Dzung Nguyen's Blog: Dzung Nguyen Home Page

It seems that my current home page at Melbourne PC has been broken due to their server's failure. Therefore, I am creating a new version of my home page here and it is still under construction.

About me Incomplete page with plenty of photographs.

A quick note of my employment in Australia. I was employed in a factory as a process worker at St Peters in NSW for 2 (?) years. I worked the afternoon shift and did lots of overtime. Working the afternoon shift gave me a chance to attend English classes in the morning, but I am not sure that what I learnt was American-English or UK-English or Australian-English, when I was in Vietnam, but whatever I learnt, I didn't get much practice in conversational English.

Take care and work safe. In my own experience, to join a union is fine, especially for those of non-English speaking backgrounds. The union's job is to represent your rights at work including negotiating between you and the boss, if things go wrong. Click on the links to access Victorian Trades Hall Council and the list of Unions in all states.

Birthday cake at work (L) and me during the months "without a home" (R)

Leaving the job at St Peter in Sydney, I moved back to Melbourne, where I gained qualifications in Arts and Social Justice and a career in community health for 8 years and community legal service for 11 years.

Youthful Years

A few photos of my tennis group

Two montage photos of my outdoor activities

A few images from my working life at VLA

Life after VLA

.... Back from stress leave, I called it a day, quitting my job. There was a round-table meeting of four including me, a supportive friend with management skills in the public sector, a Human Resource staff and a Union representative from Community & Public Sector Union (CPSU) There was a deal, a small offer, coupled with my long-service leave entitlement. A letter of resignation was drawn up and I signed it. It was a stressful day for me; therefore, I did not want to have the Farewell show. Instead, I got a Best Wishes card with a gift voucher of $50.00 and I am unsure if I used the voucher.

Then, I went abroad tramping in New Zealand for several weeks. There, I bumped into a gentleman on a tramper boat. We had a chat and I quickly found that he also experienced a similar situation with work-related stress. Unlike me with a plan of few days traverse, he just wanted to spend his time on relaxing and reading in the hut, which was located near the pier, where the boat was taking us to. Here are a few photographs from the tramping trip.

My mid 50s

I am a survivor of bowel cancer. Two surgeries were performed at The Alfred near the end of year 2010. Symptoms had been experienced:

Sign of blood after a bowel motion,
a change in bowel habits, for example, more frequent bowel motions, increased constipation and/or needing to go to the loo more than usual
the feeling that bowel motions had not been completely empty
weight loss, tiredness, weakness

Then, a referral from GP for a colonoscopy was arranged and the cancer was announced.

For more information, go to Cancer Council Victoria source Finding bowel cancer early
and the link to making Donations to The Alfred

Photos by Allan, one of my best friends, who was with me at the worst time of my life,

when I was wheeled into the operating theatre

Nine days later, I was transported in an Ambulance Victoria vehicle (paid 5 year membership) to Caulfield Hospital to go through a rehabilitation process.

Then, a few months later, I was back on track with easy day walks in Melbourne Parks, Yarra Ranges, Mornington, Westernport, Pyrete Forest, The Little Forest, etc.