They also had a snake show at the elephant place.

Some of the snakes were very poisonous such as this monocled cobra.





And the huge king cobra (which kept coming over the safety barrier).



Chong and I volunteered to hold the python.












I wonder how often the snake guy has been bitten by his snakes.

At the place we went riding elephants they had a group of little monkeys that we could hold and feed.

They were chained to their little houses which was a bit cruel, but the kids loved seeing the monkeys up close.










The kids thought it was very funny when one of them grabbed my nose.

One morning we went on an elephant ride with the family.

Kim had been on elephant rides before and is terrified, but she was still brave enough to do it again (She was screaming that she wanted to get off most of the way).






It was an amazing experience for the Kids.









They got to see the big animals up close.

One one of the first days we went to the beach at Kata. The hotel had a shuttle bus to the beach which was an easy 10 minutes walk away.

The beach was actually surprisingly nice with warm water.



About two months ago a sailing boat stranded on the beach during a storm. No one has claimed the boat and a few attempts of lifting it off the beach has failed.



We told the kids that it was a pirate ship, so they wanted to have a closer look.











Kims dad didn't want to go in the water, but decided to keep to his thing with wearing warm clothes in hot humid weather.

This year we traveled to Phuket in Thailand along with Kim's sisters family and her dad.

We had to fly via Bangkok, so we were a bit worried how the kids would handle the long flight (especially Lucas), but everyone handled it reasonably well.

The boys were very excited to be going on a big aeroplane.

 

Once we arrived to Bangkok it was pretty obvious to see that they were very excited.

The only thing that never made it all the way to the hotel was our stroller. We lost it somewhere between Phuket airport and the hotel...but wasn't a big loss and hopefully someone puts it to goo local use.

It is time to renew Aiden passport and like last time there were a lot of outtakes that we could not use, but which were quite funny.

Here is some more photos of my grandma and grandpa on my mothers side.

Here she is with her sisters (my grandma on the far right)



Here is some of her when she was young.






Here is one that I assume was taken in 1969 based on the date of the photo.



I think this one if my grandpa when he was young.



And here is some more.







And here is some family gathering photos.



I think it is her brother on the left. And my cousin Mette on the right.



And this is with my grandparents on my fathers side (left to right bedstefar, mormor, morfar, bedstemor, mum and Claus).

Going through some old photos I came across these of my great grand parents (on my mothers side).




I am pretty sure that the little girl on the left is my Mum (So the photos must have been taken around 1943-1944) and the other two girls are her sisters (My Aunties) Eli on the right and Yrsa in the middle.

I assume that the women in the back are their grand parents (my great grands) with the woman on the right being my grandmothers (mormor's) mum and the one on the right being grandad's (morfar'd) mum.


Here is a family photo of what I assume is my grandmothers (mormor's) family. I think it is my grandma in the middle right behind my great grandmother.


I assume this is my great grandparents, but I cannot be certain.




This must be a birthday for my grandmother.


This was taken outside the farm where my mum grew up. It is my grandad (morfar) in the middle on the right and it could be my grandmother (mormor) on the stairs with her mum. The farm is still there today owned by my uncle.






This must be some of the family on my grandads (morfar's) side, so possibly some of his siblings.

A friend asked if I would do a commissioned corporate portrait for professional usage.

I said I was happy to help and on a very rainy day we managed to get the the shoot done. This is the most corporatey of the lot.

I purchased a cheap ring flash and had a bit of a play with it one evening and took the following happy snap photo of Kim.




We are planning a holiday and I am thinking that I might bring it along.

Today we went to High Tea in Audley in the Royal National Park 30 minutes drive from where we live. Kim had bought a 2 for 1 deal and decided to try it.





Verdict was that is wasn't anything special and even with the special deal it was a bit over priced.

Afterwards we decided to go rowing up through the creek.



Aiden was very keen to get to play with the water which was difficult in the rowing boat (next time we will get a Canoe).

Afterwards we let him play a bit on land before heading back.

