Just a quick note to say that I won’t be around or dropping on Entrecard for a little while - Stuart and I are going away on our first ever holiday together tomorrow! (Stuart is bringing a laptop with him, just not sure how often I’ll be able to prise it out of his hands so I can use it, lol).

We’re going down the south coast for ten days. There are a lot of things to do around there, so I should have an interesting post about it all when we get back. I am all packed and ready to go, feels like I’ve been counting down to this for ages! So excited!!

Of course, before I go I have to frantically finish up as much as I can at work and try to tidy up the mess that is currently my office (I work in publications, so I end up with piles of paper everywhere).

Must get back to it - catch up with you all when I return!

Cya,
Erin.

I rang the Australian Tax Office at 8am the other day, thinking that it shouldn’t be too busy that early. All I wanted to do was order a statement of what I still owe for my Uni fees, which I knew would only take a couple of minutes once I got to talk to someone.

Well, I finally navigated through all of the menus and was put on hold. Every time I heard the lovely hold music stop, I’d think “Finally!”, only to hear the automated voice say “Thank you for holding. Your call has progressed in the queue. You will be answered by a service representative shortly”. After 20 minutes of that I gave up!

I just kept getting more and more frustrated every time that message was repeated. Seriously, how many people would have been ringing up at that early (the phone line only opened at 8am)? Was there even any “service representatives” there??

I put things like this off because I just really, really don’t like the hassle. Normally, I try to get things done online or through email - I will only ring a company if I have to.

One time, I was trying to close a bank account and sent an email asking how to do this. A woman from the bank left a voice message on my mobile and asked me to call back on the customer support line. I tried that and, like this occasion, got fed up waiting  when I was meant to be on my lunch break. She later sent me an email saying “I have tried to contact you several times today to resolve your email enquiry”. Well, that made Erin a little cranky - after all, I had only received one missed call and she didn’t leave me a direct number to call back on. I wrote back to her “I did receive one missed call from you today and tried to call back on the number you left, but got tired of spending my lunch time on hold and “moving up the queue”.”

To end the story, I did call back the office at lunch time yesterday and was able to get the information I wanted in under 10 minutes, which wasn’t really too bad (even though the girl told me my outstanding balance and then put me through to someone else so that I could get a statement sent out to me).

Erin.

I think we need routine in our lives. I don’t mean an organised schedule, just usual things like the hours you work and the general times you have meals, go to bed and wake up. The amount of time you have free to yourself and to spend with friends. When you do groceries or shop for yourself. Nights you spend at home and nights you spend out.

It takes a while to settle into a routine and I think you need that sense of “normal” to function well. My routine has changed recently and I’ve found myself longing for my old one. I’ve been busier, working different and slightly longer hours and am missing my Erin time – when I can just relax, spend time on the net – chatting, dropping, blogging, looking up random stuff -, watch tv, hang out or go shopping. I’ve missed my down time. I am going to work earlier in the mornings so I miss getting to sleep in that little bit longer and am even missing what used to be my regular train! (Was a lovely express service, quiet and oh so quick. Had names for the people I saw every day, now there’s a whole bunch of new people who aren’t even regulars to me yet).

Years ago, I was working for a magazine Monday to Wednesday and was also working for a restaurant part-time, with my availability as Thursday to Sunday, so I was sometimes working seven day weeks and was often working double shifts at the restaurant. What really did me in was having the two routines. From Monday to Wednesday I would go to bed and wake up early, while for the rest of the week I would stay up later and sleep in longer. Fortunately, this only lasted for a couple of months because it wasn’t easy and I felt really worn out.

Hopefully things will settle down soon so that I get more time for me, and that I get used to my new work hours. Stuart and I are going on holidays in a couple of weeks so I at least have something to look forward to! Still have to get a serious start on my Christmas shopping though :S

Erin.

I went to the movies last weekend with a friend (we saw ‘How to lose friends and alienate people’, which was quite good – Simon Pegg is hiiiilarious!).

Unfortunately, the movie was nearly ruined by a bunch of hooligan teenagers. We were in a small theatre and there were about 15 teenagers sitting along the side, over about five rows. They were talking, throwing popcorn at each other, turning around and playing on their phones. Staff were constantly coming in to talk to them, and they kept getting kicked out and coming back in again. A poor couple were originally seated amongst them, but wisely moved as the movie started.

Now, what I don’t understand is why would you pay to see a movie and not bother to watch it? Why spoil it for everyone else? How can people be so inconsiderate?

I’m 25, so I’m not quite an old fuddy duddy yet, and I remember what it was like to be a teenager. There may have been some food throwing with my friends, but that was only a couple of times. If I talked, I did it quietly - I was shushed once in a movie and then was quiet for the rest of it. Overall, we weren’t that bad – certainly never got kicked out and don’t think we really annoyed the people around us.

It’s fine if you don’t really want to watch the movie, just be aware that others may actually want to! If a couple wants to make out for the whole two hours, that’s fine as long as they don’t disrupt those around them or forget where they are.

The other thing that annoyed me Saturday was a couple sitting near me, eating incredibly loudly. From three seats away, I shouldn’t really be able to hear every crunch and rustling of the packet. So overall, it was a rather frustrating movie experience!

