TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

The Pandemic before vaccines (and probably after too). Photo by Thirdman from Pexels . Remember when the pandemic first started? How we didn't have a vaccine for over a year, yet we were still able 'flatten the curve' through hygienic practices like handwashing, mask wearing, social distancing, and, in the really critical periods, lockdowns? Australia, and several other countries are in the strong position we are today thanks to those practices and not vaccines. Yet, there appears to be a growing perception that unvaccinated people are threatening everyone's health because of their higher risk of catching COVID-19. However, while you might think getting vaccinated is a no brainer, as you 'state the obvious' statistic that more deaths occur from COVID-19 in people who have not been vaccinated. I think, I would certainly hope so because you'd really be wondering, what is the point of getting vaccinated , if there was a high number of deaths from COVID-19 amon...

Marvel's third, direct movie tie in series, Loki immediately piqued my interest tenfold when I heard it would be a time travel themed series. Basically completing the trifecta of my favorite themes, Sci-fi, Superheroes, and Time Travel (pretty much the ingredients of Avengers: Endgame with a lot less superheroes). While it's not really fair to compare any of the three series, WandaVision , The Falcon and the Winter Soldier , and Loki to each other (they're all very different), Loki, for me, had the most satisfying season finale of them all... and not just because it's the only series confirmed for a second season. Which is important to mention because it's possible to forgive a few loose ends if you know there's still more to come. Loki follows the journey of Loki (Tom Hiddleston) as we know him to be at the end of the first Avengers movie, where we saw him escape in Avengers: Endgame. His escape sets off a Nexus event, an anomaly in the timeline, that attract...

Richard Branson in space #Unity22 Photo: Virgin Galactic Last month Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, announced his intention to send himself into space on a test flight for his Blue Origin Space Tourist trips. Clearly Virgin Galactic CEO, Richard Branson, was having none of that, today becoming the first 'big cheese' to visit space and probably a strong contender for the list of weird things sent into space . Apparently Richard brought forward his company's schedule of test flights for his reusable space tourist bus, the VSS Unity, with this flight being only the second time the craft has carried people. The success of Richard's trip is dependent upon which classification of what constitutes being in 'outer space' you endorse. Evidently crossing something called the Kármán line  - 100 kilometers/62 miles up - is what the US Department of Defense considers to be 'outer space' however you don't need to go that high to experience true weightless space travel. ...

If you're going to see this film simply because Bill Nighy is in it, as I did, then his casting has paid off, however his performance as Grandpa Spencer may leave you scratching your head. He certainly looks the part, as a long in the tooth, grizzled, sheep station owner, but then he starts talking and... is that an Aussie accent he's doing? It's hard to tell because it's such a low key, stilted performance by Bill. He's initially presented as a real hard, grumpy, no nonsense, stay out of my way, kind of character but he just seems to care too much, from the get go, about his newly arrived, American family, he's never met, of his fairly recently deceased, estranged son. Buckley's Chance tells the story of Ridley (Milan Burch) and his mother, Gloria (Victoria Hill), who, a year after her husband's death, decide to move from New York to make a fresh start on Ridley's Grandfather's Sheep Station in Outback Western Australia (though the film is shot...