Springfield Lakes, 5 October

Hi Marlis,

I can’t believe it’s been 5 weeks already since I visited you and that this will be the last letter from this house before we move, but it’s all happening! I hope you are now recovered fully from your fall and that daylight savings isn’t throwing you too much for a spin! It’s so weird that Queensland doesn’t join in, feels like we’re out of sync with the rest of the country. 

It’s been crazy busy, even for our standards, so there’s lots to update you on, here we go with our latest adventures!

Visiting you

It was so good to see you just before your birthday. Wow, you are now 90 years of age and we’ve known each other for 9 years of that, pretty cool! I am so glad I took the Saturday to come and see you and have a chance to just listen to you chat about what is on your mind. It always makes me a bit sad to hear that you don’t have someone more interesting to talk to and that they are all so busy with their own lives. You know you can always call me for a chat! Next time I visit I hope the ants are still safely outside inside of everywhere inside, what a mess that was, haha.

 

I know it’s pointless to say because of course you will do whatever you want, whenever you want and good on you, but if you have another fall, just go to the doctor so you don’t worry about everything that could be wrong. I completely understand you don’t want anyone to fuss over you, but we only do that because we care and want you around a bit longer. 😊

I enjoyed my mini-trip through the ACT too. My, it sure has changed! I flew in early on purpose just to see the sights for a bit of nostalgia and I am glad I did because everything has changed quite a lot in the past 2 years, Canberra is growing and then some! It was also nice that the blossoms were out in full force, it’s my favourite time in the ACT, everything is so alive. Bit of a shame about the gale force wind that was out that day, but at least it brought warmer weather the days after that. 

I passed through the CBD on the way to your house and there are so many new buildings and venues I had to do a few double-takes just to know where I was. I was very proud that I could still navigate most of the route from memory, always a risk with me, I get lost so easily! I drove up the Barton highway to Gunghalin and saw that the mobs of kangaroos are still there and that reminded me of the early morning bike rides out by myself and drives to work with Yumi when we still carpooled, so many good memories. Then I drove past the house we lived in and the trees have grown and I almost missed the turnoff into ‘our’ street, everything looked so different. Then a quick stop in Gungahlin town at the place I used to work and helped set up, Winyu House and yes, it’s still there, now 10 years old already, which is amazing to think about.

From there, I drove the electric car I hired (so much fun and so quiet) to your house and your house looked exactly the same, always so nice and neat and cared for. As soon as I step inside, I always feel right at home and I love your LEGO flowers!

It was hard to leave again, I could have stayed for hours more, but time to catch the flight back home, so I drove back to the airport, and fortunately the car did not explode haha! The flight back was uneventful, I read a book, did some work and was back with Yumi and Dash who came to pick me up at the airport at 7pm. What a great way to spend a Saturday!

The new house 

It’s been 3 weeks since we settled on the house (1 Trevor Street, Bellbird Park 4300) and so much has happened since! The settlement process was a lot of emails, phone calls, negotiations, last minute accidents (they hit a wall with their trailer, but paid for all the damages) and so many things to think about! Yumi and I are normally very good at staying organised, but everything seemed to be happening at the same time. So much so that we didn’t really even celebrate or felt very festive in the moment, like it wasn’t really happening to us, which is a bit weird, but we’re always a bit different, so why should this be any different?! 😊 

We wanted a few things to be done before we move in on the 18th, like painting, steam cleaning the tiles, new floor coverings and a new oven, cooktop and range hood. There’s a longer list of jobs to do, including a new fence, a deck outside, finishing the landscaping and a tonne of other small things, but we’ll get there eventually. It doesn’t all have to happen at the same time, fortunately. The last page of the letter has a floorplan so you can see how the house is laid out, I’ll have some better pictures when we’ve well and truly moved in.

The painters are about to start today, on a Saturday, apparently that’s not so strange and as it’s a long weekend, I hope they make good progress. We’re paying good money to have the whole house fixed up and they seem like a reliable outfit, but let’s see what happens. They tell us it should take 5-7 days and I hope that’s true. It seems really fast, but if I compare it to my work, I can do the things I am good at really fast too, so we’ll see. We also had a guy come to steam clean the tile floors but that didn’t come up good at all. We now have the option to put some kind of seal in that will definitely make it look better. But now we’re wondering if we just leave the whole floor as is, before we replace it all with timber flooring, which is not in the budget right now (it’s about $20,25,000…) and also not in the planning with us moving in 2 weeks. We’ve seen enough home improvement shows to know that fast decisions and short timeframes make for poor financial decisions, so we’re just not doing that. 

I enjoy going to Bunnings every few days, but wasn’t too happy when we bought panel board flooring for two rooms that have really rundown carpet and Yumi didn’t like them after all, so I got to bring them all back and they are not exactly lightweight to handle six times! She got so fixated on finding the perfect match to the floorboards in the other rooms that we visited about 10-12 stores and couldn’t find it, so we just gave up and I put back the carpet I had just pulled out, yay! I understand her point, but would have been happy with a mismatched clean floor instead of the ratty carpet we have now, but no one will die if we keep it in there for a few more months while we figure it out, so let’s do that.

Once we move in, we’ll have to get serious about the back and side fence because that’s drunkenly leaning over.  Every time we visit, I think it’s about to fall over, but it’s still standing today! We’ll have to work with both our neighbours and that shouldn’t be too hard as we’re willing to pay for it as long as they can agree to Colourbond metal fencing because I don’t want timber, it always ends up looking bad. We’ll leave it up to them if they want to get involved on the payment, we just need to get it done. It’ll also lift the appeal of the house and make it safer for Dash to run around, so that will be a priority once we’re in the house.

