My magnet obsession

It’s hard to remember where it started.

I know I had the “Underground” magnet when I went to the UK on a holiday in March 2009. But it really took of when I bought the “Dubai” piece for when I was moving to Sheffield, UK for my Masters degree. I wanted a piece of the city I grew up in and a magnet perched on my fridge there seemed ideal.

And then I went magnet-mad. 

According to Wikipedia:

There is no generally recognized term (e.g. numismatics for currency collecting) for magnet collecting. A Russian collector has proposed the term memomagnetics (Russian: мемомагнетика), derived from the words memoriale (Latin) and magnetis (Greek)[6] A collector of magnets would be called memomagnetist. These terms have been used by at least one Russian online community for magnet collectors.[7]

I slowly started collecting magnets from various cities/countries I visited. And then asked my friends to bring me back a magnet wherever they went.

I’m a bit of a magnet snob too; I prefer magnets that have a quirky design, something more than just the city or country name, So my Istanbul magnet, which I picked up on a stopvover at the Ataturk airport, it has the name of the city spelled out using the architecture of the area. That’s cool. 

Likewise, I got the Loch Ness monster with bagpipes and attached chimes in Edinburgh, as I was walking around one foggy night. Then there’s Sri Lanka, spelled out inside an elephant shape (thanks Shaahima!), and so on and so forth.

Thanks to all my Twitter folk who have contributed to my collection: @TDAllonsy, @Shaahima, @VonSkunk, @movie_mafia, @hannah_farah, @completefoodie, @shru_, @benfurfie and even my father (who, under strict instruction, got the one from Rome).

Can you spot the countries I already have? And yeah, if you travel anywhere and remember me, pick a magnet up for me. It’ll get a loving home 😀

PS – And…this doesn’t even show my OTHER magnet collection – it’s all about quotes and funny sayings. But that one, I curate myself. 🙂