January marking

When I went away for Christmas, all marking that needed to have been done by then was done. There was a pile waiting that had been submitted the 19th of December, but that was not too bad. I shared that with Jaco. This assignment was having the students be critical about an AI-generated text about topical subjects. Time-consuming, but actually quite fun! 

When that was done, the next batch came in. Exam marking! I was involved in two of them, a week apart. The first one was a module on shelf seas. Sometimes my exam questions in that module are not very popular at all. This year was different! We had about 100 students, and they all had to answer 2 out of 8 questions. So if every question would be equally popular, they would all have 25 students choosing them. One of my questions (I had two) drew 23. A fine number! The other one drew 57. Crap. 

The North Sea: example of a shelf sea. Pic by NASA

I finished the popular question before the students started on the second exam. And then I managed to mark the less popular one while the students were working on the other exam. So I could move straight on! Were it not that academic integrity cases, teaching admin for the second semester, and an invited talk about EDI got quite in the way…

Infrared panels finished

It is finished! It is mid-January but it’s done. The previous time the electrician had left with two issues unsolved: several panels without a thermostat because they hadn't brought compatible ones, and a hole in the wall because he had hit a water pipe.

When he showed up again to finish it off, I was surprised to see him and a colleague carry large boxes out of his van. These thermostats aren't very big? But he quickly explained: they were not going to install compatible thermostats; they were going to exchange the installed panels with panels that were compatible with the thermostats they had used so far. That sounded like an unnecessarily labour-intensive way to go about it, but so be it. It did mean more time, more mess, more disruption, more annoyance by the cat.

I got to work upstairs and they sorted things out downstairs. But at some point he wanted to know where I wanted to thermostats. I like them near the light switch. All the controls for a room in one place! And we figured from the light switch, the cable would go up. So we put the thermostats below it. That we had miscalculated. And the man still didn't have the device that detects metal wiring in a wall, so he chanced it. And tripped the fuse. 

The latest problem

He had to drive to Bangor to buy what he needed to fix the damage. But when that was done, he was sorted. He suggested we fix the last thermostat with double-sided tape. Fine with me! And the hole in the wall was not something he could do anything about; he was an electrician. They would have to send a plasterer.

I agreed with the company that they would just take some money off the bill and then I will sort out a plasterer myself. So that's it! I now have a full set of infrared panels! And they work. I did have to bicker with the company about the bill; I suspected they had lost track of what they had actually installed. So I wanted an itemised bill. They were reluctant, but I was right to be stubborn about that; it turned out they were trying to make me pay for the installation of two panels that had been installed in 2022. Cheeky! 

I now don't have to deal with this company anymore. I must say it has been a bit of a struggle! But now I can just enjoy my panels in peace. At last!

Old money

My stepmum found some UK banknotes in my dad’s stuff, and he is highly unlikely to travel to the UK again, so she sent them to me. He must have had them for a while! For they were the old papery versions, and the new polymer ones came in in early 2020. 

Would I manage to sort this? 

I hadn’t noticed, so I tried to pay with them. The lady in the shop wasn’t having that, but said you can still exchange them in a bank. A bank! They still exist. There are some in Bangor. So one day I biked there and had a try. The first bank said this branch didn’t have a counter service, but in Llangefni they did, and they would be able to help. 

The next bank I tried (might as well) said they could only help if I was one of their customers. I’m not; the nearest branch of my bank is in Liverpool. But they said I should try the Post Office. That was just up the street. 

I tried it. And it worked! Effortlessly. Which means I could have just gone to the post office in Bethesda or Menai Bridge. Oh well. It’s sorted now! And that money hasn’t fully expired somewhere in a drawer. That would have been a waste! 

More thorough repair of the wood burner

When I bought wood burners, I didn't quite realise that they need some maintenance. They tend to have something called fire rope on the inside of the door, to form a sort of a seal. You don't want the metal of the door directly on the metal of the stove, but whatever you want in between, it should be fire resistant, be a bit of a buffer so closing the door of your stove doesn't get too noisy, and keep the fumes of the fire in. Cue the fire rope.

After a while, my fire rope was starting to come undone. Initially I didn't know what to do with that, until Miles told me you can just glue it back. And I did that for several years. But I had to do it again and again and again. It didn't seem to really fit; there is a gully on the inside of my door, which is only 7 mm wide, but the original fire rope was several times that width. Strange!

You don't have to accept the original fire rope, of course. You can just buy that stuff, in several sizes, in DIY stores. Neil figured I should really do that, as it would actually stay put better if it fit inside that little gutter. He had a point.

