Blogs

Collecting more but enjoying it less?

Collecting More but Enjoying It Less? Up before dawn and after a stop at Tim Horton’s coffee shop back on the road for an hour’s drive. Arriving at the “Tim’s” located in the town or city of your destination, after all, Canadian’s plan their trips in accordance to the location of a handy Tim’s. Fresh coffee in hand you pull into the show’s parking lot and at this early hour there is almost an unlimited choice of parking spaces. Dawn has broke and you find yourself in line, hot coffee in han

July 20, 2012

dalestorm's Blog

White with elk or deer

I have these two believe police hats, looking for help to identify where they are from. The blue with red band has tag inside "By appointment of her majesty the queen etc. The white hat has a typed piec of paper inside "POL WISLER HEINRICH". Any help would be great in finding out where these hats are from.

dalestorm

July 15, 2012

28 June 2012

Haven't written in a while; otherwise occupied lately. Anyway, I have a few days off which, when added to the days I'd normally be off comes to a total of seven days, thought I'd drop a few lines to let everyone know (A) I'm still sucking air and am warm and upright, and (B) what I'm up to as far as collecting goes. I've been concentrating on my primary interest lately, which is state security/internal ministry/border troops/fire brigades, and my focus, at least at present, is directed toward

June 28, 2012

Chairman's Blog

Document Archive

Document Archive I have recently refreshed this area and want to explain its purpose and use. The document archive allows members to upload and download files in a large format. It is like an online library which allows the archiving of material in a variety of formats including PDF files which our members can access to support their research of military history or military collectables. I see it as an area to upload scans of books, or lengthy documents. This is primarily a free resource i

Nick

June 26, 2012

Mervyn Mitton's Blog

WHAT IF ...............

Comment : I am sorry for the delay with the Police novel. I am actually 2 chapters in hand - and will re-commence soon. I will also add a couple of entries for my WW2 memories - surprisingly I have had several requests - including from Google readers. What if : This will only be a short post and really stems from a conversation I had with someone in the shop. We were talking of developments in the communication field and started to think of where the present day World would be

Mervyn Mitton

June 17, 2012

Are you kidding, no really, are you kidding?

Are you kidding, no really are you kidding? Last Saturday one of the largest, if not the largest, outdoor antiques fairs was held near Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It has been a few years since we were able to attend and most of the dealers have been the same for many years so it was like a family reunion with some that we’ve dealt with over the years. One of the first things an antiques dealer will tell you is not to refinish antiques as their value is lost once you do this. You will hear t

May 27, 2012

Victory Day 2012

In about 20 minutes it will be May 9th in Moscow and Victory Day will be underway. The annual parade should step-off at 1000. A change from last year's attempt at the utility uniform will be the return to the dress uniform (why they changed that last year I will never know). Hopefully the parade, in it's entirety, will be broadcast (perhaps by RT) and, again hopefully, someone will make a dvd of it that will be available for purchase by those of us who live in the more remote areas (hint). Asi

May 8, 2012

Chairman's Blog

More Updates

Due to ongoing technical difficulties I have had to upgrade the server significantly so I hope that you have noticed an increase in speed. Any voluntary contributions from taking out a members subscription will be appreciated as I now have a significant monthly cost to keep this ship afloat. I really do not want to have to go down the route of advertising to generate income ! There has also been a change in the way the forum loads and some of you may have noticed that there is a slight pause w

Nick

May 8, 2012

May Day 2012

Happy May Day to all! Not a big holiday here in the US (although it did start here) except for the "faithful" (hard core Reds). Did catch the Moscow goings-on via RT earlier today- they covered events all over the world. Good to see the Moscow parades, although I wish they still went through Red Square. Noticed that even the oligarchs participated in the parade (Medvedev)- hmmmmm. Also good to see the general strike called by the Occupy movement- still strong. All together much more going on thi

May 1, 2012

demir's Blog

Gallipoli - 24/25 April 1915 Memorial at ANZAC Cove (Ariburnu) by ATATURK

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now living in the soil of a friendly country.Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours… You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace, after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well." Ataturk, 1934

demir

April 24, 2012

Chairman's Blog

A few back room changes & user names.

