Every few months there is an event called ‘Schoolies’ in Surfers Paradise. This happens when there is a high school event and all the kids come to Surfers Paradise on the school break. The biggest Schoolies event starts on November 16th and goes right to December. This is the graduation. Each state starts at a different week so there are steady waves of people coming in at all times.
Surfers Paradise turns into an absolute zoo. There are kids running around at all times. They’re swarm the streets screaming and shouting and being quite annoying. There is a large element of fun, especially if you go out, but overall it’s just a little bit much. It’s like Cancun, Mexico but this is Australia. There are tens of thousands of them everywhere. So far we are two days into Schoolies and there has already been about 160 arrests.
There is a large influx of violence when Schoolies is on. The kids travel in gangs of tens and most of them are drinking or are high. Some of them are pretty cool and nice, but many get carried away.
The Melbourne Cup is the largest thoroughbred race in Australia. The entire country shuts down for a day. Actually, in Victoria, where the Melbourne is located, it is a state holiday.
The thoroughbred industry is the 2nd largest industry in Australia behind minerals and mining. It’s no surprise that the country stops for the largest race.
In addition to the thoroughbreds being the second largest industry, the T.A.B. (the banks that control all the cash for trading and betting on thoroughbreds and greyhounds) is the second largest cash flow in Australia. Last year it turned over $20 billion AUD.
In 2007 the winner of the Melbourne Cup was Efficient.
Women wear lovely hats and dresses and men generally wear suits, no matter what bar they go to. It’s very celebrated and it is lots of fun when an entire country is united like that.
I put $20 dollars with some friends of mine on a trifecta (you have to get 1st, 2nd and 3rd). We would have won the trifecta unfortunately due to a human error when placing our bet (silly T.A.B. attendant), we didn’t get the win, even though we had selected the first 3 winners.
I have a friend in Canada who rides downs mountains professionally. He’s taken some big air wins over his career and I know he’s moving out to Western Canada to ride back country.
I wish him the best of luck with his debaucherous endeavors. Though I’m in Australia and jealous, I vow to go surfing before Monday
Justin Timberlake did two shows in Brisbane on Saturday, October 28th and Sunday, October 29th.
I attended the show on Sunday and it was quite good. There were rumors circulating that Fallout Boy were going to be there opening, though this wasn’t the case.
The tickets to the show were a whopping $150AUD. The floor or V.I.P. section was more expensive and had the luxury of a licensed bar. Beer was available in certain sections of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.
Overall the show was pretty good. He didn’t rap the Three 6 Mafia part of ‘Chop Me Up’, but he did rap Timbaland’s part.
I must say that that every girl at that show looked incredible. Of course the ladies I attended the show with were the most stunning, (especially this one sexy lady).
As far as stadium shows go, I have seen better. I’m very critical but I have seen hundreds of shows. Stadium shows are never intimate, yet I have seen more intimate shows than that. The band was very good. Justin did a lot of dancing, played a couple notes on the guitar and killed a couple songs on the piano.
His new album is very good. His show was good too. Enjoy the video.
