Melbourne 7
January 2019,
Hi Marlis and
Happy New Year!
I am still
working out what I was doing again last year, the past few weeks have been so
irregular that it’s a bit harder to get back in the rhythm of things. Today
I’ve got a lunch date in the city so after I accompanied Yumi to her work, I
walked back to the city (only 5km) and I am now doing my digital nomad thing
where I ‘work’ from shopping centres, the library and a restaurant until I meet
my friend Priscilla to catch up. Modern times indeed 😊. UPDATE: she just cancelled because her grandma has passed at the age
of 101 (!), heading home now. I wasn’t feeling great anyway, got this summer
cold since yesterday, maybe I’ll sit in the sun for a bit and roast it out!
Lots of stuff
has happened since the last letter, so let’s get started!
South
Australia trip
We travelled
to Port Lincoln and the Eyre Peninsula from 13-24 December and it was pretty
good. When we left Melbourne, it wasn’t the best of weather, but 2 days later
SES was really busy with all sorts of flooding. By that time we were already at
sea looking at sharks, so I missed all that activity for once. Port Lincoln was
a bit the same, rainy and gloomy. It’s a nothing town based on grain and tuna
fishing (apparently the tuna capital of the world, including the world-famous
tuna-toss competition…Yeah, I hadn’t heard of it as well). We were happy to get
on the boat for 4 days of Great White shark watching and after a very bumpy
ride and some waiting, we got to see them in all their glory. It’s 100% safe
and controlled, so don’t think we’re all that heroic, we’re really not. We saw
6 or 7 different males, ranging in length from 3-4.5 meters. The super-giant
females (that’s the actual term, no kidding) can go up to 6 meters, but
December is not their time of year to be there, so we only got to see boy sharks,
who were impressive enough. They are very calm, not aggressive at all and
almost shy. The bait (tuna gills and organs, yuck) goes in on a rope and gets
pulled through the water and right before they can sink their teeth in, the
crew pulls it away as they are not supposed to feed them. Doesn’t seem to upset
the sharks too much, they just swim another circle and try again, or leave it
and move on. We learned a lot by just observing them in the surface cage (when
you’re just 10 cm below the surface) and also in the 20 meter deep bottom cage.
There’s not much else to do or see under water and after 30 minutes of watching
them and getting some good photos, we were freezing cold (water temperature is
only 14-16 degrees) and were happy to get hauled back up again for the next
team to go in and see.
All sharks
have a unique marking on their tails and their fin shape and size is also
different, which helps with identifying the 300 or so sharks this operator has
seen so far. Apparently, they also travel in clans, the same 4-5 sharks seem to
show up in close proximity and in the same timeframe, leading the scientist to
believe that they group and travel together. Just image encountering 4-5
super-giant females in one dive, wow! From the safety of a dive cage of course 😊. Even though some sharks get tagged for research and tracking, there’s
still very little known about them, where they breed, where they disappear to
and their migration patterns. Magnificent creatures!
After the dive
trip (we only made 5 dives, which was a bit disappointing, but the weather was
not great) we drove some 1,500 kilometres through South Australia and were once
again impressed by how big Australia really is. So far, I had only seen big sky
country in WA, but SA has some beautiful and impressive scenery as well. We
travelled through towns that had no more than 30 inhabitants and that makes you
wonder how people make a living out there, but somehow they do. The landscape
is beautiful and not unlike some of the great plains of America (what I’ve seen
on TV). The mining towns are sad and beautiful in all their former forlorn
glory and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many grain fields in my life anywhere.
Normally I get lost in my own back yard, but navigating the countryside was
really simple for this trip; the next town is where you see the massive grain
silos in the distance and there’s really only one road anyway.
At some point
we stayed the night in a unit in a nowhere town and decided that this was
probably the kind of house we would buy some day. Not too big, but with a nice verandah, a carport and big enough for the two of us, perhaps with a nice view.
No million-dollar mansion for us if we can help it. I tried to get Yumi to
travel a bit of the Nullarbor too, but that didn’t happen, so at least there’s
something to visit next time still! The weirdest thing when we came back was
that after all that rain Victoria had seen in our absence, everything was
extremely green and vibrant when we came back. Grass and plants had grown
considerably and there was such an abundance of life, very nice to come home
too.
