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!
- · Deciding to move to Melbourne
- · Getting ADKAR Change management certificate
- · Passing our first Kendo grading
- · Getting all that appreciation when leaving SSC and NDS ACT
- · Moving safely to Melbourne
- · Buying a sofa we both like in one trip (miracle!!)
- · Joining Change Management Institute
- · Surviving 1000+km of cycling in Melbourne
- · Learning new skills like lawn scaping (I made that up)
- · Joining Kenshikan Kendo
- · Kendo gear, events and volunteering
- · Trying out archery
- · Our awesome world round trip to Gold Coast-Tokyo-Abu Dhabi-Rotterdam-Moscow-New York-Los Angeles-Melbourne
- · Working at DHHS
- · Working with Salvos
- · Getting selected for SES
- · Making new friends and having great friends across the world
- · Eating great food (best thing about Melbourne)
- · Travelling for work
- · All the good books we read and the games I played
- · Not getting lost too often
- · Finding the Dutch food store
- · Having fun with Cookie monster
- · 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
