At the end of last season, Christine and I planned to take a month off. That month of rest and relaxation essentially turned into three months of downtime as we worked on new projects and ideas for this season. F1 2012 is about to get underway in just a few hours, but I wanted to reflect briefly on how we spend our time.

It's been a fun and productive off-season, there's a brand new homepage, that has been optimised for small screens. A certain lady won her 12 month battle for a contact page, while live events have been completely revamped. Additionally, Christine's Rankings are now updated on a daily basis, ensuring nobody gets away with anything.

Christine also managed to squeeze in the almighty achievement of publishing another book and together we launched a laid back audio show Feet Up Friday.

Very recently, Features were introduced and the first column Midfield Monitor made it's debut. Last but not least, just yesterday a brand new race information widget saw the light of day.

I'm proud of the work we've done, but with personnel arriving at the Albert Park circuit right now, our time for planning, scheming and generally faffing around has come to an end. It's time to enjoy some F1 racing again.

Regardless of how you're choosing to follow the races, be sure to check back on Sidepodcast throughout the year, the real work starts here and we're very much looking forward to the challenge!