Ceiling update

It’s more work than I thought! But my ceilings are slowly improving. After the very hesitant start of putting some backboards in, several holes have now been filled with a custom-made patch. Once all holes have one, I can start applying filler. I think that will make a huge difference! But I think it’s best to do the first stage first. I try to cut the patches quite precisely to size, which makes it time-consuming. But I expect the final result will be the better for it! 

The three patched holes in the downstairs bedroom 

And one by the front door. I accidentally initially put the glue on the wrong side! I hope filler holds on it…

Faffing with the stove

I hoped I had it sorted! After lots of frustrating gluing back of the fire rope that is supposed to seal the door and keep the fumes in, I bought a fire rope in a different shape and size. I glued it in position and hoped that it would stay put for a while. The original rope seemed a real mismatch! 

The new rope undeniably fit like a glove in the little gully on the inside of the door. But after using it a few times, it became clear it didn’t stick out enough. It wasn’t sealing! 

For the time being, I just swapped the doors of the two stoves around. The other stove had been sparingly used, and its original fire rope might stick for a bit. In the meantime, Neil (who has similar issues) bought some other sizes. Hopefully, one of them would fit! 

The first (and bigger) size was clearly too big. And by the time I found that out, the door with the original rope  started peeling. I had to glue it back to keep it going for a bit. 

Gluing the original rope back

The other door, with the too-thin rope in position, and the too-thick stuff for comparison…

The next step will be to try the smaller size. I hope that will do the job! Otherwise we might have to rip out the door and take it to a shop that sells all sizes to make sure we get it right. These doors are heavy! Or otherwise; just get used to doing a LOT of gluing…

Bridge is tidal again

There has been trouble with the old bridge over the Menai Strait for years now. Recently, it had just been open in both direction for quite a while. There was clearly some work going on; there were vans of a rope access company parked near it all the time, and there were tripods from which people were hoisted up and down on the pavement. I'm not entirely sure what they were doing. But for a while, it only meant that one of the pavements was closed.

Then one day I was biking home and I noticed that the whole bridge was closed in the direction I was travelling. We had gone tidal again! In the morning, you are only allowed to drive from the island to the mainland, and in the afternoon, you can only drive the other way. So all the traffic in one of the directions has to go over the new bridge (which is an entire 16 years younger than the old one), and that causes traffic jams. This had happened before. It didn't affect me very much; I can go over the pavement with my bike. But it can be a right nuisance for car travel. 

When Dei and I tried to get back from Anglesey to main campus after our trip to Parys Mountain, It took a lot longer than normal, as we were travelling in the wrong direction at the wrong time. 

I hope it doesn't stay like this for a long time! Even though I can travel in any direction by becoming a pedestrian, it does add to your travel time if you have to walk over the bridge. And if there is no one else on the bridge I will just bike, but if there are pedestrians I do get off my bike. I don't think I'll soon have a reason to drive to work, but if I do, I am obviously going in the wrong direction. That would be annoying! But I suppose a 200-year-old bridge needs some maintenance once in a while. This is a lot better than it falling into ruin…

Being inventive with sealant

I made some progress on the ceilings. I put two more backboards in. And the next step is to glue the repair patches into position. And that, obviously, requires an adhesive.

I had been wondering if I should buy something. But I've bought things like that before. I knew I had several tubes in stock; some of them already partially used up. So I decided I should just try to use them again. But it had been a while since I had used them. Would they have dried out by now? And they are tubes; the adhesive comes out of the nozzle, but the nozzle, of course, gets clogged up quite quickly after use.

I first looked at the material I had used for repairing my render. The nozzle was surely clogged up, but there was a complication: this nozzle didn't look removable. And you can always cut it off, but that is a bit drastic. I had a look at the other tube of which I wasn't quite sure what I had used it for; maybe making the conservatory waterproof? Or for (re-)sticking antislip to my garden stairs? 

That nozzle was also clogged up. I took it off, and pushed something through the bung underneath it. There was clearly some material underneath it that wasn't dried out yet. But I didn't see a way of pushing it out. And then I decided to just cut off the entire top. It was either taking drastic measures or having to throw all of it away! And I got rid of the bung. 

I used a little spatula to get to the usable material. I think it worked! I'm glad I could save this compromise tube of sealant. I had nothing to lose! I always like salvaging things through slightly unorthodox methods. And so far it looks like it worked.. 

Only half a Parys field trip

Parys Mountain is a bit of an inhospitable place! It is very exposed. And if you have a habit of going there on a field trip in February, you might hit some atrocious weather. Last year I ended my blog post about the trip like this: 'It was a bit touch and go (because of the weather) this year, but I think we pulled it off! Let's hope that our next trip will have nicer weather…'

Well! I suppose the title of this blog post already provides a bit of a hint how things when this year. I think I meant the next trip in the series when I wrote that, but I allow myself to relate it to this year’s version of that same trip. The forecast had already revealed that the weather wasn't going to be great! We decided to play it by ear.