I have been updating a few of the back end functions of the software/server to bring it up to date and close a few security issues. It may have meant that some members received the occasional database error over the last few days, but I hope the bulk of the work has now been done. There should not be any real major front end changes. GMIC is still growing in size and despite some slow down in posting which is reflected across all military collecting forums (sign of the economic times maybe ?)

Nick

April 24, 2012

Michael Johnson's Blog

April 16, 2012

I'm not much of a blogger, unless you count my "John and Marie" fiction on the Great War Forum. However, as I get older I feel the urge to muse in (semi) public, which is certainly better than wandering down the street talking to myself. I've been collecting since 1973, and have gone from British Military longarms to badges, to uniforms, to medals. I've never been an "I never sell anything" collector (can't afford to), but nonetheless bits and pieces of each historical period remain (like th

Michael Johnson

April 16, 2012

15 April 2012

Hmmmm... Spring has, apparently, "sprung" here in beautiful metropolitan Ferncliff, Virginia where our one traffic light continues to blink red one way and yellow in the other direction. The horses are snorting (probably because of all the pollen), the cows are lowing and the "little birdies machen melodies"- much to the amusement of my cats. The possum (or possums- not sure I'm always looking at the same one) has come out of that weird partial hibernation and has joined the cats for meals. My s

April 15, 2012

Collecting the Periphery Part 3

Collecting the Periphery Part 3 When collecting medals that are not directly military in nature it would be easy to overlook the Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter or in English, Cross of Honour of the German Mother. I say this as it seems to me that anything associated with the Third Reich automatically conjures up military associations. This was a state decoration and civil order of merit awarded to mothers for exceptional merit to Germany. This decoration was awarded from 1939 until 1945

An Unintentional Collector

March 30, 2012

Slowly Getting There....

Hello again, Well, my enthusiasm totally overrides my ability to get these badges organised. It's such a big job and I get a little lost just trying to sort through them. Although I have been quiet here, I have been noting a lot of posts and have identified a few of my pieces just from others' photos......so thankyou! I'm also reading "Tobruk" by Peter Fitzsimons. It's heavy reading....very interesting, but I read in bed at night, generally crime novels that you don't have to pay too much at

Tracy

March 20, 2012

Mervyn Mitton's Blog

Matt Tiller becomes a Parish Constable - 2

CHAPTER 2 ---------------- Sir Thomas Hills was enjoying breakfast with his wife. The fire was burning well and for a day in late November 1796, the sky was clear - just a heavy frost on the ground. He was reading the Times newspaper for the day earlier - it having been brought by the morning coach as it passed through Little Wells. They were both concerned about how Britain's Royal Navy was doing in the war against France and Spain. British troops were also in action - but, mainly

Mervyn Mitton

March 18, 2012

13 March 2012

I'm in kind of a "bitchy" mood today; on the two days I've had off, I had to go to meetings at the joint on both days. These people have meetings to decide when to have more meetings!!! Nothing is ever accomplished during said meetings except to expose how education deprived the speakers are. In the 8 years I spent in the Navy, we trotted all over the Far East, Central America, shot through the Panama Canal, went through Grenada, blasted the crap out of Beirut- all without meetings. Amazing! OK,

March 14, 2012

Collecting the Periphery Part 2

Collecting the Periphery Part 2 Have you ever started a project only to realize that perhaps to do it justice you probably shouldn’t have started it in the first place? This is not exactly what has happened to my plan to discuss collecting medals outside of the usual parameters of military and Mervin has pointed out, and rightly so, that this was a huge undertaking. The vast array of non-military medals is daunting to say the least. Therefore this will not be a treatise or my opus magnum