Springfield Lakes 6 August 2024,

 

Hi Marlis,

Another 2 months gone by in a flash, I hope you are staying warm in the mornings and getting some sun in the afternoons. The mornings here are really quite cold with -2 degrees as the coldest so far this week! But once the sun gets out, it’s still 23 degrees so nothing to complain about really.

I have lots of things to share, so let’s get started.

 

Yumi has a job!

After running her own business for five years now, Yumi decided to take on a role with the Queensland Alliance for Mental Health, as their Senior Advisor Workforce Projects. In normal people speak that mean that she leads a team of people who work on projects that draw more workers into the sector to deal with their labour shortages.  Despite all the benefits of work from home and being her own boss, she now gets to make a much bigger impact. The project is funded for five years, which is also Yumi’s rhythm of how long she stays with an organisation. We could not be more different if we tried, haha.

Last week was her first week on the job and everything is different of course. New office, driving the car to work, new morning and evening routines, getting to know new people, and dozens of small changes all happening at once. It’s a lot, but she’s a trooper and will make it into something amazing for sure. 

It’s also an adjustment for Dash and myself, because we’re used to her just always being around, but so far so good. Instead of going for a walk with my litter gripper and Yumi walking Dash when I leave for work, now Dash and I now go for an early morning walk at 5am, while Yumi get’s up at six and leaves at seven. On Monday and Friday I’ll still be home most week, so he’ll have some company, but on the other weekdays he’s going for mid-day walks with his new best friend, Raine the dogwalker. He really likes her and by going for a 30-45 minute walk in the afternoon, both Yumi and I can rest assured that he’s comfortable and entertained until we get home. Now we try to walk him together in the weekend and evenings, because those are moments all three of us value 😊.

After one week we’re starting to establish a bit of a new rhythm already and it will eventually all settle down. From Dash’s perspective the great thing is that we now have a double income again, so we can buy him even more snacks, clothes, beds and toys!

 

My work

I just ticked over on seven months on the job at Super Retail Group and that’s normally when I start to get restless. This time it’s a bit different although there are moments when I do think about what might be next for me, but not yet. The big project I am on is starting to take shape after what feels like years, but is really only 6 months. We’re putting a new system in place to improve our human resources processes and a bunch of other boring but necessary things and on top of that there is a bigger program that my project is part of that is also picking up speed and keeping everything aligned can be quite the challenge.

We’re now getting more people involved and have selected a supplier/partner who will help us with the project, which should be complete by October 2025. That sounds like it’s far off, but it’s really not, when considering how much work there is to be done. Fortunately we have really good people to work with and things are coming together now, so we’ll see what the next few months bring. If I make to one year, that would be an achievement in itself. I had my performance review early July and it was uneventful, no real issues or point of improvement. I do sometimes sense that my manager (who is very good as managers go) had expected a bit more perhaps, but he didn’t mention it, so maybe that’s all in my head. The plan was that I would lead a team of people, but that looks unlikely and to be honest, I don’t know that I’d want to do that in this organisation, I like my leader, but overall, the senior leadership team hasn’t impressed me too much so far. I am happy where I am, I work with smart people, get to contribute to things that matter to the business and the pay and work-life balance are pretty good too. Just thinking about finding a new job again makes me tired, so I guess I’ll stick around for a bit longer!

Change Management Institute activities

I’ve been keeping busy with volunteering for CMI. We’re doing a lot in the next few weeks, organising catch-up, putting on events with interesting speakers, half-day workshops and networking drinks that are always good fun. It’s also very good to see other team members step up and starting to organise events. Normally I would take all the initiative and then be a bit grumpy about others not doing as much, but now I just let things be, make some introductions, share some ideas and support from the sidelines.  And guess what? They are doing just fine without me! We’re planning a big end-of-year event for November, which is really just an excuse to have a party and celebrate all the hard work we’ve done and the wonderful community we’re part of, lots of feel good vibes!

It's very cool to see some ideas that worked really well in Melbourne when I was there, still work six years later in Brisbane. More and more people are starting to find us and make a real effort to come to our different events. Now there’s even talk of Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast getting involved and we have no shortage of sponsors so things are looking bright for the committee. As a feather in our cap we saw some figures that show that we are 1/3 the size in population compared to NWS and VIC, but has nearly as many members as the other chapters. We only need 4 more members to be the biggest chapter in the world of CMI, so of course that’s what our goal is now. Not because we have to, but because we can, haha. We might even make it by the end of the year…

Rural Fire Service training and fire season

It’s been really good to have training to go to and actually learn useful things again. It’s just so much fun to play with hoses and water, set things on fire (in a controlled burn kind of way) and then put it out too. 