The island itself is a beautiful place. I took a lot of photos of the lagoon and the beauty of Bora Bora....so many that it would be too many to have in the previous Bora Bora post.

With the risk of creating a post full of Blue photos...I had to separate them out to prevent the other posts from getting too big.

Here they are...I will let them speak for themselves...

One of the days at Bora Bora we went with a boat around the lagoon to go snorkeling and have lunch on one of the Motu's (Islands). Along the way we went snorkeling in spots where we also could see sharks and stingrays.



Our first spot was a snorkeling spot with lots of coral and different fish.

I Even saw a big fat murray eel.



Kim also had a bit of a snorkel in the clear blue water even though the water was deep and there was a slight current.





Aiden was facinated by the fish and wanted to join mummy in the water to say hello to the fish'ies...



After this we went to a more shallow spot on the reef with lots of reef sharks.



Yes, that is me in the water with 12 sharks circling around me (and no safety net in place).These sharks would come swimming towards me and then turn around within a meters reach.

Click here to see a video I uploaded to Facebook with the Sharks getting close














After lunch we stopped to feed the Stingrays in the lagoon.



They are fairly harmless and I was feeding them dead fish. While doing so I was bitten by one of them that mistook the camera I was holding in my other hand as a fish.

Bora Bora is a beautiful island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Kim and I had promised eachother that we one day we will go there.

It is about an hours flight from Tahiti and along the way you pass a number of other Polynesian islands and atolls. When we landed we were met by the stunning blue lagoon and the very characteristic mountain which is an old extinct volcano.







Aiden especially was mesmerised by the view going on the boat from the airport to our hotel.








On arrival we were met by traditional Tahitian music and someone blowing a seashell.



And Aiden immidiately got into the mocktails.





Our hotel was on the main island itself and we had a small hut facing the lagoon and had a beautiful view every morning waking up.




Every morning we had breakfast overlooking the lagoon where Aiden would stuff his face with fruits, bread and youghurt.




We spent a lot of time at the small beach close to the hotel just swimming in the clear water of the lagoon.









The locals were out on the lagoon showing off their skills.






Aiden loved the calm clear water and the beach...it was a pleasant 27-28 degrees. Every time he saw water he would point at it and shout BoBo (Water)...and insist on going swimming.








One evening I did a couple of sunset portraits.






Aiden again insisted on going in the water.




I also went for a swim after we finished the photos, which was absolutely magical as the light was surreal and the water was absolutely calm.




Across the lagoon from the hotel we had a little island (Motu) with beautiful place to go snorkeling. First I went in the water and notices a small reef shark circling around the corals...being kinda shy. I mentioned it to Kim and as soon as she also spotted it later in the day she rushed out of the water (A couple of days later she had a similar experience with a large stingray at the beach).




It was hard to leave all this beauty behind

I took a lot of photos of flowers...enough to warrant a separate blog entry..

If you are not a flower person then just scroll down the page past these...lots of other good stuff there.


Anyhow...I will let them speak for themselves...

This Easter we decided to go to Tahiti and Bora Bora in French Polynesia in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

We were supposed to have been going to Japan, but we decided that we instead wanted a more relaxing holiday and changed it to an Island holiday enjoying the sun, sand, water and sunsets.



Tahiti is the main island of French Polynesia and is not larger than it is possible to drive around the entire island in a couple of hours (appx 120 km).



On one of the days we rented a car and did just that. We could have joined a day tour, but I am not very keen on the 5min photo stop kind of tours and much prefer to be able to travel independently and take time to see what we would like to see.

It is reasonably easy to find your way around the island. There really is just one road and the entire road is marked by kilometer markers and we had the distances for most of the sights we wanted to see. We didn;t go too much into the interior because of time restraints and some of these roads are only accessible by 4WD.


First we stopped at one of the old Tahitian temples which was interesting





After that we headed to some large caves full of freshwater (would have been convenient in the old days)...very damp and very dark.



