Letter to Marlis Mar-Apr 2019

Altona, Friday 10 May 2019

Hi Marlis,

I hope you are doing well and that the post-Anzac Day cold snap has not really come into effect just yet, but those night temperatures must be getting close to freezing…It’s been a fast two months since I last wrote and as always lots of things have happened, so let’s get started!

Sydney trip

Yumi and I were in Sydney for 4 days at the end of April and stayed with her work-buddy Caroline in their gigantic house in Glebe, one of the many suburbs just outside the CBD. A bit like Brunswick, but without the hipsters J. They have 2 dogs, Zebra and Rhino the Dalmatians. 10 and 13 years old and still so energetic I had difficulty keeping up! It was nice to see a different side of Sydney for a change. So far I wasn’t a big fan of the city (the beaches are nice though), so busy and loud and dirty, but this was a different and more green, quiet and friendly side of town where she lives. Yumi and I flew in on Sunday morning and the weather was gorgeous, so we spent most of the day outside, storing our stuff at Central station and exploring new things around town.

We walked to the Powerhouse Museum and I was mostly impressed with their space exposition and whole room full of dresses by an Australian-Japanese designer, some were true pieces of art. There was also a Star Wars exhibition going on, but it was stupidly expensive and after seeing 8 of the 9 movies multiple times, I think I got it. We then moved on to the Chinese Friendship garden which is so much bigger than I had thought and very well laid out with nice pathways, lots of art, big koi goldfish and of course 1 million tourists trying to take the perfect picture (of themselves in front of tree?). When it was time to get back, we took our first tram and bus ride in Sydney and then made our way to Caroline’s house with our very broken suitcase (broken wheel, so annoying, but somehow we managed to survive!!).

On Monday, Yumi did work things and I had a client visit with some banking people which was partly a favour to an old work friend, but also paid work. I am not sure how much they got out of it, but I did my best to explain why it was a good idea to pay more attention to change and communication. I don’t think anything will come from it work-wise, they asked me what I could do at what cost and then they asked me what I could do for less, so I politely declined and truly wish them the best.

Then on Tuesday we had the big event with Yumi’s business ‘Purpose at Work’ at the University of technology with a few speakers and a day full of learning about different ways of getting good results at work being driving things from the core purpose instead of just money. There were about 30 people and as far as events go, I very much enjoyed myself. The run-up was a bit frustrating as Yumi was steadily ignoring most of my tips and trick (I actually know what I am doing in this space, I’ve done it quite a few times) and then at the last minute we had to get all sorts of things sorted. Oh well, their way worked too in the end and afterwards many people sent her messages telling her how much they had enjoyed themselves. That’s all you can hope for and a great outcome. On Wednesday I did some writing, got a good walk in around the CBD (yep, still ugly and crowded) and managed not to get lost, while Yumi did some more work and meetings. We flew back on a totally uneventful flight and were happy to be home by 8pm.

Yumi’s new business

I am so very proud of how well she’s doing, words really can’t express it. It’s a very interesting experience to see how she figures things out, develops her network and comes up with new ideas. I help out where I can, but keep reminding myself that it’s really only just 2 months since they got started and their official launch was just 2 weeks ago. She’s got about 10 clients now and her business partners are also going full tilt with people coming from everywhere wanting to work with them. She keeps getting new insights and ideas, it’s only a matter of time before she lands on something and then she’ll really kick it into next gear. We’ve settled on the ‘office’ distribution, with her sitting upstairs (warmer, more space) and me downstairs (already my spot anyway) and every now and then she wanders down, mostly to eat, but it’s like she has new adventures to share every day and I love it. She’s clearly doing what she likes and is already thinking about the next big event, somewhere in September. But there’s heap to do before and after that too.

Travel plans

Just back from Sydney, we’re now preparing for the big Canada trip in August, then it’s the ACT in October (I think) and Berlin and the Netherlands in November, then our big trip along the West coast, the NT and back down through the middle in December/January and then Japan Olympics in 2020. Is that ravel enough for you?! J These are of course plans and mostly holidays and not work, but there’s always the option that more travel is involved if either of us happens to find a client Interstate or internationally. I look forward to them all, but for different reasons:

1.    Canada: there’s a wedding, a party and cake. Oh and beautiful nature, grizzly bears and lots of big nothing, that too, but mostly…cake!

2.    The ACT because I plan to visit you, do some change community volunteer work and hopefully visit friends and the places in Canberra that make me happy

3.    Berlin/NL: the Berlin Change Days are fun enough as it is, but the added bonus is of course seeing the friends and their kids, my parents (my dad turns 66 today), Yumi’s parents and Rotterdam of course!

4.    Roadtrip WA/NT: this has been on the list for so long that we’re now just going to do it. With the new car Yumi is more confident that we’ll actually not die…yeah, I know, she’s not the adventurous part of our duo, haha. I get excited just thinking about all the new things I will see.

5.    Japan: ever since we went there for a few days in Tokyo in 2016 I’ve been keen to get back and Yumi always wanted to visit the Olympics, so we’ve decided to combine the two and make it into a really cool trip.

It’s a good thing we don’t have pets anymore, they’d forget who we are after all that time away J.

SES

Things are ticking along at SES. Not too many call-outs which is sort of okay, but less fun. But when we get to go, it’s always fun. I still manage the finances, which is super easy now and as no one really wants to spend any money or get more strategic about things, I feel like I’ve done my best work after a year and told them that they need to look for a new person to do it next year. Sometimes it’s a bit annoying that the management team just doesn’t respond to news they don’t like (well, only 2 really, the other 2 are cool), but I’ll do everything Finance until July and then get about a day a month back in my life. We did a BBQ at Bunnings about two weeks ago and that’s always good fun, lots of friendly people and it’s good money but the team is getting a bit over it as it’s always the same people showing up (yup, including me). So now I’ve suggested we should just stop, if there’s so little interest. No response so far, haha. I mean, I get it, the old guard has been there for 30 years, they don’t want all this fancy new stuff, wearing orange is enough for them. The ‘younger’ people (also me, I am sort of young at 40, right?!) want to do all sort of things, but there’s either no response or the answer is no, so they stopped suggesting things too. Not great, but we’ll see where it goes.

This weekend we had a rare emergency call-out (it’s mostly non-urgent things) for a potential self-harm involving water, which normal people call suicide by drowning and everything was just wrong. We didn’t respond in time, 8 people showed up (as fast as they could, we only need 4, but 8 is better), we get everything sorted and then it gets called off because other agencies were already there. All that time we could see exactly what was happening because it was just 300 meters from the unit. Aaaargh! Never found out if the person had come to harm or not, I hope they are fine.

Seems like a terrible way to die, not just the drowning, but in Cherry Lake, which is only waist-deep, that would take some serious effort, meaning you’d have to be pretty confused and desperate to go there. We had some terrible weather here in Melbourne today and my pager has been buzzing non-stop, but it’s been quiet since the afternoon, so it should be fine again, I am happy for the duty team to go out and fix people’s roofs for a change. A tree had taken down some powerlines near our street, but the fire people and council were there, politely thanked them and walked home to finish this letter instead 😊.