We train every Thursday and I make it to most training nights, plus I get to read lots of manuals and training books about what to do with the equipment, different types of fire scenarios and how to be really good at firefighting. Lots to learn still, I’ve just finished fundamentals and am now doing the course for Firefighter Minimum Standards and then it’s on to Firefighter Advanced Standards and that’ll be 2026 before I get there. I don’t necessarily want to lead a team, but if I want to, I can also train to become a crew leader. One step at a time though, having fun and being safe is more important than progressing and telling others what to do, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where I end up eventually, it’s the story of my life…

This brigade is such a different experience from SES that I actually look forward to training again and there’s good natured banter and poking fun at each other while we’re also learning new things. We also have a such a diverse crew, from car towers, to snake catchers, traffic controllers and nurses that there’s always something to talk about. Last Sunday we had a longer training session where we practiced with different types of pumps, foam, hoses and connectors and also to completely empty the 2,000 litre tanks we have to then practice to fill them up again from the standpipe on the watermains in the street. It’s funny how I never noticed all the infrastructure there is to help with firefighting in the community, but there is a lot and we get to just use it, which is good fun.

(this was a very controlled hazard reduction burn, nothing scary happened but it makes for great pictures!)

Fire season starts here on the first of August and we’ve already had some very small fires, mostly lit by kids and dumb people who don’t know what they are doing trying to burn some leaves and yard clippings and then the fire gets away and almost burns their house down. My commander tells me I am ready to go out to fires and help, but with work and the distance to the brigade I think I’ll mostly be the back up or switch out crew and that’s fine for me too, small steps keeps it fun to volunteer.

 

House hunting

Our rent has now increased to $645 a week which is not all that high in the neighbourhood here, but it’s enough for us to start considering buying a house instead if continuing to pay rent. The market is nearly unaffordable as it is and our thinking is that we better get something now before prices get to a level where we really don’t want to pay that much money for an average house.

Our initial plan was to buy land and then build on it, but now we’ve inserted one more step to first buy a home, before we buy THE home later on. Yumi wants it more than I do, but if she wants it, I want it for her too and I can see the benefits of having our own place.

We’ve been working with a mortgage broker who has been great and have already been pre-approved for more money than we want to spend, but it’s nice to have a buffer if we run into the right property. We’ll probably not be able to stay in Springfield Lakes because for what we want to spend, there aren’t that many homes available. Really average homes go for $800,000+, while in other parts of Brisbane and surrounds you can still get some decent plots and a good house for 650-700. If you say it fast enough it doesn’t sound like a ridiculous amount of money is what I tell myself.

Lower prices often mean the property is older and further to travel for work, but I am okay with that, our lives change all the time and it’s not our forever home. While we both work we can save so much money that in a few years’ time we’ll be able to upgrade and buy our own land and do what we want for the house. It’s been very good this Saturday to go to 6 properties and see what’s out there for what price. A lot of the homes are okay, but some are really ordinary or even overpriced. I am sure we can find something and we have our eye on one house which is quirky and different, stands on 900m2 of land and doesn’t need a lot of work.

Nowadays you can get so much information that it’s really important to move quickly and don’t wait to long. That’s more of a challenge for Yumi than it is for me as she always wants to explore all the options and check all the details, but this being such a big purchase, I keep reminding myself that her approach is the smart play and I should try to be patient. See, I can be an adult when I try! 😊

 

My new bike

A few weeks ago my bike got stolen from the train station! I had it locked and everything but I came back from work one night and it just wasn’t there. I stood there like a dummy for a while just not understanding what had happened, but then I went home, filed a police report and used Yumi’s bike instead for a few weeks. I did finally get around to securing a spot in the closed off bike locker but after parking my bike outside in the rack for at least 250 times and never having had an issue, I wasn’t expecting this. I’ll probably never see that bike again, which is sad because it used to be my dad’s and I have travelled so many kilometres on it in the ACT, Melbourne and now here! Then again, it was 20 years old and all but the frame had been replaced by now. Still, it annoys me that people couldn’t just leave my stuff alone, get your own bike!

Anyway, I was thinking about buying an e-bike (bike with an electromotor) for a while and now I had the best excuse to do so. I bought a cheap one to figure out if it is for me, but after just 2 weeks I can say I love it! (see picture, it also has mud guards now). Especially here in Springfield Lakes, with steep hills everywhere it’s a lot more fun to ride my bike than before. It used to take 10 minutes to get to the shops, now it’s 4. Time to the station was 7 minutes, now it’s just 5. It’s not that I am racing everywhere now more than I was, but the time lost crawling up the hills, out of breath and sweating like a race horse really are a thing of the past. Yesterday I did get a new saddle fixed because the other one hurt my backside, it was as hard as a plank and my 45-year old behind needs a bit more comfort than that, haha 😊.

 

Yumi’s dancing

Yumi’s done another performance with the Common People Dance Project three weeks ago and this time around she was even more of a pro than last. She had so much fun with the outfits, hair, routines and training and practicing. Their Ipswich group did the ‘girlband’ songs while another team did the ‘boyband’ songs, which is horrible music, you might not even call it music, but they had so much fun and the performance actually looked good! I think between the 6 teams there we 200 people joining in, so that was a lot of big hair, spandex and glitter!

