We went with Donna and Sandra up to Port Stephens to go Whale watching.

It was a great day (very cold) and we saw lots of whales.

Click here to see more photos from: Whale Watching/Slideshow

I went climbing with Andy in New Zealand. We flew onto the glacier at Pioneer hut with a skiplane.

We attempted a couple of peaks in the area but were mainly unsuccessful due to sloshy conditions and late starts. Andy eventually insisted going down after taking a bit of a slide after taking a bit of a slide. We did however get a little bit of climbing done.



Click here to see more photos from: Climbing in New Zealand/Slideshow

Believe it or not, I still have quite a few friends in Denmark. I would like to put photos of all of them here - unfortunately I do not have photos of all of them. If you are one of my friends and your photo is not on this page then please do not despair - I still consider you a friend, and maybe, the next time I go to Denmark, I shall have photos of you all!




Here is one of my best friends in Denmark. This photo was taken quite a while ago, before I came to Australia.

Kenneth is now living here in Sydney, on the beautiful Manly beach - only about a half hour away from me. Kenneth came to stay with me a few months ago. He was trying out a new job, and actually came back! He is going to give Australia a go, to see if he likes it like I do. No more biting winters, lots of warmth and sunshine, beautiful mountains and bush to explore... and I think he has discovered, there are lots of friends to make - especially the pretty fun-going ones with two legs and a skirt! *smile*

He is actually a pretty good cook. Whist he stayed in my apartment for a couple of months, he cooked pot roast with gorgonzola sauce, and also gave a wonderful 3-course dinner for a small group of friends here. About two years after I arrived in Australia, I returned to Denmark for a visit. On the day I arrived in Denmark, he threw together a party for me!









Here is Ester, another one of my friends.

She is a fashion designer and paints some wonderful paintings.






Naturally at parties, there was quite a large amount of beer being consumed (how can you not?? - not possible to have a party otherwise in Denmark.

It was nice to taste one of the annual Christmas beers from Tuborg.
Created: Jan 2000 Last Updated: 16 Sept 2001

Photo Gallery

I have placed photos here - those I could not fit on the respective webpages.



Schwedagon




Mandalay



Marionet




Volleyball



Created: 3 Nov 2001

I initially made plans to explore Burma and then make my way across the border into western China at Burma's only border crossing up north. I had not made any definite plans wanted to play it by ear... but in the end my trip consisted of Thailand, Cambodia and restricted areas to Burma.

I was away for a total of 5 weeks and must admit that parts of my trip really frustrated me - there were many restrictions in Burma and being in Bangkok at times stressed me because of all the tourists and crowds. I really only went to Cambodia to see the magnificent Angkor Wat - actually I really did enjoy being there. I think my most enjoyable part of the trip was the days I had climbing on the secluded areas of Krabi.

Burma (23 Jul ~ 5 Aug)	Cambodia (6 ~ 10 Aug)	Thailand

There were quite a lot of monkeys at Mt Popa.











The photo above in the middle, shows monkeys that look like they are playing around. They are actually fighting monkeys and can be very dangerous because they bite and also snatch things from you.

They were rather oblivious to me being there, until the flash on my camera went off. Then their attention was on me and they were ready to attack.

I adopted the “monkey mentality” - avoid eye contact and move away backwards - the only way to stop the monkeys from attacking is to not look at them.

Whilst I was up north, I watched a rather interesting game of volleyball.

I have never seen such dexterity and agility amongst the players!

It was amazing to see how flexible these guys were.

There is a monastry on Mt Popa - a hill located 50km away from Bagan.

When I was there, it was a cloudy day.



I ran into a woman selling petrified wood - quite silly really, considering the place was covered with it.




They must think tourists are stupid! *laugh* I managed to pick up a couple of small pieces to take back with me.

As you can see, there are stacks of them around.

And no... this is not a tombstone.
This is actually a road sign.



You would be surprised how big some of these pieces are - this piece below was actually about a metre long and 40cm wide.



Actually what I found interesting were the toilets in Burma.

My girlfriend tells me that squatting over a toilet is quite common in Asia.

In many of the city areas, they would have toilets as we know them, and they would also have a carved hole in the ground, on which either side, one places their feet on.

Toilets in the rural area are more crude than that - a hole leading into a gaping pit.

However, what I found interesting about these toilets were that recycled running water was used to wash away any excrement. The water is first used for washing one self and then used in the toilets.

As there were a few toilet cubicles a row, sometimes you would see the excrement from a toilet uphill go beneath you! *laugh*

Very clever and environmental system, I think!




Trying to grab a snooze... *smile*

Like Schweddagon, most of this is real gold as well.

And yes, there is a monkey sitting near my head.

