While in the ACT I volunteered with Red Cross in their MATES program and made an 81 year old German lady friend by the name of Marlis. We agreed to stay in touch and I thought it would be a nice idea to share my letters to her on this blog so the few interested people can read how we're going at their own convenience. In case you are wondering, I print these in large print and send them by mail. yep, you read that right by mail, because Marlis doesn't want to have a computer and email is too much fuss. How adorable right?! Have fun and stay on the left!
Melbourne, Friday 13 May
Hi Marlis,
I hope this letter finds you well, comfortable and happy. In these days
of email, social media and technology I think there’s a certain charm in
writing letters, even though I am typing them so you don’t have to struggle
with my handwritingJ.
It feels a bit weird to have this one sided conversation, but as we agreed, I would
do the writing and you would do the reading so we could stay in touch while you’re
over there and I am down here.
I hope your new MATES volunteer is working out for you and that she has
lots of stories to share with you to keep you entertained. My Saturdays have
been a bit strange so far between 10 and 12, as I would normally go to you, but
now I find myself with this gap in my day, but don’t worry, I’ve kept myself
quite busy.
For your convenience and my structure I’ve put some headings above each
section so you can put this away and pick it up later and not have to read the
whole thing at once or easily go back a bit. I plan on making this a recurring
update by letter every month or so, so best to set the structure early on,
right?! J I
also plan to update my blog with these letters a bit for the few readers who
like to stay up to date on what it is Yumi and I do out here, but that’s just a
convenient side-effect.
Okay, here we go!
The final days in the ACT
It was a mad house in those last few days, but all went very much according
to plan. Saying goodbye at Kendo (the Japanese sword fighting thing) was great!
I got pummelled by everyone and got to fight a very senior person AND the
sensei (teacher) in the end which was a great, be it a bit painful, experience.
I was completely spent afterwards but what a way to say goodbye. During the
week I had so many dinners and lunches that I did not have to cook once at
home, talk about convenient! Leaving the Shared Services Centre was also a very
good experience. I got so much praise and so many friendly words, it was all
very humbling and I felt very awkward listening to these wonderful people saying
all these appreciative things about me. I know I did my best, but hearing other
people saying that too in front of a crowd of people is always a bit
embarrassing. I left with lots of gifts, some money (that I put to use for
charity), a head full of memories and experiences and a heart full of
gratitude. Wow! Then it was off to the house and taking care of the final
things. It was a good thing I got up early the next morning, so much to do
still, but the final inspection was all good and at 9.45 I was in the car on my
way to Melbourne. The drive was sunny and very uneventful and I arrived a
little before 17.00 at the house where Yumi (and the cats but they did not care
J) was waiting.
Life in Melbourne
I’ve been here four weeks today and can’t say that I’ve fully arrived just
yet. I am not rushing into anything and take it day by day but have been
cycling, walking and driving around to get a sense of where everything is.
Melbourne is a really big place. Really, really big. I can cycle from one end
to the other in 2-3 hours, but most of it is so incredibly busy that there’s
not a lot of fun in it. It took me quite some time to get used to the ACT as
well, so I am not worried, just not that excited just yet. The best things so
far are $13 haircuts, the variety in shops, everything I need to stay alive is
less than 5 kilometres from my house and the architecture of the old colonial/Victorian
houses is truly amazing. What I like a lot less is the traffic lights, the
hordes of (stupid) people, cars everywhere and I get lost all the time. Being a
change manager myself, I know this adjustment needs some time, so for now I’ll
just focus on the good stuff, it’s not like we are going anywhere else any time
soon
Work
I have applied for a couple of jobs, but have to say my heart is not
really in it. I don’t mind the money too much, it’s really about the challenge
and most of the jobs posted out there I could do. Some of the position
descriptions are so vague that I don’t even bother applying, they clearly haven’t
figured it out for themselves, so I’ll check in later when they know what they
want and see if there’s anything I can do. Yumi’s work is really busy, busy and
more busy. She’s very excited about some of the projects that she’s getting
started on. I keep telling her that she needs to prioritise a bit better and
chose what she really wants to spend her time on, but that’s the pot calling
the kettle black, so you can imagine I am not making much of an impact J. I’ll see what happens
with my business and the work I am looking for. If previous experience is
anything to go by, I’ll have to say no to some of the stuff coming at me in a
couple of weeks’ time, but let’s not complain about that sort of luxury problem
just yet!
Volunteering
I already decided that I wanted to do some volunteering when I got
here, so I’ve applied for the role of sorter of incoming donations at the Brotherhood
of St Laurence in Brunswick (where we live). They do good things for homeless
people and people having it tough and I feel that’s actually the best job I
could possibly have ever. Sorting, cleaning, repairing, organising, doesn’t get
much better than that, does it?! Too bad there’s no real career in it and I’d
probably have the whole place reorganised in a couple of months, so I’ll take
it slow for now. Yumi and I are both getting involved with Salvos (the
Salvation Army) in one of their youth programs for one night a week for
international people who are new to the city or country to offer them some
social interaction (and you know how I am ALL about talking, hahaha) so they
feel welcome and not isolated. Seems like a worthy cause. They also got this
night outreach thing from 11pm to 5am, which seems pretty cool, but I’d have to
see how that fits into my life (Yumi likes her sleep too much J). There’s so many
options to choose from for community work, we’re just going to start here.
Shopping
I did not even go shoe shopping! I biked past THE store yesterday evening
riding back home after a networking event and felt the pull, but resisted
because it started to rain a bit and it was 9.30 already, but soon, very soon I
will go there and see if there’s some new pretty shoes for me there.
