Mike Riversdale

Even more than the TV images this Sydney Morning Herald account hit home - "The sound of roaring thunder ... then screaming". It was from an excellent list of links in the Hard News blog. If you're after more I'd suggest Wikipedia's excellent coverage.

On a happier note from Miramar (NZ - have you seen how many 'Miramar's are in the world, quite cool) - we're off for a week in the sun (possibly) over the hill to Greytown and a mates house complete with pool, complete indoor-outdoor flow (!) and a laugh for New Year's Eve. I think we're even going to the races on the 2nd.
So, everyone have a brilliant New Year and kiss as many people as possible.

Still the best, here's Daves 'look back in anger' at 2004, The politics, the passion, and Paris.
Still not sure what I'll read every Monday morning once he hangs up his pen ...

Ha ha ha ha, maybe I should've kept the name "Mike Boyle" and then I could've somehow my way into a top-notch Microsoft meeting ... Although reading the blurb I see the words, "tax", "financial accounting practices" and "international regulatory agencies" which must mean that this Mike works in the most boring of departments within the uber-geek company of the world!

Jack


Out and about in Wellington


Zoe and Jack


Jacqui on Christmas Day


Sarah on THE day


Jack having loads of fun squirting the girls in his new pool


Zoe, Char and Jacqui putting the pressies around the tree


Zoe with her new camera


Half way through the present opening (took an hour!)


The tree!

Yep the Meridian Energy Summer City Festival 2005 is upon us (really kicks off January) and there's LOADS of free things to do in Wellington and the region. We'll probably try and get along to some of the stuff in The Dell and Soundshell ... who knows.

Hope everyone's having a cracking Yuletide so far.

If ya want to show your support for a Wellington Street Race. As I've said before, not a petrol head so don't care either way. AND, this is a Mark Blumsky run campaign ... hmmm ... not sure about that man.

Yep, without any stress on anyone's part and without really forcing the issue all the bits that make up a "Christmas Day" for me happened - Dr No was watched, pressies were opened (took an hour - the most I have ever seen outside of Kirks!!), chicken was eaten, family was communicated with (phone and the webcam worked - just brilliant to actually SEE them at the same time) and friends popped in (awesome effort from Paul) - and my awesome partner, Liz, was just brilliant, huuuuug!
(oh, and Jack loved it - piccies at some point)
So, one of the best Christmas Day's for a very long time - and a special thanks to Sarah, Graeme, Jacqui, Zoe and Char for making it so!

And the best pressie - so far it's the "Rugby's Strangest Matches" book from Ma and Pa, just loving it. And now I know why a "try" is a so called.

A glorious sunny, still day today as we all spent time around Oriental Bay and I even managed to push Jack home from town ... yep, all the w…

Who knows if I'll get to add to the blog over Christmas time so here's to you all.

As noted earlier, we'll have the webcam running from Christmas Eve (NZT) so please don't hesitate to logon via Yahoo! Messenger (my ID is 'mike_riversdale') and take a gander at the festivities.

The Eggleston-Archers arrived safely last night and Jack is already in "Look at this Char ... come here Zoe ... do this with me Jac"! - awesome.

And that's it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

New Year resolutions seems to be a dying tradition amongst my mates but I think it's a good time of the year to reflect on what's happened, where we were this time last year and what moved us and then do a little silly planning for 2005.

For myself I've had, for the first time in about 10 years, a quiet one ... although I did get married late Feb - which I barely recall (drunk!) which embarrasses me to this very day - not my finest hour but ) with the focus on consolidation, removing the debt and just enjoying the times with my family (especially the wee fella) and mates. It's been succesful.

At work it's been a year of trying new things. I've been a lot more focussed on what I want to get out of the jobs and am most definitely have a career path that suits me. I have dropped the counselling side of things but that's not for ever and it's already being used in my day-to-day activities ... more to come on that front.

Anywho - on with the New Years Resoluti…