If you click to the next page, you will see that I have taken a series of photos of the monkeys.

I saw the most interesting puppet show, known as the “Mandalay Marionettes”

There were 2 or 3 puppeteers out the front, with a live band of musicians.

Unfortunately, it was more of a show for the tourists, rather than the locals.

It cost 1,000 chats or US$2 per show.

I decided take a 20-hour train-ride to Myitkyinã *laugh* it took 20-hours to get there by train because there was only one track.

It was definitely faster to run next to the train than to travel in it!

We had to wait for the oncoming train to return before we could travel north.

At one point, we crossed a bridge that was so rickety that I thought it would collapse any moment!







Locals working in the rice fields.






Locals using water-buffaloes to plough rice fields.





The train travelled along the Jrrawaddy River.

It would have been nice if I was able to travel to Mandalay via a riverboat down the Jrrawaddy River.





It was amazing to find out that people live “on” these lakes, by building houses on stilts.

This sort of housing is quite common in many parts of Asia, especially areas where monsoons quite frequently flood an area.

It is also very environmentally-sound, I think, and hurts the land less.

Most of the houses are made of wood.







Myitkyinã is pretty dismal in rain!



There is a huge drug problem in Burma, especially through the crossings into China.

I have scanned a copy of a recent newspaper article about this problem in Burma.

The other day Aiden figured out how to pedal his big bike (with support wheels).

He was very proud and keen to get out riding.

The other day we went to the park to play with the kids.

I brought the camera along to take a few shots of Lucas on the swing.

He was so tired that he almost fell asleep on the swing.









I also managed to get a couple of great photos of Aiden.

The other day Aiden came back from daycare with face paint around his eyes proudly saying that he was a super hero.

Last year I received a gift voucher through work and decided to use it for a canyoning trip in the blue mountains before it expired.



one of the companies were doing intermediate canyons and it happens that the canyon they were doing this Sunday was the serendipity canyon at mount Wilson. We (two guides and 6 other clients) parked at mount Wilson fire station and headed down the trail 30 minutes downhill.

After a quick briefing about the canyon and a change to wetsuits we absailed into the canyon itself.




There were lots of yabbies...really big ones everywhere.



It was a fun canyon with a couple of a absails and lots of jumps into water pools and swim-throughs. It was raining a lot the day before so there was a lot of water in the canyon and the water was relatively warm.














Once we were out of the canyon we had some lunch and headed back to the car a 45 minute uphill walk later. We returned back to Katoomba at around 3pm in thick fog. After a quick turnaround I headed back towards sydney as a snail pace until I was below the clouds where visibility improved. I made it back just in time for having dinner with the family.

A lot of the canyons in the mountains are still closed due to the bushfire a couple of months ago.

For the past 9 days is has been a small project of mine to try and bake an authentic sourdough bread.

By sourdough I mean by using the old techniques of not adding yeast and let the bread ferment using the natural yeast from the air.

As such it is not a lot of work, but there is a lot of waiting time and there are a lot of places that things can go wrong.

I finally managed to bake an actual bread last night and brought it for the family to taste.



They liked it and asked if I could bake them some more. Fortunately I still had some ferment left over for an additional two breads...photo above is one of them.

Although it was interesting to do, I think it will take a while before I attempt it again...the whole process is just too long.

Emma was baptised this weekend at the local church. Fastest ever...the priest was speed reading!

The other day it was Chinese new year. It is now the year of the horse.



Again it was celebrated with vegan food and money was put on Aidens rocking horse for good luck.

Aiden has finally learned how to ride his little tricycle (the one his grandma gave him just before she passed away) by using the pedals.

He is very proud...hopefully he is able to soon using his new skills on the bike he got for christmas.



Even Lucas was proud and gave Aiden the victory jump.

At the moment I am going through a phase where I Loooveee baking bread.

There is something really satisfying about working with something that is so diverse and alive. And there is nothing like eating a freshly baked bread with a nice crust.


So far I have found a couple of recipes I really like...one of them is this walnut and fig bread.



On the weekend I made it for the family dinner and they wanted the recipe.

- 400g white flour into a bowl
- Add 100g of wholemeal flour
- Add 10g of sea salt flakes
- Add 5g of dry yeast into the bowl
- Add 335ml of water
- Mix it all together using your hand
- Kneed it by stretching it out on a table and then roll it up...do this 3-6 times
- flatten the bread to a thickness of about 15mm and then place walnuts and chopped figs on top. Roll up the bread with the walnuts and figs inside.
- Stretch the bread another couple of time and roll it up until the walnuts and figs are mixed into the bread.
- Put the bread in a bowl and cover it with glad wrap (or better yet, just leave it on the table and cover it with the bowl) for one hour...knock back the bread every 20 minutes (3 times in total).
- Leave the bread for another one hour (without knocking it back). After 30 minutes (30 minutes prior to baking) start preheating the oven with a baking/pizza stone at 250 degrees. Also put a small metal tray in the oven (for the ice cubes)
- Add a bit of semolina (or flour) to the baking stone and to the top of the bread to avoid it sticking.
- Place the bread on the baking stone and make a couple of cuts to the top of the dough.
- Add 3-4 ice cubes to the metal tray
- Close the oven and turn down the temperature to 200 degrees immediately.
- Bake for 30 minutes and remove from the oven.

