Bellbird Park, 12 August 2025

 

Hi Marlis,

I hope you’ve been keeping warm as you’re heading towards your 91^st birthday, only a few more weeks of winter before Spring arrives and Canberra warms up a bit! Up here in Queensland we had a few cold nights with 0-2 degrees. Nothing that a scarf couldn’t fix or get excited about but of course everyone here treats it like we’re all about to freeze, haha. 

The past few months have been very busy, as usual, with a few endings and new beginnings, so here we go with our adventures of the past two months.

 

Yumi’s work and hobbies

Yumi celebrated the first of five years completed in her role with the Queensland Mental Health Alliance, that has gone so quickly! She now has a team of five specialists who (of course) all love her, she gets along well with her management team and is making good progress to her five-year plan. I am not surprised at all and couldn’t be happier that she’s once again doing work that gives her a sense of purpose. She’s becoming a bit more relaxed about things now as well, so she gets to enjoy herself and do meaningful work most days, not a bad outcome, right?

An even better outcome is that she’s made some new friends at work that she goes to have dinner with and goes on walks with every now and then. That’s such a change from when we lived in Altona and she’d stay in the house for days if I didn’t take her for a walk or a visit to the shops. I think the greyhound volunteering she does has certainly helped with being more social. She’s met so many strangers that became dog friends and she’s in constant contact with her fosters and adopters, not to mention all the markets and other events they organise for the greyhounds.

 

 

Her dancing is going well too. She’s training from event to event throughout the year and there’s always something going on with the two dance groups she’s part of. Last week we had the performance of the burlesque Choo-La-La dancing group, which is the one where 100+ women of all shapes, sizes and ages dance to music in their underwear (and sometimes topless, it’s 18+) for 2 hours and they make a better show of it every time. It’s 100% not my thing and still super awkward to sit there and watch it, but Yumi enjoys the dancing and teamwork, so I can sit there being uncomfortable for a few hours so she knows someone in the crowd is there for her alone.

Each performance I sit further away from the stage and last time I had a guy right behind me who was yelling and whistling (for encouragement, I think), which didn’t do anything for my ears, but it was impressive to see how they keep getting better every time. Next up is the Common People Dance Project in September and in her third year she’s now an old hand helping others settle in. That one I am sad about missing (I’ll be diving in the Maldives) because it’s so much fun and over the top, but I am sure she’ll have a great time.

The greyhound activities are busy as ever. Just last week we had two greyhounds getting dropped off from Rockhampton and picked up in a matter of hours to go to their new foster homes. The week before that we had another one and the events have been busy too. I helped out at two markets, which was just the best fun and a great source of income for the charity as well, but I am mostly there to play and cuddle with the dogs. It’s so wonderful to see all the people stop by for a chat, at some point we had about 12 greyhounds and 6 other dogs, which got a bit busy, haha. We also did another Bunnings barbecue that one of Yumi’s volunteer friends organises so well! We just turn up for a shift and help out getting things started and leave after a 7am to 12pm shift. I got to help out cutting another 12 kilos of onions, which only took an hours and 15 minutes, when I thought it would be 3. I found it does help to have a sharp knife and the cold outside actually helped, because we could leave them outside overnight. Still, the fridge stank of onions, but we got a tip to put baking soda in the fridge to soak up the smell and it actually worked!

 

 

Late June there was a bit of an emergency with vet bills for the charity. Due to a series of unfortunate events all of a sudden there was $11,000 to be paid. Yikes! But the greyhound community rallied together and ended up colleting $10,500 in donations, so that was a massive relief. As I often jokingly say; if you want to feel good about humanity, go and volunteer for an animal charity, you’ll meet the absolute best people!

Work around the house

Now that the new backyard fence is fully in place (we even got that last bit of insurance money and a contribution from the neighbours’ insurance), we were so excited to get started on the front yard fence. Then one day before they would get started the fence guy called to say their order hadn’t gone through at the supplier and now it’s 6 weeks delayed. Booooo! Not much we can do about it, so instead I removed the old brick mailbox that we both didn’t like and put up a new one, which already looks a lot better, even though it’s being held up by two star pickets at the moment 😊. I’ve also found that the best part about Queensland winter is that I didn’t have to mow the lawn for nearly 7 weeks, yay!

 

  

I also tried to remove some of the concrete left-overs from the front and back yard, but that wasn’t very successful. I bought the right tools, but since we have clay soil, it was hard going by hand and as we’re planning to get the topsoil removed and replaced soon, I’ll leave it to the people with the big diggers who will do it in a matter of minutes. We just got a quote that was within our expectations and will probably be a bit cheaper than that, but lets see how we go. There is some preparation I can do, but I’ll let the professionals deal with it so we get a good outcome. By the time the next letter comes around I hope the fence is in place and maybe we’ll even have actual grass in the backyard!

