New years eve we celebrated first with Kims family in Coogee. Here they had a firework at 9.30pm which was rather small.

Since my dad is in Sydney we though that he should have a look at the proper midnight firework, so after Coogee my dad and I drove into the city to watch the firework at Sydney Harbour.

Kim stayed back with her family because we expected to walk a fair bit to get into the city and especially to get back afterwards (and it would be hard to walk with her being pregnant).

I brought my camera gear and this is some of the shots I took (I haven't had time to photoshop anything).

Every year the local area puts on some amazing christmas decoration lightshows outside their houses.

One evening we went for a drive to take some photos...and here they are:

One day when it was raining and we were unable to do any work outside, we took my dad to the Blue Mountains.

It was nice and warm up there considering that the weather was sort of drizzling. My dad wanted to go and have another look at the Three Sisters, but they were covered in clouds, so instead we came up with taking the scenic railway as an alternative into the Jamison Valley.

As soon as Kim saw the drop into the valley she immediately bailed out and said that she didn't want to go....too steep.

My dad and I continued into the valley and went for a walk along one of the tracks there. While there I did some close-up photos of some of the local fauna.




After the walk we headed back up to the top with the cable car and then to Katooma for some lunch.



After lunch it was clearing up a bit, but the sisters were still covered. Instead we went for a walk at Wentworth Falls. My dad had never been there so that was something new for him.





After the walk it was getting late and we headed back to Sydney.

Every year on Boxing day (26th December) the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race kicks off.

It is a great event for anyone interested in sailing to see the large boats exit out through the heads of Sydney Harbour.




My dad was interested in seeing the race start and I wanted to get some great photos with the ships and the north head in the background.

We arrived at Watsons bay about 30 minutes before the race start and only just made it up to the viewpoint as the boats went through the heads. We were running the last 500 meters so as not to miss it (it has been a while since I've seen my dad run that sort of distance).



It was spectacular to watch all the ships and the follow boats head out through the harbour and head south towards the Tasman sea.



On the way back to the car we walked past the nude beach full of perverts (I don't mind nudists...but when it is old men with hard-on's standing facing the public swinging their willy's back and forth or pouring beer on it then they are exhibitionist perverts....click here...and....here...so see what I mean).

The winner of the race this year finished after 2 days and 9 hours.

In the morning of Christmas Day we were so stuffed that we weren’t ready to start eating again already.



Kim’s family always puts on a big feats on Christmas Day with turkey, ham, seafood and a lot of other Asian and non Asian dishes.



The food was great and amazingly Santa Claus appeared again (He must have been hovering around in the area).

This may also come as a surprise to you....but Santa Clause does exist and he visited our house on Christmas Eve.



We did the traditional Christmas dinner with friends coming over along with some of our nieces and nephews. Soeren and Nui joined us with their daughter and Andy joined us with his daughter so it was an almost equal representation of adults and kids (if you count me as a kid).



Later on in the evening Santa Clause appeared (Ethan asked where the reindeer were and apparently they were parked on the roof).

Ethan had been asking all evening whether Santa would be coming. Eventually we told him that Santa is a very busy man and that he visits all the good kids first and leaves all the naughty ones until later...that kept him quiet for a while.



He gave the children lots of presents and soon afterwards he headed off again...he is a very busy person this time of the year (I think he borrowed a couple of beer from the fridge).



By the end of the evening we were so stuffed with food that we had to be rolled into bed.

My dad arrived early January to spend Christmas and New Years Eve here with us.

Before he arrived i asked him if he'd mind helping with a couple of jobs arround the house. I told him that the biggest job was the tiles in the outdoor area in the back yard.

When they built the house they only tiled a part of the area. Later they extended the area but didn't level the area properly so where the joint between the old and the new area was the tiles weren't the same level and were either loose or broken. My dad thought it was best if we removed all the tiles on the upper deck and then poured a new concrete slab on top of the old one. He said that this would guarantee that the area would have the correct run-off from the house and at the same time avoid any spots where water would collect (There is two small areas where the water collects with the result that dirt and leaves collect and makes a mess).



So far we have removed all the old tiles (360 tiles in total equalling more than 1 ton worth) and carried these to the front of the house. We also carried 1.3 ton of cement to the back to pour the slab (65 bags of cement). My dad was poiring most of this and leveling it while I was at work before Christmas. On top of this is all the new tiles, adhesive and grout (all heavy lifting).


I notices after a days rain that water was collecting in a couple of areas and my dad told me that I shouldn't worry about it as he would be able to compensate for this when laying the tiles to ensure that the water would run off.


The slab is now complete and we are ready to start laying new tiles. We bought a jackhammer which has been a life saver in terms of removing the old tiles and mixing the new cement and adhesive.

