Mike Riversdale

Click through and have a giggle ... Trivial Pursuit: While you are waiting... ... while Margaret watched dolphins perform King Lear in her mulligatawny. ... made me gigle

[Updated 28-Feb-2005] Awesome - go Ireland . Ireland v France is now the only game I see stopping the Cardiff showdown ! Oh! My! God! ... this could turn out to be a huuuge Celtic rugby year as the France 18-24 Wales score from last night shows. An 'easy' game next for Wales against Scotland before what could be the Grand Slam game decider, March 19th in Cardiff ( as predicted ). Let's hope Gareth Thomas' suspected broken thumb doesn't throw them off in anwyway. My Mum and brother both txt'ed me and are over the moon - "best game this [Northern Hemisphere] season" says my Dad. That leaves Ireland to beat England tonight (NZT) and yet again an almost perfect weekend of rugby happens. Super 12 Why only "almost perfect" - well, I don't think I did that brilliantly at the Virtual Super 12 BUT the Hurricanes got their away-leg of the comp off to a cracking start with a hard fought win over the Reds. Love this line: Huxley’s conversion e...

I don't know if, in the long run, I care enough about the NZ flag which is probably enough to get me thrown out of the country :-). I also tend to agree with an 'NZFlag' article llew posted . I do think it's terribly growed-up of a country to talk about it though. On 'em/me/us. And my favourite (and the site isn't about listing all the options and then choosing one, it's trying to get people to talk about changing the flag, these are just suggestions to help the discussion along): or or (and I think I agree with morphess , this does have something quite cool about it)

Here's the new Weebl and Bob - captain - one of my first blog articles , aaah, memories.

Support the Wellington Fringe with this recommendation for a good time

Longmire does Romance Novels .... ! It's late ... the alcohol has drained from the body (that's an image not worth pausing on) and I'm clicking into the faves on the right hand side and noiyzblog links me to this. I love it .. 2:22am and still I laff out loud :-)

I link to wellingtonist: Matt Couper @ Janne Land Art Gallery not necessarily because it's good (I"m sure it is) but because I want someone to tell me how I put pictures and text in that newspaper format (ie, one next to the other) .. without using the dreaded 'table' tag

Marie Desple ... OK, I'm drunk and I opened the letter All I can say ... it's as good as " P.R. Nelchael ", if not better ... but I don't trust my drunk little fingers to type it in properly, so here's the opening line (I promise, I will give you the rest of this amazing 'letter' later) ... mostly introduction 'guff' until ... my name! My dear Mike, Among all the letters I have had the occasion to send during my life as a medium, this one has touched me the most. I have the immense pride and great privilege of announcing to you that you are going to experience an historic situation and a unique event. On April 22, 2005, you will not only witness one of the best-known miracles in the world, but you will also be the beneficiary of it. Yes, the beneficiary of an enormous kitty just shy of $490,000 Do you know ... I feel sort of honored that I've had this sent to me ... AND it involves Peru a lot, who knows why - I will read more tomorrow, ma...

I thought Build a better Bush would have been about Arbor Day ... but no. Also, Karen at lunch (love The Occidental ) gave me the following link for all the chicks out there: http://www.strawberrynet.com/

OK, how come I've only just heard of Dorking Labs! by Ross P. Kettle ... why aren't they being published in a daily newspaper? Or is it? As I don't actually get a daily newspaper I probably wouldn't know. Anwho, I think these are excellent and very funny.

Well, obviously not - but there's a very nice person that works there that read the children's stories this morning. I have to say, "Natalie Biz!" shot through my mind. Shorter. But still, similar to the photo, 'not actually me', on bizgirl Life is quite strange really ... I nearly met someone else's alter-ego.

