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I’ve been a bit slack updating the blog again recently, so here’s a quick round up:

• Today is officially the first day of winter, not that you’d notice. We’ve had the odd chilly day — as low as 10ºC — but I haven’t had to wear a coat yet this year.
• Charlotte is 15 months old today. She’s now walking, running, dancing and climbing — she won’t sit still for five minutes. I’ve put together a new movie clip showing her in action.
• We took most of these clips on our new Sony HD Handycam. The Australian government kindly gave everyone a $900 “stimulus payment” to help the economy. I’m not sure how buying a Japanese camcorder helped out, but we’re very grateful nonetheless.
• We renovated our apartment over the Easter break. It still needs a new bathroom and kitchen at some point in the future, but we’ve painted, put down new carpets and laid a wooden floor. We’re currently renting it out to one of my colleagues, Peter, who lives in Tasmania for most of the week but spends Monday-Wednesday here in Melbourne.
• I’ve just returned from another work trip to Germany. We couldn’t really afford to piggyback a holiday onto it this time — not to mention how hard it would be flying such a long way with Charlotte — but we’ll definitely try to visit the UK next year, probably in May/June.
• We finally caved in and subscribed to Foxtel HD (Sky TV) just in time for me to watch the run-in to the football season. Obviously I enjoyed seeing United pip the scousers to the Premiership, sadly were outclassed by Barcelona in the Champions League. With the season over, we’ll now downgrade our package to the minimum (as long as it includes Cbeebies, of course).

We went to the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix last weekend.

Johanne was good enough to look after Charlotte for the whole day, so Sara and I enjoyed a rare day out together. We caught the train to the city and then jumped on the tram to the Albert Park circuit.

We arrived a couple of hours before the main event and found ourselves a nice spot on “Brocky’s Hill”, one of the elevated viewing mounds about half way around the circuit. We settled down in the sunshine and watched the build-up: V8 Supercars, Porsches, the two-seater F1 car and an airshow including the Qantas A380 flyover and jet fighters.

We had been warned that it was going to be loud, but it was LOUD. St John’s Ambulance service were selling “Survival Kits” including sunscreen, ear-plugs and headache tablets.

It was pretty hard to follow the race itself, but we were sat directly opposite a huge TV screen so could see what was going on elsewhere when the cars weren’t flashing past our position. The crowd was disappointed that Mark Webber, the Aussie driver, didn’t even make it around the first lap. Richard Branson’s newly-formed Brawn team stole the show, finishing first and second. It was a shame that the safety car was out for the last few laps, turning it into a procession rather than a race.

After the race we made our way around to the other side of the track for the grand finale: The Who in concert. We were lucky enough to have been given Gold Class tickets by a stranger on the train who couldn’t make the concert himself but, by the time we had walked around to the other side of the lake, the crowd was too heavy and we simply couldn’t push our way through to the front. It didn’t matter, we enjoyed it nonetheless from where we were.

I’ve uploaded a few pictures in the gallery but, to be honest, we didn’t take many because the cars zoomed by so quickly. There’s a few new ones of the house renovations and Charlotte too.

Charlotte celebrated her first birthday last weekend, so we threw a party to mark the occasion.

As well as the usual relatives we invited all of Charlotte’s friends from playgroup, a few neighbours and Sara’s relatives who we discovered live just a few miles away. Sara and Caitlin made posters and we decorated the house with photos, balloons and streamers. We had a cake made by a local bakery and laid on a bit of a buffet.

Charlotte’s main presents were an inflatable car filled with balls, a Shrek bouncy castle and an Elmo puppet (which kept the kids entertained all afternoon). She also received heaps of nice clothes. She had a great time.

It’s hard to believe that she’s a year old already, time has flown by. But she’s changed so much in recent months. She’s now walking confidently, chatting nonsense to herself, she’s got four teeth, she can wave bye bye to visitors and claps along happily to the “if you all hate scousers” song.

I’ve added about 60 new photos to the gallery. We also took a lot of video which I’ll make into a movie clip soon.

As if the threat of bushfires wasn’t enough, last night we experienced an earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale.

As you can see on the map above, it was centred about 50kms south-east of where we live but we certainly felt it. The whole house shook for about 10 seconds with enough force to open some of our cupboard doors.

I’ve checked the house today, including the stumps underneath it, and thankfully it didn’t t cause any visible damage. It was pretty scary though.

It’s been stinking hot in Melbourne for the past three weeks, with most days in the mid-30s, but yesterday was the hottest day since records began — temperatures hit 47.9°C (118°F).

