Exploring Hoorn...

Since we couldn’t sail, we drove to the city of Hoorn, a city founded in 1357 with 73,000 residents now, to have lunch and take a walk around. I’d never been there before, so took lots of photos.

This tower, built in 1532, was interesting as it’s flat on one side and rounded on the other, making it look cut in half.

There were lots of interesting buildings with different gables...

...as well as one featuring some usual jewelry/chokers.

Unsailing Trip...

While Jimmy was in the US on a business trip, Hannah and Austin invited me and Kati to go sailing, so I ordered a doggy flotation device. Notice anything missing in this photo? Yes, Kati seems to have lost her tail. She was so stressed out with that vest on that her tail was completely tucked under her, but she was actually calm here compared to how she was once we lifted her onto the boat. 

In fact, she was so upset, that I quickly put her into the cabin and took off the vest.

Dixie, on the other had, was quite the pro at wearing her vest...

...and so was Emma.

This photo is actually deceptive as it implies that Kati was happy on the boat as we were about to sail out of the port, but it turned out that a storm was approaching and we were just holding still waiting to see if it would pass.

Emma was definitely comfortable on the boat...

...but that didn’t mean that she was always happy. Although Hannah was laughing, we were all disappointed that the impending storm waylaid our plans to sail.

Real Work and Real Friends...

Although Ashlynn’s favorite rooftop bar considered hiring her as a waitress, once they found out that she would be leaving soon, the offer dried up. With no real experience, that left her being able to be hired as a temporary dishwasher through an app called Temper. Ironically, since she was able to work a lot more frequently, she earned more money as a dishwasher than as a model in Holland.

She actually really enjoyed the work because she could put on her headphones, listen to her music and hunker down on the task at hand. She worked at such diverse locations as Danone (yes, the yogurt company), PostNL (the postal service), a nightclub and aboard a steamboat.

Between dishwashing shifts, Ashlynn managed to have a lot of fun including spending time with Sophie and her their old classmate Hannah, who was visiting Sophie.

How cute to think these three girls became friends back when they were 6 years old and Hannah moved away when they were 11, but they are still friends today.

Back on the Runway...

For the first time in 2.5 years, Ashlynn was back on the runway in Amsterdam. In an unusual twist, she was the only professional model out of around 80 participants in the Lichting show, which featured 14 of the best design academy graduates around the country.

Designer Manou van den Berg (in the black trousers) had worked with Ashlynn for one of her school projects back in 2017 and was happy that Ashlynn was available to walk in her show.

The setting for the show was quite incredible: the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), built in 1408. 

While tickets weren’t available for the public, we were thrilled that the show was live streamed and not only could we watch it, but lots of our friends and family were able to watch it as well.

It was quite an entertaining show since some of the clothes were really wild. Manou’s clothes were the most mainstream of all the designers with Ashlynn’s outfit the best of the bunch and one of the best of the show (of course, I’m not partial).

Not being surrounded by other models, but rather friends of the designers made for a very different experience and Ashlynn said it was one of her favorite shows she’d ever done.

More Cornwall Photo Adventures...

Veronica continued to enjoy exploring the coast on her days off at the farm...

...and using her drone for some creative self-portraits.

Pirates of Penzance...

This is one of my favorite of all of Veronica’s self-portraits. It’s also one of the crazier ones as it was taken on a shipwreck. Granted it wasn’t a pirate ship, but it was near Penzance (the most westerly city in England). 

In fact, the RMS Mulheim wasn’t even an old ghost ship, as it was built in 1999 and ran aground in 2003. Luckily all six crew members survived.

On March 22, 2003, the 294-foot (90-meter) German cargo ship was transporting 2,200 tons of scrap car plastic from Cork, Ireland to Lubeck, Germany. There was fog with moderate visibility. What apparently happened was quite crazy: the chief officer on watch rose out of a chair, caught his trousers on the chair’s lever, lost his balance and knocked himself out. By the time he regained consciousness, the ship was bearing down on the rocky shoreline and there was nothing that could be done to avoid hitting the rocks.

A salvage company removed as much cargo and equipment as possible. In October 2003, heavy seas during a storm broke the vessel in two.

It’s scary to think that Veronica was wandering around this wreckage on a remote beach all by herself, but luckily she escaped unharmed and got some awesome images for her efforts.

Off to Cornwall...

After Aberdeen, Veronica headed to Cornwall to volunteer for three weeks at Bosavern Community Farm near Land’s End. Unlike her previous farm, this one did not revolve around communal living; there were only two permanent residents with the six volunteers staying in the farmhouse with the couple that run the farm. Some of Veronica’s regular jobs were to pick onions...

...and to collect eggs.

As the chickens were truly free-range, she said it was like going on an Easter egg hunt each time that she needed to collect the 200-plus eggs. Luckily her ratio of broken eggs was very low.

After collecting, she needed to clean and date stamp each egg...

...so they could be sold in the farm’s store, which she also worked in at least once per week.

This chicken was sitting on eight eggs, the record while she was there.

It was a quite a frenzy when it was time to feed the chickens.