On one of the days we took my dad to Maroubra beach for breakfast.





It gave them a chance to check out what out local beach is like and also Aiden a chance to have a bit of a play in the sand.

At around Christmas time Kims dad asked me if I could take some more photos of him and the grandchildren.

Last year I took some of him using a blue background and he asked for something similar (although I am not a big fan of blue)

Every year I like to take a Christmas family photo.

This year having my dad around meant that I could get hime to assist us with taking the photo as I needed someone to stand on a ladder taking the photo while we as a family was lying plat on a bed.

Merry Christmas 2012 Everyone!!!!

Every year some of the houses in Matraville puts on a spectacular christmas light show.

Every night there are hundreds of visitors and it is worth seeing.

Here are some of the lights from this years show.

This holiday season my Dad and his partner is visiting us from Denmark.



It has been a while since he was here and in also a while since we were in Denmark, so Aiden had grown a fair bit since.

The first couple of weeks we bought then some trips to various places such as Hunter Valley and the Blue Mountains.

One the weekends we would treat then to various dinners Thai, Indian, Moroccan, Brazilian, Aussie, Chinese etc. as well as try to make time to take them to see some of the sights around Sydney.

The first weekend Aiden was sick so we had to cancel our trip up the Northern Beaches to Barrenjoey Lighthouse so we had to stay home and let them explore by themself. On the second weekend we managed to go there and bring Aiden along as well sitting in his little backback.



It was a warm day and the climb is fairly steep so especially my dads partner was pretty hot by the time we reached the top where the light house is.






The view was definitely worth it.



Walking back along the beach we decided to make a drink stop to clench the thirst.

First of all Merry Christmas everyone!!!


With a bit of arm twisting Kim finally agreed to let me do a series of 'sexy' Santa photos.




A lot of work had to go into these couple of photos in terms of getting the outfit, but the right colour wrapping paper, wrap all the boxes, set them up to it looks nice, getting all the lighting right and not least convince Kim to do the actual shoot.

Then I had to sort out the photos I needed and then do all the editing...I think the end result is pretty good and very much in the spirit of Christmas.

And did I mention that I am married to the most beautiful (and sexy) Santa there is???

Lucas is now three months young and the other day I did a series of monthly photos of Kim and him on our bed.

The first Christmas for Lucas is approaching. This also means that he is being subjected to all kinds of Christmas rituals such as posing for his Dads Christmas photos.

This year we celebrated Kims Dads birthday with a big lunch for the whole family where everyone brough along something to eat.

Afterwards we did some family photos with Kim and all the grans children as well as my Dad and his two grand children Aiden and Lucas.

I finally had to bite the bullet and get my eyes checked out for glasses.

I had started developing a headache if sitting in front of the computer or reading for extended periods of time



So I now have some reading glasses that I can use...makes me feel old.

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?

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.

