looks like we made it

i'll admit it was touch and go for a little bit there in amsterdam. nerves were wearing thin after 10 days of non-stop togetherness and 12 hours cramped together on the plane. there was a bit of snapping. and husband showed himself to be rather prissily annoyingly danish rule-oriented and admonished me for taking the next picture, snarking, "you know it's illegal to take photographs in an airport," in a neah-neah-i-hope-they-haul-you-away-and-we-never-see-you-again voice.

but i think it turned out pretty well, despite what he said. morning sunshine on a shiny, clean plane that's just waiting to take you home is a lovely sight indeed.

then just to be defiant of husband and his grown-up rules and stuff, i took this shot of the pilot's feet as he went by.

and nobody said a word to me about taking pictures. legal or not. so neah-neah yourself, husband. yup, i can be very mature.

then we got home at last and the day is completely glorious and the garden is beautiful (if fading a little, with hints of autumn here and there) and that (and a shower) made things better. as did hanging out in the garden with a book, relaxing and getting acquainted with little guys like this one...i think he's a moth, not a butterfly, but he's pretty anyway.

and soon, there will be cold white wine and charcoals starting up and yummy tarragon mustard potato salad and grilled ribs. and all that long journey will prove to have been worth it if only because it makes us appreciate home.

will be back soon with many of the impressions and stories i've been collecting over the past week or so...in the meantime, happy weekend!

EDIT: i have since looked into the question of legality of taking photos in airports...it seems that it varies by airport and some (like AMS) actually have areas where they allow/encourage it. however, where they generally don't encourage it is at security, so do be careful when photographing in airports! the photos i took were probably quite ok, since there's no security facilities in sight, tho' they might have objected to the detail of the activity around the plane itself in the shot of the plane being loaded at the gate.

in the waning hours of our trip

we are headed for home today (late this evening, really), but i will leave you with a few more of sabin's latest photos.  she's onto something with Little Pink, as we've dubbed the old sony cyber-shot,  i tell you....

in the background upper right, the outdoor airconditioning units are visible.
they are that weird round eyeball-like thing.

sabin's favorite lunch place...she gets a "toast" with cheese and ham

(i think where i grew up, we would call this a grilled cheese sandwich.)

the kid has got an eye.

it makes a mother proud.

if you'd like to see my new obsession: jelly iced vanilla latte, go here.
i'm gonna miss those.
but undoubtedly they wouldn't taste the same at home.

an extraordinary tolerance for madness

it seems that people will tolerate and even be charmed by your madness if you've already established yourself with them. like by hanging out for endless hours every evening at the pool and eating dinner at their restaurant several two nights in a row. so that they kinda know you and your proclivity for ordering a fruit plate with only dragon fruit. because the child does so adore dragon fruit. so when you come with a little bag containing your nikon, a magazine and yes, a little red robot of which you may have bought two three four different models (because husband says you need a critical mass of something in order to have a collection (tidy little blame assessment there, eh?)). and although it's really quite dark, you are attempting to photograph your robot, and then there's that thing where you really hate to use the flash, so you don't. and then the staff begins to assist, by suggesting new places where the robot would look fetching. like next to the candle and your wine. with the pool in the background. and a lovely flower that had fallen from one of the nearby trees.

don't you just love robots? and when people tolerate your eccentricities? next time, you bring a tripod. but you still refuse to use flash...

are you afraid of heights?

i'm not so keen on heights, but i did manage these stairs yesterday no problem (just don't look down). i guess if you're a motivated ship geek (which should have been one of my secrets, since it's rather out of character), you'll do whatever you have to.

headache now gone, thank you all for your headache-go-away vibes, i think they helped.

and now i'm off to fika so that i have pictures to contribute here. any excuse for a starbucks, i tell you...

if you can't stand the heat...

...lie down until the headache you got traipsing all around an LNG carrier that was in a dry dock at a shipyard passes and then go out for sushi.

more tomorrow when the headache aura has faded...

p.s. this shot is taken at Clarke Quay, Singapore

if you give a child a camera...

we handed the little pink sony cybershot over to sabin today and i hereby give you what she came up with...all shots from onboard the singapore flyer (the world's largest ferris wheel)...

i'm pretty proud of this one.

it seems she IS watching.

far's new shoes are cool too!

singapore flyer - from the inside

construction all around.

it's almost as if they don't know there's a financial crisis.

more views of below.

hmm, wonder how these photos w/the 60 mm macro lens are going to turn out?

far's got the "little" nikon w/the BIG lens

she's got a good eye.

i wonder when she's going to demand a "big" camera?

yup, she's got an eye.

going to bed now. big day ahead tomorrow. back to work for me.

butterflies, dolphins and birds, oh my

although singapore is like disneyland with nationhood in more ways that i can even enumerate at the moment (but promise to when i get home and am on a proper (read: not slow hotel) connection again and have time (to myself) to think) we had a completely and utterly brilliant day today. it's 11 p.m. as i write this and the day was so wonderful i don't want it to end (which is why room service brings you wine, but i digress). but, for now, a few pictures (what a surprise that is, eh?)...

that is indeed a pink dolphin. they were so cute.

but kinda artificial-seeming, tho' they're not, they're real. 

(one of the few things in singapore.)

(more about that later.)

and one more bird...

i was very nearly an authentic bird doo head.

thankfully tho' not in the end.

(no cracks about the wrinkles, please.)