While storm Bram raged over the country I got another phone call. It was the infrared panel people. This weather had caused a delay, which was understandable. I was booked in for finally having the work, that had started in August, finished on December 18, but they wanted to move that appointment. Well so be it. It’s been pushed to January now. One day! One day it will be done…
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| Still not connected |
I am on the mailing list of the historical society of the valley, and from time to time they have interesting lectures (like this one). And there was one announced about mining in the Ogwen Valley. That sounded good! And on the day it was held, I had just finished a big pile of marking work, so I could afford to go. I got home, I had my shower and my dinner, and then sneaked out of the house. I was just on time!
The man who held the lecture had had a varied career, and now he was retired. And he was still interested in mines.
Spoiler alert: there hasn't been much mining in the valley if you count by how many tonnes of actual metal were retrieved, or how much money it made anyone. This valley belongs to slate. But if you count the sheer number of little scratches in the rock where people have tried, it is quite a lot!
There are traces of iron mining, and lead, and copper, and arsenic, and ochre, and manganese, and molybdenum in the valley. And that has resulted in little trials by the river, gashes in the big hills, barely recognisable remains in copses, hills with a multitude of little holes in them, the occasional passage that even seems to go somewhere, and some innocent looking scree slopes that turn out not to be natural. And more!
I recognise some of the locations, but quite often I barely know anything about them. (Posts about some mentioned locations are here and here and here and here.) I feel like I know a lot more now, even though I must admit I struggled a bit to understand the man’s Welsh. It didn't really help he was speaking into a microphone, but I was close enough to hear him directly as well, so I heard him twice with a tiny delay in between. Well worth it anyway!
I had worked on my big pile of marking for weeks. And when the deadline came close, I had resorted to working in the weekend as well. That was dull, but the result was that on the Monday I only had a few scripts left. Fortunately! I also had a guest lecture, a drop-in, a student presentation, and a fair number of emails to answer from students about other assignments. And I had to get some stuff ready for one of these assignments. Maybe more about that later. But either way; there wasn't that much time I could dedicate to it on Monday. But I did get it done! And I immediately emailed my moderator to say it was ready for her.
I had emailed her on Friday that that pile was on its way, but she hadn’t responded. That was not a good sign.
When I had finished it I breathed a sigh of relief, and went home. It was nice to have that off my back! Even though the intermediate pile of marking was still there, of course. But that deadline wasn't for a few days. It felt easier than last year, when I had turned into a marking zombie.
By the evening I had a response from the moderator. She would do it the very next day. And that meant I would probably be able to release it then. And that was within the deadline! Success!
My deadlines were a bit earlier than a few years back. And they came in short succession; too short. But at least this means now that I won't have an enormous pile hanging over me over over the Christmas period. And that is nice!
If you are ever on Anglesey, it is difficult to fail to notice that there is a big commemorative column there, with the statue on top. The statue is of the Marquess of Anglesey. It's located near Britannia Bridge, the main access route to the island. And it towers over the landscape. I had been aware of it, obviously, since I moved there. But it was closed. It used to be a tourist attraction, where you could walk an internal staircase to the top, and then stand underneath the actual statue, and have an amazing view. Lack of maintenance had put a stop that, though.
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| The column from the copse underneath it |
Then it was renovated. And last year it opened again! I thought I'd like to go, but it never actually happened. But now that I happened to be on Anglesey with Neil anyway, we could give it a go. He is up for that sort of things as well.
It wasn't perfect weather, but it wasn't the worst either. We decided to go for it. The original column keeper’s cottage has now been turned into an office and a café, and there we bought tickets. A young lad stood by the actual column and wanted to see our tickets. And then we went in.
The new staircase is very respectful of the surroundings. You wouldn't know that it is new! And we were up in no time. We could hear the wind howl from a bit of a distance. It wasn't necessarily very comfortable up there, but we could see Britannia Bridge quite clearly, and Telford Bridge with some difficulty. And we got a good look at the actual marquess. I thought it was worth it! And I spotted some nice fossils in the limestone of the column.
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| The new staircase |
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| The marquess from as close as you can get |
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| The view |
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| Column selfie |
After a few minutes we went down again, and had a little chat with the young lad again. Then we all together went to the café. We probably were the last visitors of the day. Not only were they closing in about an hour, but also, the weather was turning quite bad. Not very many people would want to pay to get to a very exposed location in weather like that.
