Crash the Schedule

In project management parlance, crashing the schedule is doing whatever it takes to compress the timeline.

Associated with the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap (JDFGP) is a team of licensed psychologists to deal with the mental health of all employees and dependents. We heard one of them speak the other night and he indicated that they are engaged with about 15% (!) of the personnel here at one time or another.

These psychologists have developed a phase model for adaptation by newly arriving expats.

Phase One: The Honeymoon
The differences seem exciting and exotic.

Phase Two: Discomfort
The differences are annoying; extra energy is required to deal.

Phase Three: Settling In
Every day activities take little effort and it's time to explore.

They have time estimates for each phase, but I won't bother to mention them, because I've decided to Crash the Schedule. Being an overachiever, I have decided to attempt to navigate all phases at the same time.

To do this, I will be simultaneously making note of phase one, two and three activities on a day-to-day basis. I figure, the sooner I can identify what's annoying, the sooner I can address it in some practical fashion. And why wait to explore until after I've dealt with petty annoyances?

Oh, and about photos (which everyone is asking for) -- I've been using my new camera pretty much out-of-the-box and until I take the time to learn how to adjust the settings, it creates very large image files. I've got to figure out how to shrink them for the web before posting them and I just haven't gotten to that yet. Patience, please. I promise there will be lots and lots of photos to come. And in the meantime I'll post links to places where you can see relevant photos.

Now, here's something I love about this new life:
Our house.
http://marriageandmetrics.blogspot.com/2009/05/house-photos-exterior.html
We have been assigned 30 Milner Rd, a 3 bedroom 2 bath home. It is a very nice layout with contemporary clean lines and furnishings. It is completely furnished and we've been provided a "survival kit" of basic linens, dishes, and small appliances to tide us over until our sea container arrives. Can you say uncluttered? Although its size is quite adequate for two people, it is significantly smaller than our 3000 sq ft home in Saratoga and this makes it easier to keep picked up and clean. Clean is good.

Here's something a bit annoying here (and what I intend to do to minimize its impact):
We don't have a garage, so the car is parked under a carport only. This would be fine except that we have a bird who insists on sitting on the windshield and pooping (a lot.) I think it's a pied butcherbird which has dramatic black and white feathers; at least it looks something like this: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/bird/23 Oh, and I also love that we're seeing new and different species of birds here. (We've also seen a pair of parrots on our lawn.)
When we replace our current rental car with one we're going to purchase, I'll make some kind of washable cover to keep on the windshield so I don't have to wash the windows every time I go to drive somewhere. More on driving (loves, annoyances, and explorations) to come.

And here's something I have enjoyed exploring:
Our first weekend here we visited the Olive Pink Botanic Garden and took the Hill Walk to the top of Annie Myers Hill. http://www.opbg.com.au/ I just loved the red rock trail. I kept exclaiming how dramatic it all looked and Ken would say, "uh huh", like what's the big deal? Then I realized that my sunglasses have a polarizing feature that makes a huge difference in how red the rocks looked. So I had Ken look through them and "uh huh" was replaced by "oh yeah!"

Isn't it fun to crash the schedule?
Oh yeah!