Melbourne 9 December,

Hi Marlis,

I hope you are doing well, at least the weather is much better in the ACT J. It’s been full on for the past few months, so I did not take the time to sit down and write, but things have quieted down now with Christmas coming on, so it’s letter writing catch up time!

Thank you for the birthday card and the picture, much appreciated, you’ve got a place of pride on the living room book case now.

Where to start? There’s been so much going on! Ah well, I’ll just make it a bit more random this time, just like when I came by and visited. Hard to believe it’s been almost a year!

Work

I had a lot of fun, worked hard and got heaps of appreciation at the State Government Department of Health and Human Services, but it really wasn’t for me with all that talk and very little delivery (so far). It was very educational to see what it is like to have a boss who is very much a female version of myself, but not a job for me, so I finished up today 4 weeks ago already. I did not get a chance to sit around the house and be lazy though. Yumi’s work needed someone to create a set of workshops about how to create a business strategy for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) that’s being rolled out across Australia and the person they had asked gave them such a high quote that they asked me if I could be of service. I just handed in my first draft Powerpoint slides (it’s a presentation tool that most people find boring, but it works quite well if you know how to use it) yesterday, ahead of schedule, of course J. Perhaps they’ll like it enough to also have me deliver it in 5-6 sessions across Victoria early next year, I think that would be a lot of fun, but let’s see what they say first. Yumi is also involved in it and that was a little strange to go to her office and meet in an official capacity, but then again, she’s always good value to have on the team as I know from our 19 years together J. I’ve got a few leads on the boil, but nothing very concrete just yet, a few recruiters are interested, but I am guessing it’s all mostly after Christmas, so I’ll entertain myself until that time and Yumi will be off for a few days soon, so we can finally explore the city together.

Garden

My grass is doing well and while I still hate gardening, it is sort of fun to see it grow so enthusiastically with the rain/sun rhythm that Melbourne has. It only takes 2 minutes to mow the ‘lawn’, but it’s still alive and thriving, so I am calling it a successful experiment. Just the other day a friend from the ACT sent a picture of the house we used to live in in Casey, weeds everywhere. Well, I can’t blame them, it’s a pretty terrible gravel patch, but it still looked a bit sad.

Girl in the street

A few weeks back there was this random thing that happened. I was asleep, it was 3.30am on a Saturday night when I heard someone call for help. First I thought I was dreaming, but I heard it a couple of more time and stupid heroic me always tells himself that if I ever heard that, I would not pretend to not have heard it, that’s how people die or get seriously injured (mostly women who get assaulted or suffer from domestic abuse), so I got up and threw open the bedroom doors, shouted that I was on my way, threw on some clothes and ran outside to find a young lady who was pretty distraught but seemingly fine. In the meanwhile, a car had stopped and a lady from across the road had also come out of her house, proving my point that there’s heaps of people awake at 3.30am and I am not weird to be up at these times. The lady (Lily) had been going out and met some people who she thought were nice, but ended up stealing her phone and money and kicking he rout of the car in Brunswick of all places. She didn’t know what to do and just started calling for help. Well, the car that stopped had a woman in it who I expect does this sort of support for a living because she handled it like a pro. Lily could not get past the point that she had lost her phone and all 5 of us standing around just told her that it could have been a lot worse. We got her in a car after making sure she was really fine and wouldn’t get into trouble at home (she said she would be fine) and that was that. By then Yumi had dressed and was quite upset that I had not brought my phone with me, but we had a good laugh about it. I was just imagining me fighting off/chasing down an attacker in my shining armour (cookie monster t-shirt) and then suddenly asking for a time out because my wife called to check in (I was 50 meters down the road but she did not know), hahaha, yeah that would have been classic. All’s well that ends well I guess, needless to say I did not go back to bed.

Drive in cinema

For my birthday I got tickets to an open air cinema just 5km away(or 6 hours driving in Melbourne) and that was a first time ever to go to a drive in (not like McDonalds) movie. We watched some super hero movie that won’t mean anything to you, but it was a fun experience, where the sound comes in over your car stereo and the screen is so big and a bit out of focus but we loved it anyway.

Salvos Christmas preparation

For the past few weeks I’ve been doing odd jobs for the Salvation Army again. I get in at 9.30am, hear what’s the job of the day and get on with it. Mostly it’s administrative computer stuff, working with databases and files. I was in charge of scheduling all the volunteers and musicians for the Christmas carolling events. You would not believe how much effort and organisation goes into that, but it’s a very worthwhile experience and I learned a thing or two about musical instruments and noise levels. Then one Friday I just burned so many calories just setting up all the materials and collection tins and tables and music stands and so on. It took me four hours and 15,000 steps (seriously, my phone has an app that counts these things) but then it was all set up and I got my daily bucket of appreciation as usual. Good thing I got it sorted because I needed to start on those workshops for Yumi’s job and had been putting it off J.

CMI event

I professionally volunteer for Change Management Institute Victoria since May this year to help promote the cause of Change Management and on 8 November we had a cool event that was sort of my idea and it was super successful for our standards with double the attendance we normally get. It was so successful that the room we had booked got a bit warm and toasty, but change managers are a good bunch who get along quite well and we still had a good time with 4 presenters doing short presentations and the 65 attendees rotating around the room. Now we’ve got our sights set on a half day seminar for mid-next year and perhaps a full day by the end of the year. I am in charge of sponsorship (pretty easy) but from next year on will also do practice development and new ideas, which happens to be what I like anyway. We’re taking on some new members because a few have left and moved on to other CMI positions and suddenly, I am no longer the newbie!

