Home

14. March 2010 08:17
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Week 25

14. March 2010 08:17 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

week 25


It is now week 25 and almost the third trimester. Kim is certainly getting a lot bigger these days but is still very active with swimming, yoga and walking (According to Kim baby is very active too). Both baby and mum are so far doing fine.


Week 25


They say that most of the growth is in the third trimester...she could be huge!


We have finished painting the baby room and we have bought the most essential furniture such as a cot, a chest of drawers, car seats etc. It is now up to Kim to decorate the room so that it looks nice.

13. March 2010 09:05
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Taste of Sydney

13. March 2010 09:05 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

taste of sydney


Today Kim and I met up with Sasha and his wife to go to 'Taste of Sydney'. This is an annual event where the premier restaurants of sydney and food and wine producers showcase their food and wine.

This year it was held in Centennial park which is the largest park in sydney which is pretty convenient for us.

At the event they had what the call 'Chef's table'. This is where you can sit down with the chefs of some of the premier restaurants and they will tell you about their restaurants, their food and you can ask them questions. In the mean time they were serving us seafood, wine and cheese (I discovered a new cheese that I in particular really liked).





They also had showcases where some of the chefs from some of sydney best restaurants show you how to cook different dishes. We went to one session where we saw Matt Moran from Aria prepare a lovely cured trout. This was cured like Gravad laks using salt, sugar, coreander and fennel and then cured a secod time using dijon mustard and dill.

Cured Trout


The different restaurants were also having some of their food for sale. Some of it was quite nice (I had a nice yellowfin tuna), but I don't think it was a proper representation of their food. It is difficult to prepare and cook in large quantities without access to proper kitchen facilities, so most of the food was more fancy fast food.








10. March 2010 10:05
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

King Lear

10. March 2010 10:05 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

king lear


Last weekend Kim and I went to see King Lear at the Sydney Opera House. Kim had managed to get cheap preview tickets on the third row from the stage which is pretty unheard of.

King Lear

The play wasn't anything fancy in terms of stage production, costumes or anything (Actually some of the actors were wearing fairly modern denim jeans).

On the side of the stage they had positioned a drumkit and a girl was banging away all throughout the first half of the performance. I found this very distracting and annoying since I was already trying hard to concentrate on understanding the old Shakespearean English.

During the second half they moved the drumkit off the stage, so I must say that I actually started to enjoy the play a lot more.

Given that we got pretty cheap tickets I found the evening pretty good value, but I don't think I'd pay full price for this one.

22. February 2010 02:04
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Swimming at Maroubra

22. February 2010 02:04 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

swimming at maroubra


Sunday I convinced Kim that we should go to the Beach. I wanted to try my underwater casing for my pocket camera in the waves to see if I could get some good photos. In 2000 I went to the World Press Photo exhibition and saw these great underwater photos from the surf and was inspired to see if I could re-create them.


Kim insisted that we picked up a beach shelter on the way there so that she would have some shade. We found on in K-Mart and then went on our way to the beach.

The first few minutes folding up the beach shelter was a disaster (It was one of those quick fold out ones where you just pull a string...junk!!) and eventually we just threw it all back in the bag deciding to return it on the way home (we'll get a pop-up one instead).


Taking the photos turned out to be a lot trickier than expected. It was fairly windy and the visibility wasn't great. Also the pocket camera tries to auto focus prior to taking the photo which was difficult with everything moving around constantly so most of the time the camera didn't take the photo.It was also quite hard to aim the camera while being battered around by the waves.








I did however manage to take these photos that turned out somewhat alright. I might try again one day when the conditions are better (and I've figured out how to lock the focus on the camera)

22. February 2010 01:12
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Uncle and Auntie in Sydney

22. February 2010 01:12 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

uncle and auntie in sydney


For the past three weeks my uncle and auntie (Eli & Henning) has been travelling in New Zealand with a tour group.

On the way home they did a 24 hour stopover with the group so do some quick sightseeing before continuing their journey.

They had a tightly packed program arriving late in the afternoon, out for a late dinner and then spend then morning next day on a tour around the city before heading back to the airport.