The café has a bit more information about the marquess, the column, and all of that. We didn't think it said enough about the actual marquess: Henry Paget. We supplemented the information given with some googling.
It turned out that this man had been born in London, and at the age of 22 had for some unexplained reason been parachuted in to stand for election in the constituency of Caernarfon, and had been elected. That was his linked to Anglesey. In the Napoleonic war, he has been second in command to the Duke of Wellington, and had apparently lead a very successful charge on the French troops. That sounded like plenty of reason get him a statue. And be given the title of marquess.
The statue was decades younger than the column, by the way; the latter had been raised straight after the napoleonic war, but the statue had only been added to it after the Marquess’ death. Which was decades later. This probably meant he had been lucky; during the aforementioned charge, he had been hit by a cannonball, and his leg had to be amputated. That's not a trivial injury. And he was a rather rich amputee, and had been able to commission a rather good prosthetic leg. That seems to then have turned into a bit of a prototype for prosthetics for generations to come.
On the way back I briefly pointed out the blueschists the column stands on. They are special!
Altogether we had a rather successful addition to our outing to the racetrack. We had had views about as good as you could have had on that day, we had learned some local history (and geology), and we had supported the local economy. Not the worst score if I may say so!
This would be the last race of 2025. The Borders League fixture close to home. It would be on the Anglesey race track (which normally accommodates motorised vehicles), near Aberffraw, organised by the Cybi Striders.
Neil has got the race bug, and was going to come with me. So we drove up together. The track has good facilities: lots of parking, and there is a café. We even saw showers. I went to the loo, and then we went to find the other Eryri Harriers. And I did a little warmup. Soon we were asked to go to the start. Neil was surprised that so, so many people had appeared, often having travelled quite far, to run only 5 miles.
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| Kevin starts us |
We started. The route was one loop around part of the course, and then around the full course twice. I don't think this is very large racetrack. But I never have been to one before.
The route goes a bit up and down, so you can't run at one consistent speed. But I noticed I wasn't going at my usual borders league speed (if I have such a thing). But that was ok. I was here, and I was avoiding one set of penalty points for the club. And I did not want to run a PB anyway. Doing alright would be enough!
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| Approaching the finish |
I cruised along until I only had half a circuit to go. Then I sped up a bit, and tried to pick off as many women as I could. Quite a few! And when I knew the finish was close I did the final sprint, just to make sure that none of these women could overtake me in the last few meters. Success!
The first thing I saw after the finish was Neil. They congratulated me. The second thing I saw was richie. That must mean he had finished before me! Again! I really need to go and beat him sometime. There will be chances in the new year!
I then went to cheer on the other harriers. And everybody else finishing. But after awhile I figured I needed to hand in my token. Before I got there, though, I was intercepted by the rest of the club for a group picture. And then I could go and find one of the sisters who was registering my position.
Nia, our chair, and Anna, with whom I had done the handover, were there too. Nia wanted to have a little chat about how we as committee members would work together. That was fairly quickly done. Then I went looking for Neil.
He was having a cup of tea in the cafe. I said I would check out the showers. They were open! It was nice to get that sweat off me. Normally I do that at home, but today we wanted to tag on a little tourist trip at the end. That’s nicer in civilian clothes, feeling clean. And when I was done we left.
The next morning the results were in. I had been slower than ever. Oh well! And Anna, who is four months pregnant (this is not a secret), had come third! What a woman. And that stellar result meant she had clinched the club road championship. Well-deserved. Soon I will be involved in organising the event where she will get that prize. I might have another chance next year!
That pile of marking just wasn’t getting smaller quickly enough. And the deadline for the huge pile was coming so close! By the Friday, I knew things looked bad. The website said that the students could expect feedback by Tuesday. And I had several timetabled slots on both the Monday and the Tuesday! And it also needs to be moderated. I mailed my designated moderator to ask if she could moderate at the last minute. And I resigned myself to sacrificing part of my weekend.
In a way it was good that it was a bit of a gloomy, rainy day. I got started after breakfast. And I took breaks for going food shopping, watering the plants, and having lunch, but otherwise I just marked and marked.