Yumi’s job
adventures
After months
of thinking and doubting, Yumi has now decided that it’s time for her to strike
out on her own and leave National Disability Services (NDS). The organisation
is making some changes and more than a few of her really good colleagues have
now left or were treated in such a way they decided to leave. From my Change
management experience nothing good will come of the plans they’ve got prepared
so far. As far as I can tell from what Yumi shares with me, they are doing
everything wrong that an organisation that hasn’t changed for about 20 years
can do wrong and I am very happy for her to leave. Her next adventure is that
she’ll team up with two former colleagues and start their own advisory business
in the area of self-managed teams (never mind, it’s boring for most people
anyway 😊). Despite more than 100
organisations expressing interest, NDS never saw a lot of potential in it and
after trying to get them on board for 2-3 years, Yumi now feels she might as
well do it herself and enjoy her work even more. There might or might not be a
role for me in this as well, for now we’ve agreed that I will support her where
and how I can, but it’s their business. I’ve drafted some plans and schedules
that might be useful, but part of the fun is to figure out some of these things
for yourself too! We’ll be going to Canberra in two weeks from now, to spend 2
days together with Caroline (Sydney) and Alan (ACT) to nut out the details,
should be fun. Unfortunately, I will not be able to visit you as the agenda is
really full (9am-9pm) and we’re driving back and forth and need to be back by
Sunday, so that will have to be next time ☹. This weekend we bought Yumi a super fancy laptop computer and now she
can really get started! I think it will be a big success and I am not just
saying that because she’s my partner, their product offering and national
coverage is very attractive and exactly what the market needs right now. Their
launch date is 1 March 2019, but I’ll keep you informed as always.
Slowest career
change ever
My own career
change is slow and disappointing as expected so far. I think it will take a few
months more and then I’ll land on something. So many companies are not at all
prepared to really try a new approach, some have been stuck in their ways for years
and some just can’t see beyond the things they are doing now, even if they’re
not working/solving the problem. I could of course start my own charity, but
Australia already has about 60,000 (no joke) and so far they’re not really
successful, despite the $130 billion dollars going into it every year! I can
easily see how things could be better, but so far not a lot of people seem
interested in making that happen. You have to wonder; they’ve been working at
it for 50 years at least and still there are so many homeless and hungry
people, clearly whatever they are doing is not working on a sustainable scale.
I don’t want to take away from the great work all these hard-working people do,
but I also feel that just because they are doing a great thing, doesn’t mean
they don’t have an obligation to go with the times. I’ve had so many experiences by now of organisations not
replying, replying very late, doing their admin with pen and paper, incredibly
poor volunteer management, not leveraging the potential of their networks, the
list goes on. Not to say that I will be able to solve it all, but come on guys,
don’t be sorry, be better! I’ll need to get past my own frustration at some
point or really find another field to work in, I guess. To be continued…
5 years in
Australia coming up
6th
of February we’ll be here five years! I can’t believe how much has changed for
us since we made the move, for the better that is. I can honestly say that I
have never ever regretted coming to Australia, even if the family situation was
a bit tough at times. We’ve had so many great opportunities, met lovely people,
made many new friends all across the country and have seen so much and still
have so much to see of this beautiful country that it still gets me excited. I
love living in Altona and don’t see us leaving any time soon, but we’ll
probably not end in Victoria if I can help it. WA and Queensland keep pulling,
so perhaps we should just see if we can make a life for ourselves there at some
point. We’re still considering our citizenship, but right now there’s no real
need for it and the easiest way for it to happen is if Yumi goes first and then
I become a citizen by association AND keep my Dutch/Rotterdam nationality. No
hurry though, it would mean that we’d also have to vote, which is not a great
thing to look forward to at the moment with the clowning around in government
we’ve seen in the past 3 years. All things considered, it’s been an amazing
adventure so far and sometimes we wonder if it can actually get any better.