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 20. April 2022 14:04 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Various 2022 20. April 2022 14:04 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet Here are some various photos from first part of 2022.Here is one of Aiden in his happy space at the Share Here are some various photos from first part of 2022. Here is one of Aiden in his happy space at the Piano and Guitar. At Cabramatta we sat down having an asian drink. It looked so much like one of the birds from Angry bird that I just had to get a photo. See the resemblance? This is a Lego truck that Lucas built. At karate Aiden is sometimes asked to teach the newbies. It is great to see how it gives him confidence. Aiden went to a birthday party with a Virtual Reality experience...a bit scary for him. The local corner shop was refitted for a TV show. Easter egg loot. What do the boys get up to in their room sometimes??? Family photo at QVB Having desserts in the city A seal resting on the rocks at the opera house. 20. April 2022 13:04 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Nan Tien Temple 20. April 2022 13:04 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet One one of our trips down south we visited the Nan Tien temple south of Sydney.It is a Chinese Buddh Share One one of our trips down south we visited the Nan Tien temple south of Sydney. It is a Chinese Buddhist temple that is worth a relaxing visit for anyone with some time. 20. April 2022 13:04 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Warilla Beach 2022 20. April 2022 13:04 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet During the Christmas holidays we rented a place at Warilla Beach a couple of hours south of Sydney.W Share During the Christmas holidays we rented a place at Warilla Beach a couple of hours south of Sydney. We discovered that the beach has pipies in the sand, so every day we made sure that we harvested a plate full of them for dinner. We brought Aidens new guitar, so that he was able to practice his music while enjoying the scenery. The kids also attended online drawing lessons. It was a beautiful spot to sit on the balcony, enjoy the view and have some great food (including fresh pipies). One day we also visited the Jambaroo Water park. This was a disappointment with long queues at every ride and Aiden was too scared to do any rides so it was a bit of a miserable day. 13. April 2022 10:04 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Ethans 21st Birthday 13. April 2022 10:04 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet Last weekend it was Ethans 21st Birthday. He had a bit party with the whole family and his friends.T Share Last weekend it was Ethans 21st Birthday. He had a bit party with the whole family and his friends. They had arranged for catering with lots of Cambodian, Laotian and other asian foods. 5. April 2022 19:04 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Dad in Sydney 2022 5. April 2022 19:04 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet It has been three years since I last spent time with my dad. This is due to Australia closing its bo Share It has been three years since I last spent time with my dad. This is due to Australia closing its borders for two years due to the Covid pandemic. As soon as they announced opening the borders again in February my dad booked his ticket to come a visit. It was really nice to have him here and different from when he has been here previously. For starters, he was here by himself which was a different dynamic and also Aiden and Lucas have grown older and really enjoyed bonding with 'Bedstefar'. Especially Aiden and my dad found that they had music in common and Aiden took great prise in being able to play some of the pieces on piano that my dad was able to sing. I really enjoyed having a few beers (and other good stuff) with him while he was here. A couple of years ago I bough a machine to transfer my dads and grandads old 8mm film to digital. Because of the pandemic I was never able to try it out. My dad brought one of his films to do a trial transfer. It worked really well and he'd now brought it back to Denmark with him to transfer the rest. One afternoon dad and I went up to the Barrenjoey lighthouse. My dad is still able to do it although he is a bit slower and not as strong as he used to be. 5. April 2022 19:04 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Father in law passed away 5. April 2022 19:04 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet Kims dad passed away 92 years old. He will be greatly missed by his daughters, grandchildren, grands Share Kims dad passed away 92 years old. He will be greatly missed by his daughters, grandchildren, grandsons and friends. It was a beautiful funeral following chinese traditions with wearing white clothes to celebrate a long life. Aiden played a beautiful song on the piano in front of everyone and we had put together slides showing his life. Day after we did the traditional cleaning of the tomb stone and also the burning of paper clothes and money (theory is that it will then go to the afterlife for him to wear). I hope that the boys are old enough to remember their time with him. Even though his old body was failing him, his mind was still sharp enough to play Mahjong and other games with us. These photos are from our last trip with him down to Bowral. 5. April 2022 15:04 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Lucas awesome checkmate award 5. April 2022 15:04 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet Lucas is part of the schools chess club.The other day he was very proud that he&#39;d received this awar Share Lucas is part of the schools chess club. The other day he was very proud that he'd received this award. 30. December 2021 17:12 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Christmas 2021 30. December 2021 17:12 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet This Christmas was almost normal with the Covid restrictions lifted.As usual we did our annual Chris Share This Christmas was almost normal with the Covid restrictions lifted. As usual we did our annual Christmas photo. Kims dad is staying at Kims sisters place over Christmas after haing been in hospital. He is looking the best he has for years. 