Well the exams have finished. Year 12 have left school for the last time and this week marks a phenomenon called Schoolies Week. Around 30,000 school leavers will pack up their booty and boogie boards and in the case of NSW head north. Usually to the den of iniquity that most New South Welshmen and women know as “The Gold Coast” (Other states have other venues such as Lorne in Victoria but The Gold Coast is where it’s at baby!) God knows why. The Gold coast comprises man made canals and a huge strip of apartments on a very fine beach that stretches from Coolangatta northwards. It’s a retirees paradise (Indeed, it’s most famous town is Surfer’s Paradise swamped with cheap touristy shops which appeal to the Japanese and a very nice Mall which appeals to us.) It’s hinterland has a beautiful national park, Dream World, Movie World and Wet and Wild (not that kind of wet and wild – water slides!) but the main drag is lined with multi-storey, well appointed apartments for lease and flash hotels.
The goal of schoolies from the kids point of view is basically to get pissed and get laid. You pack as many people into a luxury apartment as possible, sneak your vodca in via obscure means as glass is not allowed in the hotel rooms and hit the clubs and beach party, half price cocktails, party pashes and then come home before Christmas - marked, scarred and liberated for it is indeed a rite of passage from school into the real world
Parents hate it. Whether we admit it or not, we try in vain to distract our kids into accepting a more savoury alternative by offering holiday bribes, cars, a ‘weekend in Hawkes Nest’ or suggesting that staying with Gran might be more appropriate. Yeh right!
C’mon folks. I’m spitting chips that there was nothing like that when I left school.
My ‘right of passage’ was staying out all night after the end of year 12 formal, snogging to Dark Side of the Moon in the strobe light and sleeping on Palm Beach all the next day thanks to too much Blackberry Nip and Passion Pop!
Clare managed to squeeze schoolies in as she turned 18 on 4th December. And waltzed up to the Gold Coast . Poor Adam missed the Gold Coast bus so to speak as his 18th isn’t until the 11th and it’s all over bar the shouting, so he and his fellow underage drinkers opted for a boozy week with mates on the north coast in a friend’s holiday home.
This event has in the past been marred by drunken brawls, sick kids, ‘Toolies’ (older men coming in from the suburbs, or even interstate, to take advantage of the school leavers or cause fights with the younger boys) and the odd underage drinking bout although generally, ID is required and short of staying in your apartment and downing some Peach Schnapps, you can’t drink in public unless you’re over 18. It’s well policed by all accounts and many moons ago, we holidayed with smal kids during Schoolies and barely saw anyone in the teen realm – they’re all sleeping off the night before – the only evidence, a lot of doof doof coming from the subarus on Broad Beach and some ‘bodies’ left over at breakfast time.
So brace yourself Gold Coast . . .the first lot fly in tomorrow!
Press PhotosAAP
oi oi oi!
ReplyDeleteAhhh, memories!
ReplyDeleteWe had a girl puke a pink trail down the path while people stepped over her...
ReplyDeleteRock and roll!
I went to the Glastonbury Festival after my A levels (which wasn't really a big deal, Glastonbury being only eight miles away).
ReplyDeleteSome of the kids here go to Aghia Napa or Ibiza - our fellow didn't go anywhere and still doesn't spend his monthly allowance let alone his scholarship
Well, as you know, hereabouts that sort of thing goes on every night of the week, nobody needs a Schoolies Week as their excuse! And that T-shirt wouldn't deter the average bloke either....
ReplyDeleteMy right of passage came in the form of a 'red witch' - the result of saying "surpise me!" to a barman at the tender age of 18.
ReplyDeleteI spent the rest of the night lying beside the cigarette machine with my buddy, passing comments.
Then I was really, really sick.
That learned me. Never again. Well, nearly never. Ok... not very often then.
Bye bye braincells :(
June 1965.... that is a long way back to remember.
ReplyDeleteProlly peeled a big bag of spuds for dinner!