I bought some, and a more generous supply of heat resistant glue than I had been buying so far, and now we decided to put it in place. We took the door off, removed the old fire rope, cleaned out the little gutter, and glued the new stuff in position. Then I lit a fire to set the glue. And it worked!

Neil had been a bit nervous that the smaller fire rope wouldn't properly seal. I will soon find out! 

The refurbished door, with the old fire rope for comparison 

Light switch in hallway back in business

Infrared panels are often best placed on the ceiling. Unfortunately, the same holds for lamps. So when I decided to have my whole house fitted out with infrared panels, several ceiling lamps had to yield. I had agreed with the company putting up the panels that they would move some of these lights; this is not a big job if you're an electrician, but it is if you're someone like me.

The problem was a bit that the process took many months longer than expected, and lights are actually quite a good idea. In the master bedroom, the ceiling lamp was moved to the side, which basically means that only half the room now has adequate light. In the little space behind the front door, there was no light whatsoever, so I put a standing lamp there. That was not ideal.

On a day with rubbish weather and Neil and I decided to act. Or rather; he acted and I watched and learned. I could not make sense of the wiring the electricians had left by the front door, but Neil could work it out with some of the equipment he has. And then he just fitted a wall mounted lamp I had bought for the occasion. It is absolutely lovely to have proper light there again!

We also considered the options for the master bedroom. For symmetry, it would be best to just buy another lamp like the one that has been moved. We checked how we would connect the wires, though; that doesn't seem to work. The wires would have to go through the ceiling, but the joists seem to have a crossbar and there's no way you could get past that. So I'll just put up another wall mounted lamp. The same model as the one in the hallway, but in a colour that matches the bedroom. Progress is being made!

 

Light! Next to my infrared panel. 

Marshalling XC again

If I remember correctly, my first marshalling ever was last year at the Eryri Harriers-organised fixture of the cross country (XC) championships. It was the first race after the AGM, committee members encouraged everyone to marshal where possible. It had been my first AGM.

This year I volunteered again. I am a much more seasoned marshal by now! And this time I was going to marshal all races. In total, there are six; it starts with the under 11 girls, and ends with the senior men. The races get longer and faster as you get along.

I was stationed somewhere where you always go the same way. At least what I could do is tell the runners where they would go at the next junction. It's good to know in advance! And I would assume most would have had a look at the map, but some might not have managed to remember it all. Especially those who had race jitters.

The first runners, the under 11 girls, we're running or muddy grass. But they already started changing this into mud with a little bit of decorative grass. And with every race that went by, the terrain got worse. I was really glad that I had decided again to not run myself. It is so easy to sprain something when you slip in these conditions.

The races came thick and fast. I did have time to eat my lunch along the way, but that was about it. And when the senior men had come by for the last time, I went to the back of the field to retrieve the route markers. And then my job was done! But it was already quite deep into the afternoon. It was time to do other things!

The next race I will be running myself. I really look forward to that! Unsurprisingly, it will be on the road.  And I hope that no weather warnings will get in the way…

The start of the senior men race

A Gog Triathlon Club runner seems to struggle with grip, with an Eryri Harrier in pursuit

The bloke who would win that race

To the physiotherapist for a niggle

It started with getting out of the car. One day I did just that, and felt something pulling in my right side. I didn't pay an awful lot of attention to it. But it became standard. And when it didn't go away, I started to wonder if it meant something was wrong. And when I started to feel it in more circumstances I figured I needed to act.

I could feel that it was something to do with my right hip bone. It felt like the muscles attachments to it were somehow not happy. Not idea why though. 

I didn't want this niggle turning into an injury, so I contacted my physiotherapist, and he had space. Storm Goretti didn't get in the way too much, so I made it there.

My suspicion was right! The tendons that attach my gluteus muscles to my hipbone are displeased. And the physiotherapist said he noticed some muscle weakness because of it. And it seems to also work the other way around. If I would strengthen the muscles, the niggle would go away. And he gave me five exercises. 

Artist impression of one of the exercises 

I just added the exercises to my morning regime. That had already been boosted by my strength training, but I think it compliments each other well. These exercises are mainly for my bum, while the exercises I did so far are more for my thigh muscles and calves. But the bum is absolutely crucial for running! So that is now looked after as well. The physiotherapist said it was going to take weeks for the niggle to go away. I hope by then it indeed will!

New family contact

In 2024, one of my cousins on my mother’s side, Jennifer,  got in touch with my sister. And through my sister, she got in touch with me. We even met up!

