Mike Riversdale

Hundreds of years ago, a man named Tara founded the first permanent human settlement in Wellington. The city still bears his name: Te Whanganui a Tara. But what do we actually know about him? And so starts the excellent The first Wellingtonian Spinoff article ... have a read, go on, edjumikate yourself 😁 As an aside, here's a list of names for the harbour / city: Te Whanganui-a-Tara (the great harbour of Tara) Wellington Harbour  (see below) Port Nicholson (after Sydney's harbour master Captain John Nicholson) Pōneke (said to be a transliteration of Port Nick) Wellington (from Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington) Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui (the head of Maui’s fish)

They chatted and chatted, was lovely. * Pepperpots, Monty Python "There is a particular type of middle-aged woman who uses irritation as a way of life. It's the only thing she's really good at. She's roughly this shape...[outlines a round, convex shape] like a pepperpot...A Pepperpot's life's ambition is to be in the audience at a quiz show. She is to be found in shopping areas blocking the pavement, tormenting babies, spreading rumours, and spending a fortune on bargains. She enjoys worrying, and being shocked. Individually, she is intolerable. In a group, horrific."

Now, the thing is, maybe I don't own your phone, but I might, and I absolutely could, and you wouldn't know. Nope, I don't need to have physically touched your phone. I don't need to have convinced you or to stealthy have placed anything onto your phone. I could still be owning your phone. Your phone calls would come to me, you SMS/text one off codes to log into your Gmail, or Facebook, or whatever else you get your text codes for. Once I'm in then ... well, watch the video and be amazed. So, you've watched the video the question I had, and still have is, um, oh, now what? Use an authenticator app, Turn your phone off / on at least once a month. That seems about it, let's hope I'm not owning your phone right now, but how would you know!?!?

Living your life to it's best has always been a thing for me, however it's only recently it's surfaced to my consciousness. That's why I'm now blogging about, LOL Courtney Dauwalter: Step inside the 'pain cave', where rules are remade I don't know this woman, the sport itself is out of my realm of knowledge, and even reading her story I'm only mildly interested ... until the end, I love how she has battled and survived and is now totally thriving. "I'll just head out in the morning and run however far I feel," says Dauwalter. In a world of disciplined, straight-faced sports in which athletes ditch the joy in pursuit of marginal gains, Dauwalter often has the air of an adult who never grew out of her skateboarder phase.  "I want to eat and drink what sounds good. I want to hang with family and friends, and I want to sign up for these 100 or 200-mile races and push myself as hard as I can," she says  [..] "My husband and I...

It seems to be always time for a haircut, hence my question recently. In Monmouth there is only one barber that one frequents, and that's Sid's, no sorry, that's Dave's , no it's actually Paddy's these days. I can just about recall Sid, he was funny, round (I think), a bit like a 1960's end of pier comedian ... that's probably doing him an awful injustice. His apprentice at the time was Dave Willet and he became the man who did the hair for the lads and gents. It was always a place that Mums would take their boys for their haircuts. On my visit to Monmouth last year and after saving all the hair for the Iceland trip it was definitely time to have it shaved off, so down to Sid/Dave/Paddy I went. It hasn't changed, but it is more modern, love how Paddy has done that. PS: I was also getting my facial hair removed, much to chagrin of my girlfriend. Luckily she was in New Zealand and so it grew back just in time 😁

Sausages.  I used to think the only things I missed from the UK were sausages but the sausage situation in Aotearoa New Zealand has improved vastly. Then I went back to Wales last year, during the Northern hemisphere winter and I have found my replacement for sausages. Christmas colours . In the dark. I really like the twinkling of lights, the colours of decorations, and the full on festive mood people apply to the dark, rainy, icky weather outside.

December on a late Monday afternoon in Wales, the rain sets in, the shops are warm, and the Christmas lights come on.

Gotta share these two with ya 😁 More great WiFi names here , here , and here .

It's quite special to be in the studio that has seen the recording of so many iconic sounds. I've already written up about our Rockfield Studios visit and even shared, topically, a great video about the Oasis, "What's The Story Morning Glory" sessions . Thanks to Tim Lewis / Thighpaulsandra for clearly explaining the roll of a studio engineer and showing how it all works.

