June 2010

Footy.

If you look carefully, you can see the path of the ball. I’ve highlighted it in the last picture, where it goes through the goalposts.

Eemeli has decided to take up the option of spending the second half of his stay here in Australia with another host family, and we are all happy with that decision. It coincides with the long weekend coming up, where we are getting away in the bus to Grenfell with the “old farts” and he will have time to settle in before going back to school next week. Julie goes for an X-ray and Ultrasound on her sore shoulder, suspected torn rotator cuff, and possible cortisone injection, on Friday, after which she has the day off and I’m off work to look after her. We’ll see how she shapes up!

Meanwhile, planning is well underway for our trip to Queensland next month, up via the coast and back via (we hope) Lightning Ridge. Looking forward to that.

This part of the newsletter comes to you from Cootamundra, online via the Bigpond Elite Gateway that we switched over to, from the internal card in just one laptop. Combined with the installation of an antenna from Mobile One in the roof of the bus, it does a fabulous job of keeping both of us online. Julie’s shoulder problem appears not to be a torn rotator cuff as first suspected, but a small spur on the bony part of the shoulder joint, which is irritating the tendons. (update – yes it is torn but not badly) No wonder it’s so bloody sore! After that, we went home, packed up the bus, loaded up Eemeli’s luggage and dropped it off at his new home, then headed out to Grenfell, to join the CMCA Chapter, huddled around a fire at the showground.


Saturday morning was a short walk into town for the Henry Lawson Festival, checking out the various stalls and buskers, followed by more fire huddling, then dinner at the Bowling Club, which turned out to be a 2-hour wait for our meals.

Sunday morning, we decided we could take the opportunity to do some exploring instead of staying at the showground with very little to do (which is a polite way of saying that Julie felt that the floks were pretty unfriendly), so we headed out on some back roads to Temora and then to Cootamundra for the night.

Highlights included some “creative” navigation, seeing cows on the road (another new Aussie experience for Julie) and a visit to the Temora Aviation Museum. As we were in “browse” mode with limited time, we skipped the Aviation Museum itself, but did have a quick look at the Air Park, which is a “village” set up with alternate roads and taxiways, so that the houses have a street frontage and at the back, a light plane hangar with direct access via the taxiway to the airport. As we thoroughly enjoy browsing like this, it has been a very relaxing way to finish off the weekend.

I have to say that I am very proud of the way that my wife has dealt with the news of major family traumas in America and there is nothing we can do but be supportive.  And this in addition to HUGE changes going on at work. Apparently, her job is the only one in the office that is still “safe”. Almost a case of “turn the computers and lights off and lock the door on the way out”. Needless to say, the phones have been running hot for the last day or so.

Nearly to the end of June now and it’s been pretty rough on both of us, again. Julie has had to deal with her works changes, plus dealing with the family trauma from halfway round the world, while at work, my boss Bob, as a middle manager, was made redundant, which was OK for him, because he received a payout. However, he was highly regarded by everyone, as many of us had been with him since he was still a WO2 in the Army and we were all appalled by the treatment he received when he was escorted from the building at very short notice on Monday morning. For someone who had served his country for so long, we considered this action to be shabby and undignified.

Meanwhile, we’ve just been discussing the merits of going away at the beginning of July, as the trip was originally planned to coincide with school holidays. Julie’s replacement at work is probably not ready and my team leader at work will be away for the same two weeks. It’s starting to look like we will postpone it for 2-3 weeks.

It’s also getting cold here. We’ve had several -4 degree mornings and right now, it’s 10pm and -3 outside already. For Julie’s birthday, she received vouchers from the Weston Club, valid until the end of June, so we’re going there tomorrow night. They also have a huge cash give-away, so here’s hoping! And yes, we have put the Queensland trip back by 3 weeks.

Julie writes.

