Bedtimes

We've always tried to give Archie a bedtime routine - but that doesn't mean visitors don't get involved...

Dinner

 Bath

 Pyjamas & Showing Off

 Story Time

A trip to the Beach

We took a trip out to the countryside last week, and the weather was awesome...

There were plenty of new animals to meet

 And Archie got his first trip to the beach of the year

All in all, an amazing couple of days, and one tired little boy

Dinosaur Hunt

Archie and I wanted to make the most of the beautiful weather and go on an adventure...

Someone tipped us off there were pre-historic monsters in South London...

We dug up some bones

And some Overweight Victorian replicas

After a couple of hours Archie was knackered, and we didn't even get to the Farm or try breaking into the running track!

Crystal Palace park was a real adventure
- Playground - 8/10
- Danger of Death - Prehistoric Dinos, 6/10
- Explore factor - 10/10 - far to much for one little boy

Back to school

We thought we’d give touring the island a break and try some Balinese cooking

After half a day of squeezing limes, chopping chillies and crushing ginger, we ended up with loads of ideas and pretty full tummies too. Here’s some of the highlights

Veggie salad (Sayur Urab), Tuna steaks with fresh chilli topping (Tuna Sambal Matah)

Satay on Lemongrass skewers (Sate Lilit) & Balinese Curry (Opur Ayam)

Sweet Chilli Prawns (Sambal Goreng Udan)

Archie is still struggling to get much of his own food (Pumpkin & Peas) into his mouth…

Perhaps he’s being distracted by the surroundings

Exploring Bali

Well it’s almost our last stop on the tour and thought we’d try out one of the great Aussie holiday destinations of Bali. We’ve started off our stay here in the rice fields of Ubud. At the Balam Bali Villas. and yes it really does look like that.
We thought we would do the appropriately touristy thing and do lots of sight seeing.
Bali is packed to the rafters with temples so thought that a good place to start with seeing some of them.

Tanah Lot the temple by the sea.

What you won’t see are the hoards of chinese tourists taking pictures of Archie as well

The traditional village

The water temple

It's the Balinese equivalent of the Ganges

The volcano…

What we saw

what we should have seen

Now anyone who hasn’t been to Bali in a while or never at all will not believe the amount of traffic on the roads. Taking over an hour to travel about 10 km!!

So after a couple of days spent touristing and spending most of it in a van we decided to knock it down a pace and spend some time at our lovely villa not leaving for a whole day

…..now that’s the Bali we like!

Beware the ‘drop bears’

Having been living it up in Melbourne town, we headed out north to Shepparton – famous for cows, fruit, And (Great) Uncle Dennis and Auntie Marilla

Not only did we have glorious weather, but we were treated to beautiful food, and tea from one of Dennis’ prized possessions which he emigrated with from Ireland many moons ago

getting some walking practice done

There are plenty of animals about too


Archie wasn’t so sure about the croc, while mummy was winding up the snakes

..but she didn't go anywhere near the bats!!

  Galahs...Commonly found out here and Clapham Common

Jenny really wanted to see Koalas, but all the real ones were sleeping in the trees, so our best photo is of this stuffed one.
- Plus this fake one

...and Koalas weren't the only fake animals Shep had to offer.

 We're now making the slow trip homeward bound, there's not long left of our trip but there's lots for Archie to do and see on our way back.