Work at Deakin University

About 8 weeks ago I started again with Deakin, same team as before and I have to admit it was a mistake. The team still love me, the work is simple enough, but everything else just feels wrong. It’s like something happened to the culture over the past 8 months and now it’s just ‘get it done at all cost’. It’s also very possible that it was already like this, but I can be so incredibly naïve sometimes and not notice it until the facts really stack up. Fortunately, I always manage to deliver good work from day one, that’s the advantage they get when they hire me, I know enough to start immediately.

The project I am now on is up to its 9^th project manager (which is truly and utterly ridiculous) and nothing has really been done, other than fixing issues. I agreed to write a review report, got it all sorted and it’s been sitting on a desk for 2 weeks now, waiting for the politically correct moment to speak some unpleasant truths. And that’s after they asked me to remove basically all criticism of avoidable mistakes and clear cases of people and groups not taking responsibility. Not sure what happened to the Deakin I loved when I went away, but I found myself recommending a someone NOT to apply to a position a while back, which was a real low point and eye-opener at the same time. I told them I want out, gave five reasons, the main one being that I have no faith in a good outcome and find it unethical to take their money any longer. They want to talk about it, which is fine, but right now I don’t see me all of a sudden put my values and morals aside just so they can continue the charade of overloading teams and not being accountable. I think I should have stuck with my guns and learned from last time. Either way I should probably not go back again until they improve or I find a way to deal with this. Both seem very unlikely at the time, haha.

On a more positive note, my last meeting of today was with the people from the very fancy Master of Business Administration (MBA), also at Deakin, which is the international flagship for rich students and they want me to develop a  Change Management Masterclass for full online delivery (via the Internet). Now that’s my kind of challenge and I am even getting paid for my intellectual property (not sure if I have any, haha). It should be for delivery in September, but I am already so excited about it, it’s going to be fun and I will learn so much!

Chameleon Cards

I might have mentioned earlier that I’d written a few articles about the change roles of the future and how unexpectedly successful they were and now my friend Peter and I are working on a whole range of things to share the knowledge. The coolest part is probably the deck of playing cards we’re developing for people to use in their team or for themselves to figure out what new roles and skills would work for them. I am meeting him today and hope he’s bringing some designs. I’ve done most of the writing work, which is soooo much more than I had anticipated, but it was also a great experience to create something out of nothing.

Beach Patrol

I am still going strong with the litter picking, but it’s a bit less messy around town now that the weather is cooling down and there’s less people out and about at all hours. Yumi and I are now the official co-organisers and it happens more often than not that we end up leading the clean up because the actual lead can’t make it. We weren’t sure how to feel about that at first, but it’s really not all that hard and we are quite organised anyway. One of my plans got accepted by the local council and I gave them 13 ore ideas, so these people must be pretty ‘over’ me by now. I’ve made quite a few friends among the council workers who keep seeing me and my trusty litter gripper everywhere at every possible time of the day. I’ll also be leading a group of six corporate volunteers in a clean up somewhere around town. They actually get time off from work to do this, so I’ll make them work extra hard (all for the environment of course 😊).

New career choices

It’s that time of year again where I contemplate if this whole change management business is still working for me. I let myself be distracted by all sorts of things, but at some point I have to just make a decision and move on. There always seems to be a reason to stay involved or pick up some work, but at the end of the day, at the risk of sounding arrogant, I am just too far ahead or advanced for most and the ones that do get me and what I am trying to do are often isolated in their organisations. I’ve always wanted to learn a real trade, like becoming a shoe-maker or woodworker, maybe I’ll explore that a bit more in the next few months, but I might also get more involved in Yumi’s business if an opportunity opens up. To be continued…

Friends and family

Everyone appears to be doing well, one couple are selling their house and moving to a different part of the country, which will be weird because they lived in the same neighbourhood as we did and then there’s really now reason to go back there. Another couple are preparing to become foster parents, which is totally something I can see them do. They both come from families with 4 kids, so I can see the appeal for them and it’s just so them. My parents and Yumi are doing well, the Amsterdam family is also chugging along, with both boys doing great in school and their youngest recently performing in an actual grown up theatre production. His parents sent us all the movies they had, we loved each and every one of them.

Small stuff:

1.    I am still walking a good 10km a day, but had to buy new shoes, they still hurt a bit, but by the time we get to Canada, they should be well worn in. People around town are now starting to recognise me, haha, maybe I should get out a bit less.

2.    I’ve been going to different professional development events for a while now and am learning new stuff and meeting new people. Sometimes Yumi even goes with me, which is a lot of fun because then my network also meets the best part of my life in person instead of just hearing my stories. Tomorrow is another one that I originally came up with, but the team I left has really taken it to the next level, introducing new and young people to change. They had 58 registrations, that’s insanely good for a Saturday.

3.    Last month I made my 25^th blood donation and I was hoping for a stuffed pelican, my second favourite bird after the magpie, but alas, I got a pin. Not sure what I am supposed to do with it, it’s not like I will wear it every time I go. Number 26 is tomorrow at 8am, plasma this time. 😊

I guess that’s most of it again, make sure to stay safe and warm, I’ll write again in July!

Gilbert

Letter to Marlis Jan-Feb 2019

Altona, 10 March 2019

Hi Marlis,

I hope you are well, it’s been fairly calm with the weather and bushfires in the ACT if I am not mistaken, let’s keep it that way, shall we? 😊. It’s been a busy 2 months with lots happening, but at the same time not much change in other areas. Here we go!

New car

It was about time to trade in our Holden Astra 2008. He served us very well for nearly 5 years, but it was getting near 200,000km and some of the noises I heard every now and then didn’t sound very healthy. So, three weeks ago, after we did our research (extensively, because Yumi did most of it) off we went to buy the car. First dealership, first buy. It was only the second car we bought in Australia, but we still can’t get over how comparably cheap cars are in Australia. Ours was $26,000 before trade in and that’s what you would have paid in the Netherlands in Euros, so 33% more! I wanted a small, economic environmentally friendly car, but Yumi wanted a bigger SUV-like kind of vehicle, so that’s what we got. We bought a 2018 Demo burgundy coloured Ford Escape, which is quite a bit higher but not much bigger than the Holden. Everything is so new and fancy, the aircon doesn’t smell weird, the radio doesn’t crackle, the seats are comfy and the steering is more precise. Such an upgrade! It’s one of those: if you don’t have it, you don’t miss it, but once you do…”sort of things. We like to give our cars a personality and a name, so the previous one was Tootie and he liked being around other cars so was always happy to stay in parking lots at the airport, but the new one is Eski and she’s more of a classy lady who likes to cruise the highway with the wind in her grill, haha. Ah well, a bit of silliness will keep us young I guess 😊

Trip to the ACT

Mid-January we did a lightning visit to the ACT so Yumi could work with her partners on the new business. We were all the way in the top end near Franklin and basically just worked through the Friday and part of the Saturday. We drove Tootie back and forth and it was great fun to do the road trip (1,500km) in a few days. We always stop in Albury to referesh a bit and this was when it was 40+ degrees basically everywhere and it was sooo warm. But we got a tub of my new favourite ice cream Halo Top, which comes in 12 flavours, but has almost no sugar and is very low in calories so it’s all the joy and none of the guilt 😊. Anyway, we got through most of their actions, got a few walks in the neighbourhood in and visited some of our favourite restaurants. Kokoro (Japanese) in Gungahlin wasn’t as good as we remembered, but Yumi has now decided to also be a vegetarian, so that might have taken away from the experience a bit. I love that there’s not too many (enough) options, she just likes to look at the menu for 15 minutes and then agonise another 15 over what to pick. By that time I am usually already over it. We also had diner at Bicycletta (Italian) in the city, which has so many good memories that the food is just half the experience, but it was good all the same. Next time we go to Canberra, I’ll definitely try to schedule a visit with you as well, would be real nice to see you in person again.