The area won't look too much different from before though. We are laying the exact same type of tiles (otherwise it wouldn't match the rest of the area at the back of the house and at the front).

I just really hope my dad does a good job making sure everything is level, because otherwise this would be a waste of the $3000 it is costing in materials and tools (I can also see that I will have a cleanup job to do afterwards...there is cement on the walls and the fence of the house how...my dads comment was that he couldn't take that much care and that I'd just have to re-paint the house). If water is still collecting then we could have accomplished the same for a fraction of the price (and work) by just replacing and leveling a couple of rows of tiles at the area where they were broken (admittedly this would have been uneven, but the savings would probably have justified it).


Problem is that I won't know how dodgy the job is until after we've finished the grouting which wouldn't happen until end of this week (with a lot of effort).

Anyway...will provide an update when we finish.

Good news everyone...we are expecting a baby and the stork should be delivering around mid June next year.

I guess most of you guys already know by now....for the rest of you...Surprise!!

It is not unexpected as we were trying.




Now there is a busy time ahead preparing for the baby. Kims wants the baby room painted (Even though in my opinion the baby doesn't care what colour it is).

We will also need to get hold of stuff like prams etc. If there are any baby items that you can spare (especielly items such as car baby seats, pram and changing table) then we would be very grateful.

We don't know if it is a boy or a girl yet (We should know by the end of January).

yesterday it was Kim and I's one year anniversary.

We actually celebrated it on Saturday with a visit to one of Sydney top restaurants called Bilson's.

Yesterday we instead planned to have a nice evening out watching a movie in the evening. Kim was apparently waiting for me to deliver something to her office (or so her colleague said) but after work I was waiting at the car with a bunch of flowers. Kim was so excited to go out in the evening that she forgot to get off the train at our station with the result that she by accident ended up in Parramatta (western Sydney)...it took her one and a half hours to make it to the car...but fortunately the flower still looked fresh.

When we got home I spend some time experimenting with some photos and some lighting of the flowers before we went out, and here are the results. The Macro photos are taking using a 35/50mm lens reversed. The light comes from a single strobe reflected of a mirror.














The movie was really good and entertaining. We saw 2012...and it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is.

Every year in October & November there is an exhibition called Sculptures by the Sea. The city exhibits close to 200 sculptures on the stretch of coastline between Bondi and Tamarama. The public can go for a walk and have a look at the sculptures and vote for their favourits...if they are able to find parking that is.

Some of them are really good and some of them at just plain weird.

Here's some photos I took of my favourites.

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?

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.

Lucas version of a Miro painting

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.

We took the older children to see Peter Pan - this was their christmas/birthday presents.

At easter we rented a house with the family again.

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

The temples in Luang Prabang are some of the most beautiful anywhere. Yes, Thailand has some amazing temples, but these are different. They are smaller, and more intricately decorated.

Luang Prabang is without a doubt the cultural highlight of Laos. The old part of the city is beautiful and there are good reasons why is has been heritage protected.

I believe it has the most beautiful temples of South East Asia - they are not the largest or even the oldest, but the amount of details that has been put into them is absolutely stunning.



In addition to this there are a lot of other very interesting things to see in and do in the city, which I will cover in later posts.

The city itself is situated between two rivers where one of them is the Mekong which is still fairly busy with slow boats and ferries (The chinese are building a large bridge across the river north of the city)





The section between the two rivers form the city itself which consist of four parallel streets each about a kilometer long.



Everything within the city itself can be covered on foot and in the evening the main streets are blocked for card and reserved for pedestrians.

The place is dominated by a big hill with a small temple and stuba on top. It is very popular with tourists to climb the hill around sunset. And there is a great view of the mountains from the top.







There are some things that have changed in the city since I was there the last time. The most noticeable is the amount of tourists and fine hotels - and here it is really the more wealthy middle aged Europeans you see. The main street of the old city is full of modern western European influenced restaurants, souvenir and antique stores.



Fortunately you don't have to travel further that to the parallel streets to fine more low key Laos places to eat.

Also, last time I visited, I stayed in a small guest house near the city centre called Tanoy Guest House. When I stayed here I became good friends with the family and the place was named after the oldest daughter who's name was Tanoy.

The place is still there and apart from a larger fence it looks pretty much unchanged.

The 'secret' war in the 60's and 70's had a major impact on the country. A massive amount of bombs were dropped by mostly the Americans in mostly the Northern and Eastern part of the country. This was partly an internal civil war but also to stop the North Vietnamese using the country as a supply route.

To get an insight into this was I can highly recommend the books by Christoper Robbins called 'The Ravens' and 'Air America'.

The impact today is that un-exploded ordnance (mines, cluster bombs etc.) is covering large parts of the country and that every year lots of people including children gets injured or killed.

It is also very noticable, especially in the Hmong villages that there is no presence of old men. This is because most of these were killed either during the war where especially they took heavy casualties despite the American support or through 'education' camps after the war.

