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.

Fotografier Oversættelse ©Copyright Freddy Pallesen 2000 ~ 2005
Design dagbog ©Copyright 2001 ~ 2005
Created: 13Dec 2004Sidst update: 13-Dec-2004

Created: 8 Jan 2005Last Updated: 24-Jan-2005

Created: 8 Dec 2004Last Updated: 16-Jan-2005

Fotografier Oversættelse ©Copyright Freddy Pallesen 2000 ~ 2005
Design dagbog ©Copyright 2001 ~ 2005
Created: 13Dec 2004Sidst update: 21-Jan-2005

On the weekend we went tot he beach. Initially Aiden was a bit scared of the waves (although he loves the sand and the water)...but after a while he didn't mind the waves splashing around his little legs (I found the water cold but he didn't mind).




As usual he threw a tandrum when we pulled him out of the water.



Afterwards we spend some time in the sand and I was teaching him how to build really cool sand castles and he was teaching me how to demolish them.

The other weekend we took Aiden to the swimming pool.

He is really happy with water now and loves splashing around. He is no longer afraid of it and doesn't mind getting his head under water.



Only problem now is that he throws a tandrum every time we have to leave the pool.

This year I didn't get a chance to go to Sculpture by the sea during the daytime, but I did have some time to go there one evening after we had put Aiden to bed.

I had seen some daylight photos from the exhibition from Tamarama beach where they had these 'Easter Island' type statues. I thought I could do some really cool night time Off-Camera-Flash photos using just ordinary flashes.

When I got there it was almost pitch black darkness...perfect.

I got my gear set up and managed to take the following shot which was exactly what I envisioned in my head.



While there I had a look at a couple of the other sculptures in the area...I did shoot the following photo of this 2 meter tall red chinaman sculpture.

This weekend we went with a couple of friends to a place in New South Wales called Mudgee. This place is about 270 kilometres from Sydney on the other side of the mountains and is best known as a wine district.




On the way there we did a quick stop at Lake Windamere, famous for its dead trees in the water.




We arrived to Mudgee after about 5 hours of driving (including a couple of brief stops) and had some lunch with Chris and Yvonne. While in Mudgee we did some jump shots of Chris and I pretending to fight (obviously I did some creative editing to get to this final result).



After lunch we headed to a couple of wineries. We were immediately impressed, some of the local Cab Savs. and some of the whites were excellent and Kim and I walked away with quite a few bottles from the first couple of places we visited. The wines were also more reasonable priced than the Hunter.







Late in the afternoon we headed to the Bed and Breakfast where we staying for the night. This was a place run by an elderly couple with 4 dogs, 7-8 Alpacas, mini horses and some cattle.









Before dinner we did a quick stop to take some sunset photos. It was a very quick stop, because within 5 minutes from us arriving at the location the sun disappeared behind a thick cover of clouds and the good light was gone.



Chris and I had been planning to do some star photography of the Milky Way. The weather forecast wasn't promising, but after dinner is seemed to clear up a bit so we decided to give it a go.
We hadn't scoped out any good location so it was a bit of a trial and error to find a good place. The trick with start photography is to also include an interesting foreground subject into the photo.
The first place we stopped was next to a vineyard and although the Milky Way was reasonably clear the grapes weren't that interesting.



We therefore headed up some of the back streets. On this paddock we found this really old truck parked in an almost perfect position...it was something different.
While we were setting up dogs started barking at the property behind us and after a few minutes all the outside lights came on and a woman came out and asked what we were doing.
Chris said that we were just taking some photos and if she was alright with that.
She went back into the house, but the dogs kept barking at us. After another couple of minutes she returned and asked us to leave because we were disturbing her dogs and parents.

We were on public property so we could have told here that we wouldn't leave and that we were in our rights to be there, but sometimes it is better to not push the issue, especially when you are just visiting the area.

Instead we found an area with some trees...alright, but not that interesting and by that time the Milky Way had started setting in the horizon.

Next morning we met up with Sacha (he's driven up from Sydney in the morning) to go and visit another couple of vineries (We bought more wine).







