ONE LESS LUNCHBOX
MANDY NOLAN’S
SOAPBOX S E E M O R E O F M A N DY O N E C H O N E T DA I LY W W W. E C H O. N E T. A U /S OA P - B OX
Last week my middle daughter finished school. Forever. That’s one less lunchbox on my bench. At my peak I was packing five lunchboxes and now I’m down to just two little boxes. I don’t understand parents who can’t wait for their kids to leave home. It’s not like that for me. I’m such a sook. It’s really hard letting them go. One after the other. Nobody really tells you this. So when it happens it’s a surprise. Again, you’d think I’d have this nailed by now but I don’t. Finishing school is one of the final rites of passage that starts to move them away from you. It’s really the last time you get to yell at them for not
Mum,’ but Sophia always let me finish: ‘Yes, Mum. I will’. Of course she never did. She was just smart enough to realise that you got shorter lectures if you acquiesced to the almighty doing their homework, for not mother from the first beat. So now my sweet little handing in a note, for missing platinum-haired girl is finished. the bus. When you have a small herd I love yelling at them for stuff you expect the older ones to like that. It’s how I get all finish; it comes as a bit of a my frustrations out on the shock when the younger ones world because I’m right and start finishing as well. I’m not they’re wrong. It’s wonderfully sure if it’s actually shock or just simplistic and always satisfying. another rude reminder that Poor Sophia has sat through life seems to be moving at a hundreds of my lectures about slightly faster rate these days. completing tasks on time. I’ve I wasn’t quite prepared for shared my time-management how emotional it made me. I skills. ‘If you have a party on was a blubbering mess at the Saturday then you have to graduation. Seeing all these work backwards and budget study time so you can AFFORD to go.’ My eldest daughter would look at me like I was nuts and say, ’Get fucked,
kids in their conservative uniforms, with their hair in neat ponytails, blazers done up, stockings on, ties and long pants, they looked as adorable as a bunch of hairy stinky sweaty 17/18-year-olds can look. I imagined them all as little kids again. Back on the first day of school when they were filled with wonder, and felt terribly grown up because they had a schoolbag bigger than them. The look on their faces was the same. That wide-open excitement, that thrilling sense that they were ‘big’. Instead this time the book of their school years was being snapped shut. This was the last page. Pretty soon they’d be starting a brand-new book. A much
ENTERTAINMENT harder, less directed, lonelier book. A book where you don’t know the ending like this one. Where no-one is there to make you finish it. And there are so many books to choose from that many just stand there unable to open any of them. I thought of this and started bawling. I’m bawling again writing this, but mainly because on reflection I realise how easily moved I become by crappy metaphors about parts of your life being like a book. I look at all their faces and wonder where they will be in 12 months, two years, ten years. Who they will be. I want to yell out, ‘You don’t know! It’s harder than you think! You’re safe now! Your parents are looking after you! Your mum made your bed. They probably even paid for your car! And your teeth! You have each other. You’ll never have these long days to hang
Live Music
club lennox live music
Appearing this year alongside the glorious Nattali Rize of Blue King Brown is New Zealand’s Tiki Taane. He is one of the country’s most well-known and diverse artists and producers, a pioneer in the NZ music scene, first rising to prominence as frontman of leading band Salmonella Dub before embarking on his solo career in January 2007.
Sunday 2 October 4–6pm:
LADY LEE & THE JAZZY KATS Sunday 9 October 4–7pm:
RACHEL BECK
Restaurant open Wed-Sun Lunch & Dinner Free WiFi | Courtesy Bus | Air Conditioned yourclublennox | clublennox.com.au | 02 6687 4313
ONCE IN A BLUE MOON Award-winning pianist and writer Jessica Roemischer combines music, storytelling and video for a unique concert experience. Greg Thomas of the New York Daily News calls Jessica’s events ‘a tapestry of sound textures that evokes peace because it comes from love’.
GETTING THE VIBE BE There are some festivals ls that have to be on your bucket cket list. list Island Vibe on Stradbroke Island is definitely one of them.
Tiki is renowned for his abilities both as a gifted performance MC and solo acoustic performances. Affectionately known as ‘King of the Dubs’ in NZ, Tiki’s musical influences roam from dubstep, reggae, old-school drum’n’bass and hiphop. Tiki’s power to unify, warm and wow punters is definitely going to make him one of the hot shows to vibe to. Heartical Hi Powa represents
the traditional medium of bass culture, featuring Dancehall Kings: Macky Banton and Stryka D. CEO of Dubforce Radio Macky Banton is one of the world’s most travelled sound-system MCs. A legend within the UK scene, Macky Banton is known for hyping up dance halls across the globe. In 2002, Stryka D created a music scene when Heartical Hi Power formed Dub Club in Melbourne, bringing 50 years of Jamaican music culture to Australia. Stryka D believed purpose-built speaker stacks and equipment were essential to fast forward reggae and dub music. More than a decade later you get to check out Heartical Hi Power with correct weight and treble. 28–30 October at North Stradbroke Island. For tickets and program info go to islandvibe.com.
with all your friends again. You think you’re free when you walk out of here, but you were free when you walked in! Life’s not what you think! ‘You’ll have to do stuff you don’t want to in order to eventually get to a point in your life where you can do more of the stuff you want to. Sometimes by the time you get there you won’t care about doing that stuff any more. You won’t know who you are. You’ll try to impress people. Contrive relationships. You’ll feel lonely. Disconnected. You’ll search for your place in life. Your tribe. I hope you find it. Because when you do it’s so good. It’s the real thing.’ Apparently this isn’t what you are supposed to write in a graduation card. It’s depressing. I don’t care, I’m packing that lunchbox anyway.
JESSICA ROEMISCHER PRESENTS ONCE IN A BLUE MOON AT THE BYRON THEATRE ON SATURDAY 8 OCTOBER
GIVING CHARITY A NUDGE
This Sunday at the Billinudgel Hotel Nudge Nudge Wink Wink, will be raising money for local not-for-profit Liberation Larder, who rescue good food that would otherwise end up in landfill, and ensure this food reaches people who need it, either as meals or fresh food parcels. DJs Al Royale, Vinyl Junkie, Dale Stephen and Lord Sut will be enticing you with hot tunes to make your hearts sing and feet groove to the beat. From 2pm.
For her debut at The Byron Theatre, she’ll show Once in a Blue Moon, a video collaboration with Byron photographer Luke Taylor, which has received nearly two million views. You’ll experience this captivating video onscreen as Roemischer plays the soundtrack live. 8 October at 7.30–9pm, Byron Theatre, Community Centre. Tickets and Info: byroncentre. com.au. Phone: 6685 6807
IT’S A SWING THING! Ladies and gentlemen, the swing is back! This Sunday will be a splendid night of swing and electro-swing madness with Mick Buckley & the Hepcats, Karen Minami’s Jive Cabaret, RADIO CYP on the decks and Rosie Miss Chief on the mic. Live swing band, dance choreographies with our local flapper girls, DJ and MC. Let’s get swungover! Poinciana Cafe in Mullumbimby on Sunday from 6pm.
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32 September 28, 2016 The Byron Shire Echo
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WATCH THE GAME LIVE ON THE BIG SCREEN AT THE BOWLO
Club B y
GRAND FINAL 2016 WEEKEND 2016
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Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au/byron-echo