I wasn’t even anywhere near done at the end of it. But I figured I would manage to finish it off by Tuesday. It would have to do!
At the Eryri Harriers AGM, I became the new honorary secretary. But that didn't mean I know how to be one. It was necessary for the person currently in the post to show me what to do. That person is Anna, with whom I have both raced and car-shared. And that hand-over has now happened.
On a rainy Friday evening we had a little Zoom call. I logged into the Welsh Athletics website, and she showed me how to organise club business from there. She also explained to me around what time the various important things having to do with the club are happening. It looks like that the next thing that needs to happen is the organisation of the event at which all sorts of club prizes, like for the most improved runner, or the person with the biggest contribution to the club, are awarded. These prizes need to be retrieved, so they can be engraved with the names of the winners of 2025.
It wasn't a long call, but I really feel like I am ready for it now. And I have already engaged in my first official activity: ask chair for our updated constitution. Welsh Athletics requires that we keep that sort of documentation up-to-date on their website. And soon we will have the first committee meeting. I suppose it has started!
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| The portal on the WA website. Some data removed. |
It’s mostly done! I have delivered all my lectures for this semester. The only things that are left are guest lectures, drop-ins, and student presentations. And that’s all the teaching we still do. There will be presentations in four modules. That is going to be most of it! It’s nice to be able to see the end. But, of course, there is still frantic marking going on…
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| One of our remaining guest lectures involves offshore wind farms |
The University dreamed up something new: the AI declaration sheet. It asks the students to declare in what way they have used AI in the assessments they do. The idea is that they attach that sheet to said assessments.
What is this for? Im not sure! Is it an arse-covering exercise in some way? Is it an attempt to find out what the students use it for? Is it to give them ideas? I have no idea! I think they soon want to make it compulsory. Currently, it is not.
My current batch of marking comes with those sheets. For those students who didn't forget. And I don't really look at what they say; you're not going to mark something in a different way if you know that someone has used AI to help them with coding or something. But I was curious. What do the student say they use it for? So I had a little look at the field trip report the students have to write about the data they collected in October. And I made a little inventory.
There were 30 students who had submitted the form. Eight of these said they hadn't used AI at all. Nine said they had used it for one aspect of the work. Five said they had used it for two of them. Two had used it for three, three for four, one for five, and two for six. So it looks like the majority of the students is using AI.
So what were they using it for? The most common thing was spelling and grammar. Excellent idea! That option was ticked 11 times. The second most common use was for helping with coding. That was ten times. There were eight cases of help with suggesting sources, seven for providing explanations, six for summarising sources, three for analysing data, two for some other assistive role, and one for translating text.
The one option that wasn't ticked was for providing the structure of the text. That is basically because the assignment is rather prescriptive. I tell them what set-up I want. I know from the dissertation module that where it is less prescriptive, that is what quite many do. Not necessarily to good effect! But that is a different matter.
So things have changed a lot! A few years ago, none of them would've had access to artificial intelligence to help them. Now more than two thirds are already using it. And spelling and grammar checks are older than generative AI, of course, but if that is what they use it for then they are using it well. And I think letting it help you with coding is a good idea as well. As long as it is used for help, and not for doing the work on its own. In the end, we want them to understand what they are doing. Relying too heavily on AI will sooner or later backfire with things like that.
What about the suggesting sources, summarising them, and providing explanations? I think I will have these tools at their disposal forever, so if with that tool they can do a good job that's good. The risk is that if you rely heavily on AI, you can't evaluate if it is doing a good job. And scientists should be very critical. I would hope that the students use it to be better scientists, not worse ones. If they use the AI to be quicker, but still keep their critical head on, that would be ideal. But the reality is probably that it is a bit of a mixed bag! You will always have students who use tools well and those who don't. Plus ça change…
I had booked in the installers of my infrared panels in summer. That way I would be well ready for winter. However; it didn't quite go according to plan. The installer left with the job half done, and none of the newly installed panels wired in, so none of them were working. And the company said that they could come back the next month to finish it all off, but that was not true. They had come with too few small panels, and apparently, these just weren’t in stock for a while.
In the meantime, my inverter also conked out, and replacing that was just added to the work to be done by the infrared men.