Neighbourhood changes

I am strangely excited about building activities near our house. There’s this block of run down warehouses that are now being torn down in typical Aussie style. 6 months of fencing and nothing happening and all of a sudden, a flurry of activity and the buildings are just gone! Just them being gone with their broken windows, weedy grounds and spray painted walls will be so much less of an eye sore. They’re planning to build some fancy apartments that we wouldn’t want to live in, but at least they’ll be easier on the eyes. There was also a (bit of a crazy) lady living in her car who caused quite a ruckus every now and the, but she’s gone from there to the relief of the people in front of who’s house she camped. We saw her and her car a bit further down the street at some point but now she’s disappeared completely. I hope she’s alright but she looked like she needed help in the mental department and that doesn’t improve just like that. L. We also have new neighbours, a couple of students I think, friendly enough, they all look young and identical to me, so sometimes it feels like there’s 20 people living in that house, but it’s probably more like 3 J.

Finding a job

I am still going about it a bit half hearted. I see something cool and want to get involved, but then I dig a bit deeper and it’s just the same type of boring, but with a slightly different choice of words. Well, the right job/project must be out there and so far, I’ve not really made an effort so I should not be expecting results, should I. It’s just that in the past work always managed to find me. Anyhow, I guess I could do more networking, but at the same time, I was working just now for NDS (they actually paid really well) and apparently, this is the life of the contractor. Like I’ve written previously, I am still undecided if this is a life for me, but as I see no real other options and lack the motivation to do something about it, I’ll just wait to see what happens (see, I am turning into an Aussie!!)

Trips around the state

Yumi and I determined that my biggest issue with Melbourne is that it’s all so closed in after the expansiveness (haters would say emptiness J) of the ACT. So to remedy my cabin fever we’ve been getting around quite a bit and visited the Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley recently. The Peninsula was very nice. It was a beautiful day, bit chilly still, but out in the sun it was just fine. Not too busy and crowded so we stopped in all the small and big towns, did a bit of sightseeing in old settlements and got a bit of an impression of what it would like to live there. I think that place is what people (with loads of money) talk about when they say they love Melbourne, it is beautiful and open and near the see and there’s heaps of nature variety (and we saw an echidna!) Now if only I had 2 million dollars to buy a house… The Yarra Valley was beautiful in a different way. The drive there took us through beautiful landscape and a forest of very tall trees. It was 33 degrees that day, so when we arrived at what is a ski resort in winter, it was completely quiet and calm aside from some weird meeting of about 15 young guys and their old dodgy Honda cars. Probably locals, haha. We visited the 2009 bushfire Black Saturday area and it was terrible and beautiful at the same time to see all the burnt trees and green shoots battling for real estate. We climbed a random hill and had magnificent views, where we could see Melbourne 90km away. In all fairness, there was a sign that said where to look and if you waited a bit for your eyes to adjust and knew what to look for, there it was!

Cycling

I cycle an average of 80 kilometres a week now, mostly the same routes when I work, but different areas when I am not and I can safely say motorists are idiots. Fair enough, some cyclists are tools as well and sometimes I do stupid things like catching an amber light on a big intersection, following to close or starting when the light hasn’t jumped to green yet, but the level of sheer ignorant idiocy some people have, wow, how do they stay alive?! Texting, hands-on calling, checking their phones for Facebook, applying make-up (mostly women J), not looking in their mirrors at all, clearly seeing me and still turning onto my lane 5 meters away, blocking bike lanes, bumping into your rear wheel at the light, intentionally edging to the curb so I cannot pass or passing so close they nearly or actually touch my arm. What is wrong with these people? I know there’s no cure for stupidity, but just think about the damage to your car and how bad you will feel about injuring another human because you couldn’t be bothered to pay attention. I see about 2 accidents every week and about 5 near accidents every day with cyclists, with only 1 out of 5 being the cyclists fault. Riding here you’d think that cycling is a new thing for most motorists around here. My personal favourite are the people who take time out of their busy lives to roll down their window and hurl abuse, then you catch up to them at the light and they are scrambling to lock their doors, haha, as if I would attack them, or maybe I do have murder in my eyes. On a more positive note, I see great things all the time, work out a bit, let my mind wander, get to know the area and every now and then there’s a great motorist who just wants to be helpful. I lost my reflective vest at some point and he actually chased me to just let me know that he could grab it. Made my day. Faith in humanity restored J

Friends and family

Friends and family are doing fine most of the time. All the friends with children are either experiencing the joys of having 2-4 year olds and complain/loving it or working and being really busy. It never gets old to hear them talk about it, because even though it’s not for us, it’s still great to hear them talk about being parents and their love for the little monsters is just so evident and heart-warming. Afterwards Yumi and I look at each other and always say: “Good for them, good for us, everybody wins!”. No big changes with my parents, the house is still there, the business is looking a bit better with some new contracts on the horizon. My sister’s boss sold the business, but staff are moving with the sell and she’s still not travelling to Melbourne any time soon I fear. All in good time. On Yumi’s side things are equally quiet, her parents are always going well, her dad’s diabetes keeps improving and the Amsterdam family is making their way with two very bright boys and a hard-working mom and dad building their business. I am still in touch with some people from work from the ACT and made some new contacts here in Melbourne but for now I am happy to just be by myself. Things could be worse.

Christmas plans

Our general tradition is to not be around for Christmas because we’re just not into all this annually scheduled merriment for one, but also, it just doesn’t work in my head. I know we talked about this last year and I think I remember you telling me that even after all these years you still thought it strange to have Christmas in Summer. We’ll go and do day trips and relax around the house a bit, it’s Yumi’s first real opportunity to spend some more time in the city since April, so that’s a bit overdue.

