Souvenir Foto Friday: Amsterdam in Motion

Assignment 6: Blur on Purpose

I read the assignment notes for this on Flickr before the notes went up on the Souvenir Foto website; and I had a little panic.

Blur on purpose? It was like a return to the dark days of childhood photography. Handshake, cutting off people's heads - not good. How on earth would I blur on purpose without it looking like I gave the camera to a small child?

So I hit the internet, ah google, my old friend.

What I discovered was that there is a whole movement of photography dedicated to blurring on purpose. While the photographs I found were stunning, details on technique were not very forthcoming.

I did discover that it was all to do with playing around with shutter speed and aperture. Which meant I had to learn about shutter speed and aperture. Which meant that, three months after getting the camera I was finally going to have to break out the instruction manual.

Dammit.

The instruction manual was informative. It certainly told me how to set shutter speed and apperture but I still didn't understand what I was doing.

Next stop, the Digital Photography School . I read up on Shutter Speed and Appertures. Then moved on to Aperture and Shutter Priority Modes.

Now we were getting somewhere.

I had been particularly taken with a Blur on Purpose photo I had seen during my research, (now regretably lost in the internet) a black and white shot taken in Japan which showed blurred movement on a crisp background. I knew I wanted to do something like that, which would mean playing with the shutter priority mode, which blurs movement.

I took myself into the centre of Amsterdam and positioned myself on a busy cross roads. Then I just started clicking. I aimed for dense crowds and bikes. I shot at eye level and from the hip to see which came out best. I varied my shuttter speed until I found one that let in just enough light while still giving a good blur of movement, 1/20 on a very bright day.

In post-processing the black and white wasn't quite working for me though. It looked good but the bike wasn't quite right. When I had looked at the photo, the bike had seemed ethereal, almost ghostly and I wanted to play that up. So I cropped it down and layed the holga-ish effect from Picnik over the top. And it worked.

I am particularly pleased with the crispness of the shadow on the ground against the blur of the people above.

The original of the photo is in my photostream.

Restaurant Review: La Place

It has to be said that Amsterdam is not a city that lunches. Obviously, people eat lunch but if you are trekking around time and want something other than soup, salad or a sandwich but you don't want a full meal then your options are going to be a little more limited.

Step in La Place eateries. La Place have quite the coverage in Amsterdam. Not only do they run the catering in two major department stores (V & D and De Bijenkorf), but they also service several major workplaces. Lucky workplaces.

It is self service, but certainly not the self service I recognise from British department stores. At La Place everything is divided into zones. A salad bar zone, and what salads! Grilled veggies as far as the eye can see. huge bowls of leaves and wedges of tomato. A grilled meat bar, a grilled fish bar. Some locations have a pizza oven, some a stir fry bar. A soup station, juice bar and drinks bar are all within striking distance. Just pick up a tray and load up. The best thing is that everything is prepared right in front of you - fresh, fresh, fresh.

Once you have paid and collected your cuttlery then you can choose your seating. Today I was in the V&D on Kalverstraat and scored an outside table in the glorious sunshine so that I could watch the world go by beneath me. If the balcony is full or the weather a little less clement then sitting inside is no hardship underneath the glass roof (pictured above). If you are meeting someone there then there are rooms named after nearby streets, "I'll meet you in Damrak..."

Over at De Bijenkorf, following last year's major facelift you can sit in differently themed areas all showcasing designer furniture from the furniture department below. Eames chairs, Tom Dixon lighting. Or sit out on the new roof terrace secluded from the busy streets below, snacking on sushi before heading back down into the chaos of central Amsterdam.

Book Club: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

I attended a book club last night as part of my "need to get out more" plan. I had only attended a book club once before, in England, where I turned out to be the youngest there by a good few decades. It was not a success. But, nothing ventured etc. So I signed up for the first available book club (there are a few running for expats in Amsterdam) on the grounds that I had already read the book and therefore there was a good chance that I would be able to contribute to a discussion.