After this we tried to find the road up to a lake and supposedly large waterfall. Some of the locals were very helpful with assisting us with directions but unfortunately the road was closed.

Fortunately we did find the nearby gardens which Kim wanted to visit (I will do a separate flower blog posting).



We did find some waterfallson the island (and saw several from a long distance away high on the mountains).





After this we headed to Point Venus where Captain Cook in 1769 supposedly saw the passing of Venus ...now this houses the only lighthouse in French Polynesia.

The next passing will be 6th June this year...243 years after the previos passing (can be seen as a shadow against the sun).




We decided to skip the museums as we would rather experience the outsde rather than objects behind glass.

The other days we spent around the hotel and the marina, just relaxing, swimming and dining. Aiden loved spending most of the time in the pool at the hotel.

Yesterday I did another photo project. I wanted to do something different with composition.

I had this idea of a guy being attacked by hand-spiders (I hate spiders) and thought that the garage would be a good location for it. I had an old T-shirt and some tomato paste to add some drama.




It turned out to be a lot harder than expected as it was almost impossible to get the right composition, focus etc. when I both had to appear in the photo as well as take it (my head was cropped off on the first series which meant that I had to reposition the camera and then either re-shoot the series or try and stitch them up in post production...I chose the latter because of time constraints).

I could definitely have done a better job if I didn't have to be two places at once, but I don't think it is a total disaster.

It is the 29th February and the last day of the bet I had with Kim....and believe it or not, but Aiden started walking by himself today.



We are very proud of him and I am double proud of him as he delivered the goods just in the nick of time...one day later and I would have been cleaning the house (lucky that this year is a leap year)!

Aiden is now able to stand up by himself.

He is now 20 months and should have been walking ages ago, so he is a bit behind on that front. Hopefully I can get him to take one step before the end of next week...I have a bet with Kim going whether he will walk before the end of February.

Today we went to Centennial Park to take some family photos. I had been complaining that I didn't have enough (good) photos of myself and Aiden so Kim offered to take some.

We found a nice spot in the park and managed to take a couple of shots before my camera ran out of battery...and unfortunately I had forgotten my spare at home.



Kim just came back from a business trip to Singapore a couple of days ago and it is really nice to have her back. I missed her but I am not sure Aiden missed her as much as he is such a daddys boy. When she was back he just turned away and would rather stay with me.

Also the little tiger is now 20 months and he is still not walking...what is going on?

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.

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Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

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

Repeater Stations . . .



Here, you see Paul and I transporting some of the repeater stations by air.

From Silam, we flew down to DFVC. We stayed there for three days before going back to Silam.



I am at one of the repeater sites. Here, the top of one of the mountains was cleared, so we could safely land a helicopter there.

Oh... did I forget to mention that I almost chopped one of my fingers in half at the repeater site?

On top of my infected eye, I had another thing for the medical team to look at. The fingernail had been chopped in half and there was not much I could do about it except clean it up and try to avoid infections. The medical team was great there... they were extremely good.




We had a few problems with some of the communications gear.

Paul and Glen were handling it, and at times I tried to assist.

The first few days had been really tough.


The top of Silam is covered in clouds for most of the afternoons, so the solar panels are quite useless. A survey of the conditions made prior to the race was useless.

If you ask any of the locals, they would have told us that the peak is always covered in clouds... but apparently no-one asked them!!!




We had problems keeping the generators running - they were using more power than predicted and there was no sun on the top of Silam to recharge the batteries.

The generator itself was a re-built petrol engine with a car alternator on it.

We basically tried to use a system where we used a jerry can, cut holes into it, and relied on the force of gravity to transport the fuel to the generator.

This design ended up working best for us.


Our helicopter pilot sitting on the side there, just grinning...

On the third day of the race, I hiked up the mountain three times. I was really tired and all I could think of was getting a bit of a rest and some food. I managed to get a bit once I got to Danum. In Danum I managed to get 6 hours sleep before someone woke me up and told me that the repeater had died in Silam... again all the cars had to leave in a convoy... so rush, rush to find my driver and managed (just) to get into the convoy!

