TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

The Polly Woodside Tall Ship, Melbourne. The Queen Elizabeth Cruise Ship arrived back in Melbourne sometime in the early hours of the morning on Sunday, February 2. One of the few benefits of being in 'riff-raff' class is that we'd be among the last to disembark at 9:30am, allowing us to relax for one final time with an unhurried breakfast in the Britannia Restaurant. If this is your first time (or first post) reading about the cruise my partner, Enigma, and I took on the Queen Elizabeth at the end of January, beginning of February 2020 you may like to go back and start from the beginning by clicking this link (posts will be listed in reverse order). It may be your last glimpse into the world of cruise ship holidays pre pandemic 2020. It was 10am by the time we were actually leaving the boat and collecting our bags from the terminal. We were asked to wait in the upper level of the Britannia restaurant while they double checked that all final guests still on the boat were p...

TET Rock'n'Roll attempt on a driveway quarter pipe. Whenever we have a fine sunny day during Winter in Australia I always try to take advantage of it by getting in some skateboarding, even if it's only in the driveway (not that I really skate anywhere else at the moment). In this driveway skateboard session video I didn't really have a plan for what I wanted to try so I started out by revisiting manuals on the world's smallest manual pad. From there I felt like skating my small quarter pipe, which I don't skate often on account of not being able to do anything on it beyond drop-ins and BS 50-50 stalls. However I do kind of feel Rock'n'Rolls are the trick I'm most likely to relearn next so today was the day to give them a real go. As I explain in the video I don't like people who half ass Rock'n'rolls by tapping the middle of the deck on the coping and turning back in. The trick looks super cool when done right with the back trucks pushed ...

Out 'poshing' posh afternoon tea. Me, enjoying an after dinner tea - full pinky!. Photo: Enigma Cruises are very much different experiences for different people. If you want a quiet relaxing time, you can pick and choose what activities you get involved with that match your tastes. If this is your first post in my series, documenting my partner, Enigma, and I's week long cruise on the Queen Elizabeth that we took at the end of January, start of February 2020, just a month prior to the world going into lockdown thanks to Coronavirus, you may like to go back and read all the available posts in this series (in reverse order) click here . As you read about our experience keep in mind my Partner and I tend to keep to ourselves. We're polite and talk to people who we happen to cross paths with, but we really like the quiet relaxing side of cruises. If you're more adventurous, looking to meet new people and get involved in more physical activities like sports or dancing, m...

Noseslide Shove-it out (without the slide part). Not surprisingly skateboarding a little more often brings a little more confidence to try new tricks. Or in my case retry tricks I used to land. I'm also conscious that these driveway skateboarding videos are just a little too similar if all I do is run through Braille's Skateboarding Made Simple every time. Driveway Session One In the first driveway session video below I started out with my basic SMS tricks and then moved on to some of the recent tricks I've been attempting on my board slider. Not with a great deal of success.  I then thought about retrying Blunt Stalls, something I could do on a curb really well back in the nineties, along with a couple of technical variations like shove-it outs that aren't as hard to do as you'd think. Unfortunately my board slider is a little wider than a standard curb making it hard to stall in the right position needed to pop out of the trick and land. The rest of the video I f...

Trying Nose Manuals. After being successful with ollie manualing on the world's smallest manual pad I thought maybe I could try getting back my ollie nose manuals. You can see how I went in my latest driveway skateboarding session video below where I also again try to land kickflips and actually board slide my board slider. As it turns out my confidence in ollieing up, even an inch, onto a platform is just not there. I couldn't bring myself to even try with any level of commitment. I even tried moving the platform out of the way, and also explored to possibility of trying frontside 180 fakie nose manuals. None of it was happening so I moved onto my continuing efforts to land a kickflip. I thought this was a really good session with a number of close lands, that don't really count because the tail was down. Just not sure how to fix that? Finally I finished up with attempting to board slide as much of my board slider as possible after noticing all the backside grinds I had be...

The World's Smallest Manual Pad (well lowest anyway... probably?) After trying backside 50-50 grinds on my board slider I got to thinking of other tricks that I should be able to try without too much fear of falling over. Tricks that I used to do but have lost. What came to mind was ollie manuals, where you ollie onto a 'manual pad' (any kind of raised flat surface higher than the one you're ollieing from) and roll along on your back wheels a.k.a. a manual. I've struggled in the past with ollieing up anything but I had a large piece of plywood that I used to use as a ramp for my dogs to get into my van, thus, the world's smallest manual pad (probably?) came into being. Well, when I say 'smallest' I actually mean 'lowest' because the surface area of the plywood is actually quite a good size. You can see me skate my makeshift 'manny' pad in my latest Driveway Skate Session video below. Of course I first had to spend some time trying kickfli...

Queen Elizabeth Cruise Ship docked at Hobart. Photo from Mt. Nelson. Our second full sea day onboard the Queen Elizabeth Cruise ship was largely an exercise in passing the time before arriving in Hobart, Tasmania, the following day. If you're new to TET Life this post is the continuing story of my partner and I's cruise on the Queen Elizabeth that we took for a week at the end of January, start of February 2020, just a month prior to the world going into lockdown thanks to Coronavirus (at the exact time the first cases of the virus arrived in Australia). If you would like to read all the available posts in this series (in reverse order) click here . Day 4: Sea Day, Gallery, Shopping, Pub, and Hollywood Afternoon cocktails and scones while we lounged on the Pavillion Deck. After a late breakfast in the Lido restaurant (a real challenge at that time of day just to find a table) I went to the ships art gallery for a talk about a history of sculpture, specifically focussing on Bro...