Wednesday 31 August 2016

Chruch

Yesterdays picture, but I didn't have time to post yesterday...
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Very late today so not much story I'm afraid. But...

Walking back from a works meal I sea this church half illuminated. I'm not religious, but I love the buildings!

And the phone. 1 second exposure, hand held on a wall...

Thursday 25 August 2016

Media Park

The heat wave has continued here in Holland today. Upper 30s and high humidity. And some lovely skies.

I had a couple of meetings in the old building, one on the fly, the other almost on the fly - I had at least 4 hours warning :)

But, they were at different times so I got a few kilometres of walking back and forth as well. 

And time to stop on the bridge to get this shot of the exhibition building at the media park complex and with the Hilversum transmitter in view.

As I commented to the team on WhatsApp with a different picture - having to wall between buildings isn't much of a hardship right now :) But what will we think when the weather is grey, cold, wet and miserable!

I'm sure we'll complain, but cope. In the meantime I'm just going to enjoy the sun!

Wednesday 24 August 2016

Dusk

After two weeks not training with my group due to illness I was back again today. In 33 degree heat! And high humidity!

So, lots of short runs (4 x 750m), exercises in between and 2 x 2km there and back (with 1km of 15s walk, 15s sprint) and lots of water after each section.

And, wow, the nights are already drawing in! This was taken about 1km from the end during a walking break when the person who was running next to me commented that it's time to get our running lights again! Seems only a couple of weeks ago that we stopped using them!

Tuesday 23 August 2016

Vaulted

"Stacy, what are you doing on the floor?"

Or, in orther words, "Hello" :)

Yes, the top line is how I was greated by a colleague this morning. Were we the only two in the building and I had decided to try and get a picture of the vaulted ceiling in the entrance hall.

Ok, I was in a summer swing dress, on my hunches, trying not to rip my petticoat with my heels, hovering over the phone whilst setting the timer and trying to get it places just right on the floor - without scratching the screen on the flag stones.

I'm not 100% about the result, it's not as dynamic as I was hoping - but it's a learning experience :)

Saturday 13 August 2016

40 and (apparently) fabulous!

Ok, it's been long enough. Time to take down the cards. But I couldn't not share the one from my aunt, not saying that she knows me well or anything, but I think I own this dress, albeit with a different neckline :)

Sunday 7 August 2016

Best foot forward

Another Sunday, another long run! Well, long for me :)

After the awful run last week that I had to abandon after just 4km (I had given up at 3km, but was still running, at 4km I just had to stop and walk the last 2km...) I was more than a little nervous. Esp after the party yesterday and lack of sleep last night.

And, indeed, during the warm up I felt twinges. But keeping the pace and heart rate down I managed to continue OK. Once I got inro the main running though it was fine. I didn't do mini intervals this time just a nice slow tempo (140bpm) 3 x 20 mins (plus a quick 3 mins at the end).

At the 2/3 point I  was walking in a recovery phase and got a gorgeous shot of the clouds and sun. And then I was playing and got a shot of the pavement and my foot just happened to be in shot. Seeing as I have lots of clouds I thought I'd do the pavement this time :)

At the half way point I came across a triple flight of stairs (3 x 8 steps, or thereabouts) and so decided that whilst I wouldn't do speed intervals, I would do do the steps circuit (up the steps, down the path to the cycle descent back to the bottom of the flights) 5 times. Stupid. I did it fine, but my oh my, am I in pain now! 

Saturday 6 August 2016

Family feest

I may have turned 40 a couple of weeks ago, but due to holidays the celebration with my extended (Dutch) family only happened today. Actually, I'm typing this sitting next to my mother in law. :)

We've had a totally full house this afternoon, adults and children. A lot of fun, and for the first time this year we got the BBQ lit! Something that I've simply been too tired / lazy (delete as appropriate) to get it set up...

Due to family illness we had to make sure that the house is made totally gluten free before the party, and ensure that the food has no gluten in it, and isn't contaminated during preparation. A lot of stress, but also great to have everyone here. And if course this is just one day, the family have to live with it every day! I'll stop stressing when I hear that everyone is feeling fine tomorrow morning.

Eating in the garden, and kids doing gymnastics behind us whilst we eat and drink. Our little man loves the company as well :)

Ah, 40 is still good!!!

Friday 5 August 2016

Getting cultured

I've been living in the Netherlands for a long time, it's been that long since I called England home that I can't remeber and I feel far more at home here than in there. 

With the Brexit and subsequent rise of open xenophobia I thought it was about time to really make this country my home. After all I plan on staying here for a very long time. So this morning, with a toddler in tow, I went to the town hall to ask about the process. It sounds less painful than I imagined and so I'll be starting it in the coming weeks.

Next to the town hall we have our culture centre. I'm ashamed to say that since it has been rebuilt I haven't been in. (It used to be a theater that I went to a couple of times). These days it houses, amongst other things, a restaurant, galary and 2 (iirc) stages.

With the sun behind the clouds, over the buiding I thought I'd give myself a challenge to capture it. So, toddler in one arm, shopping and handbag over my shoulder I tried a one handed shot! I. The circumstances I was quite happy with it :)

(Though nowhere near either Lori or Caroline's standard though Calie ;p )

Thursday 4 August 2016

Focus beam

Today was a very long one. 11 hours door to door to the office and back and a very complex discussions has me quite exhausted! 

So today... A bulb picture again! These have a beam lens on then and are quite bright and I was quite curious as to what the lens would pick up.

Yet again, the lens impressed me! Getting the satin finish of the refelctor in the lens and the LED itself is beyond what I was expecting!

Wednesday 3 August 2016

Folding wood

So... I've decided to start cross posting my photo blog here. I'm not sure that I'll mage it everyday as I'm manually writing both posts as I can't find a way to automatically cross post from WordPress... Anyway, lets start with today's post!

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Whilst sitting having lunch today (yes, I stopped long enough to eat away from my desk!) I noticed another tree trunk stool in the corner of the canteen.

Whilst chatting I started to look at the way the wood had grown folding in onto itself. So, apologising to my colleagues, I went across and tried to get low enough to grab a shot. I think with a movable light source I could spend hours and fill a months pictures from the it :)