Since then, things have trundled along. Several other cousins have now joined in. When I saw my sister over Christmas, she told me of a concert several of them will be attending. It is very logistically difficult for me to join in with any of that, but I like the fact that this is going on.

Jennifer also has good contact with two of our aunts. And recently, I got the request, through her and my sister, if I will be happy to have a chat with one of them. Of course I was! And soon we did have a phone call.

The last time I met this lady, José, in person (any Latin readers might be surprised at me having an aunt with that name but there we are) what was when I was a child. By now I wouldn't recognise her if I bumped into her. And unless she has seen recent pictures of me, I'm sure that is mutual. But it was lovely to talk to such a voice from the past. And now she is a voice from the present again. Quite unexpectedly! 

Ragnarok

Yes, the apocalypse of the Norse mythology. But also: no, not that Ragnarok. I this case, I am referring to the book by A.S. Byatt. This book, however, is named after the apocalypse of the Norse mythology. But it is set in WWII Britain. My sister liked the writer, and knows I like Nordic mythology, so she figured it would be a great birthday present. And it was!

One imagines the book to be partly autobiographical. The protagonist is a child that is evacuated during the war, and when it ends, goes back to Sheffield, where she came from. That seems to match with the life of the writer. And this child loves to read. That also seems to match with the life of the writer. And this girl reads a translation of the Norse story of the end of the world. Even though it isn't, really. It's a bit of a biblical flood kind of story; everything that was gets destroyed, but afterwards there is a new start.

The protagonist isn't keen on that new start. Is she keen on returning to Sheffield? Not necessarily.

I like to reading the thoughts of this child. She is quite pensive for her age. And does ponder function of myths, and contrasts paganism with christianity. And think about the critical notes in her own Ragnarok book, where the translator comments on that not all parts might be of the same age, and might have been created in effectively different worlds.

I'm burning through books this week! They say you should start as you intend to go on. I don't think I'll keep this up! But I'll try to not slow down too much…

Local library

It's always fun to blog about triumphs! But sometimes when you blog, you end up broadcasting your failures. This is one of those posts I find a bit difficult.

I moved to North Wales yonks ago. And as you guessed from the title, I only joined the library now. I feel a bit bad about it! If you don’t use these facilities, they vanish. And borrowing books instead of buying them is more environmentally friendly, and doesn’t lead to your house cluttering up. Only advantages! 

Why didn’t I? I suppose it never made it to the top of the to do list. I don’t read much. I can borrow anything from the University library, which is a lot bigger. When I tried in Plymouth, I was a bit disappointed by the range of books available (I seem not to have blogged about that). It tends to take me longer than the borrowing period to read a book. 

What got me to snap into action? Welsh class! We will be reading a book for it. I had a look in the local Welsh books shop, but they didn’t have it. The University library seemed to only have it in digital form. So then I got my skates on and became a member of the library in my town. It’s free to join, and really close by! And they had the book. 

Now I'm a member! I intend to visit fairly regularly from now on. But I should get my teeth into that book for Welsh class first!

Cam i’r gorffennol

It took me about a year but I finished it! And I've had this book for years. I bought it from the author himself; he is a local celebrity, as he had been in the most famous punk band in Wales ever, but is also an archaeologist. And I like archaeology. And I've been on two guided tours with him. Through the media of Welsh. And at the end of one of them, he sold this book. I obviously bought one! “Cam i’r gorffennol”, or a step into the past. 

I don't think that book was actually meant for being read cover to cover. It is basically a list of interesting archaeological locations, and a description of what you can find there, and what is known about them. But I read it cover to cover anyway. Initially I took it with me to the Netherlands; then I got sidetracked by other books, but I recently finished it.

Quite a number of these places I have already visited. Bryn Celli Ddu, Tre’r Ceiri, Din Lligwy, Tomen y Mur… but it's nice to read a bit more about them anyway. And there are several I haven't visited yet, and want to now, like Dinas Emrys and Bryn Cader Faner. I'll try to visit some of these in the new year! That's a nice thing about an archaeology book: it's double enjoyment. Once when you read it, and once when it takes you places you otherwise wouldn't have visited. And I'm sure Neil will be up for things like that too!

Back to work

When I went back to work this year, I only went up the stairs, because of snow. Only on the Wednesday did I go back to campus. 

The worst bit of the road to work; this bit is only used by cyclists and pedestrians 

Traditionally, the year starts with exam preparation, and marking work from the previous term, and this year was no exception. And with marking, of course also comes academic integrity work.