Sarah over at one before is in the midst of a fascinating Miss Marple-esque mystery . Apparently there is someone (or group of someone's) making notes in the Lower Hutt library books. They're proof-reading the books for goodness sake. Any assistance this tracking down this international gang of dastardly library card holders is gratefully received. The latest crime concerns the book Stet

As my work colleague said as she sent this to me, " The goat man returneth " read his latest expoliots at STUFF: Animal sex offender gets hard time from public And guys, did you check hear about 'oddstuff' - bit more than bloody odd if you ask me ... OUCH!

Global blogger action day called

Make Tea Not War - well, really MiramarMike is a green them, but heh! And many thanks to the Wellingtonist for listing as many Wellington blogs as possible. I'm adding them to my list as well in the spirit of .. of ... Pimping My Blog (tm) as well as being community spirited ... but mostly pimping the blog :-) [Updated: 25-Feb-2005] And another at Capital Diary I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised as MiramarMike is heavily based on a Blogger template ...

As some of you may be aware I set-up and ran the initial version " What's On In Wellington " website after trying desperately to keep a tab on all the events I, as a single and childless person, may want to go to. This site has since morphed into a different beast which sadly I rarely visit - but I can appreciate the effort it takes to keep these things up to date (just ask Liz, I would disappear into the room for 4-5hours ever Sunday to update the bloody thing). Now-a-days there's not much to choose between the 'official' sites at Feeling Great (thank golly they had a usability overhaul) and the Wellington tourism site and the WotzOn . These sites are great when I want to know when the big events that are on but not that good for the small and quirky. And, I dunno, they just don't do it for me from a, "Tell me what to go to" - I have to find stuff as opposed to it being presented. Lazy perhaps. And now we have the Wellingtonist Will this fill ...

Victoria Beckham Gives Birth to Third Son, Cruz I didn't even know she as pregnant - where are my sources, where is my wife telling me this stuff, "Feed me a frickin' bone here people". We need cable TV, we need 'E!', we need to thank the lucky stars I don't give a monkeys.

Yep, Liz is out on her final training evening at the Playcentre which I must say it sounds more and more like a very cool organisation - love the fact it's community run. We do have the landlord around fixing a dripping tap ... AND, he discovered that the fishbowl has let out water (somehow!) and split the wood on the kitchen shelves which is bloody annoying as it was fine yersterday morning when I fed the blighter ... the fish ... not the landlord. If the fish is draining away then it'll be a full honours sea burial for him - thank goodness Jack isn't too attached. Apart from that I'm gonna have another splurge re: blogging. Comments eh! What's with the comments and how annoying are they? I now have a straight 50/50 split between posting stuff and leaving/reading comments ... which could mean I fall into the trap of not putting up enough content to attract attractive and intelligent readers such as yourself ... eek! I s'pose the reason why comments have bec...

Virtual Super 12 time and you too can earn $$$$'s (probably) by getting onto Tom Kelly's competition - here's the spiel he sent around: Same rules as always – predict the winning team and margin for the Super 12 matches each week and you could be in the money. To confirm you entry in this years comp you will need to email me your Player Name by 25th Feb , PLUS, cough up NZ$20 to go into the prize pool – to be paid to me – and I’ll keep it safe in my mortgage account. Prizes money will be paid at the end of Virtual Super 12 as follows: 1st – 1/2 total prize pool 2nd – 1/3 total prize pool 3rd – 1/6 total prize pool So, if you’re in – get registered and make your picks for round 1 and email me your Player Name. I will send around a full list of all players in the comp and you can then add their names to the Your Mates section of the Virtual Super12 site to keep track of your ranking and bragging rights. Tom Kelly - Battlers XV thomas.kellyNO@SPAMtouchdowntv.com - remove t...

It's the word of the moment. What does it mean, well anything I want as I've made it up for a report I'm doing - basically: dynamise (dI-'nam-iz) verb. Take a boring homepage and ensure some bugger actually wants to go there Whaddya reckon - could we all use it? Sure we can! AND, we can even have a go at the incorrect American usage of the 'ize' ending, hee hee.