We drove up, parked up, and went to the viewing point, where we always start. It was foggy, but the fog wasn't very dense, and we could still see the pit for the most part. And it wasn't very cold, and even the wind wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We were fine! And when you descend into the pit you are a bit sheltered from the wind. And we only had a little bit of rain. I got through talking about the geology without issues.

By that time it was lunchtime. We decided to go back to our minibus, and have lunch inside it. And we kept an eye on the rain radar.

When we all had more or less eaten our lunches, the rain was hammering on the windscreen. And it looked like it would still rain for another hour! Should we go back? The rest of the trip is only in industrial archaeology, basically. Not really anything we really need to teach the students. This is just bonus!

We asked the students what they preferred. They didn't have to think about that for very long. Go back to campus! And so we did. It was a bit of a pity to miss out on the amazing industrial remains, but I have seen them many times before, and the students were clearly not too bothered. So I would still put this down as a successful trip!

Teaching ramps up: climate module

In the second semester, my teaching tends to start quite subtly. The dissertation module starts straight away, with me being involved in all of it, and the first year tutorial module does its normal thing. The field trip module has three trips, but I don't normally do all three. And there is a module between the first year tutorial model and the dissertation module, but the module organiser kicks that off, and the tutorials start a little bit later.

Then I have my own module, but the teaching on it is actually started by Katrien and Jaco, and I'm only the third to take the stage. And then there is the climate module, but I am doing palaeoclimate, so it makes sense to first have the physicists teach the students about how climate works, and then I come in and place all of that on a long timescale. 

I am still teaching frantically on my own module, but this is the time that the climate module kicks off as well. And I must admit I have been struggling with it a bit for the last few years. It is taught to 3rd and 4th year students, and it is about climate. I think discussion is an important part of it. But for years I have been struggling to get the students to engage. If you have them in the room, you can ask them questions, but the risk is that the only thing they do is desperately trying to avoid eye contact. And if you ask them to contribute, by preparing something and reporting back, they generally don't. It's been a bit like pulling teeth!

I'm not giving up. This year might be the one in which I get some lively discussion going. If students of that level, doing marine science, and a particular degree that involves climate science, are not able to stand up and have their voice heard about climate, then who is? This is one of the great challenges of our time, and it needs a societal discussion. I do think it is my duty try to get the students into this. Our little classroom is a safe space where you can get a bit of practice without the risk of being torn down by the public. Or bots. Wish me luck!

NWRAC meeting

When you accept a position in a steering committee, it tends to come with some unexpected tasks. Being the newfangled secretary of the Eryri Harriers, I was busy sending emails to all sorts of people, taking minutes of the one in person meeting I had attended, and the one online one that I didn't mention on the blog. But then there was an invitation to a Welsh Athletics meeting. To be more precise; it was an online meeting of the north Wales Regional Athletics Council (NWRAC). It seemed I might not be fully needed there; the club should be represented, but Arwel often went. However; I was curious, and I also didn't mind having to skip a Thursday training. For some reason, I had come back from the track training that week absolutely exhausted, and I was still knackered the day after. And I also knew that the morning after the meeting (or alternatively, the hill training) I would have to go into the field with the students; that is quite knackering, and I would have to top that off with a lecture from 5 to 6 pm. That is not something you want to do if you are exhausted to start with. So this week I preferred a 7 to 8 online meeting to  running the rainy hills until 8pm! 

I recognised several of the faces on the screen. Two of them seem deeply involved in race organisation, and Welsh Athletics championships, so you see them a lot at starts and finishes and when WA hands out medals. They were doing both at the Twin Piers race. Kevin, one of the two track trainers, and also a prolific race organiser, was there, and our own Arwel. And then some people I didn’t recognise. 

The meeting’s highlight was a presentation by a lady of WA who spoke of all that’s going on in their corner. One thing she mentioned was the Track and Field rater.  everyone who uses an athletics track was invited to provide feedback on it. 

Aside from that, the meeting was mainly dealing with ongoing issues in the local athletics scene. Had all clubs paid their contributions to this, that, and the other? Were new competition rules fair? Had prize winners received their awards? Were all volunteer positions filled? 

It only overran for some 10 minutes. It was nice to get a look behind the scenes! I don’t know if I will be back next time; I’m sure Arwel can manage without me. But if he is not available, and I am, I should be there. And it is interesting to get to look under the bonnet! 

Cyrdle: goal achieved

I started Cyrdle a while ago. It was just a nice challenge and good for my Welsh. Initially it was quite a challenge, but practice makes perfect, so it got easier. and I found myself having a 98% success rate after some 200 attempts. 

