TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

On the second evening of my partner, Enigma, and I's weekend stay in Adelaide we decided to have dinner at Fasta Pasta . Strangely enough our hotel staff, at the Alba, had not mentioned Fasta Pasta as an option for an evening meal while their restaurant is closed for refurbishment, even though it is literally next door on the corner of South Terrace and Pultney Street. You may be aware that Fasta Pasta is an upmarket Italian restaurant franchise with its beginnings in Adelaide. Currently they have 19 restaurants Australia wide (with the majority in South Australia - we even have one in Gawler, our home town). I've never had bad food at a Fasta Pasta, and their food never looks like a franchise meal. You always feel you're at a restaurant that's a little bit more quality than your typical hotel/motel meal. Maybe it's because you don't see as much pasta based meals on an Aussie pub menu. Despite the name, it's not all pasta. I went with a basic plate of fish a

Just inside the gate is this water bowl (Chozubachi) where visitors can purify themselves by washing their hands and adopting a humble kneeling altitude. On our weekend away the main thing my partner, Enigma, wanted to see was the Himeji Japanese Garden in the parklands along South Terrace, Adelaide CBD. Fortunately it was less than five minutes walk, just up the road from Hotel Alba, where we were staying. I don't know much about even my own garden, other than how to cut the lawns and hack away branches when things become over grown. Oh... and to add water during the Summer... so I'm just going to reproduce the first three paragraphs about the Himeji Garden taken from the sign near the entrance: About Himeji Garden Himeji Garden celebrates the Sister City relationship between Adelaide an the ancient Japanese city of Himeji. Situated 480 kilometres south-west from Tokyo, Himeji is renowned for the oldest wooden castle in Japan registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.

As part of our trip into Adelaide to spend a gifted voucher to The Meat & Wine Co Steakhouse Restaurant my partner, Enigma, thought it would be nice to make a relaxing weekend of it by booking a stay in a city hotel for a couple of nights. As the Adelaide Fringe Festival was in full swing all places we've previously stayed at were booked out. Fortunately the Hotel Alba , 226 South Tce, Adelaide, who are relatively new, had rooms available at a great price.  With four levels you get a choice of city or park views. We chose park. While I'm sure the city views were great as well, I feel like maybe, even on level four you'd be seeing quite a few air-conditioning units of the surrounding buildings in the foreground. At the time of our stay the hotel's restaurant and pool area was still under construction - or maybe refurbishment as the pool was there, filled with water.  The friendly and very helpful reception staff suggested we could go to the nearby Terrace Hotel  for