Looking back on 2023

2023 has come to an end. So what did the year bring for me? In some ways, it was a year quite like the previous one. I was busy with work, and work was an in person thing again, and I still live where I lived and I still have my cat and I still run and all that. So no huge changes.

I suppose too big things that happened were firstly: after a hesitant start in 2022, my dating activities reached a higher gear. And that has not been uneventful! And the other thing is that I had my most successful running year ever.

I started as I intended to go on; January 1st I had a first date that went really well. But it was a bit too good to be true; as Marillion would say: I kissed my prince and found my frog. By February things looked amazing, by March things started falling apart at the seams, and in May he left my life altogether. 

That left a lot of the year for a better attempt, and things were looking good with Tim until he broke his ankle, which completely changed the dynamic. And many other things. But the ankle is on the mend, and 2024 will in all likelihood reveal where that is going. 

When it came to running, I had realised after lockdown that I was faster than I had been before. I enjoyed that. And then 2022, to my surprise, I started winning medals. And in 2023 that has almost became a habit. I won two more bronze medals and a silver one; not a bad score! One was even under unfortuitous circumstances. And I finished as fourth woman in a race where I had taken out time to take pictures. And I also biked to the start. So a medal would clearly have been possible there if I would have tried! I must say that did good things to my ego.

What else was going on? I started two new responsibilities within the school. I became both Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity lead, and Academic Integrity officer. Both are quite some work! But they also both provide opportunities for leadership, and therefore promotion possibilities. 

Work changed quite dramatically anyway; this was the year that higher education felt the full force of ChatGPT. We had to adjust a lot of our assessments because of it. It is never going to go away! We will have to just keep up.

It was also the year that the outrageous gender imbalance in the school of sciences was lessened a bit. We got three new professors in addition to the seven all-male ones we had, and all three were female! That is such a big change. And two of them have already gotten an inaugural lecture in the diary. I will make sure I attend these. It's a big thing for me.

Cave rescue was also busy! I attended three call-outs. There was another one I couldn't attend. And my training as a controller started in earnest. And all that, of course, was in addition to my administrative tasks. I didn't go underground much outside cave rescue; there were some trips with the ladies, but these were few and far between.

I also had a few visitors again in 2023: Monique and Kate. And I went to the Yorkshire Dales with my Dutch hiking friends. Spiffing! 

Something that turned out to be a 2022-only thing was my side gig; no further courses were delivered, and my contract with them has ended.

What was it I said about 2023? I’ve copied that over from last year: 

'So what for 2023? One thing I want to do is improve my general quality of life. I feel like I had a peak in summer 2019. And I want to turn that into a local maximum. And just get the curve to go up again! Preferably past that point. But let's first aim for a positive gradient. I also expect that there will be more happening on the dating front in 2023 than it did in 2022. To be honest, I have no idea if anything is going to happen with Ukrainians or with going underground. Or with boiler replacement. But I do think my role in the rescue team will become even bigger, and I do think I will make moves towards more Welsh provision at university. Which I think is a good thing!

I hope I can restore the cat to her full fluffiness. And I will have to sort out my garden! Some of it is currently a blank slate, and if I don't fill that then voluntary creatures like brambles will.

I also hope that at the end of 2023, I will still be enjoying the company of my hill-dwelling friends! Stay tuned for another year in the life.'

Well, some of that has come true! But not all. My quality of life has remained largely constant. My efforts with therapy have not really paid off yet. Maybe my expectations are a bit high for reasons of my sister. Just one video call with her is always more useful than months of therapy as I have found it so far. But you would think that very effective therapist would be around in this area as well. This quest continues!

What is happening on the dating front I already touched on. Nothing has happened with regards to boiler replacement and Ukrainians. But at least I have now made a decision about how I want to proceed with heating my house in a sustainable way. Stay tuned, as that should happen this year!

I have also indeed taking up bigger responsibilities within the cave rescue team. I am not a controller yet, but it is likely to happen. And I have last year done my first independent statistics practical session with the students. 2024 should bring more of that!

I had partial success with the cat and the garden: the cat still has bald patches, although they are not too bad as they have been. But she still seems to be otherwise happy and healthy cat. The vet isn't too worried about it. And the garden is still beautiful, because its location is so amazing even an untalented gardener like me cannot spoil it, but it is not quite at the level where I wanted to be. But the good news is that the blank slate I mentioned last time is now an appreciated part of the garden. I just put some hardy plants there, and make the effort of removing everything else. The soil is very poor so that is not much work! I enjoy that bed as it is now. It is a big improvement on what it was.

And the last thing I mentioned were my Gerlan friends! I am very glad to say they are still very much around. As I write this, I am already pondering what dessert I will make for our first dinner of the year. 

So what of 2024? I think some of the big things of the year (that haven't been mentioned yet) might be work-related. In this year, I will apply for promotion to senior lecturer. Will that be granted? Time will tell. But then I also have to make a start with applying for a senior fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. I want to do some of that in summer when I have a bit of time. And it will have to be my new functions that provide me with the inspiration for the arguments I will use.

I also mentioned before how much AI has changed my job; I expect developments to go so fast that by the end of the year we will have had to make more adjustments, or at least consider making them. What will AI be capable of when ChatGPT is not one year old but two?

One thing seems a proper old-fashioned New Year's resolution: this year I want to read more books than last year. That shouldn't be hard! I don't read much other than scientific literature and the newspaper… I really love reading books; I just don't seem to have the discipline to make time for it. But this year has already started better, and maybe I’ll managed to keep it up.

Another thing is that this should be the year where I diversify my racing. As I already announced, I will add competitive biking to my repertoire. And I really hope to get a few more (running) medals, as I must say, I quite enjoy winning them!

I probably will need some running success to distract me as I am really worried about all sort of things going on in politics. The UK expects elections, and even though that is a possibility of change for the better; we have seen too often that it can turn out to be a change for the worse. The Dutch will probably get a pretty awful coalition, and I'm scared to even think about the US elections. And how will the situation in Gaza go from here?

And what else? I think otherwise I intend to just trundle on as I have been trundling on in 2023. But I will see whether life throws me any curveballs. Who knows what will come up that I totally don't see coming yet!