The road to Danum closes at 6.30pm and all the cars had to go in the convoy.


The helicopter flew all of us to the top of the mountain, and waited there for us till we were finished. Glen quite often told the pilot, "You don't have to shut down, because we'll only be here for 5 minutes." Well... quite often, we were there for as long as an hour and half! (Don't worry, the pilot was sensible enough to shut down immediately... he got to know Glen very well.)

I went up there often make sure that it was still running. It is much better getting a helicopter to fly me up there so that I can bring some fuel with me !



Glen has mostly been on top of the mountain getting the generator back online.
We have to keep the generator running 24 hours per day until the end of the race.




On the third night after the race started, one of the repeaters went dead.

I had to hike up the mountain on the previous day as the generator had died.

I did not leave the mountain until it was dark, so I had to climb down through the jungle in the dark!

Fortunately I had my torch with me!




Paul later gave me strict instructions to make sure that I leave the mountain so that I could be back at HQ while there was still light!

I found out that I did not have any problems navigating at night... I even offered Paul to go back up when the repeater died!

Anyhow, we ended up having to send the airborne repeater up!





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Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

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

The Competitors . . .

The competitors did not rest... three of the teams were half way through the 600 kilometre course after only three days... pretty amazing!

Two of the teams were Australian. 18 teams were out of the race. At least 10 of these were due to medical problems.

Hardly any people around here get enough sleep... the place is active 24 hours per day because there are always competitors coming in!

I was keen to find out how the Danish team would turn out. At the beginning of the race, they were not very sociable. But by the end of the race, I think the tension of the race had gone, and I managed to have a chat with them. By the third day, the Danes are doing pretty well... they had a 22nd place!



This was the mountain-bike leg of the race.

The guy you see being transported to hospital in the helicopter (photos below), was doing this part of the race. He was rounding a corner on his bike and rode straight into a large branch.



We had a lot of medical urgencies... we almost lost a guy with a punctured lung !
I got some great photos and helped getting the guy into the mobile hospital. There was a lot publicity on the website and through the media about it.

Fortunately, he was only 15 minutes away from HQ, so it was possible for us to get him to the helicopter very quickly, and to the nearest hospital.



Another leg of the race involved rowing in these “sampans”, a Malay term for “boat”. At some point, the teams in the race had to also split up - some of them swimming, some of them rowing, to complete the water leg of the race.

Below, the competitors had to use a flying fox to cross the canyons. I managed to have a go at it - compared to rock-climbing... well, I found it pretty boring *smile*. I imagine most people would find it quite fun though.



There are no places to climb here.

I had hoped to take one of the helicopters to Madai Caves to check out the 200 metre abseil. The road to the Madai Caves lead directly through the tiny village of Gua Madai - a small cluster of homes, their wood bleached grey.

The town’s main sources of income are tourism and birds’ nests. The nests are found high up the walls of the cave, tucked away in cracks and crevasses, and can command thousands of dollars. They are harvested about three times a year.

My girlfriend mentioned trying "bird's nest soup" whilst I was there. She said normally the bird's nest they use belong to the swallow. It is a delicacy to many Asians, and similar to shark's fin soup - that is if you have tried it. Normally the nests are made out of the birds' saliva.



There was so much rain at Silam that HQ was often flooded.

Many of the competitors took the opportunity to get some sleep and the slept on whatever they could find.