Even though I spent more days working at home than on campus that week, it felt I was back in a routine in no time. In the first week I finished my marking. Then I could go and prepare a talk about EDI I have to give, and finish the rubrics for the dissertation module. And deal with more academic integrity cases. And prepare for lecturing again. I need to think about the upcoming climate module! 

More snow

When I opened the curtains on the morning after my snowy hike with Neil, I didn’t know what I saw. A thick blanket of snow in the garden! It was beautiful. Not logistically practical, but beautiful! 

 

I had been on a proper hike the day before, so I took this as a mainly indoor day. Plenty to do there! And I figured the snow drifts in the mountains would be unfathomably deep by now. 

The eerie light of an early snowy morning

View onto the street

What it looked like a bit later

The river once the thaw had set in

It was largely still there the day after; the first day back at work. The University sent a message (at 8:37, so I’m sure a bit late for some!) to tell people to stay home if possible. I heeded that. Seemed reasonable! 

The next day, the roads still didn't look attractive for either biking or driving. And I live on such a small road that the council doesn't bother with it. It doesn't get cleared or gritted. And I have some grit in the garage, but I thought I might as well just stay home again. I don’t like biking to work nervous about wiping out! 

That night, track training was cancelled. I decided to do some hill reps on a local road that happened to be snow-free. And over the course of the day, rain removed a lot of the snow. The day after, things looked fairly normal again! 

Race prep with technology

When Neil's niece Lois came over to do the Conwy Half Marathon, she taught oldies Neil and me how to share our location with each other. But she didn't stop there! She also told me you can upload a race route into your Garmin app, and then have it give you a strategy for running the race. You give it a desired finishing time, and then it tells you at what place you have to run every individual kilometre (or mile). Very handy! 

Km splits

Also given as a list

If you don’t want to know for every kilometre what your pace should be, but just want to know about the various uphill, flat, and downhill bits, you can ask it to cut the route into segments with particular gradients (you can choose how many) and give you target speeds for these. 

Split pace vs gradient

The app needs a gpx file for that, and you can make these yourself, even on your phone, in the app itself. So even for tiny club races I should be able to use this, if I want. This might help me with my aim to break all my PBs! Now I only need to be able to run as fast as the app suggests…

Into the snow

Neil was over at my place after our dinner at Chris’. And he suggested that we tag on a hike the day after. And it happened to have snowed the day before, and more at night. The world was quite white! We wanted to see that a bit more close up. He suggested yr Elen. That sounded fine with me! I suggested going up over the nose, and coming down over the ridge. And that sounded fine with him.

We made sure to pack warm clothes and walking poles. And then we set off. The road was a bit slippery in places. And the first thing we did after coming of the road was walking past Susan and Dean's old house. And then we walked through the fields in the direction of our goal. There is a stretcher there is no official pass, and as far as I have been able to judge no actual pass either. You just have to make your way through a field with a lot of rush. I suppose the snow help us not sinking too deep into the swampy bits this area is a bit infamous for. Relatively dry we reached the foot of the hill.

Yr Elen on the horizon, and a tiny horse closer by

To get to the top of Yr Elen you need to negotiate two ascents and two relatively flat bits. The first sentence was fine. Towards the top of it we came across two young lads who were coming the other way. They said it was a bit brutal higher up! But quite doable. And we were noticing that we were indeed getting into stronger winds. We both decided to wear double gloves. 

After the first ascent 

After the second ascent and a coffee break in the shelter of some rocks, we were really buffeted by the wind like there was no tomorrow, and I wasn't sure if we should go all the way up. There isn't much room for error in these conditions! But Neil suggested we at least get to the bottom of the last ascent and make a decision there. And we decided go for it.

There is a path there, but in the snow we didn't see it. We just improvised our way up. The snow was getting icy but not in a particularly slippery way, so the going was not so bad. And then before I knew it we were at the top! The views were amazing. We took some pictures. And then we were ready to start the descent. We were getting peckish, but didn't want to stop for food in such an exposed place.

Neil stomping over the icy horizon

Close-up of the ice formations 

Neil om the summit

The way on

Summit selfie

View towards Elidir Fawr

The ridge was quite doable! It is a bit like a stegosaurus back, and you always have something to hold onto. But that wasn't even necessary very often. We descended quite fast, and without problems, and passed a family group coming the other way. And not much later we stopped for lunch. 

We could just follow the family’s footsteps! That was convenient. And when we walked into the main valley we came across more people coming the other way; I suspected they were a father-daughter team. We told them what to expect. They were ready for anything, with a rope and crampons and whatnot. They would be fine! 

