Sent on 22 February 2024
As you may by now know, we (Matt and Emily) are relocating to Melbourne, Australia for the next 3-5 years. It’s an incredible opportunity for sure (warm weather! koalas! ocean drives!), but we’re going to miss you and all of the things we love about home.
So let’s connect the old-fashioned way—through email. We want you to feel like you’re an essential part of our experience, and we want to stay connected to your daily lives. Even better, we want you to get to know each other in goofy and meaningful ways. You are awesome; rent a boat together and come visit us as a big group!
To kick things off, let’s ask the most important question of all:
If you could talk with one nonhuman species of animal what would it be AND what would you talk about?
Submit your thoughts to the Pouch Post:
For those who are comfortable, we may share you responses in the next newsletter.
Meet the “Whiskers”
Who’s going to Australia?
Matt: Software shepherd, unlicensed plumber, dog dad, music maven, and general best dude ever.
Emily: A cat person and occasional library professional. Prone to knitting masterpieces. Was once told she has “the best personality” and brings this up all the time.
Who’s hopefully going to Australia?**
Neko: (almost 9 years old, pictured below, left): Matt adopted Neko when she was 7 months old mainly because he was a sucker for her floppy ears and brindle coat. She is a loyal, loving, and nervous girl who has been through a lot. In 2017 Neko had an FCE (spinal embolism) which led to a weeks-long paralysis on her right side (Matt’s mom traveled from Indiana to help us care for her so we could work). After months of physical therapy, she was able to walk and run again, but to this day still moves with a limp reminiscent of Animal from “The Muppets”. Neko is a super smeller with endless curiosity; she knows where all the peanut butter is buried. Her love for her pack knows no bounds and every day is a joy with her wiggle greetings.
Erin (15? years old, pictured above, right): We adopted Erin in 2018 and she continues to surprise us with her energy and joyful derpiness, even though she may be 90 human years old. Erin loves people, seeing new things, killing small animals, and falling asleep everywhere. Contrary to her sunny disposition, Erin’s life has also been challenging. She was rescued from a hoarding situation in Alabama where she lived with 40 other animals, and had not lived indoors before her rescue. She also has a heart murmur and has battled Babesia (a tick-borne illness) that causes anemia. She is a bull-headed, love-bug survivor and we are grateful for every day with this golden girl.
**Both dogs are subject to Australia’s extensive import restrictions and their applications for entry are pending. We are relatively confident that Neko will be able to enter Australia, but Erin’s status is less certain due to her age and health. Keep your paws crossed for them!
Meet Australia
“Why Australia?” The easy answer is that we’ve visited Australia (and Melbourne) twice and loved it. The parts we saw while driving from Sydney to Melbourne were reminiscent of the California coast with gorgeous ocean vistas, but the animals are stranger and the accents are charming.
When I (Emily) lost my phone in a cab in Melbourne, I was in a panic because we had been using my phone’s international plan to do nearly everything on the trip (research, maps, purchases, etc). I assumed the phone was lost forever. However, after we figured out how to use the “find my phone” feature, our former cab driver happily answered and offered to drive the phone back to our Airbnb for us. When we offered to pay the cab driver for his time, he declined and instead brought us some pastries and coffee for our trouble. This was in central Melbourne, the largest city in Australia.
It was an experience that epitomized Australia’s famous “no worries” culture. But Australians can get worked up about important things, like when an Olympic equestrian was recently investigated for wearing a “mankini” during a riding event. Australians were enraged that the rider was investigated for what they saw as good fun.
Australia is full of surprises. Despite the newness of its growing glass city skylines, Australia is an ancient land. The Indigenous people of Australia belong to the oldest continuing culture in the world. Australia also claims title to the oldest object ever found on Earth (a zircon crystal believed to be 4.4 billion years old). And it’s one of the few places to view stromatolites, which are the oldest visible life forms on the planet. What a unique privilege to be part of this land’s unceasing timeline.
And for animal lovers like us, what could be better than spending more time with the wacky creatures that call Australia home? (Over 80% of which are endemic to the continent.) This includes platypuses that have venomous spurs, and the short-beaked echidna, which feeds its offspring by “oozing” milk from the skin within its marsupial pouch. Also: baby echidnas are called “puggles”. Also: echidna lay eggs. Echidna not!
As Australian residents, we’ll also have the thrill of learning to check our shoes for venomous snakes and extremely large spiders. Peaceful beach walks could lead to encounters with shark eggs or 10-foot-long beach worms.
In other words, as lovely as it is, Australia also promises to shock and maybe even scare us, which seems appealing as we stumble into middle age. Plus, we certainly won’t run out of things to see.
Meet the Matt Minute
Welcome to the Matt Minute, the first place on the internet where a straight, white, middle-aged dude can have his voice heard! For this edition, I’ll cover some of the background for why we’re moving. The short answer: Work! Slightly longer answer: For work! Longer still answer: I have worked at Epic for 16 years now. Since I started at Epic, we’ve mostly conquered the US healthcare market and set our eyes on world domination. We now have offices in 10 countries! Emily and I have discussed trying out the other locations before but the right opportunity never came up. Late last year, the entire state of New South Wales signed with Epic and I was approached to help with the project and that’s how we got here.
My actual role in Australia will be two-fold. I will be responsible for taking all of the patient records in the legacy systems (228 hospitals! Many more clinics!) and converting them into Epic so that each patient has only one record, regardless of how many legacy systems the patient was in. In addition, I will be the co-technical support lead for the Australia Capital Territory’s implementation of Epic (ACT Health).
That’s it for now! I hope to talk about more interesting things than work next time!
Meet Your Questions
What about your house?
We love our house and don’t plan to sell it. We’re working with a management company to rent out and take care of our house while we’re gone. We already have tenants (thanks, Karoline)!
Emily, what will you do?
Writing a newsletter and (possibly) a website isn’t enough for you?! I hope to find meaningful volunteer or paid work — ideally in a library or somewhere else that sutures my bleeding heart. Perhaps I will turn into a koala, who knows?
Will you come home at all?
Yes! We anticipate coming home at least 1-2 times a year AND we would love to have visitors. We hope to have at least one spare room to host guests, so please let us know how we can help you plan a visit to sunny Australia.
Have other questions about our upcoming move? Check our full FAQ (frequently asked questions).
Meet “Until Next Time…”
Here’s a video of a wombat joey canoodling with a kangaroo joey.
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The Whiskers of Oz 
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