29. December 2021 17:12 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Various 2021 29. December 2021 17:12 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet This are from various events of 2021Lucas Holy CommunionLunar EsclipseSwimming at Yarra Bay in the m Share This are from various events of 2021 Lucas Holy Communion Lunar Esclipse Swimming at Yarra Bay in the middle of winter Aidens Learning award Empty Maroubra Beach during covid lockdown Seafood dinner with family Chillies harvested from the garden Cooking lobster at home during lockdown Spotted Herbie in our local area Monkeys in a tree Playing games at home during Covid lockdown Enjoying a hot chocolate during Covid lockdown Boys make a mess and have to clean the house Dinner at home during Covid lockdown Conference call with family during Covid lockdown How many people can you fit into a dinghy? Pho at the local cafe Going for a walk after Covid restrictions lifted On a conference call with Dalai Lama from home Kim received a Hoodie to keep her warm in the cold winter evenings. I thought it was something else and wrote instructions on the packaging. Aidens birthday was bowling with his friends and dinner with family Kim dressed appropriately for walking 20 meters to the car The boys learning to use a hammer. Spending time at Yarra bay Aiden still struggling, although him now having a piano seems to help him. Lucas got some more awards at the Athletics carnival to add to his swimming awards. 29. December 2021 17:12 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Piano and Guitar 29. December 2021 17:12 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet Mid year I decided to get an electric piano. I&#39;ve always wanted to learn and we wanted to boys to st Share Mid year I decided to get an electric piano. I've always wanted to learn and we wanted to boys to start playing as well. We have been using an online lesson system and it has been working really well for us. Especially Aiden seems to pick it up quickly. Aiden has also been begging to get an electric guitar, so this Christmas we got him one. It is fortunate that the same online lesson subscription also covers guitar playing. << Older posts Newer posts >> Newer posts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 93 94 Older posts 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 Home 20. March 2021 14:03 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Karate bruises 20. March 2021 14:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet Last year was a tough year with Karate.First the lockdown meant that we had to go online for trainin Share 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 My Burmese Dha swords 13. March 2021 18:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet Back in the late 90&#39;s I visited Laos. In the northern corner of Laos I acquired two old swords from Share 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 Newcastle 22. January 2021 01:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet Between Christmas and New year we made a trip to Newcastle with the family.They had this beautiful l Share 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 2020 21. January 2021 18:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet Karate during 2020 was challenging to say the least.I was devastated when everything moved online. I Share 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 Tennis Award 21. January 2021 14:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet Another encouragement award for Aiden. This time in Tennis... Share Another encouragement award for Aiden. This time in Tennis... 31. December 2020 14:03 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Covid 31. December 2020 14:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet 2020 was definitely a bit different because of Covid.Australia managed to get through with very few Share 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 Challenging year 31. December 2020 13:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet The last couple of years has been super challenging for Aiden all around.He is struggling all around Share 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... 26. December 2020 16:12 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Christmas Photo 2020 26. December 2020 16:12 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet Keeping with tradition we did another family photoshoot this year.This time we wanted to try somethi Share Keeping with tradition we did another family photoshoot this year. This time we wanted to try something a bit more ambitious with a boxed setup where the individual boxes tell a bit more of a story. I couldn't find an existing box that was big enough to fit me as well as the boys together, so I had to build one myself. I decided on the dimensions 90x90cm (as this was one of the dimensions that I could buy and also transport). I then had to cut it, paint it and nail it together. I had to do all this inside the house as the box is too big to fit through a door. 26. December 2020 14:03 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments New bikes 26. December 2020 14:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet For Christmas the boys got new bikes from us and my dad (bedstefar).The old were getting too small, Share For Christmas the boys got new bikes from us and my dad (bedstefar). The old were getting too small, so needed something bigger.... 22. December 2020 01:03 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Painting - date night 22. December 2020 01:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet One evening we were invited on a double date with one of Kims friends.The theme was painting and we Share One evening we were invited on a double date with one of Kims friends. The theme was painting and we were to make an abstract painting of eachother. Next day the boys tried to draw their versions. << Older posts Newer posts >> Newer posts 1 2 ... 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ... 93 94 Older posts