Now I'm going to write my sequel post.
I'm going to have to open a lot of windows here.
I have my Google Doc stuff, and I need to have my first Lisa Merrick blog post open, so I can remember what I said about her a few hours ago.
I see a mistake on my old entry. I don't know where I went wrong.
But I said Lisa was thirteen in 1980. Then I have her going to college in 1983. She'd be too young for uni.
So, let's change that to 1985.
I'm thinking young Aussie adults start their education in February for the most part. That's the beginning of the school year, right?
In December 1984, Lisa would turn eighteen. So maybe she started school a few months later.
Or would she have had a gap year?
I'll skip the gap year. I don't think all Australians have them.
Or she could have high school end soon after turning seventeen, and had a gap year then.
The thing is, I don't picture her parents being supportive of a gap year. At least not the traveling sort. Though I can picture them allowing her to work on a farm somewhere.
I just did the math (by counting on my fingers,) and if Lisa ended year 12 when she had just turned seventeen, then she would have been four when she started kindergarten. I think that's too young.
So I think I'll have her finishing year 12 in 1984. But that only gives her a Gap month! That's worse than what most Americans get. Yikes.
Would it be odd for her to start school after the autumn holiday? What if she started school in April instead of February? I think I'll go with that unless an Australian reading this says, No, THAT never happens!
Then I might argue poetic license. And besides, I seriously doubt any of this is going to go into the actual novel.
I'm not sure if ANY of this is really even necessary. It's pretty much another case of me playing make-believe inside my head. And sharing it. Just like that guy shares photos of his dolls.
Anyway, so Lisa Merrick is going to start her university education in April 1985.
Did she go to the farm?
I think so. It's somewhere in Victoria. She had a crush on a guy who looked sexy in an Akubra hat. He didn't like her back, because he was secretly gay. Very secretly.
Okay, so life in Australia in 1985. What's that like? I think Neighbours premiered that year.
Yep. Lord Wiki says it all started in March 1985. Lisa didn't watch it from the beginning, though. She didn't encounter it on the farm. But when she started going to uni, she met a new friend, and that friend watched it.
That brings me to another question. Where did Lisa live when she first started Uni. Did she live in campus housing? At home? In an apartment on her own?
In 1985, she meets her future husband and they move into an apartment together in 1986. What about the months before that?
I think I'll have her living at home, at first. Then she'll move out.
I'm looking at the Melbourne train site to see if it would be a feasible commute.
I'm just going to pretend 1984 had the same stations and all that.
There's one route that takes 35 minutes, and involves both a tram and a train.
I think Lisa can suffer a few months with that.
Let's get back to Neighbours.
Maybe Lisa would have a small crush on Des. It's not a huge crush, because she's still hung up on the farmer.
She's totally over Chris Makepeace, by the way.
Maybe she'd like Paul Robinson. Back then he was a really nice guy.
Lord Wiki is now telling me about Australian movies in 1985. The only thing that catches my interest is Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Lisa doesn't like it, but her dad does. He loves all those movies. Jesse pretends to like them, because it gives him a connection to his father. Daddy and Mommy Merrick are a bit distant when it comes to their children.
Lord Wiki says the most popular song in Australia in 1985 was "We Are the World". Lisa likes that, but I don't think she's a huge fan. Jesse liked it more than she did.
Lisa liked "Born in the USA". It's not that she had an excessive amount of American-love. She just liked the way the song sounded.
This website is helpful. It purples all the Aussie songs that are in the top 100.
Maybe Lisa liked INXS's "Dancing on the Jetty".
And I think she'd like Uncanny X-Men. They're new to me.
Who was Prime Minister in 1985? It's not still Fraser, is it? I think it would be Hawk by now.
Yes. Lord Wiki confirms that.
Actually, now I see that Lord Wiki has a whole entry on 1985.
Nothing there really shouts out to me. There was some guy who dressed up in a chicken suit, and he sat on the bench in the House of Representatives. That's kind of fun. But I don't think it had a big influence on Lisa's life.
You know this post is getting long.
I may have to break things up even further.
So, this post is really just about 1985.
I think next I'll write about 1990, the year Lisa lost her brother.
I'm going to have to open a lot of windows here.
I have my Google Doc stuff, and I need to have my first Lisa Merrick blog post open, so I can remember what I said about her a few hours ago.
I see a mistake on my old entry. I don't know where I went wrong.
But I said Lisa was thirteen in 1980. Then I have her going to college in 1983. She'd be too young for uni.
So, let's change that to 1985.
I'm thinking young Aussie adults start their education in February for the most part. That's the beginning of the school year, right?
In December 1984, Lisa would turn eighteen. So maybe she started school a few months later.
Or would she have had a gap year?
I'll skip the gap year. I don't think all Australians have them.
Or she could have high school end soon after turning seventeen, and had a gap year then.
The thing is, I don't picture her parents being supportive of a gap year. At least not the traveling sort. Though I can picture them allowing her to work on a farm somewhere.