Last night's book was The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid. I admit, I was slightly nervous going into the discussion. I found the book utterly brilliant but it deals with difficult and challenging issues which can provoke and polarise people. Generally, my two conversational rules with strangers are to avoid religion and politics. This walked into the bear pit of both. Fortunately, the book group consisted of smart, intelligent women with a lot to say. I needn't have worried. Not that I agreed with everything everyone said, nor they with me, I'm sure. However, it felt as though everyone in a group of 15 or so chipped in an opinion at some point. Opinions which made me think, or made me reavaluate, or made me say "oh, I never thought of it that way, I wonder if that means...". In short, I loved it. Today, I am still rolling around the following questions:

- Did the protagonist's relationship with Erica reflect his relationship with America?
- The protagonist changed his personality to fit into the role required of him by others, boyfriend, employee etc. When he returns to Pakistan, does he change his personality again to fit in or are we seeing his true personality?
- The concept of fundamentalism is not given a structured definition in the book, is it referring to religious fundamentalism or something else and if so what?

I am a book hound, reading one to two books a week (it is my most expensive vice). I did English literature to degree level and have a real passion for books, all books, any books. What I realised last night is that since we moved to Amsterdam I had got out of the habit of discussing books. The lovely husband doesn't read fiction (he loves non-fiction, history, political biography), whereas I used to discuss books all the time with friends and we would swap them amongst ourselves I don't have that network here and so my book discussions have somewhat dried up.

Next month the group are reading The Shack by WM Paul Young and the following month we will be reading The Other Hand by Chris Cleave. I'll let you know how it goes.

This is where we are...

With just 37 days until I get my hands on those keys things have stepped up a notch in the preparations. You may remember that we had already survived round one of the sofa delivery debacle, which gave us a grand total of 3 pieces of furniture (we already own a guest bed). We needed, and indeed still need, more. So at the weekend we ramped up the purchasing. Our tally so far:

• One sofa and armchair - already ordered for delivery the week after we get the keys... hopefully.
• One bed, boxspring - ordered to be delivered the day after we get the keys.
• One quilt, we already have pillows
• One DVD player - which may or may not be on its way to the UK depending on whether the Company sent it to my delivery address or my billing address. Their confirmation e-mail was unclear on this point and they have been incredibly silent since I asked for confirmation and provided them with a copy of the order. Am I to be cursed by deliveries?
• One desk chair with a E50 discount as it is the end of the line (hurrah, I would have bought it full price anyway).
  
• One set of Bemz covers for the, as yet, unbought dining chairs.

Which, I am sure you will agree, is progress. We have also:

• decided on a coffee table. An "opium table" rather like this one, but in natural wood, unless I change my mind and go for the dark stained wood, or the natural...

We have also chosen a television. And when did televisions get so expensive? I mean, really? We are not a tv watching household, more of a dvd boxset sort of a watching household. It galls me to spend this much money on something we don't use that much, but I have aesthetic issues. I simply cannot have a large lump of black plastic and glass as the focus of the room, so the television had to be as unobtrusive as possible while still being of a decent size to watch (which for the lovely husband seemed to mean 32 inch). The most unobtrusive I could find was a Samsung with a white surround, rather than black, however, it was way over my tentative budget. I just couldn't go there. Rather than bitch and whine about it (as I usually would), I took matters into my own hands and hit the internet. Having discovered it relatively cheaply in the UK and Germany I quickly worked out that no company would ship it due to size. Which meant hunting around the internet in Dutch.

