Springfield Lakes, 5 October
Hi Marlis,
I can’t believe it’s been 5 weeks already since I visited you and that this will be the last letter from this house before we move, but it’s all happening! I hope you are now recovered fully from your fall and that daylight savings isn’t throwing you too much for a spin! It’s so weird that Queensland doesn’t join in, feels like we’re out of sync with the rest of the country.
It’s been crazy busy, even for our standards, so there’s lots to update you on, here we go with our latest adventures!
Visiting you
It was so good to see you just before your birthday. Wow, you are now 90 years of age and we’ve known each other for 9 years of that, pretty cool! I am so glad I took the Saturday to come and see you and have a chance to just listen to you chat about what is on your mind. It always makes me a bit sad to hear that you don’t have someone more interesting to talk to and that they are all so busy with their own lives. You know you can always call me for a chat! Next time I visit I hope the ants are still safely outside inside of everywhere inside, what a mess that was, haha.
I know it’s pointless to say because of course you will do whatever you want, whenever you want and good on you, but if you have another fall, just go to the doctor so you don’t worry about everything that could be wrong. I completely understand you don’t want anyone to fuss over you, but we only do that because we care and want you around a bit longer. 😊
I enjoyed my mini-trip through the ACT too. My, it sure has changed! I flew in early on purpose just to see the sights for a bit of nostalgia and I am glad I did because everything has changed quite a lot in the past 2 years, Canberra is growing and then some! It was also nice that the blossoms were out in full force, it’s my favourite time in the ACT, everything is so alive. Bit of a shame about the gale force wind that was out that day, but at least it brought warmer weather the days after that.
I passed through the CBD on the way to your house and there are so many new buildings and venues I had to do a few double-takes just to know where I was. I was very proud that I could still navigate most of the route from memory, always a risk with me, I get lost so easily! I drove up the Barton highway to Gunghalin and saw that the mobs of kangaroos are still there and that reminded me of the early morning bike rides out by myself and drives to work with Yumi when we still carpooled, so many good memories. Then I drove past the house we lived in and the trees have grown and I almost missed the turnoff into ‘our’ street, everything looked so different. Then a quick stop in Gungahlin town at the place I used to work and helped set up, Winyu House and yes, it’s still there, now 10 years old already, which is amazing to think about.
From there, I drove the electric car I hired (so much fun and so quiet) to your house and your house looked exactly the same, always so nice and neat and cared for. As soon as I step inside, I always feel right at home and I love your LEGO flowers!
It was hard to leave again, I could have stayed for hours more, but time to catch the flight back home, so I drove back to the airport, and fortunately the car did not explode haha! The flight back was uneventful, I read a book, did some work and was back with Yumi and Dash who came to pick me up at the airport at 7pm. What a great way to spend a Saturday!
The new house
It’s been 3 weeks since we settled on the house (1 Trevor Street, Bellbird Park 4300) and so much has happened since! The settlement process was a lot of emails, phone calls, negotiations, last minute accidents (they hit a wall with their trailer, but paid for all the damages) and so many things to think about! Yumi and I are normally very good at staying organised, but everything seemed to be happening at the same time. So much so that we didn’t really even celebrate or felt very festive in the moment, like it wasn’t really happening to us, which is a bit weird, but we’re always a bit different, so why should this be any different?! 😊
We wanted a few things to be done before we move in on the 18th, like painting, steam cleaning the tiles, new floor coverings and a new oven, cooktop and range hood. There’s a longer list of jobs to do, including a new fence, a deck outside, finishing the landscaping and a tonne of other small things, but we’ll get there eventually. It doesn’t all have to happen at the same time, fortunately. The last page of the letter has a floorplan so you can see how the house is laid out, I’ll have some better pictures when we’ve well and truly moved in.