I did the gutters the other day and was expecting to see a lot less leaves with some of the big gum trees gone, but they were still pretty full and I am glad I didn’t leave it much longer. That would be so embarrassing with all my years of SES experience to then have flooding in the house because I didn’t keep my gutters clean. I also tried to clean our retaining wall with chlorine. It works alright enough, but I just feel so bad for all the little lizards, frogs and insects who might get burned or poisoned just so our wall looks a bit nicer (it will never be completely clean) so I’ve decided to leave well enough alone and eventually we’ll get plants to cover it instead.

Our new water tank pump is doing a great job, our water pressure is much better outside now too and I did use some of the chlorine to remove the green algae from the tank and that worked like a charm. I’ll give the remaining Chlorine to my friend Michael, he can use it in his never-ending pool project, haha.

Volunteering

It’s been good times with the Rural Fire Service, got to go out to a few controlled log pile burns and even helped put out an illegal one (no permit). It’s never dangerous, everything is very much under control when we get there, especially the ones that we set on fire ourselves, but I can definitely use the experience, so I try to go whenever I can. Most bush and grassfires happen during the day, unless it’s kids at night playing with matches, as they do, so I can’t go too often when I am working as it takes 45 minutes to even get there, but when I can, it’s always a good learning experience.

 

We also got some training on little buggies we can use for inspections and moving materials. Here I was expecting a lot more speed and torque, but instead we got up to a thrilling 25km/hr and the most exciting thing was that they are prone to roll over due to a high centre of gravity. No one rolled it during the training, so we all passes and had a good time.  I also went for a test drive in one of our fire trucks, which are still manuals (they are 20 years old). I did well enough, but didn’t really enjoy the experience as our training officer can get a bit too specific and always finds fault if you don’t do it perfectly. That gets old pretty quick and always makes me feel like I can’t be trusted to drive without banging into everything, so I am not putting my hand up for that again. We have enough truck drivers as it is, so they can drive and I’ll just sit ack. Especially after having driven the truck in VICSES around all parts of Victoria in some very trying circumstances, I don’t want to have to deal with comments about my hand position or not indicating fast enough on a road where we haven’t seen anything but kangaroos and cows for 20 minutes…😊. 

 

I finally got my pants! Not that I was walking around pantless, but we have a lot of pieces of unform, most of it yellow, but my ‘blues’ (cargo pants for formal events) as they are called went missing, got re-ordered, were on backorder, went missing again and finally arrived a few weeks back. Best of all, they are a perfect fit, so now it’s just my epaulettes and name badge. It’s only been nearly 2 years since I joined, so I should get them any day now…That’s the fire service for you, or any other service really, haha!

 

Finishing up at Lactalis

On 31 July I wrapped up the job at Lactalis after 8 months and it was such a good experience. The team had organised a card, a gift (donation to a greyhound charity) and even took me out for drinks, which was lovely. I got so much appreciation while I was in the role that I never felt like I or my work were not valued and we did some amazing things with our small but might team. I won’t list all the things here, because they might not make any sense to you and it’s pretty boring to read through when you’re not in the job! Let’s just say that I did the work of three people and we (for once) got to do what we needed to do. It was a bit unfortunate that I didn’t get to see the end result, but I’ll hear about it eventually if everything goes to plan it will be in the news in a few months. If they run into more delay…well, then it’ll be 2026.

I had done all I could do for the project by the time I finished up, so it felt good to be able to hand over a complete set of communications and plans for them to unpack at each milestone for the project. There’s still a lot to do, but they’re set up for success for sure. The organisation is going through a lot and if they’d ever ask me to come back, I just might as it was such a good experience. Then again, a job I am interviewing on Tuesday is literally 200m down the road, so I can pop by my new friends at Lactalis any time if that all works out.

I don’t have anything else lined up just yet and it’s always funny to me that when I announce I am ‘on the market’ again, everyone always says I will get snapped up in a moment, but that’s generally not how it goes. This new role I might get is at a building company, they want a permanent employee to set up their change and business improvement team and it sounded like such a good job, perfect for me. Then I found out the person who wrote the job description essentially wrote it for me as she knows me and wants to work with me. I am meeting the leadership team soon and feel this is mine to lose, but we’ll see. If this doesn’t work out, I’ll wait until I am back from the dive trip to the Maldives and then start looking in earnest. The building company would like m to get started mid-September anyway, so let’s hope it all works out!