I don't know what your experiences of buying online from Dutch companies have been like but my limited experience has left me frustrated and vowing never to do it ever again. It may be just my impression but online shopping has not really advanced here the way it has in the UK. The process is slow and complicated. One order required a bank transfer as a payment system rather than the more simple, plug in your credit card and away we go. Still, the lure of a cheaper product was too much for me and I hit the internet with a vengance. I started off with www.kelkoo.nl, a pricing website, to familiarise myself with the stores which stocked the tv I wanted. That worked well and I found it much cheaper at www.bestekeus.nl. It was still quite a lot though, so I pondered on it for 24 hours and tried again. This time I went to a dutch pricing site, www.beslist.nl who had a greater range of shops. The cheapest option on there was www.plasmadiscounter.nl. Joy of joys, they accept cards, no bank transfer hassle and they also promise to match the cheapest price you can find the product at. Hurrah. I am a happy bunny (well, as happy as a bunny still spending too much on a television can be). I'll let you know how the delivery goes. Maybe third time's the charm.

2e Pinksterdag

It is a holiday today in the Netherlands, Pinksterdag (officially today is tweede - 2e - pinksterdag) or Pentecost. I just couldn't resist the pink flowers for Pinksterdag.

Restaurant Review: Da Pino

At the end of last year a new Italian wine shop opened near us. This filled the Lovely Husband with unequivocable joy. He loves his wine, and has quickly bonded with the owner of the new establishment. One Saturday, some weeks ago, while the Lovely Husband was indulging his wine purchasing hobby, I got talking to the owner about Italian restaurants as they supply many of the top restaurants in the Netherlands. His recommendation was Da Pino on Overtoom and I had been waiting for a suitable occasion to try it out.

Just such an occasion presented itself yesterday when the Lovely Husband signed a new contract at work. A small celebration was definitely in order.

We strolled in the late evening sunshine up the Schinkel Canal to Overtoom (keeping our heads down as we passed the gym - pre-indulgence guilt, don't you know). There were no free tables outside so we took a table inside which was slightly warm for a summer evening but still quite pleasant and meant that we got to make friends with the house dog, Tartufo.

Da Pino had a lot to live up to, it came highly recommended and I already have a favourite Italian restaurant in Amsterdam (also local, La Favola). Having lived in Italy my standards for Italian food are very high.

I started with Swordfish Carpaccio, heavily flavoured with a good quality balsamic dressing. Before moving onto a pasta dish of perfectly made fresh ravioli filled with roasted aubergine and scamorza (Italian smoked cheese), which had been scattered with confit roma tomatoes and fresh parmesan. At the recommendation of our very knowledgable waiter I segued neatly to baked sea bass fillets which had been prepared en papillote with shellfish and more of the confit tomatoes served with rosemary roasted potatoes and a large side salad, both of which I barely touched, for shame. Desserts, while they looked lovely on the chalkboard, were not even an option after that and we gratefully paid the bill before rolling ourselves home.

La Favola, you have a worthy contendor for my affections.

Bar Review: Golden Brown, Amsterdam

Image by Caneles

I need to get out more. No, really, I do. We have got in to the habit of not going out as much as we once did. We have all the reasons in the world for this:

- We're too tired
- We like each others company
- We like our home and love staying in
- Why go out when we have good food and booze at home

all these things are true. However, I am a social creature, much more so than the lovely husband and he gets his fix of people interaction every day at work. I work from home and am often climbing the walls from social isolation.

So on Thursday I coerced a friend into organising a girls night out which had the added benefit of me trying out a new bar in the neighbourhood.

Golden Brown is situated in one of the side streets about halfway down Overtoom.

First impressions were excellent. Outdoor seating for a warm summers evening huge windows showcasing a mezzanine level. It reminded me somewhat of a pint-sized version of the Lizard Lounge in Paris - God, I miss the Lizard Lounge...

Anyway, I digress, the exterior was good and the interior was equally lovely.

Image from Golden Brown's Website

Look at that squishy seating. We coveted those seats all night long, why? Because the people who had comandeered them spent most of the night outside smoking. I am sure the bags they left guarding their seats were extremely comfortable, we on the other hand took a table behind and glared jealously everytime they left for a cigarette.

A late start meant that we were just there for drinks. The wine selction was good and over the course of the evening we tried two different whites, both of which were excellent. I found it a complete novelty that the win was served in "regular" wine glasses, probably 150ml. I had got so used to the English measure of 250ml that these were dinky by comparison.