On top of that, we haven’t seen any significant rainfall since before Christmas so there’s been a real threat of bushfires, like the famous “Ash Wednesday” fires 25 years ago which destroyed over 2,000 properties.

We have been hearing reports of bushfires over the past couple of weeks but they were in other parts of Victoria. Yesterday, however, we were pretty close to one ourselves.

It’s very busy at work at the moment, so I had to go in on Saturday for a few hours. By the time I got home I could see dark, smokey skies beyond Mount Dandenong. I turned on the news and checked the Country Fire Authority website. Apparently there was a huge blaze in the Bunyip State Park, about 25kms further East than us. Nothing for us to worry about.

We decided to treat ourselves to a take-away curry from our usual Indian restaurant. Sara phoned through the order and set off to collect it, but she called me a few minutes later to say that police had closed Forest Road and Burwood Highway. I explained an alternative route, going via Glenfern Road and coming down from Upwey, so off she went.

Meanwhile I took another look on the CFA website and saw that there was a blaze at Quarry Road, Ferntree Gully — it must’ve been a big one because there were 14 fire engines in attendance. I called Sara and told her what was going on, just as she arrived at Upwey and found the police had closed that route as well.

By now I’m thinking “I really fancy that lamb vindaloo, but I don’t like the idea of Sara being so near to a bushfire and, if the police close another road or two, she probably won’t be able to find her way back home”. We played safe and abandoned the idea.

Edit: The nearby fires are now under control. It’s a lot cooler today and we’ve actually had a short rain shower too.

Edit: News report here. Photos here and here.

As promised, I’ve put together another short movie of Charlotte.

Looking back at some of these clips, taken back in October, it makes me realise how quickly she changes. We really need to make sure we take as much footage as possible, as there’ll never be another chance if we miss these moments.

Just as Charlotte gets her first tooth, I lose my first one. After putting it off for over a month, I finally went to the dentist on Friday to have a troublesome crown looked at. Unfortunately it was beyond repair; it had to be extracted and it didn’t come out easily, so I’m feeling sorry for myself at the moment.

I have to wait for the gum to fully heal, which can take up to twelve weeks, before deciding what to do about the gap. It’s a rear molar so isn’t too noticeable, but it feels weird. I’m considering having a dental implant but, at around $4,000 per tooth, it’s a bit pricey.

Time has really flown by since my last update. Lots has been happening, but I seem to have had no time to post on the blog. Here’s a brief summary:

• It’s the start of winter summer now and the weather is improving. It’s not as hot as it was this time last year, but temperatures are routinely in the mid 20’s and occasional low 30’s already — perfect weather in my opinion. We seem to have more rain than usual, but water restrictions are still in effect.
• There’s not been much progress with our renovation project. We’ve ripped up and disposed of the smelly old carpets in the apartment, but haven’t yet made a start on the refitting of the bathroom and kitchen.
• We have, however, created a new laundry area next to the kitchen in the main house. Our washing machine and dishwasher have finally been brought up from the garage. Shocked by the $1,200+ quotes for the connection of these appliances, Andy and I decided to try to do all the plumbing work ourselves. It took a full weekend, crawling about the cellar space underneath the house, but we did the job for about $300 all in. Whilst doing this work, we discovered that some floor joists need replacing urgently.
• I managed to break my toe again whilst moving furniture at work. It’s the first time this has flared up since 2005. It took a couple of weeks to heal but I’m OK now.
• I’ve built a new home theatre PC, based on a tiny dual-core Intel Atom motherboard and an Antec Fusion HTPC case with remote control. It runs a PVR program called MediaPortal, which is absolutely fantastic.
• Sara’s twin sister and younger brother — Louise & Geoffrey — are currently visiting us from the UK whilst Sara’s mum recovers from surgery. It would’ve been great if our apartment had been ready for them, but it’s nowhere near at the moment. They’ve been with us for just over five weeks already and are due to go back to England in 12 days 9 hours and 16 minutes. (Only joking).
• We’ve done a few touristy things together, such as visiting Phillip Island and we’ve had a few days in Sydney too. They’ve done things like the Neighbours Tour and visited the Home & Away film set, but other than that they seem happy enough just chilling out around the house, going swimming, pottering around the neighbourhood and doing their own thing.
• Charlotte has grown and changed dramatically in the past few weeks. She now crawls rapidly around the house, trying to eat or destroy anything that catches her eye (especially laptop computers and TV remote controls). She’s now really strong and wriggles free when you’re changing or dressing her. We’ve bought her a huge wooden play-pen, which we think is great but she really doesn’t like being in there. She stands up and shouts through the bars, I dont think it will it won’t be long before she’s walking.