Yumi

Yumi’s going really well at work, as always. She’s doing all sorts of things and what do you know, might be travelling to the ACT on a regular basis next year! She’s not really feeling the connection to the Melbourne office just yet, but she’s an ideas person so will come up with a plan soon enough. I personally believe that she’s wasting her talent on this NDS mob who can’t plan a day ahead or have a strategic thought about the future to save their lives, but it’s her time to waste and she seems to find it worthwhile J. It would be great for her if her allergies would calm down a bit, it’s been terrible here with 8 people dying of astma and all, nothing that bad for her, but the sneezing keeps her up at night, which does nothing for her energy levels of course as she sleeps like a sloth J. She’s still at it with Kendo and of course she is getting compliments all the time about how well she’s progressing. I think she and the sport are made for each other and that my frustration and negativity was more of a roadblock to her than anything else. Good riddance for me and good for her, she can now beat me with a bamboo stick more effectively!

New laptop

I gave myself a fancy new laptop to replace the work one that I really loved. It’s not quite as fancy, but has a number of features that will help me with my latest discovery of storytelling. It’s nothing new or revolutionary, but I just came to realise that I am storyteller in business or life in general and according to all the tests I am pretty darn good at it too. I met with a few people who do this for a living and actually built a business out of it to get some tips and tricks on how to improve my style and have now started to chronicle all the stories of my life, without writing a biography (who’d read that anyway, haha). There is a method to it all and by using that approach I hope it will be a bit quieter in my head when I put them on digital paper, but I expect the empty space to just fill up with new ideas, which is equally exciting. My new laptop also has a touchscreen so I can work even faster and the screen even flips all the way around so it becomes a drawing board or tablet reader. Like I said, fancy J.

State Emergency Services

I am really excited about being selected to join the SES here in Melbourne. Maybe you remember that I applied in the ACT but it went nowhere? This time I did make the cut and I start in February for a yearlong training course on Monday nights. I am mostly interested in naval and aerial observation, which means patrolling by boat and helicopter, but community engagement and roof fixing, tree removal and crime scene support seem like interesting options as well. I am going to learn so much new and cool stuff!

Thinking about moving

We’ve been living in this 3-bedroom house for 9 months now and the lease is up in a few months, so we’re looking at other areas to live. Not that it’s a bad house, it’s just fine really. Butnow that Spike is no longer with us (Pluis really doesn’t miss him at all, more attention and food for her!) and Pluis just wants to sleep all day we don’t need an outside area and an apartment is looking more and more attractive. We’re interested in the Docklands area, but have to research a bit more on what our options are. We started in a 50m2 flat when we just met and that worked, but maybe a bit more space would be nice? We thought about moving in the ACT as well when we were planning to stay, but it never happened, so maybe we’ll go, maybe we won’t. A better view (more spaciousness, less lock in), no garden, some other facilities and even closer to the CBD would be nice.

I’ll end things on a high note. Every year Yumi and I run through the year and consider all the things from that year we should be grateful for and it’s been a good one!

1. ·       Deciding to move to Melbourne
2. ·       Getting ADKAR Change management certificate
3. ·       Passing our first Kendo grading
4. ·       Getting all that appreciation when leaving SSC and NDS ACT
5. ·       Moving safely to Melbourne
6. ·       Buying a sofa we both like in one trip (miracle!!)
7. ·       Joining Change Management Institute
8. ·       Surviving 1000+km of cycling in Melbourne
9. ·       Learning new skills like lawn scaping (I made that up)
10. ·       Joining Kenshikan Kendo
11. ·       Kendo gear, events and volunteering
12. ·       Trying out archery
13. ·       Our awesome world round trip to Gold Coast-Tokyo-Abu Dhabi-Rotterdam-Moscow-New York-Los Angeles-Melbourne
14. ·       Working at DHHS
15. ·       Working with Salvos
16. ·       Getting selected for SES
17. ·       Making new friends and having great friends across the world
18. ·       Eating great food (best thing about Melbourne)
19. ·       Travelling for work
20. ·       All the good books we read and the games I played
21. ·       Not getting lost too often
22. ·       Finding the Dutch food store
23. ·       Having fun with Cookie monster
24. ·       Donating lots of money to people in need (that we were so fortunate to be able to do that)

Today will be busy as always, getting a haircut, posting X-mas cards, cycling to the city, giving blood, washing the car, grocery shopping, present shopping, cooking dinner and researching stuff for an article. But we’ll have a quiet weekend, well most of it anyway.

Be well and have a lovely Christmas and a happy and healthy 2017!

Gilbert

Letters to Marlis-October 2016 Edition

Melbourne, 5 October 2016

Hi Marlis,

It’s about time I wrote to you again! Hope you are doing well now that the temperature is starting to climb into the 20’s again and summer time is here. I can’t believe it’s been eight week since I last wrote, time seems to have flown by since we came back from our trip around the globe. Well, I’ve been quite busy myself, so here’s the update on what we’ve been up to. It’s not so extensive as the previous letter, most of it would be just work, which I think is just too boring to read (and write J)

Salvation Army Volunteering

The whole month of August and a bit of September I’ve been working for the Salvation Army here in Melbourne. They call it Project 614, which focuses on the homeless and other people in need from the humanitarian more than the religious point of view. I was so impressed with the dedication and acceptance that every single one of them brings to the job, I felt very humbled every day I was there. I had to adjust quite a bit to all the things (mostly miserable) that you hear all day and then there’s the many homeless hanging around the building. Some of them are very friendly and calm, some of them are a bit more troubled and some of them are just really, really in need of some professional help. My job was just computer work, helping them sort their thousands of volunteer files into something they can use faster and for more purposes. It was easy work, just a really big pile of data and sometime so very boring that I was happy that the day was done. Still felt pretty good to get back into things workwise, while I was applying for jobs.

