My moist towelette collection and October HPUD Guessing Contest
If you read the post topic before jumping right into reading this post, you'd probably be thinking what the heck is moist towelette? And who collects them? Turns out not many, other than yours truly and a guy who runs a moist towelette museum at Michigan State University in America with over 1000 moist towelettes. In fact, when I googled it, collecting moist towelette didn't even come up on the 200+ list of cool things to collect. Amateur collectors! Anyway, you lucky peeps get to see a very unusual collection on Hive now!!
In case you're still wondering what the heck moist towelettes are, they are the little packets of wet tissues you get at KFC to wipe your fingers lickin good clean.
I started collecting moist towelettes about 20 years ago when I was working in Hong Kong. Many restaurants have these little packets on the table for customers to wipe clean their hands before the meal. I'm not sure why this practice started because unlike some countries like India or Malaysia, people in Hong Kong don't eat with their hands. I can't remember why I started collecting them, but then neither can I explain a lot of things I did when I was younger.
Surprisingly, most of the moist towelettes sizes are quite uniform. Probably because they're all produced by a handful of factories who just slap on the restaurant logo. Some can be very colourful as you can see by how I've grouped my collection by colour. And then there are some tiny ones, like the KFC or antiseptic wipes we often see. These are the ones in the middle of the box.
Like all collections, regardless of how silly some may consider them to be, the collector always have their favourite items. I have two. One is the Hello Kitty moist towelette I picked up from an Eva Air flight. Eva Air is a Taiwan based airline and they have a few Sanrio themed aeroplanes. But my favorite moist towelette is by far the one in a box on the top second left. This is produced by the luxury Italian brand Bvlgari. I saw these at their perfume counter in a department store (can't remember where) and I knew I had to have one. I'm not one to ask people for things, but I had to be thick skin just this one time and just asked them outright if I could have one. Luckily they were ok with it. It just shows, if you don't ask you don't get.
At the height of my collection, I had over 300 moist towelettes in my collection. Most I had collected when I go out to eat, and sometimes my friends would pick up some for me. Sadly when I moved to Taiwan, I had to let go of a lot of things, and this was one that I had to bin. I was sorry I couldn't find a new owner for them, but then not many people have such good unusual taste as me in this world😃
Do you have any unusual collection of things?
OCTOBER HPUD GUESSING CONTEST
A few days ago I posted about my upcoming trip to HiveBeeCon in Krakow, the meet up will be next Saturday. By the time this contest ends, I would have spent a great evening with many Hivers. If you're around the region and can make it to Krakow next Saturday please come and join us! After Krakow I will be going to a three more cities and spend a couple of days in each. This months HPUD Guessing Contest is
Which three cities will I be going to?
I know this sounds a bit like finding a needle in a haystack because Europe is so bit, so being the nice person I am, this month I'm giving you three big tips.
First tip - all these three cities are capital cities
Second tip - I am not going to south western Europe
Third tip - Pinmapple is your friend here https://www.pinmapple.com/@livinguktaiwan. Use it to help you with this contest.
I have been to the country for one of these capital cities.
For the other two capital cities, I have never been to these two countries.
You can take a look at my Pinmapple map https://www.pinmapple.com/@livinguktaiwan to see where I've been. Don't rely on the screen cap image below because it groups the locations together and you won't get an accurate view of where I've been. For example, you'll see on the image below there are two pins on Slovakia. If you go to my Pinmapple map link and zoom in, these two pins are actually Krakow in Poland and Budapest in Hungary.
My Pinmapple map will tell you which countries I have or haven't been before so it's best to look at that. And hopefully you will find the three correct capital cities.
The prize pool is 20 HBD and will go to the person who guessed the most correct cities. If there is more than one person who guessed the most correct cities or, you will share the prize pool. And if you HPUD at least 10 HP today, I will double your prize as a bonus. As usual, I will upvote your entry and the % will be based on your level of engagement as the whole reason I started this HPUD Guessing Contest was to drive up quality engagement on Hive. Good luck everyone!!
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Wow great collection
Of course, I thought we would have to guess the number of the moist towelettes... And when I almost had the number - "guess the cities" 😂
😂
The Bvlgari seems luxurious :)
Ha ha. I had the same thought.