Yumi’s dance performances

Yumi’s been busy with her dance performances over the past two months. She’s joined another community dance group here in Springfield Lakes, called Choo La La, which is less creative dance and more burlesque, like Moulin Rouge, but it’s middle-aged women having a good time without any men in the room, so that always gets my vote, especially as I don’t have to participate, haha!

She just had the big final performance with the Common People Dance Project which was in a theatre in the city this time. It was so busy that I was late because I couldn’t get parking (I had booked ahead) even though I arrived 25 minutes early. Fortunately, I missed only the first 10 minutes, which I’ve seen a few times, but got to see all the 7 teams perform and it gets bigger and crazier every time they perform. It’s two hours of fun, the teams giving it their all and lots of glitter and it’s great to see people having such a good time.

In preparation she’s always working on outfits, practicing the routines, and going to training two nights a week, such a difference from a few years ago when she would hardly leave the house, I love it! Now that she’s done two rounds of 2-3 shows, two years in a row, she’s already a veteran, helping others and enjoying herself a lot more because she knows what’s coming and next year she might start helping design the routine, which sounds like fun, but not enough for me to get involved, which they always ask because they need more men.

Volunteering CMI

I’ve been keeping busy with my volunteering for Change Management Institute, writing book reviews for the newsletter, participating in writing an article about mental health in Change Management and that’s been good fun and meaningful volunteer work. 

Last week, we also wrapped up the second year of the mentoring program I helped organise, which sounds like more work than it was. Last year really was a lot of work, but this year we had all the documents and structure in place, so we could do the same thing, but with less effort and more participants. Pretty cool that we got 18 couples working together on helping someone achieve their professional goals. I ended up having 2 mentees, but one wasn’t well and he didn’t really get to participate. The other, Claire, was so good to work with, that we decided to go on for a bit longer after the program ended. She’s got so many plans and ideas that I am really just there to remind her to do one thing really well and leave the rest for others, because her challenge is that she gets overwhelmed. 

We also had networking drinks a few weeks back, which I never want to go to, but always end up having a good time with. And in 2 weeks we’ll have the fifth round of Lean Change Coffee, which is a very simple but fun concept. We get together in a group of 8-10 people, come up with some change-related topics, vote on which ones we want to talk about. Then we start and every time after 5 minutes we do a quick thumbs up, thumbs down vote to keep going or move on, which keeps it fun and light and we get through 6-7 ideas, discussions or brainstorms in just 60 minutes. It’s probably my favourite event ever, and I learn something every time. We get about 20 people to attend, not bad for a 7.30am start to the day!

We’re now starting to plan the end-of-year celebration, which has become a bit of a tradition at the end of November. Not so great is that the team always leaves it late, but for me to have fun with it, I don’t let myself get frustrated with it and only do what is asked while someone else takes the lead. I always have ambitions and plans that are way too big anyway, but every year it gets a bit fancier and more organised, so we’ll get there. It’s been a super busy year for us, but it shows as we are growing in member numbers and we might even be the biggest chapter in the world by now. Not that it’s a competition, but still, nice to be number 1!

There was also a Deep Dive into how change managers can use artificial intelligence in meaningful ways with my good friend Helen Palmer. On a Saturday morning in a library somewhere in Brisbane we managed to get 30 people in a room and learn together about how we can improve our work practices. She’s one of the best workshop facilitators I know and really delivered, which is always a joy to watch! Even though I am already quite familiar with the basics, she still made me think in different ways about new challenges and the future of change, so time well spent I would say.

Yumi’s work

Yumi is going great at the new job and I could not be happier for her. It’s so good to see her this way because it’s been a while that she could engage so deeply and fully with her work. Yes, it’s a big adjustment and yes, she’s got less free time, but she’s doing what she’s good at and it’s meaningful work. I love how she’s making plans, going to meetings with all sorts of government people, working with teams, coming up with new ideas to old solutions, she’ is the perfect person for this job.

They launched their project (it ends in 2029) last week and had a lot of interest, partly because it was also the send-off of their CEO, but mostly because they are planning to do great things and people support their ideas. And she might go to a conference in Western Australia, somewhere in December, so Dash and I have started planning the party already for when it’s just ‘us boys’, haha. Not that we’ll get up to anything, it just means I feed him more snacks and we hang out together more while we wait for Yumi to come home. 

Work

My work has not been great for the past 2-3 months and I’ve decided to go and look somewhere else, so I resigned and my last day will be 11 October. We have enough financial reserves to easily pay our running costs and I wouldn’t mind a break. I’ve been working non-stop, with almost no breaks or holidays for 2 years and I am starting to feel it. I won’t bore you with the details too much, but I’ve tried a few things to make it work, spoke to my manager a few times, but it was simply too long to wait, too many people (eight at one point) trying to direct my work and treating me like a glorified administrative assistant. I think I have more to offer, but won’t be able to show that for the next 12 months and life’s to short for that. My thinking is that if I stop now, I can finish on a high note and timing-wise this is the best time to step aside. 

My manager has been okay-ish about it, he can be a bit cold and distant when things don’t go the way he wants, but that’s for him to work on. I had built a good relationship with one colleague, Gerad, but he got his 4-weeks notice last month and left two weeks ago and now it’s just me with a project team that is so disorganised it’s not funny, always letting me in at the last minute to clean things up, which makes me look bad because there’s never enough time. Everything just feels out of control, and I’d rather not stay involved. All six of my direct change colleagues have been so frustrated and literally crying about their projects and I don’t want that for myself. I’ve prepared as much as I could for my successor and wish them all the best. 

