Canadutch » Day to Day Life

Ever Felt Like You Were Being Watched?

Breigh — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 06:57:25 +0000

The above photo shows you what I see when I look out my living room window. We live across from a seniors complex and I’ve posted a few times about how I feel a bit like we live in a goldfish bowl. When you are sitting on my sofa, this is what you see…

Ok, without the window cleaning brush, I mean. The buildings are quite a lot closer than they look in the first photo, so it’s pretty easy to look into each other’s windows, and that has always bugged me.

It has never bugged me more, however, than it did this morning. By bugged I mean freaked me the hell out causing me to scream for Xander to come to the living room right away!

I may have over reacted, I don’t know, but here’s what went down.

It was 7am and it was still pitch black outside. I was sitting on the sofa clipping the cat’s nails, when I had a weird feeling. I looked out the window to the building across from us, which was mostly dark, with the exception of 2-3 windows that were lit up. I glanced across the building and then like in a cartoon my view bounced back to one of the windows. There was someone standing there, just a silhouette in the window of a lit room.

Was he… waving? No, he can’t be, he must be just wiping some condensation from the window or something.

Why does he keep wiping that same spot?

I think he is waving, is he waving to me?? No, it can’t be.

I whisper yelled to Xander in the Lego Lair, like a loud hiss “XANDER I THINK ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE ACROSS FROM US IS WATCHING ME!”

I’m not sure what I was expecting, it was only 7am but I expected something a little more than “That’s nice Honey”.

I continued to go about my business, stopping Spencer from clawing me to shreds while I clipped his nails, all the while rolling my eyes painfully upward to be able to see the dude in the window at the same time. I was watching him, but I didn’t want him to know that I was watching him watching me!

The pattern continued, waving his hand in front of the window and then… why does he keep putting his hands up to his face like that? What is he doing? Oh there, he’s waving again, hands back up in front of his face. Waving. Hands up to eyes… HANDS UP TO EYES… OMG HANDS UP TO FRIGGIN EYES!!!

“XANDER XANDER OMGGETINHERE THIS DUDE HAS BINOCULARS!!!!!! OMG HE’S WATCHING ME WHAT A FREAK GET IN HERE YOU GOTTA COME QUICK!!!”

*** silence ****

“HELLO?!!!! YOU GOTTA COME NOW RIGHT NOW COME LOOK THERE HE GOES AGAIN OMG HE IS WAVING! HE’S LOOKING THROUGH THE BINOCULARS AGAIN. HE IS WATCHING ME XANDERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!”

Meanwhile, I’d totally lost my cool and forget to pretend I wasn’t watching him watching me. I was full on running back and forth to the window, waving my arms and turning to hissscream to my husband. Now that I look back on it, the guy was probably so glad that he got his binoculars out on this morning in particular because I was giving him an Emmy winning performance.

I went and turned off the light, HA! I’ll show him!, I thought. I grabbed my point and shoot camera and tried to zoom in as best I could. I’m so incredibly clever and sneaky, I’m going to catch him in the act! As I pressed the shutter halfway down and saw the little red light reflecting on the window, I knew what was coming. I only knew a split second before it happened, which was the longest split second of my life because I couldn’t stop it.

**************** FLASH **************** DAMMIT!

I had forgotten to turn the flash off before trying to take the photo. SHIT SHIT!! Oh no now he’s really on to me! Drat!

He was waving, oh god… oh no there he goes with the binoculars again!

I quickly turned off the flash, whipped the P&S up in front of me and hoped for the best.

So creepy, so creeeepy! After getting this photo I scurried back to my chair (which is out of view from the window) and uploaded the photo and share my story. SO CREEPY! Don’t you think that’s creepy?!

I mean yeah we all have moments where we walk by houses and will peep in the window if the curtains are open. We don’t STOP and cup our hands to the window and watch what’s going on inside. We don’t bring a lawn chair down the street and sit on the sidewalk with a box of popcorn and watch our neighbours play Scrabble.

