POSTCARD N.218 - UNITED KINGDOM

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 08th April; received on the 14th April 2026

Postcard image: The Red Arrows - reproduction of a stamp issued on 20JUN2024

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Oh the fumes.... the roar... he ballet like perfection of the 9 Hawks symmetrically aligned... Thanks a lot Hannah, I really like it!

The year was 1973. I was 13, then. The news on TV couldn't make me happier: The Red Arrows would be performing in Lisbon, over the Tagus near Belém.

I immediately put on a request with my father: Please, please daddy, please let’s go see them. Daddy said ok. we'll go.

Anticipation, anxiety.  I could hardly wait for it. 

Days later at school, during the break between two classes. Suddenly a glimpse of  red in the sky, getting bigger: the Red Arrows Gnats flying over my head, and then that  roar, I was bursting with enthusiasm. Tommorow as promised we'd go see the full performance.

Then the day came. I was ready to go. but then came lunch. and for some reason it took a lot of time for us four, my parents my sister and I, to leave home.

The day  was terribly hot, and even with the windows opened in our tiny Austin 850, I felt truly uncomfortable. The more so since everywhere I looked there were cars. all jammed up.  Everybody wanted to go the same direction but no one was moving an inch... the hour set for the performance was rapidily coming near, and still we did not move... and then it all went past and still we almost did not move... 

and then we returned home... 

and I cried a lot....

I would see the Red Arrows performing many years later at Montijo Air Base, already flying the Hawks, but I'll never forget the disappointment of that day when I spent most of  the afternoon sweating and crying, on the rear seat of that green Austin 850.

C. S. Lewis (1898 — 1963), was a prolific Irish author who is probably best remembered by his Chronicles of Narnia, comprising seven fantasy novels written between 1949 and 1954.

Celebrating the series,  British Mail issued on 22MAY2025 a set of 8 "1st Class" stamps each dedicated to one of the books in the saga (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was entitled to two stamps). 

The stamp on the left is illustrated with an image of "The Silver Chair", while the one on the right evokes "The Horse and His Boy"