Then Goodhart’s law kicked in. I wondered if I could get that number to 99%. I had had a good streak of correct answers! And if I had 98% at 200, I would manage it if I would not fail once in the next 200 attempts. And getting one was not much of a challenge, but doing it 200 times in a row still was. Was this still good for my Welsh? Or was I just chasing a metric? The latter, to be honest. But I figured it was an innocent case of chasing the measurements rather than the actual gain. 

It started fine. I often didn’t need all allowed attempts to get them! And I started to notice repetitions. So the average challenge faded a bit. But there still was the occasional adrenaline situation that I did only get the word in the last attempt. 

And then the 400th attempt came up. It wasn’t very difficult! And I got it in three goes. The answer was ‘arogl’; odour. And that had indeed brought my score to 99%! 

I will now stop. I have my metric, and I have experienced diminishing returns. But I’m glad I managed this! Nerd points duly scored…

Nick Beer 2026

I like the Nick Beer 10k! 80% of the route is going around the Orme, which is beautiful. And I got a category win last time. I won’t deny it; I like winning things. So when you could register for the 2026 edition I did.

In autumn, I ran the Conwy Half Marathon with Neil’s niece. She really wanted him to register for that race in the new year. He was hesitant. He had never run a race! And half marathons can be a bit daunting. So I suggested he try the Nick Beer. It's half the distance, and you cut out the dull bit through Deganwy. He agreed, and registered.

Now did the day approach we would for the first time run a race together! We would go together from his place. We could just walk from his house to the start; that was only 15 minutes. No parking stress!

We got our race numbers, went one last time to the loo, dropped our bags at the bag drop, and were ready to go. I lined up near the 45 minute pacer. I didn't know they would have pacers; this one was no one other than Tinka, very fast Dutch lady who had won it last year. Neil lined up a lot further towards the back. He aimed to do it within the hour.

I knew doing it in 45 minutes would give me a good chance of getting a category win. I didn't know if I could do it; after all, I was only six days after a blood donation. I also knew I wanted to beat Richie. I had done the previous time, but there was no reason why I should not try to do it again! After all; before that, he had beaten me twice in a row.

When I was lining up at the start I was beckoned by Harrier Tony, who wasn't running himself as he had a cold. He wanted to do a club picture. I couldn't really hear what he said because of the loudspeakers, but he gestured in some direction. I headed there and couldn't find him. I had gone to the wrong place! And even though in total there were some 20 Eryri Harriers running, he had to make do with one picture of two Harriers at the correct location, and then another picture with me and Dylan (who I had accidentally found) in the wrong location. Oh well! 

Attempt at club picture, with Dylan

I went back to the start and found myself between Richie, who said he was also aiming for 45 minutes, and Olivia, who had kept me off the podium at the Snowdonia Trail 10k in summer. That had been the race we had been kept waiting for hours; I spent most of that time talking with her, or dancing with (among others) her. I knew she would run away from us quite soon! But it was really lovely to see her.

When we started I saw not only Olivia, but also Richie run away from me. But I kept the possibility open that he had started too quickly. I might catch up with him later on!

It didn't take me long to also lose Tinka. Oh well! Going too fast in the beginning never benefited anyone. I trundled on. She didn't get too far away from me; at least not initially. And around the 3 km marker I overtook Richie. A good sign, but it ain't over until it's over. And I made my way to the highest point by the café. And there I expected to speed up.

The wind had other plans. The forecast has been southerly winds, rounding the tip of the Orme gets you in their zone of influence. And boy did the wind make itself known! I don't think anyone was speeding up. Everyone was battling against the wind. But after a while, the route goes down, and then the wind doesn't matter much anymore. I was unusually comfortable on the downhill. But even so, I did see Tinka increase the distance between us.

At the bottom of the hill I mainly just consolidate my position. I didn't see any women near me that looked 50+ so whatever position I was in with respect to the other people in my category, this was probably going to be it. And Richie wasn’t in sight. 

Some 1.5k to go

There was a young woman near me, and when we together came past the 9 km marker, where there was an actual chicken among the supporters, a spectator shouted at us that they thought we were 7th and 8th woman. Another spectator nearby thought we were 5th and 6th. We didn't know which one of them (or either) was right, but I at least had faith we were in the top 10. That was pretty good!

The young lady ran away from me and I didn't have a problem with that. I just tried to keep going at my place to finish. I could see I was finishing a few seconds after 46 minutes; fine with me! Slower than last year (45:22) but I was happy with it. I needed a breather now. And after the finish I saw Olivia and Tinka. Olivia had come second!

Finish! 

I tried to look on my phone where Neil was; we were sharing location. I didn't have signal! I went to the finish to see if I could spot him, and then I suddenly had signal. He was still some distance away, so I went to get my bag. I was keen to put on a warm jumper. Then I went back to the finish, where I didn't have signal again. I just kept my eye out! And then I saw him.

