TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

TET and Mary Roach's Book, Gulp . I 'm the kind of person who only reads one physical book at a time. For context I consider a 'book' to be anything over 100 pages of mostly text. Basically your typical work of fiction novel or factual biography. It's not that I can't read more than one book at a time, I just choose not to because I don't set a lot of time aside for reading. Maybe 30 minutes a day when I'm on a good run with a really engaging text. Little did I know that Mary Roach's Gulp: Travels Around the Gut *, a book of 317 pages (minus the Acknowledgments and Bibliography) would become a bottle neck for my reading for the next three and a half years. As such, I'm calling it the worst book I have ever read. Despite how long it took me to read, it is not a bad book in the slightest, and is in fact, quite light, somewhat entertaining, reading for a book that explores the science, and the resilience of the human digestive system.  I'm no st

TET: Front Side Ollie to Tail Stall on a Curb. I t's been just over a year since I made my last YouTube Skateboard, update video and then didn't post anything further to the channel until now. Back then I had been off my skateboard for nearly two years because both my feet were sore from the impact of skating (just from flat ground ollies). Thankfully the time off my board did allow for my feet to recover and I've been skating on softer wheels ever since (95a - none of this 100a+ that was killing my feet). In the last year I've mostly skated my driveway, purposely not filming because I just wanted to get back to skateboarding for fun, and to unwind from being at my desk all day. Once you start filming anything for content you're adding a layer of pressure and expectation that you're going to do something worthy of sharing. If you compare the clips from my latest video (below - filmed Good Friday 2024), particularly comparing the two sections where I'm skati

I 'm not entirely sure if I've seen the original 1989 Road House . I feel like I probably saw it on home video but I don't really remember it, and, just watching that movie's trailer, Patrick Swayze seems too pretty to be a bouncer. I mean, he has such great hair in that film! All this to say, I don't have any attachment to the original film that Road House (2024) is based upon. I will say this isn't really my kind of movie but I enjoyed the trailer, particularly the opening fight sequence, where Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) asks if any of the guys have health insurance. I was so glad to see this sequence has so much more to it, and is a real highlight in terms of both action, humor and really setting the tone for who Dalton is. The story is pretty straight forward. Road House owner, Frankie (Jessica Williams), is having some serious problems with a motorcycle gang terrorizing her establishment. After going through several bouncers, she casts her net a bit wider an

The Amanda Rose.  F inal full day of our trip to Perth. Enigma and I headed over to my sister's house, to pick her up, and then meet my brother and Mum at Amanda's Garden Fete in Gosnells (not far from Southern River road). Luckily we got parking right opposite the gate when another car pulled out at just the opportune moment. About 5 or so minutes later my brother and Mum arrived, also managing to find parking not far from the gate. Amanda's Garden Fete is an annual charity event that takes place on a weekend, toward the end of October, raising funds for meningococcal disease awareness, support and research. Aside from being able to explore a beautifully maintained private garden there are Devonshire teas, a sausage sizzle, musical entertainment, seek and find game for kids, and stalls selling plants and other bric-a-brac. Entry is $5 per person. Overview of the plant buyers section with many flower varieties on offer. If you're particularly about buying plants then y

Doctor Who Police Box at Dr Russell's Imaginarium. This one wasn't bigger on the inside. T he second last day of our Perth trip was a Saturday, and turned out to be another day my partner, Enigma, and I could spend doing our own thing. Dr Russell's Imaginarium Museum Since it wasn't too far away we headed out to Guildford in the morning to visit Dr Russell's Imaginarium Museum and Toy Museum that had been closed when we attempted to visit with my family a few days earlier .  We were a little surprised to discover there was actually $2 entry fee, for which you get two penny coins to use in the old style Peep show machine (mostly vintage photos of topless ladies), and moviola machine, which is a giant flip book type affair using photos to create a movie scene. I think it had a story but I wasn't able to follow it very well. Also, if you make a purchase your entry fee is deducted from the price. Entrance to Dr Russell's Imaginarium. You can see the Police Box

Gosnells City Council has always been supportive of the arts to the point where you can see many examples of public art throughout the town centre. G osnells the suburb, or even the City of Gosnells , isn't really a destination at the forefront of anyone's mind when visiting Perth. Even now, after so much money has been spent on making pleasing community spaces and facilities, in the 24 years since I moved back to South Australia. It's certainly a much more pleasant looking place to live now than it was during the years I grew up there, from the age of eight. My family moved there from South Australia (after a brief eight month stay in Kelmscott while we waited for our house in Gosnells to be built) at the beginning of 1978. Today's plans were for my mum and I to catch up for lunch and do a bit of a walk around Gosnells - where she still lives - though not in the original house we had built, which was sold years ago. Usually it's a chance for me to see what's ch