Melbourne has so much to offer in the way of shopping that it’s
actually a bit overwhelming and makes me not want to go. There’s a shopping
centre the size of Belconnen or Canberra Centre every 5 kilometres, so whatever
you could possibly need is out there, you just have to find it. We ended up
taking most of our furniture as you might remember, did a couple of IKEA trips,
but it’s not really working for the furniture we are looking for so we’re just
postponing big purchases until we find our way a bit better.
Cats
The cats are very well, the trip by plane was uneventful, they didn’t
make a sound on the way home (as opposed to the full blown concert we got
driving to the airport) and are finding their way around the house a bit still.
They are getting old, so they sleep a lot anyway, finding the right spot for
that is what they are figuring out now. We’ve also found a good vet, that’s
really just 5 kilometres away and they seem good people and as I mentioned
before, they are equally expensive so nothing we have to get used to J. There’s a white and
red mister cat who sometimes strolls into the garden but Pluis (our she cat)
really doesn’t appreciate it and Spike (our mister cat) actually made a good
show of defending his garden territory. I haven’t seen him for a couple of days
now, maybe he’s grown tired of the game already.
Odd jobs
As mentioned before, I manage to keep busy. Yumi makes all the money so
I do all the house work of course, grocery shopping and the like, sometimes I
go cycling (but it’s been VERY windy) to explore the city and neighbourhood. I’ve
reorganised the garage, got new license plates and a new driver’s license. dug
up and returfed the front yard with fresh grass, played about 60 hours of video
games, read a couple of books, visited the beautiful cemetery (okay that was a bit
weird, but very sunny and peaceful), finally sorted out a year of administration,
did some translating for Yumi’s work and the days just seem to fly by. Never a
dull moment indeed!
Biking in Melbourne
It’s a difference of day and night really. In the ACT I could cycle for
2 hours and never touch the ground if I chose not to. Here I’d be lucky to go
1,000 meters without having to stop once (or twice). Bikepaths hold more
cyclists in 20 minutes than all the cyclists that I’ve ever seen in the whole
of the ACT in two years, which is a bit crowded. A good thing is that bicycles
are far more affordable here than they were there, so I’ll probably get me one
of those fancy ones for when I’ve settled and want to do some serious climbing
work. Traffic is seriously dangerous though. Everybody keeps warning me about
Sydney Road (the main traffic artery in Brunswick) and I have to say, after almost
getting caught on a door and being run down in the space of 2 minutes, looking forward
and out is a real important thing to do. I got told off (rightfully so) by a
fellow biker for running red lights and he was so pleasant about appealing to
my sense of caring for the reputation of all bikers that I have not run a red
light since. Safe and smart thing to do for sure J.
Holiday
Our holiday is coming up. We’ll be travelling from 8 July to 29 July. Five
days in Tokyo, then 10 days in the Netherlands and then 6 days in New York,
which officially makes it a round-the-world trip! How cool is that eh?! I’ll
share some more details on our travel plans, safe to say we travel as we live,
very busy and full on, so I’ll have to mail you some pictures when we get back,
how old school, hahaha.
Going organic
I’ve been reading a bit more about organic food and
animal welfare, but also about what we eat and how that affects our health and
I found it very interesting. It’s quite easy to change a couple of things
around the house that immediately help the environment and the organic shopping
really makes you think about where stuff comes from and how far it’s travelled
to get there. I am not a big fan of protectionism in any economy, but the ‘buy-local’
thing does work wonders for the environment. Why does my olive oil come from
Spain, my peanut butter from the USA, my canned tomatoes from Italy and my butter
from Singapore? No idea really, never thought about where it came from. I am
going to give it a go and see how this locally sourced thing can work. It will
be more expensive, because it’s smaller scale, but at the same time it does
keep people in business who have families and not just add to the shareholder
value of mega-corporations. Must be Melbourne rubbing off on me… We’ve also decide
that we’ll seriously consider buying second hand stuff (like a lawnmower) when
it doesn’t have to be new. Funny fact, the Woolworths organic range is actually
MORE expensive than the organic product range in the small stores, go figure!
Kendo
We’ve joined a new club for kendo and as it happens it’s
not only the biggest of Australia, but apparently also the best. They also have
a purpose built floor, which is very good because kendo involved a lot of stomping
your feet and it makes a big difference to the soles of your feet what that
floor is made of. I am so woefully unskilled that I could not tell the difference
if my life depended on it, but my goodness these people are fierce (and
friendly). Yumi is very interested in taking up another discipline called Iaido,
which is much more stylised and slow and in the end involves real swords and cutting
up stuff, which is pretty cool. Our teacher in ANU Kendo was 5th Dan
(5x black belt) which is already really good. Our new GROUP of teachers is 1x7th
dan, 2x 6th dan and 1x 5th dan, there’s more 3rd
and 4th dans than I can count and on a quiet night there’s more
people than on the busiest night in ANU kendo! We had our first training on
Tuesday and while we did not embarrass ourselves too much, it was different
enough to be really tiring so it’s a good thing it’s only 90 minutes instead of
2 hours and a 10 minute drive away. As things stand now, we might be training 3x
kendo and 2x Iaido per week by August so at some point we’ll have to start
seeing improvement…I hope.
Well, that’s about it for our lives right now. I am sure I’ve
overlooked some stuff, but the main things are here I think. I’ll keep a list
of things to mention in my next letter that I’ll write before we go on holiday,
so somewhere in the last part of June.
Enjoy the day!
Gilbert