Last time I went to Laos I went to Plains of Jars which was one of the most heavily bombed areas and the debris was everywhere. We weren't going there on this trip, but to give the family and friends an insight into the history and the dangers to present people we visited the COPE organisation in Vientiane.

Here is Aiden in front of an unexploded (disarmed) clusterbomb. Looks just like a ball and tempting for kids to play with.



These were dropped from canisters on aircraft with several hundred in each load. It is estimated that 1/3 of these didn't explode on impact.
 


This map shows the areas most effected.



If you look for the bombs they you see them everywhere - mostly disarmed and used as fence posts.



There is also remains of anti aircraft guns such as this one in Luang Prabang. The barrel had been removed but everything else still worked on it and they could turn it by rotating the handles, much to the amusement of the kids. During the war kids only a little older than our kids would have been fighting at the front lines.

One thing that I love taking photos of on my travels are People.



A lot of the photos of the people of my travels are in the other posts, but here is a selection that didn't really fit into the other stories.

This is an old woman sitting doing preparing food or doing her handicraft outside her house while observing the street life.



Someone was shooting a wedding, I used the opportunity to snap a photo of my own.



A woman bathing in the Mekong



A girl posing for her boyfriend on top of the hill at Luang Prabang



A woman walking down the street



Another woman doing handicraft outside her shop

The fishing along the rivers in Laos are still very traditional.

It is the circular throw out nets, fish traps and people foraging along the river banks to collect river seaweed and snails for eating.



In most places they still use dugout canoes for the fishing.





In the various town you see people sitting repairing their fishing nets.










Kim told us that when she was a little girl she used to help the family repair the fishing nets, but that she's forgotten how to do it.



One of the delicacies in Loang Prabang is the local riverweed. We saw multiple people collecting it and also sitting cleaning it.

Some of the other highlights for the kids in Vang Vieng was the gym at our hotel. The local guys used it to train for kick boxing and the kids felt inspired.






Also, one evening we spotted someone launching wishing lanterns. We asked where they came from and through a lot of pointing we found a local shop keeper selling them.

We bought one and launched it an the kids loved the experience.




Also, one of the trees at the hotel had two little monkeys staying there most of the day. The kids loved standing there shouting profanities at them.

At Vang Vieng we did do some water sports.

Again we were extremely lucky kayaking a section of the river back to Vang Vieng and having the entire river to ourselves.




The three kids were all in a kayak with our guide sitting on top of their life jackets - fortunately they can all swim.



Kim and I was in one Kayak and Sacha and Mavis in another.





Just where we started out there was a rapid with water flowing over a large boulder but with plenty of flat water on the sides. Kim was little impressed when I headed straight into the rapids and with perfect skills paddled us through them...her being soaked and the kayak being full of water may have had something to do with it.



She's later said that the kayaking trip was one of her favourite and most fun activities on the trip, so maybe she was somewhat impressed with my brilliant paddling skills!!







Along the river are still some of the remains of the bars and zip lines - but all very quiet now.



Approaching Vang Vieng we went past some really scenic locations with bungalows etc.









The experience at the end got and all thumbs up!





Another water activity that Mavis and I did was tubing through one of the caves. You essentially sit in an inflated car tyre and then pull yourself along a rope inside a cave. It was fun for the kids, however this place was packed with Koreans trying to do the same thing.

Aiden initially didn't want to go, but I am proud that he eventually managed to get the courage to do so.



We also went to one of the lagoons. There are a number of them and some of them are very popular. We organised with a driver to drive us to one of the less popular ones. It was still scenic and it had platforms of the trees to jump from and you could see why some travelers would have killed themselves jumping off them.







There were also a couple of rafts which reminded me of the first time I went to Laos and paddles across a local river on a raft. It got on one of them in the lagoon and the whole thing literally sunk under me - I only just managed to get off in time before getting soaked.

The second one was able to hold my weight and I took the boys for a little paddle.

At one of the caves in Laos there is this amazing Buddha statue inside the cave.

I couldn't help but notice how beautiful the diffused light was falling onto the statue itself and through the entrance to the cave. We were there all by ourselves and I asked Kim to sit and offer a little prayer in the ray of light coming in through the cave.

I didn't bring a tripod with me to Laos, so everything had to be shot handheld which was tricky as there wasn't much light there.

In Vang Vieng we also went to some caves. Again we were the only ones there - I don't know if this was just because no one else were interested or because we went there at a time when everyone else were doing other activities.

The caves are in fairly pristine condition, they are dark, moist and other than descending a makeshift ladder walking through them gives a feeling of exploring the caves for the very first time.





Some passages were really narrow






And other parts of the caves were massive.










Overall the caves are beautiful and again it was amazing having them to ourselves.