Odd Collections 5: Fridge Magnets

I have had some problems getting the display right for this collection. I was anxious to show all three sides of the fridge but couldn't find a collage that worked. In the end as you see I have settled for two frontal pics, one displaying the left hand side and the other the right hand side and numbering over 600 magnets in total.

This collection started many years ago but really took off after the millennium when both myself and my daughter started to travel. As my collection grew the size of my fridge had to grow and I'm now at the stage where I am seriously considering an American style fridge to cope with the numbers. The magnets are ordered geographically:

* The front door contains magnets from the UK. The avid amongst you will notice that on the top left there are a series of magnets in the Western Isles down to the centre when befitting this place are Yorkshire and Barnsley magnets and all things connected to this wonderful county. Finally we go down to the bottom where there is Cornwall one side and Sussex on the other.

* On the left hand side the magnets are ordered into sections at the top there is Australasia largely composed though of New Zealand magnets. On the bottom half features Southeast Asia including many from Hong Kong, and then Mainland China, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, Malaysian and so on.

* On the right hand side it is broadly European on the top half and the USA on the bottom. As visits to Africa are rare those that do not conform with geographical alignment have simply gone where I think it appropriate. In addition there are many non geographically located magnets which are distributed randomly.

You'll also notice a few turtles appear these obviously formed part both of this collection and the one displayed on the very first week of the theme.

The Collection experienced a real boost in my 60th birthday year. This was a difficult year as it started with my cancer diagnosis, continued with hospitalisation, an unrelated but quite serious ailment but also included a 60th barbecue with friends. I insisted that no-one should bring any presents but that a condition of entry was a fridge magnet. I was absolutely amazed with the response which included some really inventive and original magnets. To give a few examples: there are a couple of friends of mine who are potters and they created two magnets out of pottery, another school friend found our old school crest and created a magnet from that and thirdly a university friend found a picture of us graduating in 1975 and created a magnet from that. This session really kicked the collection onto another level. My fridge is on that BBQ photo and you can see how many more I now have than I did just under two years ago!

Next week will be my biggest collection so far and one which I think has a little more value than those displayed so far. Enjoy your weekend.