Letters to Marlis Sept-Oct 2018

Hi Marlis,

A little bit later than usual, but I had to sort some stuff out and wasn’t in a good place to sit and write for a while, but it’s about time I update you on our adventures for the past 2 months. I hope you’re doing well in the beautiful state of the ACT now that the bush fires have calmed down a bit. I know they weren’t THAT close to your house, but still…Okay, hold on, here we go!

NT trip

We finally got to tick this off our list, visiting all the states and their capitals! Of course, there’s still so much more to be seen and do, but still a nice achievement, especially as some Australians tell us they never really leave their home state. Wow. On the second day of 45 degree temperatures we already decided that we’ll not be living here if we can help it. And to think this was the dry hot season, the wet warm season must be a whole different (unpleasant) experience! I’ll not make this into a day-by-day description, just touching on the highlights in no particular order.

·       Darwin

It’s a good enough city to stay for a few days but really not much to look at, despite the very talented, cool and tall (some as high as 15 meters) wall paintings and tropical trees. I took a few early morning walks and went around the city in less than 90 minutes. Without litter picking, haha, I did not bring my gripper. That being said, it’s nice enough for a few days, there’s good restaurants and the people are friendly. It also has the beach nearby, people live outside at night and with 35 degrees at 9.30pm, I can see why. We stayed for 1 night at the start and 2 nights at the end and then we had a hotel room on the 21^st floor with eagles sailing the air currents right in front of our window and the whole city laid out beneath us in the burning sun, pretty good to eat ice cream to in a balmy 22 degree airconned room. 😊 We did all the tours, took a few city walks, visited a food festival (Yumi’s idea of course), finally bought some authentic indigenous art in the last hour before going to the airport and had a good time at the Royal Flying Doctors museum. I think we’ve seen everything there is to see, we’ll be back in 10 years. Maybe.

·       Boat tours

We made two boat tours. The first one became a private event, as we were at the end of the season and another couple had cancelled, fine by us. The guide took his time and we learned a lot about the native plants, wildlife and even saw a few crocodiles (not the biggest, but still). There was also a very funny bird (Jesus bird) that had the biggest feet-to-body ratio in the world. Its feet are so big and its body so light it can literally walk on water (for a period of time). The next boat tour was a much bigger group and we saw so many crocs that after a while you start looking for other things, like snakes, buffalos, feral pigs, all kinds of birds and the landscape is so green you wouldn’t believe it’s Australia. And so very warm. 32 degrees at 8 in the morning, pfff.

·       Kakadu

Lots of trees and rocks and termite mounds, that’s Kakadu. The rock art at the historic sites was nothing short of spectacular and at one place we got to do a bit of rock climbing to have a spectacular view of the surrounding grass lands. Nothing to taxing, mind you, a busload of 70-year-old Americans also made the trip up and down😊. It’s easy to imagine how the indigenous people would consider these places sacred and holy. Some of the caves and shelters were underneath massive rock overhangs, completely covered in rock art and you don’t need a big imagination to see how they would have lived there. It was also interesting to learn that what they considered ‘bad places’ because people died after being there for a while, were actually just lead deposits in the water and ground. But let’s not let the science get in the way of a good spirit story! We slept in a bush bungalow while we stayed in the park. Not a fan. 45 degrees during the day, 30 at night, see through walls and the smells of the BBQ next door on everything and we paid a fortune for it. The restaurant was surprisingly good though.

·       Lichtfield National Park

We got to do a fair bit of driving in just that week (about 1,500km) and a lot of it was in Lichtfield NP. Yumi’s always really good at finding random little places that have few people and lots of natural beauty, I just do the driving. We saw a lot of lakes, waterfalls, wildlife, more termite mounds and some very cool road trains. The longest I saw was 4 trailers, full of fuel, another tick on the things to spot in the wild!

·       Batchelor

We spent one night in Batchelor, population 300, but they did have a blue miniature (4 meter high) European castle that some random guy had built when he retired in the 90’s. These weird things always make me laugh. The main attraction though was the butterfly farm. Didn’t care much for the butterflies anymore when I found out they had PIGS! And 30 piglets! I think I visited about 6 times in 8 hours, they are so cute, be it a bit smelly (think: 40 pigs, poop and lots of sun…). They also had goats, geese, chickens, rabbits, a few snakes and a young croc. Not all in the same pen of course, but I am sure it’s the most fun you can have in that place.

·       Katherine Gorge

Yumi and Gilbert in one canoe, true test of the marriage vows and my 40^th birthday, haha. No, it was actually pretty good once we agreed that I would do the paddling and Yumi would just look around. We had to get up early, but with the 90-minute time difference it felt like normal time for us anyway and then we were brought to the gorge system and the canoe pick up spot by boat. We were first in the water so had almost no traffic from people also figuring out how to do this. Some were clearly experienced and sped off into the distance, giving us large parts of the gorge to ourselves. We’d packed food and water (a lot) and really enjoyed the experience of just paddling from spot to spot, get out, look around, get back in and continue. We even made a stop to swim a bit, which is a bit exciting as you know there are many, many crocodiles (fresh water and not dangerous) in there with you 😊.

A week was enough for the Darwin region, but we realise that we’ve really only seen a small part of the NT and we’ll still have to go to the Alice and Uluru, but somehow the appeal of looking at a really big rock in a very empty landscape doesn’t make us run to the travel agency just yet.

SES

I’ve been very busy with the people in Orange. We’ve had a few community events with lots of kids and we brought a miniature truck with lights and sirens and the kids could not get enough of it. The team and I were a bit over it after 6 hours on day 2, but it’s great to just engage with the community and give something back for all the support we get. I continue to make small changes to how the Unit operates as well. For the first time in 9 years they now have a budget and what do you know? We have more money than we thought because no one simply took the time to figure out what our running cost were. Well, not on my watch! I also got keys to the Unit, which is pretty cool because now I can come and go as I please instead of doing the books while I could be training and everyone wants to use the same computers. I’ve had such trouble getting the financial year closed off, but it’s all sorted now. Next year we’ll be done mid-July instead of just last week! A few other members also want to make some changes so we’re slowly getting things together, making investments and structuring things a bit more.

As far as jobs go, it’s been pretty quiet. We had a few windy days and when the rain came down for real last week there were some floodings but nothing too exciting. In a whole different category was a call-out about a month ago which was my first ‘event involving a motor vehicle and casualty’. On an early Monday morning, a pedestrian had for some reason crossed the highway, was hit by a car and then swept under a truck. He did not survive and we were called in to provide support in shielding of the area from press and curious people. Fortunately, most of the body was under the truck and we didn’t get to see too much. I was very proud of the team and myself for handling things very professional (we even impressed the police). We put up plastic sheeting, supported the crime scene people and stood around for about 3 hours in the middle of the completely closed off M1 (busiest road in Melbourne). It was a very educational experience to see how it all works and it felt good that you can at least provide some final dignity to what used to be a person. Afterwards we got really good support from SES and our own Unit, but all in all I think it didn’t make too much impact. Yes, we did see the body and some of the parts, but it’s easier than you might think to just block it out and not look at it. I always wondered how people could make jokes and discuss things like what’s for dinner tonight at such scenes, now I know. All things considered, it’s just a job at the end of the day and you didn’t know that person, so no need to get all dramatic.

