Saturday, June 23, 2012

My street

This is my "street".  Quite nice if you don't mind me sayin'...

I was bored and went for a walk. On Leidseplein there were guys breakdancing.















Pity the battery of my big camera was empty...

Friday, June 22, 2012

The bite

The day started very grey and very windy.

The neighbours bit off a bit more than they can chew ;-)

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Mr. wet T-shirt

This time they've made a proper nest!

The little duckies sure get around.

Today I confirmed that there are actually 2 grebe pairs. This one has 4 little ones. Competition amongst the little grebes is quite fierce. Now and again you'll see one of the bigger ones chase the smallest one away. Cruel natural selection...

I think this little one from the other pair is abandoned...

I took tram 25 after work to go to UPC, my cable company, to look for a new modem/router with wifi.

Surprise, surprise! They swapped my old model (1 port, no wifi) for a brand new cisco modem/router (4 port + wifi) for free! When I came home it was pissing down.

I joined a one man Mr. wet t-shirt contest...

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Happy birthday G!

When a baby grebe is hungry, it packs its parents tail.

7 little duckies.

1 little whisky ;-)

I had dinner with Marjolein and Gerrit and then we had some drinks in Mulligans. It was a fun evening :-) Kees was there as well.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The eviction

This squatted house a block away from me was going to be evicted today.

Walking along I got the impression the squatters had already left... I wonder when the squatters next door of me will get kicked out...

On my way to work there were lots of birds again. This ducky has about 6-7 ducklings.

Nile geese with 7 babies.

At work I fixed my plant a bit.

On the way home I saw the grebes again, still with 3 out of 4 little ones.

Monday, June 18, 2012

HDR Zimmer tower

Somehow, yesterday, someone build a jetty around the corner. I wonder what it will be for.

There were 2 little doggies on the ferry.

The swan family is still together. They're all doing very well.

Marjolein went to Belgium this weekend and made a very nice picture of the Zimmer tower in the town of Lier. (More info on the tower here)

The picture she took is on the left. The picture on the right was enhanced using an HDR tool.

Here as well, original picture on the left, this time the right was enhanced with HDR a bit stronger.

The results are fantastic I think.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

The Junior Master Chef

I woke up too early after a late night yesterday. I had breakfast with the paper :-)

Later I added more photos to my facebook album "Places I've been to".

I had a very lazy day. Late arvo I watched the Australian Junior Masterchef. I loved it!

I know the show from when I lived in Australia and their version is the funnest one around with great judges. Never anything nasty, always honest but in a good spirit. The Australian version is always about the positive and fun things, unlike other countries'.

So in the junior competition it's kids cooking. And if you think they can just make scrambled eggs or something, you are sooooooo wrong. Here are a few of the kids standing before the judges.

The judges.

This is Matt Preston, one of Australia's leading food critiques if I'm not mistaken.

The kids all know him from the "big" Master chef they all watch ;-)

They were surprisingly well with the kids.

And then they started cooking...

And baking...

Until it was their turn to be judged!

And they loved it :-)

What did you make?

Hold on, that's not scrambled eggs! There was also this girl and she made Barramundi with a crusty macadamia topping. Another boy boiled chicken in water and made rolls from that with a spinach and nuts and something else filling. The things they produced in the time that I can bake over fries and fish fingers was just mind blowing...

And then I walked in to town. I spotted this tiny mural along the way on the Leidse gracht.

I went to Mulligans. But I can't remember why!