What bad movie experiences have you had? What behaviour annoys you?

Erin.

I happen to have a Darcy obsession… just a small one…

I first read ‘Pride and Prejudice’ over eight years ago (we studied it in school) and fell in love with it. I have read it countless times since and love the 1995 BBC version of it (I will watch the Kiera Knightley version for a quick fix, but its just not the same). Every time I read the book, I want to watch the BBC version. When I watch that, it makes me want to read the book again - its a vicious cycle! lol.

I have a signed, framed photo of Colin Firth in my room which I got as a Christmas present last year and a toy dog that I named Darcy. I know there are a lot of girls out there who love Darcy (and Colin Firth as him). He is one of those characters who has had a really strong influence on women, I think a lot of us dream of meeting our own Mr Darcy, and not just because he was rich!

Stuart actually asked me once if he had competition from him, but I pointed out that since Darcy is a 19th Century fictional character, and that Colin Firth is nearly twice my age, married and living on the other side of the world, that he was probably safe.

Are there any fictional characters from books or movies that you love and wish were real? Any that you would love to meet?

Erin.

As a child, I didn’t really like the beach all that much. I was scared of being dunked under waves, the water made my eyes sting and I hated getting sand everywhere.

My dad, who is Scottish and has never learnt to swim, used to go in the surf with my brothers and me. He even taught us how to boogie board and was able to do it himself. My mum didn’t like the surf and used to stay on the sand, reading. We never swam between the flags because we weren’t on the main beach; that was further down and always looked too busy. Looking back, it is really lucky that we never got into any trouble. At least we were ever allowed to go in too deep, seeing as we could only go as far as my dad could stand!

I did grow to love the beach as I got older. My eyes stopped stinging. I got over my fear of being dunked as a teenager - I went to a beach one day that had strong, big waves and spent the whole day being dunked. I soon got used to it. Was amusing to everyone else too. The sand… well, there’s not a lot you can do about it! lol

One time we were at an unpatrolled beach, the surf was really rough and there was a strong tide. Dad got fed up with my brother and I going in deeper and deeper and went to sit on the beach. We ended up getting caught in a rip but fortunately knew what to do – you have to swim across, parallel to the shore, until you are out of the rip and then swim in. It’s when you swim against the rip that you get into trouble, because you just tire yourself out and don’t get anywhere. It was lucky we knew that because neither of us are strong swimmers and my dad was the only person around.

Erin.

Stuart and I were in Newtown, Sydney the other night and we walked passed a book store I had never seen before, Gould’s Book Arcade. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to go in.

It was a pretty big place, with a large ground floor and a smaller mezzanine level above. Books were packed into shelves two rows deep. On the ground floor there were books piled on top of the shelves in heaps. Above, the shelves went from the floor to the ceiling. There were piles of books all around. It looked like absolute chaos (though I suspect the owner would have had a pretty good idea of where everything was).

There were a lot of old, pre-owed books, some in good condition and others that looked well loved. According to the website (http://www.gouldsbooks.com.au), they also specialise in out-of-print books and publishers remainders of the last 30 years. The whole place had that old book smell. It was somewhere I could have stayed for ages, just poking through what was there and seeing what I could find.

A part of me wanted to sort through and organise everything there and tidy it up (Stuart was very adamant that everything should be catalogued and put into the computer. I had to tell him to calm down a couple of times, lol). Another part of me loved it how it is. It’s a place where you would never know what you might find. You could spend ages looking for one thing and end up getting five other books instead.

It was totally old fashioned and the complete opposite of somewhere like Borders and what we are used to nowadays. Borders is clean, bright, new and totally organised. There are staff everywhere and computers you can use to search for what you are looking for. At Gould’s, the prices were written in pencil on the book’s title page. Hand-written signs designated the different sections, with an full index of sections hanging on a post. There were records and videos for sale. It was nice to feel like you had stepped back in time for a little bit.

Erin.

I had one of my random thinking moments the other day (not that I only think on random occasions, but that I think of some random things sometimes).

Anyway, I got to thinking about how songs can remind you of moments, movies and people. How when you hear a song you can be instantly reminded of something or feel like you’ve been taken back to a particular time.

For example, ‘We are the Champions’ by Queen still reminds me of the Mighty Ducks movies. ’Bittersweet Symphony’ by the Verve makes me want to watch Cruel Intentions. Gavin DeGraw’s song ‘I Don’t Wanna Be’ reminds me of the show One Tree Hill.

There are songs like Living on a Prayer, What about me?, Tainted Love, Loveshack and Summer of 69 that remind me of being out in a pub, everyone singing (yelling) along.

‘Take me Out’ by Franz Ferdinand reminds me of when I was on a Contiki tour – they would play that song every morning on the bus and we would always request it when we were out. It still gets me in a party mood and makes me want to dance and sing along (I may even, on occassion, mouth the words and bop a little bit in my office if it comes on the radio, hehe).

It may sound strange but ‘Iris’ by Goo Goo Dolls reminds me of my brother because it is one of his all-time favourite songs. Mr Brightside by The Killers now reminds me of Stuart because he kept singing it one night and it got stuck in his head.

