It’s Eric
Thursday, 27 October, 2005
Ben and I both have Samsung mobiles with Orange. I've got a little animatic of a dog sleeping in a field, occasionally turning his head to watch the autumn leaves skate past. Ben usually has the one-word banner on his phone. In the past, it used to say “Buddha” (back when Ben was using it as an expletive the way that people use Christ's name) but since then it's been changed to various things—like “boojum” or “vehicular” (Ben's favourite word). Sometimes I will even play pranks on him and change it when he's not looking. At the moment it says simply “eric”. (No, I don't know why.)
This afternoon in the post-lunch phase when everyone either plays cricket or stands about on the porch in the morning tea area, chatting until the next class (which happened to be Greek whereupon I suddenly discovered the realities of not doing the subject any more since I'm not continuing to second year ... foolishly I thought we'd just translate unseen passages until the close of term)—anyway, this afternoon, Ben came up and told me that he'd lost his phone. I tried ringing it but that didn't do much good since it was on silent (everyone turns their phones off or to silent because it's just too embarrassing to have your phone ring during lectures or chapel when the Bible is being taught).
Then I tried the wife tack: Is it in your bag? (Logical question but sometimes he doesn't see what is there.) Is it in the locker? (No.) Where did you last see it? Did you actually take it to college with you today? Did you have it during the chaplaincy group feedback hour? Was it in your pocket at lunch?
He thought it must have fallen out and decided to go to the office to see if it had been handed in as lost property. Because the Carillon Ave entrance to the office is being renovated, the only way in is via the King St entrance and the quickest way to get there is through the mailroom. So Ben wandered off and I sat down and started sewing and talking to people and watching the girls from Mac who were filming my fellow students for the first year video.
A few moments later, Ben was back.
“I found my phone,” he said. “Guess where it was.”
(Okay, obviously not at lost property. Where?) “Was it in the locker?”
“No.”
“Lecture room?”
“No.”
“Your bag?”
“No. It was in Eric Cheung's* pigeon hole.”
* NB Eric Cheung, MTS-er with Evangelical Christian Union just before us. We met them on mission at St. Clement's Mosman in 2000. When they moved back to Sydney to go to college, we moved into their house in Wollongong.
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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So how did using “Buddha” as an expletive work? Did people notice and what did they think? What made Ben stop?
Bag?? I thought Ben had a yellow bucket? What happened to the yellow bucket!!
He stopped using the bucket when we started walking to college. It was a bit unwieldly.
Daniel, the Christians around him thought it was funny. He also used to say “Muhammed”. I don’t know why he stopped but now he likes saying “Crassis!” (which, in case you didn’t know, means two words in Greek smashed together—usually “and” and some other word).