Altona, 31 December 2021
Hi Marlis,
By the time you read this it’ll be 2022, so Happy New Year! Let’s hope it’s better than 2020 and 2021 because it hasn’t been the best of times has it? Of course it hasn’t been all bad, but you get what I mean. It’s been busy and not busy at the same time, so here we go with our adventures of the past two months.
First things first, we’ll be stopping by in Canberra if all goes well on Monday 24 January or Tuesday 25 if our plans need to adjust a bit. We were hoping to stop by around 10:00 and then hit the road again by 12:00 for the last 700km back home. I hope that works for you, but I’ll call you on the Friday before to confirm the final date and time. Of course you can also call me any time if you feel it’s taking too long or you just want an update!
Maple the foster doggo
After 5 months, 1 week and 2 days Maple the foster doggo has finally found her forever home. It’s been a bit of challenge to get her back to health at her advanced old age but she is such a lovely dog that we did it with pleasure. About ten trips to the vet, so many different medications, looking after her paws, making her feel at ease and relaxed, this dog was more than a handful!
Her new owners are Joel and Annie from eastern Melbourne and they are just the loveliest people! He’s a professional musician and she’s a legal assistant and they wanted an older dog. We made a whole manual about all the things we learned about Maple over the past months with plenty of pictures and they just loved her at first sight. Funny story that, Joel was thinking of getting his first ever dog and that he would call it Maple if she was a girl. So he goes on the Greyhound Adoption Program (GAP) website and finds Maple looking back at him there and that was it!
We all met in Seymour where GAP is located, about 100km and 90-minute drive for us (and Joel and Annie) but it was totally worth the drive. Also gave us an opportunity to see the facilities where the dogs start their new lives. So.Much.Barking! Haha, it was deafening at times but I guess you get used to it. Maple thought it was all very exciting and when she saw that her new parents had a big white car, we were basically old news and she was happy to go! She’s always had a thing for big white cars, truck and vans, probably because she used to be driven around in one we think and she does love her car rides!
It’s a bit strange to not have a dog in the house after so long, but that’s what we signed up for and she really has found a better place. We got a message from Joel on Christmas day telling us Maple was getting more comfortable and relaxed which was just the best news. Yumi will continue fostering (with my help) next year and hopefully we’ll get a few more fosters before we go and live in Queensland. I made Yumi a hall of fame picture frame with her 5 fosters so far and space for a few more, so let’s see if we can fill up all those empty slots .
Sydney travel
It feels like ages ago, but early November Yumi and I got to travel to Sydney together because we both happened to have work with clients at the same time and just 20km apart. I was facilitating a session with 100 leaders at Sunnyfield in North Ryde and Yumi was working with her client One Door in Parramatta, the neighbouring suburb. It was great fun to fly again and be able to see a totally different side of Sydney. Well, technically Parramatta and Ryde are different cities, but it’s all still part of the greater Sydney area although Paramatta is building its own light rail and has more skyscrapers than the ACT.
We went for walks just because we could and out for dinner, which was a whole adventure in and off itself, just looking at all the people. Yumi found us an apartment on the 20-somethingth floor with a big balcony and I just loved being able to see so far and you could even see Sydney CBD about 40km away in the East! We also managed to visit Yumi’s business partner and friend Caroline at her home, but her husband wasn’t there because he was at…his furniture making classes. Turns out I was a bit of an inspiration for him to take it up as well. I saw his handiwork (desk and bench) and he definitely has skills! They also have an old dalmatian dog called Rhino and he’s just all about getting pats, which we dutifully obliged.
It was really good to do work with people in the same room again. They worked very hard and I think they really loved me and there will be more work to do with this group of people in the new year which I already look forward to. Yumi then went back two more times in the two weeks after to do some more training, so she got her fill of flying and hotels and then some.
