1989
My first year of college. Quite scary to be honest. Our form teacher was a big dude who was one of the "caners" in our skool.... yes he used to tell us all about it hehe. But he was pretty cool. Back then caning etc was still allowed... i think 1989 was the last year. I remember in 2002 when i started at maccas pakuranga i was like the old dude (26) as all the other guys were like 16, 17 etc. They couldn't believe that they caned when i was at skool. i felt like telling them all my war stories too lmao (i'm kidding btw).
Anyway i was only there for a term as we relocated to Auckland in May of that year. We looked in several areas including Greenlane, Epsom etc and also out east in Bucklands Beach. Schooling was the main reason why we were in these areas as Macleans and Auckland Grammer both had excellent reputations. In the end we bought a place out in Bucklands Beach just down the road from one of my mates that used to live near us in Wellington (its a small world). Macleans College was vastly differnet to Tawa College. The area was quite a bit richer and there was no corporal punishment... instead they had something much worse... A run. This was "PC proof" (its still around today) and to be honest if i was a big fat prop hairy beastual prop forward then i would have chosen the cane over a gut busting run anyday. But ppl at macleans were different, not better just different. Very acadademic and the skool eocouraged participation in sport etc. However in the first 2 years i bascially did nothing. In English i struggled.... this was a strong subject for me back in wellie (along with maths) but up here i was quickly finding that i was into maths, science etc. unlike America and Wellington i tended to work harder up here... and didn't have any bad years where i didn't do homework etc. The former years were the best, my grades fell away however when it counted... at the end... but thats another year and hence another chapter hehe. Just becasue their was no cane didn't mean there was no rules.... this skool was way stricter than Tawa but in a modern way.... little has changed over the years.... the punishments are the same, as are the rules.... whereas other skools had to drop corporal punishment from their arsenal.
I wouldn't say the kids were any more snobby at Macleans. They probably were but then again i was rejected at Tawa as well so hard to tell.... and the first year at Macleans i didn't really feel rejected.
However before all this occured we were back in Wellington when we heard the news that grandpa had finally passed away. A kind release... he'd been struggling to breath cos of emphaseama and had to use a nebuliser.... just thinking of my granddad puts me off ever getting into smoking. He got into it in WWII and never stopped until he got really sick. The first funeral i had been to.... but it wasn't the last unfortunately. I would go to two more funerals and choose not to go to another.... but once again... in another chapter.
Ok muscially i was back in wellie in early 89 when i was into def leppard, gnr, bon jovi etc when one of our more naughty classmates intotroduced us to some REAL heavy metal.... Metallica.... this was before metallica sold out btw. Man i was hooked bigtime but was scared by all the negative propaganda and of course what would my parents say... like this stuff was even heavier than Iron Maiden.... no way would my parents ever tolerate thier often aggressive son listening to such violent music lol. But in 1990 i would take the plunge as my music taste got heavier and heavier.
Also huge at Tawa was wrestling... EVERYONE was into the WWF and we allwasy watched every show. Hulk Hogan and Ultimate warrior were the big guns at da time. Whole classrooms were cleared to become wrestling rings during the lunch break. Macleans too was bitten by the wrestling bug but not to the same extent as Tawa.
I had made some good freinds at Tawa so was sad to leave.... the guys especially i got on well with... the girls on the other hand were starting the ball rolling on what has made me what i am today... a single virgin. Yes me and females have traditionally not got on that well.... even before America i was accused of hitting girls (i never did such a thing btw). In America it was cool to see girls as "gross", girl germs etc.... infact one such crazy incident was valentines day 1986. Mum sed just give cards to ppl you like.... which i assumed was my mates. So i ended up giving valentines cards to all the guys!! lmao oh the innocence of youth.
So i basically had the 3 ingredients for a girl free lifestyle right in my 3 interents.... Heavy Metal music, WWF, and of course RC cars. nearly all of the ppl racing RC cars were male. I took this hobby up to akl with me but the scene wasn't anywhere near as big up here. Still we found a club at Papakura which i would remain at until 1994.