By the time you read this, I am in my last week or already a free agent once again and I think I’ll keep it that way for a while and then go to work as a contractor. I’ve tried to be part of a team a few times and it didn’t quite work out, perhaps I am better of just creating a bit of distance and just show up to do a really good job for the project. At least this way I’ll have time to do the move to the new house right and get settled in properly, which is a nice bonus. I have three weeks of leave, because I didn’t take a day off in 9 months, because plans kept changing and I really should, but now that money will go into our bank account as a reserve to pay the cost of living which should see us through to December for sure as Yumi’s income pays for 98% of everything already 😊. 

My first real fire

I got to go out to a real fire six weeks or so ago and it was pretty cool. Mostly because no property or horses were impacted, but it’s always a bits ad to think of all the wildlife and insects who can’t get away in time. We had about 25 people out there and got it under control in a few hours, but it was quite the operation and I learned heaps more than in the classroom.

Then again, I’ve been going to training for 10 months now and am making good progress. I think a few more months and I will be a real Firefighter Minimum Standards, after which I can start training for Firefighter Advanced Standards. It’s been hard to get out to fires and help out because I don’t have the car when things happen or m busy with the house, but that’ll come in time, there will be plenty of time to join in and help out.

I am really enjoying being part of this brigade, it’s such a difference from when I was with SES, I actually look forward to the Thursday training nights now. Fun fact, our new house is 2 minutes down the road from the SES unit I used to be part of, just like in Altona! The travel distance to the fire station I am with now hasn’t changed at all, it was 13 minutes, it still is, just a different route.  

Almost buying a new car

We almost bought a new car last week. We’ve been talking about it since Yumi knew she’d need the car for work, dancing and driving around dogs for Love a Greyhound, which leaves me the options of my feet, bike and public transport. This generally works out quite well, but I can’t respond to fire calls or get bigger things from Bunnings, IKEA or anywhere else without a lot of hassle.  So we started looking at cars online, visited a few showrooms, even did some test drives but then Yumi got so stressed about picking the right one amidst all the relocation stress, new job and me being without work for a bit, so I decided we should leave it for now and deal with it later, I’ll make it work some other way. With the new house everything feels a bit further away, but it’s really not that big of a deal and we’ll make it work somehow.

Small (but important) stuff

• We’ve now had 3 open homes, for groups of people to come through and inspect the house we live in now as their new rental place. I’ve been keeping everything in showroom condition and there’s been some interest so we hope they sign up someone soon because paying rent and a mortgage will be a waste of money, but we knew that when we decided to break our lease. On the plus side, the house is clean all the time now and the final clean will be easier when we move out.

• We noticed that Dash was having difficulty with his left front paw for a while now and took him to the vet and they’ll do some tests, but it looks like something isn’t quite right. Good thing we have insurance because this will be expensive, but it’s not like we wouldn’t pay whatever is required anyway, he is our ‘child’ after all. He’s just so stoic and hardly shows any pain signals, so now we’re just extra careful and he’s just his excited self as usual, running around like a hooligan, haha. He’s on fast-acting pain medication at the moment and that seems to work well for him, so we’ll keep his routine the same, get his teeth cleaned in the process and also check on his (very mild) heart murmur while we’re at it, saves him a few trips to the vet. While we were there, there was also a Basset hound and it was just the funniest thing to see the short and stocky long dog with the huge ears next to Dash who is all legs, tall and long legs, with his ears tucked back, what a contrast! 

• I got to pick up my very fancy new handmade, custom designed blue shoes a few weeks back and they turned out really well. I don’t think I’ll pay that much money for shoes again in a long time, but this pair is the only pair like it in the world and that’s pretty cool, I hope they last me as long as my other fancy shoes, who are on average 12 years old!

• Yumi’s dad turned 75 last week and is refusing to take it slower even though he had a bit of a moment a few weeks ago where he nearly fainted and had to stumble his way home. I know it’s important to him to keep his autonomy and doesn’t like to be fussed over, but we do worry that one day he’ll just fall down and injures himself or is in such a remote place (he walks long distances, for 2-3 hours some times) help doesn’t arrive on time. Not much we can do or say as he’s as stubborn as an old goat, but we worry all the same.

• I did the final step in my Australian Citizenship application, the citizenship test three weeks ago and totally aced it. I had done so many practice tests that I essentially knew all the questions and smashed out the 20 questions in less than four minutes with a perfect score, ha! Yes, that’s all it is, 4 minutes for the test and 10 minutes for a chat to check your details and you can go. Now we wait again for the final steps, but I should be good to join the ceremony on 26 January next year, just before we’ve been here 11 years. Yumi lost the plot a bit and will have to restart the process, but she’s not exactly in a hurry

• I’ve finally finished a very challenging and rewarding computer game called Elden Ring, one of the hardest games in it’s category. Well, I almost finished it because ethe very final fight is so stupidly designe that I could finish it if I spent another 5-6 hours figuring it out, but after 110 hours I really didn’t see the point. I had gotten out of it what I wanted, made it to the very last fight and that was good enough. It is surely one of the best games I ever played, but now it’s time to move on to new things again. See, I game as I work and live, who says I am not consistent, haha.

Okay, that’s me done for this time, next time I’ll have lots more to share about the house, possibly a new job and who knows what else will have happened by then, but I’ll tell you all about it.

Be well, don’t fall over and get some sunshine every now and then.

