I visited the Singapore Philatelic Museum on National Day, (admission was free, after all!) and saw several interesting things worth mentioning.

Mr Ong Kim Seng was there, signing special first day covers of this year’s National Day Commemorative Stamps (his paintings are featured on this year’s stamps). It was the first time I’d seen this celebrated Singaporean artist in person, so I hung around and watched the autographing session for a while. The people who came up to him ranged from rich tai-tais who seemed more interested in their handphones than him, to his fans who were obviously thrilled to meet him, asking him to sign random things like newspaper cuttings. Some were also die hard stamp enthusiasts- this guy bought 20 sets of the autographed first day covers! No mean feat, considering that the special autographed sets cost over 60 dollars, being sold for charity.

(This is a stalker-like picture I took from a distance, because I felt a bit pai seh to approach him and ask for a photo without first buying an autographed set)

There was also the National Day Stamp Art exhibition in one of the rooms. They displayed the original artwork of the stamps, and some of the stamp designs which weren’t selected in previous years. Of particular interest was the stamp series telling people to “stop at two”-putting population policies on stamps is indeed Uniquely Singaporean.

It must also be mentioned that the museum was packed full of people- so many that it was actually a little difficult to get in!

There were also parents bringing their kids around the museum, enthusiastically filling up a quiz/treasure hunt sheet. In yet another room was a Hanji Craft (Korean Paper Art) workshop.

Whoever said that museums were dead boring should really go think again.