The table service was fast and attentive. Our waiter looked as though he was on a bungee rope so quickly did he bound about the room. The only delay seemed to be when one of our party asked for bitteballen just before the kitchen closed, it seemed to take a while for them to come out but when they did apparantly they were very good (as a vege I do not understand the bitteballen craze.)

When we eventually asked for the bill it was stunningly cheap, we thought they must have made a mistake but no. We laid down our cash and headed home. Definitely recommended.

Het Bos

I know, I know. I should be posting some of the 279 photos of our trip to America, or reviewing some of the restaurants we visited, or telling you all about the surprise the Lovely Husband planned for me and I will, I promise. However, yesterday was a gloriously sunny day in Amsterdam. So glorious that instead of editing photos and cursing myself for forgetting to write down what we ate at each restaurant, we got on our bikes and cycled in the Bos for a couple of hours.


The Bos (or Forest in English) is a mere five minute bike ride from our current front door and once we move to Number 75 (46 days and counting...) will be even less than that. Like many things in Amsterdam it is a man made area which means that while it looks like a huge wild land it has been designed with functional use in mind. There are bike tracks zig zagging through it and large expanses of water as well as smaller ponds. Our closest entrance to the Bos is a bike path so we don't enter at the very congested points (road entrances with parking). We zipped along quite happily in 24 degrees of sunshine and while we definitely saw a lot of people it didn't feel overcrowded at all.

The Bos is home to a huge variety of animals, domestic and wild. You see a lot of horses as there are two riding schools in the Bos. You also see a few Scottish Highland cows roaming freely.


The biggest expanse of water the The Bos is the Nieuwe Meer (New Sea). Its perfect for sailing and there were quite a few power boats out as well.



You can't cycle all the way around the Nieuwe Meer without taking a detour out of the Bos so there is a boat service (web site in Dutch) which takes you and your bike from one side of the Meer to the other for a a couple of Euros. Which is exactly what we did after a brief pause to snack on more chickpea salad (this time with fresh parsely torn up in it) and icy cold bottles of water which we had stashed in frozen wine sleeves in the panier of the Lovely Husband's bike.


We headed home alongside a boat race, crews sliding through the water as excitable supporters rode valiantly along the banks of the river.

I enjoyed every second of it...

Ok, maybe not every second. Inadvertantly cycling into the nudist area was a grave navigational error (oh my eyes, *shudder*) but other than that, truly, a perfect day.

A belated Queen's Day

These are the photos I meant to post on Queen's Day but delayed due to events on the day.




All images by me. More photos here.

Queen's Day

I had planned a photo post for Queen's Day to show how Amsterdam looked through my eyes. Tragically, four people were killed and many others injured today when a driver allegedly drove his car deliberatly towards the Royal family. It seems a little innapropriate to post the pictures today so I will post tomorrow. Those poor people.

Procrastination

I have wasted my time today.

I failed to go swimming.
I failed to start a sewing project.
I failed to write a proper blog post.

I did however, buy a propagator and seeds. I also made galette pastry for dinner which is chilling while I write this and try to sort out the measurements for a new cushion.

Onwards to tomorrow.

In other news, Amsterdam is glorious today. It is warm and sunny, the air smells of flowers and spring.

And at the Noordermarkt I found...

Bric-a-Brac Galore



Chandeliers and Furniture



Red and Orange



Sunny Yellow Kitchenware



Fabric as far as the eye can see.

All photos by me.

Photos taken at the Amsterdam Noordermarkt.

A Walk in Amsterdam

Amsterdam is glorious today. Perfect for a walk to the market. Come along with me.

No need for pedal power today



Taking time to cross the canals



pausing to look at a shop dressed in white



Looking up to see houses swallowing the sky



Crossing another canal where houseboats bob gently in place



My shadow keeping me company



Looking at houseboats and trees, before finally arriving at the market.

All photos by me.