The other night Kim was sitting on the sofa with Lucas. They turned towards me and I took the following photos just using the built-in flash of my new camera.

It has now been two months since Lucas was born and the other night we did another session taking some two month photos...this time of myself and Lucas.







He has now grown a lot bigger and is a lot more alert to his surroundings. He is still not a very good sleeper although I think (Kim doesn't) he is improving a bit now.

Kim is pretty worn out having to wake up at night to feed him and I can't help much as I have work to look after as well as Aiden.

This year my work had organised a family day at Taronga zoo.

Since Chong works for the same company we managed to have most of the family covered with tickets and food.



It was great to show the kids some of the animals such as the big gorillas.



Snow leopards.



Mountain goats...



Lions...



And dinosaurs...



They also put on a seal show for us and it was fun to watch them performing stunts. Aiden was absolutely mesmerised...









By the end of the day everyone was knackered...





Click here to see slideshow with more photos

When I setup for my photos I normally have to take a range of setup shots to check if the light is the way that I want it. Sometime I managed to volunteer Kim to help me set up and on the rate occasion she pulls a funny face.

This is a series of photos I've taken of Lucas being 1 month old.





It is a lot harder taking baby photos this time around for a number of reasons such as it being harder to find the time with both Lucas and the newborn around as well as Lucas not being a very good sleeper. This means that whenever he does sleep it is time for especially mummy to have a rest rather than run around taking photos.

Aiden is extremely fond of his little baby brother and every morning he wants to see the baby and give him a little kiss.



Whenever Lucas cries, Aiden will say 'Dont cry Lucas'.


I am sure that as he grows older they will be best mates.



Hopefully as he grows older Lucas will be a bit easier we will be able to take more photos than we have been.

Lucas is now one month old and we had a little celebration for family and friends with bbq, food and cake.

It was a fine day with lots of kids around (so AIden was busy playing all day).

Some weeks ago there was a work photo competition where the theme was 'World Connected'. I didn't have much time due to the kids, but I did manage to put together this photo below for the competition with the title 'bringing closer those who matter!'.




It wasn't picked as a finalist, but still fun nevertheless.

Ok, Kim has finally decided on a name for the newborn out of the 2-3 names left on the shortlist.

It is:

'Lucas Lee Pallesen'

This weekend it was Samantha's (Sacha and Mavis' daughter) birthday and to celebrate we did another day with the Thomas Trains.





The kids love the trains and it is really good value for an afternoon out.



Even Kim had a few rides on the trains as she wasn't able to ride last time because she was pregnant.





It was a cool and drizly day...hence the warm clothes.

On one of the last rides Thomas de-railed so it took the staff a fair while to get him back on the track (the engines are pretty heavy).

The other night I took this photo of the baby's hand grabbing my finger.

We are now approaching week 3...still no closer to having a name for him.

New Years eve this year was celebrated on the Lawn at the Botanical Gardens near the opera house. We had a nice combined view of the fireworks in the city, on the harbour and on the bridge. We were there with a group of friends and and we brought picnic blankets and food to eat.

The 9pm fireworks were a bit disappointing compared to other years but the midnight one was really good. This year they use the whole area, so simultaneously fireworks were being fired from the harbour, the bridge as well as the high rise buildings in the city.



Fireworks are illegal to buy and sell here in Australia, so instead the city (and most other cities) instead put on large firework displays. This means that you every year get professional firework displays instead of the sporadic stuff you get in other countries where people themselves buy it.

Besides, if firework was allowed then the State Emergency Services would be spending three weeks after New Years Eve fighting bushfires every year. Click here to Download video of Firework Display #1
Click here to Download video of Firework Display #2
Click here to Download video of Firework Display #3
Click here to Download video of Firework Display #4


Click here to see more photos from New Years Eve

In September 2006 I went on a business trip to Tokyo along with a colleague of mine Tsukada-san.

Most of the trip was hard work and very long days, but I did manage to snap a couple of photos here and there.

We did get the deal in Tokyo, so the trip was worthwhile, and we are now installing our solution across all of Asia.







Click here to see more photos from: Tokyo/Slideshow

In Mid 2006 I went to a work meeting in Krabi in Thailand.

This happens to be a few kilometers away from one of the best rock climbing destinations in the world. So, after the meeting I took a few days off to go rock climbing.

Kim happened to be travelling in the Northern part of Thailand with some friends who had to leave on the same day my meeting ended. Kim flew down to Krabi where I picked her up at the airport.

Unfortunately it was rainy season, so most of the time in Railay it was raining, but we did manage to get one day of climbing done and the rest of the time we spend in the restaurants and playing cards.


Click here to see more photos from: Thailand/Slideshow

In 2006 I went to Holland a couple of time for work. We have an office in Vianen 50 milometers outside Amsterdam.

I normally don't take a lot of photos when I go there, but if you click on the link below then you can see some of the ones I did take.


Click here to see more photos from:Holland/Slideshow

In early 2006 I went a trip to Seattle for our annual kick-off event.

Some of us flew over there a few days early to go skiing in Wanatchee east of Seattle. If was a weekend of perfect skiing. It was my first time skiing so I took some lessons after which I was doing fine (blue slopes).

During the week we had lots of meetings and dinners. There were award nights as well as just social nights where we could meet up with the rest of the company.

The following all of us in International went down to Crystal Mountain at Mount Raineer to do some more skiing. It was a lot of fun and we all had a great time.


Click here to see more photos from: USA/Slideshow

Mid 2006 I went with Soeren and his family (visiting from Thailand) to Thredbo to do some skiing. We drove down there Friday night and returned Sunday night. Thredbo is located in the Australian Alps 5 hours drive south of Sydney.

Generally the skiing conditions are pretty good, but last year was pretty bad, but we did get some skiing done.


Click here to see more photos from:Skiing in Australia 2006/Slideshow

In early 2006 my Mum had a stroke while my parents were on holiday in Thailand.

A few months later in April when I was in Europe for work I used the opportunity to go and visit and check up on how my mum is doing.

She is now in a wheelchair and still getting used to finding new ways of doing things.

I didn't do much while I was there, because it was mainly a social visit to help my mum and dad.


Click here to see more photos from: Denmark/Slideshow

I have a number of photos that don't really justify being in individual albums. I have now added all these photos from 2006 into one album.

Click here to see more photos from: Miscellaneous/Slideshow

I quite regularly head up to the Blue Mountains to go Rock Climbing.

We normally camp overnight and then depending on the weather and temperature decide on the day what walls we are going climbing on. The photos in the gallery are a selection of some of the photos I've taken in 2006, but there will be more to come in 2007.

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of photos of me climbing as I tend to forget to pass my camera to someone else.

Most of the time I go with my friend Sarah, but she has now moved to Canberra so she doesn't come up there as often as she used to.


Click here to see more photos from: Climbing in the Blue Mountains/Slideshow

In Mid 2006 I was in Portugal for our International Partner Conference with the company.

It was a week of being busy setting up for the conference, socialising but also a lot of fun and partying.


Click here to see more photos from:Portugal/Slideshow