Dhoom 2

We saw Dhoom 2 on Saturday, the theatre was full, and the ticket was priced at 120/- each. This movie has the best sequences of all time, Hollywood or Bollywood, infact I can say it beats Casino Royales opening sequence hollow.

Hritik Roshan rocks in the movie, he seems to be getting better and better which every movie of his. Bipasha is really hot, and is seen in a sizzling bikini in the second half of the movie. Abishek is exactly the same as in Dhoom 1, which is not saying much. Uday Chopra is also exactly the same which is saying a lot, since he brings a lot of humour with him.

Aishwarya is okay.

Lots of foreign locales like SA and Brazil. Lots of stunts, lots of songs with slim girls with flat abs, no script to speak about.

Tacky sets though, Junagadh Fort is a made out of papier mache, the place where the Jewels of the Taj collection is placed is aweful. So is the museum.

Lots of shortcuts. So you will not get to find how he gets out of a particular situation, while they show him getting in. Similarly in another situation we have no idea how he gets in, or gets out.

Bajaj bike ad

This is an ad that used to run maybe a year or two ago. Very nice and can still be run, except that maybe the bike model is not being manufactured. Some of the current bike ads suck.

Chap comes home on a bike to some last known address, someone tells him the people have moved away, and our man keeps going with help from people telling the next know address (no dialogues only gestures), finally he and his trusty bike reach a house. He rings the bell and holds a puppy he had brought with him, a beauty with long manicured nails opens the door looks at him and gives a "Oh my god" kind of a look, guy is thrilled but they notices the sindoor and the mangalsutra and gives a "oh damn I am too late" kind of a look. She gives a "You know how I was I to know you were on planet earth" kind of a look in return.

Meanwhile a little boy comes rushing out of the house and looks at man with a big grin, man gives him the puppy, boy is thrilled gives him a "next time bring me a toy train" kind of look, beauty smiles, man waves and goes back to his bike and rides away.

The Great Train Robbery By Michael Crichton

I actually finished reading this Michael Crichton book The Great Train Robbery two months back. It was a a very gripping novel narrating the Great Train Robbery of 1903. Crichton takes you through the characters and the plot and the England of 1903 with such ease that you think that probably he transported himself in a time machine for that purpose. At the end he tells you something though, which thankfully you don't get to know in the beginning. Meanwhile in passing you get to read a little about the Crimean War, in which the Charge of the Light Brigade took place. You read about the Indian Mutiny/First War of Independence, the artocities committed by the mutineers and the British thereafter and so on.

Europa 2000 stamps

In the year 2000 the postal organisation of Europe or CEPT decided to go for a common design for the Europa stamps being issued. Europa stamps are stamps issued by European countries (who are members of CEPT) that are valid for postage within Europe. A little quirky perhaps having a stamp for Europe, but then they have been having this for some years now.

So for year 2000 the french design was chosen for the stamp, and this design was replicated on the stamps of some 45 countries in the CEPT plus also by some not in it. And some like Great Britain, Norway chose not to issue any Europa stamp that year. And some like Yugoslavia and Bulgaria issued stamps without this desgn on it.

2000 was the year I started stamp collecting as a hobby, and also the year India finally allowed the use of credit cards outside of India. So I came across this Europa 2000 design in almost all brochures and then decided I have these stamps in my collection. I now stamps from 52 countries or domains. Totalling 55 stamps since some of the countries have issued these in two denominations.

I started buying these since 2000, so in 2000 17 countries, 2001 10, 2002 4, 2003 4, 2004 1, 2005 3 and in 2006 13 countries.
Of these 18 I bought from 4 stamp dealers (1 in India), 6 on eBay but all the rest from the respective stamp administration. I have collected only those which had issued with the star design on it. I now have four countries still left.

Round Kiwis - New Zealand Stamps

New Zealand has been issuing round shaped stamps with their national bird, the kiwi, on it since 1988. They have had six issues so far, with each issue having a different colour. However in 1999 they took the remaining stock of their 1997 purple kiwi stamps, and overprinted them with a sun on the corner of the stamps. In 2000 when the stamps were re-issued with a gold colour, the rate was increased from NZ $1.00 to $1.10, and finally when it was issued in 2002 in brown colour, the rate had shot up to $1.50.

They have also been incorporated into three exhibition minisheets in 1993, 1994 and 2000. I have not shown these minisheets in these pages. If you click on the links above, the green, red and blue kiwis will open to a page containing an image of the stamp, and its accompanying First Day Cover. The purple kiwi will only have the stamp image and a gutter pair stamp set. The remaining stamps ie the Last Sunset, gold and brown kiwis will all open to an image of the stamp, a FDC and a gutter pair stamp set.

Please note that all the above stamps are of the same size.

Russian stamps

Old Carriages	Antique Russian Cars
Amber Room	Zodiac signs

Stamps from island nations

There are plenty of tiny island nations around the world who issue stamps just like any other country. Except that the revenue earned from the sales of their stamps will constitute a good part of their GNP;-) That is true. So here I have on display stamps from the Norfolk Island, Pitcairn Islands, Falkland Islands and South Georgia and Sandwich Islands. The last three I bought only this year.

Falkland Islands: Maritime Heritage	South Georgia and Sandwich Islands: Navy Frigates and Cruisers	Norfolk Islands: Fragrance
Pitcairn Islands: HMS Bounty I	Pitcairn Islands: HMS Bounty II	Pitcairn Islands: Eclipse

Covers to India II

My stamp collecting hobby means that I get my stamps from various countries around the globe. While most envelopes that reach my table have postal franking instead of stamps, some do arrive with stamps. And that is a good enough number, some which I had made a post of in Covers to India I. Here is another post of another set of envelopes that I have received subsequently. The last one from Sweden arrived with my birthday postmark.

Error on envelopes	Australia
Island Nations II	Europe and US
Europe and Other nations	Sweden

Covers to India

One of the advantages of buying stamps is that they arrive in envelopes with... yes... stamps on them. Well mostly, many come franked, but many others come with groovy stamps on them. There is a market for these covers, for which your cost would have been next to nil, since you would have accounted for the postage cost in your stamp purchase cost it self.

Here are four different posts on envelopes receivde from different postal administrations, four island nations, two in the Pacific and two in the Atlantic, one balkan nation of Slovenia and a set of covers received from the XXII Indian Antarctic Expedition.

Slovenia	St-Pierre et Miquelon
Island Nations	Antarctica.

Stamps from Baltic nations

Here are a few stamps from the Baltics, ie the nations of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. What I have here are stamps from Latvia and Estonia, I will put up Lithuania when I am done scanning them.

Estonian Lighthouses I	Estonian Transport	Latvian automobiles
Estonian Lighthouses II		Latvian Lighthouses