My new Job

I did the whole application routine when we got back from the trip. Not all my applications were equally good, but I got a couple of rejections, 2 interviews and 1 offer from Department of Health and Human Services Victoria (State Government) to come and work with them. I did not really have much else to do so I decided to take it on. I am now the Executive Officer to the Chief Transformation Officer.. Sounds pretty fancy eh?! Haha, I am basically a glorified secretary, but the people are nice and the job is not too hard although the politics are a bit tiresome sometimes.

We’re working to realise the 227 recommendations made by the Royal Commission into family Violence and Child Abuse. Very worthwhile work, but not exactly light reading. I’ll spare you the details; let’s just say that it’s challenging enough to keep me entertained. I’ve been there for 4 weeks now and most people love me (because I get their things done), but we’re all very new in this new part of the organisation. It’s only been in existence for about 2 months, so all the teething issues are out there for us to deal with first.

My boss is another woman with a plan, I seem to attract them J and we get along well enough, she’s also from the ACT, as is another new colleague so we’ve got plenty to talk about whenever I miss the ACT (which I still do). I work long days (8am-6pm) and get things done, not much more I need. I am also pretty sure this is not a career for me, but for now it’s a nice way of starting my work life in Melbourne, I’ll see where it all lands eventually, perhaps I will stay, perhaps I will continue on as a self-employed person, time will tell. As a funny coincidence, both my best friends, Just and Alex, also started their new jobs in September, so we’re all good for excitement a little while longer

My old job

I heard just last week that the Shared Service Centre that I used to work for in the ACT has gone belly up in a rather exciting display of political fireworks and hostile take-overs. As I always feared, the CEO that I worked for was doomed to fail without the support from her managers (the Secretaries for Education and Employment) and it all ended quite badly. I was still very sorry to hear it as I spend some of my best days working with the people up there. I doubt the new mob will do any better as long as government cannot seem to make up their minds about what they want to do with this part of their business.

Garden and Melbourne living

The garden, well, the grass really, is doing very well. I’ve used the electric mower a couple of times now and it’s still a very silly process. It takes me about 15 minutes to prepare and clean up and all of 2 minutes to actually cut the grass! And then the next week it all starts again. I swear to you, I can actually see it grow about 3cm every day which is just ridiculous. Today was nice, when I got to sit on my own lawn in the sun for the first time. Yumi and I go out quite a bit, eat out, to the movies or just for a walk and Melbourne starts to grow on us very slowly. We’re thinking about moving to an apartment now that we only have 1 cat left and she hardly want to go outside anyway, but that’s only 6 months from now, so there’s no rush just yet.

Cycling

My new job allows me to cycle about 15km a day and every day is still a bit of an adventure. I do really like the ride in and out, because it clears my head a lot before I get home, but it’s not without some danger. Some people really should not be in cars, they are a danger to themselves and everyone else around them. I’ve had a couple of near misses so far and amazingly enough, those people still get angry at me. I think they react that way because they just got a massive scare, but it’s not a lot of fun to get yelled at all the same J.

I have a backup option to take the metro, when it rains really bad, but whenever I can I just put on my suit and helmet and cycle in, which is a great start to the day.

Kendo

I decided to quit kendo a couple of weeks back. It’s just not for me, which is a relief and disappointment at the same time. Yumi is still training and will probably continue, but I will have to find something else to do. I am thinking about archery or maybe pistol shooting, for now I am happy to just not do too much and focus on my new job, but I know that after a while I want to pick up something new so next week Saturday I’ll go for an introductory course in archery as a birthday present from Yumi My actual birthday is the day after, 9 October, when I turn 38, which is also the celebration of Yumi and me being together for 19 years. By that time she’s been part of my life for more than half of my life, which is pretty cool right?

Road trip and holiday plans

This weekend was AFL final weekend (go Bulldogs!!), which means that the Melbournians had the Friday off. We think that’s really silly but they take AFL VERY seriously here. Yumi and I took the opportunity to travel the Great Ocean Road again, after not having been there for nearly 4 years. We drove all the way to Port Fairy and it was still a beautiful ride, but not as magical as the first time when we were so impressed with all that majestic nature. It was still very good to see the ocean and spend some time together just talking and looking at the scenery. The Friday was very nice with great weather and sun for most of the day. The Saturday was not so great, but halfway through the sun still made an appearance and the good thing about everybody watching the final was that we had large stretches of road to ourselves. We saw koalas in the wild, some beautiful views along the coast, a couple of black wallabies and free roaming emus to top it all off. It’s always nice to travel, but equally nice to return home and take it easy a bit. We’re planning to go diving during the Christmas break, probably in Cairns. Maybe we’ll do a live-aboard dive trip for 4 days and then spend some time up north seeing the country side. I think that would be good after being cooped up on a boat with the same people for 4 days in a row J

I think that’s most of it for now. Once I’ve settled in at work a bit more I can give you some more detail about what it is I do, right now I am still figuring that out myself.

Be well and enjoy the summer time

Gilbert

Letters to Marlis-The Holiday Edition (July 2016)

Brunswick 2 August 2016

Hi Marlis,

I hope you are doing well and winter is proving not as much as a challenge as the weather reports suggest. As promised, here’s the update on the last 4 weeks, mostly our holidays, but first…some sad news.