Every year hunter valley garden put up a light show where they decorate part of the garden in christmas lights.

They leave this open until end of January, so this year we headed up there to have a look....enjoy.

One day Kim and I managed to go for a romantic (and long) walk from Coogee to Bondi and back along the coast.



It was a beautiful day and this area have some of the worlds best beaches and coastal views.

We have started giving Aiden and Lucas a bath together when we are not too rushed. They are playing very nicely together in the bathtub.

Lucas is starting to be able to walk by himself and stand for long periods of time without holding onto furniture. The longest we have seen him walk so far was around 2 metres.

A couple of times now we have caught Lucas in the process of cleaning the toilet using the toilet brush. We really have to watch him, because he is quick and within a few seconds he will be in there up to his mischief if we don't watch out.

Aiden recently ended up in hospital again...this time really bad.

He had another seizure similar to the last time, but this time a lot worse and he didn't wake up from it.

At the hospital they couldn't get him to respond either and he started having neurological damage symptoms.

They decided to put him to sleep on a breathing aparatus and go through the whole process of CT scans, Xrays, spinal fluid examinations etc.



Kim and I were really scared and I stayed with him for 4 days in the hospital until he eventually recovered enough to go home.






The doctors were unable to find out why he seizure was so violent so now we are really worried that he may get another one.

Recently it was fathers day...the kids surprised me in the morning giving me a new coffee mug.

Sometimes we take the kids to Little dynamo to play. It is this 4 level play centre for the kids.

Last weekend Aiden and I went to Sammi's 4th B'day.

It was held up at Mona Vale and involved a small bush walk for the kids.



Some of the way Aiden and Sammi were holding hands.



Afterwards we had cake and played with clay.







And after the party Aiden and I went for another little walk and spotted a hug red belly black snake.

We are in the process of potty training Aiden...so far ain't working.

He is reasonably happy to sit on the toilet in front of the TV...but so far he is holding it in.

Some time ago we had a TEDx session at work...it was great to be part of an international phenomena.




I hope they will run more sessions in the future and that they will be able to get some really interesting speakers in the room.

This weekend we went to the local park to get a photo of Lucas for his 'First Year' album.

We wanted to get some photos of him on the swing.



But we also managed to snap a couple with Aiden...

Aiden has started playing soccer (not real soccer, but they do get to kick a ball).

He is very proud that he has real soccer shirts and shorts.



We started taking him to assist him with his development. We are starting to see some progress but he is still a bit behind his age group.

Aiden and I often sit and build Lego together (Sometimes Lucas also joins us, but he is better at taking it apart).

One day we build this Lego turtle worthy of a photo...Aiden had great fun pushing it along the ground.

Kim likes baking too and these days she will ask Aiden to help her.

Her cakes usually looks much better than any of my efforts.

A couple of weeks ago I tried to bake Ciabata bread.

It is a long process that takes about 24 hours (first you have to make this yeast and flour sponge which you then later use for the end result).

I substituted normal flour for wholemeal. This was the end result.



The taste was ok, but it was too dry for my liking...so will have to try again one day.

Light bulbs are really rare now as you can't buy them in the shops any longer.

We still have one in the cupboard so I decided to have a bit of fun with it one evening...

Vivid Sydney was on again this year and in my opinion better than the previous years.

Because of the kids it was hard to find the time to explore, but I did manage to head in there one evening to get some photos from the classic angles.

Lucas is now 9 month old and the other day we went to the park to do some Autumn photos with him.

The photo of the day was definitely this one of Kim and Lucas having a moment together.



It was hard because he wanted to crawl around and play and because it was the middle of the day the light was pretty harsh.



We also tried to take some at one of the small bridges in the park but they were shooting a commercial shoot there and Lucas was more interested in trying to get into the water than posing.



And when we tried a family photo he didn't want to sit still.

For Lucas 8 month photo we decided to do a profile photo of the four of us just like we had with Aiden.



A bit more difficult this time because there we two kids and getting them to look in the right direction and keep the right face expression.

Last week it was Aidens 3rd Birthday.

We celebrated it by singing happy birthday and having cake.



For his birthday he got a new car as well as some new shoes.