These orange pleather trousers and sequinned sweater are both by Essentiel Antwerp, one of my favourite brands because of their colour use. Marjolein was with me when I bought it, and she was also the photographer of these blog photos.

We went to Amsterdam, to the NEMO Science Museum which is a fun and interactive museum. I walked a lot that day and my bad knee was really hurting when I came home. But we had a wonderful day.

Below: View from the NEMO restaurant on the 5th floor. They have huge windows all around. As it was a grey and dreary day, I thought we would get some natural light through those windows for our photos. Alas…they were renovating the roof, which is a spectacular spot for photos and views. Not only could we not use the roof, they had also put posters on many restaurant windows and there were cement bags all around. What a bummer.

Below: To the left is the Scheepvaartmuseum (Maritime Museum), that white building. In front of the Maritime Museum, a replica of a VOC ship from 1748 or so. VOC means Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, in English Dutch East India Company. See what a miserable day it was? Although Marjolein and I were happy there was no rain and hardly any wind.

Below: We started near the windows that didn’t have cement bags in sight but discovered that photos against the light were not sharp.

Below: Then Marjolein spotted these blocks of wood. I laid down as I did in a previous shoot with her (scroll down a bit in that post). This setting didn’t work so well, as Marjolein predicted when I laid down but we had fun and the people around us were puzzled.

Below: Sitting was much better.

Below: A close-up of my blue cowboy boots.

Below: We decided to go outside where the light was better and the background more interesting. Pulling a strange face in this photo.

Below: Great background, Marjolein was lying on the ground and I was smirking.

Below: Those trousers don’t look bad on me at the back either. My right leg is longer than my left one and as the left trouser leg is grazing the ground, I think I’ll have that one taken up and not let the hem out on the other one.

Below: I can tell you that all those sequins weigh heavily on your shoulder.

Below: I took an indoor photo of Marjolein against the big Christmas tree. Without any aiding light it was hopelessly grainy.

Below: So she had to take her coat off too and be photographed outside. Her wool jumper is gorgeous but itchy, which she solved by wearing a shirt underneath in the colour of one of the decorations, the one in the middle of her left sleeve.

I could show you so many photos of all the instruments, games, gadgets etc. that were there, but will limit it to four.

Below: Demonstration of a paddle wheel, a Maltese cross mechanism and a spring. When you turn the wheels the tennis balls start moving and you can see the process.

Below: You can let in water in the different sections and see what it does. Do you let the water go into the big basin? Or are you flooding a village? How fast are you to place sandbags to stop floods? Unfortunately very much reality these days. Well, these days in our western world. There were always floods all over the world of course.

Below: Marjolein was colour testing. What colours can you create with the primary colours.

Below: And like Marjolein in last week’s post, I was trying to save the world by holding a shield to stop meteorite and such falling on earth. I failed miserably as well.

If you are ever in Amsterdam, and especially when you have children with you, this is a fun museum.

What happened in my life this week

Saturday I visited the Christmas market (fair) in Haarlem which was shambles. Loads of food stands, the usual. I tried a waffle but I am used to the Belgian ones which are delicious. This one wasn’t so I threw half of it away. It must be worth the sin to eat so many calories and it wasn’t.
For the rest there were commercial stands, only a bit better than the usual market. Or perhaps the normal Saturday market is even better. And it was sooo busy. Rows and rows of people plodding along, hardly seeing anything. It was like looking at zombies. I went home as fast as I could. Which was not very fast as I was wearing my orange patent leather boots with low stiletto heels (see below). Quite dangerous on a bicycle.

Sunday my friend Ayen came and we had lunch in a lovely restaurant which the loyal readers have seen many times, Het Wapen van Kennemerland, better known as the Smelly Bucket.
Unfortunately Ayen’s salad was not up to standard and the place was packed which amounted to an incredible noise. Wooden floors, stone walls and nothing to soften the voices. We could hardly hear one another and our table was small. See below a grainy dark photo, even worse quality than the outfit photos at NEMO.

Below: Before we left I had taken an outfit photo in the mirror. Ayen and Ron thought it was chic while I had chosen this black and golden outfit for its comfort.

Nothing to report on the Monday.