Bellbird Park, 1 December 2024
Hi Marlis,
I hope you are doing well, Spring was always my favourite time in the ACT with the weather being just right for doing things outdoors, but today is the start of Summer, so make sure you stay cool and upright!
Even for my standards, it’s been a crazy busy two months, especially since I stopped working at Super Retail Group, but as usual, things worked out almost completely to plan. Here we go with our adventures of the past two months.
The new house
The thing that took up most of my time and energy over the past 6 weeks was of course the new house, 1 Trevor Street in Bellbird Park. It’s only 7km from the house in Springfield Lakes, but feels much farther away somehow. It’s green, quiet and quite nice, with most familiar shops, dog walks and activities about as close as they used to be. We’ve got a big shopping plaza nearby and two big shopping centres a bit further away, but there’s not that much for which we need to go to the city most weekends.
The house itself has enough space for the three of us and Dash’s 7 beds, one in each room just in case he needs to lie down and rest from all that sleeping! The kitchen is laid out better for us that in the other house and the rooms are big enough. The thing we have to get used to a bit is having a separate ‘media room’, where we watch TV and sit on the sofa most evenings. We might change that later on, because it feels a bit disjointed, but we’ll take everyone’s advice and live in the house a bit first before we start knocking down walls.
It's also been a very different experience for me than for Yumi. I’ve been home every day since we moved, while she’s been at work or travelling. I just did all the things that needed doing and she would come back to all those changes every day, trying to figure out what was different this time, haha. It’ll be a few months before we’ve truly settled in, but the Christmas break is coming up and we have no real plans to go anywhere, so we’ll hang around the house and get used it slowly.
The moving day went about as well as planned. I’d already moved a lot of things from the old to the new house, but had to wait for the painters and tile tradies to get their work done, so I kept moving things from room to room. I also took out the carpet from 2 rooms, thinking that we were replacing it with laminate floorboards, but Yumi couldn’t decide and we ran out of time so I had to put the carpet back. For once I had the good sense to not cut it in small strips, so now we have really bad carpet in two rooms and might end up reflooring all 5 rooms eventually. Okay, so that didn’t go to plan…😊
I had help on the day from my friend Michael and between the two of us we made quick work of what I first thought was one truckload but it turned out to really be two and it JUST fit into the truck. I had really miscalculated how much stuff we actually had, but all the same, by 3.30pm it was all done and when Yumi came home at 5pm everything was more or less in its place. We spent the weekend going back to the old house and doing a very thorough clean in which Yumi cleaned her bathroom and I did essentially everything else, haha. We also had to unpack some more boxes and make about 20 trips to Bunnings for the final things we needed, but by the end of the weekend, we were basically ready to start living in the new house.
There was of course the matter of the end-of-lease clean up and the real estate agent was giving us a hard time bout some pre-existing small damages that we had nothing to do with and as they had no evidence, that just went away quietly. I did go back once more to vacuum up 3 flies (big deal to them) and scrub the oven pan to within an inch of its life but we got our bond back and only had to pay rent and mortgage for about 4 weeks. I love it when a plan comes together! I was a good house to live in, but having our own is even better 😊
We’ve started working with a garden designer because we have a lot of yard space and it’s not used much right now. It’ll cost an arm and a leg (probably $50-60,000!) to get a new fence (60+ meters), all new plants, an extended patio, new soil, more plants and probably also additional drainage and then even more plants. So many plants, I don’t know where we’ll put all those, but the design will let us talk to landscapers who can hopefully do the whole job in a few phases somewhere from March/April next year. We’re looking to get a native garden going and probably also need some arborist work done on the neighbours’ properties, good times! The end result will be great for sure, but I never imagined spending so much money on a yard, especially since I don’t even like gardening!
Moving the lawn is now a multi-day activity every two weeks. I hate it so much, but put on some music and just keep walking, it has to get done. There’s so much grass and if I don’t keep it up, the lawnmower can’t handle the height of it and on top of that I run out of battery a few times too. It’s enough green waste to completely fill up our massive green bin, so I’ll be very happy to see 80% of all that grass go! Once we have the design, I’ll include a copy in the next letter so you can see what it’ll be like once it’s done.
We also had an electrician come in to install the oven and electric stove top, which work really well even though we have to get used to how fast things heat up. We’ll have to replace the range hood (already have it) and some fans and maybe add some wall sockets in places, so we’ll see him again in the new year haha. Then there was the plumber to fix some pipes, drains and our water pressure. The pipes are great now, but the water pressure is still pretty ordinary, which appears to be common in the area, so we’ll have to learn to live with that. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal of course.
