Springfield Lakes, 10 November
Hi Marlis,
Another two months have flown by with lots of interesting things that happened. They never seem like major things until I start writing them down. When I then read back these letters I always think that we’ve got a lot going on after all! Anyway, I hope you are doing well as always and that you got yourself a cup of tea and a warm spot to sit, because here we go!
I apologise for there not being any photos in this letter, my printer is not that good for printing photos, but I promise to make it up next time!
Visiting Sydney
For my birthday I got gifted an all-expenses-paid 2-day trip to Sydney from Yumi’s business, Purpose at Work, to attend a 1-day conference about Governance in Aged Care on my birthday. Some might think that’s boring, but it keeps my knowledge current for the work that I sometimes do, helping Purpose at Work deliver a workshop to business leaders and Board Members about human rights, quality and safeguarding. The conference was good, I learned some new things, heard some familiar things and got to support Yumi’s business partner Alan who also spoke there, 3 days before getting his second hip-replacement! And then you called me to wish me a happy birthday, so that made the day that much better still.
The Sunday before the conference I got to spend time with my change management friend Myah, who has a wonderful mind and an unusual way of thinking about the world that I really like. We had lunch talked for about 3 hours about the world, the change management community and a book that we plan to write about the ethics of change management in this modern age. I would write a book about pet rocks and how they collect dust if it means working with her, I think I’ll learn a lot from writing a more ‘serious’ book than Bad Change, although that was serious in its own way too. After meeting with Myah I met with two other change friends for drinks, also in Darling Harbour and then I went back to my hotel to work on a brochure about the impact of the Disability Royal Commission for Purpose at Work and that was the Sunday done.
After the conference on Monday, I had planned to have some time for sightseeing, before going to the airport. It was a glorious sunny day with perfect weather, so I walked from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay to look at the Bridge and Opera House and I am happy to report they are both still there! 😊 Even though I get lost all the time and I am so bad at navigating, I know that part of Sydney pretty well by now so I had no issue finding my way, look at all the tourist and laugh at their weird antics. The area really has changed over time with more building shooting up and complete blocks being demolished, but I mostly just looked at the people and the bay. I also treated myself to a plant-based burger from Hungry Jacks and it was pretty good. So good in fact that I got flocked by a swarm of seagulls trying to steal it! I didn’t exactly run for it, but had to walk about 100m before I could eat in peace, which must have looked hilarious to everyone else. After that it was time to go home to Yumi and Dash to celebrate the last part of my birthday and our 26-years together anniversary. I call that a pretty good day!
Diving
We were fortunate to go diving again mid-September, once again at the Gold Coast, but more out to sea this time. The first was a spot called ”The Miracles”, which is an artificial reef just 15 minutes off the coast, built to attract underwater life. They are essentially two steel pyramids connected at their base held to the seafloor by big chains and anchors. They are full of holes so the fish can go inside and do whatever it is that fish do in their spare time😊. By the looks of it, it’s working as planned, there was a lot of coral growth and marine life around. Visibility wasn’t very good, but we still had a good time for most of it.
The next one was a timber frame wreck from 1884 which was really just a set of beams and planks, but still fun to look at. There were a few very big eagle rays and cow-tailed rays hanging about, and it’s always nice to hang out with them a bit. This was a new dive operator for us and they were as friendly as ever. They are in a good spot for us to drive to and despite me accidentally stealing the dive guide’s dive boots (they were nearly identical to mine!!) they were happy to have us back for more dives. I always want to go for more dives, but Yumi sometimes gets headaches and our weekends are quite busy with normal life stuff and the greyhounds so diving doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.
My friend Peter and I are nearly done with the follow up to the Bad Change Book, called Bad Sponsor. In business-land a sponsor is an executive leader who takes responsibility for change happening as planned. Fortunately for us, there are lots of situations where that doesn’t quite happen as hoped and some sponsors are really bad at their jobs! We get to make fun of them in the comic on one page and then offer 5 tips on the other page for each of the 15 scenarios so they can do better. It will be much shorter and thinner than Bad Change, but hopefully it will give change professionals some useful tools and tips to work with their sponsors in more meaningful ways. We’re also creating a 3-minute cartoon video and a poster for the fun of it.
