my REAL wall – 24 Jan 2010 – The Road to Tavira Island, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

This was the very last REAL wall I took aged 29, and was taken in Tavira in the Algarve, southern Portugal on the way to Tavira Island.

Having been born in January, booking holidays for my birthday is always cheap. One other bonus of the off season is that no-one else goes on holiday, so when we got to the island of Tavira, me and Elena pretty much had the whole expanse beach to ourselves! With no-one around, we pulled out a pair of deckchairs and collected pretty shells for a whole afternoon unmolested.

Neither of us are particularly into swimming, but nothing beats lounging around on an empty beach!

Thing is, being January and in the Mediteranean, it was warm enough to fall asleep on the beach with our jumpers on, but cold enough to wake up with a cold, and that’s exactly what we done. Since coming back Elena has had a cold and is only just now getting over it. Awwww.

(As you can see it’s the same postcards as we thought there was going to be a lot more to do so didn’t bring that many!)

my REAL wall – 23 Jan 2010 – The tracks by the beach, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

We thought we were due a holiday and, having never been to the Algarve, me and Elena decided that a birthday weekend in Portugal for £10 per person each way was too good a bargain to pass up. Return flights of THREE AND A HALF HOURS for both of us for £40! Who would say no!

WE arrived in Faro at about noon on Saturday, a time that we Brits are used to seeing high streets buzzing with shoppers and diners and the place was like a Ghost town. After getting off the bus in the centre of town we were pretty convinced we’d alighted a few stops too early as there was no life to be seen at all.

They obviously do things differently in Portugal.

After a while of looking for people we decided to make our second wall of the trip and here it is.

By the end of the trip we came home totally relaxed. If you’re thinking of a trip to the south of Portugal in the off season, it’s cheap but there really is very little to do, so make sure you bring some postcards to make REAL walls like what we done!

Thanks to Cross Ryu, Dumpsterdiver and the others who accompanied us there in spirit!

your REAL wall from Sunnysidey in Australia, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

In today’s inbox – my postcard has arrived in Australia!

From: Sam Farman
Date: 2010/1/19

Hi Andy,

Your card arrived! Here’s a pic of it on my wall 🙂

Thank you for making such a cool card, and thanks also for helping me with the pronunciation of Bosham [it’s pronounced “Bozzum” – Andy]. I could have done with your assistance a few years ago when I was in the UK and asking for directions to Hartlepool (when I discovered that it did not rhyme with Bartle-fool)!

I’ll set to work on a fabric card for you very soon. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Sam

My Postcard from Bosham was made up of 2 postcards both from Bosham, of a church. I’ve never been there, so it was very weird that I should find 2 postcards of a church there, one drawn, one a photo, both taken from exactly the same angle. I bought the photo one on ebay last year then was so surprised when I found the drawn one in a charity shop last weekend. This halfcard was my first of the 2010. See my other halfcards on my flickr site

my REAL wall – January 18, 2010 – Anthony and Elena appear in the Sunday Times, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

Only 2 weeks into 2010 and already my REAL wall has hit the national big time press…but not for what you think!

On Friday, I got a call from my mortgage advisor telling me that the Sunday Times had been in touch with him. They wanted to interview a young couple who had recently taken out a mortgage, and so he thought of me and Elena, and gave me a call.

The paper arranged for a photographer to be around in an hour and interviewed me on the phone as to why I chose the mortgage I did and next thing you know, me and Elena were on the front page of the Sunday Times money section!

I could hardly believe my eyes on Sunday, when I picked up the paper and saw our thumbnail on the front page in the top left hand corner, the very first thing you see when you turn to the money pages, and all my friends have remarked how little sense it makes that I, who care not a jot about the stuff, should be there looking like some money guru! As Jason says "…it just doesn’t compute"

Amusingly, the paper reported my name as Anthony Hoang, the second time that my name has been spelt wrong in the papers. And yes everyone I know has ripped the piss out me for that already, so feel free to add yours below…

For REAL wall fans, me and Elena tried our very hardest to get your mail in.

The picture on the front page, which is also featured on the online version of the story was taken with the official REAL wall as the white background. The photographer was looking for a white background and said "Could you take those postcards down and we’ll take the picture over there"

D’oh!

Inside the paper, on page 4 me and Elena are pictured on the stairs. After clearing the place up a little, Elena slyly draped Okadascat‘s knitted banner across the top of a table in front of us, and I set up a postcard from Richard Canard at our feet on the staircase.

Desperately we tried to maneuvre ourselves so that the photographer would take a pic of a postcard, but to no avail. Shucks. Maybe next time.

If any of you are going to appear in the press, please write to me and tell me and I’ll send you some postcards to try to sneak in under the photographers radar. REAL subversion of the press is one of this years challenges!

my REAL wall today features what I hope to be the last of the post sent to Goldhawk Road. Still nothing has come through to the PO Box address yet at the new house, so the competition for first through the door is still very much on.

As usual, you can find out more about the postcards by clicking through to the flickr page and hovering over the picture, where you will find full annotations!