Auto ongeluk

- Car accident -

I almost died.



As some my lovely readers already knew, I've studied in Sweden and came back to my home country about eight months ago. I went there with a few classmates of mine and we have made a lot of new foreign friends from all over Europe. We organised our first big meeting / reunion in Brussels, which was gonna be held from yesterday until sunday.

So, Tom (the driver), Stefan (in the passengers seat) me and Danique (both sitting in the back) went to Brussels by car. Our journey from Amsterdam started slow...really, really slow. We got stuck in traffic many times and our trip delayed for like a few hours(!). It only takes a little longer than two hours from Brussels to Amsterdam. But after driving for three hours, we still didn't reached Belgium!!

So...one moment we got stuck and the next moment, we could drive again (on a normal high speed).

We were driving in the middle on a three lane highway. Tom changed lanes and went to the left...and found out too late that the cars in this lane was standing completely still...so he quikly hit the brakes...

And so...the 200 meter slip begins....

The car didn't stop...because the roads were very slippery of the rain from a few hours ago and we slipped and slipped!
Tom pulled on the steering wheel and changed lanes (back to the middle lane!) without looking if there was a car behind us on the middle lane. It prevented us from driving into the car which was standing still in front of us.
Thank THE LORD there was no car, behind us, on the middle lane at the moment!!! Otherwise we would've been hit by a 120km/h (75mph) speeding car!



The crash.

Because the roads were slippery, Tom couldn't get the car drive straight so we were slipping all the way to the right...
He pulled on the steering wheel again, making the car go left and hoping to get the car go straight again, but all of a sudden the car went a little too far to the left...about to crash into the cars which were standing still on the left lane!!

Tom prevented us from crashing into those cars by pulling the steering wheel to go right and again we went way too far to the right. Once again Tom steered to the left to make the car drive straight but it didn't work out...we were slipping the whole time and slipped to the cars in the left lane. Again he prevented us from crashing into those cars by steering to the right and that was the moment we made a 360 degrees spin, in the middle of the highway...

We were slipping and spinning until we crashed against the siderails with the back of the car. Me and Danique were so lucky because we were the ones who were in the back. If it happened with a tiny car, me and Danique would've been seriously injured or maybe even dead.

The car can't be used anymore and declared 'a total wreck' by the people from a 'tow truck company' who picked us up after the accident.



We got home safe by cab...

Once back in Amsterdam...me and Stefan went partying all night long at DJ Don Diablo's b-day party just to try to forget the accident. It was a crazy night...

I will post some more pictures (I've made with Danique's camera) later this week, which I've made right after the accident. Because at that time, all of our stuff (including my camera) was stuck in the crashed trunk.

Druk

- Busy -

This week was quite hectic, odd, no fun at all. Yet very funny.
My apologies for not keeping you up to date about my.........my graphic life.

I haven't been shooting around my city as I have been very busy with other things. But today I had to go downtown and I brought my camera along with me:


- I took this one while I was waiting for the red light to go green -


- Scooter -


- Cycling! -

Vleugels

- Wings -

One day I came home from work...and I found this beautiful necklace on the floor in the hallway.


- Heart-anchor and two wings of an angel. Or from a bird. Hm, probably an Angel. Yeeaaaah.... -

It's my sister's...she can be such a slob sometimes. And she blamed Mimi for taking it with him out of her room to the hallway, by accident. Hahahahahaha...haha. Maybe he just wanted to fly, so he can catch some birds (he's really interested in birds; he just stares at them for a loooong, long time through the window):


- Birds (potential food for Mimi), taken on a quiet morning on jan 1st, 2009, Frederiksplein. -


- It didn't really suit my outfit... -

Dag, dag zus

edit version

- Bye, bye sister -

So my sister is moving out of our apartment (which is located in the coziest neighbourhood of Amsterdam: De Pijp):
- She's going to move only 10 minutes away from me (by bike of course) -


- Close the door behind you, willya?? -

...and is really busy packing all of her books, magazines, artwork stuff, shoes and a gazzillion pieces of clothes and of course her most important possession: her cat Mimi (a male cat with a girlie-name. He really lives up to his name because he's acting all gay all the time.).


- He loves ropes...and in this picture he just caught a piece. You see him smiling? -

I'm going to miss Mimi A LOT...but on the other hand...not really. I always say to him: TTYN!! (talk to you never!!), everytime he peed in the house. Yuck!!


- Mimi, looking for a place to PEE...ALWAYS on the lookout. It's unreal how much he can pee. Sooo unreal. -

My sister already found a new housemate for us (me and my sister's friend J.)...his name is Scott.

HANWATTYL! (Have A Nice Weekend And Talk To Y'all Later)

Keizersgracht

Okay...one more time. For the whiners ;) .


Keizersgracht
This street is so long. It's unreal! Keizersgracht is one of the three main canals in our city. Of course we have many, many other canals, but the other two main ones are Prinsengracht and Herengracht.
So, if you're loaded then I recommend spending your cashmoney in a huuuge loft in one of these canals. Or if you're just lucky and become an owner of a room or an apartment, for a cheap price...then you can pretend you're loaded and act like you're all that.