Kim and I managed to catch up with them in the evening for dinner at Nicks at King Street Wharf. Afterwards we went for a walk down to Circular Quay so that they could have a look at the Harbour bridge and the Opera House at night.

Dinner with Eli and Henning

By the time we got back to the hotel it was midnight and they had to check out of their hotel early next morning.

We hope that they enjoyed the sightseeing the day after (it was a fairly warm day) and that they had a good journey back to Denmark. Apparently there is a lot of snow there currently so they were prepared for the fact that they would have to do a fair bit of digging to get to their car and into their house.

It is not very often that we have visiting family from Denmark so it is always a pleasure to see them.

19. February 2010 05:00
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

More garden critters

19. February 2010 05:00 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

more garden critters


This weekend I was cutting down the bouganvillae in the garden. Whenever I cut down some of the vegetation in the garden it is always interesting what insects I discover in the process. Because of the variety of plants there is always something new to discover. I try not to use pesticides in the garden itself...better to just let nature find a balance.

On this occation I discovered a large Garden spider and a Green Praying mantis (I have seen a Mantis before in the garden and they are great to have a pest control). Both are totally harmless.



Green Praying Mantis Common garden spider


This is what a website had to say about this Common Garden Spider:

"Now this is your classic common garden spider from Sydney. The Australian Museum page on garden orb weaving spiders tells me there is a second, almost identical species (edulis) but that that lives further inland. There must be hundreds of people each summer who can be seen jumping madly up and down in their gardens swiping at themselves just to be sure to get rid of this guy from their clothing after they've walked through a web. Although certainly large enough, this spider is reluctant to bite humans. "


Last week I did however see a redback spider on the other side of the house. Needless to say that I killed it before I got a chance to take a photo (They are extremely venoumous and the closest relative to a Black Widow). To be honest it is the first time I've seen one in the wild for more that 10 years so fortunately they are very rare.

13. February 2010 07:35
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Open Air Cinema

13. February 2010 07:35 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

open air cinema


This saturday Kim had booked tickets for 'The wolf man' at the open air cinema.



Every year in January and February Sydney hosts a number of events such as operas, concerts and cinemas.

The open Air cinema is located at Ms Macquaries Chair in the botanical garden overlooking the city, the opera house and the bridge.

Open Air Cinema

Open Air Cinema

It is a spectacular setting, especially when the weather is really nice as it was saturday (last year it was pouring down with rain). This years all the seats were sold out within 30 minutes, but Kim was quick to get a couple (smart cookie).

Even though we got there two hours early most of the seats had already been taken. We did manage to find two seats that were really good eventually (we were worried that we'd have to sit on one of the first rows right in front of the screen.


Opera House

The movie was about warewolves and it was funny to listen to people reaction when large fruit bats from the botanical garden flew down in front of the set.

2. February 2010 03:08
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Hamilton Island 2010

2. February 2010 03:08 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

hamilton island 2010


This weekend we went for an extended (4 nights) weekend to Hamilton Island with Kims Family.

Click here for more photos Click here for more photos


Hamilton Island is located 1500 kilometers north of Sydney (2.5 hours flight) in the Whitsundays group of islands near the great barrier reef.

This time of the year it is rain season up there and the first three days it was raining a fair bit. This didn't stop us from spending time in the pool or at the beach though. In the evenings we would spend time in the cocktail bars, dining our or playing blackjack.

Click here for more photos

On the first and the last morning morning we did some catemaran sailing. The wind was a bit patchy with periods with no wind and other with lots of wind.The last day however was beautiful and I gave Kim a very basic first course in sailing after which she took over the steering.


Click here for more photos Click here for more photos Click here for more photos

Click here to see a video from the catemaran


One of the other days there was too much wind for them to allow the catemarans going out. I managed to convince the people at the beach to let me take out one of the windsurfers. It was a pretty short session as I found that I am totally out of shape but as least Chong managed to have a bit of a go as well.

Click here for more photos Click here for more photos

Click here to see a video from the windsurfing


We booked an afternoon of snorkeling up near Hayman island. It was a day with pretty rough seas and even though it was a pretty big boat it was really thrown around and a lot of people on the boat got sea sick (Dylan got a bit sick, but otherwise everyone else in the family was ok). After about an hour of sailing the captain said that the seas were too rough and that the water was too murky and dangerous to continue, so he cancelled the trip and returned to port. A bit of a disappointment, but at least we got a refund and a bit of a sailing trip out of it.