Peter and I have plans for a training course and even more tools, but those would be paid for, while everything we’ve been doing so far has always been for charity. Building training materials is very time intensive and might also cost quite a bit of money to do it right, but it will be a fun project for 2024 to work on and it might even generate some passive income. Once we’ve set it all up, it should really take care of itself for most of it. Maybe one day we’ll really have our own business called Bad Change Company but for now it’s just fun to create things people love to use at work.
Work work work!
My free time after resigning from UQ did not last very long. After less than 2 weeks I picked up some contractwork to review training course materials and write a business case at a very attractive day rate. It was for our friend Helen, who I’ve known for something like 7 years now and who moved to Queensland just a bit before Yumi and I did. She’s doing this big project for the UN World Food Program and needed some help getting the materials up to her very high standards. I really enjoyed the work and working with one of the people I have a lot of professional and personal respect for is a very nice bonus!
And then when I thought I was done for the year and could just read and play video games, along came a contact of mine from Griffith University asking if I’d be interested to come over for 8 weeks to help them out with creating a Change Management Framework for the whole university. These jobs don’t come along often and I immediately jumped at it. I started two weeks ago and have it ready in draft, but there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done. I have so many ideas and see all the potential, but I have to stick to my brief so that they get at least the Framework and supporting materials out of it, but I plan to slide in some extra value where I can.
I want them to really like my work and I want to prove to myself that I can do this too. I know I can, but doing it and getting paid for it, shows everyone else that I can do it too. It’s really cool that everyone I talk to wants this to happen, they are sick and tired of dealing with different tools, approaches and templates and I think I’ve got the solution for them. I will probably not be around to see it all settle into place, but the managers I work for know what they are doing, they just don’t have the time to do it themselves.
And while all this is happening, I’ve been talking on and off for two months with a big national retailer called Super Retail Group. They are the business behind Rebel, Supercheap Auto, BCF and MacPac and very big in Australia. They will make me an offer next week and I hope it’s in the neighbourhood of what I asked for ($200,000). This is of course a whole lot of money, but looking at what my fellow change people are making, not so outrageous as it sounds. It would also mean I become an employee again, but I look forward to working as part of a team of change managers and not always being the one expert to help everyone else. If it all goes as planned, I’ll have a lot more to say about that next time.
However it turns out, I really feel proud of backing myself to go for more meaningful and rewarding jobs and so far it has paid off!
Yumi’s busy schedule
Yumi’s been considering going back into the workforce but she was quite relived that none of her applications led to a job, so I think she’s not quite ready to stop being a consultant and I think that’s fine. She needs to do what’s right for her and she’s just finished a short but very creative job which involved her going to Adelaide for almost a week while I looked after the dogs (yes, plural, more on that shortly). She was the roving reporter for the three days and on the final day she presented her view of the future workforce for Aged Care for an audience of nearly 2,000 people. She really enjoyed herself and got a lot of ideas for the business from it, so let’s see what happens next.
The greyhound volunteering has also been very busy with lots of dogs moving, adoptions and rehomes, market events, community walks and more and more people wanting to volunteer for the charity, which is great. Our friend Kath (Michael’s wife) who lives only 5 minutes away was here this morning at Greyhound Central (also known as our home) when we had four dogs come in and took one home to pass on to someone who can only pick her (Summer) up later tonight. That really helps because four dogs in the backyard is a bit too much for Dash (and us!) to handle.
Jessie the returning guest Greyhound
Last time I wrote we had Jessie as a guest dog coming back from an unsuccessful adoption, so we fostered her and then she got adopted again, yay! O so we thought, because this one didn’t work out for a different reason. Despite all the preparation the adopting family’s 3 year old could not yet understand that Jessie sometimes needs her space and kept touching her and hugging her. Jessie tried to get away, but the girl kept chasing her and eventually she started growling and barking. The adopters were really heartbroken because they understand it’s not Jessie’s fault, but they can’t make their child grow up any faster, so we took her back for another 3 weeks.