Gilbert 

 

 Springfield Lakes 6 August 2024,

 

Hi Marlis,

Another 2 months gone by in a flash, I hope you are staying warm in the mornings and getting some sun in the afternoons. The mornings here are really quite cold with -2 degrees as the coldest so far this week! But once the sun gets out, it’s still 23 degrees so nothing to complain about really.

I have lots of things to share, so let’s get started.

 

Yumi has a job!

After running her own business for five years now, Yumi decided to take on a role with the Queensland Alliance for Mental Health, as their Senior Advisor Workforce Projects. In normal people speak that mean that she leads a team of people who work on projects that draw more workers into the sector to deal with their labour shortages.  Despite all the benefits of work from home and being her own boss, she now gets to make a much bigger impact. The project is funded for five years, which is also Yumi’s rhythm of how long she stays with an organisation. We could not be more different if we tried, haha.

Last week was her first week on the job and everything is different of course. New office, driving the car to work, new morning and evening routines, getting to know new people, and dozens of small changes all happening at once. It’s a lot, but she’s a trooper and will make it into something amazing for sure. 

It’s also an adjustment for Dash and myself, because we’re used to her just always being around, but so far so good. Instead of going for a walk with my litter gripper and Yumi walking Dash when I leave for work, now Dash and I now go for an early morning walk at 5am, while Yumi get’s up at six and leaves at seven. On Monday and Friday I’ll still be home most week, so he’ll have some company, but on the other weekdays he’s going for mid-day walks with his new best friend, Raine the dogwalker. He really likes her and by going for a 30-45 minute walk in the afternoon, both Yumi and I can rest assured that he’s comfortable and entertained until we get home. Now we try to walk him together in the weekend and evenings, because those are moments all three of us value 😊.

After one week we’re starting to establish a bit of a new rhythm already and it will eventually all settle down. From Dash’s perspective the great thing is that we now have a double income again, so we can buy him even more snacks, clothes, beds and toys!

 

My work

I just ticked over on seven months on the job at Super Retail Group and that’s normally when I start to get restless. This time it’s a bit different although there are moments when I do think about what might be next for me, but not yet. The big project I am on is starting to take shape after what feels like years, but is really only 6 months. We’re putting a new system in place to improve our human resources processes and a bunch of other boring but necessary things and on top of that there is a bigger program that my project is part of that is also picking up speed and keeping everything aligned can be quite the challenge.

We’re now getting more people involved and have selected a supplier/partner who will help us with the project, which should be complete by October 2025. That sounds like it’s far off, but it’s really not, when considering how much work there is to be done. Fortunately we have really good people to work with and things are coming together now, so we’ll see what the next few months bring. If I make to one year, that would be an achievement in itself. I had my performance review early July and it was uneventful, no real issues or point of improvement. I do sometimes sense that my manager (who is very good as managers go) had expected a bit more perhaps, but he didn’t mention it, so maybe that’s all in my head. The plan was that I would lead a team of people, but that looks unlikely and to be honest, I don’t know that I’d want to do that in this organisation, I like my leader, but overall, the senior leadership team hasn’t impressed me too much so far. I am happy where I am, I work with smart people, get to contribute to things that matter to the business and the pay and work-life balance are pretty good too. Just thinking about finding a new job again makes me tired, so I guess I’ll stick around for a bit longer!

Change Management Institute activities

I’ve been keeping busy with volunteering for CMI. We’re doing a lot in the next few weeks, organising catch-up, putting on events with interesting speakers, half-day workshops and networking drinks that are always good fun. It’s also very good to see other team members step up and starting to organise events. Normally I would take all the initiative and then be a bit grumpy about others not doing as much, but now I just let things be, make some introductions, share some ideas and support from the sidelines.  And guess what? They are doing just fine without me! We’re planning a big end-of-year event for November, which is really just an excuse to have a party and celebrate all the hard work we’ve done and the wonderful community we’re part of, lots of feel good vibes!

It's very cool to see some ideas that worked really well in Melbourne when I was there, still work six years later in Brisbane. More and more people are starting to find us and make a real effort to come to our different events. Now there’s even talk of Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast getting involved and we have no shortage of sponsors so things are looking bright for the committee. As a feather in our cap we saw some figures that show that we are 1/3 the size in population compared to NWS and VIC, but has nearly as many members as the other chapters. We only need 4 more members to be the biggest chapter in the world of CMI, so of course that’s what our goal is now. Not because we have to, but because we can, haha. We might even make it by the end of the year…

Rural Fire Service training and fire season

It’s been really good to have training to go to and actually learn useful things again. It’s just so much fun to play with hoses and water, set things on fire (in a controlled burn kind of way) and then put it out too. 

We train every Thursday and I make it to most training nights, plus I get to read lots of manuals and training books about what to do with the equipment, different types of fire scenarios and how to be really good at firefighting. Lots to learn still, I’ve just finished fundamentals and am now doing the course for Firefighter Minimum Standards and then it’s on to Firefighter Advanced Standards and that’ll be 2026 before I get there. I don’t necessarily want to lead a team, but if I want to, I can also train to become a crew leader. One step at a time though, having fun and being safe is more important than progressing and telling others what to do, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where I end up eventually, it’s the story of my life…

This brigade is such a different experience from SES that I actually look forward to training again and there’s good natured banter and poking fun at each other while we’re also learning new things. We also have a such a diverse crew, from car towers, to snake catchers, traffic controllers and nurses that there’s always something to talk about. Last Sunday we had a longer training session where we practiced with different types of pumps, foam, hoses and connectors and also to completely empty the 2,000 litre tanks we have to then practice to fill them up again from the standpipe on the watermains in the street. It’s funny how I never noticed all the infrastructure there is to help with firefighting in the community, but there is a lot and we get to just use it, which is good fun.