Why does this person think it’s ok to look in our windows with binoculars? Ok, it’s possible that he wasn’t watching me, maybe he was looking somewhere else but I could FEEL it, I know he was! Nobody in any of the flats around me in the building are ever up at this hour and you can just tell when someone is watching you, ya know? *Shudder*

I may never open my curtains again. Ever.

Pea Soup Sunday

Breigh — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 07:47:04 +0000

Last Sunday I posted about the foggy weather and sure enough, it’s the same this week, another Pea Soup Sunday! I guess it could be worse, it could be pouring down rain, or freezing but still… I could use a little sunshine again!

I get the feeling we are in for a rather long and dreary winter in the Netherlands this year, which is a bit sad after the dreary summer we had.

On the upside, it’s less than two weeks until I get to start decorating for Christmas, and you KNOW how much I love Christmas!!!

Foggy Sunday

Breigh — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:29:39 +0000

This morning I woke up and couldn’t tell if the windows of our flat were foggy or if it was REALLY that foggy outside.

Turns out, it REALLY was that foggy outside. I grabbed my point and shoot and quickly snapped some photos from our front balcony. It’s a bit wonky but you can get the idea. There is some serious fog going on here in Rotterdam this morning. I’m sure it will probably burn off a little later when the sun is out, or maybe not… doesn’t really matter, it feels like a cozy and quiet day here in Casa Soldaat.

Hope you all have a great Sunday!

P.S. Click HERE to view the photo a bit larger.

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KreaDoe 2011

Breigh — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:41:20 +0000

This weekend I went to a giant craft fair with my two friends Penny and Genevieve. It’s a yearly fair that takes place in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht and you can find supplies and workshops for pretty much any craft you can think of. Of course, I had my trusty little point and shoot along with me!

If you were looking for stamps, this was the place for you! I’m pretty sure I saw about four million of them. There was a lot of stuff for card making and scrapbooking as well, with quilting and other crafts thrown in the mix.

I found that after going through about half of the place I started getting a feeling of seeing the same things again and again. As I was walking I was thinking “Oh yay, more stamps” or “Bleh, more card paper”. Granted, I’m not into stamping or making my own cards so perhaps for those that are, it’d be heaven! Just, most of these stands had all the same things. It was worth it for the odd stand that did have something different, like the guy with the plastic candle things that ran on vegetable oil (that I STILL wish I had bought), or a man from the UK that had really awesome cross stitch patterns (again, wish I had bought one).

It’s definitely worth the visit, and if you can afford it I’d suggest doing some of the workshops. We went just to look around and check the place out, and we had a really good time. I think next year I will visit again but I will sign myself up for one or two workshops ahead of time, I saw some really cool stuff going on there.

Afterwards we went into the city center of Utrecht and had some food and did a bit of shopping. All in all a really fun day out with some really great gals!

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Zombie Walk Amsterdam

Breigh — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 06:37:33 +0000

As I mentioned in an earlier post on Saturday I went into Amsterdam to check out the Zombie Walk. I think I may have had my expectations too high after photos I’d seen from walks in other cities. Most of them took place in the day and it was just people walking like zombies for fun. This was ok but not really like that, it was more like a zombie party.

It was terribly organized. We waited at Dam Square and even though we saw about 4-5 police officers none of them had any idea what was going on. The traffic wasn’t stopped so when the zombies came there was a gridlock between the vehicles that were along with the zombies and the public transit.

When the zombies arrived I sort of got pushed with the crowd into this one spot, and I thought it was going to be great because I was right in front. Unfortunately I was right at the entrance to Dam Square in an intersection and the zombies were packed quite tightly together. It was hard to get photos because when they’d come up to me they were TOO close and I had trouble focusing. I did manage to salvage a few photos though.

McZombies?

You can see more photos here on the Flickr set.

My favorite part of the evening wasn’t even the zombies, it was this little boy in his skeleton costume. He had a great time trying to scare all the people waiting around in the square. It was hilarious to watch.

What bothered me most was that it wasn’t just people being zombies for fun, like a proper zombie attack kind of walk. There were party trucks blaring music, with zombies drinking and smoking and dancing on top. Cars with zombie people driving along and the greater majority of the zombies were walking along smoking, drinking or taking photos themselves, rather than really acting the part.