And Aiden loved all the attention and new locations.




On the way home we were planning to stop at the Blast Furnace Park in Lithgow. As we drive into the city we passed a couple of police cars. I was going a few kilometres over the speed limit and hit the brakes as soon as I saw them. A couple of kilometres further down the road the cars came up behind me with their lights on and I thought..."Damn, I got busted", but I was really surprised when they went past me without stopping...I was even more surprised when they pulled over Chris in front of me.
He was busted for driving his car without a valid registration (he had forgotten to pay it a few weeks earlier), given a fine and they told him that he was not allowed to drive any further without a valid registration.

After the cops left he quickly went on the internet and renewed all the paperwork online so we were able to keep going.

The blast furnace is an old iron smelter dating back to more than 100 years ago when a lot of iron was dug out of the surrounding area and processed here to produce steel. It is interesting walking around the old ruins of which much of the building foundation still exists.







We also used this as an opportunity for some more fighting jump shots.

After this it was back to Sydney...

Aiden is now 16 Months and he is now able to crawl and stand up. He is slowly starting to walk (a few metres at a time) when supported by a walker but he is still not able to walk unsupported. He also likes sitting on this little car we have for him, racing around the lounge room.


He favourite foods are Strawberries, Mango, Durian and Yoghurt.

We did another photo shoot the other day with his favorite teddy called 'Scout'

The next day was spent exploring the inner city itself. Surprisingly there are not a lot of turists in Zagreb. Most of the places were went to seemed to be mostly locals. It is not loke other capital cities where you see a lot of tour groups etc. Here we sometime had the feeling that we were the only tourists.


The In the morning we explored the horse shoe shaped parks and all their buildings. These parks are have a lot of buildings such as the University and the National Theatre located in them.



This is the National Theatre with the Fountain of Life in front of it.




One of the statues is of St George slaying the dragon.




We also had a look at the Dolac market in the middle of the city.




In the afternoon we also explored some of the churches although some of them were closed for us to visit inside (Maybe because it was Sunday).

This is the St Marks church. The roof tiles show the coat of arms of Croatia and Slovenia. The church also has the Croatian Parliament located next to it so a lot of police and security looking at me suspeciously while setting up my tripod.






We also made it to the big cathedral which apparently is under constant renovation.












We also went to the Stone Gate that contains a status of the Virgin Mary that micraculously escaped being destroyed in a fire. All the locals would come here to light a candle.




In the late afternoon we went to the Strossmayer Promenade. This is a place where the local artists sell and display some of their work and also contains a rather special statue.






Aiden was very facinated by this strange man sitting on a park bench.



...And next day it is time for the long journey back to Australia.

On our honeymoon in Bali I really wanted to do this scuba dive that was recommended to me by my friend Andy. It is this old wreck of a US cargo ship (USS liberty) that was torpedoed by the japanese in 1942 and then beached to save the men and the cargo.



The wreck has since slided back into deeper water (during a volcanic eruption in 1962) and it now in 5 to 27 meters of water just off the coast.



I did two dives on the wreck while Kim was snorkeling in the surface on top of the wreck and it is without a doubt the most amazing scuba diving experience I've had. The ship is huge and you can swim through the cargo hulls and there is an amazing variety of fish and corals on the wreck.

I saw a 1.5 meter barracuda, a 1cm tall seahorse, a garden of eels and a great variety of other fish including a large school of travelly.



I had my personal dive master for the day and I got him to take some photos and some video with his camera while we were diving. On the first dive we went all the way around the wreck (max depth 27 meters) and on the second we went through the wreck itself.



Kim had a really good experience as well and really enjoyed the 30 degree warm water and managed to get her bum burnt while snorkeling for several hours.

I think we'll both go back there if we get the chance.

Click here to download video of me feeding fish

Click here to download video of me diving

Our Honeymoon day after the wedding went to Bali in Indonesia. We did have some hesitation going there considering that the Bali Bombers had been executed the week before and that the Australian government discouraged all travel there.

The plane up there (and back) was only 25% full so plenty of space to get a good sleep.

