India: 50th Anniversary of 62 Cavalry

One of my personal favorites is this magnificently designed First Day Cover (FDC) from India.

The stamp and the FDC; featuring the king of the battlefield - A Tank; were issued to mark 50th Anniversary of 62 Cavalry - An armoured regiment of Indian Army.

The Rs 5 stamp and FDC were issued on 1 April 2006.
What do you think about this beautiful stamp and the cover?

WOW!!! 10,000+ Visitors

Finally a 5th Star has been added to my blog visitor counter. Now it has more than 10,000 visitors since its inception in last December. Thanks a lot pals for being regular visitors.
Here I would also like to decide to update the blog more frequently.
At the moment the blog counter shows: 10100 as:-

*** Results of 1st Cool Cover Contest ***

Hello friends!

Although the results were supposed to be announced on 21 Aug 09 but they got delayed due to some commitments. Sorry for a long delay but here are the results for the 1^st Cool Cover Contest:-

Top 5 Prizes:

1^st Prize goes to Jack from USA

2^nd Prize goes to Ronny Wong from Malaysia

3^rd Prize winner is Samantha from Finland

4^th Prize goes to Hermitz from Turkey

5^th Prize goes to SueFitz from USA

5 Complimentary Prizes:

Sheila

Bradpetehoops

Dorincard

Mamba2

Hummingbird

Congrats to all the winners.

Please send me an email with your address at faisalcheema44@gmail.com and I shall do my best to send you the prizes as soon as possible. You can also mention your preferences keeping in view your won prizes. :)

You can check out the prizes at:

Prizes for 1st Cool Cover Contest

Keep your fingers crossed for the next contest which will be coming soon!!!

Best Regards

#19: France; Harry Potter Stamps 2007

I absolutely love this cover from France. The cover features characters from my favorite book series – “Harry Potter”. I started reading the first part of the book on the recommendation of a younger sis and could not quit reading until I was finished with all the seven parts of the series.

I have also gone through the initial movies of the series. Although they are magnificently made but still they are NO match to the books. JK Rowling definitely Rules!!!

The above stamps were issued by France on 17 March 2007. "Fete Du Timbre" printed on the stamps means "Celebration of Stamps". The three stamps feature Harry Potter (Two stamps on Left), Hermione Granger (Top right) and Ronald Weasley (Bottom right).

The remaining stamps pasted on the cover were issued in 2005. The French stamps of 0.01 and 0.05 Euro feature Marianne. Marianne is a symbol of Republican France. A Marianne is a portrait of a proud and determined woman wearing a "Phrygian Cap". She symbolizes the attachment of the common citizens of the revolution to the Republic - Marianne is liberty, egality and fraternity. The one shown on these stamps is Lamouche Marianne. Thanks to Contesse Eric for this beautiful cover.

Another miniature sheet was also issued on the occasion which I have already shared in a previous post. It can be seen here:-

Harry Potter Miniature Sheet from France 2007

Buy A Place on Earth and Take Your Business or Blog to the Next Level

After a long time, yesterday I came across this beautiful website which struck my imagination. The idea behind the website is so intriguing and unique that I could not resist sharing it with all of you. I have spent hours finding various places, exploring different towns and watching magnificent monuments on Google Earth but even then I had never thought of this matchless plan.

The website offers a 3D Earth which is available for advertising purposes. You can avail this opportunity and buy a place on earth to advertise your business or hobbies. While it is becoming extremely difficult to buy some land in real world, you can lay your hands on this gorgeous prospect to buy a chunk of 3D earth. Complete earth is available for sale and you can become the proud owner of any city, country, continent or ocean. You can even purchase entire planet and place your company logo on it.