The painters are about to start today, on a Saturday, apparently that’s not so strange and as it’s a long weekend, I hope they make good progress. We’re paying good money to have the whole house fixed up and they seem like a reliable outfit, but let’s see what happens. They tell us it should take 5-7 days and I hope that’s true. It seems really fast, but if I compare it to my work, I can do the things I am good at really fast too, so we’ll see. We also had a guy come to steam clean the tile floors but that didn’t come up good at all. We now have the option to put some kind of seal in that will definitely make it look better. But now we’re wondering if we just leave the whole floor as is, before we replace it all with timber flooring, which is not in the budget right now (it’s about $20,25,000…) and also not in the planning with us moving in 2 weeks. We’ve seen enough home improvement shows to know that fast decisions and short timeframes make for poor financial decisions, so we’re just not doing that.
I enjoy going to Bunnings every few days, but wasn’t too happy when we bought panel board flooring for two rooms that have really rundown carpet and Yumi didn’t like them after all, so I got to bring them all back and they are not exactly lightweight to handle six times! She got so fixated on finding the perfect match to the floorboards in the other rooms that we visited about 10-12 stores and couldn’t find it, so we just gave up and I put back the carpet I had just pulled out, yay! I understand her point, but would have been happy with a mismatched clean floor instead of the ratty carpet we have now, but no one will die if we keep it in there for a few more months while we figure it out, so let’s do that.
Once we move in, we’ll have to get serious about the back and side fence because that’s drunkenly leaning over. Every time we visit, I think it’s about to fall over, but it’s still standing today! We’ll have to work with both our neighbours and that shouldn’t be too hard as we’re willing to pay for it as long as they can agree to Colourbond metal fencing because I don’t want timber, it always ends up looking bad. We’ll leave it up to them if they want to get involved on the payment, we just need to get it done. It’ll also lift the appeal of the house and make it safer for Dash to run around, so that will be a priority once we’re in the house.
Yumi’s dance performances
Yumi’s been busy with her dance performances over the past two months. She’s joined another community dance group here in Springfield Lakes, called Choo La La, which is less creative dance and more burlesque, like Moulin Rouge, but it’s middle-aged women having a good time without any men in the room, so that always gets my vote, especially as I don’t have to participate, haha!
She just had the big final performance with the Common People Dance Project which was in a theatre in the city this time. It was so busy that I was late because I couldn’t get parking (I had booked ahead) even though I arrived 25 minutes early. Fortunately, I missed only the first 10 minutes, which I’ve seen a few times, but got to see all the 7 teams perform and it gets bigger and crazier every time they perform. It’s two hours of fun, the teams giving it their all and lots of glitter and it’s great to see people having such a good time.
In preparation she’s always working on outfits, practicing the routines, and going to training two nights a week, such a difference from a few years ago when she would hardly leave the house, I love it! Now that she’s done two rounds of 2-3 shows, two years in a row, she’s already a veteran, helping others and enjoying herself a lot more because she knows what’s coming and next year she might start helping design the routine, which sounds like fun, but not enough for me to get involved, which they always ask because they need more men.
Volunteering CMI
I’ve been keeping busy with my volunteering for Change Management Institute, writing book reviews for the newsletter, participating in writing an article about mental health in Change Management and that’s been good fun and meaningful volunteer work.
Last week, we also wrapped up the second year of the mentoring program I helped organise, which sounds like more work than it was. Last year really was a lot of work, but this year we had all the documents and structure in place, so we could do the same thing, but with less effort and more participants. Pretty cool that we got 18 couples working together on helping someone achieve their professional goals. I ended up having 2 mentees, but one wasn’t well and he didn’t really get to participate. The other, Claire, was so good to work with, that we decided to go on for a bit longer after the program ended. She’s got so many plans and ideas that I am really just there to remind her to do one thing really well and leave the rest for others, because her challenge is that she gets overwhelmed.
