My head hurts. Hangovers are awful.

Anyway for a few years now I’ve contemplated forking out a hundred dollars or so and investing in Christmas lights for the front of the house. It would be cool to burn up electricity pointlessly, make the house look ridiculous and more importantly annoy the neighbours, however what I had thought of as my ambitious plan was today blown away when I saw this little video. I read somewhere that it would likely cost about $20k and a week or so to program. Well worth it if you ask me….. Decent song as well.

Pete

‘And each year, since time immemorial, the end of November meant a joyous time for children all over the world. Every year, billions of youngsters from every corner of the earth waited with bated breath for the unveiling of Pete’s Wondrous Christmas colours. And each year, there was much rejoicing and feasting, as the leadup to Christmas was officially announced by the supreme Kaiser himself, Pete.’ – Pete 3:16

As that passage from recently discovered scripture mentioned, this tradition of Christmas colours on PETEblog has been observed for millenia, so bless you for being part of history. May the leadup to Christmas begin!

Anyway, back to earth. Although people may start attacking me for putting up pretty bloody ugly Christmas colours pretty bloody early, I would like to point out that I had them up last year on November 25th, which makes this year’s ritual 2 days later than last, and THAT my dears is going against the grain – I started to spot Christmas stuff in stores from early September this year!!

Pete

Short and sweet today, although sweet is probably grossly misused, considering the content. This week has been a sad one: the venerable Sam – 3-time champion ugliest dog in the world, showcased in this very blog only a couple of months ago has passed away, aged 14. As his owner duly pointed out, some people will think that’s a good thing, but not this mug. Rest in Peace little buddy. (CNN Report)

And, just in case that didn’t get the tears flowing, I think this’ll do the trick. Just try sitting through this nasty piece of video. Pus galore.

Pete

I scrounged up some pretty interesting photos aswell as a video of the moment last week when Australia made it to the World Cup finals for the first time in 32 years.

For those even partially interested, the Socceroos beat Uruguay 4-2 on penalties after a two match series ended up with a 1-1 aggregate, and half an hour of fruitless extra time was played. I had decided to go to Federation Square to watch the match, expecting the worst but not totally ruling out Australia to qualify. We’ve had a pretty rough time, losing to Uruguay in similar circumstances 4 years ago, and going down to Iran due to an away goal in Melbourne in 1997. I also expected Fed Square to be fairly empty, considering the sheer size of the place and the fact that most people felt similarly to me as far as winning the match was concerned.

Fed Square on a normal day.

However, the evening was to prove me wrong on a number of points. Firstly, the square was completely packed. I don’t just mean bustling with people, there wasn’t room to move at all – just thousands and thousands of complete freaks shoulder to shoulder, which easn’t neccessarily a bad thing. It meant the atmosphere was satisfactory, beach balls and flares weren’t confiscated quickly by police and the moment we won, the streets turned to mob rule. People flooded into the Flinders/Swanston street intersection, stopping cars and trams for a good half hour and the cheers and celebrations could be heard well into the wee hours. Unfortunately, not feeling terribly well myself and with AB supposed to be driving, we headed off after about half an hour of celebrations, but I definately got a feel for the evening.

To finish off, here is a video I captured on my phone as the winning penalty was drilled in by John Aloisi as well as a few snapshots captured afterwards of the space outside Flinders Street station that should really be flowing with cars and trams.

Click here for a video of the final penalty. The microphone doesn’t do the roar that followed justice. Also, if you are particularly keen-eyed, you can see me being a muppet, but only briefly.

The crowd from under the clocks

A flag flies in the midst of it all

Flinders St. station looms tall over the jubilant crowd

Pete

I seriously think I may have broken the record for longest post-drought just then with a gap of almost two weeks. Even in the grips of – oh no, I just checked. During the overlander last year I went for 24 days without a post. 23 of those were spent in the middle of nowhere, hundreds and HUNDREDS of kilometres from power let alone internet, but nonetheless, this ain’t the record.

That said, it took totally removing myself from civilisation to do anything like this in the past, and the truth is these last 13 days haven’t exactly been spent in circumstances where I haven’t had the opportunity of posting. It boils down to just laziness getting the better of me.

So as such here’s a little tiny snippet of the fortnight that has been.

Well, as you may have guessed by the fact that I am writing this, it was a success. I’m feeling a bit groggy now, even after over twelve hours since surgery, and the stiched up lesions are still oozing blood and crap, but I feel otherwise good. Kept ice wrapped around my face all day, which probably helped, aswell as having the luxury of being on some decent painkillers… Gotta love dextropropoxyphene!

Anyway I’m off to bed to sleep and feel sorry for myself. I wanted to get a photo of me in hospital looking stupid in my little gown, but unfortunately i had neither a camera nor the mental faculties to take photos directly after my surgery this morning. If I come up nicely swollen and crap tomorrow, I’ll take a photo then and chuck it up here for your amusement. The lengths I’m willing to go to, just to please the fans.

Pete

If you need an excuse for an outpouring of sympathy, now’s the time. I’m off to Epworth Hospital tomorrow morning (at 7 bloody AM!) to be put under general anaesthesia for the first time in my life – for the extraction of my wisdom teeth no less.

So if you’ve always wanted an excuse to buy me ice-cream, jelly or gold jewellery (a man’s got to have his bling), go nuts. Oh, one more thing – next time I blog there’s a fair bet that I’ll be groggy, sore and in a poor mood, so don’t upset me before then lest your name appear forever tainted by the awesome power of peteblog. If you don’t believe the power this thing holds, just ask Becky – she’s felt its wrath. Becky smells.

Pete

Firstly, how awesome are holidays?!? I’m officially on summer break from this day forth! WOO

Secondly, the Falls Festival is looking better, now that the third line-up has been announced. The 2 night /3 day music event over New Years was looking a little patchy, but now that the headliners include The Dandy Warhols, Hoodoo Gurus, The Cat Empire, Wolfmother, Ozomatli, Ugly Duckling, Pete Murray, Sarah Blasko, The Beautiful Girls, End of Fashion, Little Birdy, Evermore, Mia Dyson, TZU, and many, many more it’s looking like quite a couple of days. This calls for another WOO!

While on the subject of music, it’s Triple J’s Ausmusic month! Lot’s of great stuff to listen to, and so many concert tickets up for grabs it’s ridiculous! WOOOO!

Three woo’s is enough for any mortal post. Finé.

Pete

What do you know – it’s the 1st of November and it’s too hot to sleep with a doona (duvet for you wanker poms). Going to be 32 tomorrow aswell… I don’t think my system is quite over winter yet!

Oh speaking of hot, I won twenty bucks on the races today! Hooray for the Melbourne Cup!

Pete