A-League is back.

It’s been a mammoth off-season, with the beginning of the season pushed back to avoid starting during the finals of the other football codes in the country. Brilliant idea I think, and hopefully it means we will see some increased spectator numbers. Last season was an amazing time for football in this country (soccer for some), with my favourite team, Brisbane Roar, taking out both pieces of the silverware. Love it.

To celebrate the start of the season, a group of us on twitter are meeting up beforehand. There’ll be drinks, introductions, chanting, and lots of chatter.

If you’re interested in coming (we’ll accept supporters from other clubs, although we may stir you a little), the details are:

Hotel LA
Caxton St
Brisbane
6pm – kick off (make sure you leave with enough time that you don’t miss kick off though!)

We have even created a facebook event page, which you can find here. The invitation is open to everyone so feel free to just show up unannounced and meet some new faces! I’ll be sure to post some pictures from the meet up tomorrow, once I come down from the high of the start of the new season.

Tonight’s game couldn’t be any better. It’s a grand final replay between my beloved Roar and Central Coast Mariners; I can’t wait. Is it time to go yet?

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I thought that rather post a boring long post of what I learned, I thought I’d show you. Here are a few notes I took over the weekend when I was pining away for the internet:

Day 1:

5.55pm I’ve just switched off 3G and cellular data from my phone, but not before I tweeted goodbye. I’m officially offline. Thank god I have plans for tonight.

8.30pm I want to check sports scores and I have nothing. We’re watching the football, and thankfully my friends have pay TV so we can flick between about 2 – 3 different codes of football. Still feeling up to date. This is good.

11.00pm I had dinner at a mate’s place tonight, and normally I would just transfer the money for dinner straight over to them using mobile netbanking. Tonight it’s either I use phone banking or I go for a drive to get some money out of the ATM. Screw that, they can just wait until I have the internet back.

Day 2

7.45am I have personal training this morning, and thank god I screenshotted an email from the trainer yesterday before I went offline, otherwise would have had to text Chere to get the address. And thank god for the non-Internet based app Tom Tom, otherwise would have had to drag a street directory with me to find my way!

1.00pm just had lunch with C, couldn’t show him a place I was trying to describe to him because I couldn’t use google maps. It wasn’t until we had gone our separate ways I realize I could have used Tom Tom. Also couldn’t check in at the beach OR the lunch location, felt a little strange not to be advertising my social life.

1.10pm Had to text a friend to see what she was up to cause I couldn’t check twitter. Starting to feel a little disconnected now.

4.27pm Just realized I couldn’t go online to congratulate someone who got engaged on Friday. No other way of contacting them, guess it waits until Monday.

5.39pm I’ve started watching blesdisloe cup, and have an overwhelming urge to tweet about it. Used to reading other people’s comments on twitter so it feels strange to only rely on the company I’m with (not that that’s a bad thing either, but when we’re both a little new to rugby union we have to reply on commentators to educate us, and we know that’s not exactly a good idea!

8.00pm I’m not a fan of watching sport without twitter anymore. It feels wrong.

Day 3

8.15am I just scored a bargain at the markets: a pineapple for $1, 10 apples for $2 and bag of avos for $2.50. Can’t go on twitter to talk about it, so I guess I’ll just have to feel proud of myself.

9.04am Sitting in front of the tv to watch the second half of the Under 20′s world cup game, Australia vs. Spain. Australia is losing 5-1 already, and Ican’t go on twitter to complain. I’ll have a text relay with Tina instead.

9.35am Wondering about the tattoos on the face of the player Bulut (bullet?). Can’t google and can’t ask twitter so will come up with stories. The tears on his right eye means he has murdered two people, the star means he is part of an organised religion that believes that they need to get together once a week and pray to the stars. They believe in a higher being, meaning that there’s a being that’s physically higher than them. In space maybe? Perhaps they worship C, he’s higher than them. He’s higher than most people. Through a lack of the internet I have established that Bulut is weird, he worships my boyfriend. Maybe this is how people come up with conspiracy theories?

12.01pm Have just driven to Brisbane with my Mum for my cousin’s engagement party, and feeling a bit shy. Wishing I could use my phone to browse the news since the last update on anything was from listening to the news on the radio last night. A war could have broken out and I wouldnt know, although I would hope my family would tell me.

1.00pm I have been informed I tweet too much, and that I need to “shut the fuck up”. Fair call, it’s true. I’ve made a mental note to quit with the random lyric tweets and to try and keep my tweets to something substantial. Yet it’s a bit sad that I’m currently “tweeting offline” as my sister calls it. Ha – doesn’t she realise that these offline updates are longer than 140 characters? SHEESH!

3.51pm It’s the end of the family gathering. After half an hour I ended up putting my phone in the car since I didn’t really need to use it for anything.

3.52pm I’ve just realised my phone hasn’t been charged since Friday, and it’s still at 54%. Goes to show the iPhone’s battery is actually pretty impressive if you don’t use 3G or cellular data like push notifications etc.

7.39pm I’m out again for dinner with C and friends, and still no check-ins from me. No one will know how social I’ve been!! I’m bored while the guys get dinner, I have no idea what to do with myself. I know, I’ll text Kim and tell her how social I’m being.

11.35pm Still out and about and drinking, and I’ve informed C how long it is until I’m allowed to use the internet. There’s been a couple of points during a discussion tonight I had the urge to google something but haven’t. It’s become apparent to me that I google a lot of stuff to find it out during discussions. I need to stop doing that – it’s an annoying habit and I’m not even on the receiving end of it. Probably the reason why my memory is so bad too.

