France has been issuing a one minisheet commemorating on European capital every year. Each sheet consists of 5 stamps and other vignettes that show the city's landmarks. The first minisheet was issued in 2002 and commemorated the city of Rome.

Regarding my Gandhi Foundation removes 1969 stamp images from Photobucket post of last week. rythm had commented saying I should take the matter with Photobucket regarding the right of the Gandhi Foundation to claim these images. And so I shot an e-mail off.

Today morning I got their reply:
"We believe they may have reported those on accident, they reported thousands of images. We restored those images for you."

Hah! Hah!

Thanks Sandeep:-)

I got the following e-mail from Photobucket today:

This is to notify you that we have received notice from the Gandhi Foundation
that the following material posted by you via the Photobucket service is
infringing their property rights:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v431/premkudva/Philately/1969_01.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v431/premkudva/Philately/1969_02.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v431/premkudva/Philately/1969_03.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v431/premkudva/Philately/1969_04.jpg

In response, we have removed such material from the Photobucket service.
Such material will remain unavailable from the Photobucket service unless you
provide us with a completed copy of the following Counter Notice to
Photobucket's Designated Copyright Agent:

The above images were scans of four stamps issued by India Post on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 1969. The Gandhi Foundation of whom I am hearing for the first time have decided in their infinite wisdom that they own Gandhi and not the world!

Next I think they will ask the Indian Govt. to remove his image from their currency notes.

Alpine Tundra stamp sheet (issued 2007) has been added to my list of US Nature Series stamp sheets. See the update and the other sheets at Nature of America stamp sheets. This sheet was issued in 2007, bought by my friend for me, and was lying in his house in the US. It reached here along with him in February.

It took me until now to scan and make this entry:-) Though I started only yesterday, having a broken internet connection does have its advantages;-)

I received the quarterly catalogue from the French Post today. There was this large very important looking note enclosed.

Derniere minute :
Madame, Monsieur,
Une hausse tarifaire entrera
en application le 1er mars 2008.
C'est pourquoi, nous vous invitons
à nous renvoyer vos bons
de commande
avant le 28 janvier 2008.

À noter: II se peut, qu'exceptionnellement, le délai entre l'encaissement de votre paiement et la livraison de votre commande soit légèrement plus long que d'habitude. Soyez assuré(e) que nous mettons tout en œuvre pour traiter au plus vite votre commande.

So had to scan and OCR and translate it. This is what it means! Italics are mine.

Last Minute:
Madam, why was Monsieur not translated into sir I wonder
A tariff increase will come how much the increase is and on what is a mystery
Into force on 1 March 2008.
Therefore, we invite you
To send us your good
Command This means order
Before January 28, 2008. fantastic, today is Feb 14th

Note: It may be, exceptionally, the time between the receipt of your payment and delivery of your order is a bit longer than usual. Rest assured (e) that we are working hard to address without delay your order.

Thank you for your understanding. Heh! I liked this.

Their catalogue is in French too, but not a problem, I have been buying since Oct of 2000.

I have show my collection of covers to India in Covers I and Covers II here. Nowadays covers that come with neat looking stamps, neat cancellation, and errors that say "misspent to Indonesia" never get tossed in the waste basket. I now have a sizable collection of such covers.

My set of 6 covers from the Indian Antarctic Expedition (2002 and 2006) will surely take pride of place in this.

Radio Moscow	XXVI Indian Antarctic Expedition
Small Nations	Fairs of India

The last entry is not a cover to India as you can see, I just fitted it there since I had some space. Those are the Fairs of India stamp sheetlets and minisheet. Probably the grooviest of Indian stamps issued so far in 2007.

South Florida Wetlands stamp sheet (issued 2006) has been added to my list of US Nature Series stamp sheets. See the update and the other sheets at Nature of America stamp sheets. This sheet was issued in 2006, bought by my friend for me, and was lying in his house in the US. It reached here along with him in February.

In return he received two boxes and two packets of Indian stamps and Indian proof coin sets that I buy for him here.

I am sure most of you would have wondered the financials of how long your stamp goes by the time it reaches its overseas destination. Here is a lovely article on Slate giving you all the details.

I Mailed a Letter to Paris …Who pays the French to deliver it?