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Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Home 30. July 2007 12:56 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Skiing Australia 2007 30. July 2007 12:56 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet skiing australia 2007 Share This weekend it was my birthday and it also happened to be the ski peak season here in Australia. (click here for more photos) A group of us rented a house in Cooma not too far away from the ski fields and apart from a few mechanical problems with my car we had a blast of a time. On the Saturday we went to Perisher. The snow was perfect and a lot of the runs hadn't been groomed so it was still deep powder snow that we were skiing in. Kim, Luke and Karen took lessons in the morning and later in the afternoon I went for a couple of runs with Luke (Soeren didn't make it to the ski area that day). In the evening we were watching a video (I fell asleep 15 minutes into it), and we had birthday cake and wine/beer. The day after all of us went to Thredbo (which in my opinion is much better) and I was skiing with Soeren all day. The girls were having fun skiing down in the beginners area and Luke was skiing by himself higher on the mountain. We left Thredbo at around 3.30pm and arrived back home in Sydney at around 10.15pm....a long drive. I took a couple of videos of Soeren and myself skiing:  Video of Rene Skiing #1 Video of Rene Skiing #2 Video of Soeren Skiing #1 Video of Soeren Skiing #2 Click here to see more photos from: Skiing in Australia/SlideShow 11. July 2007 04:34 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Denmark 2007 11. July 2007 04:34 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet denmark 2007 Share Ok, it is not just in Holland that they steal with arms a legs. I am not proud to admit that the same seems to happen in Denmark (my birth country)...but more about that later. After Holland I flew a quick trip to Denmark. On the way there in Heathrow Airport I met up with Kim who had spend a couple of days in London with a couple of friends. I was really looking forward to introducing her to my parents. My flight arrived a bit late in London so we arrived to Copenhagen without my luggage which turned up the following day. All the time while in Denmark it was pouring with rain, but we did have one good day in Copenhagen where Kim got to see the sights Fredriksborg Slot, The Marble church, Amalienborg, City Square and City Hall, Stroeget, The little Mermaid, Runde Taarn, Tivoli and Gefion Springvandet. We had lunch at Kultorvet and here Kim got her handbag stolen by a very professional bag snatcher (Latin American or Eastern European looking, dark short hair, wears a dark green suit and will sit down at the table next to you and talk on his mobile. When he leaves he will take your bag). We also spent a couple of days at my grandmothers place where we we had a look at Koldinghus and Trapholt. Kim got to meet most of the family in Jutland (The family on my Dads side). My cousin had a child recently and the christening was taking place while we were visiting, so it gave us an excuse to visit my grandmother. On the way back from Jutland we visited my Uncle and Auntie Eli and Henning on their farm and also had a look at their windmill. One day we went also sailing up through Guldborgsund with my dad and we also went a quick trip to Germany one afternoon with the ferry. It was good to see my parents again, but I also realise that apart from them there is not much left for me in Denmark and I would never be able to live the same lifestyle in Denmark as I do in Sydney Australia. I took a number of videos while in Denmark and also a lot of photos. I can recommend that you click on the following links to see more from Denmark. Video of my Uncles Windmill #1 Video of my Uncles Windmill #2 Video of my Uncles Windmill #3 Video of Kim and my dad picking strawberries Video of sailing with my dad #1 Video of sailing with my dad #2 Video of sailing with my dad #3 Click here to see more photos from:Denmark/ Slideshow 22. June 2007 06:58 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Holland 2007 22. June 2007 06:58 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet holland 2007 Share After my stay in Athens Greece I am now in Vianen in Holland where our European office is. The purpose with my stay here is to do a bit or coordination and do some planning. Vianen is about 45 minutes drive south of Amsterdam not too far from Utrect. I am staying at the only hotel in Vianen which is located 3-4 kilometers from the office, but fortunately I have been able to borrow one of the company cars. Vianen really is in the middle of no-where. It is a sleepy little town with no major attractions. The hotel here is really weird. None of the floors meet and the numbering system of the rooms is all over the place. It is generally faster to get from one room in the hotel to another by always taking the lift to the ground floor, exit the hotel, enter it elsewhere and then take the lift up again...at least the ground floor is always on the same level. The room itself is nice enough. When I wake up in the morning i wake up looking at a cow paddock with a couple of horses wandering around...did I say that this is