He looked a bit tired, but he smiled when I shouted my encouragements at him. And when he had come past I went looking for him behind the finish. Location sharing was useless there, but I found him. He was satisfied with his performance! Well within the hour. I was glad. I had been wondering if maybe I had inadvertently pressured him into registering for something he wasn't keen on. But I think he didn't regret it. 

We headed for the George hotel where prize ceremony would be held. And somewhere along the way I had enough signal to check if I was going to get one. I was! I had my category win. With a time of 46:06; almost 3 minutes faster than the next one up. And faster than the 40+ and 45+ winners. And I was 8th woman. This year had just been slower than last year, probably because of the wind. And the ceremony would start quite soon.

In there, Olivia found me, and we discussed how it has gone. And then the ceremony started. I took pictures of her, and Neil took pictures of me, and everyone was happy. The bloke who had won in the 60+ category was called Nick Beare! Everyone enjoyed that. And the bloke who had won in the 65+ category was none other than Eryri Harrier Dylan. We category winners got one of those runner packs with sports drink tablets and gels and a water bottle and suchlike. I had won one before. 

Top 3 ladies

The 50-55 category winners

When that was done we went back to Neil's place. We were both hungry by now! And I was glad we were both happy with our results. I'm not sure if he’ll ever race again but he might! The Conwy Half though? He sounded highly unsure of that. But who knows. And I was high on two category wins in the two (non-Borders League) races of the year so far. I hope to get more! 

More cat developments

Cats like sharpening their claws, and mine is no exception. She has a scratch post in the downstairs bedroom, which I have already had to refurbish several times. And in the living room, I just wrapped rope around the banister of the stairs: instant scratch post! She really likes both. And I had never refurbished the one in the living room (quite unlike the other one). But I decided it was time.

Before

It's actually made up of two bits of rope; the lower and initial one, which is sisal as I know it, and the upper one, which is a later addition, which I think is jute. I tried to have both the same, but the shop just didn't have sisal in stock. 

It is almost exclusively the lower rope she uses. So when that was pretty much worn through, I decided I might just as well move the other one down. So I did.

After

I hope she likes this rope as much as she did the other one. She has already used it! And it might be a bit more hard-wearing. If she doesn't like it, I might have to just find an alternative use for this rope, and get some sisal when I can get it. Time will tell! 

Race confusion

The Borders League fixture after Pensby would be in Wrexham, on March 1st. But then it wouldn’t. Wrexham council was going to be difficult and maybe the race would be cancelled. And then it was sure it would be cancelled. And then it was actually on; just not in Wrexham. It got moved to Birkenhead. 

In the meantime, I had noticed the Anglesey 10k/ half marathon were on that day too. That was tempting! I hadn’t run it in a while, but there was a new route. Maybe give it a go? 

And when I was already registered for both other races I suddenly saw the Sbrint ‘Stiniog race announced. On the same day! I had really enjoyed that race the year before. But this date was getting crowded now…

What am I going to do? Well, I think Sbrint ‘Stiniog is out. It's a great race, but I have my club allegiance to drag me to the Borders League, and the fact that I've paid full price to drag me to Anglesey. We'll see which of these two forces is stronger! One thing I know; if the Eryri Harriers would not be willing to car share too Birkenhead, I am not going. Then it will be Anglesey! I am not going to drive for three hours on my own for a 35 minutes race, and not make the tiniest difference to the club ranking anyway! The club ladies have never fielded enough athletes this entire season, so we absolutely have penalty points coming out of our ears. It is already not recoverable anymore. But if they would be willing to share transport then I'm not sure… time will tell! 

Cat quirks

Three years ago, I bought my cat a heated mat. My house isn't kept at a particularly high temperature, and cats like their comforts. So if she would just have her own mat, she could always be nice and snug and warm. And she liked it! The instructions say cats shouldn’t lie directly on top, so I keep a towel on top of it.

Of course there are times when she boycotts it. She is a cat, after all. But that never lasts long.

Then came the fateful day that the electrician drilled into the water pipe. When water started gushing out of the wall, he quickly looked around, saw the towel, and asked if we could use that. I figured we could. I have more towels. Surely it’s the heat that is crucial, not the towel. 

When the electrician was gone I put a different towel on her mat. But she didn't want it lie on it now. Oh dear! Cats can be so particular about things.

After I'd washed the original towel, I put it back. Maybe this would placate her? A towel that at least looked (actually was) the same as the original one, be it that undoubtedly, it now smelled differently? But she still wasn't having any of it.

The pipe incident was in December. It is now mid-February. And she has now finally accepted the towel! I am glad. Cats… 

More running after blood donation

Since I became a proper running nerd, I have been very conscious of the effects of blood donation. For two weeks afterwards, I just can’t get up hills. I still go, though; blood donations save lives and running up hills tends not to. 