Looking over a stream in the direction of the village 

Not much further now

From there it is a rather uneventful walk back to the village. It had been a great day! What views. I’m glad we persisted. 

Eryri Harriers secretarial duties have started

I was voted in as the new secretary of the Eryri Harriers in November. And I had my handover soon after. But it didn't fully kick off then. Not much happens in December! But it is January now, and that means that there is a cross-country race organised by the club coming up, and later this month there will be a committee meeting. And the person who is supposed to email everyone about these things is me. I am still finding my feet. I suppose it will get a lot busier than this; I don't imagine January is a particularly busy time for a running club. But that's good. It gives me a calm period to find my feet. And when it gets really busy I should have a routine…

Dinner at Chris’

Chris has been my colleague for four years, and a fellow Eryri Harrier since I joined the club. He used to be a regular on the Thursday night, and he still is a regular on the Tuesday night. And it's not unusual for us to share transport if we are going to a meeting or a race, such as the ones in Bethel and Holyhead. That way I even got introduced to his girlfriend's mother and her cat. It turned out the former and I had already met; she works at the blood bank, so she sees my face appear several times a year.

Chris and his girlfriend also have a cat. And he lives nearby. So if one of us travels, the other often comes to feed the cat. They have a rather young black cat called Stwnsh. She is quite feisty!

With all these connections I was starting to regret never met outside either work or running club business. I asked Neil if he I would like it if I invited them over for dinner. He was fine with that! But then Chris beat me to it and invited me over to theirs. That was nice.

It was lovely to finally meet Chris's girlfriend, Angharad, as I somehow never had. And I already knew from my cat feeding sessions that their house is very snug. This time, the fire was on. That's even better! We had a drink and a nice chat, and the cat came down to say hello. Or rather, maybe mainly for ignoring us and enjoying the heat of the fire. That's fine too. And then Chris served curry. It was a good night! We accidentally stayed until after bedtime. But sometimes that's ok. I look forward to inviting them back in the not too distant future!

More health screening for oldies

I came home together with Neil, and there was an envelope. I wasn't sure what it was. Neil looked at it; he saw that it came from the NHS, and that it was substantial. And he said "this must be a poo test". A what? I have never heard of this. But I opened the envelope and had a look. And it indeed was a poo test! They call it a bowel screening test, but they would, wouldn’t they.

Neil said that once you hit 50, they start monitoring you for bowel cancer. He had received his test kit years ago. I hadn't heard of that! Maybe people don't like talking about rummaging around in their poo. Because that is what you have to do. The test kit is basically a little container with a dipstick in it, with a screw thread and two tiny cavities; the idea is that you fill the tiny cavities with your poo, and then safely screw the dipstick back into the little container, and then send the whole thing back.

It wasn't much work, so I did it that very day. Now I just need to wait for the results to come back in. I have faith that they will come back all clear, but you never know. I suppose it's good to be monitored! I am now so old I get monitored on all sides: smear test, breast cancer test, poo test. I think it's a good thing, so when I get the call, I answer it. And this test is by quite some distance the least uncomfortable one!

New Year’s Day

Susan had asked if me and Neil were interested in a walk on New Year's Day. This is a bit of a tradition! Last year we actually did it on the 2nd of January, but it was lovely anyway. The year before we had a lovely loop in the Glyderau. This year it wouldn't be that spectacular.

When I got in touch closer to the time to discuss details it turned out that she hadn't asked anybody else, and it might have been a bit late. Both Martin and Sarah, and Tom and Siobhan were doing other things. And Susan was not hundred percent healthy, so she didn't want to make it a big walk. But she did ask our former colleague Sophie, who lives near her. We decided to gather at Susan’s place and walk around Llyn Padarn. 

It was a nice day! And with the five of us we headed into the woods, where we fairly often are on Thursday nights. At lake level we came past the Slate Museum, which is currently closed for refurbishment. A lot going on there! And when we got to the town side of the lake we decided to get a takeaway hot drink in an outdoor shop cum cafe.

Susan and Sophie in the woods

From there we walked the old railway line, eating lunch as we went along. Then we went past Craig yr Undeb, and then along the currently inactive tourist railway track. And then back via Sophie’s house. She lives in an amazing cottage!

By the lake

When we got back I was parched, as it is quite doable to eat a sandwich while you're walking, but drinking from a flask is less handy. So I just downed the content of my flask there and then, and then supplied that with tea kindly provided by Susan and Dean. And Neil got a tour of the whole place; everybody else had seen it but joined anyway. One of the cats showed herself, but she clearly had no intention of coming anywhere near us.