New neighbour

The weirdest thing happened last week. I picked Yumi up from work after having been travelling around town for most of the day and we had to wait for the train at North Melbourne Station. At some point I look to my left and there’s a lady who has the same bag as I do and happened to be Amanda Boyd, my team mate from when I was working for the Victorian Government. We literally shared a desk (she had 75%) and got along really well. Turns out she’s also moved back to Altona and lives less than 100 meters down the road since 2 weeks. It’s a small world indeed.

Yumi’s job developments

Things have finally calmed down for Yumi after a crazy 12 months with all her projects. Work is calm now, but now the organisation is in a bit of a state with the new CEO coming in and making some very necessary changes. Yumi has been working really hard fr the past 2 years to get a concept off the ground, trying to be a team player and keeping everyone on board, but from where I am standing it’s really just every woman and man for themselves at the moment. We’ve had a few of spirited conversations (not too proud of my behaviour in some…) but as always, we find a way forward and I care more about her and the great things she does than about being right, even if I sometimes forget that. This weekend she came to the realisation that she really needs to forge her own path and stop waiting for everyone else to get with the program. I am quite conflicted about it. I want her to start her own business as I am sure she’ll be so very good at it, but she keeps giving them chance after chance to mess her about. From my business advisory and change experience I know exactly where the organisation will be in 3-6-9-12 months from now, it’s super easy to predict because the process is always the same and organisations do not change that fast. But Yumi being Yumi she needs to do it in her own way, so we’ll see how that goes and I am sure she’ll make it work somehow and still enjoy it. But even if she finally decides that this is no longer how she wants to make a difference, that will be equally good. So, either way, she’ll come out ahead, just in a very different situation 😊.

Parents house

My parents have moved into their new house, but it was not without its difficulties. Part of that is them getting used to being renters when they’d been home owners for the past 30 years, but a large part is also that the rental organisation seems a bit confused and disorganised. Just as one example, they thought it would be okay to not have a kitchen for 5 weeks. Seems like a fairly basic and essential requirement if you ask me, haha. A few friends of mine and theirs helped them move and I think that despite the adjustments and difficulties they are enjoying themselves. They style of the house is very similar to the house Yumi and I live din when we live din that neighbourhood and we had a very good time. I think they’ll need a few more months to really settle down and process some of the events of the past few years but at least they’ve no longer got that really big house to worry about and care for. Their new furniture, permanent kitchen (they got a temporary solution now) and rest of their belongings will find its way into the house and then we hope they’ll really start to feel at home again and can leave all the drama behind them. My dad’s health has not been great with his leg acting up, his shingles slowly receding and a floating hernia that gives him a lot of grief. Sometimes it feels like they just can’t catch a break, but they stay mostly positive through it all, true legends that they are!

Litter picking

I am still out and about with my trusty litter gripper. I have upgraded to a $40 aluminium sturdier one and it’s not too bad, a bit heavier than my $3 ones, but it also allow me to lift heavier things and it doesn’t break as easily. I am up to bag 362 by now (just did the count Saturday) and have about 4 weeks until the end of the year so I am pretty sure I will be able to get my 12-month 400 bags/1,000kg of litter target. I’ve got a few areas around town in my sights that will take a whole day to clean up and I think I’ll bag it all up and then use an app on my phone to get the council to come and pick it up. Yumi’s not too crazy about one of those areas as it’s close to the highway, but the strip of grass is about 8 meters wide, there’s a bike track and another 2 meters between me and the road. I’ll wear my high-viz vest, should be fine. I’ve learned more about litter still over the past few weeks and put in two proposals for a more coordinated approach in an initiative from our council, we’ll see how it goes. There is also an opportunity to lead a local chapter of street clean-up volunteers once a month, but that sounds too structured. Then I’d have to show up on a fixed weekend day, lead the group and somehow that seems more trouble than spending 30 hours a month picking up after people, haha. Two weekends back I took a left where I normally take a right and wandered into an area that was clearly a dumping ground. I think there was about 30 cubic meters of trash and building materials strewn across a 100-meter creek bed. Who does that?! I informed the council, who are generally very good following up on the reports (that SnapSendSolve phone app is so my favourite!!) but I can understand if they keep this one on the back burner for a while ☹.

Goat people adventures

I’ve been quite busy helping out the Noble Endeavours people preparing for their growth plans in the Philippines. It’s all a bit confusing at this stage. I feel they are figuring it out as they go, which is fine for them of course. They’ve been going it alone for so long that they can’t move any faster than they can. As always I can see the potential and want to help but it often feels that they’ll listen and then still do their own thing in their own way. That generally doesn’t work very well for very long with me, but so far, I’ve learned a lot about fundraising, goats, social entrepreneurship and got a lot of validation of my ideas. They’re currently running a fundraiser trying to raise $20,000. I’ve activated my network of friends, family and work friends and I am very pleasantly surprised (and grateful) with their generosity. That $20,000 will buy 200 goats and these ladies will produce the milk that makes the gelato. The sales from that ice cream will send 200 kids to school and raise whole families and communities out of poverty. Last Thursday they made a pitch to a group of investors and got $75,000 for their efforts to invest in machinery, a commissary and more tools. Pretty cool. I am not sure where things will go for me with this. I created a communication, social media and marketing plan for them to think about. I feel they are struggling to think bigger than themselves as every conversation is how they would struggle to do it all themselves. Mind you, if this takes off (and why wouldn’t it, it’s a unique product in a market with no competition), you’ll be looking at 50-80 farms and not 8 and 1,000 goats instead of 200. That’s a $10 million operation. They know they need to grow and change, but that’s hard to do, even if things are great. I’ll get to practice my patience skills a bit I guess😊.

Volunteer things

I’ve been doing some extra food runs for the Salvation Army as their regular pick up person was unavailable. It’s a good experience every time. People are very friendly and really appreciative as well. I’ll have to change my approach though. One of the pickups is really close to our house, but then it takes me 90 minutes to get into the city. Perhaps I’ll do a 10’o clock pick up instead. Last week I had a car full of fruit, vegetables, yoghurt and some seriously big water melons. Food rescue at its best. On that mention, I also visited with FareShare two weeks back. This is a social enterprise that is almost completely volunteer operated. They ‘rescue’ food that is 2-3 days before expiry from the big supermarkets and industry, then get some more donations from the public and only have to buy about 1-3 % of what they use in their 10,000 meals a day. These meals go to…The Salvation Army and other outreach programs who feed the homeless and poor. I love it when things come full circle. The FareShare team have recently opened a Brisbane kitchen and for both their kitchens they have 900 volunteers, with 1,500 waiting to get involved, wow. That always makes me feel like I have nothing to add, but I am sure there’s something for me to help with for a little while later. Yumi and I have also taken up the role of data recorder for the BeachPatrol Altona volunteering we do. Did you See Harry and Meghan on the beach a few weeks back? That was with the Beach patrol founders 😊, they’ll get some good promotion value out of that moment for sure.

Small things

·       New career options: still thinking about what I will do next and not making a lot of progress. There’s maybe a new short project to create a document for Yumi’s employer that will bring in some nice money and do something worthwhile. Not that we really need it, but it will pay for the next holiday!

·       Hairdresser: I really need to find a different hairdresser. I hear people travel 30km to just get a haircut and maybe this was the one thing good about Brunswick, my hairdresser. I have a very unexciting haircut (you’ve seen it 😊), but ever since we moved, it just doesn’t feel right. Me and my first world problems, haha.

