The mountains from Meribel, France, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

A very happy "thank the stars it's not January" to the REAL wall, where I return as today's poster [but not poster girl].

There are very few joys during January in my experience (bar Andy's birthday and a couple of other minor happenings). Hence, we decided it was time to break the bleak routine by skipping town to go skiing in France on the [possibly] world famous disco train which takes you out of London at 9pm on a Friday, and drops you at the foot of the slopes at 5:40am on Saturday.

You may be surprised to hear that around 1am, as soon as the bar carriage stops serving overpriced booze, the atmosphere changes instantly from fun and carefree to sleepy, grumpy and somewhat hostile as fellow passengers insist on crashing out. Disgrace. What has this world come to.

You're seeing the view from our apartment and a range of postcards, whose brief subject summaries I thought could be linked somehow to provide us with a little tale:

The fat man drives a rocket postbus between Moscow and Texas with a rifle and his collection of pencils. His pig asks him whether he'd prefer to take a rollercoaster to New Zealand, to which the fat man tenses his brow like a baseball player, and eventually replies he'd rather be squashed by an elephant as if he were a cob of corn.

And there we have it. Fat man gets a mention twice obviously, but please don't take offence.

Good to be back,
Lplatebigcheese

So, there we were, a fantastic array of truly Russian names: Vladislav, Rostislav, Vladislav and… Olga (yes I did feel quite plain), at London’s Natural History Museum. To be honest, it was probably not the most commonsensical destination for 2nd of January – we stood in queues, shuffled around narrow corridors in the wrong direction causing minor people-jams. This is most certainly the young family’s day out of choice.

What did come of it, however, was a nice chance to reunite some crocodiles and alligators (I hear they don’t get to spend much time together) in
1) postcard form;
2) stuffed form;
3) bag form.

Long live the two very similar animals, who are apparently not all that similar at all. Incidentally, does anyone actually know the difference between crocodiles and alligators (our trip to the museum was not very educational).

Postcards:
Jungle Gardens from Amalie
Suomi Finland from a postcrossing sender.

Lplatebigcheese (currently out of action with UK version of jungle fever. Bof)

Happy new year, everybody! Hope you all had a splendid evening with
your loved ones. Look forward to experiencing your apartment soon
this year, Andy. And more happy new year wishes to Lou :)

It seems a while ago that I was actually in Portugal (my photos are
being uploaded from the UK as a steady stream now that I am back). On
one of the grey wintery days, we took a drive past an area with huge
Eucaluptus trees my mum had told me about, with one particular
postcard in mind. Eucaluptus trees are in abundance in Portgual -
they were brought over from Australia due to their fast growth rate.
It apparently takes 12 years for a eucaluptus tree to grow to
sufficient size for timber, as opposed to 60-70 years for a pine tree,
we were told by a man wielding an axe on his plot of land one day.

There was a fictional face-off between the tree in the photo and the
real tree we stood beside.

Well, there is no way we can have a contest really, for 2 reasons:
- The tree pictured in the photo is no longer around;
- The Eucaluptus tree pictures will never be as big because… it
just physically can't grow to that size.

The tree in the postcard at Yosemite toppled in the winter of 1968/9
after having a big, gaping hole cut in it in 1881. Not bad going,
could you imagine living 87 years with a big hole like that? The
postcard was sent in by Sara.

To help bring the memory of this tree to life again, we took a trip to
the biggest Eucalyptus tree we could find and you'll see my mum having
a great time assisting in relaying the sheer size of this thing. No
cars will drive through it, but it's an impressive sight nevertheless.

Retreating to bed with NY hangover,
Lplatebigcheese

Well, the train station in the village where my parents live does not
quite have the same grandeur as New York's Grand Central however,
consider this:

Population NY: 8,363,000
Population Martinganca: 1,000

Therefore, you could say that Martinganca's train station should be
8,363 times worse than Grand Central since it serves a much smaller
amount of people (and that's not even taking into consideration the
millions of people who travel in and out of NY each day for a whole
bunch of porposes). It may not have a huge flag hanging from the
roof, nor a green ceiling, nor hundreds of shops and restaurants, but
is does still have a platform, ticket office and waiting room. On
that basis I'd say things are looking good.