There are songs that take me back to high school and remind me how sad my taste was then. Listening to boy bands like Hanson, the Backstreet Boys and Five. ‘You oughta know’ by Alanis Morrisette reminds me of my 13th birthday, listening to my new cassette (yeah, remember those? lol) in the car on the way to ice skating. How I eventually got over it because all of the songs on the album seemed negative.

Here are some other examples:

• ‘Barbie Girl’ – Aqua: Takes me back to the first time I heard it; travelling in the car on the way home from holidays, hearing it on the radio and thinking it must be a joke, just a comedy song.
• ‘Short skirt, long jacket’ - Cake: How I never liked the song when it first came out but I kept hearing it all the time and eventually ended up loving it.
• Buddy Holly songs: Listening to them in the car one night after seeing fireworks for the first time.
• ‘Love is All Around’ - Wet Wet Wet: My all time favourite song! Though it reminds of learning it in primary school for choir.
• ‘Crush’ - Jennifer Paige: Someone I had a crush on at the time this came out.
• ‘Freefallin’ – Tom Petty: My friend, always singing “free, free falling” at the wrong time
• ‘Better Man’ – Pearl Jam: Another friend who was once in a bad relationship. It had just ended and we were going out, that song playing as we walked in the bar, remembering how appropriate it seemed.
• ‘Can’t get started – Grinspoon: Cricket Australia once had this thing where each player would pick a theme song to play when they came out to bat or ball. Ricky Ponting, my favourite player, picked this song because he said he found it hard to get started when batting.
• ‘Stuck in the middle with you’ - Stealers Wheel: At the cricket again. My brother sitting in between me and my other brother. This song playing a lot during the day and every time it did, Dane singing along and pointing at us “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to my right, here I am. Stuck in the middle with you”
• ‘Eye of the tiger’ – Survivor: At the restaurant I used to work at, kitchen staff would often play one CD over and over, all day. One of them had this song on and I got so sick of hearing it!
• ‘3am’ -Matchbox Twenty: Standing in a newsagent, reading an article in a teen magazine about the “weird” lyrics.
• ‘Prisoner of Society’ - Living End: Coming home from a Youth Camp in the van, all of us singing along. Getting weird looks from other cars, lol.

Are there any songs that make you remember particular or special moments?

Erin.

It’s been over two months now since I started Fungabbie and I wanted to talk a little about how I’ve found it, what I’ve learned and what my plans are.

I have found blogging really enjoyable. It has helped me to get back into writing - I am submitting a few stories for a short writing competition this week - and I like having a way to get random thoughts out of my head and share them. It has been a great medium for me to express myself. I have cotinued drafting most posts with a paper and pen while on the train and I enjoy using this time to do something constructive. I still get excited when I have a new comment and knowing that people are stopping by.

I’ve enjoyed reading other blogs, finding new favourites and getting insights into other people’s lives, difficulties and differences. The funny and random blogs that make me laugh. The ones that make me think and consider things differently. Blogs that show how much talent is out there in regards to writing, photography and art.

I’m trying to get into a more regular pattern of blogging. My problem is that I like to jot down ideas and notes but can find it hard to turn them into a comprehensible post. Other times I’ve given up when it feels too hard to get my point across or when I am not really sure myself on what I want to focus on. 

I also find it hard to click on that publish button. I still struggle to decide when something is finished and doesn’t need any more editing - though I am getting better with this. I have also started including images with my posts and want these to be photos I have taken myself or images I have made, so that can slow me down also - especially since I don’t have Photoshop at home.

I am now also getting more serious with dropping and trying to comment more. Now I want to spend most of my internet time reading other blogs and seeing what is out there. This blogging thing is quite addictive!

How did your first couple of months go blogging? Did you learn a lot? Any tips you would pass on?

Erin.

I am an Aussie girl who doesn’t like summer. It is spring here now and the temperature has already been over 30° Celsius, which is far too hot for my liking.

Sure, there are things about summer I like - the beach, swimming, ice blocks, cricket… but there a lot more things that I don’t enjoy. Feeling sweaty and gross, not being able to sleep at night, when it is too hot to do anything, getting sun burnt, coming home from work on a hot, packed, un-airconditioned train with other sweaty people.

The worst summer I had was in 2005. I had been travelling in Europe and Britain from the end of November, coming home after Christmas to one of the hottest ever New Years Days. I couldn’t sleep because of the heat and all I wanted to do was go back overseas where it was nice and cold. I would sit outside at 3 am in the morning, trying to cool down. For the first time I noticed that in Australia the sky never seems to go totally black, there is always some light in it, a tint of blue. Overseas I had become used to the sky getting dark at 4pm and the pitch black skies.

I have trouble understanding how people like summer. I love winter because the cold makes me feel energised and alive. I like snuggling up under a blanket, drinking hot chocolate, using Stuart or the cat as a hot water bottle, seeing your breath when you walk outside. Summer just makes me feel drained. It is so much easier to warm up in winter than it is to cool down in summer.

Here’s hoping for a relatively cool summer!

Erin.