This is a very challenging contest this month
that would have been a very challenging contest even for me as the host!!!
Hahaha I thought the same and said to my mind, it would really be so challenging to count those moist towelettes but the exact question is more challenging.
You must really enjoy traveling a lot 😉🤩
We all have these strange collections. I used to have a collection of soccer cards and a collection of tasos. Now I don't have any collection, but when I see a nice moist towel, I buy one.
It's quite hard for me to guess and no one in the comments has guessed yet XD I will say Budapest, Vienna and Prague.
Haha! This month's guess is quite wide open, lots of options!
What are tasos? 🤔
source
These are taso, I don't know how to translate that haha
Stickers?
I think it's pog in English, I'll share a post about them soon.
Yes please do, I really need to know what it is now
I never knew you collected these! I knew you collect matches, do you still have these? I remember we use to keep the hotel ones for you if they ever had any. This is very unusual, I thought my collection of thimbles, pins and laser art crystal was odd.
I will have to guess Warsaw, Budapest & Bratislava.
This is one of the more weirder of my collection, and I think I binned them in the end. The match collection I gave away because there are collectors and can be worth something. A guy collected them, said it's for his dad, but I reckon he sells them 😄. As long a it goes to a good home, I'm ok.
You should share your collections sometimes.
You didn’t even use them? I have seen some antique shops sell matchboxes.
Yes I’ll need to when I’ve set it all up in the new house. All my collections are packed away.
That’s cool… yes why not collect something many don’t. Too bad you had to let go of them.
I so know… moving countries… sigh hehehe 🤭
It could be anywhere…
Let’s see, my guesses
Vilnius than Tallinn and Helsinki 😉 (my choice if I where on that side)
Have a nice and safe trip… I will leave Thursday but go to the other side of the world 🌎 so can’t join the meeting.
The other side of the world! That sounds exciting! Is it Asia? Can't wait to see where you're going. Hope you have a cracking time Jackie!
It will be fun 🍁🍂☀️ we will be checking out the peak fall colours in New England during a road trip through 4 States… 2 and a bit weeks 😎
Thank you, I will do my best. You have fun too!
Wow! Perfect time to go, looks forward to the autumn hues from you!
Yes, planned it better. Last year we were to early. This year we should see much more 🍂🍁
Arrived safely.
Have fun at the meeting! 😎😁
Isnt the new collectors community ingenious? Yours is the strangest but super best collection I ever heard of!
I would love to guess your travel bring's you to Graz 😘 its not soooooo far away from Krakow, but its no capital.
I think there will be Warsau on your list, but my guess here goes with the thought having you in our Capital Vienna and the 2 nearest European capitals to Graz having a borderline to Austria
Vienna - Austria
Budapest - Hungary
Ljubljana - Slovenia
❤️
It is 😁😂
🤗🤗🤗
I love that we have all these kind of different and interesting communities on Hive, and we get to find out a lot more about others via them.
Good luck with your guesses @beeber !
Haha this would need a lot of luck to win the guess 😅 but who knows ❤️
That is quite a collection, especially considering you already threw some out, very interesting collector's items;) I keep them in my handbag but toss them as soon as they're dry.
I collect those sachets of sauces that come with take-away food, seems like such a waste to just throw them out. We use some, but I do a 'stock-take' every so often and end up throwing them out; only to start a new collection again!
My guess is Budapest, Warsaw, and Prague???
Enjoy the trip, wherever else it may be xxx
Same here, I often keep them in my handbag and then forget about them, but you never know when they'll come in handy.
Hope you're still having a great time in Amsterdam Lizzie. Did you say you'd be going elsewhere as well?
I was going to try and see an old school friend in Hungary but she has to go to SA to nurse her sister.
My son took 2 weeks leave so it's been like going on a whirlwind tour, trying to cram in as much as we can. I'm dying to share some of the places here.
It's a very challenging contest. Like you said, it is like finding a needle in the ocean.
I still want try my luck and my guess is London, Paris and Berlin :D
Good luck, I think you'll need a lot of it!!
