One day I came across this site Postcrossing.com and their tag line of "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person in the world" intrigued me. I read more, thought it sounded interesting and that as I had nothing to lose registered on the site. I downloaded my first five address, my husband bought a selection of postcards for me, I wrote a short message on them and sent them off.
Soon I started to get notifications that my postcards had been received which was lovely and then I started to get postcards dropping through my letter box which was exciting. it is still a thrill when a postcard arrives, admiring the picture and then turning it over and seeing who it is from. I have received cards from all sorts of people all over the world, most people write about what they are doing and where they are from, it is fascinating to have these glimpses into other people's lives.
I have sent cards to student in China and grandmothers in Australia, home-schooled children in America and civil-servants in Poland and about 200 other people. Very few of my cards have gone unregistered and there is still a thrill when I get that email confirming that a card of mine has been received.
The amount of pleasure I get is enormous from what is really very little effort and I'm by no means alone in this, over 400,000 other people are members of this community and in excess of 17000000 postcards have been sent and received. My reasons for continuing to indulge this hobby these days are down to the pure enjoyment I get from every aspect of it, from searching out unusual cards and hoping I come across someone who will really appreciate it to receiving a card that shows someone has read my profile and taken the time to pick a card especially to suit me and everything else in-between.
I've included a slideshow of some of the cards I have received below. There are more to see under the tab called Postcrossing and please have a look at the Postcrossing website where there are gallery's full of lovely cards to view.