Antwerp with Gaëtane (21.11.2015)
Gaëtane and I basically bonded online over our love for Disney, Disneyland Paris and pictures for BCM (which she has kindly submitted).
So of course, seeing we both live in Belgium, we decided that hanging out in person must happen. And so we did, in Antwerp, because it's sort of in the middle for both of us :)
What I noticed was that security in Antwerp Central _seemed_ to have reached slightly more normal levels (although I was very much in and out this time), but in the streets it was reaching new levels of CRAZY. Again, this kind of security does not instill trust nor a feeling of safety. Rather a feeling of: WTF is going to happen and will I be gone in time to avoid it?!
Military (green beret) forces patrolling the street with the largest guns they could find, the same for police in riot gear. And to top it of, law enforcement helicopters (that's right!) flying overhead. I mean: come on, this is getting ridiculous! This isn't safety, this is fear mongering. Someone needs to do something about Jambon (minister of security). And by something I mean "find a legal and proper way to remove him from his post because he is incompetent". I'm not implying violence and bloodshed should be involved, let's be clear.
Gaëtane was coming by car and I arrived too early at our meeting spot, and decided to pop into 8tea5 to buy Lomo film (yes I buy Lomo film at a bubble tea bar) and play with the Polaroid SNAP (which unlike the previous Saturday I did NOT forget to pack) with Ling Hua :)
The SNAP was actually the only digital camera I had on me, the other two being the Pentax, the Agfa Click 1 and the Instax 90 because Gaëtane wanted to try it. And because any excuse for instant photography is a good excuse, let's be fair.
It was positively pouring when we met up, not just rain, but melting snow too, urgh. Luckily, we both had good umbrellas, so we weren't very bothered.
She gave me a bag holding the Cheshire Cat tee of awesome she was kind enough to pick up for me (I did pay her back, but during lunch).
And then shopping happened!
At Grobet I found the battery for Jos' camera he needed, FNAC disappointed us by not stocking up on Disney Adventures in Jazz (for shame!), Parfuma turned out to be good for a haul for Gaëtane, as did the Tomorrowland Store. We still want their super awesome steampunk digital countdown by the way. For obvious reasons: it is awesome.
We did look into the VANS store because they have a Disney collab, but the dude working there was really obnoxious (thinking he was God's gift to women or something) so we left quite quickly. It was time to go to Kaiseki anyway to have lunch.
Lunch is never just lunch, it's an adventure with cameras whilst eating.
After food
we were checking out more shops, and one of the beauty/perfume places had, contrary to the world outside, proper lighting. So playing with the SNAP had to happen.
This kind of malarky continued in the Michael Kors store, because why not :D
(and the employees there said we could so it's all good).
Eventually it got too dark to photograph, so we just shopped at some other beauty stores (like M.A.C.) and had great fun hanging out :)