I think it's pretty obvious that NZ just won't be able to compete in the 'facilities race' with Japan for the 2011 World Cup . If we (NZ - but could be read as Wales when in different subjects) don't win the next one then it's just not gonna happen. NZ really only has the fact that the All Blacks are still the number one rugby brand (is that the same as number one team?) and its pedigree. Talking of rugby - don't forget to get involved with the Virtual Super 12 . Look for "Miramar Mike" and add me to your Your Mates.

Thanks to Ms Vile for the early night smile at Underwear Is Such an Emotional Thing , just in time for episode two of Billy Connollys rush around NZ.

Jack loves smoothies - you know the sort; banana, milk and yogurt in a blender and then drunk through a straw. His way of letting us know he'd like one is to put arms across his chest like a body builder flexing his pecs and make a noise like, "uuurrrrgghhh" - it's the noise of the blender! Of course. "Niiiice - and so near to the TV as well, life is sweet" "Don't try and distract me now! Whilst I'm a busy boy I can still see you all ..."

Jack pushes his favourite Toy Library find onto his new foam sofa ( Warehouse , $69.99 - Christmas pressie money finally spent) A great shot of Ma and son Wee people do tend to get a bit dirty now and again ... Great smile from both Liz and Jack - quite a cutey isn't (s)he

Dad and Jack swing on the rope over the hill from Miramar Mum and Jack walking the beach at Scorching Bay - and whilst the sand and air was hot, the water was decidedly not. Jack has a paddle none-the-less Jack and Liz ponder where the thrown stones went

Yep, I took part in this morning's fun run/walk (I had a "fun walk" myself) around the bays from Frank Kitts Park to Kilbirnie Park . Many thanks to Richard at the Minstry of Health for arranging it for a whole bunch of us. It was OK - I wasn't really awake or in a particularly chatty mood so to all those that braved a, "Good morning Mike" I apologise and hope you had a grand old time. The queue for the 4 (read it again, FOUR) portaloos ... oh well, it was sunny and there wasn't much else to do except jump up and down to the instructions of the warm-up dudes ... crickey, it was only a walk around the bays! And we're off. I heard 10,000 particpants but no real idea at the time as my head was stuck listening to Kiwi FM having just discovered it in my random knob-twiddling efforts to get some music for the walk. I did, however, turn back to National Radio for the final leg of the walk and learned all about the NZ Forestry industry - cool. Into the n...

The Advanced Fan Lord of the Rings: WELCOME !

Cool, this is what the Web's about, connecting me (and you) with Mohammad Ali Abtahi , a senior Iranian government official and Muslim cleric. More background in the Yahoo! News article I was reading.

Mr Brown at Hard News and llew at SunnyO state it perfectly- and "Yo mama!" to the politicians trying to get down and hip with the 'kids' in election year. I truly believe that a huuuge percentage of 'kids' - a word, when used by politicians and 'do-gooders', for ever summed up in the awesome Not The Nine O'Clock News - which was given to me as a very early birthday pressie by an awesome mate last night, cheers Adam, but I digress - a huge percentage don't give a flying shag (hubba-bubba) about politicians, politics and the lives they lead. The "it just doesn't affect me" attitude which I hold to as well - reading something like The Short History of Nearly Everything certainly puts it all into a much large context. But then, there are times when I think I should 'make a difference' and 'take interest' - but they're few and far between when it comes to politics - will I vote this year, ach, we'll see on ...

This time in pink from a certain "Marie D'Esple" - the last was blue, not subtle are they? A strange revelation of Marie D'Esple, the psychic Reading ... Can't be bothered to open it just yet but I bet we can all guess the sort of twaddle that will be hiding inside . [Updated 26-Feb-2005] April 22nd, 2005 - crickey ... but too drunk to appreciate the the full magnitude of the message?!?

SunnyO: Information Enthusiast? .. but then again, I've been in pubs since 3pm ... nice ... *sluurrrr* ... *hick* ... oops ...

