Gilbert and
Yumi
1c Body Street
3018 Altona,
Victoria
Altona, 9
December 2017
Hi Marlis,
That’s 2017
nearly done already, letter writing time! I hope you’re warm and well in the
ACT ow that summer is here, it’s been quite wet for the last couple of days in
Victoria, but summer seems to be on the way now. Not too much has happened in
the past few months, but a few big things did come to pass, so here we go.
We’ve moved
house!
Three weeks ago,
we moved to Altona, which is near Hoppers Crossing, Williamstown and most
importantly, the ocean. We’d been looking and looking in Brunswick, but
couldn’t really agree on a house or area so we kept going in circles, looking
throughout Melbourne until Yumi changed her requirements of being close to work
and suggested we look in Altona. We found at least 10 houses we liked, did two
weekends of house inspections and got it all sorted in no time. The house is
much newer and modern (2011-ish), the gardens are maintained (yay!), we’ve got
1 room less, most of our furniture moved with us, aircon in all rooms and it
just feels like more of a home. I can see much more of the sky, feel much less
enclosed and it’s a lot quitter even though we live fairly close to the train
tracks. Oh and did I mention we pay about $800/month less in rent? Pretty good
huh?! 😊
Because of my
being self-employed the whole move worked out quite well. I had enough time to
prepare everything on the days I didn’t work and managed to make it all happen
around Yumi’s busy travel and work schedule. The move to Melbourne from the ACT
was a bit fragmented because of the distance and I did most of the work, but
this time Yumi worked like a beast too and we moved everything in one day.
There was an inspection planned on the Saturday we moved out and we literally
vacated the house completely 5 minutes before everyone went in to look around.
So funny, it was like loading a move truck to an audience of about 15 people. I
was planning to go back and clean the house later, so after the inspection (we
waited outside and took a break) we chatted to the real estate agent and he was
commenting how clean it all was, haha, we had only vacuumed, but thanks! I had
arranged to go back on Thursday and do the cleaning, but the mandatory carpet
cleaning guy and I had a misunderstanding and he ended up cleaning the whole
house as part of his services. I’ll readily admit, best extra $125 dollars I’ve
ever spent, that house was CLEAN for real. Mowed the lawn, I had lain myself in
the first week there in 2016, dropped of the key, got a haircut down the road
and that was it for us and Brunswick. Even though it’s been good to live there,
I will not miss it at all.
Living here
changed a lot of things. For example, now both of us no longer cycle to work,
but we take the train together, which is very nice. We always used to drive
into work together and Yumi would drop me off and pick me up in the city, when
we lived in the ACT and we missed that time together when we moved to
Melbourne. Now we at least ride the train in together on most days, which is
safer than riding a bike on any day in Melbourne. I do miss cycling a bit, but
not the risk of getting hit by cars and having to look out for stupid people on
their phones. Also, the ocean is a 5-minute walk from our house, which is
really nice. Close enough to enjoy it, not close enough to get flooded when the
weather gets feisty. There’s less restaurant options, but we’re simple people
anyway and there’s so many neighbouring towns that we have options enough.
Also, the city is 25 minutes away by train (15 km), it’s not like we’re living
in the outback or something. Actually, it’s very much like living in Casey
again, without the Brindabellas on the background and the hills, but with
Canberra close enough for comfort and Gungahlin for shopping (that’s Werribee
now). It was always a dream of ours to live near the sea and now we do! I’ll
tell you a bit more about what it’s all like in the next letter, when we’ve
lived here a bit longer. Right now, it’s just nice that every single time we
say we moved to Altona, people always go: “I love Altona, well done!”
Pluis passed
away
It wasn’t completely
unexpected, but our second and last cat, Pluis (Fluffy) passed away two weeks
ago, only one week after the move. She’d been getting old and slowing down,
getting sick more and more and then we had the whole blind, not blind and blind
again episodes. She stuck with us through so much and we with her, but she was
just done and as far as passings go, hers was calm and dignified. On our first
weekend after the move I found her in a state downstairs and after having been
to the vet in Altona once already to see if there was anything we could do for
her still, we decided it was enough and we’d let her keep her dignity till the
end. As fortune had it, it was a beautiful sunny morning, so I woke Yumi and we
took turns with Pluis on our laps, sitting in the garden and morning sun from
6.30 to 11.20, got in the car for her last ride at 11.25 and it was all done by
11.45. She was so calm and restful through it all, which is not like her moody,
grumpy and ferocious self, that we knew we’d done the right thing. Of course,
we are very sad to lose our last pet/guard dog, but out of the three we lost,
Pluis went out on the best possible terms (hers). I picked up her ashes this
Wednesday, so now she’s back home with the other two, forever sleeping in the
sun, she would have liked that 😊. I managed to find a cat
rescue shelter to come and pick up all the cat stuff we had no need for anymore
so there’s no visual reminders and they were really happy to have the
litterboxes, feeding trays, food, toys, brushes and some of the medicine. It’s amazing
how much stuff we had, but at least they’ll put it to good use! It’s still a
bit strange to not have some one to talk to when I am home alone or when we go
to work and come back, but we’ll get used to it and have agreed that we’ll not
have a new pet for a good long while after having had pets for the past 18
years. Let’s see how that goes.
