20 February 2009

And we're back

Actually only I'm back.

We're all well. Naina's had her haircut, she a shiny new "1" and apparently didn't cry at all during the trimming. It became abundantly clear after a few days in India that washing and shampooing Naina's hair with filtered and then boiled water was a complicated task that achieved very little. So the haircut will make Deepti's life a whole lot easier for the rest of her trip.

A full set of updates to follow. However, no photographic evidence as we only took a digital video camera and that's in India.

01 February 2009

And we're off, but not before...

So we're off to the airport in an hour or so. A few minor things, make some formula, pack spare toothbrushes, one suitcase left to go in the car. Deepti and I feel nervous anxiousness about the whole thing. I'm going to relax when we get on the plane Deepti when we get to India.

Anyway, it has been unbearably hot in Melbourne the last one week. Our house has fairly rudimentary airconditioning, so we have a fan and a cooler, but being a 70's brick house, it heats up like an oven.

I reprint the maximums here:
Monday: 25.5
Tuesday: 36.4
Wednesday: 43.4
Thursday: 44.3
Friday: 45.1
Saturday: 30.5

At one stage the thermometer in the car was registering 52 degrees celsius on Friday. 500 trains were cancelled, houses were without power for 3 days and Melbourne melted down.

We actually thought we could avoid the brutal summer heat this year, as it had not been warm in December and with Deepti and Naina leaving on 01 Feb until end of March, if they escaped before the heat in Feb, they'd miss summer altogether. Not to be. The last week of Jan was the hottest in Melbourne, ever.

So we mapped a plan, which involved making a bed in the kitchen on the lino, with quilts to keep us off the floor. We'd run a fan, a cooler and airconditioning in the hope we would be fine.

Naina approved.

The airconditioning worked so well, we ended up not using the fan or the cooler and slept comfortably and with electricity for three days.