This February I had a Monday morning session booked. I came in, did the questionnaire and all that, and soon was called into the booth where they check your iron levels. They start with a finger prick. When the lady measured my iron level she said it was a bit low. There were two things they could do now: one was to send me home, and the other one was to take some blood from my arm to do a more precise measurement. Maybe I was still above the threshold!

I won't lie; part of me hoped I would just be below it. Then I could keep all my blood. And that would definitely yield a better result in the upcoming race! But as I said; blood donations save lives. Running races does not. So they took blood from my arm, and lo and behold, I was just above the threshold. They could take a donation.

In a way, that was quite a bad outcome. If they are going to take blood anyway, it's better if your initial iron levels are very high. I figured I would be extra lethargic after losing half a litre from such a weak  starting point. But let's have it!

When they stuck the needle into my arm, the blood wasn't flowing as it normally is. I tend to be done in five minutes. This time they struggled to get a full donation out of me in 15 minutes. But they just made it.

The next day was track training. I told the people in my group I was going to be a bit slower than the previous week, for reasons of the blood donation. The week before I had gone for 4:20 per km; now I would aim for 4:25. For people who don't do track running; this seems so trivial, but believe me: there is a noticeable difference. People were okay with that. Many of them! When I started pacing on the track I tended to have four or five people behind me. This time I had line behind me that was at least 100 m long. Crazy!

The track session actually went perfectly fine. That was nice. But of course there are no hills on the track. The proof of the pudding would be the Thursday Night Hill session.

When I have donated blood I make sure to not run first part of the route, which is in a way a warming up, on the flat. I headed straight for the hill. This is an accepted practice; that first leg is never done by everybody. And when I got to the top of the first hill, I started making my way down before the main group did. And then from the second hill, I just did what everybody else did. And it went fine! Strava said afterwards that I had even done two of the sections unusually fast. These were not the big hills, though. But it was a good sign nonetheless!

At the top of the first hill

I don't know how this all works. How can I be so unaffected by a blood donation if my initial iron levels were so rubbish? I have no idea! But I'm not complaining. I might not even do too badly in the upcoming race, less than a week after donation!

Lots of academic integrity meetings

Well! As I write this I have done the last meeting about academic integrity with students in my diary. I had 16 of them this calendar year so far. That’s a lot! And I’m sure it’s not over yet; people are still marking, so new cases may still come in. But at least I have now dealt with everything that has been raised with me so far. 

It’s a bit bleak; only one student was totally exonerated. Two got a warning. Two got a penalty of <100%. And the rest all got 0% for the assignment in question. And this means I only penalised about 2% of undergraduates, but still. A lot more than I hoped! And of these 13 penalties, 11 were for inappropriate use of AI. And I don’t know, of course, how many I don't catch. This is quite a big thing! 

I have also done the second sitting of the University panel. They even asked me to chair. Why not! We have clear guidelines you can follow. And they've already asked me about my availability for March. I think it is fair to say the University also has quite a lot of work with this academic integrity business, and so far it looks like quite a lot of that is also associated with AI…

Goodbye John

It's February; we have a new Head of School. John has handed over to Stuart. And given that he has been in the school since the eighties, and had been HoS for six years, there was a goodbye do. I didn’t expect much, but I trusted he would get a present (there had been a collection) and would say some words. And I gathered some collaborators would say something too. 

Was I sad or keen to see him go? Well, a bit of both. He was the man who tried to make me redundant. But he was also the man who (after initial discouragement) supported my promotion to Senior Lecturer. He was in the EDI committee, but there his role seems to mostly have been to push back. He saw no point, for instance, in the students being allowed the option of giving their pronouns on their University profile. So a bit of a mixed bag! 

We piled into the room. There were some faces from the past there! Several people who had retired before him had come back for the occasion. Several of these were actually former heads of school.

There was tea and coffee and lots of cake, and it all started with a bit of mingling. John, who normally is wearing a smart jacket, was this time in a fleece. He has already adjusted to the change in circumstance! He just mingled in my direction when some colleagues were going to have a little presentation. John said he was nervous. The first page of the presentation just had his official profile picture on. Nothing embarrassing about that! But he said he was nervous about but would come after that. I doubted anyone would have any compromising pictures of such a straight-laced man. But maybe I was wrong!

I was wrong. It started with quite old pictures of a rather casually dressed John, still with his dark hair, when they were discussing his early career. Not that there is anything wrong with having our car and being casually dressed. This was just a side of most of us didn't know. Sometimes the speakers interrupted their presentation to read the message of old colleagues of John’s from that time. 

The pictures got wilder than I thought. There was one that even had to be censored! This clearly featured John straight out of the shower on fieldwork with a towel only covering his front. One would hope that this day and age, people wouldn't take such pictures anymore. But this looked like the 80s and things were different then.

We got some insight into John’s diving habits as well. By training, he is an anemone and tropical coral specialist, and his research involves of a lot of diving. He is also very prone to sea sickness, and under the illusion that you can communicate with other divers underwater by talking.