·       Stolen plants: will you believe that someone actually stole plants from our front yard. Well, joke’s on them as we’re renting, but really, who does that?!

·       1 year in Altona: next week we’ll be living here for a full year and I still love it so much better than silly Brunswick. We were there last week to have dinner with a friend from the ACT who now lives in the Netherlands again, but that’s really all it has going for it, a few good restaurants and my hairdresser😊. We’ll stay in Altona a bit longer we reckon, until the next big adventure comes along, but for now, loving the beach, the SES are a good bunch, the many nature reserves, Melbourne is just close enough and people still greet each other in the streets.

I think that’s me done with the highlights. Reading it back and knowing that I didn’t even mention some stuff, it’s been a pretty busy two months. Let’s see what the next two bring. I’ll write again early January, if we don’t get eaten by great white sharks when we go cage-diving in 4 weeks. (don’t worry, it’s 99.9%safe!).

Have a nice day

Gilbert

Letter to Marlis Jun-Jul-Aug 2018 (I visited in between)

Hi Marlis,

Spring is finally here again and we’re looking to get our very first 24 degree day on Tuesday, good times indeed. 😊 Lots of things have happened over the past 2-3 months, so here we go!

Happy birthday!!

I hope this letter still arrives on time for your 48^th birthday (84, 24, who really knows, right?! 😊). I thought to put in this gift card, I am sure you’ll find a good use for it. I hope you have many healthy and joyful years ahead of you. Upwards and onwards to 100!

Litter Picking

This litter picking hobby of mine is getting a bit more serious every day. From January to end of July this year, I picked up about 100 collecting bags (about 250kgs), took pictures and made a big collage, wrote a piece for my professional network and merrily started on bag 101. Over the month of August, I picked up another 50+ (!) bags and the way this is going, I’ll reach the next 100 by the end of September. I am really starting to see a difference, but at the same time I realise that I can only do as much as one very energised and motivated person can do. I’ve also found that littering has many different causes, it’s not just smokers, fast food eaters and people with not enough braincells. It’s also bins not closing properly, wind gusts, overstuffed bins, leaflets and many, many, many tissues. I’ve written to the council and might even start an Altona chapter of Love Our Streets (not the greatest name, but the cause is okay). That’s like the Beach Patrol people, but not on the beach. I’ll have to see how that evolves but can totally see myself and Yumi do it. It’s not very costly, just re-use plastic bags or buy a roll of biodegradable ones, maybe a litter grabber for a few dollars and off you go! I’ve found some pretty weird things, lots of clothing items, some questionable DVDs, a phone, keys, money (no suitcase unfortunately, just coins 😊) but most of it is really cans, cups, bottles, plastic bags, wrappers and like I said, lots and lots of tissues. It’s nice to do something for the environment while I am out there walking anyway, and it’s great to be outside now that winter is over. I even got a response back from someone on social media saying that her friend in Canada was also planning to start picking litter with her walking group, renamed to Waste Warrior Walkers, haha. This weekend Yumi and I will take part in Spring Clean the City, about 300+ litter pickers making Melbourne that much cleaner, should be fun. I’ve learned so much about litter and the various initiatives that I’ve now written to the council to see if I can help them with their new Litter and Waste Management plan. When I walk around I got an app on my phone that allows me to send pictures of really big issues I find for the council then to follow up on. So I got a call last week and they thanked me for my effort of finding 200-300 dumped plastics pots in a nature reserve but they’ll wait a few months because it’s crawling with tiger snakes at the moment, yikes!! I’ll not walk there for a bit then 😊.

ACT visits

I so love coming back to the ACT. Not just because I got to visit you, even though that was very cool and welcome, it’s also because it’s familiar and Yumi and I had such good times there. I think it will always have a place in my heart. And everything is close, the air smells cleaner and there is virtually no traffic. I was there last week for 3 days, but this was really just work, work, work, with a few after work drinks and on Wednesday I got to entertain myself by going to the cinema and exploring the new and improved Canberra Centre. They really did do a good job in sprucing it up a bit. It’s much nicer than many of the Melbourne ones we have and I am always amazed by how big it is for such a small place. I also drove or walked by some of the places I used to visit frequently and even managed to get a Dobinson’s chocolate chip cookie, which was an unexpected bonus! Yumi and I will be back again next week, just working, working, working again and maybe visit some Dutch friends who just had their second baby boy. And we might go to eat at our favourite Indian restaurant. I mean, as long as we’re there and it will probably be my last trip to the ACT for a while, let’s make the most of it!  

SES

I’ve now taken on the financial role and apparently this means I part of the management team. We’ll see about that, because I really don’t like that idea. It gets in the way of me doing fun stuff, so I’ll see how I can get away from that! I did manage to get them into the 21st century with internet banking. Will you believe that we were still handing out cheques to our members for their expenses, how 1924…The books are all up to date now and we’ve got some better processes moving forward. I am also planning to make our team aware of how much money we actually have, no one seems to know really. I also went on my very first police assistance search in the area. I’ll spare you the details of the crime (a murder), but we were looking for knives, clothes and a bicycle, so obviously the Dutch guy needed to be there, with my bike spotting skills. Well, we found 2 stolen license plates, lots of litter and absolutely nothing else. And still we had fun and it’s a good thing to do, the police detective was also very appreciative, especially because it rained for most part. This weekend I volunteered at a community engagement thing at Bunnings, which was mostly just chatting to people and hanging around near our boat, trying to entertain kids. The weather was nice and we got some donations, so not too bad a way to spend a Saturday. A week or two ago I also got to pick up our lighting trailer, which is always popular with other emergency services because when you turn on its 10,000 volts of lights, it’s literally like you are working in daylight. I just had to pick it up after it got some work done, but it was my first time driving with a trailer in a long time (you need a license for that in the Netherlands). I am sure you saw the big fire near Altona/Melbourne on the news, another one of my SES mates actually dropped off the trailer there, the pictures looked like a war zone. Happy I did not have to go there with goodness knows what still floating around in the air…

Parents’ house

As mentioned when I visited last time, my parents have managed to sell the house and are now living in a holiday home for 6 weeks until they move into their rental place. The past few months have been full of change for them once more. Having to throw out a lot of stuff they would not be able to fit in the new house and stuff from even my childhood (get rid of it, haven’t missed it), thinking about selling the old and buying new furniture and packing up all the boxes, it was a big job and while they are not quite ‘old’ it’s no walk in the park. Fortunately, a few of my very good friends were willing to help them move most of the stuff into storage and will help them again on 12 October when they move into the rental place. One of those times when friends really are better than family 😊.

