Well this really is the last blog for a while. See you on the 12th everyone. You can entertain yourself with the cooooooooool away notice that you saw on the way in if you get bored. Or alternatively revisit the wonder of kiwispoons, or find another protagonist to bug for weeks. Take care and I’ll see you all later.

Pete

A lot to blog about today, and it may be the last for a while:

Dad got a phonecall today from some dude at Cabrini, he’s to go in today so they can prep him for 8am Sunday surgery. They identified the bowel mass as something starting with D (as you can see im thriving with medical terms) and it all has to go. He may have a course of chemotherapy afterwards, but it should only be 4 or 5 days in hospital, then he can come down to anglesea with us!! Its still a bummer it had to rear its ugly head again, but we’ll get through it.

As I mentioned briefly we’re off to Anglesea for the next month. We have a place almost on the beach rented for January and it should be swell. The move in date was meant to be today (28th) but i dunno whether we’ll make it until sunday arvo. Anyhoo if we do go, this may very well be the last blog for me for quite some time, although technically I’ll be back in Melbourne and home on the 12th in time for the tennis, which starts on the 13th. Still thats 2 weeks.

NYE is going to be a blur. Best leave it at that.

Thats about it actually… not as long as i warned but eh.. Oh some last minute plugs: new linkage to Brooka and the half assed new layout award to the always lovable Phona! I’m sure the rest of the christmas layouts are down too… but once again eh.

Happy holidays/whatever to everbody, and I’ll see you all next year! HAPPY NEW YEAR

Pete

Heh I was trying to explain to dad and mum (she got back last night!) the importance of a digital camera, but unfortunately they need better reasons than just daily grinding. We have like 4 decent cameras in the house including mine (Grandpas chrissy present to me last year!!) which is damn fine. I finally bargained with dad that he’ll BUY a good 4 megapixel camera as soon as I churn 5 history essays out of these holidays. I did one today, and plan on another tonight but yay!!!!

I have no plans of doing ‘the grind’ on New Years eve for the simple reason of not trusting myself with alcohol AND a camera, even if I have a camera by then, so theres not much point trying too soon. It’s still cool getting parents to ‘encourage’ me into doing things I’d do anyway for cool gizmos!!!

Pete

Merry Christmas to all my lovable readers.

Hope the holiday season bring you many joys and that 2003 is as prosperous and sucessful as any before it.

Pete

Fuck. Just when the house started to smell all christmasy and pine like, we get slogged with looking after a stinky, barking fat lazy and above all nutcase DOG for a week. friggin canines. Also the banks are useless (no news here): I banked 300 dollars this morning so I could just use my card and buy the few last christmas presents I owe and put it on card, but unfortunately the stupid bloody fucking bank proved once again slow and useless and didn’t credit me until 11:02 this evening, rendering my trip to chaddy completely useless. Damn banks.
I couldn’t get my grubby hands on a digital camera for tomorrow either, and theres no way in hell I’m using a 35mm. Just think of all the scanning and crappiness… ugh.

In better news however, Dad’s results came in today. Well sorta. The smaller lump on his lung is squama(sp?) cell, a secondary reincarnation of the throat cancer he had almost 3 years ago. BUT the bigger growth, in his bowel is still unidentified after 3 seperate biopsies. This is not all bad news though, because it is highly unlikely to be the same cancer, and its a really odd position in the bowel to be a cancer at all. Meh we’ll see. He’s in for more tests tomorrow. Of course the anxiety of the whole 10 days has been fucking with him, so the relief of having conclusive results is great.

Pete

heh if you search for:

“king city pink beans” in google, PETEblog returns #10 in the list of about 17,000.

“famous porn star” in some weird european engine (i should have kept this) PETEblog returns NUMBER 1!!!! /me brings out the champers.. (champagne for those (un?)educated folks)

Mmmm nothing better than getting home at 3, curling up with a book and the remote and having the afternoon/evening disappear in regular intervals of cricket and reading. Pity Sri Lanka suck so much ballsack. I mean NO-ONE loses to England. Twice. All the stress of shopping for bloody christmas presents and school next year disappeared for a short 8 hours. Dad and I bought the christmas tree yesterday so the smell of pine helps. It’s slowly infusing itself throughout the house. mmmm…

Pete

Jesus I thought that dad’s bombshell on Friday was enough excitement for one week.

Jake rang at 6pm inviting me over for a BBQ, beer and video session at his house, and how could I refuse? I only intended spending an hour or so over there, but I drank too much, and stayed till about half past twelve. Jake lives about a kilometre away but we live in a middle to upper class suburb in a relatively quiet city as far as street crime goes.
High street, the stretch of road that literally takes us to each others doors is about the fanciest shmanciest street around. Very well lit, and constantly with people on it, it is probablly the least likely street I could have picked for a mugging.

This is where the story may become a little unbelievable to most, but I assure you I am telling the truth. Walking past the Armadale pub, a reputable pub half way between Jake’s and my house I spotted two guys about my age walking towards me 100 metres away. As they approached me, it looked like they were after a cigerette, but I told them pre-emptively that I didn’t have any. They then looked at me funny and asked, in a legit tone if I had any money. I knew well that I didn’t, and told them so, after which they grabbed the phone from my hand – I had recently messaged dad to tell him I was coming home, while one held me against a wall. I did not struggle.

They both started off, at a leisurely walk, and I thought ‘fuck this’ and started to follow them. A minute or so of exchanges of expletives followed, before they turned down a pedestrian access and into a dark side street, where they looked to run off. Stupidly, and against all advice from police and school, I challenged them. The ensuing thirty seconds saw one of them threaten me now with a bottle, me reach into the guys pocket where my phone was, take the phone, and take the fuckers on. A fully weighted slog with my right felled the bigger guy while the littler guy (the one that took the phone and held the bottle) backed off.

I started a panicky but triumphant run off, fumbling to ring dad and incoherantly tell him of the ordeal. Two minutes later I was home, shaken but not stirred. I had turned the tables in a mugging. Fucking gang-stars wanna take me I suppose it helped that there were only two of them, and that they were shorter, leaner and at least looked younger than me.

Pete

heh. I saw this and thought immediatly of our own guinea pigs Reverie and sOngjUn. I hope they don’t kill me for this.

CLICK for bigness

Pete

Heh I had a spirited chat with the Singaporean protaggers with sOngjUn and Pei as well, just what the doctor ordered to get me over, or at least off thinking about what awaits next week. At least we can joke about it still. I told dad this tumour better not be cancerous, because last time he cocked up a trip to England, and this time he could cock up the month in Anglesea. Well actually it’s only 90 minutes away so we can commute, but still it would suck.

Anyhoo, thanks to the lovable singaporean protaggers, sOngjUn, Pei, and Nadine for taking my mind off things. Love you guys

Pete