The trains passing through are my favourite feature, though: just one
carriage and completely covered in (very good quality) graffiti. Off
it plods, into the distance, this little piece of the ghetto, through
the backyards of antique Portuguese village houses. What a picture.

Now, I must admit my eyes aren't what they used to be and I'm
struggling to read who actually sent this postcard. Andy – is it
"Aunt *someone*"?

L-platebigcheese

Just a short distance south from Aveiro from where Catia sent this
wonderfully colourful postcard, I visited the main square of Sitio
which sits on a cliff, above Nazare.

It's a funny location, you wouldn't think that behind me are a mass of
shops selling tourist tat. In summer, the place is heaving with
oldies carried around on coaches, taking obligatory photos of
fishwives going about their daily business (i.e. flogging stuff to
these same tourists).

L-platebigcheese

Nazare is probably the largest resort in my vicinity, a traditional
fishing port where the local women still wear fantastic "fish wife"
costume. Andy – there's a postcard on the way to you now explaining
exactly what this looks like so keep your eyes peeled!!

The best thing about this place: despite it becoming pretty commercial
as a tourist resort, the locals are as sweet and good natured as ever.
It is simply impossible to buy something in a shop, at the market or
on the street without them insisting you take a bunch of stuff for
free.

Heather's postcard of Hilary's Boat Harbour in Australia complements
the beach. She writes: "friends of ours got married there; they cut
the cake in front of a giant photo of a shark lunging out of the water
– so romantic huh". What a fantastic gesture, I shall be suggesting
this to my friends getting married next year (will they still have me
as bridesmaid I wonder).

…they both contain a load of paper. Not even sure why I wrote this,
it's not a joke or anything, but very true.

And this particular library had the perfect tree outside, topped by a
very hazy moon. Instantly, I remembered the postcard with the
"moonrise drive" and pulled it from my bag to get this shot. Again,
this is from an unidentified sender (Andy- help!).

Loving being on assignment at moments like that,
L-platebigcheese

PS - excuse the multiple blog sends tonight, but come on, it's
Christmas! You must have all been v good this year :)

Yesterday morning, just after a rain-shower, I was keen on capturing
the bright light through the medium of the local cemeterio. So, here
we are, complete with a photo of a cemetery in Riverside, CA from a
currently unidentified sender, no names appear on the back of the
photo (Andy – perhaps you know who this was sent by?)

Quick sharp post from L-platebigcheese

Bom dia to all from Portugal, I'm a few days behind posting my photos
taken on assignment, but just in time for Christmas. So here goes the
first of a few…

On the first full day in Portugal, we visited the Mosteiro de
Alcobaca. This is the largest church in the whole country and very
significant: it was founded in 1153 by Dom Alfonzo Henrique to
celebrate his victory over the Moors. He was, in fact, Portugal's
first King. Without him the country could have looked very different
today.

Anyways, after some REAL wall action, I looted (politely) a small
antique market before we got down to some even more serious culture at
a nearby Loja Chinese (Chinese store aka warehouse full of random
cheap stuff – heaven!). Key finds included:
> Unidentified article of clothing branded "Easy on Backside",
> Penholder where a bent over man's rectum serves said purpose,
> Slimming vest proclaiming "Victory is yours forever",
> Very fine-looking axes priced €3.50. You don't have to be bourgeoisie to be an axe murdered around here.

Postcards from top down are from:
Museum Nerd: reminded me of Dracula and the Mosteiro in turn reminded
me of Dracula's castle in Romania.
Lageodesign: always makes me laugh, deserves pride of place here.
Courtney: postcard reads "I have no idea where this picture was
actually taken or what's going on". This reminds me of many hungover
mornings looking at photos from the night before thinking that exact
same phrase.
Beenebag: This cunning fox's fez serves as a bit of a reference to the Moors.

