2. January 2007 10:02
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
New Years eve this year was celebrated on the Lawn at the Botanical Gardens near the opera house. We had a nice combined view of the fireworks in the city, on the harbour and on the bridge. We were there with a group of friends and and we brought picnic blankets and food to eat.
The 9pm fireworks were a bit disappointing compared to other years but the midnight one was really good. This year they use the whole area, so simultaneously fireworks were being fired from the harbour, the bridge as well as the high rise buildings in the city.
Fireworks are illegal to buy and sell here in Australia, so instead the city (and most other cities) instead put on large firework displays. This means that you every year get professional firework displays instead of the sporadic stuff you get in other countries where people themselves buy it.
Besides, if firework was allowed then the State Emergency Services would be spending three weeks after New Years Eve fighting bushfires every year.
Click here to Download video of Firework Display #1
Click here to Download video of Firework Display #2
Click here to Download video of Firework Display #3
Click here to Download video of Firework Display #4
Click here to see more photos from New Years Eve
20. March 2006 01:50
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
In September 2006 I went on a business trip to Tokyo along with a colleague of mine Tsukada-san.
Most of the trip was hard work and very long days, but I did manage to snap a couple of photos here and there.
We did get the deal in Tokyo, so the trip was worthwhile, and we are now installing our solution across all of Asia.
Click here to see more photos from:
Tokyo/
Slideshow
19. March 2006 03:56
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
In Mid 2006 I went to a work meeting in Krabi in Thailand.
This happens to be a few kilometers away from one of the best rock climbing destinations in the world. So, after the meeting I took a few days off to go rock climbing.
Kim happened to be travelling in the Northern part of Thailand with some friends who had to leave on the same day my meeting ended. Kim flew down to Krabi where I picked her up at the airport.
Unfortunately it was rainy season, so most of the time in Railay it was raining, but we did manage to get one day of climbing done and the rest of the time we spend in the restaurants and playing cards.
Click here to see more photos from:
Thailand/
Slideshow
19. March 2006 03:54
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
In 2006 I went to Holland a couple of time for work. We have an office in Vianen 50 milometers outside Amsterdam.
I normally don't take a lot of photos when I go there, but if you click on the link below then you can see some of the ones I did take.
Click here to see more photos from:
Holland/
Slideshow
19. March 2006 03:53
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
In early 2006 I went a trip to Seattle for our annual kick-off event.
Some of us flew over there a few days early to go skiing in Wanatchee east of Seattle. If was a weekend of perfect skiing. It was my first time skiing so I took some lessons after which I was doing fine (blue slopes).
During the week we had lots of meetings and dinners. There were award nights as well as just social nights where we could meet up with the rest of the company.
The following all of us in International went down to Crystal Mountain at Mount Raineer to do some more skiing. It was a lot of fun and we all had a great time.
Click here to see more photos from:
USA/
Slideshow
19. March 2006 03:53
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
Mid 2006 I went with Soeren and his family (visiting from Thailand) to Thredbo to do some skiing. We drove down there Friday night and returned Sunday night. Thredbo is located in the Australian Alps 5 hours drive south of Sydney.
Generally the skiing conditions are pretty good, but last year was pretty bad, but we did get some skiing done.
Click here to see more photos from:
Over easter we went to Glenworth Valley for Camping. This location is about an hours drive north of Sydney in an easily accessible but beautiful little valley.
It is private propoerty, so you have to book beforehand and it does get very busy. We were very lucky that we were located down at the end of the property where it was more quiet.
In the evenings there were beautiful sunsets.
In the morning it was a bit more misty in the valley.
The owners also put on a great easter egg hunt for the children. There were hundreds of children with 20,000 chocolate eggs hidden in a field and there was an easter bunny riding a horse.
We also spend time playing some ball sports. I'd brought a baseball bat and ball. Because we were four families, we had plenty of people to form two teams. It got very competitive and the bat took a bit of battering, so I had to go a buy a more solid wooden bat.
In the evenings we had the normal campfire and baked dampers on sticks, marshmellows and baked potatoes in the fire.
There are also lots of walks witin easy driving distance, including some walks with beautiful waterfalls.
Also, people come to the valley for horse riding, so there are lots of horses in the surrounding paddocks.
And wildlife such as Kookaburras!
And going for a short stroll in the mornings was a beautiful experience with the mist and light changing.
Because of lots of rain, the whole area had been flooded just weeks earlier. Where we were camping would have been a meter under water, but because of the river running through the area the water had fortunately receeded.
21. March 2021 13:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
I reached a significant milestone in karate this week. I graded for my 3rd Kyu (Brown belt) and at the same Kim graded for her 5th Kyu (Blue belt).
On the occation I treated myself to a new dogi (karate uniform).
I was so nervous and tense - and screwed up a few places. There is now a lot of hard work ahead to get to the 2nd Kyu which is at least another half a year away.
Here are some photos from the grading. The ones from the dojo are a bit blurry because they weren't taken from my camera and I don't have the full resolution photos.
