I was in an earthquake last Tuesday night. Yes really! Julia and I were watching TV at about 9 o'clock at night and there was a rumbling from the street outside as if a big truck was passing. Then the lights in the room started to sway back and forwards. We could feel the sofa we were sitting on wobbling around beneath us. We looked at each other completely incredulous. An earthquake? In Melbourne? Yes! What else could it be? It lasted for about 10 seconds and then reality returned to normal. We went to look outside but nothing was any different. Had it really happened? We turned to the ultimate authority on modern life - Facebook. And yes, eveyone was talking about the earthquake.
We waited eagerly for the evening news and there it was: an earthquake to the south east of Melbourne, 5.3 on the richter scale, no reports of fatalities, injuries or structural damage, though apperently some pictures had been knocked out of line on someone's wall and some fish were rather frightened. They said Melbourne does get earthquakes, perhaps 3 every century and this was one of the bigger ones. How weird! No one told me about this before I moved. I am glad to say that we survived the earthquake pretty well and both Julia and Isla are doing well. I don't think Isla even woke up. At least she is not a drama queen.
Needless to say this is the most exciting news we have to report for the last month. It's been all blah blah work blah blah baby blah blah work. It is officially winter here now. Winter begins at the start of June. It's still rather an anticlimax to me. Temperatures are between 5 and 15 degrees. There is the odd frosty morning. Sometimes you can walk around without your jacket on. We had the shortest day recently and I think it was still light at 5pm. Many trees started to get into the autumn spirit a few months ago with their leaves changing colour and falling to the ground, but recently the trees seem to have lost interest in this and have given up on the whole autumn thing. There are still leaves aplenty, perhaps just waiting for spring to come back around. It feels less like winter and more like being stuck in a perpetual early autumn day. One of the nice things about winter in Melbourne is all the flowers. There are lots of cute little flowers still to be found popping up from the undergrowth and in many gardens you can see winter roses of all different colours. In Scotland a rose wouldn't last 2 seconds on a winter's day. But now the days are getting longer again and Spring will be here in September, hooray.
Here is the official update on all Isla's activities. She has been mostly - sitting in her high chair eating rice cereal, banana and avocado; teething; sitting upright without any help; going to the swimming pool; not wanting to go to sleep between 7 and 10pm; rolling over; pushing herself about the floor on her back using a strange frog action; giggling; getting over tired and cantankerous; head butting Julia; being sick on Julia; punching Julia in the face; blowing raspberries. Julia is still going to her mother's group on a Wednesday, swimming on a Monday, yoga on a thursday and various doctors appointments. Her time gets filled up quickly! Last weekend we had Paul, Simone and Claire round for Sunday lunch and I cooked up a roast lamb. That is about it for now but if there are any more earthquakes, tsunamis or plagues of insects I will let you know straightaway.
