Please have a look at the latest story of SCH Facebook page – Anthony Antoniadis, one of the 2 Scotch College students who authored Anthology reflects on his time compiling the book for in an article written for Melbourne’s Greek newspaper. It’s a special article – nice to know that the experience impacted him so. Both boys, Anthony and Jeremy, were great to work with – you might recall them both being very moved on the night of the Anthology launch? I occasionally bump into Anthony at the gym these days! He’s a lovely chap.
Category Archives: Carrical
CCB Budget 16/17
Our CCB budget for 16/17 has been approved by the Dept. This now enables us to start work on some of the bathroom areas in need of repair at Carrical.
Wayne Cowen
As Servants grows I can never keep up with who from ‘the outside world’ knows who from within our houses.
I was informed today that former Carrical reso Wayne Cowen passed away yesterday with liver failure being the cause. Wayne only move out of Carrical in June to move back to the country. We housed him for 2 and a half years. He was 53 years young. He was a quiet, gentle and pleasant, if slightly troubled, soul. He caused us next to no problems in his time with us. All very sad.
Mattress memory …………
I HeartBeated yesterday re Ben Palmer being in hospital. Late last night I was talking with Ben’s Dad, our former Chairperson, Dave Palmer.
I filled Dave in a wee bit re how Servants is travelling at this time. Dave reminded me of a story I believe is worth sharing with you all. I cannot remember exactly when Dave was Chairperson – perhaps 2002/03? At that time we only had Carrical of course ….. available funds for essential purchases were somewhere in the realms of being non-existent ….. and we desperately needed new mattresses for resos. Dave had heard that there was a hard rubbish collection in the Box Hill area. Figuring that reasonable quality, thrown out mattresses were better than those some our resos were sleeping on we drove our wagons to Box Hill late one Sunday night to pick up the best 4 or 5 hard rubbish mattresses we could find!! I remember being pretty excited with our haul!! Whilst being in the tragic/comedic area of things it does show how far we have come in more recent years ….. and also the passion and drive that helped keep us afloat during some pretty traumatic years.
There are one or two other stories from this period of our history which equally demonstrate passion and drive …………… yet I find myself, oddly, too embarrassed and ashamed to share these with you all.
Visions
Some of you will know Visions Gym in Burwood Rd, Hawthorn (shameless plug here – it is such a well-priced gym and is almost completely devoid of the kind of morons one typically finds in most gyms) Visions has been very good to Servants over a number of years – providing us with free or as good as free exercise bikes and treadmills for the houses. They also sponsored our team shirt at last year’s Run Melbourne event. Over the past 12 months a handful of our resos have been given free memberships by Visions – one reso has particularly established a regime as a gym bunny. In the week just past 2 Carrical resos entered the hallowed, sweaty halls of the gym for the first time for their induction session. Both were thrilled to have been provided with such an opportunity (one had not done any gym work since he last holidayed at the pleasure of Her Majesty a few years back!!) As they both puffed on their after-gym-session cigarettes (well earned I’m sure!!) it was a delight to hear them talk about just having the opportunity to do something as simple as visit a gym because Servants can make it happen. I am sure many more resos will enter Visions in the coming months to work out. I see this as a small yet very significant example of the tangible add-ons we can bring into the lives our 89.
Roof
Exciting news from Carrical is that after MUCH delay the scaffold has been erected and maintenance on the roof/gutters etc will commence next Monday. Great news!!
VCAT
I recently informed you via Heartbeat of the troublesome reso we were encountering at Carrical. We issued the gentleman with a Notice to Vacate but, upon legal advice, we have withdrawn this Notice. The reso in question has since let himself down badly once again and we have now issued a fresh Notice to Vacate. We have asked him to ensure he has vacated the property this coming Thursday at the latest. It is highly unlikely that he will vacate by this time; if he doesn’t we will apply to VCAT for a Possession Order.
It is 8 years since we have been to VCAT – that being with the legendary Gavin Rouse case. It will be sad to see this record broken – but needs must.
Carrical reso. Probable VCAT.
Since our last visits to VCAT in, I think, 2007, we have done all we can to avoid heading back there. We have become creative and expert in finding ways to avoid the lottery that is the Residential Tenancies Act section of VCAT. However, it appears most likely that we will be headed back to VCAT in the very near future. We are in the process of removing a Carrical resident; he has been informed that he has until 5.00pm this Thursday to exit – and has already informed us that he has no intention of doing so. With this particular gentleman there is little point in adopting creative means to encourage him to leave – he is just not built that way. I will keep you abreast of developments via Heartbeat; in the meantime your prayers would be appreciated for all concerned in this matter. Thanks.
Real Madrid. Juan. Narrative. Xavier.
The title of this Heartbeat says it all!!
James Chan from Xavier, who interviewed Carrical reso Juan for Narrative, had a spare $80 ticket last Friday for Real Madrid vs. Manchester City game at the MCG. He gave it to Juan who thoroughly enjoyed himself.
Special eh???????