After some months we agreed on dates in mid December for the job to be finished. Both panels and inverter seem to be available again! But then there was a positive surprise; someone had cancelled something, so the men could come earlier, on the 1st of December. And I asked the lady who told me that what they would do. Finish the infrared panel installation, or change my inverter. She said all of it. I was sceptical, but we kept the later dates in the diary for contingency.
On December 1st they duly showed up. It was supposed to have been the same installer who had started to work, but he had left the company in the meantime. It was two blokes who had been there earlier; one who I think had installed my battery, and the wingman of the guy who had left. So at least the latter knew something about how the work had been started.
Sam, who had the lead but hadn’t been there the previous time, first asked what the situation was. And he decided to start installing the panels in the landing. When that was done, they proceeded to the inverter. I had been happily working away in my home office while they were installing the panels, but to get to the inverter you have to be in the home office. I picked up my laptop and went elsewhere. And they managed to switch the inverter over, but not quite program the new one yet. That would have to wait until next time.
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| Panels in the landing! |
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| The mess that caused |
I also asked about the panel in my bathroom. That had been installed really high. That way it is only heating my head! Not quite what you want when you are coming out of the shower. But the man said they couldn't; the cable wasn't long enough. The only thing they could do is tilted downwards a bit, so it would still aim add me a bit more. That would have to do.
That panel also had a faulty thermostat, but it's turned out it is incredibly easy to change these. He did it right there and then. So at least I have a working panel in the bathroom again!
I also asked him to take away the four panels that had been left in my conservatory the previous time. He was happy to do that. So I have my space back.
All the new panels still don't work. Sam did not realise he would have to bring some supplies for linking it all up. He will have to bring that next time. So it will be very close to Christmas by the time I finally have my new heating installed. Not ideal! But better late than never. I can only hope that everything goes well when they come back in a few weeks’ time. It would be annoying if they would run into difficulty again. Through Sam leaving the company, for instance. It seems that that would be a typical thing to happen! But let’s hope not…
If you walk back to civilisation from Rhosydd you come past what looks like a very big wheel pit. If I come past, I tend to have had a long day underground, and I just want to get home. Or maybe I’m in a group and I don’t feel free to go on a recce. But after our Moelwynion adventure, Neil and I walked past, and I thought this might be the moment to change that. Neil was happy with that.
It is a huge wheel pit! It made us both feel a bit funny to look down into it. Imagine the size of the wheel this was designed for. But Neil had heard that this wheel pit had never been in use. It may never have had a wheel! But still. It's an impressive structure! From whichever angle we looked at it.
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| Small-looking Neil om big wheel pit |
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| View from the side |
I suppose we were on a roll. The next thing you walk past is Conglog mine. I had never had a close look at that either. But he was up for staring into these strange, more or less concentric, holes in the flank of the hill as well.
The first one we looked into was not very spectacular. It looked like it had collapsed, and you couldn't see any passages lead on. But when we moved further towards Rhosydd we saw that some of the others do. Given that the mine doesn't have big spoil heaps, I thought it would be very small, but having started into the abyss I had to change my mind. It was bigger than I thought! And I figured some of it may still be internally connected.
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| On the Cwmorthin side: big holes |
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| On the Rhosydd side: small ones |
When I thought I had come to the end of the mine I kept walking, just in case. And found an entrance. It was dry. I quickly went to get Neil. I was sure he would want to see this! And he did. And we both had brought head torches.
It was a very tidy passage, and after not much time it opens up into a big chamber. Downwards. My caving headlight would be better able to check just how big it was! My surface head torch barely reached the far end. And Neil's absolutely didn't.
I saw there was an anchor in the wall. People have clearly explored this! Of course they have. But the anchor looks very old. I don't think this is a well-trodden mine. I suppose that means it doesn't really connect internally. If it did, people would be all over it! Or maybe, you can get everywhere without this descent. Still, it would be tempting to descend one day. Too bad I retired my rope and do not intend to buy another one. But who knows! It just might happen. And an explore for a different entrance would totally be on the cards.
I was really glad to have ticked these two items off the list! At least with regards to a first explore. It had already been a good day, but this was some unexpected bonus on the way back. Always nice!
There was a Sunday with good weather forecast, so Neil and I wanted to go on another adventure. And I figured I hadn’t been to the Moelwynion in a while. He was up for doing something about that. He arrived at my place quite early, and said the mountains were white again. I hadn’t seen that yet!