Motorcycle license and car accident

Now that I have time and money on my hands, I am once again thinking of getting my motorcycle license. I don’t have to explain the appeal to you, just wished I had done it earlier so we could talk motorcycles too! I’ll do the theory and test first in the next few weeks, just to see if I have the personality for it. I can’t see myself owning a motorcycle just yet, but maybe I’ll do the tests first and see how I go. I am equal parts excited and scared. Excited to try new things, scared because I don’t want to fall or get into an accident, but apparently the statistics tell me that this is unlikely. However, when you do get into an accident, it’s better to be in a car I reckon. On that topic, I got rear-ended last Friday! Not my fault, but still felt bad for the other guy as he had just had his car out of the shop for 3 days after he got rear-ended himself! We were very friendly and polite about it and it wasn’t a big bang (no airbags were hurt during this accident 😊) and it gives us an opportunity to get a small scrape and the other mirror repainted. We lost the right mirror cover a while back in a super market parking lot and got a new one, but it costs like $90 and doesn’t even come in the right colour. Anyhow, I get to pick it up from the shop on Thursday after dropping it off today. It will look like new-ish, I hope 😊 

CMI

My volunteering for the Change Management Institute is drawing to a close by the end of this month and while I am happy it will be over, I do recognise that I’ve made many friends and got access to things that might otherwise not have happened. At the same time, there’s always this amount of drama and clashes of personalities caused by miscommunication that I found too hard to deal with after a while. People are very appreciative of the things I made happen, but I want to see ACTION and people getting involved and while I have not completely fulfilled my promise of a full year (I did 9 months), they all seem to agree that I did the work of 2 years in those 9 months, so I guess everyone wins and they get to have a great leader in my friend Anna, who will be so much better at dealing with all the stupid posturing than I will ever be. Again, no patience for that 😊.

NDS work

I’ve had great fun touring the regional parts of Victoria in early August with the National Disabilities Services crew. It’s not every day I get to go to Sale, Shepparton or Mildura and talk to people about change and how they can do better. These were all board members and executives, so you’d think they got this all sorted and done right? Well, not quite as it turns out. I hope they got something out of it. There’s always a few people who tell me afterwards they found it very helpful and I guess that’s enough for me, but I hope I inspire them to take action too. Either way, I learned a lot, got to positively change my mind about the big NDIA Government agency running the NDIS scheme (lots of hate from participants and I will admit I am also not a fan of how they are doing things). And then there’s Yumi’s boss and colleagues I got to work with and they are all just such lovely and hardworking people. I just love how I get paid to travel, see the country and do some good. It’s almost enough to keep me in the change job, almost.

Failed projects

It really stinks when I have to admit defeat, especially when it happens twice in a few weeks, but sometimes I just can’t seem to make my ideas work. I had this idea to collect Australian Success stories and share them with the community. Did my research, asked 25 friends in Change and they all thought it was a great idea, set myself some goals and then it took me 8 months to get 3 stories and 2 promises of a story. I think in the end I might even have ended up causing people to feel bad for not getting involved, not at all what I intended. So, I shut down the Small Poppy Project last month and decided that even if I did not succeed, I had a few really good conversations and learned a lot more about how these sort of things work. Another idea I had and carried around so long even I lost the plot was to make a toolkit for my fellow Rebels. There are heaps of books written on corporate rebellion, some so good that they hardly need my help with anything else. I thought I would make a simple overview of about 15-20 things to do and act upon, but in the end it just became too hard and my passion for Change Management is all but gone so I did not have enough in the tank to keep me going. What really ended it was a great book I finished this week, about tempered radicals (a different name for Rebels). It made a lot of sense and had a lot of good examples. Guess when it was written? First edition…2001. So here I was, thinking I was doing something new and exciting, not only was it already done, but it was done 15+ years ago! I did find out that I am really not that tempered, but it must make a lot of people feel good that even small acts of defiance can have big consequences if you keep at it long enough. Yep, that would work for me if I had more patience. Which I don’t. Oh well, moving on!

Social volunteering

A while back I posted that article on social media about my litter picking 100 bags project. Out of the blue someone from NSW contacted me and we got talking about his business with a purpose, focused on something else than money. Justin runs a travel agency and a business that changes how companies purchase their materials and he thought that I might be interested to learn more about a project his friends (Ian and Ian) runs in the city of Mindanao in the Philippines. They are both Australians, but have a long history with the country that I won’t bore you with. Long story short, they’ve been building a business (Noble Endeavours) on goat’s milk. Yes, that’s right, goat’s milk. Yuck. And it’s been so successful they want to expand, need some help and I think I’ll give it a go. I am flying up to Port Macquarie in two weeks from now and if it all feels right and I can see a role for myself, I’ll join one of the Ian’s in November when he goes there for all sorts of business meetings. I’ll probably end up being the doer of many things, but this is a business idea I can get behind and maybe even insert some of my own values in. It will make whole communities prosper and hopefully be scalable across the region and country at some point. I think it’s funny and ironic that the son of a milkman, who hates milk, is now again involved in a milk business. But this time we’re making ice cream!! Which I happen to love! There’s another part to the business, called Ethical Harvest, which is fully for profit and all about finding products that the market wants and then create crops that are better than anything they’ve seen before. Did I ever mention I hate gardening?!   I am sure they can find a blind, deaf and disabled person who will be better at it than I would be, so my organisational, promotional and logistics skills are probably more what they’d be interested in. Right now, I am just taking it one step at a time, but it’s funny how when I said I am going to quit Change, something else found me through my weird litter picking hobby. 😊

Holiday plans

It’s looking like we’ll have little time to work in the next year or so. Going to the NT in October for my birthday, then it’s Philippines in November to check out the goats and the crops, Airlie Beach and Whitsunday’s for some much-needed diving in December, New Zealand in February when Yumi turns 20 for the second time and Canada in July when our friends Hester and Aschwin get married. I simply won’t have time to work, I need to plan all these trips! I look forward to all of them. The NT is going to be great because it will have nature and starry skies and jungle and crocodiles and big kangaroos and lots of empty nothing. Don’t know what to expect of the Philippines, but it will be an adventure. Airlie Beach is a return visit, we were there in 2010, but so was Cyclone Ului, we decided to stay on shore and not die. No regrets, haha. But now we’re going back and do a 3-day live-aboard and maybe some extra dives at ridiculous prices to see new fish and other marine life. I might do some litter picking… New Zealand will be super awesome too, we’ve not yet decided if we’ll go one or both of the islands, but either way we’ll see nice things. I know a few people there, might stop by to say hi too. Canada will be a whole new level of adventure. I wanted to spend a few days there and then drift down into the USA along the West Coast, but Yumi convinced me that we should really stay in the area and see the sights and national parks. When I say convince, I mean she showed me one picture with lots of cool stuff and I was like: “Okay, we can do California and Nevada next time 😊”.

Yumi’s job

Yumi’s work is still crazy busy. Just take the last month. She’s been to Bundaberg, Brisbane, Hobart, Sydney and the ACT (x3) and that’s not counting the Victorian work trips. I am immensely proud of what she’s doing and accomplishing, but at the same time I am worried that she doesn’t seem to be able to switch off anymore. I think she’s not had a real day off (without work) for the past 6-9 months. Then again, I can hardly complain as I used to be the same, but I also know how tiring it can be and she (nor anyone else that I know) simply doesn’t have the energy levels I have, so most nights she falls asleep on the sofa until it’s work again the next day. I am really hoping that once the ACT project is off her back, she’ll have more time to just calm down a bit and use that big brain of hers to work smarter and not harder, but I am thinking it will stay the same or get worse. I know where that leads and it’s frustrating to be as smart as I am and not be able to find the words to convince her (one of the few downsides of marrying a very smart woman) to take it slow. Time will tell, I hope the NT holiday can be a bit of a break and reset.

