Humans of
Chello.

Not a morning person. But more of a person post-coffee. This describes Christina, but somehow it speaks for us all. After studying design and photography at uni Christina realised she could use both sides of her brain in advertising — and immediately enrolled in a masters. But she has useless talents too. She names reciting the alphabet in Italian and in sign language as talents that will not get her far in life.

Terrified of needles, she’s tried hypnosis to erase the fear — and now she doesn’t pass out when she’s getting jabbed in the arm. She still hates needles though. She is, however, a lover of gin, bad dad jokes and quoting a wide range of movies and television shows. At least after a coffee she is.

At last! Someone who can take on the heavy responsibility of selecting a Spotify playlist in the Chello studio. Gabi takes her playlist curation very seriously and this is the change we need around here. As an art history buff she also rounds out our excess of movie trivia. Sure, it’s niche. But who hasn’t been totally bewildered by a question about Caravaggio at some point in their lives?

You can often find Gabi cooking up a storm but just know that she doesn’t actually follow recipes. Her Pinterest recipes are more of a visual reference.

She can also play three instruments… but it’s been a while between songs, so don’t ask to be serenaded any time soon. She can, however, put on an exquisite playlist for you.

Spelt ‘Drou,’ pronounced ‘Drew,’ short for ‘Androulla,’ baptised as ‘Andrianna.’ Drou’s topsy-turvy naming conventions foreshadowed a lifetime of zany misadventures with equally far-reaching, confusing consequences. At the age of 8 or 9, she experienced a catastrophic food-poisoning incident courtesy of what she reasonably assumed to be a benign Filet-O-Fish.

As a result, she now suffers from an acute tomato sauce phobia and would prefer it if this vulnerable information is not circulated to her friends and co-workers or indeed via an extremely public work bio. However, this early brush with certain death has clearly imbued her with a fearless spirit: Drou has bungee jumped in Zimbabwe, sky-dived in South Africa, hiked for three weeks in the Himalayas and once sailed a hand-built wooden raft down the Amazon for a week in Bolivia.

Rosie harbours an irrational fear of lizards, including the garden variety. As far as fears go, it’s an original. Also original? Getting idioms mixed up. This is Rosie’s curse and we love it. Killing two stones with one bird? Sure! Finding a sore thumb in a haystack? Why not? This is how English will ultimately advance. She loves dad jokes and conspiracy theories equally. Which we can understand: one can be so bad they’re good and the other can be so absurd that they make sense. We’ll let you decide which is which.

Rosie also worships at the altar of sugar, subscribing to customs like dessert before dinner. Or, if you’re going for the jugular, dessert as breakfast. We think she’s working in the right place.

Lucy is from a big family and a small town. But if you were alive in Australia in the early naughts, you’ll know of this town… Lucy is from the “very exotic” Shropshire. She originally came to Australia for a six month holiday but that was six years ago and she hasn’t made plans to leave. She’s worked in waste management, transport and property but after three and a half years in an agency knew that this was the right industry for her. Lucy is most annoyed by slow walkers and loves any meal she doesn’t have to cook. Or that comes with a wine. Better make it both.

Originally on track to study pharmacy, somewhere along the way Linh fell into finance and never turned back. She’s a busy aunt to six (at the time of writing) very young nieces and nephews, so you can imagine the pressure of trying to establish herself as the cool aunt when Christmas shopping. But to truly claim this title, Linh will have to eventually teach them karate since she has a brown belt. A lover of travel and adventure, she’s spent six months travelling Europe and has briefly lived in a tribal village in the northern jungles of Thailand. Her dream is to swim in the Red Sea.