After that we went home again. I was proud that my little car managed to get up the drive without problems! And it had been really nice to see some good friends. The walk was low key, but I do plenty of more high profile walks with Neil these days. This was social! A good way to start the year. 

New Year's Eve

Last year I had a very quiet New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I was under the weather and had already been in bed for hours when we entered 2025. This year things looked better! I was healthy. I had asked if Neil wanted to do something together, and he did. There is a place on the Orme that is (extra) special to him, and I thought we could go there to say goodbye to the old year, and welcome in the new. And I initially thought of midnight, but when the time approached I realised how silly that was. Since when do either Neil or me cope well with going to bed late? But we could make it symbolic, and just go a bit earlier in the evening.

I got to his place around midday. He had spent the morning showing an old friend the Orme. And I had brought my running gear. Maybe I could go for a little run? We could even go together! Apart from the ‘reclaim the night’ event, we had never run together. He was up for it! And it was quite cold and windy, but if you run you tend to stay warm.

It went well! We just did a nice loop of the Orme. Neil was feeling a bit self-conscious about it, but I think that will wear off if we do it more often. And he was faster on the bits where the path went downhill, or was uneven, but I could always catch up when it wasn’t. And in the end we had both enjoyed it!

In the evening we got ready to go to the other side of the Orme again. It was a very Ormy day for Neil! But that’s ok. We dressed warmly and put on our head torches. The wind was even stronger than it had been before! I didn't think we would linger very long. But Neil had no problems finding the designated spot, and I got a mini bottle of Prosecco out, and two little glasses. If we switched off our headlights, we could actually admire the surroundings. It was a cloudy night, but there is quite a lot of light pollution there, so a cloudy night can be a rather light one. We looked over the sea, and the mainland, and Anglesey. And the nearby cliffs. I thought it was quite scenic!

Drinking the fizz was a bit of a challenge. It was very cold, and the wind tried to blow the wine out of the little glasses. I still enjoyed it! I think Neil did too. We tried to take some pictures, which is not so easy if you depend on head torches, and then we packed up again, ready to go back home. We decided to walk over the eastern side of the peninsula because that is a bit more sheltered. I think it was about 10:15 when we got home. Close enough to midnight! As far as I was concerned, a fine end to 2025. And I would wake up in 2026. I hope I will still have Neil next to me when this year comes to an end!

Neil opening the prosecco

Out of focus selfie

Looking back on 2025

The years 2024 and 2023 were years of working too hard, and dating and running. That's how I summarised it in my previous year overviews. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler alert to say that you could characterise 2025 like that as well. 2025 didn't have anything spectacular like Athena Swan applications or promotion applications, so this year was clearly less bad than 2024, but there still was a lot of work. It started badly: a student appealed against a whole array of grades. It was quite some work to respond to every accusation they made. In the end none of their appeals were upheld. That seems a lot of work for nothing. And we could just go back to marking, and preparing for the new term. That pretty much went without incident. The only unusual thing was that I got nominated for a highly unexpected teaching award; needless to say, I did not win. 

Work did get stressful for reasons other than workload again; there was another Business Case for Change (a nice term for making budget cuts). This time, our School was doing so well we were not threatened with forced redundancies. We were all eligible for voluntary redundancy though; for me that worked out well, as my nemesis, who had taken me off the Thursdaynighters email list after I had spoken out against misogyny, took the bait and left. It is a pity for the School as it doesn't have a photographer anymore now, but for me it is good. 

Another thing that happened this year was the further rise of AI. In my function of academic integrity officer, I now deal a lot less with students who just copy and paste text from their sources, and a lot more with students who let AI do too much of their work. Next year will be another very interesting year in which we will continue to have to adapt to this! 

In summer, I was very briefly appointed to deal with student extension requests, but before I had properly started, this task was transferred to administrative staff. I dodged a bullet there!

Then the summer, which is always too short, was over and we started teaching again, kicking off as usual with the fieldtrip. I hadn't made much progress with my application for senior fellowship of the HEA! That will have to wait until next summer. 

Term started perfectly doable; my plan for not letting the students creating their own dissertation topics get out of hand this year had worked. And the new way of doing the allocation also helped. But then the marking hit again. And that was basically quite hectic until my birthday. And then there was still quite a lot to do until the Christmas holiday. But at least this year, I could travel to the Netherlands without having to stress too much about the marking that would be waiting for me when I would get back. And just before the University closed, we were told who would be our next head of School, when our current one would retire in late January. In the New Year will find out how he does...

