London

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With love from London (1981)

with love from London

22-X-81 [Sailboard enthusiasts ‘en-masse’] Dear Guess, message received from krautland today. Hope “operation Clean-Up” is going ok – years supply of rubber yellow gloves will be parachuted in on specified date.  Am “checking out” pictured hideaway for possible ‘Leftie’ infiltrators or anti-royal ‘Moles’. DAM

DAM obviously had a supply of these cards, as the same picture also features here and although it shows Romsey, this message is postmarked ‘LONDON 22 OCT 1981’ the same day that it was written.

The 18p stamp depicts fishermen hauling in a trawl net and not windsurfers as DAM suggests! The stamp is from a commemorative set issued in 1981

I had been in Norway a few months by this time, working as children’s nanny, hence the reference to rubber gloves 🙂

I believe that DAM is still in Australia, but I continue to avoid reconnecting…

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With love from London (2017)

with-love-from-museum-of-london

13th February 2017 go, it’s free! before they relocate to Smithfield Mkt. Hilary, I saw this exhibition today (for free!) and obviously thought about our recent Charminster Chapter conversation. This permanent exhibition of suffragette/suffragist (we know the difference!) memorabilia has even inspired the gift shop’s souvenirs – Emmeline Pankhurst key rings & fridge magnets. The video footage + hearing their speeches on sound recordings was haunting, brave women Sally xxxx

This dropped through the door the other day, in an envelope, as there’s not enough space on the card for a message and an address.  The post mark is Mount Pleasant, one of the largest postal sorting offices.

Charminster Chapter is the name of the book group that I meet with. We recently read ‘A History of Britain in 21 Women‘ by Jenni Murray, which everyone enjoyed much more than they thought they would!  It is written in a conversational style that encouraged us to really engage and identify with the women featured, one of them being Emmeline Pankhurst.  We learned how all these women have helped to shape our country and we bemoaned the fact that we never learned enough, if anything, about them in school.

It is a testament to the book that we continue to discuss, get excited about and even add to the list of women included.

Sally‘s enthusiasm for the Museum of London is very apparent in her message, seems like I’ll have to pay a visit myself 🙂

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with love from Little Venice, London (2016)

With love from Waterside Cafe London

Mothers’ Day 2016 Hello Hilary, I’m meeting long lost Uni friends last seen 30 yrs ago – we’re all mothers but decided to do something for ourselves on mothers’ day this year. I’ve sniffed out some water that I’ve never found before in London – feel more at home on a barge than the city – there are even seagulls here! Sally x

Little Venice is a picturesque area of North London near Paddington station, where Sally and her friends are having a long overdue catch up.

Although this card was apparently written in London on mothers’ day (6th March 2016), the postmark, ’10-03-2016 Dorset & S.W. Hants’, indicates that it was posted several days later.

The card carries a first class stamp, which is purple instead of the usual red. The purple stamps are being issued for one year to commemorate the record breaking reign of HRH Queen Elizabeth II – on 9th September 2015 Queen Elizabeth became the longest reigning monarch in British history.

Sally and I met in the school playground about 20 years ago.  We became friends as a result of the friendships between our daughters and, although we no longer wait in the playground, we still see each other regularly; as do the girls 🙂

 

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with love from the Texel, Netherlands (1995)

With love from Texel 1995

Dear Hilary & Simon! We’re spending our holiday on the dutch island Texel this year and had two weeks with a lot of sunshine at the North Sea – very relaxing! Hope everything is allright with you and we’ll hear from each other soon! Yours Paul & Claudia

There is a little sketch of a seagull at the top of this card, which at first glance looks printed on but is in fact drawn by Claudia – look even closer and you’ll see the seagull relieving himself, perhaps this is the only hazard to be found on the peaceful island of Texel?

The postmark reads ‘HAARLEM 31 V 95’ and carries 80 cents of stamps.

Claudia and I exchanged letters and cards between Germany and the UK for many years, losing touch some time in the 1990’s.  Amazingly, in ‘parallel’ lives fashion, she recently found some old letters from me, did a quick internet search and got back in touch via this blog.  Even more amazingly, Claudia had planned a visit to London last weekend, so we met for an afternoon and caught up the last 20 years.  We got along very well, helped by her ability to speak fluent English; and as she pointed out, we already knew lots about each other as we’d always written long and detailed letters. I’m confident that we’ll continue to be good friends into the future 🙂 Happy Endings/Beginnings!