In the Blaenau area, it wasn’t quite as white as the Carneddau. But still somewhat white! We parked by the reservoir and took the public footpath. Later we saw it wasn’t the one I had intended. No problem; we could just turn into the right direction later. That was a bit of a faff; someone had plonked a fence in the way. We were not fazed. Soon we found ourselves in the blazing sun on a series of inclines I had never negotiated. What a good early result! And we got to Stwlan Dam (the venue of my first race of the year). There the weather turned a bit.
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| Incline in the sun |
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| Stwlan Dam |
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| Looking back to Blaenau, with the road Sbrint Stiniog is on |
We wanted to do Moelwyn Bach first, and improvised the route a bit. That involved some negotiating of a grassy slope with melting snow on it - that was slippery. Not my favourite. But what followed was a lovely scramble! Through a dreamy misty landscape. And when we got to the summit plateau we walked to the actual top through horizontal snow. That was a bit cold. A Jack Russell we came across there thought so too. Poor shivery little dog. All humans and dogs quickly started to head down again; we in the direction of Moelwyn Mawr. Neil slipped on the melting snow. That gave me reservations about doing the bigger peak too! But some people who came the other way reassured me. We continued.
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| Different weather on the flank of Moelwyn Bach |
Moelwyn Mawr was also snowy and windy. We didn’t linger. And were hoping for some shelter for lunch. That wasn’t imminent! The blazing sunshine of the start of our walk seemed a long time ago. But we found some. Lunch was due! And we had a view (if the clouds allowed it) over the area where the Tyllau of Rhosydd are. Very beautiful!
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| Lunch view |
After lunch we continued. We had a look at the Rhosydd spoils, and a Twll, and the tunnel leading to it. And some buildings. Then we took the incline down to the mill, by the drainage adit (and main entrance). From there we went down the conventional way, past Llyn Cwmorthin.
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| Rhosydd buildings |
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| Autumnal selfie |
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| The route we would take back |
Along the way we had a look at some industrial remains I had never explored before. They’ll get their own blog post! But then we walked back with a firm pace as it was raining.
On the way back we went for a hot chocolate at Swallow Falls. I had never been, in all the time I had lived here! And not too long ago it had undergone extensive renovation. I was curious to see how it had turned out. And it was clear that some considerable effort had been made! We both liked the place, and our hot chocolate. And then we went home to have dinner and light the fire. Another excellent adventure! Although the start was not very representative. The forecast had been a bit optimistic! But at least we had seen more snow than the week before, when we had gone explicitly looking for it…
One of the big jobs of the autumn is done! I have given all the students a dissertation topic. There were many of them: almost 200. And it was different from earlier years.
I let the students pick four topics off a list, and they have to all be topics by different members of staff. And then I have to somehow make it work. The complication with this is that we have many more members of staff per student on the physical side, so before you know it, the biological staff will have the maximum number of students, and then it becomes difficult. So far, staff members have been volunteering for supervising other people’s topics, but typically, the biologist volunteer for biological topics, and the non-biologist, obviously, for non-biological topics. And there's plenty of staff to supervise the non-biological topics! So that doesn't really help.
In the past it has always been the case that some non-biological staff just got considerably fewer dissertation students than pretty much all the biologists. That was not appreciated. I do compensate by giving people with few students more second marking to do, but that's not quite the same. And last year doing my PDR (and at another meeting), I had agreed with the head of school (HoS) and the director of teaching and learning (DTL) that we would do it differently. People whose own topics were not chosen very much just had to volunteer for a sufficient number of popular topics so that I could give them their fair share as well. And if they didn't like it, I would have to just make them. My authority might not do the job, but the combined authority of the HoS and the DTL would.
I started by first giving the traditionally unpopular people students. And then I worked my way up the popularity list. First giving everyone only their own topics, but later also the topics by others they had indicated they could supervise. And it quickly became clear that among the physicists, there were quite many who wouldn’t get to their fair share of students that way. So now the new rules came into force: I asked them to volunteer for more topics, especially biological ones. And most of them did. And I managed to get them their load of students.
When I only had a handful of students left, I just assigned them to the staff who hadn’t volunteered enough. Job done! Almost. With 200 students on the course, there were bound to be mistakes in the final spreadsheet.
