23. February 2009 08:18 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments
The NSW government currently provides a rebate for anyone insulating their house ceilings.I had already considered doing it anyway as it does cool down the house during the summer and keeps it slightly warmer during the winter time.

So I spent 5-6 evenings crawling around the roof cavity spreading out the insulation bats. Some of the ceiling was really hard to get to.
14. February 2009 08:02
by Rene Pallesen
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What can I say? I don't like going out on Valentines Day, but I still enjoy a romantic evening out...so this year we decided to celebrate Valentines day evening before (And I gave Kim flowers the day before that...and they were so fresh that they kept for two weeks). We went to a nice little restaurant at Balmoral Beach called the Watermark.

The food was really nice, the scenery was really nice (slight drizzle), the Wine was fantastic (Canonbah Shiraz 'Drought Reserve' 2004)...and lastly my beautiful wife was gorgeous as always.
5. February 2009 08:35
by Rene Pallesen
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Yeah...summer in Sydney. We have fantastic beaches here in Sydney and unfortunately we don't use them enough (Water is too cold). We did however manage to get to Maroubra beach a couple of afternoons this summer.
31. January 2009 08:24
by Rene Pallesen
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Every year in Januar and February there is a big festival on in Sydney with different entertainment provided for free by the city and different sponsors. It is hard to make time to see everything, but we did have time to go and see the the Opera in the domain.

We went there with Berry and his wife and had a nice evening.
26. January 2009 06:51
by Rene Pallesen
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This weekend Andy and I were supposed to have been going to Nowra to climb Saturday and Sunday, but the Australian weather dictated otherwise with 42 degrees in the shade Saturday.
Instead we changed the plans and went to Dams Cliffs in the Blue Mountains Sunday. This area is easily accessible, mainly in the shade and had got some great moderately graded climbs.
This was great as May also could join us. She had a really uncomfortable climb in Nowra with some friends some months ago and was afraid of getting back leading climbs (from her own words she was afraid to die). Nowra cen be very different and intimidating to someone going there the first time. We had a 7.30am start and she was half asleep when we picked her up and slept most of the way in the car.
When we got to the cliffs we decided to start on an easy warmup called"The Sisters of Fatima 16" and we asked May to do the first lead and she did a really good job. After this she seemed to have gotten over her fear.
We then moved over to a more moderate climb called "Shadow of the Goat 19" where I did the first lead...pleasant enough. We continued to "Truancy Officer 20" which I also led but which we decided was far easier (probably a 17).
After this we decided to stay in the 20+ territory and moved to a climb called "Vasco Pyjama 22" and Andy too the first lead.
At the second bolt he reached the Crux (The most difficult section on a climb) and after a number of tries coming off every time he bailed. When he got down he said "This climb has got Rene written all over it, it is a move that is in your territory!', so I was up next. I got up to the same section, and had a look at it a saw 2-3 possible ways through the section, but decided to go for a very long and very balancy reach first and managed to stick the top hold in the first attempt without falling off.
After this section the rest of the climb was easy. Both and and May then toproped the same climb (This is where the rope has already been placed on the top of the climb...which I had just done) and may cruised through the same section, but Andy still struggled. I honestly think that despite it b