I just did the math (by counting on my fingers,) and if Lisa ended year 12 when she had just turned seventeen, then she would have been four when she started kindergarten. I think that's too young.
So I think I'll have her finishing year 12 in 1984. But that only gives her a Gap month! That's worse than what most Americans get. Yikes.
Would it be odd for her to start school after the autumn holiday? What if she started school in April instead of February? I think I'll go with that unless an Australian reading this says, No, THAT never happens!
Then I might argue poetic license. And besides, I seriously doubt any of this is going to go into the actual novel.
I'm not sure if ANY of this is really even necessary. It's pretty much another case of me playing make-believe inside my head. And sharing it. Just like that guy shares photos of his dolls.
Anyway, so Lisa Merrick is going to start her university education in April 1985.
Did she go to the farm?
I think so. It's somewhere in Victoria. She had a crush on a guy who looked sexy in an Akubra hat. He didn't like her back, because he was secretly gay. Very secretly.
Okay, so life in Australia in 1985. What's that like? I think Neighbours premiered that year.
Yep. Lord Wiki says it all started in March 1985. Lisa didn't watch it from the beginning, though. She didn't encounter it on the farm. But when she started going to uni, she met a new friend, and that friend watched it.
That brings me to another question. Where did Lisa live when she first started Uni. Did she live in campus housing? At home? In an apartment on her own?
In 1985, she meets her future husband and they move into an apartment together in 1986. What about the months before that?
I think I'll have her living at home, at first. Then she'll move out.
I'm looking at the Melbourne train site to see if it would be a feasible commute.
I'm just going to pretend 1984 had the same stations and all that.
There's one route that takes 35 minutes, and involves both a tram and a train.
I think Lisa can suffer a few months with that.
Let's get back to Neighbours.
Maybe Lisa would have a small crush on Des. It's not a huge crush, because she's still hung up on the farmer.
She's totally over Chris Makepeace, by the way.
Maybe she'd like Paul Robinson. Back then he was a really nice guy.
Lord Wiki is now telling me about Australian movies in 1985. The only thing that catches my interest is Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Lisa doesn't like it, but her dad does. He loves all those movies. Jesse pretends to like them, because it gives him a connection to his father. Daddy and Mommy Merrick are a bit distant when it comes to their children.
Lord Wiki says the most popular song in Australia in 1985 was "We Are the World". Lisa likes that, but I don't think she's a huge fan. Jesse liked it more than she did.
Lisa liked "Born in the USA". It's not that she had an excessive amount of American-love. She just liked the way the song sounded.
This website is helpful. It purples all the Aussie songs that are in the top 100.
Maybe Lisa liked INXS's "Dancing on the Jetty".
And I think she'd like Uncanny X-Men. They're new to me.
Who was Prime Minister in 1985? It's not still Fraser, is it? I think it would be Hawk by now.
Yes. Lord Wiki confirms that.
Actually, now I see that Lord Wiki has a whole entry on 1985.
Nothing there really shouts out to me. There was some guy who dressed up in a chicken suit, and he sat on the bench in the House of Representatives. That's kind of fun. But I don't think it had a big influence on Lisa's life.
You know this post is getting long.
I may have to break things up even further.
So, this post is really just about 1985.
I think next I'll write about 1990, the year Lisa lost her brother.
From memory, the university school year back in the 80's started in the last week of February or the first week of March.
ReplyDeleteI started uni in 1990 and I remember the last week of Feb was orientation week with classes starting in the first week of March.
For High school and primary school, they start the school year a month earlier in the last week of January or the first week of Feb.
You would find that people would not start the uni school year as late as April.
As far as commuting to uni back in the 80's most kids did that by public transport. When I was at Uni I lived in Cheltenham and would catch the train into uni at RMIT. Most Uni students for RMIT or Melbourne Uni would have caught the train to what was Museum station. This station today is called Melbourne Central Station.
It had a name change in the early 90's when they built the Melbourne central Sopping complex above the station.
Jason.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU! Your comments in these posts are incredibly helpful.
So I'll just imagine Lisa ended school in December, and then went to the farm in January and the first few weeks of February.
Just out of curiosity...when you finished high school, did you go back into the whole school thing in March. Or did you do a gap year?
After High school I started Uni the very next year in March. I didn't have a gap year. But I did know of a few kids at my high school that did have a gap year. Usually back then, they did the gap year to enter the work force for a year or they travelled.
ReplyDeleteDo you regret not having the gap year, or are you okay with how things went?
ReplyDeleteI think here...gap years are rare. Or at least I never heard of them back when I was of that age.
I have no regrets about not having a gap year. Back in 1990 when I started at Uni, there were quite a few people that took gap years and never went back to Uni. Back then a lot of people that took a gap year entered the work force for that year to help them decide what they really wanted to study at uni. I remember at the time thinking that that would probably be me.
ReplyDelete