We also had networking drinks a few weeks back, which I never want to go to, but always end up having a good time with. And in 2 weeks we’ll have the fifth round of Lean Change Coffee, which is a very simple but fun concept. We get together in a group of 8-10 people, come up with some change-related topics, vote on which ones we want to talk about. Then we start and every time after 5 minutes we do a quick thumbs up, thumbs down vote to keep going or move on, which keeps it fun and light and we get through 6-7 ideas, discussions or brainstorms in just 60 minutes. It’s probably my favourite event ever, and I learn something every time. We get about 20 people to attend, not bad for a 7.30am start to the day!
We’re now starting to plan the end-of-year celebration, which has become a bit of a tradition at the end of November. Not so great is that the team always leaves it late, but for me to have fun with it, I don’t let myself get frustrated with it and only do what is asked while someone else takes the lead. I always have ambitions and plans that are way too big anyway, but every year it gets a bit fancier and more organised, so we’ll get there. It’s been a super busy year for us, but it shows as we are growing in member numbers and we might even be the biggest chapter in the world by now. Not that it’s a competition, but still, nice to be number 1!
There was also a Deep Dive into how change managers can use artificial intelligence in meaningful ways with my good friend Helen Palmer. On a Saturday morning in a library somewhere in Brisbane we managed to get 30 people in a room and learn together about how we can improve our work practices. She’s one of the best workshop facilitators I know and really delivered, which is always a joy to watch! Even though I am already quite familiar with the basics, she still made me think in different ways about new challenges and the future of change, so time well spent I would say.
Yumi’s work
Yumi is going great at the new job and I could not be happier for her. It’s so good to see her this way because it’s been a while that she could engage so deeply and fully with her work. Yes, it’s a big adjustment and yes, she’s got less free time, but she’s doing what she’s good at and it’s meaningful work. I love how she’s making plans, going to meetings with all sorts of government people, working with teams, coming up with new ideas to old solutions, she’ is the perfect person for this job.
They launched their project (it ends in 2029) last week and had a lot of interest, partly because it was also the send-off of their CEO, but mostly because they are planning to do great things and people support their ideas. And she might go to a conference in Western Australia, somewhere in December, so Dash and I have started planning the party already for when it’s just ‘us boys’, haha. Not that we’ll get up to anything, it just means I feed him more snacks and we hang out together more while we wait for Yumi to come home.
Work
My work has not been great for the past 2-3 months and I’ve decided to go and look somewhere else, so I resigned and my last day will be 11 October. We have enough financial reserves to easily pay our running costs and I wouldn’t mind a break. I’ve been working non-stop, with almost no breaks or holidays for 2 years and I am starting to feel it. I won’t bore you with the details too much, but I’ve tried a few things to make it work, spoke to my manager a few times, but it was simply too long to wait, too many people (eight at one point) trying to direct my work and treating me like a glorified administrative assistant. I think I have more to offer, but won’t be able to show that for the next 12 months and life’s to short for that. My thinking is that if I stop now, I can finish on a high note and timing-wise this is the best time to step aside.
My manager has been okay-ish about it, he can be a bit cold and distant when things don’t go the way he wants, but that’s for him to work on. I had built a good relationship with one colleague, Gerad, but he got his 4-weeks notice last month and left two weeks ago and now it’s just me with a project team that is so disorganised it’s not funny, always letting me in at the last minute to clean things up, which makes me look bad because there’s never enough time. Everything just feels out of control, and I’d rather not stay involved. All six of my direct change colleagues have been so frustrated and literally crying about their projects and I don’t want that for myself. I’ve prepared as much as I could for my successor and wish them all the best.
By the time you read this, I am in my last week or already a free agent once again and I think I’ll keep it that way for a while and then go to work as a contractor. I’ve tried to be part of a team a few times and it didn’t quite work out, perhaps I am better of just creating a bit of distance and just show up to do a really good job for the project. At least this way I’ll have time to do the move to the new house right and get settled in properly, which is a nice bonus. I have three weeks of leave, because I didn’t take a day off in 9 months, because plans kept changing and I really should, but now that money will go into our bank account as a reserve to pay the cost of living which should see us through to December for sure as Yumi’s income pays for 98% of everything already 😊.