Hehe! You do collect so random things, @livinguktaiwan. I expecting to see you on one of those hoarding tv shows in years to come 🤣
Oh no!! That'd be so embarrassing!! Imagine having Stacey rummaging through all my stuff on TV 😱
Did the practice start because of Japan? Japan has long had a culture of giving a hot damp towel before meals at restaurants to clean your hands before eating. You can also see this practice if you ever take a JAL or ANA flight—they will pass out warm towels before serving the meal. And cheaper places use moist towelettes instead, but it is considered a hallmark of a cheap place.
Anyway, I had no idea collecting these was a thing. haha that's awesome!
Japan has some very good practices, especially about cleanliness, fans and football clubs tidying up the stadium and changing rooms have been a big hit in recent years.
Cathay Pacific used to hand out hot towels as well, maybe it's an Asian thing, very nice touch.
As to collecting them, yeah, it's one of the more unusual collections, but then I hear Japan has some weird collections as well 😄
I forgot to write my guesses :D
Warsaw, Helsinki and Tallinn? 🤷♀
At last!!
That super cute Hello Kitty one is the cutest! I am a collector too. I even wrote a post about it back in the day (2018). I was just looking at some old report cards and the teacher said I was the Stamp Club president in 6th grade. Nice. I don't remember that, I do remember the stamp collection. My favorite collection is for sure my Christmas Ornament collection and I get to put it up each year and remember all the great places I have been!
I would love to see that collection @sjarvie5 😍
Hi @mipiano I just remembered I blogged about it last year! Here is the post
It's so nice 🤩
Thanks for the link to the post 😇
I remember you said previously you like Hello Kitty Sara. Did you ever manage to catch one of those Sanrio flight when you were in Taiwan?
Christmas ornaments sounds like a great collection and it's great that they will be sure to become the focus every year.
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What an unusual collection! It's a pity you had to get rid of most of them. As far as I remember, the only place I've been where they always give you moist towelette in the restaurants to clean your hands is in Istanbul.
As for the contest. I'll say you will visit Prague, Vienna and Budapest
I think it's a nice touch when restaurants give you towels to clean your hands before a meal, especially in the post covid world, that's very important.
Hi @livinguktaiwan, interesting collection. It reflects the diversity of stories and experiences that sprout from your memories, more so now when you took photos for your post, or seeing them at home.
Thanks for sharing your letters in this space. Greetings from Cuba
Sadly they're not at home anymore as I had to get rid of them
Some Chinese restaurants here in our country serve cold wet small rolled up towels upon sitting at the table even before ordering. They're for cleaning up before eating. After eating, they again serve rolled up small towels, this time hot, steaming ones to clean up afterwards. I guess that's similar to your wet towelletes except that they're not packed. We used to get a laugh everytime these were served to us as we would call them "lumpia" or spring rolls. I think your collection is something unique and unusual that makes it worth the while 👍
My guess would be Oslo, Stockholm and Munich. 🤔
It's good the Chinese restaurants are doing the same in the Philippines. They have a little hot cabinet that keeps the towel nice and warm, so comforting when they serve it.m
Spring rolls is a great name for them 😁
Woah! You really have a unique collection and that kitty one looks so cute. How sad you let them go because of transferring locations. I think most people do have collections but in some cases we need to throw them because of some circumstances.
I thought the guessing contest is about how many moist towelettes you had collected but oh it's about three countries where you are going to go after hive meet up.
It is very challenging for me because I am not familiar with different countries. I don't even know much about cities in our country, lol. But I will try to have a dipper look about this.
I'm sure Hello Kitty fans would love that one as you can only get it into the flight!
Give up. I thought maybe if guessing the number I'll just go with 108.
Have a good trip.
108! I have triple that 😀😁！！
Wow, that's more than I expected.
Oh for a minute I thought we'll have do guess the towelettes. Thank goodness for small mercies I guess.😂
Okay I think I'm going with Budapest, Vienna and Prague. Have fun in the cities.🤗
I can't remember how big my collection was myself!
Good luck with your entry
So many attractive countries to visit and my guess to the contest will be Bratislava, Prague and Bucharest.
Good luck!
This is the first time I would come across the word moist towelettes and I appreciate you sharing the meaning.
