Two glasses of cool, please

Thanks to a tax return I’m travelling to Weesp today to pick up these two babies:

Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX DG Aspherical RF.
This is the one I wanted to get in New York, but they didn’t have it in
store. This one comes in the box (which includes petal hood and padded
case), with added (and valuable: 170 euro) polarisation filter.

Canon EF 28mm f/2.8. Just because I could get a good deal on the two of them together. This one comes with a UV filter and hood.

They are second hand and no bargain, but I’m sparing myself a lot of
hassle not ordering ‘cheap’ online. Dutch online vendors don’t accept
credit cards, shipment always arrives when you’re out, lenses never in
store so you have to wait for weeks. And if you buy from a real shop,
you can put another 100 euro on the price. So… 425 for the lot, I’m
happy.

I expect the 28mm to become my standard lens. The 20mm is a huge fucker so that’ll be for dedicated photography trips.

Expect some pictures later today.

 Early Christmas II


Here they are. Unfortunately the weather is dull and it’s drizzling,
not ideal circumstances to give them a try outside the house.

Powazak.com, brownglasses.com, hchamp.com: IRL

Derek and Heather

I met up with Rachel and the newly wedded Derek and Heather in Amsterdam last night.

Derek I hadn’t seen since 1999 when he worked in my country for a while and we ended up traveling to Ireland together.

It was the first time I met Rachel and Heather. At one point we all showed each other our babies.

The warm weather suited our ‘rijsttafel’ dinner at Tempo Doeloe on Utrechtsestraat. It was fun to see people discover the delights of ‘spekkoek’ (a dense, tasty layered cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and aniseed flavoured cake). I thought the food was better last time I went, but that’s probably because I couldn’t choose between talking and eating.

I believe I was a little hyper and talkative — I felt there was so much to say and so little time, as the honeymooning couple are off to Paris today.

Posted from
flickr