12.01am I’M BACK BITCHES! The internet is MIIIIIIIIINE! Cellular data on, 3G on, lets see what tweets I missed!!

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When Mat and I split I didn’t go through much of a “what is wrong with me” period. Fact of the matter is that I knew that we didn’t break up because there was something wrong with me. I knew that we had split because be reached as far as we could go. He knew it, and started the proceedings, but I agreed and walked away. I have actually felt very insecure in myself for years, and I only really discovered why at the end of last month when I wrote this post about being disappointed in my life.

That post woke me up.

On Tuesday I went out for dinner with 3 people from twitter. I had never met them in real life, and only ever spoken to one of them on twitter before we decided to meet up. Yet when we met we all clicked. We chatted, laughed and had fun. We had common interests, but I also learned a few new things as well. We finished up with coffee, and plans for another meet up next month. It was the start of the regular Sunshine Coast twitter meet up (termed SCTUB).

While I have met people before from twitter (hello Mr. Mark Bates) and remain friends with them, I had never been solo before. Back then if the person didn’t like me it was fine – I had someone at home. But here I was flying solo. It was me, and only me. I had never felt so vulnerable before. I had never felt so unsure of myself, and whether they would like me. I didn’t know if I would be heading home with my tail between my legs, vowing never to try that again.

Yet at the end of the night I felt a strange sensation stirring within, and realised it was confidence. I was starting to feel confident again. I was starting to believe that I had something to offer to people in the way of conversation, thoughts and opinions. I wasn’t someone riding the coat tails of someone else like I had done with Mat. I was standing alone on my own two feet, and I began to like what I saw.

Yes, I’ve made mistakes, and yes I am disappointed in what I have achieved so far. But I’m not that boring, uninspired girl anymore. I’m on a mission to change my life, and meeting new people has definitely kick-started the journey. To Talia, Luke and Sarah: I don’t think you will ever understand just how much your willingness to take a chance on meeting someone random has changed my life. But it has, and I am so grateful. Thank you.

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Ever since I announced the challenge I’ve had people tell me I’m nuts, that I’ll fail, and why the heck would I want to do such a thing. It’s simple really – I love to prove I can do things. I love making lists, and getting them all done. I love someone saying I can’t do something, and proving I can. That’s partially the reason behind my annual “things to do” lists (new year “tasks” rather than resolutions), and my crazy “give up chocolate for one month and be really stupid by doing it during the Easter period” task.

I don’t expect it to be easy. In fact, I expect that I will be whinging & bitching for most of the week about it, and there’s quite the possibility I could cry like a baby when my phone is returned. But It will be an interesting experiment to see just how much my life has changed since getting the iPhone, and seeing how truly dependent I am on it. For those who don’t have an iPhone (or blackberry or android phones) they just don’t understand why this challenge is such a big deal. I don’t know whether a week without my iPhone will cause a decrease in the quality of life I lead or whether it will be totally refreshing. I might come out on the other end and see that the iPhone truly is just another gadget that I want, not need.

I know there’s a few particular apps that I will missing in particular:

1. The calendar – I have a goldfish memory, plain and simple. Without the calendar I’m going to have to write myself paper reminders (the calendar on the nokia isn’t even worth contemplating) and stick them in my bag. It’s the old skool method my mum uses. I’ve already checked the week ahead and made sure there’s no appointments I’ll be forgetting about during the challenge.
2. Twitter – one of the best features about twitter is having it on your phone, and being able to use the GPS functionality to see what’s going on around you, not to mention be able to tweet things as they come to mind. Given I will be working 5 out of the 7 days of the challenge, I will still have twitter at my disposal via a computer, but it’s really not the same. When I’m out and about and have 5 minutes to spare, what am I going to do instead of reading everyone’s tweets?
3. Beejive – this is a combination of time wasting as well as laziness. I have a few friends that I constantly keep in touch with via instant messenger, and having the ability to use it on my phone means that if I’m at home I don’t have to sit at the computer to chat with them. I can sit on the couch and use my iPhone. That’s the laziness part. The time wasting is in conjuction with twitter. When I’m standing around somewhere and have 5 minutes to kill, I can’t log in online and hope there’s someone to chat to. I’ll have to *shudder* find something non-iPhone related to do!
4. ShapeUp – I’m currently trying to watch what I eat and lose weight. Part of that is doing the ol’ calorie counting, which is where ShapeUp comes in. Open the app, type in the food I just ate, it adds the calories and I see how much I have remaining for the day. I can also put in my exercise and see how it offsets my calories I’ve consumed. Not having the app with me for a week means that I’m going to have to keep a notepad with me, and consult a weight watchers points guide. There’s no way I could work out calories based on the nutritional panels on food by myself. Missing this app is really going to hurt
5. C25K - this app is used in conjunction with the “Couch to 5k” running program. The app basically counts down the time remaining in the work out, and tells you when to warm up, run, walk or cool down. Makes it only one hundred times easier for me, since I can focus on the work out and not the clock. Also going to be greatly annoying missing this app.
6. Safari – before I fall asleep I usually spend about 15 – 20mins using safari to browse my google reader feeds. I expect for this week I’ll go to bed and twiddle my thumbs on what to do. Perhaps I’ll have to pay some attention to Mat instead *shock horror*

Of course there are other smaller reasons I’ll miss it – not being able to google search on the fly, not playing some games when sitting around bored etc. Missing the majority of the apps above  means a  lifestyle change for which I have to anticipate for the changes and ensure I’m prepared in advance.

I haven’t even started the challenge yet, and already I’m amazed by just how much the iPhone has truly changed my life. I hope this week goes fast.

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