Ronan presenting slides

I thought it was a good balance of paying tribute and taking a little bit of the base. And then the tables turned. Now it was John’s turn. 

John focussed on his successor. He conjured up a big cardboard box that said Head of School survival kit, and he started to unpack it. He warned Stuart you need quite a lot of attributes to be a successful Head of school. He started with his sartorial choices; he said you really need to look smart as a HoS. Stuart got a crisp shirt, a Bangor University-branded tie, and a tweed jacket. He also gave him a pan and brush; a HoS needs a tidy office. And pompous books in the book cupboard. And a big notebook. And thick skin. And more. It was actually very well done! And Stuart was a good sport. 

John also got presents: among other things, a bottle of Pimm’s in a personalised box, and framed images of his allegedly favourite invertebrates from his various study sites (which he had to identify at species level). He was chuffed.

The man who had actually hired John back in the eighties had the last word. And then bottles of bubbly (both with and without alcohol) were opened. 

Five Heads of School in one picture! 

I left quite soon; I had Welsh class to attend. But a fair number of people went to the pub. One assumes John’s wife was driving back! I think he had a good goodbye. And I am curious to see how the first all-staff meeting chaired by Stuart will be…

Starting on ceiling repair

When the workmen started to put in the second round of panels in August, they had to put the wires somewhere. The logical place is in the ceiling, but that means having to get into it. This involves a lot of making holes in the plasterboard. Some small ones, where they just made a hole and left it; or big ones, where they basically cut a part of the ceiling into bits, and sort of stuck them back in more or less the same position when they were done. Both is not very pretty, and needs to be sorted.

Now that they are done it is up to me to sort out the damage. I have never really dealt with this before! I started out with a little instruction video on YouTube. The obvious place to start! And it spoke of backboards and joint tape and all sorts of things. I was learning.

I have now tentatively started. I ordered some repair patches. Plasterboard normally comes in enormous sheets, but of course there are people who take leftovers and sell them on eBay. Suits me fine.

I just started by tracing the outlines of the holes on paper, so I would be able to transpose that onto the plasterboard, and cut out (sub-)patches of the right shape and size. I also started to think about the backboards. The idea is that if you have a hole in your plasterboard, you make sure that you fix something above the hole, and you stick the repair patch to that. That's the backboard. That might be substantial if the hole is big. With small holes you might not need it; maybe the filler you need for putting it in place will just hold it in position.

I didn’t take chances. I screwed some small pieces of wood into the first small holes, and cut a beam to size for a big hole. I didn’t have screws long enough to put it there, though. I will need to buy these. 

I didn’t get very far. But there is a start! That is always the hardest part. It will take a while, but I have faith I will get there. I don’t know how seamless (or otherwise) it will look in the end, but I’m sure I’ll manage to improve it from what it is now! 

Preparatory artwork

Two small holes in the bedroom

Mini backboards fitted

A big hole that needs a big backboard

Adjusting to my 50+ hair

As hair maintenance I tie bits of string around the base of my dreadlocks. It keeps them together, and it makes new hairs join a dreadlock. You don’t want them to grow freely in between! And the idea is that your maintenance is so good to that when you put a new bit of string in, you take the previous one out. But sometimes I'm a bit late, and I choose to keep the old one in. My hair is not naturally inclined to be configured into dreadlocks, so if I have left it a bit long I might have a little interval of normal hair between the bits of string. Quite a lot of my dreads have more than one bit of string in.

I have traditionally used black thread. Not that my hair is black, but it’s dark enough to make the thread blend into the background. But that is changing.

On New Year's Day, Dean pointed out that I should probably be moving to grey. I figured he had a point. My hair is grey! So the next time I went to buy strong thread, I indeed went for that colour.

I first used up all the black I still had. But then I made the switch. It indeed blends in! And hopefully, one day I will move to white thread. But that is still quite some time away!

Symbols of time moving on

I suppose you can’t see the difference in this pic! But the lowest piece of string is grey…

Holyhead mountain and breakwater

Sometimes scampering off to Anglesey can keep you out of the rain. And there was quite some rain forecast further inland. So Neil and I decided to go to Holy Island. We first had a look at the brickworks, which have been turned into a sort of educational garden. Then we did a walk over the flanks of Holyhead Mountain, to North Stack. And then we walked the breakwater; I had only been on it once, during a race. It was nice to take some time to enjoy it. And we stayed largely dry! Success… 

The brickworks 

Artefacts

Glassless sash window

From the old railroad that took the building materials to the breakwater

View from North Stack to South Stack

View back to land from the far end of the breakwater 

5 year cat anniversary

It’s been five years! Five years since an unsuspecting little cat was carried into my house. She wasn’t even one year old. And now we’ve been together for five entire years. She’s such a fixture of my life. She welcomes me when I get home. She sleeps by my side. We often start the day with some play with the fishing rod toy. The best relaxation is when she is relaxing nearby. I’m sure she has changed in that time. She is not a youngster anymore! But I don’t really see it. She is still sweet but on her own terms, she is still a skilled killer but easily startled, she is still keen to greet everyone at the door but hates tradespeople, never thinks I feed her enough but never tries to steal food. She’s the best cat there is. Someone who I miss and worry about when I travel, but without whom I really don’t want to live if I have that choice! 