21/6/10

Canberra was cold and overcast today.  I got to drive myself to Wollongong (about an hr from Sydney) for a regional meeting.  Was following two other cars with other co-workers in them – darn they drive fast!  I chose to drive alone – one for the experience (heck Rodney drives me everywhere) and two just to think.  Boy does Gabe drive like a bat out of its cave and I was trying to follow her!  She “claims” that she was only doing 113K’s but I had to drive 120K’s just to keep up!!!!  She took us the “gentle” route.  Hmmmm!!!!  The meeting was for work – primarily to let us know about the restructuring that is going on.  My job is the only one that is safe right now – so guess if we go under, I’ll be the one to turn the lights out and say goodnight.  Driving home was fun – NOT!  I didn’t follow anyone but let the GPS take me – so it took me the “tough” route through Macquarie Pass which is a long curving road (some places are so curvy that you can only go around at 15K’s.  At one spot there was a big truck coming towards me, so I moved over just as close to the cliff as I could get to give him room to turn.  Was glad to get back on the highway again.

Rodney’s day wasn’t really good either.  Remember Bob & Jen – Rodney’s boss?  We have known for a while that his position was going to become redundant!  Okay so this morning at 0900 – they called him to HR, gave him his package, escorted him back to his desk, he packed his stuff and was escorted out!  No good-byes or anything.  The guys were pretty upset.  They are having an afternoon tea (meaning food and drinks) for him on Wed, so I may have to go and pick him up.  You know how well he handles alcohol!  It is hard for all of them as they have worked for this man for 12 years.

22/6/10

Work was hectic today as I am trying to train one of our Youth Workers to do my job so I can go on vacation in two weeks (she has done Admin before) but it’s hard to put everything in an SOP as this job has so many distractions.  Our new Acting Mgr came down late this afternoon, so it will be interesting to see how things pan out.  Got the new washer – Yeah lots of different buttons to push instead of just 4 as on the old one.  We’re moving on up!

24/6/10

Australia made history today by electing a woman as Prime Minister.  It’s all over the news, etc.  She has carrot red hair (dyed) and speaks in a monologue, but is extremely smart.  I don’t understand all the politics here, but Kevin Rudd (former PM) was ousted (kinda like impeached) and this Julia G stepped in.  The real election won’t be until later this year by the “people”.  So we’ll just wait and see what she can accomplish.  Weather is getting colder with possible snow.

26/6/10

Well this has been an interesting weekend so far.  Worked late last night as here it is the end of the fiscal year – Jun–Jul.  Luv being finance – NOT!  We were supposed to go to Possum’s Nook for the horseback riding weekend, but they had to cancel due to a death in the family.  I got the msg Friday morning at work – after all the luggage, ‘puters, etc. were in the car!  That’s okay as Rodney has another computer he can work with!  We had a team meeting today with the new Area Mgr (I do like her) and the new Acting Mgr (Hase Elmasri) – different kind of person, fast talking, easy going, young!, etc.  Anyhoo – at the team mtng we found out that LWB has been extended for 12 months and if we can continue to show them that we can “take care of business” then we are good to go.  It was such a hectic day.  We, (Gabe, Liz, Chris, Esther, Hase & I) went out for dinner and drinks.  It was okay.  Chris (both in mid-20’s) is getting married on Jan 1st and he and his fiancé are virgins – Catholics.  Nothing wrong with that.  BUT their counselling pastor gave them a book to read from the ‘70’s.  Chris was driving as Jenny was going thru the book.  You know how Sydney driver’s are = he was looking to make sure he could pass and she started laughing and reading some interesting stuff about after the wedding – he looked at her and went “what?” then barrelled into the car in front of him!  I hope this statement makes the censors as I’m really trying!  Yes I know – Rodney tells me how trying I am all the time.

We have decided to celebrate my birthday on Wed cuz we can go to the Weston Club, 1 free schnitzel w/a purchase, 1 free drink and maybe win a meat raffle.  Yeah!!!! Vacation has been cancelled for about a month.  With the changes at both our works (Bob being redundant and new mgrs at mine) we have decided it would just be easier.  My goodness I’m telling you more about my life then I’ve ever had!  The blunder bus is only half ready anyway.  The new washer is working well thou we discovered that if you put it on full load it will take an hour to run so we have decided to use “quick wash” which is 30 min.  Boy putting clothes on the lines is a pain in the arse.  Australia is a wonderful place to live but sooooooooo behind the times.