Yumi’s 40^th birthday trip

Yumi turned 40 two weeks ago, but because of her Asian genes of course looks no day of 33 and it wasn’t a big deal to her anyway. All the same, we did a trip for my birthday to the NT, so for hers I suggested New Zealand, or maybe Bali, but she wanted to go to Tawonga, in the Victorian Alps. As always we had a great time. Yumi had found a cosy little house to stay in, nicknamed The Pod and that’s exactly what it was, a little self-sustained unit with all the amenities and great views. And the night sky was so dark we could see all the stars (well, maybe not all…) and we think we saw the Milky Way, but I always think that, haha. We did some hiking over 3 days, seeing waterfalls, hillsides, lakes, mountaintops and lots and lots of locust. No seriously, there must have been 1,000’s of them, it was a bit freakish. It’s funny how these ski-towns take on a different sort of vibe when it’s summer. Everything is so quiet and subdued, like they are all just snoozing in the sun, waiting for the masses to return. We enjoyed the views, some fairly nauseating mountain roads and at some point Yumi made us climb a mountain that took 45 minutes to drive up at 20km/hr, all the while being chased by about 100 mopeds that were doing a historic drive. There was also this weird town being built (I forget its name) that was full of investment properties. Huge houses that would cost upwards of $1,5 million in Melbourne, but here they go for $500-800k and you can live there with 3 families, 6 dogs, 4 grand parents and 20 chickens and still have room to spare for a swimming pool. What made it weird was that it’s out there, in the middle of nothing and virtually deserted. I love that kind of thing, but it was a bit spooky too. On her actual birthday (25^th) we made a day of it in the city, having lunch, Yumi getting a 3,5-hour spa treatment while I entertained myself elsewhere and then we had a nice Indian dinner. Good times all around.

Work

Work has been okay. I am working with NDS (Yumi’s now former employer) to design a document for boards and directors and it’s nearly done. It was tough at the beginning to figure out where all the parts had to go, but now it’s just a matter of finishing it up. I am also coaching a former colleague from Deakin who wants to do some things differently and if all goes well I will return to Deakin for what will be my 8^th engagement by the end of the month. This time around I will keep it to 2 days a week so I don’t become part of the problem like some of the previous times. We’ll hammer out the details in the coming week, probably 2 days a week until the end of the year, which would mean I don’t have to do anything else to have enough income, which is pretty awesome.

Yumi’s new work

Since this week’s Tuesday Yumi is now also self-employed and I could not be happier. It’s a bit strange to have her at home all the time now, but I am also enjoying it immensely. She’s been really busy cleaning up her old files, setting up processes, drafting proposals and sorting out all sorts of small things. She’s appropriated the study, which is fine by me as I am not up there anyway, and has made it into her own little office. This week the website should go live and then Purpose at Work is open for business. She’s already got a few contracts and they are doing a conference at the end of April in Sydney, which will surely raise their profile. They are also working with partners in the UK and Netherlands to do other cool stuff in the business of making people enjoy work more. I think it will be a great success and even if it doesn’t work out (highly unlikely, it’s Yumi after all) she’ll learn so much from it. Initially I tried to help with everything, but after a while I realised that she actually wanted to do all of it by herself. That was a bit disappointing at first but I get it, she just has to feel like it’s all her own doing, so now I just keep my distance a bit and leave things be whenever I feel I need to give her ‘advice’. They’ll have their share of failures, which is fine of course 😊.

5 years in Australia

On February 6 we celebrated our 5 years in Australia! We’ve gained so much from being here in so many ways. Lots of new friends, like you and so many new options that I am not sure we would have explored if we’d stayed in the Netherlands. Yumi has really made a name for herself in the Disability sector and due to all my volunteering and change work, I’ve built a very solid network of interesting people that keep me inspired. People still ask if we’d go back some day, but so far nothing has even come close to making us think about it, I think we’re here to stay, but perhaps not in Melbourne. Yumi recently mentioned that Queensland might be more suited climate-wise and I can easily see us living there. Once her business has taken off, we’ll look at that option more seriously, but that will be 2020 for sure. The list of things to be grateful for in this country is so long I won’t bore you with it, but the natural diversity, big skies, friendly people and good earnings are all big pluses. Now if someone could fix the politics, it would really be paradise!

Litter picking activities

A while back, Yumi and I took up some more responsibilities in the litter picking group we’re part of every month. We’re helping out with administration and data collection, which happens to be something we’re quite good at. Over Summer I did a few ‘lone wolf’ clean-ups too and I keep being amazed at how much rubbish and litter ends up in the street/fields/road/beaches/nature reserves. But by now I don’t worry too much about it, I set a timeframe, break out the bags and get going. We’ve got an app on our phones to help track litter, by counting bottles and cans and other stuff. It’s still being tested, but over the past few days I counted 480 bottles and about 70kg of rubbish, just by myself. Imagine that there’s at least 100 of me out there doing the same or more. It’s pretty devastating to see how much waste there is. First I just put it in the bags and didn’t think about it, but now there’s numbers against it, it’s actually a bit demotivating, so much junk!!. This morning I was out and collected another 88 bottles and other rubbish which was easily 11kgs. Ah well, one day this will all be a bad memory. Yumi and I are planning to do a ‘best effort’ clean-up on a road nearby which looks like a litter bomb went off. We’ll see what we can do in a few hours…

SES

I’ve been keeping busy with the people in orange. It’s been fairly quiet with the emergencies, but as I live close by and have good availability, I generally go out on jobs to help the community. It got a bit exciting with the winds picking up, but aside from a gazebo that climbed a roof to get a better view a few gardens up the street, nothing too exciting. We did get to perform some support tasks for the fires near Nar Nar Goon and Koo Wee Rup (who comes up with these names?!) like bringing lighting trailers and providing logistics support, but the most danger I’ve been in was either getting a paper cut when doing the finances or dying of boredom on the drive back last Friday which saw me and a SES buddy stuck in log-weekend traffic. Sigh, note to self, no more picking up materials on Friday afternoon! I am still trying to get my leadership team to spend some money, but either I am not speaking the right words or they just have different plans they are not telling me about, but the money stays where it is. Of course, we don’t HAVE to spend it, but that’s what it’s there for, to keep us operationally ready. I am just happy to do the numbers and provide that bit of transparency, I’ll leave it to the other 25 members to ask the questions for a change. Recently I missed a few events because of work or travel, so not much to share from that. Let’s see what the next few months do.