(this was a very controlled hazard reduction burn, nothing scary happened but it makes for great pictures!)

Fire season starts here on the first of August and we’ve already had some very small fires, mostly lit by kids and dumb people who don’t know what they are doing trying to burn some leaves and yard clippings and then the fire gets away and almost burns their house down. My commander tells me I am ready to go out to fires and help, but with work and the distance to the brigade I think I’ll mostly be the back up or switch out crew and that’s fine for me too, small steps keeps it fun to volunteer.

 

House hunting

Our rent has now increased to $645 a week which is not all that high in the neighbourhood here, but it’s enough for us to start considering buying a house instead if continuing to pay rent. The market is nearly unaffordable as it is and our thinking is that we better get something now before prices get to a level where we really don’t want to pay that much money for an average house.

Our initial plan was to buy land and then build on it, but now we’ve inserted one more step to first buy a home, before we buy THE home later on. Yumi wants it more than I do, but if she wants it, I want it for her too and I can see the benefits of having our own place.

We’ve been working with a mortgage broker who has been great and have already been pre-approved for more money than we want to spend, but it’s nice to have a buffer if we run into the right property. We’ll probably not be able to stay in Springfield Lakes because for what we want to spend, there aren’t that many homes available. Really average homes go for $800,000+, while in other parts of Brisbane and surrounds you can still get some decent plots and a good house for 650-700. If you say it fast enough it doesn’t sound like a ridiculous amount of money is what I tell myself.

Lower prices often mean the property is older and further to travel for work, but I am okay with that, our lives change all the time and it’s not our forever home. While we both work we can save so much money that in a few years’ time we’ll be able to upgrade and buy our own land and do what we want for the house. It’s been very good this Saturday to go to 6 properties and see what’s out there for what price. A lot of the homes are okay, but some are really ordinary or even overpriced. I am sure we can find something and we have our eye on one house which is quirky and different, stands on 900m2 of land and doesn’t need a lot of work.

Nowadays you can get so much information that it’s really important to move quickly and don’t wait to long. That’s more of a challenge for Yumi than it is for me as she always wants to explore all the options and check all the details, but this being such a big purchase, I keep reminding myself that her approach is the smart play and I should try to be patient. See, I can be an adult when I try! 😊

 

My new bike

A few weeks ago my bike got stolen from the train station! I had it locked and everything but I came back from work one night and it just wasn’t there. I stood there like a dummy for a while just not understanding what had happened, but then I went home, filed a police report and used Yumi’s bike instead for a few weeks. I did finally get around to securing a spot in the closed off bike locker but after parking my bike outside in the rack for at least 250 times and never having had an issue, I wasn’t expecting this. I’ll probably never see that bike again, which is sad because it used to be my dad’s and I have travelled so many kilometres on it in the ACT, Melbourne and now here! Then again, it was 20 years old and all but the frame had been replaced by now. Still, it annoys me that people couldn’t just leave my stuff alone, get your own bike!

Anyway, I was thinking about buying an e-bike (bike with an electromotor) for a while and now I had the best excuse to do so. I bought a cheap one to figure out if it is for me, but after just 2 weeks I can say I love it! (see picture, it also has mud guards now). Especially here in Springfield Lakes, with steep hills everywhere it’s a lot more fun to ride my bike than before. It used to take 10 minutes to get to the shops, now it’s 4. Time to the station was 7 minutes, now it’s just 5. It’s not that I am racing everywhere now more than I was, but the time lost crawling up the hills, out of breath and sweating like a race horse really are a thing of the past. Yesterday I did get a new saddle fixed because the other one hurt my backside, it was as hard as a plank and my 45-year old behind needs a bit more comfort than that, haha 😊.

 

Yumi’s dancing

Yumi’s done another performance with the Common People Dance Project three weeks ago and this time around she was even more of a pro than last. She had so much fun with the outfits, hair, routines and training and practicing. Their Ipswich group did the ‘girlband’ songs while another team did the ‘boyband’ songs, which is horrible music, you might not even call it music, but they had so much fun and the performance actually looked good! I think between the 6 teams there we 200 people joining in, so that was a lot of big hair, spandex and glitter!

She enjoys the dancing so much that she’s joined another group here in Springfield Lakes which is just 3 minutes down the road and they’ll also do a performance that I get to show up for and enjoy somewhere in October I think, which is just after the big September finale of Common People so she’ll get lots of exercise before then. And I get to vacuum all the glitter out of, well, everywhere!

Yumi’s new look. She decided it wasn’t for every day, but just right for this performance which was very over the top.

 

Small stuff

There were a lot of small things that also happened in the past 2 months.

• ·      Surgery appointment

We went to the plastic surgeon appointment to see if I could get another operation, but that turned out to come down to almost $50,000!! I was ready for 20, maybe 25, but 50?! That’s crazy money. I was so disappointed when I opened and read the quote, but I am over it now. I still got some good advice out of it and my diet has stuck since then and I am now at 86, with 85 on the horizon by the end of the month. Maybe I’ll revisit the option in 5 years, but right now that seems like so much money we could spend on other things, like a house, a car, renovations, a holiday to antarctica for 3 months or a lifetime supply of dog treats for Dash. 😊

 

• ·      Cameras in the house

As a bit of reassurance for ourselves, we’ve installed 2 cameras in the house so we can see what Dash is up to when we’re at work and it is just the funniest thing to see him sleep in all sorts of positions throughout the day. He doesn’t get up to much, that’s for sure, but if he ever gets scared or panicked, we can talk to him through the camera as well. We tried it once and he looked so puzzled we couldn’t stop laughing (he couldn’t hear that) but it’s good to know we can let him know we’re there, even if we’re not. I wish we had the cameras in the backyard too because I turned my back for just a minute and he immediately started digging the hole he had started on with Bella when she visited in May. Grrrr. I had just closed it up and neat again. His backyard privileges have now been revoked!

