About Me

Hello to all fellow Albert Decaris collectors out there! My name is Matt. I live in the New England region of northern NSW Australia in a beautiful little town called Uralla. Uralla is famous for its connection to the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt!

I am a big local history buff. In fact, I love to study history in general. I think this is what drew me to stamps in the first place. Stamps can be used as keys to unlock so much information. You collection a stamp, find out where it comes from, how it was printed etc, and suddenly you've learned a wealth of extra knowledge.

Like a lot of people I took up the hobby of stamp collecting when I was a kid. I was introduced to the hobby by my friend's father who happened to own a stamp shop in Parramatta, Sydney. On weekends I'd stay with my friend and on Saturdays we'd accompany his father to his shop. I spent many pleasant hours rummaging through his pile of used Australian stamps.

What first caught my eye were ships on stamps, particularly sailing ships. I collected as many ship stamps as I could (it was a bit more difficult in those days before the advent of the internet). I started with some ships from Australia, AAT, and Christmas Island and branched out from there.

As inevitably happens, life got in the way of stamps. For many years I completely forgot about the obsession I had had with them as a kid. About ten years ago, I happened to spot a lovely ship on a stamp and all those childhood memories came flooding back!

I am now back into the hobby with a vengeance!

I set up this blog because I already run a blog in which i am keeping a record of my Czeslaw Slania collecting journey and I thought it might be fun to also chronicle my Pierre Gandon collecting journey. As with my Slania blog want to record the high moments, the pitfalls, and my general feelings over time while engaged in such a massive collecting effort. A lot of the content here may seem basic to a lot of collectors, but this is all very new to me and I'm writing down my entire journey. 

I hope you enjoy the blog with me...