We stayed in Nusa Dua Westin....a nice hotel although the rooms are a bit small.

On the first day we slept in and later in the day drove to Kuta to have a look around and do some shopping. Later in the evening we went to Jimbaran Bay for dinner. This is a whole beach where all the restaurants have put their tables and chairs out onto the beach itself...very romantic but quite expensive compared to local restaurants.





The second day we hired a car to drive us to Ubud in the hills, Monkey Forest and later in the day down to a small place called Tanah Lot. Especially the last one was very nice around sunset and we ended up not getting back to our hotel until 8.30 in the evening much to the dismay of our driver.





Dinner took place near the hotel and we found that the value of the food/prices was much better here.

A couple of days later we went for another drive (In between we went to Tulamben...see posting below) up to some beautiful lakes and temples up on the north of the island as well as rice paddies and we had a really nice trip despite driving with the most grumpy driver.







Time was running out and Kim felt that she hadn't spent enough time shopping so the last two days were spent shopping and sitting at the pool and on the beach.



One evening we booked a really nice restaurant called "The Living Room" in Seminyak and I booked the whole outdoor area (cost a fortune) just so that we could have a romantic evening in the garden just the two of us with personal waiting staff.





The week was way too short and we never got to do everything we wanted to do so I have a feel we will be coming back in the future.

Over the new year we went with the family to Malua Bay Beach down south.

The house was beach front with great access directly to the beach.







The big wrap-around balcony was great for the kids to play on and they spent hours running around.





And it was great for the family to be together.





There were also lots of chicadas and Ethan found a dead one.

Aiden got a new bike and helmet for Christmas. He was very proud as it was the biggest present under the tree.



The helmet is a combined bicycle and climbing helmet (cost more than the bike) so will see if I can also find an opportunity to take him climbing in the new year.

As usual we celebrated Christmas Day with the whole family.

There was a lot of Christmas presents this year, so the kids must have been good.




Even Father Christmas paid us a visit...



It was a big group this year.

Every year I do a family photo. This year we decided to use the gingerbread village and the tree as a backdrop.

Merry Christmas.

Over the Christmas period Aiden and I have been building a Gingerbread village.



It has been good fun for me to put the houses together and for Aiden to help with sticking on the kandy.

Tonight I did some more photos...



The plan was to get a photo of Lucas and Aiden together wrapped in christmas lights. It turned out to be impossible to get especially Lucas to sit still, so we eventually gave up and tried to do some individual shots...the photos below are the best of the lot...not great but will have to do. To be honest the best shot of the evening is the one above of Aiden which I took after we gave up with the chain.

Lucas is growing up really fast and him and Aiden are now best mates doing almost everything together (including fighting).

The other day I found this in our garage.



I had to look it up...but it turned up to be a blue tongue lizard but without the stumpy tail we normally see.

I asked Kim if the kids could keep it...but she screamed and said no, so I released it into our garden.

You can tell that Christmas is approaching when Banana's in Pyjamas is wearing a Christmas hat...oh and then there is the cute Santa's helper.

Yesterday it was Kims dads Birthday and we celebrated with a big lunch party with cake and good food.








And Kim was beautiful as ever and Lucas was very handsome...

Kims dad has some old photos hanging of Kim when she was little.







This is Kims mum when she was young.



This is Kims dad when he was young

Malabar headland is now open to the public. We have been there a few time now taking the kids walking.

Here are some photos from various walks.

Here are some more photos from Christmas 2016

During the October long weekend we went to Gerringong 2 hours south of Sydney.










The kids loved playing in the sand and water.









We also visited one of the few vineyards in the area.









It was Chong's birthday while we were there.



One morning I made a stack of pancakes - they were all eaten.



On the last day we went to Minnamurra rainforest.







We also went to the Kiama blowhole - but not much action.

This year the airshow was on - we went there with the boys, highly recommended and will definitely find time to go there next time.

KA had some tickets for the lead-up final games for the NRL. I thought it could be fun to give the boys the experience of seeing a game...especially Aiden was really into it.

At easter we rented a house with the family again.