Back up at Macleans i was finally finding my feet in my grades and the end of the year i was getting some good marks and had establish myself as one of the better performing ppl in the class... but in the following years i would enter a world where i was unfamiliar with.... nerd battlegrounds.
Anyway i was only there for a term as we relocated to Auckland in May of that year. We looked in several areas including Greenlane, Epsom etc and also out east in Bucklands Beach. Schooling was the main reason why we were in these areas as Macleans and Auckland Grammer both had excellent reputations. In the end we bought a place out in Bucklands Beach just down the road from one of my mates that used to live near us in Wellington (its a small world). Macleans College was vastly differnet to Tawa College. The area was quite a bit richer and there was no corporal punishment... instead they had something much worse... A run. This was "PC proof" (its still around today) and to be honest if i was a big fat prop hairy beastual prop forward then i would have chosen the cane over a gut busting run anyday. But ppl at macleans were different, not better just different. Very acadademic and the skool eocouraged participation in sport etc. However in the first 2 years i bascially did nothing. In English i struggled.... this was a strong subject for me back in wellie (along with maths) but up here i was quickly finding that i was into maths, science etc. unlike America and Wellington i tended to work harder up here... and didn't have any bad years where i didn't do homework etc. The former years were the best, my grades fell away however when it counted... at the end... but thats another year and hence another chapter hehe. Just becasue their was no cane didn't mean there was no rules.... this skool was way stricter than Tawa but in a modern way.... little has changed over the years.... the punishments are the same, as are the rules.... whereas other skools had to drop corporal punishment from their arsenal.
I wouldn't say the kids were any more snobby at Macleans. They probably were but then again i was rejected at Tawa as well so hard to tell.... and the first year at Macleans i didn't really feel rejected.
However before all this occured we were back in Wellington when we heard the news that grandpa had finally passed away. A kind release... he'd been struggling to breath cos of emphaseama and had to use a nebuliser.... just thinking of my granddad puts me off ever getting into smoking. He got into it in WWII and never stopped until he got really sick. The first funeral i had been to.... but it wasn't the last unfortunately. I would go to two more funerals and choose not to go to another.... but once again... in another chapter.
Ok muscially i was back in wellie in early 89 when i was into def leppard, gnr, bon jovi etc when one of our more naughty classmates intotroduced us to some REAL heavy metal.... Metallica.... this was before metallica sold out btw. Man i was hooked bigtime but was scared by all the negative propaganda and of course what would my parents say... like this stuff was even heavier than Iron Maiden.... no way would my parents ever tolerate thier often aggressive son listening to such violent music lol. But in 1990 i would take the plunge as my music taste got heavier and heavier.
Also huge at Tawa was wrestling... EVERYONE was into the WWF and we allwasy watched every show. Hulk Hogan and Ultimate warrior were the big guns at da time. Whole classrooms were cleared to become wrestling rings during the lunch break. Macleans too was bitten by the wrestling bug but not to the same extent as Tawa.
I had made some good freinds at Tawa so was sad to leave.... the guys especially i got on well with... the girls on the other hand were starting the ball rolling on what has made me what i am today... a single virgin. Yes me and females have traditionally not got on that well.... even before America i was accused of hitting girls (i never did such a thing btw). In America it was cool to see girls as "gross", girl germs etc.... infact one such crazy incident was valentines day 1986. Mum sed just give cards to ppl you like.... which i assumed was my mates. So i ended up giving valentines cards to all the guys!! lmao oh the innocence of youth.
So i basically had the 3 ingredients for a girl free lifestyle right in my 3 interents.... Heavy Metal music, WWF, and of course RC cars. nearly all of the ppl racing RC cars were male. I took this hobby up to akl with me but the scene wasn't anywhere near as big up here. Still we found a club at Papakura which i would remain at until 1994.
Back up at Macleans i was finally finding my feet in my grades and the end of the year i was getting some good marks and had establish myself as one of the better performing ppl in the class... but in the following years i would enter a world where i was unfamiliar with.... nerd battlegrounds.
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