Mama en kindje

- Mama & little child -

This will be my last post about bikes. I'm sure my dear readers are all fed up with my pictures of bicycles.


- Taken in the always cozy Haarlemmerdijk. -

But I just can't help it. There are way too many bikers in this city!

Op tijd je vlucht pakken

- Get Your Plane Right On Time -

'The Man' is leaving tomorrow to Brisbane, Australia!
Noooooooooo!

No more beautiful Amsterdam images by this talented photographer.


- Sneaky shot of The Man -

The first time I met up with him was on a cloudy november afternoon. Wandering 'round the the city, we made a lot of cool pictures outside and a few inside a hip hip hip cafe.
The second, and last time, was in januari. We went to 'Discocult in' club Sugar Factory and had our camera's glued to our hands that whooole night! We started this night making pictures of a band called Einstein Barbie:

The Man's pics of Einstein Barbie.

After that great performance, we continued shooting all over the place...The Man even met model Agyness Deyn (wannabe...)!

The Man's pics.

I've made some of my best shots that night. I don't think I can ever make better action-pictures than the ones I made that day.

- Who's this blonde lady in red??? -


- a 'Million Dollar Kids'-dancer -

Click here to see more. More more more!

So, The Man, goodbye. En tot ziens! Have a great time in 'Down unda!' and good luck with your 30-hour journey....
Oh, remember, GET YOUR PLANE RIGHT ON TIME!

Waarom regent het nou? Deel twee.

- Why does it rain? Part two -

Oh oh oh oh...it has been rainy and snowy allllll morning and it's also friggin' cold.
I've brought my camera along with me but I haven't made any pictures today. It's because.......
I just didn't felt like taking pics as it was rrrrealy cold and wet. My poor camera would've died. He almost died, a few weeks ago and, 'fortunately', only the lens broke in two...

Anyways, here's a picture I've shot on the same day as when I shot these ones:

Part 1

Have a nice Valentine's weekend! To all my single readers out there: be a wolf this weekend and go hunt for some single people and do whatever you wanna do with them! Tear 'm apart! Ok.....that didn't make any sense.
Just check out the (older) pic!

Fietsen

'There are nine million bicycles in Beijing
That's a fact,
It's a thing we can't deny
Like the fact that I will love you till I die.'

- Katie Melua



Our bikes get stolen so often...it's unreal! I bet there are about nine million stolen bikes circulating in Amsterdam only. Oh...don't worry. Mine isn't stolen (YET).
But you know what? My bike is almost 12 years old. In the first 11 years he looked shiny and beautiful. And within a year, in Amsterdam, he got all rusty, lights were stolen, tires got flat, making squeeky noises and he's about to break up in separate parts. It's no goody for bikes in Amsterdam...they get OLD very fast.

Badkamer

- Bathroom -

Last week, I was at my parents' place. And the next morning, I had a shooting...in the bathroom.


Stylist: Me
Model: Me
Photographer: Me
Mirror: My parents'
Camera: Mine (Canon EOS 400D)
White T-Shirt: uhm...I can't remember.

I have been tagged...!

- By The Man Who Knew Too Much -
Thanks dude! Also many thanks for giving me a Fabulous Blog Award. Haha.

You can find the questions and answers by clicking on the comments link. I want to use this space for a picture;

This was not taken in de world famous Red Light District. It's a street I always have to go through when travelling home from my internship. It's waaay less crowded in this location than the real RLD.
(edit: of course you can look for the same thing, just like in the real RLD, only in this street there aren't as many choices. :P)

Goedkope boeken om de hoek

- Cheap books around the corner -

Question for the non-Dutch visitors: Can you pronounce the title of this post?

:D

These were taken on the night when me and my friend Danique came back from a Lykke Li's concert, last december.
Before we went inside, we took a look, right around the corner from where I live, at some old books that are always placed on a stand, outside of the booksellers house...
Yes you read that right! Books, just placed outside of the house...and the bookseller is sleeping (INSIDE of course!)!
(I think he lives on the first floor, because there are only paintings and books in the room on the groundfloor.)
I still don't know where he gets his books from, because there are always new books (second hand, perhaps even third hand) everyday.


- If you look at the window...you can see books and an artpiece behind it... -

If you want to become the owner of the book, just shove a Euro coin through the mailbox and it's yours. Of course you can steal allll these beautiful books, because there's no one on the lookout, the bookseller is not watching you with a camera or standing behind the window 24/7. That would be ridiculous.

He trusts his 'customers'. It's a bit contradictive because there is a saying about Dutch people: 'If it's free, we take advantage of it'.
But not here...that's why I LOVE my neighbourhood. It's the best part of Amsterdam. I'm sure my fellow countryman 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' doesn't agree. Haha. Or maybe he does...

Anyhow:


- The text on the left sign says: 'each book €1,- S.V.P. (french for 's'il vous plait meaning 'please') €1,- in the mailbox'. ' 'Open every saturday from 2 until 6 o'clock'. And the right sign says: 'Everything €1,- a piece!' -

My sister keeps coming home with new books almost every day. Hahahaha. And I'm disciplined enough not to take a look at them, everytime I walk pass by these lovely babies when going to the supermarket... 

Wie?

- Who? -



- I don't know! Someone in Utrechtsestraat. -