In the process we found out that one dog is really enough for us. It’s like parents who already have two kids and then have a third, everything just becomes that much harder. She is a lovely dog and really funny and cheeky, but she’s such a handful when going on walks, especially if you have to walk them alone. Fortunately for her (and us) she got adopted again last Friday and we hope this time she found her forever home. The family seems well prepared and will love her to pieces. If it doesn’t work out, we’ve already resolved to take her back again, and again, and again until she finds the right place. We haven’t told Dash yet, who seems happy to be a single child again…😊
Dash’s plastic adventure
Two weeks ago on a Sunday night Yumi was preparing the dogs’ dinner and part of that is a slice of meat from a big, smelly and disgusting looking plastic wrapped sausage that apparently has salmon and duck in it. I am not so sure, but they love it, so we throw it in their kibble every now and then. They inhale the stuff like it’s a gourmet meal, so good for them. A bit less good was that while Yumi reached for the bin to dispose of the 30 cm long plastic wrap sliver, dash grabbed that and swallowed it in a milli-second. We tried to open his mouth and pull it out but we were just in time to see it disappear in the back of his throat. I wasn’t too worried, but Yumi was, of course, and she was right! Every website that we immediately checked said to go to the vet right away and get it out. If it’s only a small piece it will work its way out eventually, but long slivers can get balled up and tangled, causing severe constipation and even death.
So off to the emergency vet we went. Dash was happy as a clam, not at all aware that he would get a nice treat to make him really nauseous to get him to spew. We sat in the waiting room for an hour and out he comes, happy as a clam again, like nothing happened! After he throws up they give him another shot to make him feel better, so for him it was just “I am happy, ow that stings, I don’t feel so good in my tummy, blegh, sorry, oooh, I feel good again” all in the space of 45 minutes. The bill was a lovely $425 dollars, but fortunately we have insurance, so we ended up $100 out of pocket, which is still a LOT of dog snacks.
SES activities
I am not sure how much longer I will stay with SES, I just can’t seem to find my spot. It’s nothing to do with the people or anything they are friendly enough. I think it’s just the lack of activity and involvement. I was so used to being involved and busy all the time and here it’s really just a bit of training and every now and then we get to do something small that they think is a really big deal. It doesn’t feel like the SES that I loved so much in Victoria and I am getting a bit tired of pretending that it is.
Coming Thursday my friend Michael and I will visit the Ripley RFS Station, to perhaps join the volunteer firefighters. That’s always been an ambition of mine, even when still in Victoria. It might be good to wear a different uniform, do completely different things and still be able to help to keep the community safe. I hope they like us for it, we have a few things going for us, like already being part of Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, having all our checks and cards, years of experience with an emergency service and operational disaster experience. Next time I write I might have switched my orange outfit for a yellow one!
I did go on a search for a missing person with SES about a month ago. The person was found by a member of the public, unfortunately no longer alive, but we searched for 3 days (I only did one of those) in 30-38 degree heat with about 20 people each time, but it was a big area. At some point I became team leader of those 20 people and I really didn’t enjoy that at all. Half of the team had never been on a search; the other half was not planning on following instructions and the guy who was team leader first wasn’t very good at it too. I was happy when the day was over. It turned out the next area we would have searched was where the person was found the same day. I am really glad we missed it, no one needs to see that, especially newer members.
By now I’ve also completed most of the training that I already had in Victoria, so I can go out on most jobs again, even if it’s only for a few more weeks (I hope). It all feels like such a waste of time, but then again, you can never train enough! We did a fun event with 4 of us last Sunday where we were out at the Springfield Lakes Sunday Market and I got to talk to lots of people about preparing for emergencies. But we were really there to pat everyone’s dog and hand out stickers to kids, haha. I realised a few weeks back that I should get organised around having our own emergency kit. I am happy to report that we now have almost everything we need to stay safe for at least 5 days. 50 litres of water, food, first aid and tools, all packed and ready to go or help us survive when cut off. It’s actually a bit silly that I didn’t do this sooner, it really only took 2 hours to get it organised.
CMI volunteering
My volunteering with the Change Management Institute is going well. We just had another really good morning event in the city that is my favourite. It’s basically a bunch of change people like me standing around. Talking for 5 minutes about a topic we all voted on and then moving on to the next one. We cover a lot of ground and it’s a fun way to stay up to date with what others are thinking. And then when it’s 9am you have the whole day ahead and I feel energised and then some!