out in the sticks? People in holland steal with their arms and legs. Yesterday I asked to get an ironing board and an iron brought to my room.They told me that they could not do that (could be because of the mile long walk from the reception but I don't think so, because the room also don't have an alarm clock and the tv is bolted to the table) and they told me that they now had a special ironing room. The iron and ironing board was bolted with a big chain to the wall. The only positive thing about the hotel is that the breakfast is pretty nice (dinner isn't) and the internet is reasonably priced at 25 Euros for a week. Its is nice to catch up with colleagues although the schedule is pretty busy here. I interviewed a couple of people for the office here and we are going to give an offer to one of the guys. Also a couple of the restaurants in Vianen itself are fairly decent and the fact that I could borrow a car meant that I could get around a bit. 12. June 2007 07:35 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Greece 2007 12. June 2007 07:35 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet greece 2007 Share Here in mid June I am in Greece assisting one of our partners on a project involving our software. I arrived Sunday evening and started working Monday morning with the partner. One of my colleagues Karsten is also here and last night we went to this fantastic restaurant called moorings. It is the most fantastic setting right next to the sea, and the food was fantastic. My starter was goats cheese wrapped in prosciutto ham baked in the oven and then served on a bed of wild mushrooms. For mains I had Grober (a fish) and it was really nice. The servings were massive so no chance of leaving hungry. It was a pity that Kim wasn't there joining me...she would have loved the place. The whole dinner including a bottle of wine, pre-dinner drinks for two people amounted to approximately 135 Euros which is really cheap considering the food and the setting. During the week Karsten and I have been pretty busy assisting the partner on the project. Later in the week they requested to get some more of my time to assist them. Since Athens is a nice place to be (more interesting than Vianen anyway) I as happy to stay. This means that my stay will ten days in total before continuing to Holland. During the weekend I had time to do some windows shopping along Ermou street and in the Athens Flea markets as well as visit the Unknown soldiers grave. After that I continued up to see the Acropolis. I was in Greece and Athens about 15 years ago and managed to see a lot of things, but it was nice with a bit of a refresher. One of the things I particularly remember from Acropolis is the Porch of the Maidens. One evening around sunset on the weekend I walked up this hill close to the hotel that has a small chapel on top. There were also a couple of restaurants up there so I decided to sit down and have dinner. The evening view from the hill was fantastic with a view of Acropolis lit up as well as all of the lights of Athens all the way to Pireus. Click here to see more photos from: Athens / Slideshow 21. May 2007 12:12 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Golf at Wakehurst Golf Course 21. May 2007 12:12 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet golf at wakehurst golf course Share Sunday afternoon Kim, Luke and I went playing golf at Wakehurst Golf Glub near Manly. It was the first time on this course and it was in perfect condition and a very scenic course. Luke joined us and managed to loose a fair amount of balls until he figured out that he should keep his head down to be able to hit the ball. After this he was able to play a fairly decent game...which was excellent, because I had been giving him a bit of a hard time until then (especially after being 30 minutes late for the game). I think I managed to play the first none holes 7-8 strokes over par. After the first nine holes Kim and I continued on our own and managed to play an additional 6-7 holes before it got to dark to play (and Kim was starving). I recorded a couple of videos of us playing. Click on the links below to download them: Me playing golf (first movie) Me playing golf (second movie) Kim Playing golf Luke playing golf 17. May 2007 10:41 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Australian Drought 17. May 2007 10:41 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet australian drought Share Since 1998 we have had a drought in Australia. The water supply in Sydney has been declining ever since and early may 2007 the supply was down to around 30% with only about 8 months supply left. On the 17th of May it started raining in most parts of NSW and in many areas the drought now seems to be either over or at least less serious. Here is a radar photo from that day: Our water supplies in Sydney are now up to 57% and still rising. It would be fantastic if we could reach 100%, but we would need a fair bit of rain still. It also means that there is snow falling in the Snowy Mountains, so the skiing season has already kicked in with plenty of natural snow. 15. May 2007 10:52 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Romantic Dinner 15. May 2007 10:52 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet