There is a banana bike in my living room!

Better half got himself a new banana bike, after the old banana bike was recently smashed by a moped. He didn't like the idea of leaving it outside tonight, as he didn't feel very confident about the combination of large numbers of people on the streets + lots of alcohol + fireworks. So he parked it in the living room. I suggested turning it into a lovely planter, but he said 'no'. Pewp.

It's over!

With gnomes often come associations of cute, cuddly, happy, joyous creatures. So it would make sense that Xmas is our favorite time of year.

Not this gnome. Xmas just isn't my thing. Not that I don't like the occasional present (thank you for my amazing new bag, better half!), but it just doesn't make up for all the forced family visits, mandatory (usually fake) joy and glee, crazy sales with aggressive shoppers (yeah, that has to be the spirit of Christmas!), tree decorating hassle and endlessly repeated songs.

Call me a Grinch, but if it were up to me, I'd just hibernate my way through winter: close the curtains and curl up with a book by the fire. Preferably with a hot cocoa and some chocolate chip cookies.

The only thing about Xmas that does make me happy, are the lights. All the pretty colors! Shiny!

Tribute

I've seen them in the surrounding landscape quite a few times, the blue and white poles with a red plane or boat on top. Recently one surfaced fairly close to my home:

I've wondered many times what they meant. There is an aviation museum not too far from here, with quite a few classical airplanes, so I thought they might be related. I was wrong.

We live in a polder. According to Wikipedia, there are three types of polder. Obviously we live on the first type: reclaimed land. When the dykes were built and the water was drained, many ships and planes that had lain at the bottom of the sea for years (some even centuries!) were uncovered. Apart from being a humongous archeological find, there is also an emotional aspect to it. So many sailors and aviators that never made it home. So as a tribute, each spot where a wreckage was found, is given a visual marker.

The one near my house belongs to an Avro Lancaster bomber, that flew a sortie during WWII and never returned. In fact, it never even made it to Germany, as it crashed on the way there. It belonged to the No. 57 Squadron of the RAF Bomber Command, resulting in the loss of 7 young sergeants. Sad as it may be, it's good to remember.

Peculiar Ponies

They'd been on my wishlist for quite some time, the peculiar ponies I sometimes pass on my way home from work. The previous session with them was not very successful, somehow I managed to screw up each and every picture of them. This time it worked as intended. I know they're often blamed for spitting and being unkind, but they look like really kind and gentle giants to me!

They didn't seem to mind me taking pictures. Although the little one seemed slightly confused:

"Pssst, mommy, why is she pointing that black thing at us?"

Plus I'll admit they don't always have the most elegant or intelligent expression:

Zombie apocalypse

The good news: I actually have brains!
The bad news: it was confirmed when I head-butted a wall, causing a concussion.
The big question: what to do when the zombie apocalypse happens?

So much to do, so little time

Gnomes are well-known for their expansive minds, broad range of interest and ability to multitask. Unfortunately Mother Nature does not find that enough reason to grant us more than 24 hours per day. So we must carefully think about how we spend our time: reading, photography, goldsmithing, blogging or hanging out with friends and loved ones. Not to mention this tiny little thing called work. Or sleeping, which is somewhat mandatory.

Lately I've been very busy spending time with my new best friend, including an actual course in photography and a new blog to capture (pun intended) my development (also pun intended) into a real photographer. So far my new hobby has been great fun, but rather time-consuming. However, the blog's up and running and all the equipment is sorted, I got my first grades and everything's going shiny.

Which brings me to the next excuse for blogging so little lately: a goldsmithing course! Not that I've actually touched gold yet, only brass and nickel silver. I haven't done any actual smithing either. So far it's been mainly cutting, filing, sanding and polishing, and hopefully we'll start with the topic of riveting next week. Naturally this required a shiny blog as well, which has also been quite a time-sink. Here's some of the home-made shiny stuff:

For the eagle-eyed nerds among us: yes, that is indeed the royal crest of Hyrule!

The great outdoors

After early autumn and Indian summer, we now have ‘how on earth is this supposed to be November?’ Not a mushroom in sight and temperatures of 21 degree Celsius, the highest ever recorded temperatures for November! Add to that blue skies and radiant sun and you have the perfect opportunity to go outside one last time without having to bring the wellies and brollies.

Having a new camera bag meant the camera had to come along, so behold: nature in all it’s glory!

It's heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere!

Luckily, I'm the patient type (*cough*), because the wait for my new camera bag took forever. I'll happily admit that was completely my own fault. After ordering my first bag, I decided I wanted another one as well, effectively resetting the timer on the combined order. So after a long long wait (and paying hefty duties imposed by customs, growl) I finally got to unpack my wonderful new travel companions.