NDS Victoria State Conference

Monday 4 March was a very special day. Not just because I got to speak to a group of 500 people about my views on change, but also because it was Yumi’s last day on the job for NDS and I got to be her co-presenter in her last workshop during the annual NDS State Conference. Then she also got to lead a panel on Innovative Work practices and after the cocktail party afterwards we had a really nice diner in town just the two of us. I don’t think I can think of a better way to finish up. It has been a bit of a process for her, basically preparing 2 months and then still having to sort things last minute because her colleagues could just not get organised. The conference was a real confidence boost for me too, so many people telling me that they liked my talk, asking if we could do business and I might even have saved someone’s job, even though she will never know that I talked her director into rethinking her dismissal, which makes it even better. I realised that I knew many more people than I thought and made some useful new contacts for who knows what happens later. I still have this idea where I set up a social venture for people with a disability picking up litter in so-called hotspots. It’s work no one else wants to do and it still serves a purpose. I think I can get councils to pay for it, just have to work with some disability service providers and the government on how it could work. To be continued.  

Writing and Berlin Change Days

Over the past 6 weeks I’ve caught the writing bug something fierce. I’ve been pumping out all sorts of articles on change management and changing the profession and am building quite following by now. I was more than a little impressed when an article I wrote 3 weeks ago got nearly 3,000 views and 400+ likes. Normally I get about 5-600 and maybe 60 likes and I’d consider that amazingly cool. It was about 15 future roles I could see people do in Change Management and people loved it so much I wrote another one with 15 more roles. Then people started contacting me that I should do more with it and even though I never even considered that (I write mostly to empty my head), I had good fun coming up with ideas and ways of making the content available. Right now I am thinking of developing a deck of cards with the 30 roles and maybe a small booklet to work out the profiles a bit more. A change friend of mine wants to meet next week to discuss an idea she has to make it into a workshop. I am not too sure about that, I don’t see this as a way to make money, but let’s see what her idea is first before I get all ethical and stuff, maybe it will be good fun 😊. Through that writing I met a gentleman called Holger and he runs an event in Berlin in the last weekend of October, called the Berlin Change Days and another change friend of mine (from WA, Australia) said I should put in a proposal. I’ll hear by the end of March if I get to come and have a bit of fun with them. I might also add a quick visit to the Netherlands if it works out!

Small things and dramas

1.     Our landlord was being a bit unpleasant about wanting to sign us up to a new lease even though we served out the first one and were now legally okay to just extend month over month. We ended up agreeing to 8 months, but it really ruined the relationship, so now we’re considering moving, which might just be what they want so they can get an even longer lease…

2.     Our Canada trip is getting closer. We’ll be flying out on 29 July and spend 3 weeks there, including Yumi’s best friend Hester’s wedding. Canada in Summer is beautiful and hideously expensive, so I am hoping the pictures will be worth it!

3.     Not much happening with the goat people, all good things for them, but not much involvement for me. I talk to them every now and then, but as long as they feel they need to do it all themselves, there’s really no point in me trying to help out. Wait mode it is 😊

4.     I’ve had a lot of time to read and keep being amazed at how good the books are that I get to read. Learned a lot about online bullying (terrible), human behaviour (fascinating), extremism in Australia (not much happening, haha) how our brain chemistry works (complicated) and how we all get fooled by economic growth (lies, lies and statistics).

5.     Family and friends are all doing well, not much happening, kids are all fine, some becoming teenagers now and some going to secondary school, how did that happen all of a sudden?!

6.     I’ve been walking, a lot. Like most things I enjoy, I get a bit obsessive and where I normally would be happy to reach 10,000 steps a day, I’ve now regularly clocked 15,000 or even 20,000 steps per day, or 100km a week, due to litter picking, clearing my head and just loving being outside. Fortunate side effect is that I found some motivation to stick to my diet, so I dropped about 8 kilos that I really didn’t need.

That’s it for now, I’ll write again in a month or two and there will be enough new adventures to share I am sure.

Be well,

Gilbert

Letter to Marlis November-December 2018

Melbourne 7 January 2019,

Hi Marlis and Happy New Year!

I am still working out what I was doing again last year, the past few weeks have been so irregular that it’s a bit harder to get back in the rhythm of things. Today I’ve got a lunch date in the city so after I accompanied Yumi to her work, I walked back to the city (only 5km) and I am now doing my digital nomad thing where I ‘work’ from shopping centres, the library and a restaurant until I meet my friend Priscilla to catch up. Modern times indeed 😊. UPDATE: she just cancelled because her grandma has passed at the age of 101 (!), heading home now. I wasn’t feeling great anyway, got this summer cold since yesterday, maybe I’ll sit in the sun for a bit and roast it out!

Lots of stuff has happened since the last letter, so let’s get started!

South Australia trip

We travelled to Port Lincoln and the Eyre Peninsula from 13-24 December and it was pretty good. When we left Melbourne, it wasn’t the best of weather, but 2 days later SES was really busy with all sorts of flooding. By that time we were already at sea looking at sharks, so I missed all that activity for once. Port Lincoln was a bit the same, rainy and gloomy. It’s a nothing town based on grain and tuna fishing (apparently the tuna capital of the world, including the world-famous tuna-toss competition…Yeah, I hadn’t heard of it as well). We were happy to get on the boat for 4 days of Great White shark watching and after a very bumpy ride and some waiting, we got to see them in all their glory. It’s 100% safe and controlled, so don’t think we’re all that heroic, we’re really not. We saw 6 or 7 different males, ranging in length from 3-4.5 meters. The super-giant females (that’s the actual term, no kidding) can go up to 6 meters, but December is not their time of year to be there, so we only got to see boy sharks, who were impressive enough. They are very calm, not aggressive at all and almost shy. The bait (tuna gills and organs, yuck) goes in on a rope and gets pulled through the water and right before they can sink their teeth in, the crew pulls it away as they are not supposed to feed them. Doesn’t seem to upset the sharks too much, they just swim another circle and try again, or leave it and move on. We learned a lot by just observing them in the surface cage (when you’re just 10 cm below the surface) and also in the 20 meter deep bottom cage. There’s not much else to do or see under water and after 30 minutes of watching them and getting some good photos, we were freezing cold (water temperature is only 14-16 degrees) and were happy to get hauled back up again for the next team to go in and see.

All sharks have a unique marking on their tails and their fin shape and size is also different, which helps with identifying the 300 or so sharks this operator has seen so far. Apparently, they also travel in clans, the same 4-5 sharks seem to show up in close proximity and in the same timeframe, leading the scientist to believe that they group and travel together. Just image encountering 4-5 super-giant females in one dive, wow! From the safety of a dive cage of course 😊. Even though some sharks get tagged for research and tracking, there’s still very little known about them, where they breed, where they disappear to and their migration patterns. Magnificent creatures!

