How brilliantly orange accessories go with the brown jeans and a green top. Green and orange are a good combination. The leopard boots (Eijk Store) have orange in them too. As usual the bag’s orange shade is far too bright in these photos. I cannot get that right.
Marjolein and I photographed the outfit in Leiden, thinking it would be a sunny day. Oh, what a pity. Cold, windy and miserable are the best ways to describe the weather. Nevertheless, I have to be without a coat for the photos.
Below: We started at Restaurant Paco Ciao, on our way from the station to the centre. You see Marjolein sitting at the piano, but when I walked in 15 minutes before, this was the room I saw with no people and no restaurant. I was puzzled and went back outside, caught the attention of guests sitting in the bay window, gesticulate how to get in. A woman laughed and came to fetch me.
Below: Marjolein showing how the mirror door of the cupboard is actually the door to the restaurant. So funny and clever.
Below: Here is Marjolein at the restaurant. We finally found the entrance.
Below: We had high hopes as the sun was shining. Alas, only for a short while. I am wearing my orange earrings by Lara Design and my arty orange brooch.
Below: The view from our table at Paco Ciao. The restaurant is in a very grand old house and decorated quite quirky.
As we left the restaurant, one of the waitresses said “You should have a look upstairs and see the other rooms. And don’t forget to pay a visit to the WC, weird as it may sound”.
So we did.
Below: As we went up the grand stairs we passed this glass-stained window. Wow.
Below: This is part of the restaurant upstairs, located in a room with a beautiful old fireplace.
Sorry for the blurriness; I didn’t check the photo carefully enough after I took it. Lots of things go wrong because I need to put reading glasses on, and I am often too lazy to do that. And no, I am not going to wear glasses with a reading section. I hate glasses on me.
Below: Another room, probably used as a lounge room where they serve drinks. Did I say the decoration was quirky? I didn’t exaggerate, did I? Love the books, glued to the mantelpiece.
Below: More books glued to the opposite wall. Fun idea.
Below: The bedroom is also part of the restaurant, with tables around the bed haha.
Below: We headed downstairs to see what was going on in the WC. A lot was going on in there. See that button in the photo bottom right? With the sign Boogie and Shake ya booty?
Below: We pressed the button (several times even) and this is what happened: DISCO.
What a great place. We loved it.
It was time to take outfit photos. We planned to do an almshouse courtyard tour. As it was really cold, we only tried about 4 of 5 and they were disappointing. There might be lovely ones (there are 21 of them which are open to the public) but after the disappointing start and given the icy cold, we didn’t want to continue.
Below: The first courtyard which was absolute crap. Marjolein suggested this pose.
I hate that my hair and hairpiece weren’t behaving as I would like to. You know me and my obsession with my hair. I had saved money to go back to the salon and either get this hairpiece in a better shape or buy a new one, but I blew the money on a new and lighter camera.
Below: We spotted a cat, climbing a tree. They were a bit of a dare devil.
Below: Hey kitty, sweet kitty. Marjolein and I are both very much cat lovers.
Below: A sitting down photo. I haven’t learned any new poses. The brown trousers are new and so is the green blouse (a bargain). The accessories create more interest to the outfit in my opinion. I also had green and orange bracelets but that was too matchy matchy, even for me, so I went with brown ones.
Below: I wore my kimono style coat with an orange scarf (gift from Marjolein). I didn’t need to wear my long brown gloves which surprised me as it was so cold.
Below: As we walked through Leiden, there were plenty of beautiful houses and buildings to photograph. Here are two random ones.
Below: We found out that this house used to be a slaughterhouse (specifically of cows?) as the mural above the name showed cows on the left and carcasses on the right.
Below: Lunch at Brownies and Downies, always so sweet. A photo of their proud staff hung on the wall. They are a chain with about 60 lunchrooms and a big part of their staff are people who face barriers to employment. The link to their history is only in Dutch.