 

• ·      New phone

I’ve also bought a new phone and it’s such an improvement over the old one. I bought that one cheap and thought it use it for a year, but it lasted for nearly 3 so I got my money’s worth, but it was not a great phone. The new one let’s me connect to the car again and I can listen to music and podcasts much easier now too. The best part? It was even cheaper than the previous one! Let’s see how long this one lasts 😊

 ·      Family and friends

Everyone is doing well, it’s summer in Europe, so everyone is on holiday or thinking about it and my parents are having the best time taking the caravan out for weekends away. They are about to go to France for a few weeks and I hope they have a great time of it. I’ll catch up with my friends soon and always love hearing their holiday stories

 ·      Coming to visit Saturday 31 August September

I’ve booked my tickets to come and see you for the early celebration of your 90^th birthday. I even booked an electric car to drive just to have a bit of fun myself driving around the ACT. I might do a quick trip from the airport around the old neighbourhood where we used to live before zooming over to your place. If all goes well, I should be with you around 9.30-10.00. I have to get back to the airport around 3pm, but other than that I look forward to visiting after almost 2 years!

 ·      9 years in business, new website

Last week I had a mini-celebration myself for being in business for myself with Kruidenier Consulting for the past 9 years. It’s not like I wanted to grow the business and become a real consultancy employing others, but it’s been good to think of myself as a business and it’s brought me lots of great people to meet and work with and some opportunities that I might not have had otherwise. My friend Peter, who I wrote the book with, even created a new website for me so I look all modern and professional in the 10^th year and beyond. I love it!

 ·      Citizenship application

Pfff, I’ve finally completed all the paperwork, scans, pictures and anything else you can think of and it’s now in the works with the government. I expect to hear back somewhere November, December maybe, just in time for Australia Day perhaps. Not that it matters too much, but I am just curious to go through the process and see what happens.

 ·      New glasses

I had to go to the optometrist again this week to check my eyes because I was starting to get headaches again. My eyes have gone backwards quite a bit, so now I am getting varifocals so I can see close up and at a distance equally well. They also told me to be smarter about wearing sunglasses but it’s a hassle to always bring two pairs and half the time I forget, so now I am getting glasses that change to a darker colour when I am out in the sun. Problem solved, ha, take that sunshine! 😊

 ·      Student papers

I got no less than 7 papers to grade form my Change Tools students and for once most of them were really good. Two were what I would call ‘professional quality’ and it was just so nice to get confirmation that it is possible for students to do a very good job at these plans. There was also a lot of very positive feedback about the course materials and me as a teacher, which is always a good day when that happens.

I think that’s it for this time around. I really look forward to seeing you in a few weeks and I am sure we’ll have more adventures to talk about then. I’m going to try and come up with a good gift for your very significant birthday. I know I don’t have to, but I want to, so let’s see what I can think of!

 

Be well and stay warm until spring comes along.

 

Gilbert

 

Ps. 2 more pictures on the next page of Dash living his best life in his pyjamas to stay warm and lazing about in the sun when his yard privileges were still in effect…

 

Letter to Marlis Apr-May 2024

 Springfield Lakes, 10 June 2024

Hi Marlis,

Can you believe it’s winter again already?! I hope you are staying warm and Canberra is sunny and dry most days. It’s been quite the sudden drop in temperature here, with mornings as cold as 3-4 degrees, but then it still gets up to 20-22 during the day, so I am not complaining 😊.

Another two months gone and this time it really felt like not much out of the ordinary has happened, but let’s see how it went when we get to the end!

Work

I’m coming up to 6 months on the job at Super Retail Group and it’s been an interesting time to say the least. Lots of movement in staff, new people joining, a new manager for my manager, a bit of a scandal in the news that went away pretty quickly and me just jogging along getting things done. I’m getting pretty good at staying out of the drama that other people are creating and just focus on my tasks to get done that week.

The job hasn’t become what it was made out to be, yet, but things are far from terrible for sure. It’s just that all but one of my team mates, who work on other big projects, are not having a good time. And that’s what I have to look forward to, now that my smaller projects are wrapping up by the end of this month. I do feel like I’ve made difference and built some good working relationships. There are a lot of very smart and capable people in the business and my team are very good at what they do, so I learn a few new things every week.

I am also still enjoying the commute by train 3 days a week. I get to read a lot, see some funny characters and on busy days I get some work done even before I get to the office. With technology today you can really work anywhere and have everything you need, so I make the most of it on those days and others I just relax and read while ‘my’ driver gets me to where I have to go. It sure beats standing in traffic and crawling forward!

 

Yumi’s activities

Yumi has been busy working with a client she’s done work with for a long time. She even went to Melbourne twice the past 4 weeks to do a few workshops with them and meet some new people. It might become a much bigger project, but right now they are sitting on their hands trying to figure out what to do next, so she’s not waiting around and looking around to see what else is out there. I am sure she’ll find something worthwhile to do, it’s only a matter of time.

