Month: October 2018

Fiona likes Emma Blackery, and had a VIP meet-and-greet ticket for this gig. (She had met her once before, during a signing session at Vidcon last year.) The VIP session started at 18:00, so we got there early, and Fiona went in while I hopped over to the Apple Store. When they let me in at 19:00 with the rest of the ordinary ticket-holders, Fiona was up near the front of the stage chatting and laughing with a group of other fans, and decked out in as much merch as she could afford with the money I had given her. She was in her element.

The Sugar Factory is a small venue, and anywhere was going to be close to the stage. I staked out a spot near the far side of the room, on a slightly raised step next to the unoccupied DJ stand. This gave me a high enough view to see over the heads of any tall Dutch folk, and get some great pictures with my new camera. There was enough space for Fiona to sit up on the table when she found herself tired of standing after Lilly Ahlberg’s opening set.

Set list:

1. Villains Part 1
2. Dirt
3. Third Eye
4. Let Me Be
5. Agenda
6. Fake Friends
7. Icarus
8. Petty
9. Sucks To Be You
10. Telegram Undercover Lover
11. What I Felt With You
12. Lies
13. Human Behaviour
14. Take Me Out

Encore:

1. Burn The Witch
2. Villains Part 2

So the guy who sold me the Panasonic FZ1000 camera threw in some filters with the purchase. From chatting to Dave last weekend I knew more about neutral density (ND) filters, but there was also a purple “FLD” filter in the case. My dude had told me that it produces great effects when shooting into the light at sunset. Realizing that I hadn’t taken a walk or any pictures today, I took a short drive up to Zaanse Schans after dinner. Dave has Dunottar Castle on his doorstep; we’ve got windmills.

Sure enough, the shots with the FLD filter looked really promising on the LCD screen in the field, and rather striking when I pulled them up on my big monitor at home. But shooting into the light at sunset isn’t quite what they’re intended for. I did my research after the fact, and discovered that they have a characteristic purple colour because they filter out a specific greenish cast produced by fluorescent lights (FL). But I guess this off-label use is nice, too.

Daily self-care checklist:

• Sleep: okay, but short because Fiona and I were out at a concert yesterday evening and got back late.
• Walk: a few kilometers around Zaanse Schans
• Photography: see above
• Bass: no. Must do better.
• Snacks: Kruid. Noten. So many kruidnoten. Must do better.

I got rid of another “bookcase” from my study today. “Bookcase” in quotation marks, because it had been storing stationery, files, and assorted office debris rather than books. The beautiful chair I bought a couple of months ago I ended up moving downstairs into the library corner of the living room, because the study was feeling too crowded with it in place. I’m trying to find the right balance between more space (which is nice) and really nice stuff (which is also nice).

I took the new camera with me on my trip to drop off another load of stuff at the Kringloopwinkel. I had though to take some pictures of the Kissing Couple XXXL statue from across the water, but they were too far away, and the air was too hazy. But just as I was about to turn back to the car. I noticed that I had been standing just five meters away from a perfectly still heron. It was intent on watching the water, and it let me get a little closer to take some shots of it instead.

Daily self-care checklist:

• Sleep: excellent. Fiona’s school had an inset day, and I was able to sleep late to 09:30.
• Bass: no
• Walk: yes, about 2km in bits and pieces on the way to the Sugar Factory with Fiona to see an Emma Blackery gig
• Photography: heron, and lots of pics at the gig, most of which are underexposed and out of focus. Some of them have great potential, though, but I need some more time to select the best and clean them up.
• Snacks: kruidnoten again

It’s been a day of tidying and sorting through old stuffs.

Daily self-care checklist:

• Sleep: poor and too short, but I had a nap later in the morning
• Walk: 2km to the shops and back, to drop off a parcel
• Photography: Just a couple of shots indoors
• Bass: no
• Snacks: kruidnoten

Abi and I went plane-spotting-spotting today. Schiphol has numerous spotting sites dotted around its six (!) runways. I figure they’ll give me some good sites for taking pics with the new camera, but I wanted to take a look at them first and get a feel for what kind of conditions they’d work best in. The big official spotters site is to the west of the Polderbaan, for example, so sunrise will be behind planes taking off.

We had a look at a few sites. The main ones are well placed and have amenities. The Polderbaan was busy, and there was an ice cream van and a food truck catering to at least a hundred sightseers and photographers; the site at the Buitenveldertbaan is at a McDonalds. We watched a few planes take off from the Polderbaan, and had a milkshake and a coffee at Buitenveldert.

Daily self-care checklist:

• Sleep: good
• Walk: weeeellll, I got out of the house, and we wandered a few hundred meters in the outskirts of Hoofddorp so I’ll go with a maybe.
• Photography: yep
• Bass: yes
• Snacks: Madame Cocos dark chocolate coconut ball, and a pile of kruidnoten that Alex’s gaming buddies left behind.

Daily self-care checklist:

• Good sleep: yes
• Walk: yes, 1.5h minimal Twiske loop with frequent stops for photos
• Photography: see above
• Bass: no
• Snacks: 1/2 koffiebroodje and one Madame Cocos coconut ball