Three words – Newcastle went off!!!  Pearl Jam put on the show of the century and Mark Richard’s comment – Is this the best fuckin band in the world or what! was very fitting.

Sydney was great too, but nothing will top Newcastle.

Gotta go, off to the cricket for a few days of booze filled fun!

I heard a similar comment from a fan on the Lifewasted.net forum. This time regarding the Backstreet Boys. Don’t know which is worse. I think Nickelback!!!

Big weekend for me. Pearl Jam in Sydney tomorrow night, and back to Newcastle for the show of the century on Sunday! I’m extremely pumped for it.

As for Movember, sponsorship dollars are up close to $350. Going well that’s for sure!

I’ll probably be back on Monday for a recap of the weekend!

By the looks of things Pearl Jam are still rocking out! In Melbourne this week. Would have loved to have gotten down there, but it would have been a huge commitment!

On the cricket front. The Ashes is looking like more of a non event every day. The poms are getting smashed by every B-grade Aussie side out there and now Trescothic’s had a breakdown and he’s gone. The poms are going from bad to worse, but when it comes to cricket, there’s nothing like smashing the poms!

Good news on the Movember front. Sponsorships are over $250 now. I’d love to see $1,000 but I know its a big ask. We’ll see though. Get involved here!

Computer’s having a melt down, so that’ll have to do for now.

Keep it real!

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Wednesday – Pearl Jam, Sydney night 2. This night in the nosebleeds. An interesting experience viewing a Pearl Jam show from up there. Out of 7 PJ shows that I’d seen, this was my first from the stands. Damn is the crowd boring up there!!! But, I think it was just the whole night. Sydney 2 will go down as the most boring show of the tour I think. Not that the band didn’t try, but the crowd was just lame! They weren’t into it. Highlight of the night was seeing Present Tense, my favourite song.

Thursday – Boy did I struggle on Thursday. 2 late nights in a row and backing up for work with the knowledge that I was going to Brisbane the following morning. Lets just say it wasn’t the most productive day at work!

Friday – Up early for the flight to Brisbane. Picked up the car from the airport. They gave me a Toyota Camry, the most boring old person car out there. It went alright though. Dropped the car off at the hotel and hit the streets. The knob at the hotel told me it was only a short stroll to The Valley from the city. Caz was skeptical, but I believed him. Anyway, about an hour later (and very sore legs) we made The Valley for some shopping and a coffee. Back to the river and jumped on the ferry up to Southbank. Some lunch, then back to the hotel for a lie down and getting ready for the night.

Got to the show early in the hope that Ed would do a pre-set. Unfortunately there was none, but caught the Kings of Leon. Had some decent seats, 4th row, however off to the side a bit, so not as good as Sydney 1. Hot damn, what a setlist! The crowd was pumped, which made the band pumped! They put on one of those shows that was just all time! It was Caz’s first Pearl Jam experience this tour and after giving me shit about being so excited she could not believe how good they are and is now pumped for the last 2 shows. One of those shows where they played the classics, but played them with more intensity then usual! From opening with Corduroy, to closing with Yellow Ledbetter, the show was just perfect!

Went to the pub to see if I could find some of the Lifewasted people. Couldn’t see anyone, music there was shit and it was full of popped polo collar wearing wankers, so I went home to bed.

Saturday – Off to the Sunny Coast. Started early, heading up to the Eumundi Markets. Damn that place is big! It’s like they’ve taken every Saturday/Sunday markets in Australia, doubled them, and that’s about the size of Eumundi! Didn’t buy anything, but had a good wander round. Getting hot. Off to Noosa to the beach!!! Spent the arvo there, then back to the Grandparents’ to see them for the first time in a few years!

Sunday – Back to the beach, this time Mooloolaba. All day round there, top stuff! Dinner at the RSL for $7 roast. Nan and Pop were in their element!

Monday – Head down to Mooloolaba for a coffee. Weather pretty average. Howling Nor-easter. Then head up the Buderim for a drive. End up at a waterfall and got some sweet photos there! Leave Nan and Pop’s, a few tears! Back on the road. This time through Caloundra. Well, Caloundra was protected from the Nor-Easter so some beautiful warm weather. Have a swim there, I loved it! Back down to Brissie for an afternoon of shopping (well at least an afternoon for Caz to shop!).

Tuesday – That’s today! Back at work, not real productive! I will be tomorrow though, I promise. If you want to see some photos of my little trip (including heaps from Pearl Jam) see my Flickr photostream.

Movember – Going well. See my Movember Flickr site for photos of us all, but below is a snap of me today, with the free pair of sunnies I got yesterday when I bought some shorts!

If you like this effort, click here to sponsor me!

Thats all for now, I will post more when I think of it.

I saw 5 shows of the 2003 Australian tour, and this show was definitely better than all of those.  The energy was intense, the crowd went off and the fan club got me 7th row, dead centre.

They opened with Release, an old favourite off Ten, and then the whole set was just full over classics!

Don’t have time right now to get into full details, but in short, I’m pretty sure this was the best gig I’ve ever seen!

Back to Sydney tonight after an unproductive day at work today.

Pumped.

Photos to come soon too.

(Oh, I lost on the Melbourne Cup too… again)

We’ve got the office sweep running, I’m running it. Damn its annoying doing these things. Trying to get people to pay up on what they’ve committed, managing the money and all that. It’s for the birds!!! Next year, I think I will set up my own bookie to get some revenue from my hard earned worked. The good news is that 15% of earning we get from the sweep are going to Movember, which will be $20-$30.