So that was work! What about the dating? Well! It is safe to say the 2025 was a rather spectacular year. I actually started it in a relationship, but we were only five days into the year when that came to an end, through a text message. I was not impressed. I got back on the dating scene, And quite soon found a man who turned out to have made a profile especially to woo me. He had wanted to do that before, but Nick had got in the way. But Nick was gone now! And we had a series of rather enjoyable dates, but he decided in the end that we weren't compatible after all. Back to square one. I was getting disheartened. I suppose I had some dating site burnout. Until when in summer, I suddenly had an urge to have another look. And came across the profile of a certain Neil. He looked like my kind of guy! So I sent him a message. And soon we went on dates. We really clicked and made it official in September. No signs of getting tired of each other yet!

What about running? It was an intensive year! And very enjoyable. Although it started with an impediment: I had some ankle issues at the start of the year. I had seen the physio late 2024, and I was doing my exercises. By February I was back on the hills, and in early February I had my first race. That was Sbrint 'Stiniog; a lovely low-key local race! A good start. And I had also got myself a new toy: a Garmin, without which I rarely leave the house by now. 

In spring, When my Tuesday night Welsh class ended, I started running on the track, and I have become a rather regular participant. I enjoy it! It's good training, and it is quite social as you run with other people, and most of the drills involve breaks, during which you can socialise. It is also logistically easy as the athletics track is quite close to my office. And it turned me into a numerically interested runner. I never paid attention to my pace! I just ran almost everything on feeling. I sometimes kept an eye on my pace, but then I did that the old-fashioned way: just look at my watch and at the kilometre markers (or mile markers) and do some arithmetic in my head. Just looking at your watch and it just telling you what pace you are doing is a lot easier. And sometimes it saves me from starting a race too quickly.

Through my membership of the Eryri Harriers I became aware of the club road championships, and I started registering for all the races that came up in that context. That boosted my race participation. I also added the Borders League. I'm hooked now! In the end, I ran 26 races in 2025, compared to 13 in 2024. I already thought that was much! But 26 is a lot of fun to be had. And was a good year? Well! That depends a bit on how you look at it. I didn't win many medals. I only had two bronze medals in the whole year: at the Pentir Fun Run and the Breakwater 5 mile. The previous year was a lot more prolific: in 13 races, I won 1 gold medal, 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal. And then I had 7 category wins, when this year I had 11 in twice as many races. In that sense it looks like I am losing my mojo. But it doesn't quite feel that way. One thing was that I ran PBs in 4 out of the 5 distances I compete in. But you could argue that that is just a result of running more races. I didn't break my PB in the 10k; my most frequently run distance. Several of the other distances I just rarely run, like 5k, 5m, and 10m. I suppose the only thing that showed off my increased training was my performance on the half marathon. I ran three of them; all of them I had done before, and I improved my time on every single one. Two of them by 6 minutes. And I wasn't even chasing PBs. I will do that in the new year! And I have faith in my quest for breaking them all in the new year or beyond. 

One of my last races of the year

On other running notes: I spent an evening with a running coach in order to see if he could give me advice that would lead to me getting fewer injuries. I think it worked! Unfortunately, it did not stop me from spraining my knee during a fell race. But I recovered. And I got me better running bras. Far from trivial!

What else happened this year? Well! I became a stem cell donor. And I needed an emergency repair on my roof. Henco and Maaike visited, and we went camping on Anglesey. I also camped with Kate and Bryn. And the biggest camping adventure was our annual Swamphike. We went back to the Peak District.

Daft Swamphike pic

 

It was not the best year for hanging out with Martin, Susan and Dean. They all moved house; Martin first, and the others later. So now my social circle is a lot more spread out! And moving house takes a lot of time, especially if you move to a very big place, so they were all quite busy. 

In summer I left the cave rescue team. And immediately afterwards, I joined an actual caving club, so I could go underground with their female only group. I did several trips with them this year, including a whole weekend; that was fab! I hope to do more with them in the New Year. And with me not having to spend time on NWCRO any more, I joined the committee of the Eryri Harriers. 

I also tried to use this year to get my entire house fitted out with infrared panels. That didn't really work out! When the year ended, I was still awaiting compatible thermostats for several of them. And I had a hole in my wall. This really should be sorted out in the New Year. At least a problem with my solar panel inverter was solved in between the other work.