Spike passed away

On Thursday the 7^th of July our little cat friend Spike passed away, 15 years and 11 months old. Yesterday would have been his 16^th birthday. He had been constipated like he sometimes would be and we were keeping a close eye on him with the holidays coming up. By Sunday morning, after finding the downstairs rooms covered in puke and poop, I took him to the emergency room and they patched him up quite nicely, or so we thought when we took him home on Tuesday. The vet was concerned about him being anaemic (low blood cell count), but there wasn’t much else they could do than empty his bowels and wait what happened. He improved a bit, but wouldn’t eat and almost did not drink. By Thursday morning 10.30 he was in such a bad way that we rushed him to the vet again for more treatment, but it wasn’t to be. They calmed him down, made him comfortable, but at 14.00 they called us to come with haste because he was on his way out. We didn’t make it, but had said goodbye that morning anyway. It was the best way for him to go, lots of drugs to keep him happy and calm and no stress. We said our goodbyes, cried our eyes out when we were home and reschedule dour flight to Tokyo to two days later. The next day I cleaned up all the visual reminders and medication, donated his cat milk and most of the food to a nearby cat shelter, didn’t want to have it around any longer. Now we’ve got a really nice urn and some pictures of him on our side table, next to the urn with his mom’s ashes. It’s still weird to only have one cat around, but she doesn’t seem to mind that much, although she does meow a lot more now than she ever did.

On to better and more positive things then…The big trip around the world in 19 days. We started out in Tokyo, then on to the Netherlands and finished up in New York. It was phenomenal.

Tokyo

Tokyo is probably the quietest city I have ever been to. The people are so well behaved, give each other lots of room and nobody talks on the subway (aside from me of course J) The weather was very warm, with 33-35 degrees all day, but add some nice humidity and you’ll be sweating all day. The first day Yumi and I drank about 8 litres of fluids between the two of us, I probably drank 5, trying to keep the backpack light. While it’s a super big city, it never really feels crowded and the subway network is so good you can get anywhere fast, or walk in comfortable air-conditioned tunnels for 100’s of meters at a time. At some point we walked more than 800 meters underground from one point to the next. All in all, during our 48 hour stay I think we walked a good 25 kilometres, trying to see as much as we could. Our thinking back then was that once we arrived in the Netherlands we would take it a bit easier. That did not quite work out as planned, but more on that later. I won’t go into too much detail on what we did, but to give you an idea, here’s the summarized version, not completely in the right order, but it will give you an impression of what we saw:

·       Sensoji and Nakamise market

Sensoji is a very famous temple because it’s really old and completely restored and as it was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel we made a stop here and shuffled along with the other 5,000 visitors. It’s always a bit strange that if you take the time to just walk around the building you’ll see equally beautiful things like parks, smaller shires and gardens without the crowd, so that’s what we did. The lane/road to the temple is one big shopping street, but it’s not all tourist junk, some things were very nice and we bought some Kendo head towels (tenugui) from a man who clearly had lots of love for his products.

·       Tokyo Skytree

This is one of the highest towers in the world, so it goes without saying that I just had to go in and I was not disappointed! The views were stunning and the whole process of going in and up with the 75+ staff members all pointing the way (completely obvious and very unnecessary). Because it was Monday morning, warm and very quiet we had the whole thing basically to ourselves, so I snapped some cool pictures and then we moved on.

·       Hama Rikyu Onshi Teien

This is a less well known and a bit out of the way city park that should be beautiful in spring, but in summer it was still very nice and again, surprisingly quiet when we visited. There’s old tea houses and quiet ponds, shady groves and meandering paths, against a towering backdrop of skyscrapers and the steady thrum of traffic in the background. Peaceful and quiet indeed.

·       Yoyogi park

This park was all about temples and broad paths. Because we did not have a lot of time, we could not visit all the grounds, but it was still very worthwhile and they had really big arches, so I was happy J.

·       Sibuya crossing and Hachiko statue

This is the famous crossing that you’ve probably seen on TV at some point. I thought it was a lot bigger, so in real life it was a bit of a disappointment and honestly, I’ve seen busier traffic in Wagga Wagga and Melbourne, but still, a nice experience and now we know. I thought it was a lot more fun to see the statue of Hachiko the dog. It’s a bit of a sad story about him waiting forever for his owner, who never returned because he died of a heart attack, but he made me think of Rusty, so that was a bit more positive.

·       Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building night views

The city takes on a very different appearance at night, so we ventured to the other side of the city to go to 200+ meters high and see the views. The pictures do not do it justice, but it was very cool. Especially the parks that look like massive black holes in the sea of lights (because the lights are hidden by the trees). Very much worth the walk.

·       Imperial palace

Or should I say, the gardens? No palace in sight. I thought we would at least catch a glimpse of the palace but a rooftop is all we could see through the trees. Still a nice walk through the imperial gardens and a very funny moment when we heard a music recital that sounded like someone was taking a chainsaw to a violin filled with screeching cats, quite horrible in that otherwise so peaceful and quiet environment. It was impressive to see how people back then in the 1600-1800’s lived, but I was of course most impressed with the very big blocks of stone that they used to build very high walls.

·       Mitsukoshi store

There’s only so much culture you can take in before it’s time for some shopping, so we went to the number one warehouse of Tokyo. I’ve been to Harrod’s, Macy’s and other fancy venues, but these people really take the cake.  The building is massive, but we focused on the two floors with just food in the basement. It’s like the Queen Victoria Markets indoors, without the smell and noise and with really beautiful products. Fruit is incredibly expensive and if you buy it here even more. Think $12 for a mango, $100 for a kilo of grapes or $50 for a square (!) watermelon. Insanity, but fun J I could have stayed there so much longer, but we just bought our lunch (best omelette I ever bought!) and went on to the next stop.