All in all, regardless of my complaints, it was a fun evening. I’m going to keep my eyes open in case there is a regular, daytime, just for fun zombie walk and when that happens I will get my do-over.

Oh, and did my diffuser make any difference? I have no idea! I use my flash so rarely that I can’t tell if the photos came out better or not because of it. I’ll test it out another time, maybe for x-mas portraits!

Legoworld 2011

Breigh — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:47:58 +0000

My husband is a serious Lego Junkie. He and his friends are really involved in the robotics side of Lego and over the years he’s become increasingly busy with it. The biggest event of the year for them is Legoworld in Zwolle. He goes there each year for almost a week where he and the other Mindstorms guys put on a big display to show the visitors the robots they designed and teach them about what can be done with the Lego Mindstorm (and other related) products.

Last year I was in Canada while he was there, so I decided that this year I would pop by and see what it was all about. Well, pop by may not be the proper term seeing as it was a 2.5 hour trip to get there, but I went to visit nonetheless.

That’ ^^^ my hubby up there ^^^ !

You can see all of the photos here on the Flickr set!

It was very cool, I must admit… very busy, but cool. I can see why my husband is so tired when he comes home after his time there!

If you have a kid, I’d definitely recommend visiting Legoworld some year, it’s like a children’s paradise in there! I think a lot of the parents enjoyed it just as much as the children did, if I’m honest.

KreaDoe 2011

Sailors Take Warning!

Breigh — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 07:31:17 +0000

You know that old saying… red sky at morning, sailor take warning. Well, I wouldn’t want to be out on the sea today! What a beautiful sunrise we had here in Rotterdam! I just love being up early enough to see the sunrise. I’m trying to soak in as many sunny days as possible before winter really hits here, because the word on the street is that we’re in for a long, hard winter.

So not looking forward to that.

In the meantime I’m going to make the absolute best of days like this!

I really like this photo, it’s two photos I stitched together quickly in photoshop. I’m now wishing I had taken three so I could really go for the full panorama effect. I’ll know better next time!

Penny’s Race Day

Breigh — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:45:10 +0000

Last weekend I went to watch my friend Penny run her first 5k. This was a huge thing for her and she had been working incredibly hard to get there, so there was no way I could miss it! I was so proud of all she has achieved over the last while, and I couldn’t wait to be there screaming for her as she crossed the finish line. I was also keen to take photos because while I have taken photos from races before, like the Rotterdam Marathon, I’ve never known anyone that was taking part. I was excited about the challenge for myself photography wise but also to capture the memories for her.

It was a beautifully sunny day with Indian Summer in full effect here in the Netherlands, the temperatures were set to go up into the high 20’s! Xander and I made sure to leave early to make sure we got a good spot to park and that we were able to find them in time before the race. I’m glad we did because there was quite a crowd and it wasn’t long after we arrived that the masses really started arriving.

She was running together with two of her friends, which was great because I’m sure it was a lot less daunting than if she were to do her first one on her own. Her husband’s cousin was also running in the race but we weren’t able to find her before the start.

She and her friend Suzanne were raring and ready to go. They had been planning this together for quite some time and were pretty excited. I couldn’t blame them, I was excited too and I wasn’t even running.

Once the race was getting ready to start I found a spot to squeeze in on the sides. I was a little irritated because some really tall Dutch guy had his arm stuck out videotaping the whole thing, which blocked my view (and probably a load of people behind me as well) and made it difficult for me to get photos. I bitched loads to Xander, in the end trying to do so extra loud so the guy would hear and knock it off, but it wasn’t until whoever it was he was waiting for went by that he finally moved out of the way.

I’m not sure it mattered though, because I quickly remembered how difficult it is to take photos during a race. Do they all have to move so fast? What’s the hurry?

Even with the guy gone I could hardly see, so I had Xander watch and yell when he saw Penny coming. I just barely caught her as she came into view and then was gone in just a few seconds! Before the race I told her to stop when she saw me and give me a few poses, but she didn’t listen. After taking the photos I screamed like a mental patient, all “WAHOOOO PENNY GO PENNY GO PENNY!!!” until Xander reminded me that she had her earphones in and couldn’t hear me anyway… then stepped away and pretended not to know me.