Carrical Phil
I will Heartbeat much more re Run Melbourne in the coming days. For now, I want to let you know a story about Carrical reso, Phil. If you have been following Servants’ Facebook adventures in recent times you would have seen having his hair and beard being tidied up alongside an article about him from The Homeless of Melbourne Facebook page. He also features in Narrative. Preamble complete. Phil sells Big Issue in the city and does rather a good job of it by all accounts. Phil decided to donate half his tips from the past few weeks to Team Servants ’15. This amounted to a whopping $280!!! Let’s really think about this money. This is MORE than a week’s board and lodging for Phil at Carrical – a truly significant sum of money. No, not everyone we house absolutely adores Servants and those who represent it – indeed, some are antagonistic!! But there are far more folks like Phil that we house than not. The unpublicized, internal use only tagline of last year’s Carols @ Carrical was ‘Servants, the charity that puts back in.’ Phil has proven this on a very significant personal level. Incredible. Touching. Phil completed the 5km walk yesterday and was pretty pleased with himself!!
Carrical Roof.
As many of you will be aware we have been awaiting the report on the state of the roof at Carrical for several months now. DHHS contacted me yesterday to inform me that the report had now been sent to them. The report is comprehensive in its detail. All items that require any amount of maintenance/attention have been categorized as A, B or C. A is urgent, B is necessary and C does not require immediate attention. The Dept informed me yesterday that they will take on all A and B items and rectify them. This includes new gutters, slates, downpipes, Gutterguard etc. Very good news indeed!!
Special
Yesterday a Carrical reso began some volunteer work in the gardens at Romana – under the watchful eye of one of the more capable Romana resos. It was very special seeing this arrangement come together. Just one of the very many lovely relational things we continue to see in the houses.
Cold. Colder. Coldest.
The new freezer arrived today at Carrical. it cost about 3k and was paid for via a generous donation from Rotary Club of Hawthorn last year.
If I was technical enough to post an image of it here I most certainly would. As I am not you will just have to imagine a shiny, new, silver-colored, 2 door, brand, spanking, new freezer. It looks good doesn’t it?
Next time you are in Carrical please feel most welcome to visit the kitchen to pay homage to it.
Aldous Huxley
Today is Day 1 of the Brave New World of Servants operating under Option 2 of the HPF Lease. Interesting times ahead to be sure!!
All change!
With the Hislops now back from overseas they are preparing to move into Carrical. As of time of writing this post the painting of the Manager’s flat at Carrical, a job long overdue, is nearing completion. Once this has been completed and the carpets have been steam-cleaned the Hislops will move into the flat and begin their Carrical adventure. With the painting in full flow Amanda has been ‘camping’ at Carrical the last few nights.
Carrical and Hamer
In all the excitement re opening Romana I can assure you that Carrical and Hamer have not been forgotten! We had the disappointment last week of seeing a very sound Hamer reso unexpectedly leaving us to return to Adelaide – every cloud has a sliver lining and on this occasion the created vacancy was filled by a young man who for some inexplicable reason had been living at Ivy Grange for many months and had been badly assaulted 24 hours before I met him. Hamer management is working well and, overall, the house seems pretty settled.
Carrical has not seen any reso movement since late February. The house is peaceful. One of the resos is currently in an aged -care psych ward (should be home within a week or two) and one of the resos is at home and seriously struggling with psych issues but being carefully monitored by the Clarendon Clinic. All in all it is a very peaceful environment with several long-term resos saying it is the best it has ever been.
Melbourne High day
Today 5 pretty switched on students from the Melbourne High Philanthropy Club spent several hours at Romana involved in a few volunteering tasks. It was a good day, some manual work was achieved, but, more importantly, we now have several young men who have had their eyes opened to the world of Servants and what we do and why we do it. During the final part of the day I took the guys to Carrical to meet a few residents – this proved to be a positive, thought-provoking exercise for the students. I have little doubt that some good things will happen for Servants as a result of today’s investment.
Announcement
I am very happy to announce that Mark and Ann Hislop will be the new live in House Managers at Carrical; replacing Amanda when she exits Carrical in early-mid July. I think this is very exciting news for Servants.
General Lease
An increasing amount of time is currently being invested into looking at the General Lease for Carrical and what we need to do to be in a position to sign this off. There are several steps involved in this process – one of which will be ensuring that Committee is abreast of all relevant information in time for important decisions to be made at the May committee meeting. In a nutshell everything appears to be on track right now – we have had a comprehensive property condition report carried out at Carrical, have met with the Dept, have informed the Registrar of our General Lease intentions and have started to timeline all the other pieces of work that are required to ensure we are ready to sign the General Lease.
As a footnote to this it is reasonable to say that the Dept is currently in a greater state of chaos than usual. People are disappearing from their positions there on a daily basis. My confidence in the Dept is at an all time low.
Funeral arrangements for Dennis
The funeral of Dennis Donovan will be at Le Pine, 741 High Street, Kew East, this coming Friday, commencing at 10.30am. All are welcome and a morning tea follows the service.