Postcrossing Blog

What have rubber ducks to do with postcards? Kirsi (Huppu68) thinks they go very well together. She lives in Helsinki (Finland), and in this week Postcrossing Spotlight she’s going to tell us who is 'Mauno’.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I read an article from the weekly magazine of Helsingin Sanomat newspaper and I registered to Postcrossing right away. I’ve always loved sending postcards and I was a bit sad, because people has sent their birthday and Christmas wishes by e-mail or text messages. When I got my first cards via Postcrossing I was hooked; this is a perfect site for me. I have also got a lot of good friends from all over the world and here in Finland too. We have lots of Postcrossing meetings here and I’m totally hooked on them too.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I love photographing and I always have my camera with me everywhere I go. I also collect rubber ducks and I have about 120 different ones. Lately I have put these two hobbies together and started to take photos of my Postcrossing Duck called Mauno “Manu” Anselmi. He is quite famous already here in Finland; I took a photo of Manu with The Prime Minister of Finland :) Manu has his fan club in Facebook and I just started to write his own blog (only in Finnish though, sorry).

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

A photo of my nearest mailbox, where I mostly post my cards and a photo of my nearest post office.

Show & tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

Oh, this one is really difficult… I love almost all my received postcards and they all are like small gifts to me. I keep some of my favourite cards on our walls on boards and I’ll show a few photos of them. I have many collections of different themes and I have received thousands of cards for them via the official site and official forum of Postcrossing. I’m happy and thankful for every card I’ve received – they are all special for me.

From joyful Brazil, meet Karina, a journalist from São Paulo who started collecting postcards after joining Postcrossing. Sounds familiar?

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

In 2005 I read in “O Estado de S. Paulo” newspaper about Postcrossing and I decided to try this new experience. I always liked to swap letters with my friends before the 'e-mails age’ and I missed to receive mail with lots of things… So the Postcrossing project was great for me! I didn’t collect postcards before Postcrossing but I already liked to buy them in my trips.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

My main hobby now is Postcrossing, but I’m also addicted to books. And I love french movies.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

Show & tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

This is one of my favourite and special postcards. I’ll explain: I got married last year and I put this information in my official profile and in the forum too. So, many people sent me postcards with nice wishes and greetings. It’s great and I was very very very happy :) People in Postcrossing have big hearts!

NL-115943

Our second Postcrossing spotlight interviewed member is 64-year old Adrienne (adriennegarry) from New Zealand. She has been in Postcrossing for more than three years already and she loves the good things in life. Here’s what Adrienne had to say:

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

My internet provider used to have a weekly bulletin with interesting web sites and I think it was November 2005 when they were talking about the Postcrossing site and thought I would try it out. Just the fact of real mail arriving in the box at the front gate is the best thing – not knowing what is coming from where was the best bit! Now it is all the friends I have made all over the world. The downside is I just had to buy a filing cabinet to store all my received cards and they don’t all fit!!!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Reading, cross-stitch embroidery, gardening, cooking, crosswords, but mainly travelling anywhere in the world. We just got back from Greece, Turkey, and Singapore and are off to Sydney, Australia in September. I am off to the South Island in three weeks to visit family. Planning on going to Tasmania with friends next year and back to Europe the following year. In the mean time I have to keep working at my real job in a local law office.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

Adrienne’s mailbox, place where she post her postcards and her postoffice:

The mailbox

Where all my mail gets posted

Postoffice where I buy the stamps

Show & tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

I have so many spectacularly beautiful cards and this one is not “beautiful” but it makes me smile every time I see it and that is the most important thing any of us can do in our lives – share smiles.

Few projects connect people from so many random contexts as the Postcrossing project. It’s amazing how diverse our users are and we are always eager to learn more from them. Thus, we decided to start the Postcrossing spotlight – interviews done with members of this project that we will publish every two weeks here on the Postcrossing Blog. We want to share with all of you how diverse our community is and we hope you all enjoy it.

We know that many of you would like to know a bit more about the project founder. So, to start the Postcrossing spotlight interviews, here’s what Paulo himself has to say as our first interviewee. See you in two weeks!

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I always enjoyed sending and receiving mail, specially postcards. Friends and family frequently received postcards from me, but I wanted to exchange even more, specially with more far away places.

So, I have put that together with my IT background, the initial concept started to develop and a few months later, Postcrossing was ready.

I’m both proud and happy that this project has touched and connected so many different people around the world, ignoring age, gender, location, religion and even belief. And it’s not just about postcards any more, it’s also about the connections created. I hope it continues to do so for a very long time.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Recently I have been doing Geocaching – for the ones who don’t know it, Geocaching are mini treasure hunts done with the help of a GPS device. It’s a lot of fun plus I get to visit interesting places I would never get to if it wasn’t for it.

Besides that, I enjoy travelling across the world and live in different places to experience other cultures and different people. I’m originally from Portugal and in the past I have lived in the Netherlands, U.S.A. and for the last 2 years in China. I’ve just returned to Europe and soon I’ll be heading somewhere else. I guess I can be called a nomad!

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

Personally I don’t enjoy keeping the postcards in albums because I like to have them handy in a way I can pick them all up and flip through them whenever I want to.

We always wanted to have one of those postcard racks that you see in small stores to display the postcards. However, we couldn’t find one so Ana came up with a great alternative: using Ikea pot lids holders instead, the effect is the same plus our postcards are always displayed and ready to be picked up. It even has different slot sizes so that any postcard size has it’s own place – it’s perfect!

Show & tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

I honestly lost count to the number of postcards I have received to date and it’s almost impossible to pick just one favourite. I like pretty much any type of postcard since they are always special in their own way. However, there’s one that is particularly special to me: PT-1 was the first Postcrossing postcard and it’s only fair I pick it as my favourite. And yes, I like lighthouses! :)