 

Melbourne trip

As a treat to myself, I went on a 2-day trip to Melbourne all by myself, just to meet old friends and visit places we used to go. I started at 3.30am on Sunday and arrived in Melbourne at 9am, picked up my ‘Mystery Car’, which was a very unexciting Toyota Corolla, but it was a good car for a few days.

My first stop was Kathryn, who I first met in 2017 while working at Deakin and we always stayed in touch and connected over our love for Cookie Monster. She went through a lot in the past few years (lost her husband to a long-term illness, then her job, then her mom) but seems to have come out better for it on the other side and that’s just great! We had a very nice brunch in a café and then I zoomed off to the other side of town to meet with my friend Joanne. Joanne and I meet for the first time in 2016 when she trained me in some change thing and we’ve always stayed in touch online, getting together when the time and place worked out. It was so good to see her and hear what’s been happening for her. She’s one of the best change managers I know and always has unique perspectives to share. I even had time for a quick stop in St. Kilda for a piece of cake from a famous cake shop and short walk on the beach. The weather had been gorgeous all day and it was super busy, but that’s how I remember that part of town best.

My next catch up was at 6pm for dinner at yet another part of town so I had time to check into my very average hotel (didn’t want to spend money on it) and I got to walk around the city a bit to see what has changed. Melbourne felt so much busier than Brisbane, not like I remembered it from 3 years ago, but it was good to see it bustling like before Covid. I walked the 4 kilometres to Fitzroy for dinner with Natasha, checking in with lots of spots I used to meet people and some places I worked at or went shopping. I spent a lot of time on the streets of Melbourne, that’s for sure.

Dinner was great, Natasha is also a long-time Change friend who I’ve known since 2018 and we share many views on how Change Management should be done, I’ve been a guest on her podcast and soon will be again, just for fun. By the time I got back to my hotel it was 9.30pm and after a quick call with Yumi (and Dash) I went to bed because it had been a long day.

The Monday started bright and early and not cold at all. I drove to Altona, where we used to live and wanted to beat traffic so I arrived at 7am and it was still dark! I forgot that it takes longer to get light in Melbourne, after all Queensland is 1,800km up the road, haha. It was great to tour the town, and see how everything has changed. The street we used to live on now has three new houses, our old dog-walking spots all have bigger trees and Altona is still Altona, but with more apartment buildings. They started building them when we left, took them 3 years to finish them almost to the day. I really like the new pier they built, it’s much longer and wider and less prone to fall apart. Bit strange that there’s now paid parking in most spots, but that was always going to happen, I guess.

I got the time wrong for meeting my friend Fiona at 9am, I thought it was 8am! I used the time to drive to Williamstown to see the beach and even got to stop by the old filming spot for the tv series Blue Heelers, so funny to see what it has become since they stopped filming 20 years ago, it looks very similar still. I stopped at the beach, got some fresh air, some sea gulls sat on my car for a bit and I made it back in time to Altona to go for a walk with Fiona as we used to do since 2018.

 

I went back to the city to park and do some shopping but didn’t end up buying much, just walking around and zipping through town on trams and trains until it was time to meet my friend Peter, who I wrote the book with and did about 20 other projects. We’ve been friends since 2016, he was the first person that I had a coffee catch up with after moving from the ACT to Melbourne and I think it’s great we’re still friends. He’s move away from Change management quite a bit, he’s more into investing in the financial markets on the side to his government job, but we still had lots to talk about, like his engagement (after 12 years), travel plans and new ideas for things we can work on together.

 

My final stop was my old SES unit in Altona, so I drove back after meeting with Peter and finding something to eat and it was so good to see them too. Everyone who had worked with me was still there, well some have moved to other areas, but enough familiar faces. I still miss them and how actively involved I always was in keeping the community safe, especially now I know what volunteering for SES and RFS in Queensland is like. They showed me the new very fancy shed (It’s 6 by 15 meters and 6 meters tall, so not really a ‘shed’ but you know what I mean 😊. Great that they have more space now, that was always a challenge. I stayed for an hour and then drove back to the city for another call with Yumi and a very uneventful flight back the next morning.

Every person I met with it was just like we only met yesterday, sort of like when I get to visit you! It was so good to see everyone and realise I’ve known all these people for nearly 10 years. I might not hold onto physical stuff, but I sure know how to collect people, haha.