After the dive trip (we only made 5 dives, which was a bit disappointing, but the weather was not great) we drove some 1,500 kilometres through South Australia and were once again impressed by how big Australia really is. So far, I had only seen big sky country in WA, but SA has some beautiful and impressive scenery as well. We travelled through towns that had no more than 30 inhabitants and that makes you wonder how people make a living out there, but somehow they do. The landscape is beautiful and not unlike some of the great plains of America (what I’ve seen on TV). The mining towns are sad and beautiful in all their former forlorn glory and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many grain fields in my life anywhere. Normally I get lost in my own back yard, but navigating the countryside was really simple for this trip; the next town is where you see the massive grain silos in the distance and there’s really only one road anyway.

At some point we stayed the night in a unit in a nowhere town and decided that this was probably the kind of house we would buy some day. Not too big, but with a nice verandah, a carport and big enough for the two of us, perhaps with a nice view. No million-dollar mansion for us if we can help it. I tried to get Yumi to travel a bit of the Nullarbor too, but that didn’t happen, so at least there’s something to visit next time still! The weirdest thing when we came back was that after all that rain Victoria had seen in our absence, everything was extremely green and vibrant when we came back. Grass and plants had grown considerably and there was such an abundance of life, very nice to come home too.

Yumi’s job adventures

After months of thinking and doubting, Yumi has now decided that it’s time for her to strike out on her own and leave National Disability Services (NDS). The organisation is making some changes and more than a few of her really good colleagues have now left or were treated in such a way they decided to leave. From my Change management experience nothing good will come of the plans they’ve got prepared so far. As far as I can tell from what Yumi shares with me, they are doing everything wrong that an organisation that hasn’t changed for about 20 years can do wrong and I am very happy for her to leave. Her next adventure is that she’ll team up with two former colleagues and start their own advisory business in the area of self-managed teams (never mind, it’s boring for most people anyway 😊). Despite more than 100 organisations expressing interest, NDS never saw a lot of potential in it and after trying to get them on board for 2-3 years, Yumi now feels she might as well do it herself and enjoy her work even more. There might or might not be a role for me in this as well, for now we’ve agreed that I will support her where and how I can, but it’s their business. I’ve drafted some plans and schedules that might be useful, but part of the fun is to figure out some of these things for yourself too! We’ll be going to Canberra in two weeks from now, to spend 2 days together with Caroline (Sydney) and Alan (ACT) to nut out the details, should be fun. Unfortunately, I will not be able to visit you as the agenda is really full (9am-9pm) and we’re driving back and forth and need to be back by Sunday, so that will have to be next time ☹. This weekend we bought Yumi a super fancy laptop computer and now she can really get started! I think it will be a big success and I am not just saying that because she’s my partner, their product offering and national coverage is very attractive and exactly what the market needs right now. Their launch date is 1 March 2019, but I’ll keep you informed as always.

Slowest career change ever

My own career change is slow and disappointing as expected so far. I think it will take a few months more and then I’ll land on something. So many companies are not at all prepared to really try a new approach, some have been stuck in their ways for years and some just can’t see beyond the things they are doing now, even if they’re not working/solving the problem. I could of course start my own charity, but Australia already has about 60,000 (no joke) and so far they’re not really successful, despite the $130 billion dollars going into it every year! I can easily see how things could be better, but so far not a lot of people seem interested in making that happen. You have to wonder; they’ve been working at it for 50 years at least and still there are so many homeless and hungry people, clearly whatever they are doing is not working on a sustainable scale. I don’t want to take away from the great work all these hard-working people do, but I also feel that just because they are doing a great thing, doesn’t mean they don’t have an obligation to go with the times. I’ve had so  many experiences by now of organisations not replying, replying very late, doing their admin with pen and paper, incredibly poor volunteer management, not leveraging the potential of their networks, the list goes on. Not to say that I will be able to solve it all, but come on guys, don’t be sorry, be better! I’ll need to get past my own frustration at some point or really find another field to work in, I guess. To be continued…

5 years in Australia coming up

6^th of February we’ll be here five years! I can’t believe how much has changed for us since we made the move, for the better that is. I can honestly say that I have never ever regretted coming to Australia, even if the family situation was a bit tough at times. We’ve had so many great opportunities, met lovely people, made many new friends all across the country and have seen so much and still have so much to see of this beautiful country that it still gets me excited. I love living in Altona and don’t see us leaving any time soon, but we’ll probably not end in Victoria if I can help it. WA and Queensland keep pulling, so perhaps we should just see if we can make a life for ourselves there at some point. We’re still considering our citizenship, but right now there’s no real need for it and the easiest way for it to happen is if Yumi goes first and then I become a citizen by association AND keep my Dutch/Rotterdam nationality. No hurry though, it would mean that we’d also have to vote, which is not a great thing to look forward to at the moment with the clowning around in government we’ve seen in the past 3 years. All things considered, it’s been an amazing adventure so far and sometimes we wonder if it can actually get any better. Only way to find out is to keep living the dream I guess, haha.

Presentation to Council

You might remember that a few months ago I participated in a round of proposals for our local Hobsons Bay council with two proposals on how we might reduce litter and waste in our community. To my own surprise both my proposals made it to the second round, so the night before we left for South Australia and the sharks, I presented my ideas. The first one, the Tidy Tradie Trophy, rewards tradies on the many building sites around town to keep their building sites clean and free of litter, the second one the C4 project is all about Council Coordinated Community Cleanups. I won’t bore you with the details, safe to say it’s all about collaboration and organising (two things Aussies do enthusiastically, but not particularly effectively). The night itself was a lot of fun. In just two hours, people of all ages from 10-80 years old presented their ideas to 3 groups of about 30-50 people. A lot of them being about bike paths and dogs on leashes, but also some truly cool things like a rickshaw bike for elderly and disabled people and community gardens that could feed whole streets. I thought it was very inspiring to see how much time, thinking and effort people had put into their ideas to improve their community. I hope the 10-year-old boy gets his basketball court, he did such a good job!

CMI Awards dinner

Even though I left the Change Management Institute, my good friend Anna has now taken the lead and as this whole awards dinner was my crazy idea to begin with, I felt I needed to be there to show support. It was a very fun evening, with everything working out exactly as expected, the venue, the food, the guests and the awards. It was a true celebration of the best this community has to offer. I hope they’ll go another round next year, possibly with some new ideas and even more than 50 people. I ended up sponsoring one of the prizes because the CMI organisation is a bit silly sometimes, but I met the recipient of the prize before I knew he was the winner and he seemed very switched on, so that’s $300 well spent 😊.

SES activities and Bunnings BBQ

SES work has been busy and quiet at the same time. Not too many incidents and requests for assistance lately, but that’s always a good thing. Aside from the crazy busy 15 December (that I missed) trees and waterways have been behaving, so we got to do other stuff. I’ve been doing Community Engagement training, but it was much less interesting than I had hoped. Just a lot of paperwork and emphasis on following rules and filling out forms. I was seriously considering not even going to part 2, but then I decided to just get over myself and finish it. The next day it got cancelled until further notice because the only trainer got deployed to the Queensland fires. Great, I had just finished preparing my presentation! Oh well, I’ll just finish it and see what happens next. I am going to try to get some boat training too, that sounded like fun. As I have a lot of time, I ended up organising our unit’s end of year BBQ and trivia night and that was good fun too. We had soooo much food and drinks we ended up dividing it all amongst ourselves when everyone went home. On the 30^th I also helped out for the day with a BBQ fundraiser at Bunnings. It was not too bad and we made some money, but I smelled like meaty sausage for about 2 days, no matter how many times I washed my hands, clothes, hair and every other inch of me, yuck!

