Today after doing a bit of gutter cleaning while the tradespeople worked on our back yard, I decided to come back into the house and contemplate what’s next on my ‘To Do’ list. It’s a bit weird to not have things to do to a certain time line – time, well, it’s open now. I […]
Packing Up: Ready to Leave Work
It dawned on me that packing up my office tech at home, I had no colleagues in real life around me. It wasn’t “the office”. My tradesperson was the person who I shared my last day of work. He was the one who congratulated me and wished me all the best in person. Weird state […]
Two More Work Days Left…Then?
Tuesday will be my last day of work. Tonight, I deleted the work apps off my phone. Stopping work means I also stop using all Microsoft products and apps because I will need to return the work laptop (and I’m on Apple tech for my personal tech). On Friday night, someone asked me what I […]
Books Everywhere
Books on the floor beside my bed. Three stacks. Twelve books. Ten have been read. Two been put aside. Each stack for one municipal area of Melbourne. City of Glen Eira; City of Kingston and City of Monash. Each area has about 7 local libraries. I have 21 libraries in my direct vicinity. I’m the […]
People Watching
One of the things I love to do, now even more so that I don’t have a phone in my hand when I’m out, is people watching. Imagine my delight that I can now do it from home by putting up YouTube channels on the big screen. There’s something fascinating watching people go about their […]
New Book Review: The Latecomer
I started a Book Club Community on Yammer at work as one of the first communities to get people onto the platform. (Little success as I was the main one posting in it). However, at various times people told me that I should read certain authors from their own country. So I did that and […]
Eerie Coincidences
On Friday last week I headed over to the Woodlands Golf Club in Mordialloc. As a newly joined member of this golf course on the sandbelt of Melbourne, I now have a place away from home where I could meet new people, play golf and socialise whenever I want. It’s a welcoming club and I […]
Stairs To Nowhere
Once again the vivid and recurring dreams have started. I’ve got five more work days until I stop work so it’s not surprising that the dreams now are deeper and weirder. Last night, as soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell into a deep sleep. I had played golf yesterday walking over 20,000 […]
Community Manager Burnout
It’s a thing. I’m sure of it. After being in the field of Learning and Development and spending most of my work life in the social learning space helping people build communities of practice, using enterprise social networks (like Yammer) to help them build authentic and trusted relationships and networks in their organisation, helping people […]
Old Fashioned Letters
Imagine my surprise when I received a hand written letter in the mail a couple of days ago. Such a wonderful surprise that delighted me. It was from my girlfriend who has lived interstate for many years and whom we met many years ago when I was in the Navy and she, Army. Receiving a […]
Garden Greens
I’m sitting here boiling some organic greens (“Chorta”) from my parents garden. My heritage is Greek, specifically from Crete and the food that I grew up on here in Australia has been from that part of Greece. So lots of greens (organic, no pesticides), olive oil, fruits, pulses and meats. Today my mum gave me […]
An Idea To Save on Gas
Yesterday I started my day with a lovely walk at my local park. We are lucky to live in an area considered the “sand belt of Melbourne” so we have a lot of green spaces and golf courses in the area. Some of the parks are manicured and kept in great condition because they’re also […]
CD Night Tuesday: Billy Bragg
It’s a quiet lazy Tuesday night. Cat is dozing on the sofa. Television is turned off. Lights turned low. CD is chosen. Press Open in the CD player. Insert CD. Watch it go into the player. Listen to the whir while it finds the first track. Music 🎶 flows out of the sound bar. We […]
Should I Get Off YouTube?
To be fair, I don’t do my best thinking at 2am. This morning, tossing and turning and trying to get back to sleep, my mind started to wander. Sometimes I get up at this time and read a book before sleep overcomes me again. Other times I lay there thinking. I noticed my thinking at […]
The World Is in a Scary Place at this Moment
I’d be lying if I said that I’m not scared of the the current state of instability and volatility in this world. Not only are we dealing with environmental disasters, pandemics, mass refugee migration, we may also see Italy become a fascist government again and nuclear war.
University of the Third Age (U3A)
Today I went around to my parents as is my usual weekly routine to catch with their news over a cup of coffee or a wander in their garden. My father asked me about the University of the Third Age and how it was set up. I knew that it was an international not-for-profit organisation […]
Books For The Week Ahead
This morning, it was supermarket shopping time. We headed into a nearby suburb (for something different), had a lovely breakfast and coffee at a cafe before doing the grocery shopping. Afterwards a walk to the library where I picked up these books. Mainly Dutch authors as recommendations from my colleagues who are based in Amsterdam. […]
River Cruising in Melbourne
Today is a public holiday in Melbourne, a once off holiday as the National Day of Mourning for the Queen’s passing. We have been having awful weather lately with lots of rain so when the sun came out today, it felt like all of Melbourne was out with us too. Tomorrow is another public holiday […]
What Shall I Do?
My last day of work is 11 October. What shall I do afterwards? No idea. Part of me is comfortable with not knowing, not planning, not scheduling, not caring. I’m looking forward to just giving space – I don’t have to fill it with anything except for that which truly makes me happy. But do […]
I’ve Resigned
It’s official. I’ve resigned. Someone asked me how I feel and in all honesty, I’m glad I did it. It wouldn’t have felt right to continue working when the mojo had long since disappeared. Not fair on me, not fair on others. So I depart. I have no other plans except to get my headspace […]