Long time no see

Wow, has it really been three and a half years?! Well obviously, as the posts all have dates on them and he last one was from October 2012.

So why the hiatus? Many reasons, principally poor time management on my part. Shortly after my last post, I decided on a career change which eventuated in December 2012. It was very tough going and necessitated a move to another city, followed by six months of retraining for the new career, followed by another move to another city. Next thing I know, it's been three and a half years since writing anything on here.

Looking back, I realise this is quite a useful tool. Not just for you, dear reader, but for me as well. It's interesting looking back and seeing how my collection has progressed. It's a shame that I hadn't updated you more regularly as a lot has happened with the collection since we last wrote.

Firstly, it has grown to nearly 1,000 medals (977 to be exact) and spans 114 medal awarding jurisdictions. There have been some exceptional acquisitions and much, much treasure spent to acquire them. Surprisingly, some have even been gifts from fellow collectors showing that this hobby is made up of some supremely generous souls.

I hope to have more time to post on here more often now that things have more or less settled down. Of course, dear reader, I would like to have some feedback from you, if you're out there. Please leave comments, follow me, or share the link. For an intermittent blogger like me, such encouragement helps me be a little more disciplined in writing posts and in the end I hope we all benefit. If there's anything you'd like me to add or discuss on here then please let me know.

In the meantime, I've posted a few pictures of some items acquired over the last few years. As you can see, my collection is as unfocused as ever, with medals from all over the world. You might also notice an emphasis on Malaysian items - this is because of a number of friends who keep a sharp eye out for items that come on the market and let me know if interesting things turn up. I've also been able to complete a collection of Imperial Service Medals (see below), a bit of a side project for me that's been quite satisfying. More on this in a later post, perhaps.

 Finally, I've been add to my collection of Nepalese medals, another very pleasing pursuit. Knowledge of Nepalese medals is very hard to come by, and as far as I know there are no English-language books on the subject. Again I've been aided by a couple of friends keeping an eye out for interesting items in the dusty back alleys of Kathmandu and passing them on at very reasonable prices. They've also been providing me with a wealth of information to accompany the medals which I can include in my research files. Like I said, some very generous souls out there in the medal collecting world.

I hope you enjoyed this post and that you've been given a nice taster of what might follow. It's been a strange feeling dusting off the cobwebs and getting the writing juices flowing again. And I hope to post on here again soon, and not in another three and a half years!!