Totally foreign to me. I cannot tolerate, understand nor even care to understand. I thought it was a total waste of experience then and still think the same. It's probably due to the fact that I never had a chance to be juvenile, delinquent or otherwise. I resuscitated my first patient and handled my first delivery and saw utter hopelessness in families of malnourished and dying children at sixteen. From then on, I was a grown-up, even though I still feel very young today. I just hope that my children will understand that they don't have to get wasted in order to enjoy life. I think that is a totally western culture which unfortunately is being imported to oriental and other conservative societies with untoward results. I always believed that wisdom was not borne from making youthful mistakes but avoiding them. Of course I don't drink, smoke or do drugs so I am no fun at all.
ReplyDeletelol... i NEVER did anything like THAT, at 18... 16? MAYBE! :P hahahahahahahaha
ReplyDeleteI grew up in boarding school so it was off to the slosh everyday. Just something to learn on your way to the uni.
ReplyDeleteBut normal Southern Californian teens go to Palm Springs to have their sun and their drinks. The nasty trips go south to Tijuana to take advantage of the lower drinking age (21 in US and no one cares in Mexico).
Boy I would love to go to Glastonbury Festival one day.
Oh I have to work a bit more to have the same feeling although I am Year 12 student. I found a crappy version of Palotás video.
ReplyDeleteOur graduation night we went to a Fishbone concert and it got stopped halfway through because some idiot stage-dived and no one caught him. But we didn't drink anything. We saved that for college and Spring Break.
ReplyDeleteTCL, you forgot Havasu! :)
Indeed Annie . .isn't that a wonderfully creative chant . . "Aussie Aussie Aussie . .Oi Oi Oi" we're so clever!
ReplyDeleteClare I don't wanna know. What goes on tour stays on tour! Although that's where Dean&Shoe came in remember?
Miley . .Noice! Beats Green.
Ian very Rock 'n Roll indeed! Must admit there's little point for the tee totallers although I know a few who still endured it.
True that Nick. Most kids have a great time, it's the wallys that hit the news but the Gold Coast Council loves it, huge revenue raiser.
K8 that's a mean barman!And don't worry, we've just discovered that brain cells DO indeed grow back! If not you must have been wicked smaht!
Aww Grannymar . . .I guess parties then were restricted to high days and holidays. You're making up for it now!
That's a tough upbringing there Ms Ces. It'll be interesting to see if your two do the "Spring Break" celebrations. And you're plenty of fun!
I find it curious that you can drive at 16 but can't drink until 21 . . is that the same for voting and enlisting? 18 for everything here except consentual sex which is 16.
So Ropi, do they have an equvalent celebration in Hungary? You found a Palotas vid? Excellent! I'm going over to check your two left feet!
God how embarrassing to stage dive and nobody catches you . . .Clare went on a Spring Break cruise in the Caymans - ended up being a blue rinse cruise! Haha! That'll teach her!
Baino - 18 to vote, to serve, and to have relations. But 21 to tip the bottle.
ReplyDeleteI must confess I hated Surfers Paradise but then I was well past 18 when I visited. It was a little like B.A. in that nothing starts until 10pm as the kids sleep half the day like vampires
ReplyDeleteWe in Ireland have another rite of passage where everyone gets pissed and returns home liberated.
ReplyDeleteIt's called the Irish Blog Awards night ;-)
Don't worry, I'll be keeping a close eye on 'you know who' to make sure she behaves!
i fondly remember partying in high school and college. there was something so novel and exciting about it all. i certainly got drunk but was abit prudent about being laid!
ReplyDeletecome to think of it, have i changed at all? oh, yes, i don't drink. and i have no current need to activate prudence. still, i'm pretty fun, and i still love novel and exciting...
:)
Haha Steph . . .I'd love to be a fly on the wall although I think Grannymar knows when to stop. You and I are prolly another thing altogether!
ReplyDeleteWell kj I do drink . . and I'm very prudent, well only because nobody's asked me recently but hey . .and you are fun so . ..(I learned that lovely way of ending a sentence 'without ending it' from the Irish contingent . .it has a warm ambiguity about it)
What am I stopping?
ReplyDeleteWhen did I start?
What did I say?
may as well stop posting, half the time you ignore me... not that it's anything brilliant i post, anyway
ReplyDelete