22. February 2010 01:12
by Rene Pallesen
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For the past three weeks my uncle and auntie (Eli & Henning) has been travelling in New Zealand with a tour group.
On the way home they did a 24 hour stopover with the group so do some quick sightseeing before continuing their journey.
They had a tightly packed program arriving late in the afternoon, out for a late dinner and then spend then morning next day on a tour around the city before heading back to the airport.
Kim and I managed to catch up with them in the evening for dinner at Nicks at King Street Wharf. Afterwards we went for a walk down to Circular Quay so that they could have a look at the Harbour bridge and the Opera House at night.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was midnight and they had to check out of their hotel early next morning.
We hope that they enjoyed the sightseeing the day after (it was a fairly warm day) and that they had a good journey back to Denmark. Apparently there is a lot of snow there currently so they were prepared for the fact that they would have to do a fair bit of digging to get to their car and into their house.
It is not very often that we have visiting family from Denmark so it is always a pleasure to see them.
19. February 2010 05:00
by Rene Pallesen
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This weekend I was cutting down the bouganvillae in the garden. Whenever I cut down some of the vegetation in the garden it is always interesting what insects I discover in the process. Because of the variety of plants there is always something new to discover. I try not to use pesticides in the garden itself...better to just let nature find a balance.
On this occation I discovered a large Garden spider and a Green Praying mantis (I have seen a Mantis before in the garden and they are great to have a pest control). Both are totally harmless.
This is what a website had to say about this Common Garden Spider:
"Now this is your classic common garden spider from Sydney. The Australian Museum page on garden orb weaving spiders tells me there is a second, almost identical species (edulis) but that that lives further inland. There must be hundreds of people each summer who can be seen jumping madly up and down in their gardens swiping at themselves just to be sure to get rid of this guy from their clothing after they've walked through a web. Although certainly large enough, this spider is reluctant to bite humans. "
Last week I did however see a redback spider on the other side of the house. Needless to say that I killed it before I got a chance to take a photo (They are extremely venoumous and the closest relative to a Black Widow). To be honest it is the first time I've seen one in the wild for more that 10 years so fortunately they are very rare.
13. February 2010 07:35
by Rene Pallesen
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This saturday Kim had booked tickets for 'The wolf man' at the open air cinema.
Every year in January and February Sydney hosts a number of events such as operas, concerts and cinemas.
The open Air cinema is located at Ms Macquaries Chair in the botanical garden overlooking the city, the opera house and the bridge.
It is a spectacular setting, especially when the weather is really nice as it was saturday (last year it was pouring down with rain). This years all the seats were sold out within 30 minutes, but Kim was quick to get a couple (smart cookie).
Even though we got there two hours early most of the seats had already been taken. We did manage to find two seats that were really good eventually (we were worried that we'd have to sit on one of the first rows right in front of the screen.
The movie was about warewolves and it was funny to listen to people reaction when large fruit bats from the botanical garden flew down in front of the set.
2. February 2010 03:08
by Rene Pallesen
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2. February 2010 02:39
by Rene Pallesen
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We (Kim that is) are now almost half way through the pregnancy.
Last week we went to another ultrasound scan to check if everything is on track and to count the number of fingers and toes. Both baby and mum is fine so far. And how is daddy you ask? He is worried how he is going to handle being a dad...such a big responsibility and worried that he will be a lousy dad.
We
now also know the sex of the baby...and it is going to be a BOY and is
still due in mid-June!!! He has already started kicking according to
Kim, so he may be an active one.
We were hoping for a girl
because there is already more than enough boys in the family (Kayla
started crying when she heard that is was a boy...she was hoping for
someone to play with).
Anyway we can now start looking a good names for a boy.I suggested to Kim that we would start an auction on eBay where the winner would get the naming rights...Kim said NOOOO!!! So there goes my retirement plans and all the millions!
For
anyone who is planning ahead and start buying stuff for the boy...check
with Kim or myself first with regards to what we need (Sizes, Colours and brands).
Rules for toys:
1) No dolls or pink fluffy stuff....it is a boy for christ sake!
2) Climbing harness and shoes are perfect around year 4
3) A pair of skis at age 6
4) First Ice axe and crampons at age 10
5) Toys that required assembling and dis-assembling by the kid is perfect
6) Toys that can be assembled in more than one way is perfect (ie. Lego)
7) Toys that are created with the intension of making noise are banned
8)
And the most important: Don't buy a toy unless you can explain to me
what valuable lesson you hope the kid will learn from using that toy.
2. February 2010 01:45
by Rene Pallesen
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It is common for Australian households to get a number of critters (mainly insects) into their houses during the summertime.
This may range from anything as harmless as flies to more serious things such as spiders. The worst of the spiders is probably the Funnel Webs although they are quite rare and I've never seen one inside.
The more scary but relatively harmless ones are the Huntsman spiders. These can get huge (the size of a dinner plate) and they are quite common inside. We get them inside probably 2-3 times a year and they always scare the #$@#$@ out of us!
The one picture below was inside the shower cabin and scared Kim.
We also get smaller spiders inside...one of these is the Whitetail. It is a smaller spider but they can give a nasty bite that can get infected (but it is very rare for anyone to get bitten). I notice a lot of them outside when I'm watering the grass. I still haven't decided whether it is a problem I need to deal with as they also help controlling other insects.
We also get a lot of lot of other critter such as grasshoppers and caterpillars in the garden. Most of the insects I don't mind...the more biodiversity the more indication of a healthy micro ecosystem...if I could just get rid of the mosquitoes and the fruit flies.