It's true that, " If you don't like poetry it just means you haven't found the right poem yet. " (#26 of 100 Things I Know ). I heard that phrase from Gyles Brandreth, a lover of all poems since for ever, although he may be merely passing it on. Even though I do love some Dylan Thomas, a little bit of Kublai Khan, and a Shakespeare sonnet I don't really know any poems. Some are absolute bollocks. Most are fine but meh. A handful are inner world changing. My top 3 poems as I write this are: Do not go gentle into that good night , Dylan Thomas Ozymandias , Percy Bysshe Shelley I thought I saw Jesus on a tram. I said "Are you Jesus?'' He replied "Yes I am'' by Spike Milligan I hope to change that by learning two lines a day of something from  The 32 Most Iconic Poems in the English Language . I'm gonna start with ... Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson.

A good, even an average, Sunday roast in a British pub cannot be beaten. The Castle Inn on Monnow Street in Monmouth does a superb one, as does The Somerset Arms in Mitchel Troy. Roast beef (or chicken), roast potatoes, boiled new potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, veggies, and good gravy, all washed down by a pint or two with great company - oh wow, what's not to love. More  UK Food Thoughts ...

You know it, I'm curious about everything and I think I know how solar panels work but, well, not really.  Do you? This is what I think ... The sun's rays come down, they hit solar panels, um, something does science and turns the heating / electrons / malarkey into electricity that is filtered through copper wires into, err, a battery or other wires connected to bulbs. That's it, no? Ooooh, according How Stuff Works  I'm pretty close, different language but yeah. Silicon is the thing. And electrons. There's this ... ... but really what we want is this...  

Rocks , they need balancing. Pong wars : you'll never win, you'll want to, you'll try, you'll want it so bad, but it'll never happen. Terms and Conditions : Can you get through all 29 pop-up windows without accepting terms and conditions, cookies, or notifications?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how is your day going? Here to have a listen with a strong shoulder if you need.

RemovePaywall.com Bypass paywalls. If I regularly read a website, I'll pay for it. But when I occasionally need to check an article from a website I don't regularly read, I use RemovePaywall to lift the paywall. There's another 9 useful (to some) little-known websites that give you superpowers ...

It's a story of passion, love, loss, and overcoming the harshest times. Don't miss the publishing event of the year, if it ever gets written. This and many more pretend books aren't available here ...

Over on Mastodon it's a lovely time as people share their #SilentSunday photos . Here is mine this week.

An amazing freezing day in Monmouth. I went for a walk and kept taking photos 😁

It's the hottest since, it's the wettest since, it's the windiest since .... a lot of records since, eh. Ok, so the planet is changing (causes are disputed by some , but not those that actually know). What does that mean for an average human on an average day in average clothes doing average stuff? Let's start with temperature, I don't really know what my body temperature should be ... 36–37.5°C is a typically reported range for normal body temperature Well, now I do. Let's first get cold, what happens to your body as the temperature of it drops? 35.5°C – Feeling cold, mild to moderate shivering. This can be a normal body temperature for sleeping. 35°C – Threshold for hypothermia. Intense shivering, numbness and bluish/grayness of the skin. There is the possibility of heart irritability. 34°C – Severe shivering, loss of movement of fingers, blueness, and confusion. Some behavioral changes may take place. 33°C – Moderate to severe confusion, sleepiness, depr...

And there we go folks, the Round Wales With A Mother trip is done and dusted. I hope you've enjoyed the last month's photos and it's given you a desire to visit the beautiful country of Wales. Tomorrow normal daily photo sharing will resume which means it's anyone's guess what you'll get. It started with us , and ends with us. Day 1 Monmouth - Crickhowell - Brecon - Llandrindod Wells - Elan Valley - Bishop's Castle Day 2 Bishop's Castle - Welshpool - Llangollen - Pontcysyllte Aqueduct - Wrexham Day 3 Wrexham - Penrhyn Bay - Llandudno - Conwy Castle - Betws-y-coed - Beaumaris / Cemaes Bay Day 4 Llanfairpwllgwyngyll - Caernarfon - Llyn Peninsula - Portmeirion - Porthmadog Day 5 Beddgelert - Llyn Dinas - Llyn Gwynant & Mountains - Barmouth & surrounds - Machynlleth Days 6 & 7 Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru,  Aberystwyth - Devil's Bridge - Pentre Ifan “Burial Chamber” - St Davids Cathedral - Solva & roads - U...