The check indeed revealed some issues. A few students who had been allocated twice, two students who had fallen through the cracks. Things like that! And that then means some staff have too many or too few students. But I managed to sort that.
Then I sent it to the staff. With the students now distributed evenly I didn’t expect any complaints. But there was one member of staff who suggested a last minute change. Luckily, it was the easy type. I made that happen, and then it was ready to go to the students.
I expect complaints! They always come. There are always students who say that not getting their first choice will negatively affect their career. And maybe it does! But if I give everyone their first choice, you get members of staff with tens of dissertation students, and that is unworkable. And those who want to keep their future in their own hands can design their own projects. If you start early enough, that is totally feasible!
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| There are topics about eyespots on fish. Pic by |
It started with the big and the small piles of marking. I decided to get the small one out of the way first. And in two days, I had marked everything that had been uploaded. That was only about 2/3 of the cohort, as the rest had extensions. But it felt good to get to the end of the list as it was. I decided to not publish anything until the people with the extensions had submitted too.
With the second batch almost coming in, I got my skates on and did the assignment myself. This is the one that is based on the field trip, so every year has different data. I have to process that as much as the students do! But I have done it before, so for me it is quite quick. Especially since I found a way of doing it in R rather than in Excel.
Before I started on the second batch I tried to make a dent into the assignment of the big cohort. It is not in itself a big assignment, but if you have to mark 100 scripts, it still takes a lot of time. And if you try to do them all in succession you go bonkers! So my strategy was to sometimes do a limited number.
By the end of that week I had marked the entire small batch, including extensions. I hadn't made any progress on the big batch at all! Or the intermediate one. But I had spent a lot of time on the allocation; this gets its own blog post. And I had been away for two days, on a first aid course, and a day in the field. So I was quite satisfied altogether. The week after, I would have to get a big lump out of the other marking done!
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| There is an age-depth model in the small assignment. This is an example from the Integrated Ocean Drilling
Program Expedition 322 Preliminary Report, doi:10.2204/iodp.pr.322.2009 |
This year it would be Dei and me doing the field trip to Cemaes. And I had suggested we distribute the talking points as follows: we take turns, and he starts. That means we would both do ones we normally don’t do. We wouldn’t be as rehearsed as usual, but it made for a change! And that’s nice too.
The forecast wasn’t very good! Rain in the morning, and wind all day. I made sure to dress warmly and bring even more layers.
Dei started off with his usual enthusiasm at a dyke swarm. I took over at an old stromatolite. Then we made sure to drive as close as we could to the next site. There we had hydrothermally altered quartzite. We chose to have lunch in the vehicle. It was very windy, and it also still rained. No day for a picnic!
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| Dei and his dyke swarm |
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| By the White Lady |
The next stop was another melange, with some rare bright orange iron carbonate. Then we had an unusually pretty other stromatolite, and a remote view on a thrust fault. We also popped into the church. It is both associated with St Patrick, and the UK’s first Muslim MP. A big claim to fame!
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| A limestone in the melange; a student is sceptical |
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| The iron carbonate |
We then went around to Porth Wen, where we looked at what may be that thrust fault again. And now up close. But was it? And does the landscape show signs of sea level rise? All this was more complicated than we would have liked. Or maybe we should have hoped for complication. It’s more interesting!
By then we were all tired and ready to get out of the wind. We went back to Bangor. I think it was a good day! And this is the last trip of 2025. In the new year we will pick it up again…
I am one of the University first aiders. I just thought it would be a good thing to be. And the first time I went up for my qualification, it was ok. But you have to renew this every few years, and the second time I went up I realised that the course instructor did the course word for word the same. The same material, the same examples, the same jokes. It basically was two days completely lost, but with a certificate at the end. Imagine how frustrating it is if you have to renew again. And then I heard through the grapevine that the course instructor had retired. Hooray!
Sometime ago I got an email saying that my qualification would expire again. There was opportunity for a refresher course in late November. I took it. And the location was special: it was the universities farm and research centre. I have been aware that this existed for a long time, but I had never been! And it's even so close by I can bike there.
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| Found it! |
When I approached the farm I heard some alarm go off. I didn't think much of it. But then I came around the corner and I saw a lot of people milling by a building. Maybe this was my course? They turned out that it was. So I had accidentally found the correct building. We couldn't quite get in yet.