The particular contest looks very tough and my guess would be;
Budapest
Bratislava
Bucharest
Three Bs! Good luck!
Your collection of wet wipes looks great. I love wet wipes and it never occurred to me to collect them. Well, I've only collected a few bottles in my life. And two or three old cameras.
For a moment there I thought you had to guess how many wipes are in that box...😕
If you go to Kyiv, let me know so I can tell you in which hospital I was born. Oh how difficult...🤔 Warsaw... it's more or less close, but not there. You will go to Kyiv, Chisinau and Bucharest.
I'm not sure many people collect them. I figured if I start a collection it's good to do something easy and my friends can contribute as well. It's also nice to see where I've dined.
Interesting choice of countries, and they're all definitely on my list, either this time or next time 😉
😂 Well, at least I made the effort.
I am not really familiar with the places, I never knew anything about them but as usual I would always love to participate in your contest. I know every places have their best where tourist would love to visit. I think you will visit the closest city from Krakow and the three cities are: Bratislava of Slovakia, Prague of Czechia and Budapest once again of Hungary. May you have a great and safe trip. Pasalubong ha hehehe...
That's a very reasonable guess @jenthoughts, good luck with your entry, and thanks as always for dropping by my contest!
Thanks for wishing me well. It is my pleasure to join on your contest.
The contest is really a difficult one that I can't pick easily but fun to participate and my preferred guesses are; Moldova - Chisinau, Czech - Prague and Slovakia - Bratislava.
There are quite a few choices but Pinmapple will help to narrow it down
Good luck
What an unusual collection, I knew you were different but I didn't think so much 🤣😆.
I love wet wipes and when I have some I use them at the first opportunity.
About the contest this one is really difficult for me that I don't know Europe and I have not been good at geography, but i take the time to study your clues and decide for.the correct answer 😅🙊
These are the capitals you will visit @livinguktaiwan:
Vienna, Austria
Prague, Czechia
Varsovia, Polonia
Krakow (Cracovia) is not the capital of Poland (anymore, it was in the Middle Ages) but nice try, good luck with the other guesses :)
😲😱 Google fooled me, I was waiting for your guesses but you were not coming I will have to go see your answers 🤣😅.
Thanks mate for the clarification, I'll go back and look for a more updated map. 🥴😔 Let's see if I get lucky. @phortun 🥰
Really? Then Google must have showed you a very outdated map as Krakow was the capital of Poland from 1038 until 1596 :D I just submitted my guesses but they can be totally wrong :) Pauline came with a very interesting and tricky question in this round :)
Seriously, my search went as follows:
I went to pinmapple map there I searched for Paulina clues, and then I went to google and typing polina capital threw me that answer, how crazy,.ya ni en Google se puede confiar.
This month is difficult, if you want you can change your answers and put mine. 😅 @phortun
:DD
I will stick with mine, thank you :D
Is that different in a good or bad way ? 😉
Good luck with your entry!
Checking out my feed and I can see I´m already 4 days behind, no good... Moist towelettes are an interesting thing to collect and with 300 pieces, you must have been one of the world´s most successful collectors of this item. My wife collects (hoards might actually be a better term) various weird things, airplane vomit bags (unused :D) being one of them :)
Interesting question for this HPUD guessing contest. My long shot would be Warsaw, Vilnius and Riga :)
Wow! Airplane vomit bags is a great one!! It's one of the weird ones that come up one you Google it. Well done to her! Hopefully she didn't have to use any of them during her pregnancy 😉
Hello, that is a strange collection, I did not collect wipes, I bought them a lot when I had my little children, to clean them. My selection is
Vienna, Austria
Prague, Czechia
Warsaw, Poland
They're very important when you have kids, I can imagine how messy kids can be when they touch everything and then eat with their hands.
Good luck with your entry
Hello, thank you
When I started reading through your post, i strongly felt we would have to guess the number of the moist towelettes, funny enough, I stopped a while to guess them before reading further.. hahaha 😂
If I were you,I wouldn't have gotten rid of those wet wipes because I am always in need of them...lolz
For the guess contest, I will go with Budapest, Prague, and Vienna
Have a relaxing weekend 🤗
Good luck with your guess, I will reveal tomorrow