It's not a Hollywood story, but it's a Wellywood one. Off to watch King Kong coz I can ... ish

I mean ... this just has to be ... surely ... Yahoo! News - Michael Jackson's Sudden Illness Halts Trial ... Yeah, right!

But together ... I nearly fell off my chair when I opened Dave Barry's Blog#015004 And spend a few minutes clicking off from his other entries - penis in a ketchup bottle indeed.

My newest icon-thing; nice, isn't it ... gotta think of somehere to stick it now- be nice with your comments. Should go and replace all those pictures of me on top of The Keep shouldn't I ... ach, can't be bothered. You can get one at: http://www.feedburner.com/

Some cracking, if a few years old, photo's of Wellington from a guy called Jeremy Ginsberg .

Well, this blogging malarkey has been quite a gas. And I've noticed that there's definitely phases that I went through with this blog that maybe of use to people starting off, or those not sure what a blog is or anyone that's just interested in getting a blog going and wants to know what it entails. 1: Get the blog set-up So, first of all your gonna have to get a blog name that you think is 'cool' AND reflects yourself. This can be a lot harder than it sounds and once it's done, well, it's done - you can play around with the title on the blog but that URL is there for ever. Choosing your template is also fun as you're trying to find the one that absolutely gets you ... but I'm here to tell you that it doesn't exist and if you absolutely need to have all of 'you' in your blog design you're gonna have to get your hands dirty with some XHTML / CSS coding. But then come the moment to type in your first entry ... this is just cool...

Well, a new world of blogging has opened up before me as I blatantly steal more of those cute little icon things that say, "I'm affiliated" and therefore imply, "I'm popular". Got the Photoblogs.org one now - well I do have some pictures on this blog! But, my golly, there are some photoblogs with some absolutely stunning content - for the briefest dip of the toe in the photoblog water check out: [a b o u t p i c t u r e s] photoblog >> gallery troisemeoil.org // photoblog JorjDotOrg Picture of the Day

Seems like the Welsh have definitely stepped up into another league (!) - on 'em and I happen to know that a friend I mine was there on a romantic w/e with his wife - hope you scored as well mate (I know, crass but what the heck!) I wonder how much (if any) Graeme Henry has had to do with this "Welsh revival", as I'm sure it's being called in the valleys? Looking like the key matches will be, after France dick England tonight (here's hoping), the Irish v France game (March 12th in Dublin) and Welsh v Irish game on 19th March, in Cardiff AND the final weekend. Awesome competition.

In the spirit of community I'd like to take this moment and direct you to SunnyO: Hot Abercrombie Chick - an interesting blog , well done llew for finding this worthy philosophical discussion ... by a babe in TWT.

Another from Hard News link which I thought was too interesting to leave as a link-within-a-link: The New Zealand Herald: Where women are real men I am fascinated by the Kiwi 'culture' as I believe it's like nothing else in the world and most certainly as far away from Australian culture [insert oxymoron giggle] as Wales is from England. As an 'outsider' (Welsh/English) I sort of sort of get the "Kiwi" way of looking at life but there's always something that trips me up. I also really dig the way that "what it means to be a Kiwi/New Zealander" is something that is fairly close to the top of people's minds - this is very different to the UK where such things are 'set in stone'. Young country's (NZ is the youngest English speaking in the world) are such fun. Mind you, I do get frustrated by the comparisons with other successful endeavours (ie, Lord of the Rings is as good as ... - no, it's just good). Also the judging again...

And by linking to the The New Yorker: Outsourcing the torture I am not implying that all detainees are innocent teenagers from Canada ... but surely there needs to be safeguards against whisking people away to be tortured by other countries AND people like George W Bush should be human enough to admit that it happens and stop it. Denying it isn't pretty. And just to stop the "Stop bashing the Yanks!" comments coming in - look at where the story is reported. On them for taking an exhaustive look at the dark-side of themselves. And the Aussies have their own version - becoming more and more like their bigger buddy every day. Original link above from Russel Brown's " Hard News " blog of today - there's quite a few good uns.