My first real fire
I got to go out to a real fire six weeks or so ago and it was pretty cool. Mostly because no property or horses were impacted, but it’s always a bits ad to think of all the wildlife and insects who can’t get away in time. We had about 25 people out there and got it under control in a few hours, but it was quite the operation and I learned heaps more than in the classroom.
Then again, I’ve been going to training for 10 months now and am making good progress. I think a few more months and I will be a real Firefighter Minimum Standards, after which I can start training for Firefighter Advanced Standards. It’s been hard to get out to fires and help out because I don’t have the car when things happen or m busy with the house, but that’ll come in time, there will be plenty of time to join in and help out.
I am really enjoying being part of this brigade, it’s such a difference from when I was with SES, I actually look forward to the Thursday training nights now. Fun fact, our new house is 2 minutes down the road from the SES unit I used to be part of, just like in Altona! The travel distance to the fire station I am with now hasn’t changed at all, it was 13 minutes, it still is, just a different route.
Almost buying a new car
We almost bought a new car last week. We’ve been talking about it since Yumi knew she’d need the car for work, dancing and driving around dogs for Love a Greyhound, which leaves me the options of my feet, bike and public transport. This generally works out quite well, but I can’t respond to fire calls or get bigger things from Bunnings, IKEA or anywhere else without a lot of hassle. So we started looking at cars online, visited a few showrooms, even did some test drives but then Yumi got so stressed about picking the right one amidst all the relocation stress, new job and me being without work for a bit, so I decided we should leave it for now and deal with it later, I’ll make it work some other way. With the new house everything feels a bit further away, but it’s really not that big of a deal and we’ll make it work somehow.
Small (but important) stuff
• We’ve now had 3 open homes, for groups of people to come through and inspect the house we live in now as their new rental place. I’ve been keeping everything in showroom condition and there’s been some interest so we hope they sign up someone soon because paying rent and a mortgage will be a waste of money, but we knew that when we decided to break our lease. On the plus side, the house is clean all the time now and the final clean will be easier when we move out.
• I got to pick up my very fancy new handmade, custom designed blue shoes a few weeks back and they turned out really well. I don’t think I’ll pay that much money for shoes again in a long time, but this pair is the only pair like it in the world and that’s pretty cool, I hope they last me as long as my other fancy shoes, who are on average 12 years old!
• Yumi’s dad turned 75 last week and is refusing to take it slower even though he had a bit of a moment a few weeks ago where he nearly fainted and had to stumble his way home. I know it’s important to him to keep his autonomy and doesn’t like to be fussed over, but we do worry that one day he’ll just fall down and injures himself or is in such a remote place (he walks long distances, for 2-3 hours some times) help doesn’t arrive on time. Not much we can do or say as he’s as stubborn as an old goat, but we worry all the same.
• I did the final step in my Australian Citizenship application, the citizenship test three weeks ago and totally aced it. I had done so many practice tests that I essentially knew all the questions and smashed out the 20 questions in less than four minutes with a perfect score, ha! Yes, that’s all it is, 4 minutes for the test and 10 minutes for a chat to check your details and you can go. Now we wait again for the final steps, but I should be good to join the ceremony on 26 January next year, just before we’ve been here 11 years. Yumi lost the plot a bit and will have to restart the process, but she’s not exactly in a hurry
• I’ve finally finished a very challenging and rewarding computer game called Elden Ring, one of the hardest games in it’s category. Well, I almost finished it because ethe very final fight is so stupidly designe that I could finish it if I spent another 5-6 hours figuring it out, but after 110 hours I really didn’t see the point. I had gotten out of it what I wanted, made it to the very last fight and that was good enough. It is surely one of the best games I ever played, but now it’s time to move on to new things again. See, I game as I work and live, who says I am not consistent, haha.
Okay, that’s me done for this time, next time I’ll have lots more to share about the house, possibly a new job and who knows what else will have happened by then, but I’ll tell you all about it.
Be well, don’t fall over and get some sunshine every now and then.
Gilbert
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