Last weekend we went to Cabramatta to have my car services and also make a bit of a day trip out of it.

Kim had a haircut while the boys has ice cream.



She also went past the show shop where they sell boots in her size.




Aiden got a new Lightning Mcqueen pyjamas that he was very excited about.




Lots of street food about to make you hungry.










So Lunch we had...





All very tiring.

One of the last days when the kids were still a bit sick we though we'd get them out of the house and go to Darling Harbour.

Aiden wanted to go on the tea-cups even though he was still suffering a bit.

A few weeks ago I was in Melbourne for work.

On the way back Kim called and said that Aiden had a really high fever (41+ degrees) and that she was going to get him to the hospital because she was afraid that he'd collapse like he did last time.

I jumped on an earlier flight and went straight to the hospital and spent the night with him. He was really miserable and it took 5 days (fortunately not in the hospital) before we got the fever under control.



After that Lucas got sick and then Kim as well....what a week!!

Here is some photos that I have taken from various places including work.

They don't really belong anywhere but it is a pity to not share them.

One day walking from the train station I walked past this pair of sandals under a tree. I don't know the story behind them or the reason why one was taped up.

Did the owner climb the tree and then vanish? Did he (I assume it was a male) walk away bare feet? Where did he come from (Bata is a big brand in Africa and India)?



This next one was taken on the train. I was bored and notices this girl with a small swallow tattoo.




One day I was at Warriewood for a work meeting a dropped past Narrabeen beach (where I used to live). It was a beautiful day to have a play with the panorama function on the iphone.



Here is another panorama. This time from Town hall in Sydney.

We had our annual conference there and couldn't resist getting some photos of the beautiful architecture with my phone.





A couple of weeks ago I went to Melbourne for work. On the way we flew over the Snowy Mountains and I could see the snow there.




Here is another one from work that I took ages ago. When we all moved to the Campus from the city we were invited to hand our own avatar on this wall (mine is hanging somewhere in the top left hand corner).




Here is a photo from the campus itself. It is a cool place to work. Just a pity it is so far from the city.

It is not often that I see Aiden engaged in painting at daycare (he used to be reluctant to get dirty, but now he loves it).

Here he is working on one of his masterpieces.

Lucas loves reading books...he can sit and look at books for hours if he is allowed.

One day at daycare all the other kids were playing loudly in another room and I found him in a separate room sitting quietly sitting in a small cardboard box reading by himself.

The kids are really excited whenever they get something with Thomas (the tank engine) on it.

Latest is Aiden's new Bath rope. He was so excited that he asked me to take a photo.

It was Kim's birthday on the weekend.

In the morning the boys and I woke her up with singing Happy Birthday to her.

In the evening we had a babysitter so that we could have an evening just the two of us. We went to the Bridge Room restaurant in the city, food was nice!

Yesterday we decided to do a little excursion to Circular Quay and the Opera house with the boys.

The both love trains, so we took the train into the city so that they could have the experience.



It was a cold and windy winters day here in Sydney so standing still for too long was freezing.



But it was great getting out and also get another family photo.

Recently Kim bought Aiden a yellow bumble bee umbrella and gumboots.



They will come in handy now that winter is here.

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

The Wildlife in Borneo . . .

The jungles in Borneo are really dense, dark and humid.

You will find that some of the photos look as though they have been over-exposed, but in reality, it is just the humidity in the air.






I have a photo of this at home - Glen enlarged it for me, and framed it!

Don't ask me why - I think I look rather wasted there.

Glen and I tried to race through the jungle.

The climb to the top of the mountain is rated as a 1.5 hour climb... Glen and I have done it in 26 minutes... actually I was confident that I could do it in less than 20 and so I did!

I held the record of taking 17 minutes to race to the top of Mt Silam, covering a distance of approx 4 kilometres through the jungle, up a mountain.

I was getting really fit (My girlfriend was proud of me).



This photo shows how dense and dark the jungle can be. It was so humid there... no, not because I hadn't cleaned my lenses.



You can see how muddy it is in the jungle - I became quite dirty after many trips into the jungle.



I think these trees are just as big as the Californian Redwoods. They might not be as old, but definitely just as big.



This was taken with a 300mm lens, from 1.5 metres.

The most amazing thing about them, is when they are scared, the curl up into little "marbles".

It looks like a small bug, but it is actually at least 7cm long, which is actually quite big.




I noticed in Borneo, most of the insects there were huge.

The wingspan of the brown moth was about 15cm wide - huge!

They are mostly active at night, which is quite common for creatures in the jungle.

A couple of the girls stationed in the jungles, was stationed here. Not a wise decision, considering these girls were paranoid about the insects.

(Note: in the photo below, I still had conjunctivitis) I had the red eyes for most of the trip.


Big and beautiful, don't you think? You can see how big the black moth is compared to the size of the telephone.





These plants were kind of special because each branch split into two, so by the end of it, they formed a hexagonal pattern.

Below, are plants known as the "pitcher" plant.

The pitcher plants are meat-eating plants - you have watch out not to fall into them because they will swallow you whole.



If you just believed that, you are very gullible! *laugh*

The pitcher plant, like other carnivorous plants, feed on insects.

They have sweet-smelling nectar that attract the unsuspecting insect to it.

