All Tuckered Out

Today's Highlight: The chocolate Dog
I got up early today, I had a shoot with Judith at 10, and we had to drive a ways out of the city. I am getting to see bits and pieces many towns all over Holland through the window of Judith's Alfa Romeo. We have really great chats as we weave in and out of traffic (she is a good driver... but not a slow one). A lot of Dutch drivers use GPS systems to give them directions. Judith has named hers Els, after a woman who used to work at the lab where we both take our film. Els (both the electronic and the actual) is very direct and to the point. Not bossy, but sure that she knows what is best. It's great to hear Judith talk to Els as we drive cross country. I will really miss our commutes.
Today we had two shoots, one in Den Haag and the other in Leiden (where Bertie's sister Ans lives). The first portrait went smoothly and was done in a flash. After a quick bite we went to meet the second client, but he wasn't there. I guess he has completely forgotten and gone home for the day. Judith had a deadline, and the shot had to be done today. The man invited us to his house to do his portrait, which was better in the end, because the office where he worked was fairly sterile. It was a bit of a pain at first, that our morning had extended to a full day shoot, but the man was so sweet and genuinely sorry (and gave me a chocolate bar) that it was all fine in the end.
I am really enjoying the shoots we do in people's homes. I think that the best results come from portraits shot where the person is most comfortable and at ease. For example when we arrived at the man's house today we went into the garden, played fetch with his wiggley dog (named after a dutch brand of chocolate) and met his wife who was very sweet. A lot of the people here are very interested to hear about why I decided to come to Holland, and everyone has a different perspective on Dutch life and the things worth noticing.
We drove by De Hoek (the Hook, or the Bend in English) on the way to Den Haag today. That is the same name as the area where Grampa's farm is, but this place was an industrial park! I really hope that that isn't the same place. There were farms on the outskirts of the box stores.
Adrian spent the day at home today, out on the lawn in the sun with his guitar. We were going to go to dinner at Zanna's tonight, but he was so tired from laying in the sun all day we rescheduled for tomorrow :) He has spent the last 10 min doing a running monologue of "interesting" dutch words with his shiny new dictionary. He just found out what shell fish is in Dutch. That could be helpful when we go out to eat. Among the other worth while Dutch phrases are "let it snow, Let is snow let is snow" (just in case we stay till Christmas) OH and "Sorry" (very important).
We ended up having a really relaxed night at home with Bertie. She started working on a new painting a few days ago, and it is really fun to watch her paint. She decides on the colours for one corner, paints it then goes and sits down to look and see how she feels about it. Then maybe 20 min later she will get up and paint another patch, then sit down to let it sink in. We are a house full of artists!
We booked (well... Ben did, because I couldn't figure out the website) our train tickets to Munster today. The trip is a little over 3 hours, so we''ll have to get a deck of cards before we leave.
Well, im tuckered out
love to all
Emma and Adrian
PS- this photo is one I made of a little boy at the fry stand we go to so often. The person with the bottle is his older brother. This little guy was being hilarious! I think he may have been doing a impression of his parents, because he kept walking around with his hands on his hips wagging his finger at people, then laughing his head off. I snuck a picture while he was harassing his older brother.