Collecting Coke Memorabilia

I'm not a big fan of carbonated drinks so, I'm not a big fan of coke as well, the most I'd had cokes was 3 cans in a year served at festival occasions.

We were at the Strawberry gift shop when we stumbled upon coke cans display from all over the world. Impressed, I asked the shop owner if we can take photos of his collection and elightedly he gave us the permission to do so.

They are not for sale though.

Some are rare limited edition cans, wide variety of cans, and the designs of many cans of Coca-Cola. I'm sure if one is a fan of coke would definitely find this a great hobby to be involved in.

Collecting Coke Memorabilia.

The face of Coca-Cola, celebrity endorsements now and then.

There's even a corner for all items made from empty coke cans like this impressive little car.

Hobby? Neh, not me. I'd never be a fan of coke because when I think of coke, I remember I was told once when I was really young that a bottle of coke has 8 tablespoons of sugar that contribute to diabetes, so I was scared of the sickness as if it was an explosive epidemic even though then I was too young to understand the meaning.

With this, we are at the closing of the year 2009 - 'We all must learn from our misfortunes. Count the blessings that are real'.

This is my last post of the year till we meet again in 2010, here's wishing all a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2010!

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1Malaysia Stamps

I was at the Sibu Municipal Council's Multi-Storey Car Park this morning to settle compound fine for (again) another parking offence I had since July this year. This was my second parking fine in Sibu for ignorance of parking (not the regulations) to display parking tickets on Saturday. And there goes my RM20!

Anyway, I just realised the Multy-Storey car park has got a new facelift, they have swan(s) (can't remember how many swans are there) the Sibu's symbol drew on the building in blue.

After had settled for the fine, and as the Multiy-Storey car park is only a few seconds away from the Sibu Post Office, I decided to cross over to the Post Office for the Merdeka Day's first day cover I've heard from somewhere but can't recall where. Unfortunately the notice at the stamps counter stated, 'F.D.C sudah habis dijual' (F.D.C sold out) assuming everyone knows what F.D.C stands for while I was figuring it should be talking about First Day Cover, I walked to the counter and asked for first day cover anyway.

Sigh! the first day cover sold out. So I asked for newest 1Malaysia stamps.

Stamp collecting is an old-school hobby for me. I can't remember the last time I bought one first day cover, I did have several I collected in the early teen years but have left them somewhere. I've also collected stamps after that but later they were mainly for my niece.

I can't exactly remember when, but there was one time she asked if I can buy her a stamp album. We don't get letters in mailbox that often anymore lately. So, I thought maybe I should revive the stamp collecting hobby again although had felt it was such an out of date when a youth in our group of youth described her hobby as stamp collecting about a year ago in a youth meet. Everyone was going, worrr, errr... isn't that sound a bit out of date?

In the old days before the computer, practically everyone at school was into pen pals exchanging letters and stamp collecting hobbies. I have all the 13 states of Malaysia stamps at 9 and was proud of it :)

I'm sure stamps collectors don't usually collect new stamps, the value of a stamp is on the date of cancellation of the stamp or used stamp. As it's for the first day covers where the envelope whereupon postage stamps have been cancelled on their first day of issue.

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Cross Stitching

Cross-stitch is counted-thread embroidery, any embroidery in which the fabric threads are counted by the embroiderer before inserting the needle into the fabric in which X-shaped stitches are used to form a picture. Yes, it's said to be one tedious time consuming hobby. It was my teenager days past-time hobby nevertheless where I could go on practically stitching non-stop throughout the school break.

A pastor's wife once visited our home in one of those days, used one of my cross-stitches to illustrate about life, making sense that although some people may look calm and nice on the outside, but no one knows what's in the inside of them not referring to those wolves in the sheep costumes though. She then turned the cross stitch over where knots and clutter threads revealed the opposite appearance of the beautiful cross-stitched picture. Somehow, I always remember that...

Observing my niece stitching her first cross stitch picture, from counting where the first stitch should start, keeping stitches to the same direction to picking the correct thread color according to its numbers. It does make me think, life is complicated with a busy life seems par for the course yet it should be beautifully simple!

The result. After have coached my niece with her first few stitches. She is now progressing through, neat stitching by keeping the stitch facing the same direction.

This is my niece first cross-stitch of a cartoon picture she started during her first term school break this year, she is a beginner working on beginner's Aida count fabric. It's however fun only for those who are really into it as a hobby.

6-stranded DMC cotton floss threads so far is the best brand, I've used during my teen-cross stitching days.

This cross stitching thingy somehow got me an ideal, rather than working on those designs that can be purchased for RM5 a piece from the shops, I've sourced for free downloads converting own pictures into cross-stitch graphs :) However, as I've just got started with my new excitement, it will take sometimes to materialise.

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