Only way to find out is to keep living the dream I guess, haha.
Presentation
to Council
You might
remember that a few months ago I participated in a round of proposals for our
local Hobsons Bay council with two proposals on how we might reduce litter and
waste in our community. To my own surprise both my proposals made it to the
second round, so the night before we left for South Australia and the sharks, I
presented my ideas. The first one, the Tidy Tradie Trophy, rewards tradies on
the many building sites around town to keep their building sites clean and free
of litter, the second one the C4 project is all about Council Coordinated
Community Cleanups. I won’t bore you with the details, safe to say it’s all
about collaboration and organising (two things Aussies do enthusiastically, but
not particularly effectively). The night itself was a lot of fun. In just two
hours, people of all ages from 10-80 years old presented their ideas to 3
groups of about 30-50 people. A lot of them being about bike paths and dogs on
leashes, but also some truly cool things like a rickshaw bike for elderly and disabled
people and community gardens that could feed whole streets. I thought it was
very inspiring to see how much time, thinking and effort people had put into
their ideas to improve their community. I hope the 10-year-old boy gets his
basketball court, he did such a good job!
CMI Awards dinner
Even though I
left the Change Management Institute, my good friend Anna has now taken the
lead and as this whole awards dinner was my crazy idea to begin with, I felt I
needed to be there to show support. It was a very fun evening, with everything
working out exactly as expected, the venue, the food, the guests and the
awards. It was a true celebration of the best this community has to offer. I
hope they’ll go another round next year, possibly with some new ideas and even
more than 50 people. I ended up sponsoring one of the prizes because the CMI
organisation is a bit silly sometimes, but I met the recipient of the prize
before I knew he was the winner and he seemed very switched on, so that’s $300
well spent 😊.
SES activities
and Bunnings BBQ
SES work has
been busy and quiet at the same time. Not too many incidents and requests for
assistance lately, but that’s always a good thing. Aside from the crazy busy 15
December (that I missed) trees and waterways have been behaving, so we got to do
other stuff. I’ve been doing Community Engagement training, but it was much
less interesting than I had hoped. Just a lot of paperwork and emphasis on
following rules and filling out forms. I was seriously considering not even
going to part 2, but then I decided to just get over myself and finish it. The
next day it got cancelled until further notice because the only trainer got
deployed to the Queensland fires. Great, I had just finished preparing my
presentation! Oh well, I’ll just finish it and see what happens next. I am
going to try to get some boat training too, that sounded like fun. As I have a
lot of time, I ended up organising our unit’s end of year BBQ and trivia night
and that was good fun too. We had soooo much food and drinks we ended up
dividing it all amongst ourselves when everyone went home. On the 30th
I also helped out for the day with a BBQ fundraiser at Bunnings. It was not too
bad and we made some money, but I smelled like meaty sausage for about 2 days,
no matter how many times I washed my hands, clothes, hair and every other inch
of me, yuck!
New Year’s Eve
with Salvos
Just to mix
things up a little and also because we had nothing better to do, Yumi and I
volunteered to help out the Salvos with their New Year’s Eve presence. Turns
out we’d be stationed at the ‘lost children’ point from 6pm to 2am. Great,
crying kids, just our thing... Well, it turned out much better than we thought.
Only 2 children got misplaced and for both the parents were found within 20
minutes. We had a good time, watching the many celebrants, people walking their
dogs, some very cheeky and photogenic possums and lots of tourists asking for
directions. It was very weird that people would walk past the tent, see the
sign (Lost Children) and then start to laugh. Some even wanted to take a
picture. I mean, what is so hilarious about lost children?! Anyway, we had
front row seats when the fireworks went off, as they were launched from about
10 meters behind our tent, but we missed part of it as we were dealing with a
little boy who got separated from his parents. As soon as we called it in,
police, ambos and security all rushed to our aid, and then people started
calling and using the radio as well, it was chaos, but at least we were all
trying to get things sorted. All’s well that ends well and at 1.30am the crowds
cleared out and we walked back to another tent near Flinders Street station and
they had the real hard cases of drunk and drugged party people to deal with,
which fortunately passed us by completely. On the train home we helped a young
lady who was really, really drunk and spewing (nice!), but she made a
miraculous recovery, so we were not too worried after all. We were in bed by
3am and up by 7am, pff, we’re no longer used to this😊.