Once she and her friends went by we scurried off to the finish line to wait for them.

Her husband’s cousin and one of Penny’s friends, I’m sorry I don’t remember their names now… both finished before I was able to get in and get a photo. Again, such a hurry! You’d think they were in a race or something!

When I finally did manage to wiggle my way up to the rail I was just in time to catch Suzanne crossing. She looked so happy and looked like she could turn around and do it all over again!

Penny wasn’t far behind and look at how proud she was! I started screaming again, I didn’t care if she couldn’t hear me, I was proud of her too!

This time she DID stop so I was able to get more photos. I’m not sure if it was for my benefit or that she was just keen to stop moving, either way it worked for me!

I continued to stalk her and her friends from the sidelines, taking photos of them and some of the other runners. They were having a great gab for a while, which I assume was about the race, the heat, the other runners around them and whatever else runny people talk about after a race.

We finally caught up with Yuri’s cousin and I couldn’t stop thinking of how unbelievably alike they look. Yuri and his cousin, I mean… I wish I’d gotten a photo of them together because the strength of those family genes are astounding. If you know Yuri and saw this photo you’d be all “Hey Yuri, why are you crouching down like that, and why do you have that blond wig on?”. Seriously, it’s insane.

It is my life’s mission now to get a photo of them together… OR, to put a blond curly wig on Yuri and get a photo of that. Actually, that sounds like a lot more fun.

Anyway, back to Penny…

This is the look of a woman who just achieved something pretty amazing. She set herself a goal, worked hard, went to that race and kicked ass.

I think I told her about 100 times how proud I was of her. I also, being me, came dangerously close to getting weepy a few times. Whatever, it’s what I do.

She is an inspiration and I’m so glad I was there to see all her hard work pay off! Well done, my friend!

Petting Giraffes at Dierenpark Amersfoort = AWESOME!

Breigh — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:53:15 +0000

I’m baaaack! Actually I’ve been back for almost two weeks, but I’ve either been busy, didn’t feel like writing or was having issues with my host. Anyway, I’m here now and that’s what counts.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of the our time in France yet because I made a deal with myself that I’d catch up on all the photos from other adventures before I even started them. Argh, it hurts! I’m so itching to share all of the cool places we saw and things we did!

The first set of photos I promised that I’d work on were from my trip to Dierenpark Amersfoort back in June. A friend of mine had split up with her boyfriend and was returning to the US, so she wanted to get together and do something really cool together before she left us. She has a friend who works at the Zoo in Amersfoort and said that she’d mentioned she could take her behind the scenes to pet and feed giraffes and was wondering if we’d be interested in doing that.

HELL YEAH I was interested!

So one day three of us got together with the girl who worked at the zoo and had the most awesome day. Not only did she take us ‘backstage’ to see the giraffes, but she also spent the entire day with us showing us around the zoo and giving us info on all the different animals. It was fantastic!!

Here’s the photos!

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

You can also view the photos here on the Flickr set.

We had such an amazing day that day. It really was so much fun and such a nice way to say goodbye to a good friend.
If you are interested in visiting zoos in the Netherlands, I recommend this zoo wholeheartedly. I’ve been to three zoos here in the Netherlands (this one, Blijdorp in Rotterdam and Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem) and I think this may be my favorite. Not because it’s the largest or has the most animals but as someone who enjoys taking photos, the enclosures were great. Many of them had just glass separating you from the animals, which gave you the ability to get up quite close, which you can’t do at a lot of zoos.

Hopefully you’ll have more luck getting that white tiger than I did, he was quite elusive… but, it gives me a great reason to visit again someday!

MISS YOU, ERIN!!

See Ya in Two Weeks!

Breigh — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 09:10:48 +0000

I am off on holiday! We are going to the south of France to visit my husband’s family and will be taking off on our own to spend five days camping in the Pyrenees!

This is where we will be camping. Pretty awesome, right?

See you all in two weeks!