Coming Thursday we’re getting insulation in the roof because it gets super hot on sunny days and we could of course just blast the five aircon units we have, but insulation is probably the better option. We have enough solar panels to power everything we need, but still, it will be better if the temperature in the house and garage doesn’t fluctuate so much, for us, but also for Dash. And to round it all off, the week after, we’ll have the termite protection people come and set us up with a complete termite and pest barrier for which they are apparently pumping 700 litres of poison into the soil around the border of the house. Wow! They tell us that it’s not unlike the flee and tick control poison we use on Dash, just liquid and a lot more. It should keep the house pest free for the next 8 years, and everyone keeps telling us we really should do that. At this stage, what’s another few thousand dollars, right?!
Other than that there were about 1 million small things to do, from cleaning the gutters to painting outside stairs, organising the garage, getting rid of big household waste items, hanging paintings, pressure washing the driveway and retaining walls, scraping paint of tiles and replacing the seven different types of light bulbs and cleaning the 27 downlight light covers. It’s a good thing I have so much energy but I was starting to feel quite tired mid-way through November.
We’re now slowly getting used to the new neighbourhood, finding new walking routes for Dash, figuring out where side streets go and what is the best way to get from A to B at what time of the day. We’re in between two big schools so there’s always kids and cars flying around and random people parking outside our house, but nothing too annoying. Give it a few more months and we’ll feel right at home!
Finishing up at Super Retail Group
The last few weeks on the job were the typical wrap-up and handover business, but nothing too exciting, I did my best work until the last day even though my head was already half in plans for the new house. Saying that, I did finish as I started, showing up and doing the work, making sure the team had as much of a chance to keep going as possible. The strange thing is I don’t miss it at all, sometimes even forget I worked there. I guess I just put everything I had into the projects that I worked on and then when it was time to leave, it felt like the job was done. I am still talking to one of my old teammates and she’s also thinking of moving on after 13 years, so that’s a big change for her. And my colleague Gerad, who I already knew from working at University of Queensland and volunteering at Change Management institute is now more a friend than a coworker, so that’s another positive. I have no idea of the project’s success and progress itself, my replacement was supposed to arrive quickly but I don’t think they found someone as fast as they wanted. Oh well, they’ll figure it out, they are smart people. I’ve moved on and looking back had a really good time while I was there.
Yumi’s activities
Yumi’s been acing it at work, to no one’s surprise of course 😊. Her team and managers like her a lot and she’s making good progress on her project already. It’s just the best to see how well she’s taken to the new role and it’s already (or only) been 4 months since she started. They had their Christmas function two weeks ago and decided to do a ‘flash mob’ once the music part of the evening started. If you don’t know, a flashmob is a surprise activity where a group of people break out in a dance routine or group song and entertain the audience before going back to normal afterwards like nothing happened.
Yumi was the dance coach and ended up with ten or so colleagues dancing their butts off for 4 minutes to the high energy song “Footloose” from the dance movie. I saw the flashmob video last week and it looked pretty good. At the start in October, there were 18 people saying they would join in, but as the date crept closer, there were some ‘cold feet’ and last minute cancellations, but the remaining colleagues put on a good show and everyone loved it. I think she already has big plans for next year, with more preparation time it’ll be even better, maybe even a musical, haha! If you would have told her three years ago she would be doing this, at work, she’d fall off the sofa laughing for sure, but there she was, leading the charge! I love how her dancing has brought out this side of her again, she’s definitely having fun with it.
There will be another performance of the Choo La La, burlesque dancing group she’s also in, in two weeks and this time I’ll sit a bit further away to see if I feel any less awkward looking at all these ladies shaking their stuff on stage 😊. Yumi’s enjoying it, so I’ll be there regardless and it’s Christmas themed, so I’ll leave with at least 5 songs that I can’t get out of my head for the rest of the year!
Last week she was travelling for work to Perth for a conference and Dash and I were at home, me just starting a new short-term role and Dash recovering from his dental work (more on those things later). Yumi and her manager Chloe presented on their project and the rest of the three days she made new work friends and connections, as she does really well. Of course she’d rather had been at home, but I think it’s good for her network and professional profile, so always happy to support her in any way I can. We went to pick her up at the airport on Thursday evening and everyone was happier for it!
Dash’s adventures
It’s been quite the adjustment for Dash, moving to the new house. We hadn’t realised how much he enjoyed living in the previous house, but I think he would have preferred to stay there. It doesn’t help that there are some pretty big flying insects around here, which he’s terrified of and now Yumi’s not home most of the day, he has to deal with me. For all the snacks, freedom and attention I give him, I should absolutely be his biggest friend and favourite human, but no, he still likes Yumi better. Well, so do I, so we have that in common, ha! He’s now developed this new routine where he doesn’t want to go for a walk in the morning AND evening, making it a real challenge to get him to go outside to do his business before bed and work.