romantic dinner Share Home 15. April 2012 07:39 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments High Tea in Royal National Park 15. April 2012 07:39 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet high tea in royal national park Share Today we went to High Tea in Audley in the Royal National Park 30 minutes drive from where we live. Kim had bought a 2 for 1 deal and decided to try it. Verdict was that is wasn't anything special and even with the special deal it was a bit over priced. Afterwards we decided to go rowing up through the creek. Aiden was very keen to get to play with the water which was difficult in the rowing boat (next time we will get a Canoe). Afterwards we let him play a bit on land before heading back. 8. April 2012 06:18 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Bora Bora Island Scenery 8. April 2012 06:18 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet bora bora island scenery Share The island itself is a beautiful place. I took a lot of photos of the lagoon and the beauty of Bora Bora....so many that it would be too many to have in the previous Bora Bora post. With the risk of creating a post full of Blue photos...I had to separate them out to prevent the other posts from getting too big. Here they are...I will let them speak for themselves... 6. April 2012 06:19 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Snorkeling with Sharks and Stingrays 6. April 2012 06:19 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet snorkeling with sharks and stingrays Share One of the days at Bora Bora we went with a boat around the lagoon to go snorkeling and have lunch on one of the Motu's (Islands). Along the way we went snorkeling in spots where we also could see sharks and stingrays. Our first spot was a snorkeling spot with lots of coral and different fish. I Even saw a big fat murray eel. Kim also had a bit of a snorkel in the clear blue water even though the water was deep and there was a slight current. Aiden was facinated by the fish and wanted to join mummy in the water to say hello to the fish'ies... After this we went to a more shallow spot on the reef with lots of reef sharks. Yes, that is me in the water with 12 sharks circling around me (and no safety net in place).These sharks would come swimming towards me and then turn around within a meters reach. Click here to see a video I uploaded to Facebook with the Sharks getting close After lunch we stopped to feed the Stingrays in the lagoon. They are fairly harmless and I was feeding them dead fish. While doing so I was bitten by one of them that mistook the camera I was holding in my other hand as a fish. 5. April 2012 06:10 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Bora Bora 5. April 2012 06:10 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet bora bora Share Bora Bora is a beautiful island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Kim and I had promised eachother that we one day we will go there. It is about an hours flight from Tahiti and along the way you pass a number of other Polynesian islands and atolls. When we landed we were met by the stunning blue lagoon and the very characteristic mountain which is an old extinct volcano. Aiden especially was mesmerised by the view going on the boat from the airport to our hotel. On arrival we were met by traditional Tahitian music and someone blowing a seashell. And Aiden immidiately got into the mocktails. Our hotel was on the main island itself and we had a small hut facing the lagoon and had a beautiful view every morning waking up. Every morning we had breakfast overlooking the lagoon where Aiden would stuff his face with fruits, bread and youghurt. We spent a lot of time at the small beach close to the hotel just swimming in the clear water of the lagoon. The locals were out on the lagoon showing off their skills. Aiden loved the calm clear water and the beach...it was a pleasant 27-28 degrees. Every time he saw water he would point at it and shout BoBo (Water)...and insist on going swimming. One evening I did a couple of sunset portraits. Aiden again insisted on going in the water. I also went for a swim after we finished the photos, which was absolutely magical as the light was surreal and the water was absolutely calm. Across the lagoon from the hotel we had a little island (Motu) with beautiful place to go snorkeling. First I went in the water and notices a small reef shark circling around the corals...being kinda shy. I mentioned it to Kim and as soon as she also spotted it later in the day she rushed out of the water (A couple of days later she had a similar experience with a large stingray at the beach). It was hard to leave all this beauty behind 4. April 2012 04:09 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Flowers of French Polynesia 4. April 2012 04:09 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet flowers of french polynesia Share I took a lot of photos of flowers...enough to warrant a separate blog entry.. If you are not a flower person then just scroll down the page past these...lots of other good stuff there. Anyhow...I will let them speak for themselves... 