Luckily, after a while someone appeared who could make the noise go away, and we could get in. After a cup of coffee we started. And the instructor first did a little bit of an introductions round; who were we, and why were we interested in first aid qualifications? We were all university employees, mostly from ocean sciences or natural sciences. I suppose we are the schools that do field trips. It's not as if you never need first aid in the building, but it is perhaps a bit less likely, and there will probably be other people you could call on. I trust all security people have first aid qualifications, for instance.
The person I know best was my colleague Ronan. We also had a research assistant there whose face I knew well, but who I have never really spoken with much. And then there were several familiar faces from natural sciences. It was quite nice to have a group like that. And we were quickly united in being a bit chilly. That converted farm barn was not easy to heat!
We didn't went through things such as Dr ABC. Soon after that we went outside to learn to put each other in the recovery position. We started out in all sorts of initial positions. He mainly made us think about: if you have to leave a patient, but will their tongue do, and what will happen if they vomit? If you have dealt with these questions, you are in the best position to run off and get help. On University trips, you'll probably never have to leave someone alone, but we might as well also think about situations in the outdoors outside work. There are plenty of places around where there is no phone signal.
We also spent quite some time on CPR. I thought that was good! Normally, they make you do half a minute on one of these dummies, and that's it. He had us go on for quite a while. He wanted us to know how it feels if you I have to keep doing it and doing it and doing it.
We also spend some time on diabetes, and stemming bleeding and bandaging wounds. That is probably a bit more applicable in field trips! You don't get many students in cardiac arrest. But you do get diabetic students, and those who end up with a cut or a graze.
Somewhere in the middle of all this we also had lunch. We didn't quite tackle all expected topics. He gave us some reading to do. That is stuff I have learnt again and again and again so I'm not nervous about that.
At the end of the day, I was quite happy. I had had a good day! This guy really added something to the material, and it would have been a nice group to work with. And the location was fab! This way I don't mind having to go up for renewal once in a while. So I'm up-to-date again, and it wasn't a drag!
In early August, the first part of the bicycle path I often take to work closed, because the adjacent bridge over the river would be replaced. I suppose building a new bridge and taking the old one down is not a trivial job! But I had seen them build the supports for either side of the bridge, and I had seen images on social media of the actual bridge being craned into position. That meant that important milestones had been made in this work! I wanted to have a look.
I could see with my own eyes now that the new bridge I was indeed in position. It wasn't, though, quite yet connected to the paths leading off on either side. I wasn't sure how they would do this. The original bridge was a footbridge, and clearly not intended for cyclists. This might be the same for the new bridge. However; accessibility demands that this bridge is wheelchair accessible, so you can’t have a step involved in getting onto it.
I suppose there's two big things still to be done now. Have smooth asphalt or other paving join seamlessly to the bridge, and then take the old one down. I hope that when that is done, they open up the bicycle path again. I know that there is still work planned in that area; it seems that the rugby club is taking the opportunity of extending its parking. But I hope they can do that work without the bicycle path being closed for it.
I can only watch and wait. But it’s good to see clear progress!
This year’s AGM was going to be a lot more eventful than last year’s. I would know a lot more people, and I was actually standing for a committee position. I also knew that no one else has stood for it. So we're all likelihood, this would be a sizeable change!
When the AGM was coming up, there was a call for people to stand for positions, as several would be vacated, and some of them have been vacant the entire year. The club needs a committee! And given that in summer, I had retired from the rescue team, I figured I would be able to find time to taken a new function. I had initially thought of membership secretary, but Anna, who currently is actually functioning as both the honorary secretary and the membership secretary, recommended I would instead apply for the former. So I did.
The venue this time was only a few minutes on bike away. That was convenient! It was in the cricket club where I had never been. When I came in I saw familiar faces, and immediately got a hug from Nia Meleri, our chair, who looked unusually glamorous. I normally only see her in running kit!
I spotted the table with the unwanted running kit, and dumped my stuff on it. Then I went to get a drink. We would almost start, so when I had a drink I sat down at a table that still had space.