End of a utensil

Flasks are important! If you are away from taps and kettles you can still have a hot beverage when you have a flask. Vitally important when hiking and camping. Very important underground. Quite handy in home and office. 

I had some in the Netherlands: first a green one and a silver one. Then the silver one ended up elsewhere and I replaced it with a black one. They came with me on all sorts of hikes. 

Then I moved to Norway. The flasks came with me. Now they served me on kayaking trips and ski tours. Then my life took me to Britain. The flasks had to get used to underground trips. They ended up a bit battered. 

Recently I poured me a cup from the green flask. Something floated in the cup. A piece of plastic! Where did that come from? It turned out to be the bottom of the flask top. The plastic had gone too old and had become brittle, and had now crumbled. You looked straight at the styrofoam providing the insulation. 

I checked if I had another intact top that fit, but I didn’t. I wasn’t happy using it on the road with that top anymore. I’ll have to buy another one. 

It’s just an object! A piece of kit. But it has made do, so many of my adventures comfortable. I figured it deserved a little obituary on my blog! Thank you, green flask. You really deserve retirement now. 

The damaged top

The battered base

In the University Academic Integrity panel

I’ve been the Academic Integrity Officer for the School now for several years. Most cases we can sort within the School. Some cases, however, have to go one level up: especially repeat cases, or cases in particularly heavy-weighing modules, like entire MSc theses. The university then calls together an ad hoc panel to adjudicate on these matters. The people in these panels are drawn from the pool of Directors of Teaching and Learning and Academic Integrity officers of the various Schools. So it was a question of time before I would get the call. 

I got the call now. We were a panel with Peredur the Linguist chairing, a lady from the International Student Office (maybe because the case involved an international student), an observer from Quality Assurance, a representative of the Student Union (there is always one there, unless the student under investigation specified they don’t need one), a University secretary, and me. 

The procedure is that there is an open and a closed session, both on Teams. We start closed; that’s only with the panel, and not the student (defendant) or the AI officer of their School (prosecutor). We established everyone knew what’s going on, and we talked through what questions we wanted to ask. Then we went into the open session. 

This open session was unusual; the student had chosen not to attend, so we couldn’t ask them questions. We could ask the person bringing the case. It wasn’t a long session. 

We then went back to the closed session. And then we decided under what definition we decided this case fell, and what penalty (if any) we had to therefore apply. 

From there on, the secretary would take over. It was her task to communicate the outcome to all relevant parties. 

This was my debut! And only three working days later I would have the second already. You’re never bored if you work with academic integrity! 

Borders League Pensby

It was time for another Borders League race! This one organised by the Pensby running club. That meant going to the far end of the Wirral. That's quite far! I was really hoping someone would be willing to car share with me. I find driving 1.5 hours in order to run for 35 minutes, and then driving back another 1.5 hours, a bit frustrating; especially when I am highly inefficiently only transporting one person in my car, and on the other hand, not getting the advantages of good company. Unfortunately; I was not in luck. They weren't that many of us going, and it is not unusual for people to tag on some additional activity at the end before they go home.

The good news was that I got there without problems, that it was dry when I got there, and that I found a tiny little parking space for my modestly sized car. The bad news was that my legs felt a bit wobbly when I got out of the car. I wondered if that had something to do with my fatigue the day before. But I was going to be ok!

I soon I bumped into other Harriers. Most of them were men! I figured we, as the ladies, were probably going to incur a lot of penalty points for not fielding enough athletes. But so be it.

I did a little warmup run scouted start was. It seemed to have been in a different location from the previous time. And then it was time for the race briefing, and lining up for the start. I was on my new running shoes for the first time. So far they felt good.

I wanted to take it quite easy in the beginning. I clearly wasn't at my best. And I wasn't chasing anything like a category win or something like that; firstly, they don't exist in the Borders League, and secondly, if they did; I wouldn't stand a chance. The field is so strong! And also; we only had three ladies running. That meant 600 penalty points! That basically meant that how fast we would be going to make any difference whatsoever.

We first ran land-inwards, and then turned right onto the main road that had got me there. I had seen it from the car. We weren't on the actual road; we had to run on the cycle path annex pavement on the side. That was basically only one runner wide. And next to it was grass. So if you wanted to overtake anyone, you had to get onto the grass. And I was in hybrid shoes! A lot more grip on muddy grass than proper road shoes. So I did a fair bit of overtaking.