New Year’s Eve with Salvos

Just to mix things up a little and also because we had nothing better to do, Yumi and I volunteered to help out the Salvos with their New Year’s Eve presence. Turns out we’d be stationed at the ‘lost children’ point from 6pm to 2am. Great, crying kids, just our thing... Well, it turned out much better than we thought. Only 2 children got misplaced and for both the parents were found within 20 minutes. We had a good time, watching the many celebrants, people walking their dogs, some very cheeky and photogenic possums and lots of tourists asking for directions. It was very weird that people would walk past the tent, see the sign (Lost Children) and then start to laugh. Some even wanted to take a picture. I mean, what is so hilarious about lost children?! Anyway, we had front row seats when the fireworks went off, as they were launched from about 10 meters behind our tent, but we missed part of it as we were dealing with a little boy who got separated from his parents. As soon as we called it in, police, ambos and security all rushed to our aid, and then people started calling and using the radio as well, it was chaos, but at least we were all trying to get things sorted. All’s well that ends well and at 1.30am the crowds cleared out and we walked back to another tent near Flinders Street station and they had the real hard cases of drunk and drugged party people to deal with, which fortunately passed us by completely. On the train home we helped a young lady who was really, really drunk and spewing (nice!), but she made a miraculous recovery, so we were not too worried after all. We were in bed by 3am and up by 7am, pff, we’re no longer used to this😊.

Litter picking

I managed to pick 439 bags of litter over the course of 2018. I am not sure if I should be happy or sad about that number, but at least it’s no longer in the environment. Believe it or not, but I finally found money! And two days in a row no less. First time was $55 and the second time was a $20 note. Not too bad eh?! I gave it to some homeless people when I went into the city a few days later, it wasn’t my money to begin with anyway and I am sure they can put it to good use. I am not sure if I will continue picking with as much enthusiasm as I started out with in 2018 though. Having learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t, I now know that my 1 tonne of rubbish less is really just a drop of a drop in an ocean of litter. Then again, it does make my immediate environment that much cleaner. Perhaps I’ll find some middle ground after a while. Now that it’s holidays and there’s a different crowd out and about, it takes a different kind of motivation for me because these people are just visitors and make such a mess, it’s really hard to not be judgemental. Also, I found that I can walk much further and more relaxed if I don’t bring my litter gripper and bags. Need to think about it a bit more!

The Goat people

The fundraising campaign in November was very successful for them. A lot of my friends, family and business friends chipped in and raised quite some money and the target of 200 new goats was well and truly smashed. Then on the day of the big event (8 November) one philanthropist just handed over $50,000!! Another group forked up an additional $25,000, so all in all, they raised close to $100,000 which will go a long way towards their goals. Even cooler is that they drew the attention of the Philippines equivalent of Telstra, called Globe. They have 80 million (!) customers and want to be the corporate partner. And they knew someone at CNN Asia, who will now do a 6-minute documentary on the project and its goals. It doesn’t get much better than that. I am still not sure what role they see for me moving forward and will calmly await their plans. At this point I really can’t do anything more unless they make some decisions about how to progress first. But even if it goes no further, I feel I’ve made a positive contribution all the same.

Big summer clean up

The day after we came home from the SA trip, we decided to do a really big clean up and sort all the stuff we had in the house. Yumi let go of 19 pairs of shoes (there’s about 30 left now) and I said goodbye to a lot of stuff that we’d been needlessly carrying around as well. Yumi is a bit of a hoarder when it comes to…well everything really, but I am not at all, so we always have a long lead up time before it starts, but after all is said and done, it really only took about one hour. A lot of stuff went to the Salvos store and there’s this cool initiative in town where you can donate clothes that are still good to wear to a job interview but might not want to wear yourself any more. We let go of about 12 suits, and so many skirts, pants, shoes, bags and shirts that we could basically start our own store. They open again on the 21^st, and I’ll be on that end of the bay anyway, so that’s our garage cleaned and sorted once more!

Small stuff

• ·       I’ve rediscovered tofu and am now trying out all sorts of new recipes and cooking methods, great fun and yum too!
• ·       For Yumi’s 40^th birthday we’re planning to visit the Mt Beauty and Mt Buller alpine region. I wanted to do something a bit more festive like diving in Bali or travelling through New Zealand, but this is what she wants, so that’s what we’re doing.
• ·       Friends and family are all healthy and well. Two of my friends (Just and Alex) are thinking of coming over, fingers crossed. Our parents are okay too. Yumi’s are thinking of moving to a new house and mine are enjoying their new place more and more.
• ·       It’s finally happening, after 4+ years we’re switching banks from NAB to Bank Australia. Bit of a hassle getting everything transferred and changed, but after all the dirt and scandal from the Royal Banking Commission, I’d really rather not have anything to do with NAB anymore. Time will tell if Bank Australia is any better of course, after all, it’s still a bank.
• ·     I sold my PlayStation and the Virtual Reality googles! And bought a newer fancier one 😊. I cannot imagine not having a PlayStation it’s been that way for the best part of 20 years!

That’s me done for now, enjoy the summer weather and be well,

Gilbert

Letters to Marlis Sept-Oct 2018

Hi Marlis,

A little bit later than usual, but I had to sort some stuff out and wasn’t in a good place to sit and write for a while, but it’s about time I update you on our adventures for the past 2 months. I hope you’re doing well in the beautiful state of the ACT now that the bush fires have calmed down a bit. I know they weren’t THAT close to your house, but still…Okay, hold on, here we go!

NT trip

We finally got to tick this off our list, visiting all the states and their capitals! Of course, there’s still so much more to be seen and do, but still a nice achievement, especially as some Australians tell us they never really leave their home state. Wow. On the second day of 45 degree temperatures we already decided that we’ll not be living here if we can help it. And to think this was the dry hot season, the wet warm season must be a whole different (unpleasant) experience! I’ll not make this into a day-by-day description, just touching on the highlights in no particular order.

·       Darwin

It’s a good enough city to stay for a few days but really not much to look at, despite the very talented, cool and tall (some as high as 15 meters) wall paintings and tropical trees. I took a few early morning walks and went around the city in less than 90 minutes. Without litter picking, haha, I did not bring my gripper. That being said, it’s nice enough for a few days, there’s good restaurants and the people are friendly. It also has the beach nearby, people live outside at night and with 35 degrees at 9.30pm, I can see why. We stayed for 1 night at the start and 2 nights at the end and then we had a hotel room on the 21^st floor with eagles sailing the air currents right in front of our window and the whole city laid out beneath us in the burning sun, pretty good to eat ice cream to in a balmy 22 degree airconned room. 😊 We did all the tours, took a few city walks, visited a food festival (Yumi’s idea of course), finally bought some authentic indigenous art in the last hour before going to the airport and had a good time at the Royal Flying Doctors museum. I think we’ve seen everything there is to see, we’ll be back in 10 years. Maybe.