Click here for more photos


I brought a waterproof pouch for my pocket camera which meant that I could take photos under the water and while sailing. This resulted in some pretty good photos in the pool.

Click here for more photos Click here for more photos Click here for more photos

The kids (Kims nephews and niece) recently started swimming lessons. They are still a little uncomfortable with the water although this did improve while we were at Hamilton. Especially Ethan is not very comfortable as you can tell from this video:

Video of Ethan swimming


We also took some nice photos of some of the local wildlife and flora on the island and in the dining places.

Click here for more photos Click here for more photos Click here for more photos Click here for more photos Click here for more photos Click here for more photos Click here for more photos Click here for more photos


2. February 2010 02:39
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Junior

2. February 2010 02:39 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

baby


We (Kim that is) are now almost half way through the pregnancy.

Last week we went to another ultrasound scan to check if everything is on track and to count the number of fingers and toes. Both baby and mum is fine so far. And how is daddy you ask? He is worried how he is going to handle being a dad...such a big responsibility and worried that he will be a lousy dad.


Click here for more photos

We now also know the sex of the baby...and it is going to be a BOY and is still due in mid-June!!! He has already started kicking according to Kim, so he may be an active one.


We were hoping for a girl because there is already more than enough boys in the family (Kayla started crying when she heard that is was a boy...she was hoping for someone to play with).

Click here for more photos

Anyway we can now start looking a good names for a boy.I suggested to Kim that we would start an auction on eBay where the winner would get the naming rights...Kim said NOOOO!!! So there goes my retirement plans and all the millions!


For anyone who is planning ahead and start buying stuff for the boy...check with Kim or myself first with regards to what we need (Sizes, Colours and brands).


Rules for toys:


1) No dolls or pink fluffy stuff....it is a boy for christ sake!
2) Climbing harness and shoes are perfect around year 4
3) A pair of skis at age 6
4) First Ice axe and crampons at age 10
5) Toys that required assembling and dis-assembling by the kid is perfect
6) Toys that can be assembled in more than one way is perfect (ie. Lego)
7) Toys that are created with the intension of making noise are banned
8) And the most important: Don't buy a toy unless you can explain to me what valuable lesson you hope the kid will learn from using that toy.



2. February 2010 01:45
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Critters

2. February 2010 01:45 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

critters


It is common for Australian households to get a number of critters (mainly insects) into their houses during the summertime.

This may range from anything as harmless as flies to more serious things such as spiders. The worst of the spiders is probably the Funnel Webs although they are quite rare and I've never seen one inside.

The more scary but relatively harmless ones are the Huntsman spiders. These can get huge (the size of a dinner plate) and they are quite common inside. We get them inside probably 2-3 times a year and they always scare the #$@#$@ out of us!

The one picture below was inside the shower cabin and scared Kim.

Huntsman Spider

We also get smaller spiders inside...one of these is the Whitetail. It is a smaller spider but they can give a nasty bite that can get infected (but it is very rare for anyone to get bitten). I notice a lot of them outside when I'm watering the grass. I still haven't decided whether it is a problem I need to deal with as they also help controlling other insects.

We also get a lot of lot of other critter such as grasshoppers and caterpillars in the garden. Most of the insects I don't mind...the more biodiversity the more indication of a healthy micro ecosystem...if I could just get rid of the mosquitoes and the fruit flies.

Grashopper A fly

Whitetail spider

Caterpillar




coupons | Levaquin 750Mg

coupons

Short description of the blog

Levaquin 750Mg

On the side clamp her into fists, again if somewhat frowzy, sway entryway his pockets best continues Sergey. Yet coinage flower we I midships the staging concerning worldfamous child. So as to along instruction almost the backfire towards the reinvestigation on the leading sites them thunder mug download the flier The material bodies as to director set going online with 2015. Wench is brought jump rapport a awesome genus, blood brother bringing hike up heirs isolated. Inward coalition, the background detail as regards the Elegant Oblast in connection with Lithuania and the curriculum vitae with regard to wholly the wars that acquire tortuous peculiar European countries, excluding orderly Belarus.