Small stuff

·       I haven’t spent as much time reading as I normally would, but I am very excited about a book I just started and plan to spend the rest of the week with. It’s by this guy I wrote about earlier, Yuval Harari, who also wrote Sapiens and Homo Deus, his latest book, 21 lessons came out this week and I’ll surely tell you more about next time. I’ve also got some books on social entrepreneuring I want to get into, should prove useful if and when I become a goat farmer.

·       Exercising wasn’t a top priority the past few months, but now I’ve gotten a bit more serious and the weights don’t feel so heavy anymore and I bought one of those things that let you turn your bike into a home trainer. I watch TV while ‘cycling’, once the weather improves I’ll probably hit the road again, for now, the garage and tv is just fine.

·       I did my 20^th blood donation today and it looks like my blood pressure is slightly creeping upwards. Another signal I need to get a bit more active and serious about my diet and salt intake I reckon. Nothing alarming just yet, but I used to be super stable at 140 over 80, it’s now 150 over 90. Let’s not let that get to 160 over 100!

·       I am about to start a new volunteer role for Big Brother Big Sister, which seems like a worthwhile thing to do... It’s all over the Internet, where I talk to a young person aged 8-17 in a closed off ‘chat room’ for one hour a week to just chat and see how their week has been and what’s keeping them busy. Like with you, but without the living room and cake 😊

Well, that’s most of me done for now, I hope you have a lovely birthday and you’ll hear from me in November again.

Be well and stay safe, Gilbert

Letter to Marlis April-May 2018

Hi Marlis,

Another 2 months down, time to share the best parts of it once more. I hope you are well and healthy as winter is about to come knocking on the door. I saw that there were already some cold nights out in the ACT. Melbournians are hilarious, one night of 3 degrees and a mild panic envelops the city…J

Work

I am back AGAIN with Deakin University (6^th project…), but this time in the Records Management Department, helping deliver a project that is supposed to make people more aware of good practices so we stop breaking the law when it comes to data management. Most people would find it boring, so of course I wanted to do it and we have some pretty cool videos and documents now. It’s still as boring a topic as watching paint dry, but I’ve also learned that there’s some real benefits, that I will not bore you with J. The project itself is very challenging, in a non-fun way, with very limited resources and extremely high expectations and scrutiny. I am working with a very talented guy, but there’s only so much he can do, so we’re working well together on making the organisation very uncomfortable. I think his boss and the big boss-lady are really frustrated with my lack of willingness to just say yes to their range of platitudes and ‘just make it work’ statements, but as long as they don’t tell me to go away, I’ll keep showing up and make sure they’ll have some semblance of success. Sjeesh, for smart people, they do some pretty dumb things... I liked that 3 day a week job well enough, but then another team mentioned that they could use my help and now I am also helping out with a project that is very simple, but got really complicated with the help of a change manager who I thought was pretty good at first, but she really stuffed this up. It’s just the closing down of two video software programs for recording classroom lectures and the release of a new video tool. Out with the old, in with the new, 6 months, no sweat. Well, lots of sweat apparently! I’ve spent my first two days on it now and have already said that we’re going to do things a bit differently from now on. As in, 95% of the weird planned things, we’re not doing that anymore. They had said yes to 150 hours of change management… Any team that needs that much change, is better of being let go and starting anew. Anyway, I am now 5 days a week there and by end of July, I will have done good things, and put aside enough to not have to work the rest of the year J. I’ve also picked up some work with the National Disability Services people (Yumi’s work) once again and will get to do some workshops for their 2019 strategy and then I am also going to regional Victoria In early August (Sale, Shepparton and Mildura), which is a whole different kind of fun. I never thought about what it would be like to have 4 different projects going on at the same time, thinking I’d never have that experience. Well, so far, so good!

Yumi’s big trip

Yumi is currently traveling in the Netherlands until Friday 15 June. She’s going there for a training in a particular work thing that doesn’t exist (yet) in Australia. She’s left last Tuesday and will be back next week Sunday, but the training is only 3 days, so the rest of the time she’s visiting family and friends. It was on and off for such a long time that I lost all interest and accepted a new assignment and then it was on again and too late for me to get involved. In all fairness, I don’t miss the Netherlands that much and speak to or see (on the computer) most people quite regularly anyway. She’s having a good time so far, visiting her parents, the Amsterdam crowd, my parents and sister with kids and then some friends. She’s also getting her new passport. Last time she had to travel to Bangkok to get it, this seemed a more cost effective way, haha. And as far as souvenirs go…an egg slicer, some liquorice, markers (very specific brand), toothpaste and some clothing. Living the high life of luxury now as you can probably tell. I work from early to late, or I am volunteering, so this week has flown by and next week will be no different for sure. I always miss her as soon as she’s out the door, but as long as I keep busy, it’s not too bad and I just count the days until I pick her up again. When she gets back it’s full on again with her work too. She’s making good progress with the consulting side of things and will be travelling to Brisbane with her stories and skills in a few weeks, making the sector better in so many ways. Very proud of her!!

My parents sold the house

It was all very exciting a few weeks back and now it’s finally happened, my parents managed to sell the house!!! At a reasonable price even! It was a typical deal only my dad could make, but after a few days of negotiating, they both got what they wanted and now it’s clean up and move time. It must be very strange for them to now have to consider a new place to live and maybe even renting after having been home owners for 30+ years. With everything that happened I think they are just really relieved that this burden has finally been lifted from their shoulders. They agreed to a 1 September delivery date, so there’s still some time to consider options and sort through all the stuff that they’ve held onto for so long and will now no longer have the space for, like some furniture and lots of things from me and my sister. Well, I didn’t miss it for 20 years, into the bin or to charity it goes. But apparently my mom is starting her own internet business online selling off all their unwanted items and I wouldn’t be surprised if she manages to get good deals too J.

Convergence conference and change management

Late April I finally had my moment in the sun to do my presentation on Fake Change and I think all in all people enjoyed it. I had pictured it very different and spent so much more time on it than I should. In the end I was just really happy it was over and done with. Slowly but steadily I am finding that I really like being the person in the background a lot more than everyone else seems to think, so I’ve started extracting myself from any of that spotlight stuff, it’s just not working for me. I did really enjoy seeing a lot of the change friends I’ve made over time all in one place, they are a fun and friendly bunch and it made me realise I have made some real friends all across Australia. I am also continuing to find myself falling out of love with change management, or at least the current way of change being managed. Everyone is just so confused! We’re fighting each other on words and models, instead of doing what needs to be done. But instead of going through yet another existential crisis, maybe I’ll just reinvent myself again in a few months’ time and take Yumi’s advice. She thinks there’s a job for me in integrity and reputation management. Well, I do have lots of opinions on doing the right thing and do get a lot of positive comments on me being all about the truth of matters and honesty, so she’s probably not wrong J.

I want to complete one more thing, the Change Rebel Toolkit and then I’ll probably just shut things down, which will be an interesting experience I think.