In the olden days we had a collection of cook books, scraps of handwritten recipes stuffed in, and a handful ripped out pages from magazines. These days it's electronic. We have a collection of cooking websites, scraps of typed in notes stuffed between to do lists, YouTube videos bookmarked, and a handful of screenshots from Facebook. We never got better we just spaffed it all over the Internet. Then along came Cooked . Cooked is a new(ish) site that takes any recipe off any website, handwritten notes, even YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok cookery videos and turns them into actual recipes saved under your free account. How's this for ease, find a recipe in your browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox) - if you want, give this one a go, copy the following and paste it into your browser. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickenchowmein_89258 You've got your recipe page up, looks good eh, right let's pop it into Cooked. Edit the web address you pasted into the address bar. Go to t...

It was a while ago that I handed over the reigns of the two international rugby calendars to those that wanted to continue them. I recently popped over to the Rugby Calendars page on this site and wowsers, both are chocker full of international rugby entries and it was an absolute delight. I am loving how the rugby fan community has stepped up, taken the calendars to heart, and kept them going (even better than before). It also struck me that all this awesome hard work probably needs to be shared a LOT more and not just on this website. How To Add The Rugby Calendars To Your Own Website Adding any calendar to your own website is easy, and here are the instructions for both the Men's and Women's rugby calendars. Men's calendar Open your website editor Create a new page OR take a copy (you never know, it could go all horribly wrong) Make sure you can add HTML (for some it's a widget you'll need to use) Copy the following: <iframe src="https://calendar.googl...

St David  (c. 500 – c. 589), good looking fella, not your typical Welsh looking boyo though. He's the patron saint of Wales, has been since 1123, and of vegetarians and poets. His best-known miracle is said to have taken place when he was preaching in the middle of a large crowd at the Synod of Brefi: the village of Llanddewi Brefi stands on the spot where the ground on which he stood is reputed to have risen up to form a small hill. A white dove, which became his emblem, was seen settling on his shoulder. John Davies notes that one can scarcely "conceive of any miracle more superfluous" in that part of Wales than the creation of a new hill. 😁 The inside of St David's Cathedral has some gorgeous sights, pop along to the album and check them out. Day 1 Monmouth - Crickhowell - Brecon - Llandrindod Wells - Elan Valley - Bishop's Castle Day 2 Bishop's Castle - Welshpool - Llangollen - Pontcysyllte Aqueduct - Wrexham Day 3 Wrexham - Penr...

Out we went into the Welsh countryside to find an ancient burial site . Pentre Ifan, it turns out, is very cool, definitely out in the middle of nowhere, and bloody old as! .. the Pentre Ifan Dolmen is a collection of seven principal stones. The largest is the huge capstone, 5m long, 2.4m width and 0.9m thick. It is estimated to weigh 16 tonnes and rests on the tips of three other stones, some 2.5m off the ground. There are six upright stones, three of which support the capstone. Of the remaining three, two portal stones form an entrance and the third, at an angle, appears to block the doorway. It was a dolmen , a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb. The dolmen dates from around 3500 BC, and has traditionally been identified as a communal burial. Under this theory the existing stones formed the portal and main chamber of the tomb, which would originally have been covered by a large mound of stones about 30m long and 17m wide. Some of the kerbstones, marking the edge of the mound, ha...