·       Boat tours

We made two boat tours. The first one became a private event, as we were at the end of the season and another couple had cancelled, fine by us. The guide took his time and we learned a lot about the native plants, wildlife and even saw a few crocodiles (not the biggest, but still). There was also a very funny bird (Jesus bird) that had the biggest feet-to-body ratio in the world. Its feet are so big and its body so light it can literally walk on water (for a period of time). The next boat tour was a much bigger group and we saw so many crocs that after a while you start looking for other things, like snakes, buffalos, feral pigs, all kinds of birds and the landscape is so green you wouldn’t believe it’s Australia. And so very warm. 32 degrees at 8 in the morning, pfff.

·       Kakadu

Lots of trees and rocks and termite mounds, that’s Kakadu. The rock art at the historic sites was nothing short of spectacular and at one place we got to do a bit of rock climbing to have a spectacular view of the surrounding grass lands. Nothing to taxing, mind you, a busload of 70-year-old Americans also made the trip up and down😊. It’s easy to imagine how the indigenous people would consider these places sacred and holy. Some of the caves and shelters were underneath massive rock overhangs, completely covered in rock art and you don’t need a big imagination to see how they would have lived there. It was also interesting to learn that what they considered ‘bad places’ because people died after being there for a while, were actually just lead deposits in the water and ground. But let’s not let the science get in the way of a good spirit story! We slept in a bush bungalow while we stayed in the park. Not a fan. 45 degrees during the day, 30 at night, see through walls and the smells of the BBQ next door on everything and we paid a fortune for it. The restaurant was surprisingly good though.

·       Lichtfield National Park

We got to do a fair bit of driving in just that week (about 1,500km) and a lot of it was in Lichtfield NP. Yumi’s always really good at finding random little places that have few people and lots of natural beauty, I just do the driving. We saw a lot of lakes, waterfalls, wildlife, more termite mounds and some very cool road trains. The longest I saw was 4 trailers, full of fuel, another tick on the things to spot in the wild!

·       Batchelor

We spent one night in Batchelor, population 300, but they did have a blue miniature (4 meter high) European castle that some random guy had built when he retired in the 90’s. These weird things always make me laugh. The main attraction though was the butterfly farm. Didn’t care much for the butterflies anymore when I found out they had PIGS! And 30 piglets! I think I visited about 6 times in 8 hours, they are so cute, be it a bit smelly (think: 40 pigs, poop and lots of sun…). They also had goats, geese, chickens, rabbits, a few snakes and a young croc. Not all in the same pen of course, but I am sure it’s the most fun you can have in that place.

·       Katherine Gorge

Yumi and Gilbert in one canoe, true test of the marriage vows and my 40^th birthday, haha. No, it was actually pretty good once we agreed that I would do the paddling and Yumi would just look around. We had to get up early, but with the 90-minute time difference it felt like normal time for us anyway and then we were brought to the gorge system and the canoe pick up spot by boat. We were first in the water so had almost no traffic from people also figuring out how to do this. Some were clearly experienced and sped off into the distance, giving us large parts of the gorge to ourselves. We’d packed food and water (a lot) and really enjoyed the experience of just paddling from spot to spot, get out, look around, get back in and continue. We even made a stop to swim a bit, which is a bit exciting as you know there are many, many crocodiles (fresh water and not dangerous) in there with you 😊.

A week was enough for the Darwin region, but we realise that we’ve really only seen a small part of the NT and we’ll still have to go to the Alice and Uluru, but somehow the appeal of looking at a really big rock in a very empty landscape doesn’t make us run to the travel agency just yet.

SES

I’ve been very busy with the people in Orange. We’ve had a few community events with lots of kids and we brought a miniature truck with lights and sirens and the kids could not get enough of it. The team and I were a bit over it after 6 hours on day 2, but it’s great to just engage with the community and give something back for all the support we get. I continue to make small changes to how the Unit operates as well. For the first time in 9 years they now have a budget and what do you know? We have more money than we thought because no one simply took the time to figure out what our running cost were. Well, not on my watch! I also got keys to the Unit, which is pretty cool because now I can come and go as I please instead of doing the books while I could be training and everyone wants to use the same computers. I’ve had such trouble getting the financial year closed off, but it’s all sorted now. Next year we’ll be done mid-July instead of just last week! A few other members also want to make some changes so we’re slowly getting things together, making investments and structuring things a bit more.

As far as jobs go, it’s been pretty quiet. We had a few windy days and when the rain came down for real last week there were some floodings but nothing too exciting. In a whole different category was a call-out about a month ago which was my first ‘event involving a motor vehicle and casualty’. On an early Monday morning, a pedestrian had for some reason crossed the highway, was hit by a car and then swept under a truck. He did not survive and we were called in to provide support in shielding of the area from press and curious people. Fortunately, most of the body was under the truck and we didn’t get to see too much. I was very proud of the team and myself for handling things very professional (we even impressed the police). We put up plastic sheeting, supported the crime scene people and stood around for about 3 hours in the middle of the completely closed off M1 (busiest road in Melbourne). It was a very educational experience to see how it all works and it felt good that you can at least provide some final dignity to what used to be a person. Afterwards we got really good support from SES and our own Unit, but all in all I think it didn’t make too much impact. Yes, we did see the body and some of the parts, but it’s easier than you might think to just block it out and not look at it. I always wondered how people could make jokes and discuss things like what’s for dinner tonight at such scenes, now I know. All things considered, it’s just a job at the end of the day and you didn’t know that person, so no need to get all dramatic.

New neighbour

The weirdest thing happened last week. I picked Yumi up from work after having been travelling around town for most of the day and we had to wait for the train at North Melbourne Station. At some point I look to my left and there’s a lady who has the same bag as I do and happened to be Amanda Boyd, my team mate from when I was working for the Victorian Government. We literally shared a desk (she had 75%) and got along really well. Turns out she’s also moved back to Altona and lives less than 100 meters down the road since 2 weeks. It’s a small world indeed.

Yumi’s job developments

Things have finally calmed down for Yumi after a crazy 12 months with all her projects. Work is calm now, but now the organisation is in a bit of a state with the new CEO coming in and making some very necessary changes. Yumi has been working really hard fr the past 2 years to get a concept off the ground, trying to be a team player and keeping everyone on board, but from where I am standing it’s really just every woman and man for themselves at the moment. We’ve had a few of spirited conversations (not too proud of my behaviour in some…) but as always, we find a way forward and I care more about her and the great things she does than about being right, even if I sometimes forget that. This weekend she came to the realisation that she really needs to forge her own path and stop waiting for everyone else to get with the program. I am quite conflicted about it. I want her to start her own business as I am sure she’ll be so very good at it, but she keeps giving them chance after chance to mess her about. From my business advisory and change experience I know exactly where the organisation will be in 3-6-9-12 months from now, it’s super easy to predict because the process is always the same and organisations do not change that fast. But Yumi being Yumi she needs to do it in her own way, so we’ll see how that goes and I am sure she’ll make it work somehow and still enjoy it. But even if she finally decides that this is no longer how she wants to make a difference, that will be equally good. So, either way, she’ll come out ahead, just in a very different situation 😊.