She enjoys the dancing so much that she’s joined another group here in Springfield Lakes which is just 3 minutes down the road and they’ll also do a performance that I get to show up for and enjoy somewhere in October I think, which is just after the big September finale of Common People so she’ll get lots of exercise before then. And I get to vacuum all the glitter out of, well, everywhere!

Yumi’s new look. She decided it wasn’t for every day, but just right for this performance which was very over the top.

 

Small stuff

There were a lot of small things that also happened in the past 2 months.

• ·      Surgery appointment

We went to the plastic surgeon appointment to see if I could get another operation, but that turned out to come down to almost $50,000!! I was ready for 20, maybe 25, but 50?! That’s crazy money. I was so disappointed when I opened and read the quote, but I am over it now. I still got some good advice out of it and my diet has stuck since then and I am now at 86, with 85 on the horizon by the end of the month. Maybe I’ll revisit the option in 5 years, but right now that seems like so much money we could spend on other things, like a house, a car, renovations, a holiday to antarctica for 3 months or a lifetime supply of dog treats for Dash. 😊

 

• ·      Cameras in the house

As a bit of reassurance for ourselves, we’ve installed 2 cameras in the house so we can see what Dash is up to when we’re at work and it is just the funniest thing to see him sleep in all sorts of positions throughout the day. He doesn’t get up to much, that’s for sure, but if he ever gets scared or panicked, we can talk to him through the camera as well. We tried it once and he looked so puzzled we couldn’t stop laughing (he couldn’t hear that) but it’s good to know we can let him know we’re there, even if we’re not. I wish we had the cameras in the backyard too because I turned my back for just a minute and he immediately started digging the hole he had started on with Bella when she visited in May. Grrrr. I had just closed it up and neat again. His backyard privileges have now been revoked!

 

• ·      New phone

I’ve also bought a new phone and it’s such an improvement over the old one. I bought that one cheap and thought it use it for a year, but it lasted for nearly 3 so I got my money’s worth, but it was not a great phone. The new one let’s me connect to the car again and I can listen to music and podcasts much easier now too. The best part? It was even cheaper than the previous one! Let’s see how long this one lasts 😊

 ·      Family and friends

Everyone is doing well, it’s summer in Europe, so everyone is on holiday or thinking about it and my parents are having the best time taking the caravan out for weekends away. They are about to go to France for a few weeks and I hope they have a great time of it. I’ll catch up with my friends soon and always love hearing their holiday stories

 ·      Coming to visit Saturday 31 August September

I’ve booked my tickets to come and see you for the early celebration of your 90^th birthday. I even booked an electric car to drive just to have a bit of fun myself driving around the ACT. I might do a quick trip from the airport around the old neighbourhood where we used to live before zooming over to your place. If all goes well, I should be with you around 9.30-10.00. I have to get back to the airport around 3pm, but other than that I look forward to visiting after almost 2 years!

 ·      9 years in business, new website

Last week I had a mini-celebration myself for being in business for myself with Kruidenier Consulting for the past 9 years. It’s not like I wanted to grow the business and become a real consultancy employing others, but it’s been good to think of myself as a business and it’s brought me lots of great people to meet and work with and some opportunities that I might not have had otherwise. My friend Peter, who I wrote the book with, even created a new website for me so I look all modern and professional in the 10^th year and beyond. I love it!

 ·      Citizenship application

Pfff, I’ve finally completed all the paperwork, scans, pictures and anything else you can think of and it’s now in the works with the government. I expect to hear back somewhere November, December maybe, just in time for Australia Day perhaps. Not that it matters too much, but I am just curious to go through the process and see what happens.

 ·      New glasses

I had to go to the optometrist again this week to check my eyes because I was starting to get headaches again. My eyes have gone backwards quite a bit, so now I am getting varifocals so I can see close up and at a distance equally well. They also told me to be smarter about wearing sunglasses but it’s a hassle to always bring two pairs and half the time I forget, so now I am getting glasses that change to a darker colour when I am out in the sun. Problem solved, ha, take that sunshine! 😊

 ·      Student papers

I got no less than 7 papers to grade form my Change Tools students and for once most of them were really good. Two were what I would call ‘professional quality’ and it was just so nice to get confirmation that it is possible for students to do a very good job at these plans. There was also a lot of very positive feedback about the course materials and me as a teacher, which is always a good day when that happens.

I think that’s it for this time around. I really look forward to seeing you in a few weeks and I am sure we’ll have more adventures to talk about then. I’m going to try and come up with a good gift for your very significant birthday. I know I don’t have to, but I want to, so let’s see what I can think of!

 

Be well and stay warm until spring comes along.

 

Gilbert

 

Ps. 2 more pictures on the next page of Dash living his best life in his pyjamas to stay warm and lazing about in the sun when his yard privileges were still in effect…