I know, it's a naff subject heading but what can ya do? So, here is step one in the journey towards a bald Mike. I thought it I'd give my bonce a chance to get used to a little NZ sun (which is more 'powerful' than any other place I've been to - I burn within minutes) before the going the whole hog. And why bald ... why not - just fancied it really. Expect more photo's Sunday with a baldy-coot/slap-head Mike which may well then see me wearing loads of hats and urging the follicles to do their growing thing. Or, I will love it and that's hair for this life. Top of newly shaved (number one) head Side view of little hair

Jack pretends on the phone

Rugby fan cut off his own testicles .. I don't know what to say ... *ouch* And as RT says, "At least this guy can't breed!" [Updated: 11-Feb-2005] And it's not just the Welsh, have a go at this jailed London girl (thanks Steve Irwin for the phrase, "Have a go at ...")

Something that a 'small' country would do - Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand - much like the "Natures Best" CD's. What I mean is you don't get the "best of" music" from places that have loads and loads of music (UK, USA, Europe etc). Likewise you don't tend to get a "best of history" from such places ... as far I as I know. But, maybe they should.

I've shaved my head (yep, piccie coming very soon) to number one and I'm loving the heat on me old bonce but gotta be careful I don't burn as this head has never seen the light of day before - gonna be completely bald next week, because I can. I s'pose that's something to say really. Anywho - loving the sun and off to sit in a pub with the boss and 'strategise' very soon.

(updated 7-March-2005 - more at Marie D'Esple ) I love getting things through the post but yesterday was one of the best ever. I assume you're all aware of the 'Nigerian scam' , well I received, sometime ago now, a printed and posted version of this. A classic waste of resources for all but gave me a hearty chuckle at the time and I've kept it to bring out and smile at now and again. But, poor old 'Ahmed from Nigeria' has been usurped by a letter I opened on my return home last night. Let me take you through some of the highlights of this beauty. First of all the envelope, light-blue with a little window for the address on the inside letter to show through (my old name, but hey, I can live with that). Top left we have "Sent by" and a picture of a certain "P.R. Nelchael" ... I have to say it looks like a police 'wanted photo'. And if you want to write Mr (Dr? St? Guru?) P.R. Nelchael, his address is: Case Postale 1308 CH - 1951 SIO...

Yep, the perfect weekend of rugby has happened. Here in Wellington the NZ Sevens side have retained their NZ title (and here) in a bizarre 'shoulder biting' game against Argentina. And of course, over night (for us in NZ) the Welsh have taken a famous victory over the English ( relive it all at the BBC ) and by sheer coincidence (really!) Jack happens to be wearing this today: He may not look happy but inside I'm sure he understands what's happened. By the way, the All Black tour of the UK at the end of the year looks like turning into an historic one as well.

Jack gets ready for a bath - and he has a blast when he's in Jack up close and giving YOU high-five Mike and Jack take their evening walk around the block ... something that Dad really loves doing! Jack and Liz writing their off-line blog 'Project Jack' - the face he gets when it's concentration time

And why does this blog attract so many 'Latino' visitors, or does it just look like it? Time to search (using Yahoo! and XtraMSN - for me Google doesn't connect at work ) for Miramar and find out what it means to the world ... As I've noted before there's quite a few "Miramar"s in the world: Miramar, Wellington - NZ: Wikipedia entry Miramar, Florida - USA: Wikipedia entry Miramar district, Havana - Cuba Miramar Reservoir, San Diego - USA Miramar - Argentina (not really sure if this is a 'place' or an 'organisation') Miramar - Germany (again, not really sure if this is a 'place' or an 'organisation') Miramar Beach, Goa - India ... And then I did a search using Wikipedia (why oh why didn't I do this first?). And now I know why so many Spanish visitors fall into this blog: Miramar, loosely translated from Spanish , means "sea-view". Which begs the question, is this where the name for Miramar (Wellington...