Feliz natal!
L-platebigcheese

When Andy first asked me to go assignment for his REAL wall, I was not entirely sure where I'd go with it.  Well, it just so happens I'm off to Portugal on Saturday and you're all coming with me :)

My name is Olga, aka L-plate big cheese in the photography world, and one of the Russians Andy mentioned in the last post.  As Andy's still sweating and spluttering in bed on the other side of town, I thought I'd introduce myself, and let you know what postcards are packed into my camera bag.

You'll see more from me over the next couple of weeks, including different featured hairstyles.

L-plate

Last Friday I was out with a group of new friends at the excellent Press Photographer of the Year exhibiton with a bag full of postcards sent to my REAL wall.

As usually happens when I'm out these days, conversation moved on to postcards (yes yes I know I must be a nightmare to go out with) and after debating photography and perspective, I decided it would be a good idea to open up the guest photographer slots to anyone who fancied a go. The Russians stepped right up and picked out a handful of their favourites to take away.

Today's REAL wall comes from Rost, who took a selection of cards to Zurich in Switzerland for the weekend. It's nice to know that even though I am stuck in bed with only a cold and my mobile phone internet for company that your postcards are still out there having a good time!

Here's what Rost has to say:

Heya,

Here's a shot of your REAL posts in Zurich! And yes, it really was that grey and miserable out that day :/




Regards,
Rost

my REAL wall - Christmas Cards, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

This is the second of the official run by our guest photographers Stalex, who are my best pals. Guest photographers take a bunch of postcards sent to me and display them in whatever place they see fit.

Looks like the Yuletide season is upon us and where most people think of Christmas as a time of peace, love and turkey, here at my REAL wall towers we know that Christmas means only one thing...more post!

For the past year I've lived in a shared house with 4 other people, a common situation for us cramped Londoners and Stalex are in the enviable position of having their own place. Last week we were treated to their REAL wall featuring gecko and here's their living room with Christmas Tree, featuring postcards from Okami, Funshine Felisha, and Dumpsterdiversanonymous and more.

As Stew says "The tree looks better in the flesh so you'll see it when you come round for christmas dinner..." Hurray!

my REAL wall - A gecko in the gaff, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

In a move to widen participation and variety on my REAL wall, today we bring you our first ever guest photographer REAL wall from my best mates Stalex.

Guest photographers get a pile of postcards that have been sent to me and can put them up wherever they choose. I'm really keen to see other people's interpretations of my REAL wall and as you can see from the notes (click the image and go through to the flickr site to see these) I am rather enjoying playing the "Guess that card" game myself here!

This first wall is in Stalex's gaff (house for those of you not from London), showing their gecko along with appearances from a host of established mailartists that won't be surprised to find themselves up on the REAL wall again.

In order of appearance (from the top left going anticlockwise) are mhmedia, Boo Cartledge, Stalex, a postcrossing, Dumpsterdiversanonymous, Felisha, Another postcrossing from Singapore, Tim McCool, Rebecca (Y)our Sky, Goodnight Little Spoon, TicTac and in the centre, Rachel.

your REAL wall on tour - Turku, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

The final instalment in Stalex's your REAL wall on tour - Sweden and Finland series, this one shows all the postcards I sent them over the last year stuck to a tree outside Turku's castle in Finland

your REAL wall on tour - on the ferry to Finland, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

2nd REAL pic taken of my postcards on tour with my best mates Stalex on their recent tour to Sweden and Finland. This one was taken from the porthole of their ferry to Finland

your REAL wall - shadows, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

Stalex are 2 of my best mates who are also avid fans of my REAL wall.

This is part 1 of a series made by them showing the postcards I sent to them on tour with them in October 2009, as they travelled to Sweden and Finland.

This was the first shot of my postcards in Sweden, taken when Stalex arrived in the country and featuring local protest leaflets in Swedish about pensions.