On Monday night, when it was just us and he really didn’t want to go, I just let it be and he seemed fine the next morning 😊.
He's had a pretty big dental procedure last week, where 14 of his 42 teeth got extracted. Mostly the very small ones at the front but they have such long roots! It’s a good thing we have the money because it is sooooo expensive, nearly $5,000 with all the meds and checkup. I mean, how do people who are less well off than us do that?! Well, they don’t I guess, and that’s not great for the dog, so we’re very grateful that we could have this done for him and he’s already a lot happier. Mostly because instead of kibble, he gets fed soft foods like chicken and a thing called Prime100 which is a really big, processed sausage that we cut up into pieces because beef doesn’t agree with his tummy and gets stuck in his gums. He loves it and so do I because I can hide the 4 pills he needs to take for the next few days still. You can see the picture below for all his extracted teeth, the pen is for size 😊.
Other than that, he’s doing okay, not really loving the new neighbourhood yet, but it’ll take a few more months and then he should be fine. His left shoulder is still a bit sore but you should see how excited he gets when he knows we’re going away and he gets to come to the park or lake, running around like a headless chook and banging his head on the tailgate of the car just to get in as fast as possible, haha, he’s such a character.
The new short-term role
Through my network, I picked up an 8-week role to help a dairy company (Lactalis, from Paul’s milk and Icebreak) get a project back on track as soon as possible. I’ve just completed the first week and I think I’ll be able to do some good, but it’s very tight on the timeframe and deliverables. It took a few weeks to come together, but I was busy with the house, so not too worried and I was half expecting to NOT work anymore this year (just like last year).
They pay me extremely well for the privilege of helping them out, which is very welcome over Christmas where things normally are very slow and after all the expenses we had for the house. I get to work as close to the city as I’ve been so far and it’s a nice change of pace from more complex long-term change work. It involves starting up a timesheet system for people who have not used one before, but I won’t bore you with the details. It’s safe to say it’s always very sensitive and we have to choose our words carefully. There’s so little time that I can’t really get into too much detail anyway, before we move on to the next thing. It’s what I enjoy every now and then, delivering stuff every day and making things happen!
I’ll wrap up by end of January and don’t have anything lined up just yet, although there might be an opportunity to work with an airport in Darwin (of all places) if that works out, which will be good fun. There were some other opportunities but at this time of year, it’s always tricky and one I thought was going to go forward didn’t happen because I wasn’t in the same state. Well, I am not moving house again, sorry! 😊
RFS Firefighting
I’ve kept up my training and am now done with the first stage of my training, I think I can now call myself a true volunteer firefighter minimum standards (FMS). There’s still so much to learn and I’ve only been to a few fires, but I am really enjoying myself and the team is great. I was at two different community engagement events over the past two weeks and I still love just meeting people, talking with them about their fire readiness and preparations and having fun with the kids in the fire trucks. We even got to assist a lady who became unwell because of the heat that day, so we had a ‘mini-emergency’ (she was fine).
Our commanding officer is a true 30+ year emergency services veteran and longtime volunteer for St. Johns Ambulance, so she was in safe hands with him and I just distracted her with a bit of a chat and some jokes, which calmed her down until the Ambulance arrived to check her over. We also did some tin shaking for McHappy Day (for the Ronald McDonald Children Homes) two weeks ago. The weather was so bad, but the people very generous, so we gave it a good go for 5 hours and then it was raining so heavily we had to call it off, because people got drenched in their cars opening the window trying to give us their change.
It’s always a bit strange to want to go to fires, because it means bad things have happened, but I do hope to go out to a few fires in the next months to build up my skills. We’ve also got our end-of-year party coming up next week and that’ll be fun to go and hang out with them for a bit, they are all very nice people and were such a diverse group. We’ve got a snake catcher, airforce commander, tow truck driver, traffic controller, biochemist, landscaper, carpenter, social worker, nurse, mechanics, IT professionals and about ten other professions, so there’s always enough to learn and stories to share.
CMI End-of-Year event
I’ve also been very busy helping to organise our end-of-year event for the Change Management Institute. We wanted to give people a digital goodie bag, so me and my big mouth said: “I’ll do that” and it was so much more work than I had though. It was fun though, connecting with my world-wide network and asking them to provide some free stuff that we could bundle together and give to our members and participants. More than 80% joined in and it had some really cool stuff in there for sure. But there was also the dress-up items to organise, communicating across the country with different teams to get everything just right, building the presentation slide show for the evening and then doing the promotion online.
I always end up doing more than I planned because other people on the team have different lives and planning skills than I have, but I did notice I got a bit tired of it all near the end. We’ve got a planning session for 2025 coming up and my plan is to take it a bit easier next year, to let one of the other 10 committee members do a bit more. The challenge is that I always have so many ideas and know exactly what to do, but we’ve had an exceptional year already and if 2025 is just as good, that’ll be great value for money for our members.