This is how I received them, neatly boxed up and wrapped up:

And here's a review of the bags in full glory, basking in the sunshine of an incredibly beautiful November day.

Bag number 1 is medium sized with a full leather flap:

The leather is unbelievably soft and supple, and it has a metallic hue that makes it shine like copper. So pretty!! I have a matching camera strap as well, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

The remaining outer parts of the bag are made of water repellant canvas, which gives it a tough and sturdy look:

The inside is amazing as well. The fabric I picked is featured on the front pockets, as well as the separate compartment which can be used to store a tablet or paperwork.

The inner flap, the lining and the padding are made of a wonderful dark red (bordeaux) fabric. 

Bag number 2 is of the convertible type, and equally pretty:

The cool thing about this bag is that you can take out the padded interior that normally protects your camera, so you can use it as a regular handbag as well. Plus it doesn't immediately show that you're carrying around a fortune's worth of glass and plastic. I was a little concerned about the dark blue. I don't really like matte leather, but it's got a lovely shine to it after all.

The back is once again made of indestructible canvas, so I don't have to worry about dirt, stains or scratches. Which is always handy for a bag that has to follow you everywhere!

With the padded interior this becomes a lovely carrier for the camera and plenty of accessories.

Once again, the attention to detail and practicality is superb. The padded bits can be folded away to create exactly the shape required for camera/lenses, there are handy zippers, pockets and compartments for loose bits and the bag closes with a big zipper, so raindrops, dust and pickpockets don't stand a chance.

Lastly, there's a separate insert, meaning I can convert all of my handbags into a camera carrier:

Everything looks extremely well thought out, well made and durable. So all in all I am one very happy photographer!!

Unexpected Fotographic Oddity

I should have knocked on wood. I really should have. It's been no more than 10 days since I've had the audacity to mock UFO's and deny the existence of alien life on this planet, when – lo and behold – I zoom in on a picture I took of a pretty sunset to find... A UFO!!!
And the scariest bit? This too was over Muiderslot! *insert Twilight Zone theme music*

Judge for yourself: Plane? Strange play of light? Or can it not be identified and have I captured an actual UFO?

Methinks it's time to bring out the tinfoil hats!

Castle = happy Sunday

No, I'm not referring to the adorable, charming and ruggedly handsome Richard Castle (whose next book is in the mail, so yay!) but to a castle not far from here, that is famous for its guided tours, gardens, falconer's show and UFO. I kid you not. There was a serious media uproar after a lady found a UFO in one of the pictures she took while visiting the castle.

It's not so much that I question the Drake equasion, but I'm afraid I'm with Calvin on this one.

So for me it's just a crappy picture combined with the fact that Schiphol Airport is only a few kilometres away.

What makes Muiderslot a happy place, is the fact that it a) is very pretty and b) has a falconer. Time to put my photographic skills to the test!

Olly may look all fluffy and cuddly, but make no mistake: he's a born killer!

Calimero on the other hand looks more like a chick that just hatched:

But I'm quite sure many a cricket has peed its pants upon seeing that beak!

This handsome bird was more than willing to show me what makes it such an amazing predator:

So yeah, that's me happy on a Sunday!

*hickup*

Vitamins are important. I already spoke of my love for bananas. But this weekend I found a new favorite way to ingest my daily dosis of vitamins: my friend made her very own prune liqueuer and it was absolutely delicious.

Next year we're going to scavenge all the neighbour's trees and make a whole barrel!

Happy anniversary KLM!

This month KLM celebrates its 95th anniversary, so the title of 'oldest airline in the world' is well-deserved! Go KLM! I had the good fortune to be invited to the 'KLM Experience', which meant I got to spend half a day at Schiphol, whieeeeh! We were treated to an extensive look behind the screens, plus we got to see the special KLM Experience 4D special effects show, which was absolutely amazing!

The movie was partly projected onto an MD-11 (sadly, one of the last three of its kind and forced into retirement next month) which created the illusion the plane was illuminated, disassembled, see-through or moving.

Outside was a walkabout along important KLM buildings, such as the motor shop (noisy!):

And of course KLM's headquarters:

For reasons unknown, this building is dubbed 'the egg carton'. Now how did anyone think of that?

 

Almost forgot! Even the president of the United States dropped by to say hi!

Oh wait, those were just huge screens showing the movie that was made for the Nuclear Security Summit we hosted back in March. Still impressive though.

The organisation of the event was perfect, from the KLM symphonic orchestra welcoming us at Schiphol Airport, to the displays and even the catering. I had a great day! Can't wait to see what they conjure up in 5 years!