Today

Went to my favorite place in Sheffield again today. Saw a jogger.

My current favourite place in Sheffield

I (Anna) am so enjoying the gorgeous weather we have been having and looking at the BBC website I am delighted to see five little suns for the forecast for the next 5 days!
Anyway, as I was saying...my current favourite place in Sheffield is...

...the Botanical gardens - they are so pretty, there are lots of different coloured plants and flowers out and all the trees are in blossom. It does also remind me of the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, although the Botanical gardens have a distinct lack of joggers - just lots of picnic-ers. We went for a walk around the Botanical gardens yesterday and it was great to walk amongst the trees; to see the squirrels playing and the fat pigeon trying to waddle along and all the children running around and all the students lazying about - And there was even a birthday party there yesterday - balloons and all! Seeing as it is still April (just) there should be plenty more opportunities to visit before September (although I might have to avoid the ice-cream van if visiting starts to become a habit!)

Leaving Oz tomorrow

Well we're nearing the end of our trip to Australia - we fly back tomorrow. Daniel has changed a lot - grown out of 0-3 months clothes, can stand up supported, laughs lots, can grab and hold things, and he has learnt to sleep through the night - not bad for a 4 1/2 month old, especially one who is only meant to be 2 1/2 months old! He definitely doesn't look like a premature baby! Going to Peru in September seems more real now having spent a month out of the UK - it is just 4 full months when we get back, and by then Daniel will probably be crawling and maybe even beginning to walk - time goes so quickly!

Fun at Darling Harbour

Today we (Mark, I, my sister Chloe and Josie-Jo a friend from church) went to Darling Harbour in the centre of Sydney and had lots of fun. First we went to the aquarium and saw lots of sharks... ...and penguins (Daniel's favourite - he was fascinated.)

Then we took a walk and stumbled upon the Chinese Garden which was very beautiful. We debated whether we should go in but really glad we did because it was SOOOO much fun. You can even hire costumes to walk around the garden in, so we did...!

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for sleeping Daniel) they didn't have any for babies!

All Creatures Great and Small

(Anna) Today we went to Taronga Zoo. My Dad came too, claiming he didn’t want to miss Daniel’s outing, but really the trip was for Mark, and Daniel didn’t seem too bothered (he slept most of the day). The highlights included…
- seeing the platapus (quite a rare occasion as they often hide)
- the comodo dragon (who says dinosaurs are extinct?!)
- the seal show (they had them doing handstands, and flips and all sorts – very funny) - the flight show (birds flying everywhere like a dance)
- the gorgeous view over the harbour – they say the animals have the best view in Sydney and they’re not wrong!
There were a few other bizarre creatures there too...

On a Bicycle Made for Two

(Anna) Tried to post this on the blog the other day but the computer wasn't having any of it, so will try again now!
Last week we had a lovely holiday with my family three hours up the coast in town called Port Stevens - stayed in a gorgeous hotel overlooking a marina and the weather was lovely.
We took a ferry trip over to a place called The Tea Gardens (the explorers tried to plant tea there but it was a failure yet the name still stuck) and Mark went sea kayaking with the more adventurous whilst Mum, Daniel and I went for a stroll by the sea inlet.

The last day I got to do something slightly scarier – riding a tandem bicycle with Mark!!

Now it wasn’t the cycling that was scary, more the fact that it was with Mark and to balance the bicycle properly the stronger person has to go in front – so we’re dashing through forest and down thin paths dodging pedestrians and all I can see ahead is Mark’s back!!! Mark felt that my cries of ‘slow down!’ were due to me not trusting him (!) but I concluded that it is mere instinct – it is just not natural to be relaxed whilst you are quite possibly (or with Mark, quite probably) in danger and have no idea what is up ahead! I was however alerted to the fact that although trusting Mark is obviously still quite an issue when it comes to tandem biking, trusting God is a bit like tandem bike riding, but without the risk of running into a tree or killing someone – thankfully He is completely faithful!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Highlights of the day included...(as well as a lovely church service)...

...Wind-up chicks (they weren't so great for racing though as they tended to be lopped-sided)
... Eggs - as shown by Mr Egg Head...
... Fun with Uncle Ben - there's never a dull moment with Uncle Ben around...
...Giggling with Auntie Chloe......Chloe laughing hysterically after trying to shock the hiccups out of Daniel. For the record - shocking babies when they have the hiccups doesn't work. Daniel just looked bemused as he hiccuped away...

How well do you know us? Take the test...

We found this test on Dan Cooper's blog and couldn't resist creating one ourself. See how well you know us...Enjoy!


Create your own Friend Quiz here

Australia

I thought i'd (Mark) publish a few photos of our time so far in Australia. The rest are on our flickr account.

This is the view from our bedroom window. Nice hey?

This is from a walk that Anna took yesterday. I can never be bothered with going for walks, although I am swimming in the pool, playing rugby, and most importantly (and taking a fair amount of time up) playing yard cricket with BIL (my brother in law, Ben). Unfortunately Ben has been playing for some time and developed a lot of the rules to suit him, so I regularly lose. That may also be due to the fact that he is better than me and I can't bat very well.
Me after a poor attempt of body boarding. The waves were very weak as well which didn't help. I'll try again before we go.
Ben showing me how to surf, not that I'm going to try. Body boarding was hard enough.

Where in the World?

Just in case you were wondering where this place called Peru is that we keep going on about and where that little cute brown bear who likes marmalade sandwiches comes from...
Where Peru is in South America...

And here is a map of Peru showing where we plan to move to: Arequipa (Ah-ree-key-pa) in the South of Peru (it's pointed to by the ever-so creative red arrow!)

This map is divided into the 3 main regions of Peru - the jungle, the mountains and the desert coast. Arequipa, as you can see is in the highland area at 2380 metres. Arequipa is about 14 hours bus ride from Lima, the capital (which can be found halfway up Peru on the west coast) and around 6 hours from Bolivia or Chile.