Karate

I’m now three months into training two times a week and I am slowly making progress. I can’t say I am enjoying it much, but that’s mostly because I am getting in my own way, wanting to do everything right the first time. I’ve thought about quitting more than a few times, but it’s a better use of my time than sitting on the sofa Monday and Wednesday nights and the people are great. It’s me I have the issue with, and that’s something I have to learn to deal with. I don’t like it when I don’t know what to do or when instructions are unclear and that’s about half of the 60-minute lesson. Then there’s my hands and feet who don’t do what I want them to do, and somehow I still have muscle memory from Kung Fu practice even though that’s now more than 11 years ago. It’s a great exercise in patience and I’ll get it at some point. I’ve told myself I cannot quit until I’ve at least graded for the first belt, which is yellow, or as they say gold. I think gold sounds much better than black, why would you ever want something other than a gold belt? After that there’s orange, green, blue, purple, three browns and then black. Technically you could get to black in 5 years, but me being me it’ll be 7-10 more likely. That’s too much to consider as I have little patience, so I am only focusing on the yellow belt now, then see how we go for orange. No one is making me go there twice a week and I think I can be good at it, If I give myself some time and don’t try so hard!

 

Mum’s retirement

My mom retired! She started working again at 56 after the family business had its troubles and kept at it for 11 years. Her final weeks didn’t go exactly to plan, as she broke her toes 2 months ago and of course didn’t go to a doctor, because what do they know?! Sigh. But then her foot kept hurting something fierce and eventually she went and got a cast for a few weeks. She still went to work all that time, with broken toes…Not cool, mom! Her colleagues organised a nice send-off and just as when my dad ‘retired’ (he still drives a truck 3 days a week) I wrote her a letter to share how much of an example and inspiration she’s been for me, which she really liked, even if it made her cry (not my intention!). I don’t know that she’ll sit still for very long, but the cast is off by now and they have some holidays planned first. After that I bet she’ll get involved in something pretty quickly, she’s never been one to sit still for very long, but I do hope she’ll take it a bit slower

 

Change Management Volunteering

I’ve agreed to help out with the sixth edition of the Australasian Change Days, which means that for the past 5 months I got to work with my long time friends Sarah, Anna and Ro to organise a 3-day online event that draws in the best and brightest Change practitioners from all over the world. It’s a lot to organise, but Sarah (our leader) does most of the work, I just do some promotion and help organise people’s sessions. I think I’ve been involved in one way or another for the past 5 years, either presenting, organising, promoting or just as a participant and every year I tell myself this is the last time, but then I find myself saying yes once again. I never regret it, but it does get a bit busy sometimes. Good thing it’s so much fun and I get to learn from the best change managers and other smart people while we’re at it so that keeps me entertained as well. This will be my last year, I think, maybe, haha!

My other volunteering with CMI is rolling along. I try to step back a bit to let some of the newer members take charge, but they get busy, life happens and then have other priorities, so I often just end up doing things myself anyway. We try some new things, put on more events than anyone else and have fun doing it, even if it can be frustrating sometimes. This year the organisation is celebrating 20 years and we’re planning on putting the spotlight on 20 of our members, but it’s slow going. In the meantime, I’ve sorted out venues, made the plans, contacted 30 new and departing members and made a few proposals. I keep reminding myself not to do too much as it always creates the risk that things turn sour for me, so I’ll back off a bit and let my two leaders lead 😊.

 

Small things

·      After 11 years we finally got a new TV! It’s so fancy and the screen quality is so much better, haha. We managed to give the old one to someone else who was happy to have it as theirs had just given up the ghost. Great that we kept it from going to landfill, it has a few more years in it!

·      I am still working on what is quickly becoming quite the new book on Change Management. I’ve pulled together everything I wrote on Change Management in blogs, articles and presentations and ended up with a 400-page document. Still not sure what I’ll do with it, but it’s fun to see how my thinking and practice have evolved over the past 10 years. It’s nearly 100,000 words, as much as I’ve written to you over the same period of time.

·      I finally sold my old Apple laptop, the one I never got to like but used for 3 years all the same. Got a decent $475 for it after many failed attempts on Facebook Marketplace, which can be the worst place to sell anything. And then when I got home there was a call for donations form a local animal shelter, so we ended up donating the money to them, that’s the best thing that laptop has ever done. Never again will I buy an Apple laptop!

·      The dive trip to the Maldives is coming up quickly, I’ll be away from 4 to 14 September, going with my friend Just for his 50^th birthday. Unfortunately, that means I can’t be there for your birthday, but if I can I’ll give you a quick call.

·      My parents are going away on a 3-week holiday to France, like the true pensioners they are, haha. I hope they have a great time. Yumi’s brother and family just made a wonderful trip through Japan, that had me just a little bit jealous, the pictures alone made me want to book a trip as well, but then I realise I am going in just three weeks now, yay!

Okay, that’s most of it for the past 2 months, I’ll write you again in October, right around my birthday when I turn 47(!).

Stay warm and safe,

Gilbert