Tag Archives: boredom

Brissos and Boredom

Brissos will have disdain for anyone who claims they are bored (especially if it’s their own children). Noone knows boring like Brissos. That was the way Brisbane used to be, before it got better.

Brissos will have bonded, in their past, through the sharing of two major discomforts: boredom and heat. Together they will have toughed out long days, months and years of mind-numbing boredom in oppressively hot conditions; interminable school assemblies, “passing out” parades, dull classes (double soce followed by double RE), obligatory chapel and choir, endless swimming training, sports carnivals every other week.

Even when they left school, Brissos were not free to seek meaningful activities, achievements and cooler weather. Instead they dutifully did time together at college or at uni, suffered through pointless lectures, long sweaty car trips to find the biggest waves, obligatory drinking sessions at the beer garden and at B&S balls, forced by their friends to “ stay..ay..ay…..a little bit longer” in the hope that something would happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVmRbvvYU5U

They’ve also shared the tedium of working together at bottle shops, bars or reception desks to save for the mandatory trip OS. Shared the disappointing and dreary reality of living in London with insufficient funds. They’ve waited around together doing Eurail travel. They’ve been stranded without alcohol supplies in a foreign Catholic city during Holy Week.

Many people travel the world to meet new people from different cultures. Brissos travel OS in packs with mates from school days. These experiences have combined to forge strong ties between Brissos, ties that newbies can never fully understand.

A person who comes to Brisbane later in life, may indeed share experiences with Brissos, experiences that to them seem boring, and perhaps even unbearably hot as well. For example, the aforementioned fishing trip or cycling outings. And many experiences as parents – taking children to play group, the park, or school concerts. These can be dull and may seem bonding, it is true, but do not register on the same scale as those earlier experiences Brissos had.

Brisbane has come of age: most places and cars are air-conditioned these days; there’s always someplace open where you can go shopping and/or drinking. Anyone who says they are bored or hot in Brisbane just isn’t trying to enjoy themselves. They have no concept of how boring Brisbane and indeed the world used to be.

Some hot and boring pictures from Brisbane’s past.

A Sundial unveiling ceremony at a Brisbane school, 1960. Sunworshipping.

http://www.stpauls.qld.edu.au/06_web/img/sundial_big.jpg

http://www.stpauls.qld.edu.au/06_web/general/history.asp


School Assembly in the Barn
Brisbane 1965

First Classroom Block - click for larger image
A wonderful new Brisbane classroom block and play area -circa 1960.

The Commemorative Sundial

An exciting moment – in full sun

Children digging trenches at Ascot State School, Brisbane, 1942
Children digging trenches in shade at Ascot State School, Brisbane, 1942 State Library of Queensland

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Holyweek and penitent brissos: Even when overseas, Brissos are wary of being seen by other Brissos, and may adopt disguises.

Semana Santa, Merida, Spain
Holy Week Parade (Easter). The head covering you see in these pictures is called an antifaz (the piece of cloth covering the faces of nazarenos and penitents) and it’s held together by the capirote (a cardboard cone inside the antifaz, keeping it upright on the head). The purpose is to keep the identity of sinners secret.

http://goeurope.about.com/library/graphics/semana_santa_1.jpg

From goeurope.about.com