·       Nippon Budokan

This is a huge sports complex in the shape of a temple that was closed unfortunately, they were preparing for a big Kendo event so we could not go in. Anyhow, the walk there was still nice and the moat surrounding the premises had some of the most extensive lily fields I had ever seen.

·       Ueno park

Right after Yumi had eaten her signature eel dish in the #1 restaurant in Tokyo for that particular dish, we took a walk in this amazing park. The restaurant had 7 floors and beautiful views, which was great for me, because they only serve 1 fish dish in different varieties. It’s like the T-ford, you can get any car, as long as it’s a Ford and it’s black, haha. The park felt and looked a bit like the Tuilleries Parcs in Paris near the Louvre, with its white/gray gravel paths, but then with temples, buddhas and almost as much Japanese people as there’s tourists in Paris J

·       Yanaka cemetery

Perhaps a bit weird to visit a cemetery while on holidays, but I find them to possess a certain beauty and calm that you cannot find anywhere else. The most interesting features of this cemetery are that it has beautiful blossoms in spring and houses the grave and shrine of Tokugawa Shogun, the last Shogun of Japan, after which the politics and identity of the country and its people changed considerably. This is one of the most noteworthy events in history, so it’s understandable that there were NO tourists here at all, just Yumi, me and a man who seemed lost. Just how I like it.

·       Akihabara Electric Town

We had some time to spare and visited this part of the city during the day where it’s just insanely busy, but at night it’s supposed to be a true sight to behold with flashing lights, video and music everywhere. Now it was just noisy, a bit overwhelming and more than a bit alien. Think JB-Hifi, Harvey-Norman and Domayne all in one, on steroids, 100x as big, with really big loud speakers and every building is just more of the same.

I loved Tokyo, but probably could not live there (aside from cannot afford it J). It’s not that the people are unfriendly or the food is not good, it’s all great. It’s a cultural thing. The whole idea is that everybody gives everybody as much space and respect as possible, at the expense of pushing your own personality so far to the background that you become indistinguishable from the backdrop. The politeness is great, I can now bow my way through conversations like a real professional and it’s not that I need a spotlight all the time, but I’d probably be too noisy, loud, impolite and out of place, so I’ll stay here and leave Japan to the Japanese. I did learn a lot about why my mother in law does certain things in certain ways and even picked up on some quirks that Yumi has. I feel like I understand them better now, so even after almost 20 years, I can still learn some more about her J.

Netherlands

The visit to the Netherlands was, even by our standards, crazy busy. It was a nice surprise that my parents and sister had come to welcome us before we picked up our rental car. Driving in the Netherlands was much less stressful than I thought it would be after 2,5 years driving on the wrong side of the road. We had thought that we would have more time to ourselves, but nearly every single days was filled from 8am to 10pm and we loved every minute of it. We got to spend a good amount of time with Yumi’s parents, had a really nice dinner and then basically crashed into bed for 10 hours straight. The next morning we needed to head to Poortugaal (where we used to live) to meet our friends Just and Marit and their son Jurre to catch up and get the keys to their house where we would stay for the next 10 days. They left the next day, so that night we met with my parents and sister and slept at their house. It was good to be back there again. Last time we left we did not know when or to what situation we would return, but after all that’s happened it was good to see the house, garden and surroundings at least one last time how it used to be. On the Saturday we visited friends in the North of the Netherlands and their kids have grown up so much that we really felt like we had stepped into a time machine. After that visit we drove all the way down to the other end to meet with Hester and Ashwin and their daughter and son Sophie and Nathan (5 months old) and eat the traditional foods of the Netherlands Patat, Frikandel, Kroket, Kaassoufle and pindasaus. No need to translate, it’s all deep fried and really bad for you, but very tasty J

We also started to notice that while everything was different, the relationships were as strong as ever and had virtually not changed at all. Sure, people got older or changed their hair or things in their houses, but 2,5 years is long enough for trees to grow and roads and buildings get built but not for people to really change. That was a good experience for us. I should also mention that from the first day to the last we had the most incredible weather, every day was 25-30 degrees, with two days even 30+, which is rare in the Netherlands.

On the Sunday we had a really nice lunch with Alex and Suzanne and their daughters Julia and Elize before almost all our closest friends and family joined for a garden BBQ that lasted the rest of the afternoon and evening and gave everyone a real good opportunity to catch up, show off their offspring, throw a Frisbee and kick a ball. Good times. The Monday was reserved for the Amsterdam family, we met with Yumi’s brother (who was so ill and is now all good again) and his family and Yumi’s parents for a sunny walk, presents and a very nice lunch in honour of Yumi’s mum’s birthday (68) the next day. The day after we went to Yumi’s parents again to have ANOTHER celebration dinner and say goodbye the next day.

The rest of the week was just more fun and food meetings with friends and family, lots of driving (1,700 km in all) and lots and lots of love and laughterJ. It was just really great to see everyone again, visit the traditional spots we used to visit and take walks. I did an early morning tour of the Rotterdam Harbour and the city by myself for a few hours to just see how things had changed and take some pictures. That was really good and a bit emotional, made me appreciate even more all the good things that happened since we arrived in Australia. Like public toilets. Hard to find in the Netherlands, while they are everywhere in the US, Japan and Oz. J

The time to travel on came around way to fast, but we had one really nice dinner at my parents and then we dropped off the rental car, after which my dad drove us the last part to the airport, which was just lovely and very convenient indeed. What a great visit.