Parents house

My parents have moved into their new house, but it was not without its difficulties. Part of that is them getting used to being renters when they’d been home owners for the past 30 years, but a large part is also that the rental organisation seems a bit confused and disorganised. Just as one example, they thought it would be okay to not have a kitchen for 5 weeks. Seems like a fairly basic and essential requirement if you ask me, haha. A few friends of mine and theirs helped them move and I think that despite the adjustments and difficulties they are enjoying themselves. They style of the house is very similar to the house Yumi and I live din when we live din that neighbourhood and we had a very good time. I think they’ll need a few more months to really settle down and process some of the events of the past few years but at least they’ve no longer got that really big house to worry about and care for. Their new furniture, permanent kitchen (they got a temporary solution now) and rest of their belongings will find its way into the house and then we hope they’ll really start to feel at home again and can leave all the drama behind them. My dad’s health has not been great with his leg acting up, his shingles slowly receding and a floating hernia that gives him a lot of grief. Sometimes it feels like they just can’t catch a break, but they stay mostly positive through it all, true legends that they are!

Litter picking

I am still out and about with my trusty litter gripper. I have upgraded to a $40 aluminium sturdier one and it’s not too bad, a bit heavier than my $3 ones, but it also allow me to lift heavier things and it doesn’t break as easily. I am up to bag 362 by now (just did the count Saturday) and have about 4 weeks until the end of the year so I am pretty sure I will be able to get my 12-month 400 bags/1,000kg of litter target. I’ve got a few areas around town in my sights that will take a whole day to clean up and I think I’ll bag it all up and then use an app on my phone to get the council to come and pick it up. Yumi’s not too crazy about one of those areas as it’s close to the highway, but the strip of grass is about 8 meters wide, there’s a bike track and another 2 meters between me and the road. I’ll wear my high-viz vest, should be fine. I’ve learned more about litter still over the past few weeks and put in two proposals for a more coordinated approach in an initiative from our council, we’ll see how it goes. There is also an opportunity to lead a local chapter of street clean-up volunteers once a month, but that sounds too structured. Then I’d have to show up on a fixed weekend day, lead the group and somehow that seems more trouble than spending 30 hours a month picking up after people, haha. Two weekends back I took a left where I normally take a right and wandered into an area that was clearly a dumping ground. I think there was about 30 cubic meters of trash and building materials strewn across a 100-meter creek bed. Who does that?! I informed the council, who are generally very good following up on the reports (that SnapSendSolve phone app is so my favourite!!) but I can understand if they keep this one on the back burner for a while ☹.

Goat people adventures

I’ve been quite busy helping out the Noble Endeavours people preparing for their growth plans in the Philippines. It’s all a bit confusing at this stage. I feel they are figuring it out as they go, which is fine for them of course. They’ve been going it alone for so long that they can’t move any faster than they can. As always I can see the potential and want to help but it often feels that they’ll listen and then still do their own thing in their own way. That generally doesn’t work very well for very long with me, but so far, I’ve learned a lot about fundraising, goats, social entrepreneurship and got a lot of validation of my ideas. They’re currently running a fundraiser trying to raise $20,000. I’ve activated my network of friends, family and work friends and I am very pleasantly surprised (and grateful) with their generosity. That $20,000 will buy 200 goats and these ladies will produce the milk that makes the gelato. The sales from that ice cream will send 200 kids to school and raise whole families and communities out of poverty. Last Thursday they made a pitch to a group of investors and got $75,000 for their efforts to invest in machinery, a commissary and more tools. Pretty cool. I am not sure where things will go for me with this. I created a communication, social media and marketing plan for them to think about. I feel they are struggling to think bigger than themselves as every conversation is how they would struggle to do it all themselves. Mind you, if this takes off (and why wouldn’t it, it’s a unique product in a market with no competition), you’ll be looking at 50-80 farms and not 8 and 1,000 goats instead of 200. That’s a $10 million operation. They know they need to grow and change, but that’s hard to do, even if things are great. I’ll get to practice my patience skills a bit I guess😊.

Volunteer things

I’ve been doing some extra food runs for the Salvation Army as their regular pick up person was unavailable. It’s a good experience every time. People are very friendly and really appreciative as well. I’ll have to change my approach though. One of the pickups is really close to our house, but then it takes me 90 minutes to get into the city. Perhaps I’ll do a 10’o clock pick up instead. Last week I had a car full of fruit, vegetables, yoghurt and some seriously big water melons. Food rescue at its best. On that mention, I also visited with FareShare two weeks back. This is a social enterprise that is almost completely volunteer operated. They ‘rescue’ food that is 2-3 days before expiry from the big supermarkets and industry, then get some more donations from the public and only have to buy about 1-3 % of what they use in their 10,000 meals a day. These meals go to…The Salvation Army and other outreach programs who feed the homeless and poor. I love it when things come full circle. The FareShare team have recently opened a Brisbane kitchen and for both their kitchens they have 900 volunteers, with 1,500 waiting to get involved, wow. That always makes me feel like I have nothing to add, but I am sure there’s something for me to help with for a little while later. Yumi and I have also taken up the role of data recorder for the BeachPatrol Altona volunteering we do. Did you See Harry and Meghan on the beach a few weeks back? That was with the Beach patrol founders 😊, they’ll get some good promotion value out of that moment for sure.

Small things

·       New career options: still thinking about what I will do next and not making a lot of progress. There’s maybe a new short project to create a document for Yumi’s employer that will bring in some nice money and do something worthwhile. Not that we really need it, but it will pay for the next holiday!

·       Hairdresser: I really need to find a different hairdresser. I hear people travel 30km to just get a haircut and maybe this was the one thing good about Brunswick, my hairdresser. I have a very unexciting haircut (you’ve seen it 😊), but ever since we moved, it just doesn’t feel right. Me and my first world problems, haha.

·       Stolen plants: will you believe that someone actually stole plants from our front yard. Well, joke’s on them as we’re renting, but really, who does that?!

·       1 year in Altona: next week we’ll be living here for a full year and I still love it so much better than silly Brunswick. We were there last week to have dinner with a friend from the ACT who now lives in the Netherlands again, but that’s really all it has going for it, a few good restaurants and my hairdresser😊. We’ll stay in Altona a bit longer we reckon, until the next big adventure comes along, but for now, loving the beach, the SES are a good bunch, the many nature reserves, Melbourne is just close enough and people still greet each other in the streets.

I think that’s me done with the highlights. Reading it back and knowing that I didn’t even mention some stuff, it’s been a pretty busy two months. Let’s see what the next two bring. I’ll write again early January, if we don’t get eaten by great white sharks when we go cage-diving in 4 weeks. (don’t worry, it’s 99.9%safe!).

Have a nice day

Gilbert