Look, "AI" is a tool that we are all very wary of for a multitude of fine reasons - false image / video spreads lies, real image / video is not believed anymore, pick which is your favourite. There are great uses of "AI", I still point to AlphaFold from Google's DeepMind as a shining torch on the foggy plains stretching out before us. And then there's this. I am absolutely down with this. I want this in my life! Unauthorized “David Attenborough” AI clone narrates developer’s life, goes viral "Here we have a remarkable specimen of Homo sapiens distinguished by his silver circular spectacles and a mane of tousled curly locks," the false Attenborough says in the demo as Holtz looks on with a grin. "He's wearing what appears to be a blue fabric covering, which can only be assumed to be part of his mating display."

I definitely felt the mystic of the place as we had it all to ourselves in the autumn rain last year. Of course watching episode 1 of Hinterland I was so excited. (I know I'm late to the show, but I'm there now) 3 bridges , all built upon the top of the previous one. But the name? Here's the usual legend: .. the original bridge was built by the very Devil himself, as it was too difficult for mortals to build. The Devil agreed to build the bridge in exchange for the soul of the first being to cross the bridge. However he was tricked of his prize by a canny old woman, who threw bread across the bridge, which her dog ran after, thus becoming the first ‘being’ to cross the new bridge. [source: Ceredigion: Devil's Bridge ] Day 1 Monmouth - Crickhowell - Brecon - Llandrindod Wells - Elan Valley - Bishop's Castle Day 2 Bishop's Castle - Welshpool - Llangollen - Pontcysyllte Aqueduct - Wrexham Day 3 Wrexham - Penrhyn Bay - Llandudno - Conwy ...

Absolutely genius, a large Welsh football bucket hat monument celebrating Wales getting into the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar . IT'S BEEN 64 YEARS BUT THE WAIT IS OVER! To celebrate Cymru on the World Stage, and to say a big Diolch to the best fans in the world, 5 giant Bucket Hats - the most iconic symbol of The Red Wall - have appeared across the country. Qatar is a long way away, but Wrexham, Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Caernarfon and Swansea aren't! Grab a pic and post using #ArBenYByd. C'mon Cymru! Day 1 Monmouth - Crickhowell - Brecon - Llandrindod Wells - Elan Valley - Bishop's Castle Day 2 Bishop's Castle - Welshpool - Llangollen - Pontcysyllte Aqueduct - Wrexham Day 3 Wrexham - Penrhyn Bay - Llandudno - Conwy Castle - Betws-y-coed - Beaumaris / Cemaes Bay Day 4 Llanfairpwllgwyngyll - Caernarfon - Llyn Peninsula - Portmeirion - Porthmadog Day 5 Beddgelert - Llyn Dinas - Llyn Gwynant & Mountains - Barmouth & su...

Over the years we all collect articles that intrigue us, make us smile, or challenge us ... don't we, don't you? Oh, you don't, you're #41 :) I use Pocket  app both on the phone ( Android | iOS ) and web with associated sharing/extensions ( Chrome | Firefox ) to tap and save. I usually do this when an article is probably good but looks a bit long at the time. Or, when I know you, dear reader, will lurve it to bits and can't wait for me to pop it onto the blog* Here's five from over the years all about Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ) that are worthy of a read even now. New Zealand’s weirdest and most wonderful town slogans Timaru: Touch, taste, feel Timaru Dunedin: A pretty good plan D Featherston: If you lived here, you’d be home now Stokes Valley: Better than you imagine  Tuatapere: The sausage capital of the world Wow, and that's just my top five, there more in the article ... Take this deal all the way to Invercargill Can your whole country change more t...

There are many that say, "Science is wrong", "Just because they say it's true doesn't mean it is", and "I am an independent thinker". I am all for curiosity however not so keen on just making shit up. Curiosity is what the  science method  is built up on and from where all our theories* of the universe emerge. It also takes a LOT to prove a theory, mostly observation of predictions made by the theory. If gravity is what Newton says and put into mathematical terms then his maths should be able to be used to make predictions.  They were, and they (mostly) do in all circumstances. "Mostly", bloody Mercury just wouldn't conform to Newtonian maths, FFS. In 1915 Einstein, an "independent thinker" BUT standing on the shoulders of giants, published a theory that gave gravity a new meaning and Mercury was no longer an outlier. In 1919,  Arthur Edington proved it . That's science, look at the universe, make a theory about some p...