3. April 2012 07:08 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Tahiti 3. April 2012 07:08 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet tahiti Share This Easter we decided to go to Tahiti and Bora Bora in French Polynesia in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We were supposed to have been going to Japan, but we decided that we instead wanted a more relaxing holiday and changed it to an Island holiday enjoying the sun, sand, water and sunsets. Tahiti is the main island of French Polynesia and is not larger than it is possible to drive around the entire island in a couple of hours (appx 120 km). On one of the days we rented a car and did just that. We could have joined a day tour, but I am not very keen on the 5min photo stop kind of tours and much prefer to be able to travel independently and take time to see what we would like to see. It is reasonably easy to find your way around the island. There really is just one road and the entire road is marked by kilometer markers and we had the distances for most of the sights we wanted to see. We didn;t go too much into the interior because of time restraints and some of these roads are only accessible by 4WD. First we stopped at one of the old Tahitian temples which was interesting After that we headed to some large caves full of freshwater (would have been convenient in the old days)...very damp and very dark. After this we tried to find the road up to a lake and supposedly large waterfall. Some of the locals were very helpful with assisting us with directions but unfortunately the road was closed. Fortunately we did find the nearby gardens which Kim wanted to visit (I will do a separate flower blog posting). We did find some waterfallson the island (and saw several from a long distance away high on the mountains). After this we headed to Point Venus where Captain Cook in 1769 supposedly saw the passing of Venus ...now this houses the only lighthouse in French Polynesia. The next passing will be 6th June this year...243 years after the previos passing (can be seen as a shadow against the sun). We decided to skip the museums as we would rather experience the outsde rather than objects behind glass. The other days we spent around the hotel and the marina, just relaxing, swimming and dining. Aiden loved spending most of the time in the pool at the hotel. 29. February 2012 09:31 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Project Setting 29. February 2012 09:31 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet project setting Share Yesterday I did another photo project. I wanted to do something different with composition. I had this idea of a guy being attacked by hand-spiders (I hate spiders) and thought that the garage would be a good location for it. I had an old T-shirt and some tomato paste to add some drama. It turned out to be a lot harder than expected as it was almost impossible to get the right composition, focus etc. when I both had to appear in the photo as well as take it (my head was cropped off on the first series which meant that I had to reposition the camera and then either re-shoot the series or try and stitch them up in post production...I chose the latter because of time constraints). I could definitely have done a better job if I didn't have to be two places at once, but I don't think it is a total disaster. 29. February 2012 07:51 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Aiden Walking 29. February 2012 07:51 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet aiden walking Share It is the 29th February and the last day of the bet I had with Kim....and believe it or not, but Aiden started walking by himself today. We are very proud of him and I am double proud of him as he delivered the goods just in the nick of time...one day later and I would have been cleaning the house (lucky that this year is a leap year)! 19. February 2012 09:25 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Aiden Standing by himself 19. February 2012 09:25 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet aiden standing by himself Share Aiden is now able to stand up by himself. He is now 20 months and should have been walking ages ago, so he is a bit behind on that front. Hopefully I can get him to take one step before the end of next week...I have a bet with Kim going whether he will walk before the end of February. 5. February 2012 08:57 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Centennial Park - Feb 2012 5. February 2012 08:57 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet centennial park feb 2012 Share Today we went to Centennial Park to take some family photos. I had been complaining that I didn't have enough (good) photos of myself and Aiden so Kim offered to take some. We found a nice spot in the park and managed to take a couple of shots before my camera ran out of battery...and unfortunately I had forgotten my spare at home. Kim just came back from a business trip to Singapore a couple of days ago and it is really nice to have her back. I missed her but I am not sure Aiden missed her as much as he is such a daddys boy. When she was back he just turned away and would rather stay with me. Also the little tiger is now 20 months and he is still not walking...what is going on? << Older posts Newer posts >> Newer posts 1 2 ... 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 ... 93 94 Older posts