The flights (all 8 of them) were very uneventful. I watched so many movies and tv series (as I cannot sleep in a plane) that my head spun and had difficulty to separate reality from fiction, I guess sleep deprivation will do that to you J. We flew from Melbourne to Gold Coast to Tokyo Narita to Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam to Moscow to New York to Los Angeles and then back to Melbourne again, so it was truly a world roundtrip! And we heard so many Dutch people in New York everywhere we went. In diners, at attractions, just walking in the street, it seemed like they were everywhere. It was good that we could just turn the Aussie accent up a bit more and just pretend that we were not from there whenever they acted embarrassingly (which wasn’t that often).

New York was such a great experience that it would take twenty pages to describe it all. But, as they say, I guess you should have been there, to get the full experience. I felt so at home there that we even started thinking about how it would be to live there, while we love to live in Australia and have no plans to move any time soon J Like with the Japan trip, I’ll limit myself to the highlights and let some of the included pictures speak for themselves in no particular order.

·       Washington square

A beautiful respite of all the busyness with a really big fountain and a quite sizeable arch (not as big as the Parisian Arc de Triomphe, but sizeable none the less. We just sat here for a bit, enjoying the rebellious people who ignore the signs that said you should not enter the fountain to swim. I guess 35 degrees makes people forget how to read J

·       Empire state

This was supposed to be a highlight, but maybe it was that we did it at the end of a long day, or maybe it was just not that great but it basically sucked. We waited for almost 2,5 hours in hallways, security check points, waiting areas, more hallways, got herded through shops and more waiting areas to then finally make it to the 86^th floor with about 500 other people. You can go all the way to the 102^nd but we were so done with it all that we snapped the pictures and took our tired feet and legs back down again. Perhaps if it was our only skyscraper experience we’d have been more excited, but we had already been to the Rockefeller centre and that was a completely different and much more fun experience.

·       Rockefeller center

The square in front is already a piece of art, with a fountain that reminded me of the Trevi fountain in Rome, but then American style, so basically bigger, more gold and louder J. We had to look around a little to find the entrance, but once we found it, it was an easy 15-20 minute process to get to the top and the views were just spectacular. Because of the sunny weather everything was set out in great detail and stark contrast. There’s still higher buildings being built or available to get a view, but the views from here were some of the best I had ever seen

·       Chrysler building

We visited here on the last day, because you can only go into the lobby as it is still operational as an office and residential area. I cannot imagine how expensive it must be to live there, but just the lobby was very beautifully restored and when you walk up to the building it just looks so iconic.

·       9/11 memorial

Yumi wanted to go here and as in any good marriage, you compromise. I really did not look forward to this at all, but in the end it was a good experience. I think it’s more than a little creepy to walk a site where so many people died in such a short amount of time. The fact that it’s already 15 years ago did not make it any less creepy for me. The whole story is told once more, with even a bit of room for a view from the terrorists’ point of view, but while there wasn’t a lot of new material in the exhibitions, one thing stood out for me. They have this news reel going that shows how many news items are still written and broadcasted 15 years after the fact about 9/11, safe to say it’s a lot and very little of it positive. 

·       Grand central station

I’ve seen it in so many movies and video games and it doesn’t look quite that impressive from the outside, but it is stunningly impressive on the inside. Most of the station is underground, including shops, a market, most rail tracks and a whole food court. The soaring ceilings, big windows and authentic columns just really work together to make this the most beautiful train station I have ever seen, and that includes the one in Rotterdam, so that’s really saying something J.

·       Hudson walk

Manhattan splits the incoming Atlantic into the Hudson and East river and Yumi and I just went for a walk along the Hudson to get a better feel for the city. Despite the heat, the river provides a bit of cool breeze with sea air, lots of entertainment from looking at all the running people and the city provides a photogenic backdrop every step of the way. We made it all the way to the Holland tunnel (which I thought was a nice name) and did some shopping on the side roads.

·       Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

You can see Lady Liberty from many angles, but she’s actually not that big, nor very visible from afar, so we booked a spot on the ferry and went to visit her on the island. We did not get to go up in the crown or pedestal (and why would you want that anyway) but she’s still quite impressive close up. She has big really big hands for some reason, but it’s still a marvel of engineering if you consider that’s she’s been out there for so long. The views on Manhattan are possibly the best I captured on camera and trying to imagine that emigrants have been welcomed by her for over 130 years made this a bit more special. Ellis Island is right next door and that was a really worthwhile experience. The atmosphere of hope, fear and anticipation as it would have been is completely gone, replaced with a quiet calm of interest. Millions of tourist visitors will do that I reckon but the exhibits paint a really detailed picture of what the emigrants must have experienced and in the more quiet parts there were photo expositions that captured the history of people and the island at different phases and those were very insightful and educational.

·       Metropolitan museum

If you’ve ever been to museums and saw statues with broken limbs or other damages and wondered if there were any whole specimens left…yep, they all seem to have ended up here. Some of the most beautiful statues I have ever seen, a beautiful Egyptian hall, more knights’ armours than a German castle and the list just goes on and on. Despite the limited time we could spend here, we also made it to the roof and has a great view of 5^th avenue, Central Park and the skyline while the sun was bright in the sky.

·       Guggenheim

Another museum, a bit further down the road but this one was exactly what we expected form a modern art museum, incomprehensible. We just don’t get modern art we reckon. There’s people that I can only describe as ‘peculiar’ looking at coloured lines on a big yellow canvas and speak of the artist’s intent and mindset like they actually knew them. Yumi and I think whoever the artist was, they made a really good deal because any 8 year old with too much caffeine in their system could have made the same thing. Anyway, we went there for the building, which is a marvel of architecture, the art just got in the way of the experience really.