Below: Time to photograph Marjolein’s outfit head to toe. “Take your coat off…” Reluctantly she did haha. The things we do for a blog post.
Below: They were filming close to where we were. Probably a war film looking at the uniforms and helmets.
Below: This almshouse courtyard was a bit better but not looking as good as in the brochure. They took a hell of a good angle for that.
Below: Walking back to the station and a last coffee at a restaurant, we spotted a few things more to show you.
Below: Beautiful door.
Below: Funny. The poster in the window of this hairdresser says: “Not satisfied? Then you get your hair back”. In short: No good? Hair returned.
Below: One last beautiful building, cause you love them.
What happened in my life this week
First a response to the question of some of my readers, how to pronounce my name. Here it is in this video below.
The central heating boiler had to be fixed twice by the plumber. After his first attempt, it went OK, in the sense that when it shut down, you only had to press a button and bingo, the heat came back on again. Hopefully, it is now permanently fixed.
Below: As promised last week, a photo of my family at my brother’s birthday.
We had dinner with Froukje and Petro. And on Sunday our friends George and Marla fed us with pea soup. That day they looked after dog Watson while we were babysitting granddaughter Evy. Her parents took Evy’s big sister Zoë (3 years old) to a Saint Nicholas performance in a theatre.
Below: Normally Saint Nicholas is only a hype with children around the 5th of December. But Zoë loves Sint Nicholas and his Pieten (Peets) all year round. If you want more explanation about this huge event in the Netherlands, check this out.
We saw a film called The Penguin Lessons. Yes, as the poster says, it was funny and endearing, but the dark reality that lay underneath, got under my skin. The film is set in Argentina in 1976. And the fact that innocent people could just be thrown into prison, get tortured and killed, gets to me. It gets to me because I know this is still going on in sooo many parts of the world. It makes me sad.
The film was playing at the Koepel (dome) which used to be a heavily guarded prison. It is now turned into a business centre, restaurant and film theatres. The film theatres are all the way down in the basement. Magnificent building.
Below: The roof of the Koepel photographed by me for a photo course; theme Repeat and Rhythm.
Below: These cells are still in the building, reminders of the past. Only, behind the doors are now spaces used for several purposes, with a lot of light and no bars. I also took this photo for the photo course.
Below: Enjoying a pizza before the film started with a concentrating (grumpy) face. Evidence why I always smile in my blog photos.
I am wearing my pearls a lot as they have been newly strung and are still a bit tight.
Marjolein and I did another photo shoot in The Hague to boost my stock. Another cold day, which made me choose the Passage (old, covered shopping street) as background. We always find a place to show you which is just a little bit different even if we have been there before. The Passage was dry, no wind, not that cold and there was enough light. We used my new light-weight camera. Only, every camera needs light, enough light for sharp photos. Even though the roof of the Passage is glass, the photos aren’t that sharp.
Had a couple of FaceTime hours with Anja in Spain. Such a good way to keep in touch.
Hanka came over for an hour to have a coffee and to catch up. She is, of course, struggling with the loss of her husband but coping remarkably well. Her adult children are living with her which softens the pain just a little bit, I expect.
Had huge problems with my Photo Editor programme and the photos taken with the new camera. I won’t go into detail as it is tedious, but I had to ring a few people before everything was fixed again. I have an IT man for my blog and another one for my computer. Without them I would be lost.
After a day with Nicky and Randolf and the granddaughters we went out for a meal in a brown café (that’s how we call such an establishment), followed by a fab theatre performance. Dog Watson spent the night with the dog sitter, bless her heart.
Below: Brown café.
Below: Not the best angle to take a photo of me, but the dinner was excellent (not just chips).
Photo Assignment Black and white
Here are three photos I took with my new camera.
Below: See that the ‘cat’ on the roof is a panther?
Below: Little tower on a house.
Below: Window.
That’s it for this week.
Greetje
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