It started with the reports of the chair and the secretary, and then we would have dinner. Vegetarian curry for me! And then it continued with the reports of the other committee members, such as the cross country officer, the mountain running officer, and the road running officer. As I am mainly a roadrunner, I was most interested in that last one. Arwel is the relevant officer, and mainly spoke of the rather spectacular Caernarfon 10k this year, which would be the last one he would organise, and the Borders League. But he also mentioned the club road championships. It turns out I am in the lead among the women! What does this mean? Probably that I just did the most races of all the female Harriers. But it still felt good. There is only one more race to go!
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| Nia Meleri and Anna taking the stage |
When that was done we had dessert. And then we came to (minor) changes in the constitution, and the voting in of a new committee. There were no positions for which more than one person stood, and everybody was voted in with a large majority. It is a bit worrying that quite a lot of positions are empty, but I am a bit hesitant to take too much on. I have a busy job! But there is one position I might take. Mike, one of the stalwarts of the club, suggested I also become vice chair. I am willing to consider that! But we'll talk about that in the next committee meeting.
When that was done we basically only had the ‘any other business’ to deal with and that wasn't an awful lot. And at a reasonable hour, we closed the meeting. I made sure to buy a few raffle tickets; the club has a Christmas fun run, and that comes with a raffle. I can't make it; I am busy turning 50 that day. but I thought I should get myself some raffle tickets because hey, it's my birthday, I might be lucky. You can win entry into several races!
When that was done I talked a bit with Anna and Nia Meleri about getting started in my new function. But then I left. I suppose a new era has begun!
This year's AGM, my second, would have something new: a swap shop. We were encouraged to bring run-related stuff we did no longer use, and either sell it, swap it, or give it away. I figured I had some superfluous stuff, so the afternoon before the meeting I gathered it, and attached some little labels saying ‘free’ to each item. Ready to go! I wasn’t sure how much demand there would be, but if you don’t try you don’t find out. Maybe I could declutter while doing someone a favour!
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| Ready to go |
We got the first snow this week! I saw it on the way to work. And if there’s snow, it’s great to get into it. Neil thinks so too! So our plan was to go and seek it out on the Saturday.
In the morning, it would still be cloudy and rainy, but it would get sunnier after that, according to the Met Office. So we couldn’t really check the mountains from a distance. We just chanced it! We went from the front door up the path past Moel Faban and y Gyrn, and went up y Drosgl. Then we headed for Bera Bach. Hardly any snow! A pity. But still a beautiful walk. But by then we had to make a plan. What next?
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| About as much snow as we found |
Neil suggested to do a loop via yr Elen. That sounded good! First stop Carnedd Gwenllian. And we had lunch. But then we both wondered if that itinerary was a good idea. We both had forgotten to bring a head torch, and the days are so short! We decided to turn around and go back to y Drosgl. And went back over Gyrn Wigau. And we were back in town well before it got dark. And we were tired anyway. We got home and lit a fire! We hadn’t seen much snow, and the weather had been cloudier than hoped, which had obscured the views, but we had done a lovely hike that had allowed me to show Neil some new terrain. And there’ll be more opportunities to get into the snow!
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| On the way down |
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| Heading for Gyrn Wigau |
I was hoping I could blog about having finished the allocation, or any of the piles of marking! But I can't. The allocation is almost finished. But almost is not entirely. And I haven't finished the small batch of marking because it was Friday afternoon that the students with extensions submitted, but I had other things to do then, so that will need to get finished next week as well. I still haven't started the intermediate batch, and I have made progress on the big batch, but that is so big I've barely made a dent in it.
Hopefully, next week I will be able to blog about all my triumphs! At least, the small batch should be finished, and the allocation done. Watch this space…
I was just running along the course of the half marathon, in my own world, when I suddenly felt a tap on my arm. I looked next to me and I saw Katie, one of the track runners. She runs at more or less the same speed as me, so if she's there we very well might end up in the same little group. I was glad to see her! We had a little chat and then we parted ways again. All very unremarkable.
Then the race pictures were published. I looked at mine, and I saw that a race photographer had caught the whole interaction on film. And I initially had intended to buy two pictures; that’s £24. But four £30 you can buy up to 30 pictures. So I went with that! I thought it was funny to see me obliviously run along, and then my response when I realise she was there. I think she was focussed on running, and hence wasn't showing the same range of facial expressions. Judge for yourself! Here is the whole series…