Polly, the second car
Just last week we finally bought a second car, a white Volkswagen Polo from 2018, and we’ve named it Polly. We picked it up yesterday and because the weather has been horrible for the past 10 days didn’t go for much of a drive, but it’s still fun to look outside and see it there. We’ve managed to do fine with just one car for the past 10 years, so we’re still getting used to the idea ourselves too.
It’s nothing fancy, but will give us quite a lot more flexibility with Yumi being able to do her dog volunteering and dancing whenever she likes, while I also get to go and do whatever I like, whenever I like. We got a good deal on this one, and decided to do a pre-purchase inspection to be sure. Good thing we did, because there was a leaky shock absorber which they agreed to replace at no cost. We hadn’t noticed anything wrong with it, but the service from the car dealer was exceptional and very friendly. The back tires and brakes are probably up for replacement next time it gets a service, but that’s alright, we know we bought a used car, not a new one 😊.
Small stuff
There were also so many small things that happened that I’ll just list them all here, it’s a long list so make sure you’re sitting down.
• On my morning litter picking walks a few weeks ago, I found a dog by itself out on the street and as she didn’t have a lead, I carried her home for most of the way until I realised her 10kg body could walk just fine and she didn’t really run off. As it was already 30 degrees at 8am, I opted to let her do her own walking! I kept her at home for 4 hours after posting on the various lost dog online notice boards, but no one knew about her or claimed her. Me and our wonderful dog walker (Raine) took her to the vet to get her chip read and it turns out that Raffa lives close by and her owner’s details were in the database, so she’ll be happily back home now.
• I had an insect bite on my elbow a few weeks ago and it must have gotten infected because it swelled up to three times its normal size. As you know I don’t normally go to the doctor because what do they know, right?! 😊. Well, this time it hurt so much that I thought to go and good thing I did because even the doctor was worried. I went to get x-rays and ultrasounds and it was pretty cool to see my arm on the inside! It showed that nothing terrible had happened and that 5 days of antibiotics would solve the problem. The doctor did mention the meds would give me diarrhoea and she was not kidding! But all is good now again even though it is still a bit sensitive, at least it’s back down to its normal size and flexibility.
• For the first time in, I can’t even remember, I had a flat tire while riding my bike. It couldn’t have happened on a worse day, as I was on my way to hand in the house keys of the old house and then go to the city for two appointments. I ended up walking back 3km in my dress shoes (so.many.blisters!) changing my outfit (it was 32 degrees), getting back on Yumi’s non-electric bike and cycling back to the station I was almost at before I got a flat. I arrived just in time, so no harm done, aside from to my poor feet, haha!
• My friend Michael finally got his wish and got accepted into the police academy here in Queensland. I am so excited for him, it’s been a seven year process for him and now it’s all happening! It will mean some big changes in his and his family’s life and income because he’s got a very good job now with lots of freedom and all that will go away when he becomes a rookie, but I am pretty sure he’ll love it and rise through the ranks quickly. Never hurts to know a cop too!
• Our washing machine finally decided to give up the ghost after 10+ years and didn’t want to pump water anymore. I found out on Thursday afternoon, had one picked out Friday morning, went to the shops to get it and got it set up. Then I put the old one out on the green strip where it was gone in less than an hour and when Yumi came home from work it was like nothing had happened, haha!
• Yesterday, I got confirmation that my Australian citizenship application has been approved, yay! I am not yet an Australian citizen until I’ve taken the pledge, but that might happen on 26 January 2025 already, so only a few more weeks really. How exciting! I look forward to taking part in the final steps of the process and doing the ceremony on Dash’s birthday no less!
• I got so fed up with our saggy sofa that we sent it off to get its seating foam replaced as the springs had already given up the ghost after just 2 years. The warranty had of course expired and I couldn’t be bothered to get into a fight with the shop who sold it, I just know we won’t be going there again. It was quite the process to get it out of the room with the saggy pillows, so you can image the difficulty to get it back in with the fully stuffed ones, but we got it done with only a few scratches on the freshly painted door and it’s so nice and firm to sit on now. Totally worth it!
• I finally (it was for something I did in 2020) got my Emergency Services Medal last month. I am still quite proud of it and might even wear at the next formal event for RFS!
Okay, I think that’s the big ticket items for this letter. I really hope the next few weeks are going to be less eventful because I can do with a bit of a break. I’ve hardly had time to play videogames or read a book, but the house is coming along nicely and that was the plan, so bring on Christmas and you’ll hear from me again in the new year.
Be well and stay cool,
Gilbert