After a while, we turned right again, to head back in the direction of what undoubtedly was an old railway line. That road was in a bad state. I had already seen that on Google Maps. I was being careful! I saw a bloke misstep a bit in one of the potholes, and hurt himself. He did decide to continue, but his face looked pained. I did not want to share his fate.

Then we came off that road, and hit what was the home stretch. I tried to keep my speed up and overtake people. And I was keeping an eye on my watch. To the best of my knowledge, this route was exactly 8 km. I need to last to the end! But then suddenly the finish was there. The route was 150 m shorter than I thought. Not a problem! I suppose I could have had a go at overtaking one more woman if I would have known. But as I said before; it didn't matter.

After I finished I went to get my jumper from one of the Harriers support team, and went to cheer on remaining club members. I was just on time to shout Arwel over the finish. And I shouted at everyone else as well while I was at it. And then it was time for a picture. And then we could go home. Another long drive!

When the results came in I saw I had done it in just under 35 minutes. That's not very fast, but I think this was just not a very fast day for me. The one thing that struck me was that I was only 30 seconds slower than Anna, our star runner. By now she was quite obviously pregnant, and it must be slowing her down! There was only one woman between her and me, and I would've had a chance of outsprinting her. Crikey we were almost consecutive. And I had come in as 29th woman overall; I was happy with that. 

Im not sure what the situation is regarding the next fixture! But first things first: the next race will be Nick Beer. Just after a blood donation! That will be hard…

Club pic

Almost at the finish

Even closer

Leisurely walk to Deganwy Castle

It had been a tiring week. On Monday I had a bit of an intense night with Neil, and on Tuesday I was on the track, in rather awful weather. That makes the track running a bit trying, and the biking home as well. Then on Wednesday we had the underground trip, and on Thursday I was back on the hills. And, of course, I work too. By Friday I was really glad I didn't have anything on in the evening. And then on Saturday I went to Neil. 

We had decided we were going to do something not awfully strenuous, hadn't made up our mind on what exactly. But on the day we decided we were going to walk to Deganwy Castle. I was aware of its existence, and I also know there wasn't an awful load left of it. But that was about all I knew!

We descended the Orme, and walked to Deganwy over the beach. That was very scenic. And we had lunch in a structure that was probably designed exactly for that: it was basically a highly decorative bus stop where there was no bus route. Just benches and a roof. But this is greater Llandudno, so there were pillars. 

On the beach

We crossed through Deganwy and ascended a hill. Immediately, it was very peaceful! And soon we so the first remnants of a stone wall. The castle!

Reaching the remnants of the castle 

View from the castle over the estuary 

The ruins span two hillocks

I read up about it a bit afterwards. On this site, there definitely had been Roman activity, but it is quite possible the strategic location of this volcanic plug had been used by people before that time. There had been an actual castle there from the 7th century. In the 13th century, it had been seriously rebuilt, and later equally seriously destroyed.  And that is why there is so little of it left now. It was actually the Welsh who destroyed it; they didn't want to fall into the hands of the English.

After that we just walked back home. I thought it was enough for the day. When we sat on the sofa for a bit later on, I dozed off on Neil’s shoulder. It is highly unusual for me to sleep during the day! If I do there is something wrong. I am either ill or really exhausted. That week had taken it out of me more than I had even realised. But I had still managed to see remnants of a mediaeval castle I have never seen before!

Update frustrates show runners

I wanted to have a look at how the Thursday Night Hill run had gone. It didn't appear on my Strava. Or even the Garmin app itself. What was that? And then I noticed a notification on my Garmin app. There had been an update, and I might have lost the connection between my watch and my phone in that update. What? That is a bit of a blunder. How can Garmin accidentally disconnect all the Garmin watches from the Garmin app? Don't they know that people with Garmins love looking at the stats? Don't they know that people with Strava love broadcasting what they have been doing? I'm sure they know it. I'm sure there has been a lot of facepalming going on at their headquarters. 

Since I stopped my project Strava, where I put a picture on every activity, I haven't been looking at it as much. I don't look at my commute. I tend not to look too closely at the Thursday Night Hill. But one thing I always look at is the Track Tuesday. I record the laps,  and of course you have an idea of how consistent you are while you're on the track, but I always like having a bit of an overview at the end of it. But now I couldn’t. 

If I'm doing a race, I am highly likely to look at how it went. How did my speed develop throughout the course? And all of that was now lost. Oh no! I tried to reconnect phone and watch just like that, but that didn't work. I really had to take a few minutes by my computer, and do it properly. The notification on the app please provided a link to instructions of how to undo this screw-up. You had to really go far in and properly, properly disconnect them, Bluetooth and all, and then start from scratch. And I admit I am such a technology runner I thought that was important to do.

Two days later I would have a race. It would have been really annoying if I would not have been able to look at that in some app of  sorts! But I'm sorted again…