Back at Deakin
University
Right after
the last letter I sent you, I got a call from Deakin University if I’d be
interested to come back and the terms were so favourable that I could not say
no to such a great place to work. So I am back, for a ridiculously well-paid
three days a week doing what I love in change, communication and staff
engagement. Yep, that’s a job nowadays 😊. I get to work with all these great people I used to work with and
some new ones that are quite impressive as well. This second time around I see
new and different things again, but have the advantage to know how things work.
It’s great to come in and get cracking straight away. I am involved in two projects
that will redesign the study content of two major degrees (the Master of
Business Administration, or MBA and the Bachelor of Laws). My job is to explain
to everyone else how this will impact their jobs and the way things get done,
oh and to stop them from killing each other, but they are generally very
friendly, be it a bit confused and distracted at times. I do enjoy the pressure
of having to perform every single day and it’s not that I am ever impressed
with myself, but I work really hard for the money they pay me and we get so
much done every week. Love it! I’ll be there until end of February/mid-March
and after that we’ll see. By then I’ve made enough money for a year, like I
said, ridiculously well paid…
SES
That’s another
thing that’s changing now we’re in Altona, I have to move units from Essendon
to Hobson Bay City (Altona is part of that council) and there’s always
paperwork in the SES. But before I said goodbye to my old unit and great
volunteer SES buddies I got a heap of training done. After completing my
General Rescue (qualified SES person) I also got Safe Working At Heights
(SWAHS) where you learn how to work on roof wearing a climbing harness and do
100 safety checks and most importantly, I got my CHAINSAW license!!!!! That was
so much fun. We were a group of about 10 people and had one day of theory,
which was really boring, but two days of chopping up trees and making a
spectacle of ourselves. I think between the 10 of us, only 5 trees were felled,
so my nature loving heart was okay and they were all pines, which are not
native and apparently the training company gets paid to take them down. All
joking aside, I really learned a lot about staying safe, tree hazards,
different cutting techniques and how heavy trees really are. On the third and
final day, in 30 degrees, we had to debranch a 15-meter tree and then cut it
up. It took 6 of us about 3 hours to make that happen, most of the time being
spent on hauling away branches and dodging huge spiders who were not at all
impressed with our noisy chainsaws and home wrecking. Seriously, some were as
big as the palm of my hand! It’s funny though. In the Netherlands, when people
see even a daddy longlegs it’s cause for great alarm, lots of swatting and
trying to crush it with a shoe. Here a plate-sized Huntsman sort of casually
strolls over your boot/leg/arm, makes eye contact (all 8 of them) and then
casually walks away while everybody eats their lunch like it’s no big deal. I
think I was the most excited by far. Gotta love Aussies 😊. I’ll have to wait a few weeks for the paperwork to clear but have
visited with the new unit already, they seem nice and train on the same Monday,
so I’ll get used to that fast enough. Also, it’s just a kilometre from my house.
I wasn’t expecting that they would turn me down, being fully trained and all,
but I look forward to meeting new people once again and who knows, maybe I get
to do a land and water search course, which involves boats and potentially even
scuba diving, which happens to be the next topic too!
Holiday time
Next Saturday
we’ll be on a plane to sunny Queensland and a few days of finally diving in the
Cairns part of the Great Barrier Reef. It’s one of those live-aboard things
where you stay on the boat for three days and basically dive all day (3-4 each
day). It will be our first time to dive like this, but we’ve been on our fair
share of dive boats and it’s a skill you don’t really lose even though it’s
been close to two years since our last dive ☹. We just had all our gear serviced and plan to do a refresher dive
when we get to Cairns in the first few days, but there’s also a trip to the
rain forest, some crocodile touring and probably just a bit of relaxing too.
