Monday 26 February - Di's Birthday!!

This morning was very exciting as today was Di's 28th Birthday! YAY!!

This morning she woke to receive a load of cards from the UK and Australia.. even some from the US. After getting through her cards, and other presents over the weekend, it was time for her to receive her present from me... The suspense became unbarable as a medium sized box was slowly pulled from the cupboard, where it had been hiding for the past 6 weeks. As Di's face began to shine with excitement she took the box from my hands and began to unwrap the gift...

Then once she had discovered what was on the surface of the gift she was invited to explore deeper into the mysterious box... watch this clip.

Sunday 25 February

Today Robyn, Cheryl, Di and I headed off to the Lake District in Englands North West to check out the world of Beatrix Potter. After a short 90 minute drive we arrived into the heart of the Lake district at a cute little town called Bowness. Here we spent some time visiting the new Peter Rabbit exhibition and learnt about the life of Beatrix Potter.

It was really great and we were tempted to spend a lot of money on cute little gifts for Moses. But we were good, we just got a CD or four Peter Rabbit stories read by the cast of the new film about Beatrix Potter featuring Renee Zelwegger and Ewan McGregor which will be great for driving in the car.









After the exhibition we got on a ferry and headed over to the actual farmhouse of Beatrix Potter which is at Near Sawry.


We also went into the loacl pub, called the Tower Bank Arms, this pub is featured in the story about Jemima Puddle Duck, it was a really nice pub, real cosy and warm.







Then we headed off on a hike which took us about three hours.. we saw some amazing scenery and here's just one of the many lakes in this district... it is truly one of the nicest places in England. From here we headed back to Bowness for Fish and Chips then back to Middlewich! Another great day in the UK.
For all the pictures of the Lake district visit http://www.peterhobbssalvorock.spaces.live.com

Monday 19 February

This morning we had breakfast with Uncle Graham and Aunty Jean then they took us to visit Aunty Ada, well she's not really my Aunty but when we were growing up she was like an Aunt to me and always took an interest in my sister and I. She's 89 and still going strong.

After the visit Di and I said goodbye to Uncle Graham and Aunty Jean and headed off to Stamford to visit Martin and are for lunch. Stamford is a really nice place and we had a really nice lunch. Check out this link to see more pictures of Stamford, http://www.stamford.co.uk/gallery/index.shtml. Following lunch we started our 2 and a half hour drive home.

Sunday 18 February

Today Di and I headed back down to Peterborough to spend the afternoon with Martyn and Karen and the girls. We had a really nice meal and a great afternoon together, then we headed off to the Peterborough Corps at night for a Divisional Rally for the Anglia Division, and Bob and Janet Street were the guests. Bob is still an excellent preacher... love it... It was nice to see them and briefly catch up, strange seeing them in England, but nice to see themHere's a picture of a family photo we took after the meeting.

Then we spent the night at Uncle Graham and Aunty Jean's house, and we got them set up onto Skype, and had a chat with Sharon, Martyn and Mum and Dad.

Saturday 17 February

Today we went to Old Trafford to see Manchester United Play Reading. Here is us out the front of the stadium, and here's the Holy pitch...

We got great seats thanks to Uncle Pauls Mate and we enjoyed a really great game of Football.

We left just before the end of the game so we could go to the BBC's Young Brass Soloist of the Year final at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Here was the competition winner Tuba player Ben Thompson, just aged 20.. But when you listen to the recording listen to how good 16 year old Euphonium player Matthew White is...

It was a really great concert and actually you can click on the link below to listen to it. Black Dyke were the accompanying band and as you'll hear the soloists were amazing. One of my favourite brass songs has to be the first song played by Black Dyke called Where Eagles Sing by Paul Lovatt Cooper. Check out this link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/noscript.shtml?/radio/aod/radio2_aod.shtml?radio2/listenband

If you don't have real player you will need to download it here http://forms.real.com/netzip/intl/intl_getrde601.html?lang=en&h=software-dl.real.com&f=windows/OEM/BBC02D/rp10-bbc-en-setup.exe&p=RealPlayer&oem=bbc&src=&tagtype=ie&type=bbc

Monday 12 February

After a terrific weekend in Peterborough we headed back to Middlewich for work, and on our arrival we discovered Di had a special package... Her Angel Sounds Doppler Scanner... this will mean Di and I can listen to the baby thoughout the pregnancy. Check out this site which has all the info on it http://www.baby4you.co.nz/index.php?pr=Fetal_Dopplers

This will be especially good for making sure Di has peace of mind at all times. It's the coolest little invention and we got it brand new on ebay for £23. If you are worried about the child birth process and want to make sure you can constantly monitor your precious childs heart beat then we recommend this amazing little gadget.