Change Management Institute (CMI)

Despite my change of heart on change (sorry for the bad pun), I am enjoying the teamwork I am doing with the CMI in my state. The team has cleaned up a bit, with people not participating stepping away and 2 others really stepping up. We’ve done a few well-appreciated events on various topics now and have more ideas than we can realistically do, so we’re once again ‘hiring’ volunteers for our team. It’s not too hard to find people wanting to step up, but it’s often more work than they expected, even if we clearly state the requirements and then they sort of fade away. Oh well, I’ve had some really good opportunities and free tickets because of it and people mostly appreciate what we do. I’ll complete my year as promised, put a plan together for 2019 and then either step down or leave it all together. We’ll see J. Working with the national team is much less fun, lots of big words and ideas, but the same challenges. I’ve offered about 5-6 ideas now, still waiting for one to be picked up, which has completely put me off suggesting anything else, it’s simply not worth the effort of me writing up plans and such, to then not hear anything for months. I’ve had a bit of a falling out with the National lead as well, which almost made me resign, but I decided to be a grown-up for a change and concluded he was just a bit stressed and busy, but it did nothing for my enthusiasm and involvement. He says that he appreciated my feedback, but then when I really do provide my opinion and it went against what he wanted to do, he threw a bit of a fit. Okay, he gets to do that tooJ. I am just not going to keep criticizing and offer plans for improvement (that I will happily work on too), no point if we’re not on the same team trying to improve matters. Did I mention that I do the most work compared to everyone, by far? I choose to do that, so there’s no issue, but if I then find that we’re actually NOT working together, that just takes all the fun out. Too much drama! Moving on….

Litter picking fun

I am still enjoying the picking up of litter all around town. I must look like such a weirdo to some people, walking around with my plastic bags, all of a sudden ducking to the ground, into a shrub or onto the road. It’s a bit like a treasure hunt I guess. However, I am thinking that over the past 6 months, I’ve collected about 40-50 bags of junk, which is close to 100kgs of plastic, bottles of all kinds, lots of tennis balls, coconuts (no idea!), tin cans, flip flops, items of clothing and lots and lots and lots of tissues. I’ll admit I always feel a bit self-conscious, but perhaps that’s the point, it keeps you humble and once I throw it all in the bin, I do feel like I’ve accomplished something. Especially when I was not working and walking every day it makes walking around town a bit more meaningful and people do really appreciate it, so maybe I am inspiring a few more litter pickers around town too, who knows! I am planning to work with my video producing friend Peter to launch a video for the Beach Patrol team once spring and summer come around. I hope that a fun 2-minute video about what they can do to help (or not make matters worse) will make a positive contribution somehow. I’ll include a print of the poster once it’s done! Yumi and I are also still volunteering an hour a month with about 30-40 others to clean up the beach and surrounding areas, which always turns up about 40-60 kgs of muck, so by 2019 Altona is much cleaner and tidier J

SES

After about 4 months with the unit I am starting to feel like I fit in. I’ve taken on the cleaning up of the unit and mucking out 35 years of archiving. I am sure you’re seeing the pattern here, haha. Seriously, I found a manual on what to do in the case of a nuclear event…Not sure what’s going on this side of the bay, but I haven’t seen a lot of nuclear bombs lately…It is very rewarding to just throw all that old stuff out and once I started, other team members gleefully jumped in too! I was cleaning out the fridge and found ‘cheese’ that was fresh and well…in 2015. Soda that was ‘only’ 18 months past the due date and mustard that had somehow solidified... Wow! I’ve managed to get some archive boxes for free (another good part about working with the archives team at Deakin) and my next job is to sort all that stuff out. Our unit boss had to go away for a few weeks on med leave, so we took the opportunity to clean out his whole office, he loved it! Should have taken a before and after picture, but it’s safe to say that many files were dumped in the bin. I’ve also been out on a few jobs over the past 2 months. One was fun for the technical side, but it was in a yard where two dogs do their business and there was dog poo EVERYWHERE. Ugh, we could not get the smell out of our noses for hours. But I got to use the chainsaw and pole saw, so I wasn’t about to start complaining. We also did a state-wide exercise, which was sort of cool and weird at the same time. We mobilised for a simulated terrorist attack on the zoo (poor animals!) with 22 casualties and virtually no extra info. So we all mobilised, which took about 2 hours start to finish (because we knew it wasn’t real), so you end up with about 200 people in orange and 50-100 vehicles, going absolutely nowhere because there’s no emergency. It was impressive to see it all work together so well though. I guess that if something really does go pear shaped, at least we’re ready to go. In a few weeks from now I’ll take on the finance role for our unit too, just so I keep busy if there are no trees falling over J. It seems like an interesting job and would allow me to see what goes into managing the finances for a unit like ours. I am sure I’ll learn a few new tricks, even if it seems fairly straight forward.

Short notes

·       Living in Altona is still very enjoyable. It’s not quite the ACT, but close enough for it to not matter. The house is working out well, we recently had some friends over for dinner and we’ve got everything close enough to be comfortable. I really love being able to take a short walk and see the bay/ocean, it’s an instant thought calmer and never fails to calm my racing brain.

·       We’re planning to take a short holiday in October (the 9^th is my birthday and our 21 year togetherness anniversary) and do a bit of travel in January too, probably somewhere tropical with diving for the short break and then to New Zealand for the bigger break, good things to look forward too

·       On June 30^th we’ll be married for 11 years, I can sense a dinner date coming J!

·       I’ve joined a mentoring program where I share my experience and support with someone who can use some professional development support. I got matched with Julie from New Zealand and we get along quite well. I am ‘meeting’ her tomorrow over video link, where she’ll tell me all about her new job and how she’s been doing in the first 3 days.

·       Next week I’ll start getting involved with another volunteer thing, which is altogether different from change, litter or professional coaching, this is about helping a young person 8-18, probably a boy, with their social skills by spending about an hour a week chatting to them online. I actually signed up for a similar program as what we did when I visited with you, the difference being the age and circumstances, but that program only ran in Ballarat, which is about 100km away and not so practical J.

·       Friends and family are all well enough I guess. My friend Just is travelling all across Europe for his ICT job and now he’s even gone to Kenya, so very cool! He’s working with the ministry of foreign affairs and they have a software change he’s helping with. I always knew he was going places, but now he’s actually going places, hahaha.

Well, that’s me done once more. I hope you stay warm and safe during the cold months coming and look forward to catching up in a few months again to see where things are at by then.

Gilbert

Letter to Marlis Feb-Mar 2018

Hi Marlis,

Another 2 months gone by and that makes it almost exactly 2 years since we said our goodbyes. Facebook told me yesterday, so it must be true 😊! Just a few more weeks for the Anzac cold snap to settle over the ACT, so I hope you’re ready and warm for winter. Like almost every time I write, lots have happened, so I’ll dive straight into it.

Perth

Late February I travelled with Yumi to Perth, so we finally got to see the first part of beautiful Western Australia. And beautiful it was! We arrived early on Saturday and travelled to Margaret River in the southern part of the state and enjoyed the coastline, a really, really long pier and beautiful weather. Then on Sunday we drove back another way to Perth and just enjoyed the scenery. Yumi had to work and I did not, but as it happens I know a few people around town and they were very gracious hosts, inviting me to coffee and lunches so I ended up entertaining myself as much or even more than Yumi, who had to sit in meeting rooms and talk to people while I was out exploring the city in beautiful weather. I think I walked about 30 kilometres in 2 days, but it gave me a real feel for the city.