A site that I've linked to before but this is so good: http://www.boreme.com/bm/JAN05/a/classified-ads/fr.htm (And why don't I just link it - well, it won't display in my browser - the link is just not in the HTML send from Blogger - because has the words 'classified' and 'ad' are together - I dunno) And I loooove the first one ... I can't stop thinking about it, the possibilities, the situations, the jolly japes, the adventures ... Maybe it's some modern-day Dr Fu Manchu getting together a crew to steal the dinosaurs from British Museum - oh where, oh where can we find a relacement for Peter Ustinov in our hour of need?

Either - hell, I don't know what the service was called as, well ... it's gone - has gone awol for a bit OR this has been a very dry day in life of MiramarMike (the blog that is, I'm having as blast in the sun with the wee fella - pictures coming over the w/e). Weird. [Edited, much later] As llew asks, "Not one what?" , well - I was talking about the 'referral listing'.

Vote in the Fifth Annual Weblog Awards for bizgirl - and not because (s)he's the only NZ entry (but that's a good enough reason, shurely!) but because, after checking out the others, it's simply the best. And my other votes go to: best meme: Photo Friday article/essay: 'none' app for blogs: Del.icio.us (love the use of the 'us tld) asian: Weblog Wannabe (looks the best) african/middle eastern: Where is Raed? european: My Boyfriend is a Twat british/irish: 'none' latin american: 'none' canadian: 'none' american: 'none' tagline: Pesky' Apostrophe... photography: 'none' non-weblog content: 'none' - food: 'none' ... look, there's too many and I have to work - the rest 'none' Of the Year!: boing boing Voting ends very soon (tonight or tomorrow I think)

This is an impressively old blog - The Jamjar . Found by clicking the ' Visit a Random member ' at the kiwiblogs site (listed to the right).

So, it's released is it - a simple test - search for " miramar mike ": Google Search: miramar mike Xtra MSN: miramar mike And the result - Google by a country mile (heck, I'm top of the list) ... ah, but maybe that wasn't a fair test as Google owns Blogger. So, let's try something else - search for " one love concert ": Google Search: one love concert XtraMSN Search: one love concert Ooh, MSN search is more relevant to me (ie, the concert on Sunday has come up on top) - virtually the same results on the 1st page though, different order. Ok, one more - " derek boyle ": Google Search: derek boyle XtraMSN Search: derek boyle Basically completely different results and none for my Dad - which would have been surprising but ya never know. BUT, Google also found 777 results on MY PC (including a link to last few emails sent/received) by being fully integrated with its Desktop Search ... try that with any other search engine! BTW: XtraMSN ...

Relive the Millenium celebrations - or should that be re-suffer - the 2000 Today.com site is pretty darned cool but it does concentrate on the UK (BBC) televisual delights. Got the link from, still, the best UK 'nostalgia' site on the Web, TV Cream - at which I've just been reading the " Top 100 Toys " ... be aware, you really do need to be aged 30+ to find this interesting and not something from a dusty old museum.

Apart from the shake this morning ... woke me up .... there's a whole lot of free love going down in Wellers this and next week: Chinese New Year Fireworks On the harbour at 10pm, I read that this is gonna be HUGE - something like 10 times the explosive power of the Bonfire Night harbour "ooh and ahh" feast. Gonna try and be there for sure as we've got a Jack-sitter for the night, yaaay. One Love Free concert at the Velodrome in Hataitai this Sunday ( Waitangi Day ), 12pm-6pm, in celebration of Bob Marley's birthday. (same day the yachts leave as well) Amelie Thursday 10th (9pm) you can pop along to the free film showing at The Dell, behind the Rose Garden buildings. And, we've still got a month of free events with the Meridian Energy Summer City Festival .... god, I somehow hate having to put company/product names into the title of festivals - makes it very tacky for some reason. Ooh, Busking Festival - let's see if we can nick this off Christchurch ...