27/6/10

Can you believe that I turned 30 today again?  :>)  Weather is still beautiful, blue and cold.  Still doing laundry and putting out on the line.  Rodney just told me that by Wednesday the weather will be a max of 8c.  We decided to get out of the house for a while so went to the new SupaBarn Warehouse by the airport (suppose to be like a Costco).  Ummm is lacking but new novelty for Canberra.

28/6/10

Well it seems that the darling little gray mouse that we saw in the house (yes pun intended) has moved inside for good.  We don’t know if we have 1 or more mice.  I hope the one we found dead several months ago in the master bathroom was the female!  I don’t know if you remember the old heater (never used) that was by the kitchen table – but it seems that he/she/they have decided to use that as a ladder to the roof.  As my hearing is going bad, I can’t hear them running but Rodney says he can at night and yes I’ve found mouse poo in some drawers and cupboards.  I guess it doesn’t help that white “dumb and stupid” has to be fed inside so “big brown dog” doesn’t hog it all!  So I guess we are feeding them too?  I’m trying to convince Rodney to wait until we go on vacation in 3 weeks (we are taking the dogs) to put out the rat poison so D&S plus BBD don’t eat it too.  But he swears we’ll be invaded before then – hmmm will keep you posted.  Very cold here.  -2c tonight.  Am going to be working late this week cuz of the financial year end and other crap that is going on.

29/6/10

Remember in the previous letter I mentioned that we are going thru a restructuring and that Liz and Chris’s jobs were on the line cuz National had decided that we only need one Care Coordinator?  Well the stress got to both of them.  Liz got sick and Chris started looking for other work – both had only been in the company for about 18 months.  Chris started applying for jobs; found one, put in his resignation and received his redundancy payment a couple of days ago.  Gee – National came down after that and said that they had made a mistake and they need both positions as the Out of Home Care Mgr (Gabe) can’t handle it all!  Chris was soooo mad and I don’t blame him.  He was suppose to be in training this week in Sydney, but after he turned in his resignation they pulled him back home.  So now we have no Chris as of next Friday, need to find a replacement (I think National has decided to send a “temp” from another state) for him.  Megan, our previous Ops Mgr (whom we really respected) quit cuz after 2 years of fighting NSW that the ACT was different and had a different Gov’t to work with – they are waking up cuz we lost the ACT contract!  Lots of negotiations, lots of big wigs coming to the office to talk to this Gov’t, etc.  What a mess!  Hey – again my job is the only safe one – Hmph!  So tomorrow we will have a team meeting (Gabe is picking up a cheese cake for my birthday – morning tea – happy hip time) and hear the rest of the poop (also got a box of small cinnamon dunots from Liz which didn’t last long – not that I like them you know?  Well not much more happening.  Dogs (are they? Okay BBD is) have been very disappointed so far this week – ‘tis only Tuesday cuz we ran out of the most wonderful smelling marrow treats – um NOT – okay for them, that we give them in the morning.  Kellie is really good about sitting and receiving his – um Angel, well she is working on it.  She is now a yr old and people who haven’t met her reassure us that she’ll get smarter as she gets older? Nope. Oh one more thing happened today – hey feel I gotta tell you all – in one of our resident house (Kambah) the 4 kids have really been having a heyday – drugs, alcohol, etc.  Lot of damage to the house – kicked in doors, stashes, etc – remember these are kids that have no family to go too.  Any hoo there was a house meeting at work today (no more destructiveness pls) when I came in with pocket money, movie tickets, etc.  TC – the leader of the crowd (sorry won’t mention names as is not ethical) said to JK – “don’t mess with Julie as she lets me hold her blue bear and she is nice (blue bear lights up with different colors and sits on a chair in the reception area (Paul gave it to Rodney when I went to South Korea for the Army several years ago so he had something to squeeze at night!).  JK said “I want to be mean!”.  TC said “Julie gives you your pocket money and she is nice so back off!”  Not sure if that was good advice but I handled JK okay and he did say thank you when I gave the Youth Worker his money.