SES
It’s been a freakishly busy year with SES. We had another stormfront come through which missed most of Altona, but still made us turn out to a good couple of jobs. It was mostly trees misbehaving and some roofing jobs but it has kept me and the team entertained every week with a few call outs. We’ve also been getting a remarkably high number of children stuck in swing sets in playground (8 in as many weeks) which makes me think those kids are either too old for those swings or the design is flawed. At least we now know exactly how to deal with it, having had quite a bit of practice, haha.
We’ve also been doing a lot of maintenance on our chainsaws and other equipment to make sure we’re ready for whatever summer throws at us, but if the past years are anything to go by it will all happen while I am on holiday! A few newer members have stepped up to take ownership of some things that always seemed to not get done and that has really helped to get us more organised. Most importantly am now officially in charge of snacks and drinks and have crowned myself the Chief Snack Officer who also gets to run the unit BBQ a few days after we get back from Queensland, which should be fun! Sure guys, put the vegan in charge of the meat fest, what could possibly go wrong, haha.
On a more serious note, on Christmas Day I attended my third ‘fatality’ event in my 5 years with the service but as far as fatalities go this one was relatively peaceful. A man of my age, maybe a bit younger, had drowned and was revived, but while we were carrying him across a dam to the ambulance his vitals dropped again and he just slipped away under the ambulance worker’s hands. Not a good outcome, but at least he was on dry land and his family had the body to say goodbye to. It‘s not always fun and games with chainsaws and jobs like these remind me to enjoy life as much as possible. We always get great support afterwards, not that we often need it, it’s not like we were involved that much, but it’s still a strange experience to see someone pass away while you’re carrying them (on a stretcher) to safety and it’s good that we talk about it.
Diving
On a much more positive note, Yumi and I went diving in Williamstown (just 5km away from Altona) this week to get used to diving with rental gear for when we go on the Queensland trip. We could use our own scuba gear but servicing it for just a few dives cost $600 and then it’ll just lie in the garage for another year or so and we’d have to haul it around with us for 3 weeks while only plan to make.4 dives. Convenience won out and we decided we’ll rent the kit instead at the various dive spots.
It was good fun to get under water again, even though the visibility was extremely poor and we both got stung by jelly fish across the face and hands. We saw a few rays, a crab, some brightly coloured sea stars and lots of spiky urchins. There was talk of a potential shark sighting, so we were hoping to catch a glimpse, but it didn’t see us and we didn’t see it so it might have been a seal or dolphin who drop by more often.
We were only under for 40 minutes and didn’t go deeper than 4.7 meters but it was good to get familiar with how everything worked with hire gear, lead weights and regulators (the breathing thingy) again. To me it’s like riding a bicycle, you don’t really unlearn, it but Yumi wanted to be absolutely sure that we’d be comfortable which is also important of course. I generally just go and jump in and sort things out as we go and that makes for good adventures, while Yumi is probably the reason we’re still alive after more than 125 dives
The Bad Change book
We’ve finally done it! The book is out in the world and we’re on our way to have sold more than 100 copies! Our aim is to sell 300 in total and that means we’ll be able to donate $7,500 to the National Homeless Collective, the charity I used to be involved with and whom we also gave the profits of the Chameleon Cards to. They do such good work and there’s never enough money, so this is our way of helping out a bit.
It feels very special to have created something like the book while it also doesn’t quite feel like a ‘real and serious’ conventional book. All the same it has about 20,000 words in it, so it’s not exactly a leaflet and we’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished. I am hoping Australia Post manages to get this letter to you after the book has arrived in your mailbox, because of course I wanted you to have one too!
We’ve shipped to all the states and territories of Australia and various parts of the world, how cool is that?! However, the whole Covid situation still throws spanners in the works by delaying shipments or countries like Canada and Ireland just being closed for parcels altogether. Fingers crossed that the USA, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Hong Kong stay open.