·       Brooklyn Bridge  and Water taxi

After a very warm walk and a quick stop at the Supreme Court and some more big buildings, we made our way across the Brooklyn Bridge and I felt back in Melbourne for a minute with angry cyclists trying to clear a way and everybody else just strolling along. The views on both side of the city, the Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn lying in front of us was worth all the sweating for sure. We made it safely across, but decided that walking back again was not something we looked forward to so we got on one of the water taxi cruise boats and enjoyed a few more sights cruising up the river, amongst which the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship and a preview of Lady liberty. So much better than walking!

·       Central Park

I love the botanical gardens of all Australian cities, but Central Park is really in a league of its own. Not just the size, but also the variety and how it’s enclosed on all sides by the high energy avenues and streets. There’s so much to see and do that you could vacation here for three days and never be bored. We visited the park on three separate occasions, stopped by the boat pond, the row boats, big fountain, the Jackie Kennedy lake and sports fields. What an experience.

·       Times square

This is the New York I was coming to see, what a mad house. Everybody is moving in all directions, police everywhere, people everywhere, flagship stores everywhere and everything America that you ever imagined is right here packed into a huge square and its side skyscraper side streets. One massive churning cauldron of people that doesn’t slow down, take a break or even pauses to take a breath, it just keeps going. You would probably be scared or at least a bit intimidated by such a big crowd (I’ll admit I had to get used to it too) but what a cool experience.

·       Chinatown

I had high expectations, but I think Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney do a better Chinatown than New York really. It was dusty, dirty and overcrowded with tourists and a lot of annoyed Chinese who were just going about their business. We walked a couple of streets, Yumi ate some dumplings (of course) and then we got the heck out of there fast.

·       National History Museum

We did this one on the last day as well, because the first time we got there the line was outside and as we’d learned, that means that the line inside is not a lot of fun at all. We only had to wait for about 30 minutes in the end, so that was okay and then we got to see huge dinosaurs in displays that rival the best in the world. Halfway through the visit we both got a bit depressed with all the dead animals and decided that maybe this was just not or us anymore. A good stop if you never get out of the country, but somewhat eerie if you consider that most of all these animals were killed for no other reason than just to put them on display in its earlier days. I know, I know, we could have thought of that before, but we didn’t. Well at least the dinosaurs only needed to be dug upJ.

·       Coney Island

This used to be the Luna Park of the country and a big deal. Not so much now, very run down, but still worth a stop and the pier walk is still worth the trip all the way down the island. Yumi needed to get a hotdog at the same venue where they do that (disgusting) world championship competition hotdog eating (70+), we kept it to one and some fries J. We wanted to take at least one ride and decided on the swinging chairs merry go round that goes 10 meters up in the air and spins you around. That was the moment the weather decided to change and the sky opened up in a quite spectacular hail- rain- and lightning storm that soaked us completely and flooded the streets for miles around. We called it a day after that refreshing bath and spent a good hour getting back to the hotel with a million other New Yorkers who were just happy that the warm weather had cooled off just a little.

·       Intrepid

The Intrepid used to be a military aircraft carrier ship that is now retired and turned into a museum. As it is huge it was on my list of big things to see and I really enjoyed the visit. Unfortunately Yumi’s stomach was a bit upset after eating big portion of spaghetti and meatballs but I still managed to get a good look at some fighter planes and helicopters, a Concorde airplane, a submarine and they also had a Star Trek (from the tv shows) exhibit going on, because there’s also a Space shuttle on the deck (I did not pay to see it). Again, I had seen it so many movies and tv shows that play in New York that I just had to see it and I was not disappointed.

·       Flat iron building

This building is on Broadway, which is like saying that it’s on Sydney Road here in Melbourne. Broadway is long and changes identity from ultra-busy to very quiet and 5 lanes wide to nearly as wide as a horse and cart track. It’s one of those icons that you’ve seen so many times on tv and postcards that when you see it for yourself you can’t help but compare to your expectations and I apparently thought it was bigger. While it wasn’t that big, it really is beautiful and well maintained. We did not spend a lot of time here, just shot some pictures, as you cannot go in at all and made our way on to the next stop, which I cannot even remember now J.

·       Little Italy

One of the things that looked better on tv really. It felt like a massive tourist trap, really just a few streets of glory of days past. We really tried to get a feel for the place but it just wasn’t there anymore. Like Chinatown, we just made a quick stop, had an ice cream and moved on.

·       High line park

This park is built on old train tracks and they did a really good job of it. It stretches about 5 kilometres from north to south on the lower part of Manhattan’s a very nice experience to walk amongst trees about the streets and cars and make your way through busy traffic while never having to stop for anything else than the occasional photographer making an unscheduled stop. We started at the end and that’s where the park needs to grow out a bit more, but as soon as we moved to the more established parts, we could really appreciate the green shady groves on another very warm day.

Of course we did some shopping, scored a bag and two pairs of shoes for Yumi, lots of eating (the portions really are huge) and I found dr. pepper and coke zero cherry flavour, which was a nice change from the Pepsi Max, Coke zero, Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi and what not.

Another thing that we found remarkable is that American are not THAT fat as everybody seems to think or talks about. They look very normal actually, just like Australians, the Dutch (but shorter) or Japanese (but tallerJ). They also dress quite well. We might be used to the style now a bit more after living in Oz for a few years, but no hiked up pants and white socks in sandals anywhereJ. I am sure they are still out there, just not in Manhattan.

That was the best of the trip, it’s Monday the 8^th while I am writing this (I started last week, but it was a lot of writing) and we’ve been back for a bit more than a week now. Time to get back to the diet, start job hunting and watch a bit of the Olympics while I have the chance. We’ve decided to do another intro course for Kendo to get the basics right once more before we grade for the next level in September and I might do a bit of a project for the Salvation Army, which I’ll have more details on by next time I write.

Stay safe, warm and well, speak soon

Gilbert