When she travels, I stay at home to look after Dash, who really lets me know that I am his second favourite human or maybe the third if you count the baker where he gets half a bread roll each week.  As soon as Yumi leaves he goes into ‘waiting until my human comes back’ mode. He actually walks up to the window multiple times a day to see if she’s not already coming back and he’ll restlessly walk around looking for her in all places before finally falling asleep. It’s adorable, but I always feel a bit sad for him and want to explain she’s really coming back. Fortunately, she always does, but he keeps forgetting 😊

She’s also started her second year of the Common People Dance Project, the team dancing context she joined last year. It’s good fun to hear how much enjoyment everyone gets out of studying in new routines and putting on a show. It’ll all come together on 14 July when the various teams have their ‘dance-off’ where every team performs in front of a real jury and the winners get the ugliest trophy you’ve ever seen, but that’s all part of the show. And she also started another dance class here in Springfield Lakes (the other is in Ipswich, 25 mins down the road) for a six-week trial with some other people. I hope she likes that one, but it seems slightly more serious than the other ones but six weeks is a good period to get a sense of that, I think.

Dog things

Speaking of dogs, it’s been quite busy with dog-related activities over the past two months. We had a house guest for a week and a half and that was not the experience we hoped it would be. Yumi responded to a call for help from the greyhound walking group she hangs out with every now and then. They had lost their greyhound a while back, put in a very detailed specific request for a new adoption and instead of it taking five months or so, it took two weeks for a new match to be found. But they still needed to get married and go on a honeymoon as already planned, yikes! So, we said we’d take Bella in and I am glad we helped them, but what an ordeal!!

  

She peed in the house at least 6 times, tried to eat off our plates, dug holes in the yard, stole all Dash’s toys, climbed up on the coffee table, pulled on the lead like a maniac for no reason and basically made a nuisance of herself in any way possible. She’s a lovely dog, but absolutely no manners yet and Dash was so unimpressed with us for letting her in the house. We all let out a massive sigh of relief when she got picked up. Next time we’ll really have to think more about Dash as well. He takes it really well but it’s not fair to him to have such a disruption in his otherwise quiet life.

 

 We visited with our friends Helen and Robert a few weeks ago, who have now adopted their foster dog, Roo the greyhound, and good on them! He is such a clever and lovely dog and stole their hearts in no time! All was well for the first 15 minutes of the visit and then Roo got too much into Dash’s space while he was on him matt that we brought and that turned into a bit of growling and Dash grabbing Roo by the neck. Not violently, but more like a warning. Poor Roo was so scared, he hid for the rest of the evening. It was his own ‘fault’ but he doesn’t understand that, poor guy Next time we might leave Dash at home, he’s such a Mr. grumpypants!

 

    

  

We also helped out with a market stall at a very busy Sunday market and got some good donations and sales in a few hours. I was feeling really unwell since I got up that morning, but Yumi needed some help, so I soldiered on and when we got back at 2pm I went straight to bed and didn’t get back out until the next day. I was sick for the rest of the week, probably just a stomach bug, but not pleasant at all. On the upside, I did lose 3 kilos in weight for a few weeks, haha. The weekend after we did a Bunnings BBQ for charity and made a decent amount for the greyhounds again. Fortunately we only had a 4-hour shift. I just cooked the sausages and onions for four hours straight and that’s quite enough, thank you!

 Meanwhile Yumi just keeps finding new homes for dogs, sometimes with a lot of difficulty and some of the stories are heartwarming and some just so infuriating when people do dumb things. I choose to remember the great ones though. There was Lily, who would do better with a dog friend and she found it in Bruce while they were being fostered together. Placing one dog is a challenge, placing two together at the same time is basically a miracle. But sure enough, a lady contacted the charity and now they are moving up together to 

Hervey Bay. I love those stories with a happy ending!

 

Change Management Institute volunteering

I had a busy time with the volunteering I do for CMI. I wanted to try a new event type, called a Deep Dive, which goes for 4 hours instead of the normal 2, giving people a solid introduction into change management with loads of practical tips and tricks. It took a bit of organising and help from my change friends, but 2 weeks ago we got 25 people together in a community hall on a rainy Saturday morning, so I am calling that a win! We had 5 parts to the event, of which I did 2 and it was good fun to present to a group of people who are not my colleagues. The audience hopefully got good value for their time and it would be great if some of them would end up working as change managers too in a few years.

I also have plans for another session just like this one, but for more advanced change practitioners. I have to be careful though, I am already doing a lot of work and I want the other 10(!) committee members to also have an opportunity to get involved. It’s just that everything is easier for me to organise because I’ve done it a few times. The eternal challenge with volunteer groups like this is that people always have the will, but not always the time and then things fall down and I end up doing it myself anyway, but at the last minute and that can be frustrating. So now I try to stick to my rule of: “if it happens it happens, if not, that’s okay too”. I plan to take my foot of the gas for the second half of the year, but not really sure if that’s going to work. I keep saying that and then I end up doing lots of things more than planned. It’s a work in progress!

I have two people I mentor for CMI and then I also write book reports every now and then for their newsletter and then there’s the events and other responsibilities, it almost feels like a part-time job at times. But I love to see how it builds a community. Since I joined the Queensland chapter, membership numbers have gone up by 35% and we’re almost the largest chapter in the world (of CMI), that means we’ve outperformed Victoria and NSW, who are 3x our size by state population. Not that it’s a competition of course, but it is a little bit 😊.