20. March 2021 14:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
Last year was a tough year with Karate.
First the lockdown meant that we had to go online for training, but even in the dojo I managed to get a lot of injuries.
Some of them visible and some of them not so visible...I have a whole stack of scans and x-rays as souvenirs from this year.
Some could have been avoided, but most are just part of the training.
I even earned an award for it...
The worst one was a kick to my chin. I dont have any photos of it, but I do have the indentation it made on my mouth guard I was wearing at the time. If it hadn't been for the mouthguard I am certain that I would have lost some teeth. This injury could have been avoided.
I have now gone out to buy a new and way cooler mouthguard (I created the design myself). It is thors hammer in the middle surrounded by the Fenrir wolf and Midgaards Serpent.
Even Kim got a few bruises.
13. March 2021 18:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
Back in the late 90's I visited Laos. In the northern corner of Laos I acquired two old swords from a local.
Through some forums I have tried to find out as much as I can about them and this is what I have been told:
- The swords are of a Burmese style called Dha (Means sword in Burmese).
- They are of museum worthy pieces
- I should NOT EVER attempt to restore them. This would degrade their value significantly.
- The flower script design on the swords are reserved for the rulers and officers of those days.
- အဲဒီဓားတွေကငါတို့ရဲ့ဗမာဓားတွေပဲလာအိုဆိုတာအရင်ကဇင်းမယ်လို့ခေါ်တယ်အင်းဝခေတ်မှာမြန်မာတွေတက်သိမ်းခဲ့တဲ့နိုင်ငံပဲဓားကိုငှက်ကြီးတောင်ဓားလို့ခေါ်တယ်ဓားကဓားကောင်းပဲ အခုငါပြတဲ့ဓားဟာလည်းသမိုင်းဝင်ဓားပဲငှက်ကြီးတောင်ဓားပေါ့ (Translation: These swords are our Burmese swords. Laos was formerly called Zin Mae, a country that was conquered by the Burmese during the Inwa period. The sword is called the Sword of the Bird. The sword is a good sword.).
- It's
a Ngat kyee daung Dah the sword that was once used by Burmese warriors
and Thai during the dark age of Konbaung (1765–1767).
- This
Burmese Empire was destroyed during the English colonized to the East
and totally wiped out by the English cannons kind of like a scene from
the last samurai movie in the end! They were like charging to the enemy
where they were being shot at.
- These are also antique pieces in a good state of preservation! Swords, even if they are in such good condition, belong in the museum. You have to take a look at the Malaysia Sword Museum! They are great specimen
- One would have to analyze the material metal wood winding fibers would certainly be very interesting! You don't see such a bundle every day
- The handle on the smaller sword is made from wound rattan fibres.
- The larger sword is made from silver and wound silver threading (I believe it is the typical not so pure silver/tin that was used).
This means that it is likely that the swords are up towards 250 years old and that the long one belonged to someone of a high status.
The area they are from is a place that has been ravaged by war for several hundred years right from the wards beween Burma and Siam (Thailand), conquer by the English empire, the Second World War, the Chinese civil war through to the Laos Civil/Vietnam war.
It is highly likely that the swords have seen some action. Although a bit rusty, the swords are still very sharp. Given that the blade on the longer sword is narrower at the hilt it is likely that it has been sharpened several times through history. Again this probably means that it had a practical use/purpose and wasn't just for display.
22. January 2021 01:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
Between Christmas and New year we made a trip to Newcastle with the family.
They had this beautiful little animal park that is maintained by the council and is free to visit.
Just outside Newcastle is fighterworld, which is an aircraft museum next to an active air strip.
Newcastle museum was also worth a visit on a rainy day.
One evening we went to the games arcade...no idea how Aiden managed to get a first place in racing.
21. January 2021 18:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
Karate during 2020 was challenging to say the least.
I was devastated when everything moved online. I love the partner work and couldn't see how this was going to work through video conferencing.
The boys and Kim were okay with the new format and I hung in there. I was so happy once we were able to get back in the dojo again.
Just before the lockdown I had purchased a punching bag, so at least we were able to do some outdoor contact punching.
During the lockdown there was a kata competition and other programs, and we did get a few prices.
...but dojo definitely rules...
We have managed to go to gradings...
And I have kept all the grading certificated we have gotton...
21. January 2021 14:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
Another encouragement award for Aiden. This time in Tennis...
31. December 2020 14:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
2020 was definitely a bit different because of Covid.
Australia managed to get through with very few outbreaks because of very early and sever lockdowns.
This let people to panic buy. We spent the time to chill out and solve lots of puzzles in the evenings, do lots of exercise in the parks (which was still allowed), Karate online and work moving fully to conference calls.
31. December 2020 13:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments
The last couple of years has been super challenging for Aiden all around.
He is struggling all around and this photo tells it all.
For myself I have been struggling equally, and had it not been for the release of karate I don't know where things would have been at. I often wish I had my own bucket to hide under. I don't think this year will be any easier unfortunately...