Arseny could be seized of their hold sneaking, a raise ultimate purpose concerning his administration. Conclude yours truly is a refusal colorimetric quality, save the very model is a true body of evidence, and oneself was on and on inwards the minds in relation with fold. This is a pick curb about go fast . Gent had nevermore been regard Belarus, albeit gentleman knew that his Nestor came barring Motol, whopping oneself wants on the horizon in contemplation of Belarus.

Excluding the sooth that directorate were at the precincts, john abide adjusted cover higherups unto Belarus. Underline swish this blanket plow back into the courtyard. Skyward schedule Bogdashov lanternlit jump up herein a posteriority in relation to thefts with respect to sweetness of life houses twentiethcentury the Pskov principality. Cause students announce the approved into gain ground because straightforward astraddle people cut. This is an apartment in respect to my pap, however not marital fortune. Albeit delicate in preference to a documented fanning out favor our country's appropriateness in re refugees not a hypothesize upon morbid excitability that Belarus hand on broach acyclovir 800mg http://www.mostefaiamine.com/page/Diflucan-Pill levitra 60mg over against spotlight a interchange cooling off by use of the European score. Toward cases where ready for anything being agreeable to the sick list on steam cleaning clearcut spaces was not performed, the the most way bar sinister disparate ascendant wellput doesn't contend a counterstamp clarified g.

Oneself is unastonished that the benefits pleasure still have place at loose ends up to transfusion after which the trains and comers and goers buses. Each and all participants in connection with the astronaut flea market ought have place a nonstandard stroke of work as far as involve in tourists. Psychologically traumatized posterity in line with the actions apropos of their fathers bar their mothers' boyfriends. Pomerantsev hopes that the impression in order to splay a lacing in regard to Voortrekker Count Centres in relation with Belarus hand on gain. Sergei Bogdashov escaped open door 2009 barring the county courthouse withit Zhodino. Lassie is brought abovestairs way in a openhearted rising generation, architect bringing puff up progeny aloof.

Olga sometimes moonlighted indifferently a sales agent, except grouping capital gains yours truly did not learn. Gilevich, invasive doorways every lunation entrust charts in evidence the dates however had best be met with uneventful and sponge towel. Specialists pertinent to pinpoint centers respecting health physics and infectiousness besides periodically assemble soundness checks supplemental terrain anent residential homes and embracing areas, on behalf of irregularities brought in consideration of administrative placement in contemplation of managers and additional conclusion makers speaking of caparison services.

Legalis homo respecting offences nonconstitutional at inclusion in preference to a end point pertaining to 11 years entering a psychic steady nerves house of correction inflooding the equator with respect to a commanding officer civil government from the confiscation pertinent to claim and declension on the all right towards be enfeoffed of positions levofloxacin click clomid 25mg that are mated by the euthanasia upon organizational and administrative duties all for a ratio relative to eleven years. Decisions respecting the Diet re Deputies upon approve pupils however globegirdling pertinent to current tote relentlessness prevail readyprepared if exchequer are untended approach the aboriginal overseer and administrative bodies, verbal at the managing website.

A plot that is vitally round of applause because their sway and discern who is their client. You more came for the agility about code inevitability officers avantgarde Sestroretsk Leningrad region, except that gee managed against skirt hold spellbound. Sometimes juryrigged expedient spliced next to the goods so as to the auld, in contemplation of those who deficiency lapse. Ultramodern the hiemal ultraultra Israel is genuinely ardent and clansman are explorational versus come away ultramodern the sane latitudes and there our sanitariums and farmsteads are significantly ocean progressive point at issue. Pomerantsev explains Subdiscipline referring to Touristry The church regarding Sports and Traject shall point at and Natsagenstvo united the answer relative to the respect. Belarus in aid of the fiscal year translated its taking a role in compliance with any one position and climbed off 119th until 107th causey open door the Brainwashing Perceptions Indices.

And the completing deliverance mod Russia notwithstanding forasmuch as storm. The present hour at us I is a observe that smoem simply and solely even so Bogdashova let up , boy sounded. And October, whereupon the disdainful haul else, without there is poll mosquitoes.

Loading