I’m on Tawqeet on the nose as well as about 5 horses on a box trifecta. Not expecting to win anything, but its a bit of fun.

Of course, Pearl Jam is tonight. I’ve been listening to all my albums and am so pumped its not funny! Tomorrow will be reporting in on how it goes.

Gotta go, off to the pub!

The good news is that I no longer have to go to this job interview tomorrow. They’re doing it by phone on Thursday. Therefore, tonight will be the unveiling of ‘the mo’. Pictures to come soon, but its still in its infant stages. I’ve been told by some people that I’m only getting sponsored if I go the big fat handlebar. So it looks like Handlebar it is!

Melbourne Cup tomorrow as well. Still not sure who I’m betting on. Been reading the form and can’t really look past Tawqeet.

1 more sleep!!!

Good for the water supplies, but bad for us who decided to play lawn bowls for Marty’s birthday. Instead we went ten pin bowling. Now there’s a sport that deserves more cred! The only thing that stops us going is the fact that you can’t sink a couple of cold beers while you play. You see thats why lawn bowls is so appealing. You throw your ball down the pitch then sit back having a sip on your beer while the others bowl. This is the one thing that ten pin bowling lacks and the day I win lotto is the day I open a bowling alley with a licensed bar.

Anyway, we then headed to the pub for dinner and the footy. This pub, The CBD as it’s affectionally known. What we like about this joint is that they’ve got a good range of beers on tap, the place attracts a bit of an older (mid 20′s) crowd, theres 2 pool tables which cop a good workout and there’s usually a cover band playing some good stuff. Well, times they are a changin! The CBD has recently been sold to an ING fund. The pool tables have been replaced by a single pool table, which as it is on the dance floor, gets covered up at about 9pm. The old pool room has become the pokie room, as it is in a position where it sees more traffic then the old room. In pokie language, more traffic means more $$$! The old pokie room was hidden away. This is what I liked about this pub. It had a room dedicated to pool and then some crappy little room where the pokies were hidden away. Not any more though!

Now this point is annoying but not the end of the world. However, the following point is the end of the world! The live cover band used to be the crux of this joint. On any given Friday or Saturday night you were guaranteed some Chisel and The Jovi. Of course I’d always throw a request for Pearl Jam in there too! However, these days, you’ve got doof, doof, doof, throw me some pills, doof, doof, doof. This has in turn attracted the crowd that I really don’t feel the need to associate with (young punks, knob jockeys, etc)! In fact this is how bad its got. Last week, we made a request for some Michael Jackson, and we got the response; “sorry guys we don’t play that sort of stuff”. Then we thought, what’s something good that they might have so we said to the DJ; “what about some Run DMC“. The response from the DJ was; “Run Who???”. That was the beginning of the turning point for me.

So to summarise, someone’s now making a lot of money in their little ING fund. The place is definitely busier. But its not the place I want to hang out. Unfortunately I’m not looking for a pub like this. Time to find a pub that the Devil is yet to taint!

On the mo front. Things are starting to come along nicely. I have decided that I will not shave my mo until after my job interview on Tuesday. I know I’m officially breaking the rules of Movember, but I think this is a nice compromise. I am still chasing sponsorship dollars so please sponsor me and my mo!

2 more sleeps till Pearl Jam. Oh yeah, I’m excited!!!

A long, hard week at work, didn’t have time to scratch myself. Met up with Jas at the CBD for a couple Coopers Pale Ales. Damn it was good. Just what the doctor ordered!!

In other news. I’ve got a second interview for a job I went for. Bad news is its next Tuesday and the mo will be a week old. Do i shave it and break all the rules of Movember? Or do i keep it and hope the interviewers understand? Second bit of bad news. The interview is Tuesday arvo. Not until after the appointment was set did I realise that this is also Melbourne Cup afternoon. Aargghhh!!!

Well time to introduce the lineup I think.

From Top to Bottom we have “I shaved a week ago, seriously! Newy” ; “I have a 5 o’clock shadow at 10 am! Peircy”; and myself, “I can’t wait to sport my mo at the cricket! Bully”

This represents Team PURN (my business unit’s acronym) clean shaven on the 31st October. The boss wouldn’t get involved because he had a hot date or some rubbish. So we’ll call him “I’m to good for you Mo-bro’s! Majo”.

A little slow on the sponsorships today. Nothing came in, however Movember got a mention on the company intranet today. So hopefully those that thought we were just trying to scam will chip in a few bucks.

The legendary “Ooh Aah Glenn McGrath” cleaned up at the ICC Champion’s trophy overnight, with captain Ricky Ponting back in form with the bat. This is great news come 23rd of Movember when I’m up in Brisbane for the first day of the Ashes.

Excitement continues to build over Pearl Jam. Only 5 more sleeps to go. Now comes the huge dilemma for every nuts Pearl Jam fan. For the next few days to you go on Pearl Jam blockout, not listening to any of the music, or Pearl Jam overload and listen to every album/b-side/rarity that you own? I tend to go the latter. Last tour I drove up to Brisbane for the first show. It was a 10 hour drive and over that 10 hours I listened to nothing but Pearl Jam. You can never have enough in my opinion. However, I know of many people who won’t listen to an album for a couple of months prior to a tour, just to make the music that much more special. They’re nuts if you ask me!

Well, that concludes another day of Movember. This first week’s going to be pretty slow, but then it all starts on the 7th.

Remember, get behind me this Movember!!!

See ya round like a rissole