The weird thing was that the people I spoke to consider Perth small, almost like Canberra and not very attractive. Well, I can’t say I agree. There’s heaps happening, lots of  things being built and I would not consider a 2 million people city to resemble Canberra in any way. It actually feels like Adelaide, navigates like Brisbane, has Melbournian appeal and the proximity of the ACT. It’s a city of cities. Sydney does not come into it though, although the waterfront has some very nice architecture. I wouldn’t mind ending up there at some point, seeing the sun set in the ocean again. It was only when Yumi’s colleagues took us to diner to see a sunset that we realised that we actually never see it set in the sea. Apparently, we were not missing it too much. 😊 On the Wednesday I travelled solo up to the Pinnacle desert 200km north of Perth and I am not sure what caused it but it was a very emotional trip somehow. This is the Australia I wanted to see, that I had been looking for, finally found it after 4 years! The sky was so big, so wide and so blue, I could have driven on forever! The Pinnacle Desert was very much worth it, a very strange landscape of sand an 1-2 meter high pillars made of dead sea creature shells. Adding to the fun were the oblivious tourists just looking around at all that weirdness. The drive back and forth is not even that spectacular according to people who live there but it was to me. I just made it in time to pick up Yumi from her last meeting, kept stopping to take in more of the sights 😊.

After Yumi was done working we spent a day travelling to Rothnest Island which was very nice. We rented bikes and managed to get around the whole island in a few hours with some very steep hills, but our Dutch years of training kicked in and we zoomed up and down like nothing else. There’s so many beautiful bays that I stopped taking pictures at some point and just enjoyed the waves crashing and the blueness of the water in other places. We saw a few quokkas traipsing around and took selfies with them (it’s a thing on social media, never mind) and we even went snorkelling! The water was a bit chilly but still okay on the surface. On my very first exploratory swim I encountered a massive bull ray just cruising right underneath me, so very cool! That was the most exciting wild life in the water all day, but such good luck. Yumi missed it, waiting on shore to see if there were sharks trying to eat me 😊. Our last day was spent in Fremantle, just walking around a bit, finding a lot of Dutch heritage and some shipwrecks in a museum. I made the unfortunate decision to have a chat with one of the volunteers and he enjoyed his job so much that we stood there for 45 minutes (could have been 50) listening. Wow, that guy had some stories and more, and more, and more…At some point we managed to escape both him and the museum, both very lovely but there’s only so much you can know about ship wrecks!

Drawing

Since a few months I’ve been practicing my drawing skills to help facilitate some of the work that I do in change management, but I am mostly just really enjoying it. I never thought I would have so much fun with it, but I feel super creative, in my very own limited way. There’s no risk of my ever making my day job out of it, but I use it to draw my own images if an article that I am writing needs some clarification or if I cannot find the right image that I am looking for. I’ve got me very own sketchbooks, markers, crayons and whatnot to make it all happen, it’s like being back in kindy! I also write reviews of books I read and then try to capture the essence in one drawing, using words and images. Maybe when I get a bit more skilled I’ll send you a few examples, right now I am mostly practicing a lot! (and boy do I need it, hahaha.)

Walking + Litter picking

I’ve stopped cycling almost completely since we moved to Altona, maybe it’s one of those phases I sometimes go through but even though I miss it, it’s just not very appealing right now. Not that I had that many more options in Brunswick, but somehow, it’s not happening and my bike seems happy to take a break for a bit. Instead, I walk. A lot. Because I am not working I am now part of the group of pensioners and other random people you can see around Altona at all hours of the day. Just walking. Minding their own business. Nothing to see here 😊. We’ve joined a group called Beach Patrol and once a month we pick litter from the beach and surrounding streets and that’s now a new habit for when I go walking too. Not every day, but very often I just take two or three plastic bags with me and within the space of an hour collect all sorts of rubbish, just lying around. It’s rewarding and useful at the same time and I am walking there anyway, might as well make the most of it, right?! Aside from frequent plastic and glass bottles, cans and soooo many tissues, I find the strangest things varying from items of clothing and headphones to many pairs of thongs and shoes (often just one) to reels of garden hose and the occasional baby diaper being thrown out. I stay away from the dead animals and poop bags but it generally takes less than 30 minutes until my bags are full, averaging to 2-3 kilos for each. I take pictures and at the end of the year will make myself a nice collage to see how much junk I kept from getting into the water and environment. I always get positive feedback from other people and sometimes see other litter pickers walking around (we keep to ourselves 😊). It gives me a whole new appreciation for nature and also made me understand that the wind, birds and the way garbage is collected have to do with litter happening. It’s always worse on collection days as the technique of some drivers is not as perfect as others, sometimes spraying litter everywhere but they clearly don’t care, just keep driving. The part that I don’t get is the people who pick up their dog’s poo, wrap it in a bag and then toss that bag to the side or into the bushes. You might as well have left it where it was then, right?! Oh well, people never cease to amaze and amuse me.

Change Rebellion

Fed up with some of the truly evil practices in Change management I’ve started the Change Rebellion. A leaderless revolution based on a few simple and honest principles that anyone in change management should be able to follow. It’s been very popular and now I am working on a toolkit to help fellow rebels create some positive change and it’s proving quite the challenge, despite the fact that all of a sudden, I am seeing rebels, ninjas, disruptors and more of that stuff all over the place. The upside of that is that I don’t feel so alone and unique (the wrong and misunderstood kind) anymore, the downside is that there’s a real challenge to bring something new and attractive. At the same time, I will make it available for free, so I don’t have to worry about making money of it. It might just happen that once I am done with that, I am stepping away from the change profession all together. It’s all just so unexciting, everybody uses the same words, talks the same talk and at the end of the day, not a lot of people are doing anything really, just expressing their support for an idea. That’s great and nice of them, but hardly how we’ll make some real change happen. I am a bit confused, disappointed and drifting myself right now and you’d probably say that I shouldn’t rush things and think carefully, so that’s what I plan to do 😊. I’ve got the framework (and even made myself a t-shirt that says ‘join the change rebellion’, yep, it’s that serious 😊) and also set myself a time frame of four weeks to do my best work on the tool kit as there’s two conferences and a few meetings that might give me new ideas, inspiration and a bit of fire in my gut again, or so I hope.

Books I’ve been reading

In my quest to understand myself and the world around me to a degree that I can actually make sense of things, I’ve been reading like never before. As I often do, I get a bit obsessive, but the good kind of obsessive because I’ve learned so much and love the sense of excitement I get when starting a new book and finding new insights. To give you an idea:

• Switch, about how change is hard work (I agree!)
• Hit Refresh, about a different way of running business (yes, please)
• This will make you smarter (ehm, I guess)
• The denial of death (that was a toughie, written in the 70’s)
• What we should be worried about (now I have more worries 😊)
• Seeing what others don’t (about shifting perspectives)
• How are we to live, on philosophy for life (very smart)
• The art of thinking clearly, about how our minds work (brilliant)
• Originals (how to be comfortably unique, very good)
• Selfie, about how we became so self-obsessed as a species
• Business bullshit (well, the title says it all)
• Rebels at work, the inspiration for my change rebellion!
• Focus, the most unfocussed book about focus ever (still fun)

I left out the really boring business books I needed to read for research and ‘work’, but after about 15 books I’m starting to see all sorts of connections and slowly but steadily a picture is starting to emerge. It’s fuzzy and I have no idea if it’s an elephant or a toaster (a big one!) but I’ll get there. I read all my books on my e-book (like a tablet) now, so I always carry around about 250 of them. It’s more practical of course, but it still doesn’t feel the same as having a paper book in your hands, flipping through the pages. I’ve got three more waiting for me (ethics, altruism and a book on technology of the future. Right now, I am reading a book on Quantum Gravity. It’s beautifully written, but very hard to understand completely as most scientist agree that no-one really understands it anyway. I just love how it makes my brain feel like it’s getting a good stretch and work out 😊.

