But a few days ago somebody asked if I was interested in philately and, in response, I trotted out the age old joke.
"Philately will get you anywhere."
On the shelf in my study is a green book full of stamps I collected as a boy. I don't think I've added to this as an adult but I was thinking that it's time I did.
It's certainly time to take it off the shelf, blow away the dust and have a look. There could be some valuable stamps there who knows. I could consult the Stanley Gibbons catalogues of course to establish the values but that's all a bit arbitrary. The catalogues might list the value of a stamp at £200 but it's only worth £200 if somebody is willing to pay you that for it.
The thing in my favour is the fact that I haven't touched the stamps for decades which means that almost all of them will be more than 50 years old and many will be much older as they will have been aged when I got them.
I have no real memory of where and when the collection started. I have a vague thought that they might have been handed across from another family member. One of the problems is that many of the stamps have been stuck in rather than put in with those stamp hinges. I think this severely detracts from their value although I never quite understand why as they are still a stamp.
My paternal grandfather who I was very close to encouraged my stamp collecting and used to buy me stamps from Stanley Gibbons which I seem to remember was based in Bridgnorth. That's about the only thing I know about Bridgnorth. We drove through it once but didn't stop.
Every so often little books of stamps were sent. These came from different parts of the world and had different prices. You purchased what you wanted and sent off the money in either a cheque or postal order along with the stamps you didn't want to buy. There must have been a lot of trust on both sides. I usually went for the biggest and brightest stamps to add to the collection.
I must have been pretty enthusiastic as I was asked at grammar school to run a lunchtime philately club where enthusiasts brought along their collections and any stamps they wanted to swap. I don't remember much else about this club.
So yesterday I took my green stamp book down from the shelf and for the first time in many years had a look through. There seemed to be a few countries that featured large and we're obviously my favourites to collect. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary to name but three.
I may have mentioned before that my favourite collection is German - not because they are attractive but because of their historical significance. I have lots depicting Hitler and lots overwritten with very high values as rampant inflation caught hold.
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On Thursday evening I needed something to do. So with the book on Le Paradis Massacre done and dusted and just waiting to be printed I decided to continue the editing process on my autobiography which I'm calling "A Charmed Life" after a song by one of my favourite groups The Divine Comedy.
In a three hour period I was pleased with the progress I made until I had to stop as I was going word blind. Reading through it has helped me once again to reflect on a pretty ordinary life.
I'm really not sure that anyone will want to read it though. My aim is to finish the editing by the end of March and then to do another full read through and then look to self publish on Amazon. This is something pretty alien to me and will take me out of my comfort zone.
Once I have "A Charmed Life" under my belt I will turn my attention to my third book which will be a reproduction of my lockdown blogs. Then I have my silly seaside novel to read through and re-write followed by a book on the history of Hethersett from 1910 to 1950 and after all that who knows. I'm sure other ideas will spring to mind - I'm never short of ideas.
Today will be a busy one again. We have a football match to attend, a quick tea at our favourite small restaurant and a visit to Cinema City. Tell you all about it tomorrow.