It’s only a week to try it out, but if we like it, we might go on a longer one
next year. Western Australia is on the calendar for April 2018, which might
also involve diving and maybe Yumi will go to the Netherlands in May/June 2018
for work ,so it could be that I accompany her now that we have no pet to look
after. I hope Cairns is still as nice as we remember it from 7 years ago when
we first put foot on Australian soil. When we were on the East Coast in 2010 we
planned to do some diving on the Whitsundays, but then a cyclone hit Airlie
Beach and it all got cancelled. We’ll be back home by Christmas day and spend
the rest of the time off traveling the neighbourhood, maybe do some more diving
near Williamstown, scout the neighbouring towns and maybe go to the Alpine
Highway area. We’ve still got a lot to see there and the views can be
spectacular on sunny days.
I am writing a
book
You’ll
probably not be too surprised about that, but it’s not what you might think.
Having been to so many events and meeting so many different people in the work
of change, I started to notice that there’s this cultural thing with
Australians where they are culturally incapable of saying they’ve done a good
thing. Tall poppy syndrome and all that. The change management profession could
really do with some good examples of when change worked out really well to
inspire others to give it a try. So I’ve decided to take the whole of next year
and make a project of collecting these stories, grouping them in some way and
publish them on a website or maybe in print if that works. Not to make money or
promote myself, I just want to give back to the community of change minded
individuals.
I’ve named it
“The Small Poppy” project and so far, I’ve got 5 contributions (aiming for
50-100) but that’s just on the first message out there. One from the NT, one
from Perth, one from Melbourne, one from Canberra and even one from New
Zealand! My plan is to contact individuals in my network and have them
recommend me to others. I will learn so much and hear great things for sure. I
will also attempt to not go for the big organisations, but rural and regional
or the unlikely suspects like disability care providers, the Sydney Harbour
Bridge and organisations you never hear about in the news for a change. I asked
25 of my closest change people and 24.5 thought it was a great idea, so I will
get going and let you know how it goes.
Family and
friends
Mostly good
things going on in the family and friends department. My parents had a really
nice holiday early October. All our friends’ kids are either doing great in
school, sports or just growing up and there’s no health or medical issues, so
lots to be grateful for. Some are changing jobs, some probably should and
others are just happy where they are 😊. Yumi’s best friend Hester is almost done with her 18-month MBA
studies (besides being a mom of 2, having their house renovated and having a
stupidly busy job), which is a truly amazing achievement. My friend Alex is
starting a new job next year in the rail and train business, which is great
because his old one just didn’t work for him. Another friend is rebuilding part
of her house and those pictures look like one of those tv renovation shows,
wow! Other friends just sold their house and bought a new one, while starting
new jobs and all that. The Amsterdam mob are also doing just fine with all
sorts of projects and activities and Yumi’s parents are stable and steady as
always. My parents are doing okay. My dad got great news on his leg, the bones
have basically completely regrown and connected in all the right places after
just 7 months, which is quite the achievement for a 64-year old. I am not a
great believer in acupuncture and all that, but he was having really bad nerve
pain from the break and now he is doing much better so we’re all very happy
that it works for him. Unfortunately, he also developed shingles and it’s a
pretty bad case according to the doctor but somehow my dad manages to stay
positive through it all.
Short mentions
· - Yumi’s been
crazy busy at work, but she seems to enjoy herself so I just help where I can
and get out of the way for the rest of it.a
- I’ve joined
the Change Management Institute Committee again, felt that I had left too soon
and am looking to organise a conference end of next year, that should be fun!
- Still not
getting this Xmas in summer thing, maybe next year.
- I got my ears
cleaned, had to use eardrops for a week and was nearly deaf for 3 days, that
was so weird! But now I’ve got full stereo once more and leaning forward doesn’t
hurt my neck anymore and makes me less red in the face, funny thing that.
-Thank you for
the birthday card, our Xmas card is on the way 😊
-Can’t believe
it’s almost 2 years since we said goodbye in person, I should really visit the
ACT soon.
-Just a few
more months and we’ll be living in Australia for 4 years, which means that I
can apply for citizenship. Doing that means I’ll have to give up my Dutch citizenship
because the Dutch law has changed and dual citizenship is no longer and option.
Not sure if I mind that too much, I’ve always felt more connected to Rotterdam
anyway, but I have to think about it a bit more
Have a lovely and
drama-free Christmas with the family and a healthy, sunny and prosperous 2018
Gilbert