Here's Di getting good use of the Angel Sounds doppler.

And here's the sound it makes... listen to our little Moses growing inside Minxy... We'd just like to say hi to Bob Zeschin and his wife in Los Angeles. Thank you for your recent email, we're glad you enjoyed our pregnancy video and we trust you and your wife will enjoying keeping up to date with the rest of our news on baby Moses.


What a great end to a great weekend and the perfect start to an excellent week.

Saturday 10 February

This weekend Di and I headed back to Peterborough to visit my cousins Martin and Karen and their two girls Morgan and Natasha. It's only been 13 years since I've seen them both, but now with Skype and MSN we see them quite regularly. The best thing is so can our family back home in Australia.





But this weekend was special as it gave us a chance to get re-aquainted and catch up. As you can see the two girls are really cute, here is me playing with tash.. she likes to make animal noises, here she was making the sound of a monkey... Cute... here is the little junior soldier, Morgan, and she was entertaining us with her singing and recorder playing... They are both really great kids.

We had a really nice evening and the highlight for dinner was a Chocolate Fountain. We stayed up really late to chat which was really nice and ended up retiring to our rooms near midnight...

For all the pictures of the Martin and Karen visit http://peterhobbssalvorock.spaces.live.com/

Friday 9 February

Today was really great, throughout the week it has been trying to snow, but really thanks to climate change there's not much snow to be had now in the UK. So we had only had very pitiful snow falls this week until tonight. Then it came down hard about 3:30pm and continued until about 8pm... check out the snowman we built... That's two so far this yar LOL.

Sunday 4 February

This morning we slept in after our businy morning... spending time having breakfst then at about 11am we headed off back into Dublin to see a few more sites. Here is us at a Oscar Wilde memorial.. This picture was taken for Di...














Here's me out the front of Ireland Parliament, you may remember this location from the movie Patrot Games... if not grab Patriot Games and have a look.











Following this little city trip we headed out on a train to a little fishing village called Houth.. They had a little market and also in the bay there were lots of seals swimming around. It was a cute little town and we went to a really nice seafood restaurant for dinner.

Then on the way home we met this great busker with the most amazing voice... Then we slept again... LOL









For all the pictures of Dublin visit http://peterhobbssalvorock.spaces.live.com/

Saturday 3 February

This morning after another full breakfast Di and I headed back into town to go on a Wild Wicklow bus tour, which took out out of central Dublin.








We began by visiting the Dublin Bay which was really nice as the weather was fantastic. Then from here we headed out into the surrounding areas of Wicklow, this is the area where the beach scenes for Saving Private Ryan where filmed, and also the area where 95% of Braveheart was filmed.




Following this amazing scenery we stopped off at a little country pub for a hearty lasagne and chips and salad. then from there we headed to Glendalough where they have this fascinating 10th century Round tower. Here we got to see some really old graves and just down the road is an amazing lake... It's a must see when you go to Ireland.

Here's us enjoying the view at Glendalough... mmm.... beautiful.... Then from here we headed back to Dublin where our tour ended and we grabbed a bite to eat. Although it was a busy day we spent most of it relaxing on the bus.




After Dinner we booked to go on a Ghost Tour around Dublin on a double decker bus.

It was really a fun night as the actor who was telling all the Ghost stories was really funny and scared the life out of us.



Well not really... we got to go and visit a cemetary at night and walk through a grave yard and learn how to grave rob... weird... but fun... we had a good time and it was a good laugh, actually by the end of it nearly everyone on the bus was asleep as it was nearly midnight. then we went home and slept... zzzzzzzz... worn out.

For all the pictures of Dublin visit http://peterhobbssalvorock.spaces.live.com/