm FC (scene of my first football match after lockdown!) and had hung up some flags behind the stage. Some of the Farmy Army had come along to enjoy the show. Cue lots of banter as he kept scolding them to behave.

He also said that he didn't listen to the bands' second album until a few years back, because the band were splitting up as it was released and the reviews were negative. I was able to shake his hand at the end and tell him that I played that album until the cassette died and how much I loved finally seeing them live.

So that was my bucket list gig. Massive thanks to Dave for the advice, the great chats about gigs and football, and also sending me some of his photos to use in this blogpost!