I trained as a lawyer, and now I'm a copywriter. Writing had always been at the back of my mind, but I never thought it was something that could earn me money. There’s plenty of decent work out there.

I grew up in the country, on the Yorke Peninsula – it’s the “leg” of South Australia – in a farming community called Maitland. My mother’s side of the family is German, my father is Polish.

When I was 17 I left to go to study in Germany on a school exchange. It was ... interesting. Germany then was a very different culture and not one I was comfortable in. There was very little spontaneity, a very strict structure and a great deal of questioning, which doesn’t mix very well with the British reserve and laidback culture of Australia. For example, if a meal in a restaurant is bad, an Australian will say it’s good and get the hell out of there, whereas a German will say it’s bad. The assertiveness threw me.

I came back and studied arts/law at university. After three years my results got worse and worse – and the university registrar suggested I have six months off. At the time, I worked in a boarding school with links to England, so I managed to get a position at a school over there called Felstead.

Six months ended up being four years. I was boarding master, and taught Outdoor Education, Maths and Legal Studies. At that time anyone with a degree could teach at private schools in the UK.

It was a fantastic lifestyle. I’m still in touch; I went back last July for the graduation. It’s a small town rural area similar to what I grew up in, with lots of history and culture, forty kilometres from London. Oliver Cromwell’s sons had carved graffiti into the Art room walls. The school wasn’t progressive, but open-minded. The things they did were the things I like doing – arts, travel, horse riding, fairs, the village lifestyle, art history trips to Venice, music, ballet in London.
The school had just gone coeducational, and suddenly all these girls came so I spent three days a week poncing around on horses. Fantastic.

I came back to Australia for Christmases. The thing that got me was the sound of lorikeets – a horrendous screeching sound in the heat. That made me realise what a strange take on Christmas we have here in Australia.

In 1998 my father died suddenly. I wasn’t going to return, but the headmaster and others said I must go back. I’m so grateful that they said that.

My father had two funerals, one in Maitland and one in Adelaide. Dad always felt like an outsider because he was Polish, so it was beautiful but also sad to see the amount of respect he did have in the community without him thinking he did. It wasn’t just the number of people but the type of people who came.

After four years, it was time to come home to finish the law degree and get a job. The first part was successful.

When I finished, I was a junior solicitor in commercial litigation for nine months, and I hated it. I couldn’t stand it: stuck inside, accounting for every six minutes and billing it to somebody. That was the thing I hated, having to always find someone to bill. The only winners in commercial litigation are the lawyers.

One day, I was cycling in Glenelg and saw people putting up an event site, and I was fascinated. I was just intrigued, and asked a friend who worked at the South Australia Tourist Commission about event management.

October 18 was Lentil Day. I stopped being a lawyer, stopped having an income, and volunteered for a major events company and loved it. I liked organising big events that people wanted to come to. The company wanted to keep me on so I had a job there for the next five years.

My next job was on the communication side of South Australian Rugby Union. There was a much keener sense of writing in the job.

One day, the events company I’d worked for rang up and asked me to get a business number; they had some freelance writing work for me to do. I did a personal training course to supplement my income and began freelancing. Not long after a friend rang and asked me to send my portfolio to an advertising agency – they rang the next day and asked 'can you start full time tomorrow?'. I said no then, now I’ve gradually built up to working for them as my major freelancing job.

Adelaide for a gay man? It’s shocking, absolutely abysmal, like Sydney twenty years ago. There’s one gay venue, sometimes two, they open and shut. I’m certainly not involved in the scene.

Meeting people is difficult – guys are either eighteen or nineteen years old and off to the Mars Bar, or in relationships or interstate.

I did run a fitness program called Tough Guys – with friends, we ran around and did stuff like Boot Camp but without the stupid shouting and army fatigues. So I thought, why not Tough Gays? It was successful; we have up to fifteen guys come.

I guess I’m not openly gay but comfortably gay, I tell if I’m asked. My family and friends know, work knows: I do find I have to drop hints a bit.

Last Christmas I was seriously considering moving to Perth – it’s different, more self-sufficient. It’s the most remote city in the world, so it needs to be. Companies have head offices in Sydney, Melbourne or Perth, but not Adelaide, so moving would be good for my career. The lifestyle’s good and the men are very cute.

Adelaide is an easy place to live careerwise – it’s fantastic because I’ve got a wide social network built over ten or twelve years. Most of my work comes from word of mouth. That’s made me reluctant to move. My Mum is still in Adelaide, too. There’d be adventure in moving but also guilt; she’d hate for me not to leave because of her, but she’d hate me to leave. We’re still very close.

I like having a goal, but I’m shocking at making plans. We live in such a dynamic world it only takes a small moment to completely change your plans. I’m a firm believer that if you want something, you’ve got to have it written down in front of you. Then it’s a commitment, and it will happen. If you want something enough like that, you’ll be tuned in to the messages and signs that consciously or unconsciously point you in the right direction.

Erik talked to me on Thursday, July 19, 2007.

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