Litter picking
I managed to
pick 439 bags of litter over the course of 2018. I am not sure if I should be
happy or sad about that number, but at least it’s no longer in the environment.
Believe it or not, but I finally found money! And two days in a row no less.
First time was $55 and the second time was a $20 note. Not too bad eh?! I gave
it to some homeless people when I went into the city a few days later, it
wasn’t my money to begin with anyway and I am sure they can put it to good use.
I am not sure if I will continue picking with as much enthusiasm as I started
out with in 2018 though. Having learned a lot about what works and what
doesn’t, I now know that my 1 tonne of rubbish less is really just a drop of a
drop in an ocean of litter. Then again, it does make my immediate environment
that much cleaner. Perhaps I’ll find some middle ground after a while. Now that
it’s holidays and there’s a different crowd out and about, it takes a different
kind of motivation for me because these people are just visitors and make such
a mess, it’s really hard to not be judgemental. Also, I found that I can walk
much further and more relaxed if I don’t bring my litter gripper and bags. Need
to think about it a bit more!
The Goat
people
The
fundraising campaign in November was very successful for them. A lot of my
friends, family and business friends chipped in and raised quite some money and
the target of 200 new goats was well and truly smashed. Then on the day of the
big event (8 November) one philanthropist just handed over $50,000!! Another
group forked up an additional $25,000, so all in all, they raised close to
$100,000 which will go a long way towards their goals. Even cooler is that they
drew the attention of the Philippines equivalent of Telstra, called Globe. They
have 80 million (!) customers and want to be the corporate partner. And they
knew someone at CNN Asia, who will now do a 6-minute documentary on the project
and its goals. It doesn’t get much better than that. I am still not sure what
role they see for me moving forward and will calmly await their plans. At this
point I really can’t do anything more unless they make some decisions about how
to progress first. But even if it goes no further, I feel I’ve made a positive
contribution all the same.
Big summer
clean up
The day after
we came home from the SA trip, we decided to do a really big clean up and sort
all the stuff we had in the house. Yumi let go of 19 pairs of shoes (there’s
about 30 left now) and I said goodbye to a lot of stuff that we’d been
needlessly carrying around as well. Yumi is a bit of a hoarder when it comes
to…well everything really, but I am not at all, so we always have a long lead
up time before it starts, but after all is said and done, it really only took
about one hour. A lot of stuff went to the Salvos store and there’s this cool
initiative in town where you can donate clothes that are still good to wear to
a job interview but might not want to wear yourself any more. We let go of about
12 suits, and so many skirts, pants, shoes, bags and shirts that we could
basically start our own store. They open again on the 21st, and I’ll
be on that end of the bay anyway, so that’s our garage cleaned and sorted once
more!
Small stuff
- · I’ve rediscovered tofu and am now trying out all sorts of new recipes and cooking methods, great fun and yum too!
- · For Yumi’s 40th birthday we’re planning to visit the Mt Beauty and Mt Buller alpine region. I wanted to do something a bit more festive like diving in Bali or travelling through New Zealand, but this is what she wants, so that’s what we’re doing.
- · Friends and family are all healthy and well. Two of my friends (Just and Alex) are thinking of coming over, fingers crossed. Our parents are okay too. Yumi’s are thinking of moving to a new house and mine are enjoying their new place more and more.
- · It’s finally happening, after 4+ years we’re switching banks from NAB to Bank Australia. Bit of a hassle getting everything transferred and changed, but after all the dirt and scandal from the Royal Banking Commission, I’d really rather not have anything to do with NAB anymore. Time will tell if Bank Australia is any better of course, after all, it’s still a bank.
- · I sold my PlayStation and the Virtual Reality googles! And bought a newer fancier one 😊. I cannot imagine not having a PlayStation it’s been that way for the best part of 20 years!
That’s me done
for now, enjoy the summer weather and be well,
Gilbert
