Another car update

I have a new plan. I am going to look a bit further away to find a used EV. If you restrict yourself to North Wales, you will only find the odd electrical card, and then you might run into the trouble I ran into. Car dealers that know nothing about electrical cars, and not able to tell you anything useful about them, and can't fault any problems associated with them. So I will head for England.

I came across Fords of Winsford; they are a huge second-hand dealer, and they have more than 2000 cars, hundreds of them electric. And no, they don't only do Fords. They routinely have a battery report prepared for the electric cars they sell. They routinely make sure that there is an MOT that is valid for at least three months on any car they sell.

Before storm hits, I will go there with Neil. My plan is that we can prepare it; have a clear idea of which cars we might be interested in, sort out a test drive, then make a decision there and then. If you put a deposit down they won't sell it to anybody else, and then you can just go home and sort out the paperwork. And you can have it delivered. That might be well worth it; otherwise I either have to get them by public transport, which sounds a faff, or go together with Neil, and that is wasting not just my time but also his. But I will check; public transport is, of course, the most sustainable option. 

I hope this plan will work out! Stay tuned! 

 

 

Glyderau hike

Some two months ago, Neil and I did a substantial hike, which was preparation for his Welsh 3000s hike in September. I don't seem to have mentioned anything like that since, but that doesn't mean he has stopped training; it only means that I have not joined him. He does a long hike almost every week. And I can go with him, but I don't want to do a long hike like that the day before a race, and I have had a bunch of Sunday races. Now I had one weekend with no race in between two that feature one, so I suggested I go with him. He was up for that.

We didn't have a particularly strong plan; the night before he thought we might climb Pen yr Ole Wen and then head east from there. And he was reluctant to be reliant on the bus, so his idea was to drive. When we had done our little anniversary hike and swim, we hadn't really pushed an early start, but there was plenty of parking. He hoped this time it would be the same.

It was not the same. That had been a Wednesday, and now we were going on a Sunday. In the middle of the school holidays. In the whole of the Ogwen Valley, there wasn't a parking space to be had. We had to come up with Plan B. And that was: drive to Nant Peris, where there is a big P&R, and from there go up Elidir Fawr, and then go east. We weren't quite sure how far.

It was warm on the ascent. Halfway up the slope we paused for a bit because I wanted to take a layer off, and figured it was a good idea to have some coffee as well. Shortly afterwards it actually started raining. It was only a brief shower, but it was a rare occurrence this summer, and it cooled us off. And when we got to the top we had another break. 

View from the first break

From there we had a rather smooth, but quite cool, walk to the bottom of y Garn. There as well we had a little break. And we decided to bypass Llyn y Cwn, and go up to Glyder Fawr. From there we could either descend straight away, or continue past Glyder Fach, and then down over the Miners' path. And then we could get a bus back to the car. 

Where the terrain gets smooth

The descent to Llyn a Cŵn was a doddle, and the ascent to Glyder Fawr is always a bit of a struggle, but at least not as bad as descending it. And you get rewarded by the crazy landscape at the top. The Glyderau are something else!

Glyderau views

Summit selfie

We had some more food there, and decided to go down the long way. So that meant continuing for a bit in the surreal Glyderau landscape. Always nice! And then we took the miners’ track back to the road. I think I have done that once, in the opposite direction. This is really not very frequently trodden terrain for me!

More Glyder views

And more

On the way down

If we would have been at the road really early, we could have gone for a little drink in Pen y Gwrid hotel, but we only had some 25 minutes, so we went straight to the bus stop. A lovely hike! 16.4 km, and 1260m of ascent. A fraction of the Welsh 3000s, but a good score for me!

All fronts painted

The kitchen looks so smart now! I did a final push and that meant that now all the cabinet doors and drawer fronts have been painted, and given new handles. I am really pleased with the result.

Does that mean I am entirely finished? No! I want to have a little break now, but on the slightly longer term I want to paint the kickboards green, like the skirting board by the radiator, and the door. The skirting board by the cupboard has a different colour; that was the house painter taking unwanted initiatives. When I am at it anyway, I might rectify that. 

I am also emptying out all of the cabinets and giving them a good clean. I hadn’t done that for a while.

I think my kitchen is a heck of a lot better than it was, and it is getting better still!