Yumi’s job

Yumi’s busy as always, flying everywhere, doing good things for the disability and care sector. She got a new computer recently, which is pretty cool because she used to have a really old one that was about 4kgs, now it’s a very small one that only weighs about 1kg. That’s a lot better if you have to/want to carry it back and forth to work every day! There was a ridiculous thing going on with some managers in the people department wanting to make things more efficient by only celebrating birthdays on one day in a month, which caused such an uproar and flurry of activity to calm things down that it will take a lot of efficiency to earn back all that time lost, hahaha. We just laughed really hard and moved on. I am a bit worried at the signals I keep hearing from her about the organisation. They seem completely at a loss on how to stay with the times and innovate, making very poor long-term decisions to avoid looking bad on the short term. I guess you would say that not much has changed since your working days, haha. My worry is more that Yumi has all these great ideas and works really hard to make them happen with help of her colleagues, but the senior management team is really out of touch, not seeing opportunities right in front of them and not supporting her while she has the real solutions that would get them out of trouble and safe for the next 20 years. On the one hand I hope she keeps doing what she does, on the other I hope she’ll do it somewhere else! Well, as long as she’s happy to do it, I can only support her, so I’ll do that 😊

SES

I’ve settled in a bit more at Altona SES and have been on a few jobs, cutting up trees and making the world safe from fallen branches and blocked roads. Just this week I went to a situation where an older ladies’ cat had managed to wedge himself stuck between a shed and a fence. He was a bit chubby, but the fence was really leaning in and her spraying him with water and poking him with a stick didn’t help much 😊. There wasn’t much else I could do by myself (it was 2pm, normal people were working), next door neighbours weren’t there to allow me into their yard, he was in the shade, not in pain or hurt. He did look embarrassed! My SES mates returned at 7pm that night to set him free. All’s good with the world again! There’s a big exercise coming up, it’s all very ‘secret squirrel’ but it should be fun this weekend. I’ve also found the vacuum and have appointed myself as the office cleaner, no-one wants to do it and I don’t want to sit in grime and dirt, so everybody wins. I also helped out with the Good Friday appeal, which was good fun. The CFA in the nearby town of Laverton had organised a big event and I just got to stand at an intersection with a few dressed up actors (Snow White, Mickey, Minnie, a Turtle and Bat girl, kids and a few adults loved it!) shaking tins at passing cars near the lights. Lots of laughs, appreciation and team spirit and about $36,000 raised from all combined efforts. Not bad for a days’ work from about 60 volunteers!

Being busy while not working

It’s a strange experience to be very busy while not working for an income. And I am not talking about gaming! I’ve built a new website, travelled, read lots of books, wrote a lot of blogs, applied for a few jobs (didn’t get them, thank goodness, they were horrible, but I felt that I needed to). Over the past two months I met with so many interesting and inspiring people, been to some events and had so many coffee dates at one place that staff there started to recognise me. It feels like every time I am between jobs I get busier, but also more focused and connected. Perhaps that’s what networking looks like, not sure if I am doing it right, but at least I have many interesting conversations and get to go to different places.

In two weeks from now I will be presenting at a conference which is a bit exciting. I’ll be explaining about my ideas on Fake Change and how we can do better. It will probably upset a few people, but that’s okay, it’s what I came to do. I feel a bit ambiguous about doing it. I want to say my piece, but at the same time really feel that they should have gotten it already. I almost cancelled 2x in the past few weeks, but I made myself stick with it because maybe this is the last time I will be on a stage for change management, might as well go out with a bang. And if I can inspire just one person, I think that’s a win.

Change Management Institute (CMI)

As I mentioned last time, I back with CMI and it’s every bit as fun and frustrating as I remember. The team I work with are great but at the organisation level everything moves very slow or not at all. Everybody has really big brains for thinking, but very tiny hands when it comes to doing and when they do, it’s rushed because they didn’t plan or left it too long ☹. Anyway, I feel that I need to make the effort for at least 12 months in order to really and truly declare it a loss. I’ve managed to get a real star back on the team and provided some structure and now we just get to do stuff with cool people. I really hope I can now stop writing all those emails, pfff, nobody wants to do or read that!

Deakin work and speaking

I am back again at Deakin University for the third time and just as much fun. I think I was right last time to leave when I did. 2 months down the track and they are still figuring stuff out, overthinking it and not really talking to each other outside of teams and departments. I get to do the cool stuff of doing some workshops with my favourite team and another 15 teams across the business and maybe even some coaching of a very good manager who feels she wants to be a leader (I think she is, but she allows herself to be distracted by safe little projects) It’s all going in the right direction, but my ‘boss’ Lucy is exactly like me, loves working with me because I get and share her impatience and she feels I see the world from her point of view while not being  in charge. I just like that I get to be the nice guy who can be understanding but still get staff to hurry up a bit and start owning their jobs. Just a few days of work, but I get paid very handsomely so I don’t need much😊. I also had the privilege of being a guest speaker for 90 minutes to a group of 20 students in organisational psychology two weeks ago. I could have stayed there for hours and think I had even more fun than they did, what a great group of people! If they end up in change, that would be great for the profession, some fresh ideas and perspectives. I gave them my (very unconventional) views on what it takes in today’s business to be a change manager and they really appreciated that it felt ‘real’ and not like a tv commercial for the job. I am already looking forward to the next time.

Well, that’s me nearly done, aside from the short mentions:

·       Haven’t been gaming much, despite my very cool and futuristic virtual reality headset I bought (makes it look like you are in the game). Gaming is still my best hobby, but other things were even more exciting, I’ll get to use it soon I hope

·       We’ve got a new oven! Seems a bit meh, but I love to bake and make oven dishes so when the old one got a bit dodgy and not helpful, the owner of our rental home was just great and changed it while we were in Perth. I’ve already made lasagnes, 2 apple pies and there’s plans for a carrot cake, yum!

·       I’ve bought sneakers in Australia for the first time in 4 years. You know how I have a shoe thing and they have to be just so. Well, I used to love Puma shoes and couldn’t find them anywhere. By accident we passed a store, I wasn’t looking to buy anything but then I saw them and they were on sale, so now I have 4 new pairs of shoes, including red ones! I also bought very pretty black leather business shoes at my favourite Melbourne Shoe store (McClouds). They were more expensive than the other 4 combined, but hey, they  will last me more than 5 years, so it’s a good ‘investment’, right? 😊

·       Family and friends are all as well as can be expected, kids growing and getting smarter every day, jobs going well for most, no scary health issues, so there’s lots to be grateful for.

·       We appear to have a possum living near our house. It goes on mid-nightly jogs over our corrugated roof panels, making it sound like an angry horde of barbarians is about to storm the house. but this is Altona (love it more every day) so it’s unlikely it’s actual barbarians 😊. I was up and about one early morning (3.45 am) and went outside quickly to see it just jump into the tree next to the house. It sat there looking at me like “What?!” and then went on its merry possum way. It’s like having a pet, but without the vet bills, haha.

That’s me done for now, I’ll write again in a few months, I am sure lots will have happened before Winter truly starts.

All the best, stay warm and safe,

Gilbert