Stradbroke diving

The reason this letter is a bit later than usual is because we were out diving on Stradbroke Island this weekend. Maybe you already know, but Stradbroke is just 20 kilometres or so off the coast from Brisbane, you can get there by ferry in just under 45 minutes and be away from everything for a while. We asked our friends Michael and Kat and their two boys to look after Dash for the weekend, which they were happy to do. They have a 5-months old German Shepperd called Freya and she is quiet a handful. But She stayed outside most of the time and Dash inside, so that worked out alright. Maybe when she’s a bit older they’ll get along better, right now she’s just all over Dash and he’s not having any of it. He’ll keep walking away, but she keeps following him and licking his face, which he really doesn’t like, so at some point she’ll get a ‘corrective’ bite on her ear or neck…

 

Where was I, oh yes, diving! We arrived on Friday evening and I couldn’t figure out the heating so the first night was very chilly but we had heaps of blankets and the shower was very warm. Good thing that Yumi figured out how to get the heater to work, she was also the most motivated to do so of course, haha. The diving was very good on both Saturday and Sunday. We saw lots of turtles, fish doing funny things chasing each other, a few very beautiful eagle rays, bull rays, lots of wobbegong sharks and there was talk of a great white shark being spotted earlier on the Sunday, but when we got that spot, it was nowhere to be seen. That would have been amazing, but better luck next time.

It’s migration time for the whales (and sharks) so we saw a lot of humpbacks on the surface, some jumping and flapping their tails and fins, which is always great to see. We also saw some dolphins just hanging around and took the Saturday afternoon to go around the island a bit but the ocean really is the main attraction. We went out for dinner but it was nothing special. Yumi had a decent pizza, but my vegan tacos were cold and really basic. And there was a large group that had 10 kids or so that kept screaming at the top of their lungs and running around so we weren’t having a great time of it and didn’t stay for long.

It was nice to get away for the weekend, swim with the turtles, go really fast in a very small boat and add another few dives to our list. Yumi now has made 160+ and I have 140+ under my belt, so we’re not exactly amateurs anymore 😊. Our diving gear is slowly starting to fall apart, which isn’t that strange after almost 18 years, so now we’ll have to slowly start replacing items or maybe just buy a new kit package. We’ve also considered just hiring gear from now on. Servicing it every year is quiet expensive and if we don’t go diving regularly it’s almost cheaper to hire than own it. Something to think about before we get to summer!

 

Looking for a new home

We just got our new lease in the mail and our rent is going up by $50 a week, which isn’t terrible, but that’s $2,600 per year for the same house and for the monthly rent, we can get a mortgage for a house (if we add part of our savings). Time to get more serious about finding a house to buy. The housing market is crazy in all the capital cities though, so finding something reasonably priced is enough of a challenge, but the longer we wait, the harder it gets. Yumi always keeps half an eye on the market and we don’t ask for the world, but the day I will pay $1.3 million dollar for a 3-bedroom townhouse is probably never going to come around. Who has that kind of money?! Well, we do, sort of, but the value of the materials is in no way connected to the sales price any longer. Still, we’ve singed the lease and will stay here for at least another year, Springfield Lakes is a great place to live, but buying a house here is not in the cards so we’ll have to cast our net a bit wider in the coming months.

Short stuff

Lots of short mentions this time, here they are in quick succession:

I'm still getting students come through the course I teach at Deakin University and it is always good fun to read their final assignment change plans. Most of them aren’t very good, but every now and then there’s a very decent one. I’ve also added another section to the course which deals with Artificial Intelligence (AI) that you’ve probably heard about on the news. It’s becoming more and more widely used in the change profession, so I thought it would be good if my students understood the basics too.

·      I still go to RFS ten though it’s been 8(!) months and I still don’t have my member number. It’s absolutely ridiculous how long this takes but at least I am enjoying the training on how to be a firefighter. Hopefully I’ll have a number by the end of the month and then training starts for real!

·      I am almost done gathering the documents for my citizenship application. It’s quite the process to go through, but in a few weeks I should have everything sorted and ready to send it off. Fingers crossed!

·      As a favour to a friend, I did a presentation to a group of 125 people working in governance and risk on how to respond when change goes wrong. It was good fun and they loved it, but I don’t really enjoy these things anymore, so maybe I need to stop saying yes every time, haha.

·      Friends and family are all doing well, mums and dads are okay, kids are growing and going well in school, lots of things to be grateful for.

·      By the time I write my next letter it will be August and I’ll give you a call to discuss if you’d like me to come over to celebrate your birthday in September. I would love to go and do something you would like to do. Go for lunch, go to the supermarket, just sit and chat, whatever you like!

·      Since we started living here in September 2022 there have been roadworks going on nearby. It now finally looks like it’s drawing to a close. And on time no less! It’ll be good to finally be able tod rive straight down the road instead of a new detour every week. Listen to me complain about my first world problems, I don’t even use that road that often, but it’s been going on forever!

·      I never gave it much thought but lately I’ve been thinking I should decorate my office a bit. I do spend quiet a bit of time in there and there’s nothing on the walls, so I might buy some vintage posters and frame those to liven up the place a bit.

·      A while back I hit the garage door on the way out, it wasn’t very hard, so I managed to push it back into shape. But today it all of a sudden ran out of its tracks and that was a pain to solve. Fortunately our neighbour across the road saw us struggle and he’d just had the same issue himself a few months ago. With his help we had it sorted in no time and we got to learn a bit more about them too, ha!

·      I finally decided to treat myself and order new shoes. Not exactly made to measure, but I go to choose every little detail in the design and now I have to wait 4 months for them to arrive because I wanted a different pattern on the sides…Me and my big ideas! Oh well, it’s not that I need them right away, although some of my shoes are starting to age after…15 years. That’s good mileage, I think.

Okay, that’s most of the updates done. Next letter I might have more to share, it’s been a bit less eventful than usual.

 Stay warm and be well,

 Gilbert