I’ve added another 65 photos to the Photo Gallery. I’ve also got dozens of short video clips that I need to combine into a movie or two; I’ll try to do that this weekend.

We arrived back in Melbourne early on Tuesday morning, having almost missed our flight to Singapore due to a technical difficulty on the connecting flight to Heathrow. Fortunately they kept the plane waiting for us and closed the doors as soon as we were on board. Once again Charlotte was as good as gold on the flights, managing a few hours sleep and keeping herself amused by smiling and chuckling at everybody who walked by.

We thoroughly enjoyed the holiday and meeting up with everyone after being away for a couple of years. Thanks to Bernie & Geoff, Louise & Ian and Rachel & family for putting us up and making us feel so welcome.

It was nice to go out for meals (especially the six curries we had!) and drinks with everyone, to see how things have changed — or not — over the past couple of years. Despite our best efforts to see everyone during this trip, we simply ran out of time and unfortunately missed a few people.

As well as a holiday, we had a few business things to take care of during this trip. Firstly we needed to appoint a new letting agent to manage our UK house, since the old company was absolutely useless. So we spent a few days sorting that out, as well as arranging some repairs to the house and carrying out an inspection. I also had some IT Support duties to take care of, ensuring that we can all use Skype and webcams to keep in touch. We also had the pleasure of using Oldham Council’s “One Stop Shop” in the Civic Centre to request a reissue of a refund cheque; that was a depressing experience.

We returned to Melbourne with mixed feelings (and a suitcase full of crisps). Sara is obviously missing her family, but we both agree that Melbourne is a better place for Charlotte to grow up. We’ll try to make the trip back to the UK every couple of years, but we’d also like to see some of you come down here for a visit once our apartment is renovated.

Edit: It’s early Spring here now and the temperatures this week have been in the mid-20s with clear, blue skies. The grass needs mowing this weekend and the swimming pool is full of leaves. I’m just about getting over my jet-lag now but Charlotte’s body clock is still out of whack so she’s up at all hours at night and sleepy during the day.

Edit: Lots of new pictures from our trip have been added to t’gallery.

As most of you already know, we’re back in the UK for a holiday. Sara and Charlotte have been here for a week already, but I’ve just arrived following a work trip to Germany.

The flight wasn’t half as bad as I expected. We booked bulkhead seats with a bassinet for Charlotte, who was really well-behaved on both legs of the journey. We flew Qantas Premium Economy via Hong Kong, then went our separate ways upon reaching London Heathrow.

I had the weekend in Munich to myself before the conference started, so I pottered around the city centre doing some sightseeing. I also took the opportunity to visit the site of the 1958 Machester United air crash, which was quite hard to find — I’ve just added it to Google Maps for the benefit of anyone else thinking of paying a visit.

My hotel was only “3 map squares” away from the village of Kirchtrudering, where the airfield used to be, so early on Saturday morning I set off walking and arrived there around two hours later, cold, wet and miserable. The memorial itself is little more than a few scarves on a plain wooden statue at the intersection of Emplstraße and Karotschstraße. I’ve added some pictures to the Photo Gallery.

I then headed back to the city centre by bus and U-Bahn to find somewhere to watch the Liverpool vs United game. I actually ended up in, of all places, an Australian bar called Ned Kelly’s, near Frauenkirche. It was nice to watch the game at a sensible time of day with passionate fans, shame about the result.

The conference itself was very interesting, I’ll go back to Melbourne with a lot of work to do. Like last year, our German hosts were very hospitable and laid on superb entertainment in the evenings, including a themed “medieval restaurant” and an interesting visit to the Spaten (Löwenbräu) brewery.

It felt really strange arriving back in Oldham on Friday evening. Nothing much seems to have changed dramatically while we’ve been away — except that our old local pub, the Bull’s Head, is now a stylish Indian restaurant!

It’s been great meeting up with family and friends this weekend. We’re here for two more weeks, so we’ll be doing the rounds with Charlotte, visiting all the old haunts and catching up with everyone.

After 7 unsuccessful orders and at least 30 phone calls, Telstra have finally enabled our cable internet so we’re finally back online.

I’ll set up Sara’s Skype etc tonight.

We’ve got lots of photos to upload over the next few days, but in the meantime here’s a new video clip of Charlotte, who has just started on solid food this week.

Edit: Music on the video clip is by The Lancashire Hotpots.