Philately

When I was a kid our house was always full of sheets of newspapers lying on the floor - covered in stamps, drying after my dad had soaked them off of God knows where. Stamps were his thing and he used to spend hours and hours up in his 'study' ie the spare room that nobody ever had room to actually stay in, on his hobby. Consequently, every time he ever sends me anything in the post it never has a regular 1st or 2nd class stamp on it, but rather an assortment of old stamps that make up the current required postal value. This year's Christmas cards for the family came in this envelope today - look closely and, yes, that really is an 11 1/2 pence stamp. I quite like it, bet it drives the Royal Mail half-crazy though...

"I was a teenage stamp collector"