The basic idea of the site is based on 3D Pixel Advertising. It is a distinctive initiative to use earth for advertising purposes. I went through the site repeatedly and every time I discovered fresh reasons to use it to advertise my blog. Some of these motives are as follows:-

1. The uniqueness of the idea offers a great opportunity for the business holders and blog owners because your business space will be viewed by billions of users around the globe. 3D Earth can be spun or zoomed to view the ads closely. Its 3D format makes it interesting and attracts audience from every corner of the planet.
2. The place you buy today will display your ad forever. Above all you do not have to pay monthly or yearly fees afterwards.
3. The price of the space on the 3D earth is extremely low, which enables you to buy large pieces of land to promote your business.
4. 3D pixel advertising attracts more visitors than any other form of advertising. The pictures/ logos provided by the business owners will be placed on earth. By clicking these pictures/ logos, your visitors will be able to access your web space. It has proved to be a highly respected form of advertising.
5. 3D Earth can work as a matchless web directory in an exclusive and unparalleled way.

Although this post is not related to my blog theme but still I could not resist the idea of buying a place on Earth. I know that it is tough to compete in today’s business environment but this beautiful website provides you a chance to stand tall among your competitors. The site is advantageous to long term businessmen as well as to the blog owners/ forum moderators who want huge traffic to their places.

So to book your land on 3D Earth, you can visit “Buy a Place on Earth” now and take your business to the next level.

7200+ Unique Visitors

What a treat to watch your blog visitors grow while you are not getting much time to update it regularly. I'll soon try and upload many new covers and stamps on my blog. In the mean while, Stay Happy & Have Fun.

Feel free to visit my Postcard blog as well at "My Cool Postcard Blog"

Relax and Enjoy

Frozen Paradise: Early Summer Scenes of Lalusar Lake in Naran Valley

Coming over to the highlight of the visit - Travelling to the partially frozen Lalusar Lake. Extremely hot weather in Southern Pakistan has failed to do any harm to the magnificent Lalusar Lake. The first picture shows the Northern portion of the lake where the lake is almost completely frozen because of the lack of direct sunlight falling on it.

Another nice photo of northern portion of the lake. A huge glacier can be seen falling directly into the lake.

The middle portion of the lake is filled with clear green water with a couple of ice bergs floating on it. Pure natural beauty without a blend of pollution caused by mankind.

The southern bend of the lake completely covered with white sheet of snow. Beautiful, isn't it?

The southern portion of the lake is partially frozen. In fact a few of the icebergs are roaming around in the water. My dad absolutely loves this place.

My Beautiful Pakistan - Kaghan/ Naran Valley

Some beautiful natural springs which can be seen while travelling from Jalkhad to Besal in the Naran Valley.

A memorable view of Payala Lake (Bowl Lake) - A very small but round lake which looks like a bowl. Although not much of a lake is present at this time of the year as the BOWL is filled with snow, some of it even spilling from the edges. In summers, it becomes a perfect round lake with crystal clear water. It is almost in the middle of the picture, extending towards left and climbing a bit on the mountain.

Can a place be more beautiful than this one? A perfect blend of brown ground, green grass/trees, white snow, grey sky and bluish-green water. I absolutely love it!!!

Pakistan: The Most Beautiful Place in the World

I recently got a chance to visit the beautiful Kaghan Valley once again. It was as beautiful as ever. Here I would like to share some nice pictures of the visit and I am sure that you will like these photos.

The first one is a beautiful landscape where the sky is covered with low clouds. Small glaciers can also be seen coming down from the mountains. Water is as clear as ever.

Nature at its best: Enjoy this beautiful snap which is a perfect example of co-existence between animals like horses, sheep, etc. A huge glacier in the background has added color to the greenery on the ground.

Horses roaming around in the vast lands near Barawai in Kaghan/ Naran Valley.

Wait for more because the Best Pictures are yet to come.

100 Unique Countries Visiting the Blog - Another Landmark in Blogging

My blog has achieved another landmark in blogging. On 12 June 2009, Jamaica became the 100th country to visit the blog since its inception. On the same day, Ghana also visited to raise the count to 101. Its fun blogging.

USA: 1st country with 500 Unique Visitors on the blog

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! 

500 Unique Visitors from an individual country have visited my blog and the country is USA. Even Pakistanis have not visited in such huge number. Only 424 Visitors from Pakistan have taken a trip to my place. 

The traffic to my blog has also been steady for the past few weeks. It is turning out to be GOOD. The total number of page views are more than 5400 now.