When the insect lands, it finds the surface slippery and fall straight into the “pitcher”, where the plants juices drowns it and is digested by the plant.

You may have heard of other type of carnivorous plants such as the Venus Fly Trap, and the Sundew plants.



Yes, you see me holding the snake with a leaf.

It was a poisonous snake, and I was worried about it's venom getting on my skin.

For example a puff adder, contact with the venom numbs the skin.

I was not familiar with the snakes in Borneo, and was not about to risk it.


The tarantella was sitting inside the catering tent hunting.

Everyone was looking at it and admiring it, which was pretty amazing, considering I know many people who would willingly kill a spider in sight.

Back to Top
Return to Borneo Homepage


Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Home 29. January 2012 07:38 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Ronan Keating Concert 29. January 2012 07:38 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet ronan keating concert Share Last night Kim and I went to the Ronan Keating concert in State Theatre in Sydney. Kim is a long time fan of Ronan and really wanted to see him live. I am to be honest not really familiar with his music but had a good evening nonetheless. The warming up band was Sharon Corr (from The Corrs) and I really enjoyed her both playing and singing...she is pretty talented on the violin. 29. December 2011 10:24 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Tomakin 2011 - Fishing 29. December 2011 10:24 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet tomakin 2011 fishing Share Chong brought his Tinny (Australian slang for boat) to Tomakin and every morning the guys went out fishing for a few hours (I only went out one morning because 1. I had to look after Aiden and 2. I am not a morning person). We caught lots of fish, but none of them were worth keeping as they were too small. Just as well we didn't keep any, because on one of the days the fishing inspection gave us a visit. In fact the only thing we caught that was above the size limit was this blue swimmer crab (and he was allowed to live another day). We also had a visit from two massive sting rays (about 1 meter in diameter). 28. December 2011 10:23 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Tomakin 2011 - Table Tennis 28. December 2011 10:23 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet tomakin 2011 table tennis Share The house we stayed at had a table tennis table in the garage. We had enough people to form three double teams and we spent quite a few hours playing each other. Kims dad is 78 years old and is still going strong...he loves playing games. 27. December 2011 10:12 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Tomakin 2011 - Evening Photos 27. December 2011 10:12 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet tomakin 2011 evening photos Share On the last couple of evenings we went to the beach to do some nice sunset photos. Tomaking is very onique in that it has some beaches that are facing west so you can use the nice light in the evening. We did some family photos (some of which are on the previous blog post) as well as some of just Kim, Aiden and I. Kim still looks as beautiful as the day I met her. I also did a rush job taking some long exposure shots of the ocean and the cliffs (not sure if I like the post processing...may have to come back to it some other day). 26. December 2011 09:59 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Tomakin 2011 26. December 2011 09:59 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet tomakin 2011 Share This years christmas family trip went to Tomakin on the NSW south coast (about 5 hours drive south of Sydney). We rented a house with four bedrooms (for 9 adults and 5 kids) very close to the beach and fishing in the river. Fun with this large a group of people. As usual we spent some time at the beach and I was showing Aiden how to build sand castles again. He is still not walking so we had to hold his hands walking on the beach and in the water. Right next to the house there was a nice litte organic coffee shop serving really good coffee and scones. One morning we went to Mogo to have a look at the shops. There was a lot of art and crafts shop that Kim was interested in. The town had very conveniently created facilities for husbands as well. 25. December 2011 09:46 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Christmas Day 2011 - Bondi 25. December 2011 09:46 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet christmas day 2011 bondi Share Christmas day we spent at Bondi Beach with Sacha and Mavis and their daughter. We met up at the kids pool at the end of the beach to let our kids have a splash in the water. Aiden couldn't get enough of walking around in the water with myself and Kim holding his hands (he still can't walk by himself), he is very fond of water. Sammi, Sacha and Mavis' daughter was wearing a flotation suit which was causing her a few problems as this photo series testifies. 24. December 2011 09:35 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Christmas Eve 2011 24. December 2011 09:35 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet christmas eve 2011 Share Christmas Eve this year was celebrated with Kims family. Normally we do this on the 25th like all other Australians, but this year we decided to do it the day before like in Denmark to avoid a lot of leftover food before going down south on out family trip to Tomakin. Later in the day Santa Claus arrived to hand out presents for the kids. For the lunch I roasted two ducks and Kim baked a chocolate ganache and made a salad. Aiden was very excited and played with all Ethand and Kaylas toys. 19. December 2011 11:22 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Christmas Family Photos 2011 19. December 2011 11:22 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet christmas photos 2011 Share Christmas is now approaching and to keep up traditions I have created some family photos as well as some photos of Aiden. 19. December 2011 01:21 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Daos Wedding 19. December 2011 01:21 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet daos wedding Share Recently Dao's husband moved to Australia to join her. One of the visa requirements are that they must enter a legally binding marriage (The marriage from Vietnam is not recognised here) for him to stay here, so today we went to the registry office to have them married. 19. December 2011 01:19 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Water Playground in Darling Harbour 19. December 2011 01:19 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet water playground Share On the weekend we went with the family to Darling Harbour where they have a big water playground. This gave Aiden a chance to play in the water...which he loves. I also took a couple of photos of Aiden with grandad and auntie. << Older posts Newer posts >> Newer posts 1 2 ... 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 ... 93 94 Older posts