In the last few weeks of the year I turned 50. I didn't celebrated big; my birth is always in the busiest part of the academic year. But I think that, except for Kate being ill, it was as good a celebration as that time of the year allows. And I'm enjoying being 50 so far! And I hope to have more fun with it when the racing season starts again.

I suppose the last thing that happened this year that will reverberate in the new year was that a new Head of School was appointed.

So altogether, I think it was a good year! Work was not too bad, running was fab, all was well with the cat, and I found Neil. That's good enough to make it a good year. And what about 2026? I hope that it will be similar. I suppose some things that I know will be different are that I will now be doing secretarial work for the running club rather than for the cave rescue team, and at work I will have a new and completely different line manager. We'll see how that all pans out! For now I am optimistic. Anything I should aspire to? I have already revealed my running ambitions. I will try to be a good committee member for the running club. I will do strength training as I am too old for only running. And I really should send in that application for senior fellowship of the HEA this summer. All of that while still having lots of adventures with Neil!

Runner at 50: getting a barbell

I had known it for quite a while. If you want to keep running at your usual level, but you get older, you need to do strength training. Just running isn’t enough anymore! And I know you don’t necessarily need equipment for that, as you can use your body weight, but I figured I preferred working with weights. If you use your body weight, you might have to do very balancy things. You might do your squats one-legged, for instance. But I tend to do my exercises before I've had coffee, and I generally don't feel very balanced then.

I decided that if I wanted to buy weights, I preferred to buy them secondhand. I'm sure there are plenty of people who buy weights and then realise they don't use them. And the only thing that weights do is have a certain weight. I don't think they suffer from much wear and tear. And I thought that the Christmas holiday would be a good time to go in try to do that. I would have time to go somewhere and pick them up. Weights are not something you want to ship…

I found some on Facebook marketplace, and contacted the seller. We sorted out transfer for the next day. It worked out fine. So that very day I could start. I did some light googling to see what exercises are recommended for runners, and with what I found I thought I'd start with a basic set of weighted squats, lunges, and heal lifts. With only 10 kg on the bar to start with. 

That set is now part of my morning routine. I like it! And I intend to build it up a bit. And I think it's a good sign that if I see my barbell in the corner it's a bit like seeing a bar of chocolate. I'm tempted to have a little go, even if I've already had some that day. So I'm optimistic that I will be able to use them in the coming time to maintain my strength. And with that, hopefully my running capacity!

New toy

New running shoes

When we had the last promotion event on the Thursday night, at Crib Goch, I was a bit tempted to buy another pair of running shoes. I didn’t. But one of my road pairs has barely any sole left, and needs to be chucked. I have my Hoka’s, but these could become my Thursday Night Hill shoes (in winter), and then a pair of new shoes could become my race shoes. And one day I had to be in Llanberis anyway, and there is a Crib Goch there (obviously), so I thought that it would be a good opportunity.

What I tend to look for in road shoes is a combination of comfort and durability. The durability really is a thing; I land on the outside of my foot, so the impact is taken by quite a small surface area, and that wears away really quickly. If I buy very snazzy shoes that don't have much sole there, I end up chucking them in no time. I don't want that!

The road shoes they had on offer they had rather thin layers of hard material at the bottom of the sole. I didn't really think they would last long. So I started considering their hybrid shoes. They are basically road running shoes with some extra profile. And extra profile means extra sole. I decided to try one on; they accidentally wear my size. And when a shop assistant became available I tried more of them. And there was a pair of Hoka’s that clearly had the most bounce, and also a fairly good sole. So I decided to go for them. They were even discounted!

These will now become my racing shoes. I have a race mid January in which they can make their debut. I hope they perform well! And if they do, I hope that these shoes will help me break a few PBs this year…

Last hike of 2025

We both had time off, and the weather was nice, so Neil and I went on another hike. We did something that could have been a Thursday Night in summer, except that it was slightly too sensible for that. But we started in Llanberis, popped by Castell Dolbadarn, did the sneaky path to the Llanberis Path, soon came off it again to cross the valley, and headed into Maesgwm. Soon after we left the path we stopped for lunch. And after that we did the ridge with Foel Gron and Moel Eilio. It was a bit nippy but ok! And the ground was quite firm. And it was cloudy, but the views were still great. We met several people I knew from running along the way. That was nice too! And the descent had some iciness but nothing to worry about. And we were back in time to hit the outdoor store. A successful mission!

Castell Dolbadarn

Between Llanberis path and Maesgwm

Cloudy views

Looking towards Yr Wyddfa

Winter selfie

We met a handsome flirtatious cat on the way down