TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Crowne Plaza Hotel, Adelaide, South Australia My partner, Enigma, and I finally managed our two day getaway in Adelaide staying at the Crowne Plaza Hotel , ideally located not far from the central shopping district, arts precinct, and cafe strip. I say 'finally' because we initially booked this getaway in November of 2020 and watched it disappear on the morning we were meant to leave as SA went into a hard lockdown due to a COVID19 outbreak. Frustratingly the lockdown turned out to be unnecessary thanks to a not entirely accurate reporting on the movements of one positive case. However the damage to our trip was done. Lock down was lifted two days later but we had to reschedule our stay for January. Thankfully the Crowne Plaza was able to honor the same discount prices we had initially booked for, bringing the stay within our budget for two nights. Service at the hotel has been good. This is the first hotel we've stayed at with a street level concierge, who explains where t

Written and directed by Australian actor, Josh Lawson, Long Story Short is a fun rom-com about putting things off until the 'right' time and maybe how that isn't a good strategy for life. Rafe Spall plays Teddy, a guy who has a reputation for putting things off, and waiting too long to act on important decisions like setting a wedding date to his fiance, Leanne (Zahra Newman). It's not that he's lazy or unmotivated, it's just that he likes to wait for the perfect time to act. One day while visiting his father's grave he meets a strange woman (Noni Hazlehurst) who promises to give him a gift on his wedding day. Teddy doesn't think too much of it but then, on his wedding day, he jumps forward a year in time, where Leanne is celebrating their one year wedding anniversary. Teddy barely has time to comprehend his predicament before he flashes forward to their two year anniversary. Long Story Short inevitably will be compared to the Bill Murray movie, Ground

Based on the best selling novel by Jane Harper, The Dry is a murder mystery set in a small, drought affected, Australian outback town. Eric Bana plays Federal Agent, Harry Falk, who returns to his hometown to attend his childhood friend Luke's funeral, who died in what appears to have been a murder suicide of his family.  Unfortunately Harry's presence opens up some old wounds for some locals surrounding his departure from the town as a teenager some twenty years prior. Luke's parents, not convinced that the investigation into their son and his family's death has reached the right conclusion, ask Harry to look over the case. Given the plot of this film, and its very confronting opening scene (if you're not really used to watching murder mysteries) it's hard to describe this film as 'enjoyable', even though it is, in the sense that it kept me engaged the whole time. The story is split between present day and twenty years earlier, just prior to Harry'

I remember listening to a podcast interview with Steve Glaveski where he talked about 'being in flow' and how artists and other creative people struggled with time management because they needed to be in the 'flow state' to do their most creative work. The 'flow state' is basically being on such a roll with whatever you're doing you don't want to stop just because your diary says you've scheduled something else for the next 30 minutes. I don't remember too much from the podcast but it really resonated with me so much that I immediately ordered a copy of Steve's second book, Time Rich - Do Your Best Work, Live Your Best Life  that he was promoting at the time. To cut straight to the bottom line, probably one of the most disappointing books I've read in quite a while. Which is not to say the content is bad, it's just the title and blurb information, in my opinion, completely misrepresents what the book is about. There is a strong sugges

After having very much enjoyed the first Wonder Woman movie I was definitely looking forward to Wonder Woman 1984 , and I'm glad I was able to see it in a cinema. Though I wouldn't say it's as much of an essential big screen experience as perhaps director, Patty Jenkins, seemed to imply. I say that because the action scenes aren't nearly as epic as the first film (except maybe the opening warrior games scene which benefits from scale) and there's something a little off about all of the bigger, more fantastical action. Which I'll get into later. Which is not to suggest this isn't a fun, watchable movie, you just don't need a big screen to showcase dialogue scenes. Bigger images doesn't add anything to them. Going in I was expecting a lighter and brighter film than the previous movie. The trailers and posters make that pretty clear. Once past the flashback to Themyscira and into 1984, I was immediately hit with a Superman III vibe in the way Wonder W

Click & Collect is a service offered by many online retailers where you can shop for your items online, and then pick up your order from a participating retailer near you within hours. It sounds all very convenient but is it really? When I shop online, I do so because I want my purchase to be delivered to my front door. I don't want to leave my house. That's convenience. Click and Collect allows me to go to an actual store, that stocks the item I've ordered online, where my purchase will be packed and waiting for me to pick up within a few hours of placing the order. As opposed to me just going to the store near me, buying from that retailer what I would've ordered online, in however long it takes for me to get to the store and back. In certain circumstances Click & Collect is great. There may be times when you don't want something delivered directly to your home. It's particularly appropriate for purchases where the item is physically being shipped to a