Things…

People collect all kinds of things as a hobby – stamps, first day covers, coins or if they’re rich, they can afford to collect more expensive stuff. Sophia’s hubby, I know, collects antiques. No, no! She’s most certainly not part of his collection! ROTFLMAO!!! In one of my previous posts, I touched on my daughter’s candle collection and somebody in his/her comments asked what I collect. Well, I am not a serious collector but I do have some things that I keep for the sake of keeping them…

I have, for instance, my collection of drink/cocktail stirrers from hotel lounges and pubs…

These go back a long way to the time when I was in Singapore in the early 70s. I won’t be surprised that some of the hotels and pubs have closed down or changed names. Other than these, I also have some pencils from the hotels that I’ve been to…

I used to travel a lot in line of duty. Other than teaching in school, I also had to attend meetings, seminars and conferences and other than that, time and time again, I had to go round conducting courses for English language teachers or work on projects for the ministry or department. Then there may be some from hotels where I stayed when on holiday with my family. Of course, some give ball-point pens in which case, there will not be any pencils to help myself to.

Other than that, some hotels used the conventional metal keys but many are now using key cards. Some will not allow you to keep them as souvenirs but others are not that bothered whether you return the cards to them or not. So I have a collection of key cards from hotels in Kuching…

…those in Miri and Bintulu…

…Kota Kinabalu, Malacca…

…Kuala Lumpur and Penang…

I may have missed out a couple but these are more or less, what I have in my collection. I bought a name card holder to keep all of them and I do have a lot of extras from the same hotel. So if you have any and would like to swop, I’d be happy to do so with you.

There you have it – the things that I collect, and I do not even need to spend a dime on them. After all, as they say, the best things in life are free…..