Online teaching
On 29 November, after many totally predictable last minute and frantic adjustments the Deakin University Change Tools course I helped develop is now live and we have 8 students from all parts of Australia. That’s 3 more than I expected for the first run so I am quite happy and also impressed by the quality of their work so far. I really enjoy the teaching and interaction with students who come from all age groups and walks of life. Because everything happens online it’s very easy to keep track of what’s working and what doesn’t but the feedback has been very positive so far. I think the offering is very competitive and excellent value for money compared to everything else that’s out there but I would say that of course, having created most of it, haha.
Small things
Lots of short mentions this time, just because it’s been that kind of two months with not too much going on by our standards
• I looked it up and it turns out that I’ve written you more than 35 letters so far, this being 36. Let’s go for 35 more at least and see if we can go for 100, which means you’ll have to stick around until you’re at least 97. Not a problem for you I reckon .
• I bought one of those high pressure cleaners and it is just the best! It’s so very therapeutic to calmly and slowly blast away all the grime and dirt of the front driveway, roof, backyard concrete and everything else I see a speck of dirt on. I wished there was a way to save the water though because it feels a bit wasteful to just let it all run into the sewer. Then again, it’s not that I do this every week, so perhaps it’s not that bad…
• Yumi and I both got our Pfizer Covid booster shots last week. Yumi let me go first to see how I would go and this time I really felt it. Sore muscles and the first night after the shot I was so warm, but it was strange because it was just my joints and it didn’t feel like a fever at all. Anyway, after 48 hours I felt much better already and now we’re as safe as can be. Which is a good thing, considering the skyrocketing numbers. Yumi and I will also take a test before we come and visit you and if it turns out we’re positive, we’ll only drive by and yell at you from the car, haha. No, we won’t do that, but we’ll make sure to keep you safe.
• I was strangely proud of myself for finishing one of the hardest, frustrating and challenging video games ever made, called Dark Souls. You play as a knight who has to overcome many difficulties and it’s famous for its catch phrase “You died”, which I did, a lot. But if you persevere for 115 hours, you get to the end and it’s not that hard anymore because you’ve gotten really good at it. So in a way it’s like life, but with big swords and dragons! Good thing they also made Dark Souls 2 and 3, just for those people who needed more punishment. I’ve just started on #2, let’s see what that’s like .
• We’re soooo looking forward to the QLD trip now that it’s almost there. Three weeks of seeing different things, scoping out potential places to live in Townsville and Brisbane, going on adventures, doing a bit of diving and being somewhere that is not Altona will be great.
• I’ve completed my studies of corporate governance for all but the test and exam which I’ll do when we get back from the big trip. I have until April, but want to get it over and done with, just not right now, it can wait until next year. Shouldn’t be too much of an issue really, I’ll just review the materials one more time and then see how I go.
• At the end of the year Yumi and I always make a list of things that we’re grateful for and happy about. It was a good list yet again this time around, they are mostly mine, but of course Yumi also plays a part in a lot of those. Here’s the list in no particular order:
1. Completed a year of trade school
2. Got a Cert 4 training and assessment
3. Got a truck driving license
4. Worked with many interesting clients
5. Delivered series 3 of Change Masterclasses
6. Wrote a book about Bad Change
7. Developed Purpose in Practice
8. Finished and built furniture with my own hands
9. Taught myself how to work with a Mac laptop
10. Finished Dark Souls
11. Fixed my PlayStation
12. Started the AICD Directors Course
13. Developed a micro-credential on Change
14. Redirected my consulting career with Purpose at Work
15. Learning about Quality, Safeguarding & Human Rights
16. Deployed to the Floods with SES
17. Fostered 5 greyhounds for new homes
18. Grew our networks professionally despite COVID
19. Record number of jobs with SES
20. Taught myself to work with new software
21. Collaboration with Peter on different things
22. Read a lot of new books
23. Still vegan, still around 90kg
24. Still vegetarian, back at 61kg
25. Walking and podcasts
26. Still writing and talking to Marlis
27. Less on Social Media, more in the real world
28. 24 years together, married for 14
That’s us done for the year Marlis, I hope we get to see you by the end of January in person!
Be well, stay safe and have a happy start to the year.
Gilbert