We’re also about to have an end-of-year event with some fun prizes and a big celebration of the year that was. I like organising these things for the community, to create a sense of togetherness. I wanted it to be much grander, but the team didn’t spring into action until a few weeks ago and all the preparation went out the window. I knew this might happen so I wasn’t too annoyed, but it’s still a bit frustrating that it could have been much more than what it is now, but it’s good as it is. There’s always next year! I had a meeting with the CEO for CMI to discuss the volunteer experience and she seems very switched on. We chatted about all sorts of things that would make it more fun for volunteers to join and stay involved, so let’s see what she does with my plans and ideas. It always takes a long time for things to happen within CMI, but eventually they do happen.
I was strongly encouraged by the current country co-lead, the volunteer person looking after the six state committees, (it’s really only 50 people at most) to put my hand up for a co-lead position coming up, but I don’t think I will right now. I am happy where I am, doing what I do, nice and simple. Normally I’d always go for the lead role, but I’ve seen what that’s like in CMI and really don’t need that in my life. There are other ways to influence and be of service 😊.
Small things
• New plates and bowls
I fi-nal-ly decided to buy some new plates and bowls. I know it’s stupid but I hemmed and hummed way too much over this. We’ve been using the super cheap plates from Target and Big W, basically since we came to Australia, but I felt it was time for ‘grown-up’ dinner ware. They are still not very expensive or fancy (plain white, 8 big ones, 8 small ones and 8 bowls for $160), but they feel like a luxury to me! Fortunately, I chose well, 100% by the pictures and reviews on the internet and even found vegan bone china-like plates and bowls. That just means there’s no ground up animal bones in them, so that’s a win. No more sharp, chipped edges and ugly cracks and scratches. They are so smoooooothhhhh, I love them!
• Robert and Helen coming over
Next week our friends from ‘Up North’ (It’s really only 50km…) Helen and Robert will come over for lunch and to hang out for a bit, which should be good fun. We always try to wow each other with some new and exciting vegan food options (or as exciting as vegan food ever gets) and just sit and chat, you know, like middle-aged people do. They are thinking of adopting a greyhound at some point, so Dash will do his best to be a good ambassador for his breed and who knows, they might start the new year with a new furry companion!
• UQ team Christmas Lunch
My former University of Queensland colleagues asked me to join them for the end-of-year lunch on 1 December and it will be nice to see them again. A lot of people have left since I left, but it’ll be nice to hear how everyone is doing and have a good meal. They even want to present me with a gift for my work with the Social Club, so I asked them to make a donation to charity because I really have everything I need.
• Holiday plans
We’re thinking of going to the Sunshine Coast after I finish up at Griffith and possibly begin a new job at Super Retail Group. We’ll have to find an accommodation where we can bring Dash because we’re taking him with us and he needs a place to stay while we go diving for a few of those days. By the time the next letter comes around you’ll hear more about how that went.
• Lawnmower
At the start of October I finally gave in and bought an electric lawn mower and boy should I have done that much earlier! The original hand mower somehow got its blades misaligned and I couldn’t get it the work properly anymore. As you know, I hate gardening with a passion and using a malfunctioning tool does not make it easier or me any happier. So off to Bunning I went after doing some online research and an hour later I was mowing the lawn like a pro! I also bought one of those whipper snippers and I couldn’t be happier. It’s not all perfectly straight and evenly mowed, but give it a few more months and I’ll be the pride of the neighbourhood, haha!
• 1-year anniversary of Living in Brisbane
On 27 September we completed a full year in Brisbane and we’ve agreed that this was another good decision. The weather is as amazing as we hoped with 300+ days of sunshine, there’s new things to see and do and we got to reinvent a few things about ourselves. Springfield Lakes is a very good place to live, with everything we need close enough to live comfortably. We do wish we’d be closer to the ocean but it’s so very expensive to do so that it’s a bit silly, so we drive up to the coast every now and then to get our ‘salty sea-air fix’.
Okay, I think that’s most of it for now. I’ll be sure to get in touch around Christmas time, but you can expect another letter early January for sure.
Stay cool and be well,
Gilbert
