10th October 2025
When my late father was surprised, he used to say "Well, swap my cider-press!"; I never quite understood what it meant but today I am also saying "Swap my cider-press" because, after seven long and fairly stressful weeks and many hours of telephone calls to and from British Telecom, our landline number 01323 721444, which we have had since 1988 has, at last been restored. It is now under "digital voice" and not the old copper system and seems to work almost as well. Therefore you will no longer need to use the mobile number that I gave you. On behalf of BT I apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused especially to those who do not use the internet and unaware of the problems we were having with BT. A number of customers thought that we may have retired (again), or gone out of business, and some even thought I had passed away. I can assure you that, as at this time, Brenda and I remain happily in the land of the living.

In the meantime, we have been hard at supplying your orders and finding new material to add to our stocks. The latest additions, from memory, were to Alaouites and Comoro Islands. We have a few interesting collections on their way to us from the continent which will appear in our next publication for November/December this year.

Sadly the "Stamp Magazine" which has been running ever since I can remember in the '60’s has folded up. It was always a good read and handled our advertising well over many decades. Gibbons Stamp Magazine is still going of course as well as Stamp & Coin Collector which I can recommend for interesting articles regarding our favourite hobby.

Thanks again for your continued allegiance to Phil-Index, despite our recent communication problems. We enjoy what we do and look forward to your regular orders for the wonderful stamps of the French Colonies.

Best regards to all.   
Terry Garcia.

Next update: 20th October 2025.