Mike Riversdale

And it's a real pint as well. I only now notice it says, "Try before you buy", I don't know why as I got a full pint for that price in Monmouth's Kings Head (a Wetherspoons).  At those prices no wonder Britain is constantly drunk 😂

A drunken and wrong argument from me with a patient and honest mate left me thinking, "How long could Aotearoa New Zealand actually last if the boats, planes, and Internet couldn't arrive?" Let's imagine Aotearoa New Zealand suddenly and unexpectedly cut off from the rest of the world, you can choose your disaster of choice, limited nuclear war ( global and we're all fucked anyway ), a massive weather something, zombie outbreak overseas, or Winston Peters drops his trousers and does a dump on the main UN Assemble table  and no-one wants to play with us anymore. The reason isn't important but what is, suddenly and for the foreseeable future, is that we are no longer connected - the event has happened! Note: I don't have access to any insider information that say the Government hopefully has, so this is all gonna be a bit 'finger in the sky' using stuff I find on the Web and it'll be an exercise in averages, "sort of"s and even my own

You've seen the top looking down, well here is from the bottom looking up.

New / bigly updates to photos albums: Romesh Ranganathan (2024) St James Theatre, Wellington Bulls, New Zealand Oh, my 2022 trip across the top of Australia hasn't been shared in albums, doh! Darwin Litchfield National Park Jabiru Anbangbang, Cooinda Lodge Kakadu, and Edith Falls Katherine Kununurra, and Lake Argyle Halls Creek, old cemetery, and Palm Springs Derby Broome

Oh how I would love RNZ here in Aotearoa New Zealand, or BBC Radio in the UK to start such a glorious item as the Swedish Summer & Winter in P1 (site is in Swedish let your browser translate it for you). ‘The last campfire in Swedish society’: Sommar i P1, the radio show that unifies a nation  brought my attention to it: [Such candour] has become expected from those who are chosen as Sommarpratare (summer speakers) on Sommar i P1, an annual Swedish radio institution in which guests are given 90 minutes to talk about a subject of their choice and play music. To be selected is considered such an honour that it’s been described as the Swedish equivalent to a knighthood. It's been an annual event since 1959 and begins each year on Midsummer’s Day and runs daily until the middle of August, featuring 58 different guests, ranging from politicians to artists and actors, chefs, sports stars, scientists and teachers. Sounds so interesting, if a scientist isn't your thing don't w

It's been on that roundabout since forever but I have no idea what it is, why it's there, or even how old it actually is. Let the Googling begin ... Tapping the map 'inside' the photograph takes me to Google Maps where it's called, The Cross, Monmouth . On there it has a link to a British Listed Buildings website that calls it Overmonnow Cross , now we're getting somewhere. Maybe, apart from telling me where it is all the site really tells me is that it's a Grade II listed Building, classified as "Religious, Ritual and Funerary", and that the details come from Cadw ("Cadw is a Welsh word meaning ‘to keep’ or ‘to protect’. .. working for an accessible and well-protected historic environment for Wales.") . Ok, let's head over to Cadw before doing some more Googling if needed. Voila! History   Partly medieval cross, probably C15, which was rebuilt in 1888 incorporating the socket stone and possibly the base of the shaft. The cross was d

It took me many evenings work to create the post Do We Live Better Than Medieval Royalty? and, on the back of my Google NotebookLLM experiment with my own CV I suddenly thought, why not put my post and all the links and videos from the medieval post into NotebookLLM and see what we can truly do. I am very happy to share the Notebook I've created so you can get ask your own questions of all (most) the sources. I think you can, with a Google account, get into it by opening it here . But of course I can generate an audio overview for the whole subject , enjoy!

Like Sherlock & Co.  this is a new podcast to me and similarly each episode is a "story". The premise of The Program , a collection of loosely connected stories (so far as I have listened), is that the world has been through the " singularity " and the survivors are now living in a very different state. Each episode is some sort of look back over the events humanity went through before and during "The Update", and "Carmageddon". It's cleverly written, can be quite philosophical, definitely challenges our ideas of a benevolent "AI", and even a little mystery focussed. Whilst I can't take more than a story at a time as it can be quite heavy, but I must say I am certainly enjoying it, and the acting is most excellent. The Program audio series is a fiction podcast set in a future in which Money, State, and God became fused into a single entity called the Program. Each episode is a self-contained story focusing on ordinary people

This tiny Medieval bridge is still in use, I walked over it without a care in the world. It was only whilst I was looking at some other info that I discovered a stack of history about Clawdd-du, and particularly this medieval bridge. The Clawdd-du, also known in historical records as the Black Dyke, Black Ditch or Clawthy, is a mediaeval linear defensive earthwork or moat, constructed as protection for the faubourg  [suburb] of Overmonnow, on the opposite side of the River Monnow from the town and castle of Monmouth, Wales. The ditch was excavated in two stages, before the mid-thirteenth century, and then again after the mid-fourteenth century. It was crossed by our small stone bridge which was in direct line with that of Monnow Street, in Monmouth, and the Monnow Bridge across the river. It carried the road from the town westwards towards the village of Wonastow. The Clawdd-du is now partly infilled, but still exists for most of its length as a broad ditch used for drainage. It is a S

Growing up I was a bath a week sort of kid, Sunday. When I hit puberty and was playing sports it certainly upped its frequency but was never every day. Coming to New Zealand it became, for reasons I can no longer recall, a shower every morning. Some people I know have a shower when they wake up and shower before they go to bed, I don't know what they get up to during the day but it sounds very dirty. I've now reverted to a shower every other day and, you never know, may even make even less frequent. I'll monitor the stench for everyone 😁 This BBC article,  There's no need to shower every day – here's why , is not just an opinion piece but has some fascinating UK bathroom history. The humble shower has also attained new meaning. During the 1900s, a burgeoning advertising business attached new symbolism to our bathrooms. The shower, says Southerton, was marketed as a tool for saving time, but also for reinvigoration. Around 1970, shower ads consisted of simple drawi

These are not my photos, obviously, however they are out there on the Internet and so I present to you my two favourite images of the past 100 years. Miriam Margolyes with a John Dory fish Ian McKellen becoming Mother Goose

What a find! So, you like Sherlock Holmes stories, you're particularly in with the BBC Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman), you don't even mind the three Robert Downey Jr movies .  Sherlock & Co.  is for you! Classic Conan Doyle stories set today. Yes, sounds familiar, and even the tone and voices lean heavily on the Cumberbatch / Freeman outings, but their last one was 2017. But have no fear, this is new, fresh, and absolutely entertaining. Subscribe  or YouTube it  and then download them all to give yourself a bloody awesome Sherlock Holmes time! My name is Dr. John Watson, once of the British Army Northumberland Fusilier Regiment, now a true crime podcaster based in Central London. I don't have much experience in criminology, so this is mostly a record of how I met possibly the most brilliant and bizarre person I have ever (and will ever) know. Join me as I document the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.