Like new! 

Making more rubrics

What I should be working on these days is my application for senior fellow of the HEA. Unsurprisingly, I got sidetracked. I had been working on the forms we have to fill out after the module evaluations have come in. In one of my modules, there is an assessment the students always want more guidance on. And I have to stop somewhere, otherwise you are doing the assignment for them, and they learn nothing. So I never give them as much as they want, but I do honestly try to help them in ways that I think are not detrimental. 

One thing I thought I could do was make a rubric. Maybe that would help them a bit. I had done it for the dissertation module. And our external examiners like them. So I started making one. But then I figured I should make them for all three assessments. That is a fair amount of work. 

I did it, but it did mean I wasn’t working on my SF HEA application. I would have to get my ass in gear afterwards! Because I really want to get it done this summer. I’m not doing myself any favours not having this accreditation! 

Ceiling update

I was so distracted by all the other things that needed doing that I really neglected work on the ceiling. All the scars that the installers of the infrared panels had created were still there. In late winter and early spring they had at least stopped being holes, but they were still quite conspicuous. Focusing my attention on the kitchen wasn't helping that at all.

That changed when for the first time, a kitchen cabinet door didn't want to give up it plastic lining. When I pulled it off, with difficulty, little bits of MDF came with it. That stopped the originally very smooth surface from remain so smooth. All the doors I had done previously had given up their plastic without a fight, so they still very smooth. What to do? I was trying to give them all a comparable look.

I decided to make a bit of filler, and keep it quite liquid. I had done most of my other filler-related work with ready-made stuff, but I still had a remnant of filler in powder form lying around. And once you make that, you have to use it up. So after I had put a little skim on the damaged parts of the kitchen cabinet door, I used the rest on the ceiling. And that worked quite well.

I had another round like that, with another door that held on to its plastic. So that was two rounds of additional filler; by then the scars were becoming inconspicuous. And after some light sanding, you would hardly notice the scars were there!

Ghostlike outline of the biggest hole in the bedroom ceiling 

Spot the two small ones! 

After that I had run out of powder filler. And I figured it needed one last round of touching up; then I could to the final sanding, and potentially paint it. I already bought a new box. I am glad there is some progress in this work too!

Car update

I figured that a man who runs a garage/second hand car place can get a car sorted out with some battery power and a valid MOT pretty quickly. And maybe they can, but might have different priorities. I decided weeks ago to buy the Nissan Leaf. It took the garage holder more than a week to charge it. And then I hoped the MOT would be a doddle. Apparently, it wasn’t. 

I figured that he would want to get rid of that car as fast as possible, as his forecourt was pretty busy. Surely he would want to make space for cars he can actually sell? Rather than providing free storage space for me? 

I also had no way of knowing if he was bullshitting me. I started to think he was. You can check online what the MOT status of a car is. When it became clear it had its MOT, I hadn't been contacted by the man. When I phoned him he said he had only found out five minutes previously that that was the case. I figured I could pick it up now. He said I couldn't; he suggested Saturday. I wasn't sure why. He then seemed to make up a family event that afternoon. It would go a bit far to call him a liar, but I suggested I pick it up the day after then. He agreed.

I didn't know why he wanted to hang on to this car! It wasn't taxed. You can't legally drive it. What was he doing with it? I was getting suspicious. But what could I do? I could pull out, but then I was back at square one. Would he really be doing something awful to the car that would make me regret my choice?

On the day he had said I could pick it up I phoned him again. He was still hesitant. And I suppose he figured he couldn't fob me off anymore. He said it had an intermittent warning on the dashboard. That needed to be sorted first. It was the "motor power limited" error. After we terminated the call I had a bit of a Google. It looked like that meant there was a problem with the battery.

This issue is absolutely solvable, but it could take a lot of time and money. And I was very tired of waiting for this car that never materialised. So I phoned him back and I told him I wanted the bail out of the purchase. He was clearly disappointed, but he agreed.

What I now have to do is keep an eye on my bank account. I hope he refunds me soon! And start the search again. I hope my next try will be more successful!

Eclipse

I suppose I have been lucky with solar eclipses. I got the best possible experience in 1999, when part of Europe had a full eclipse. Me and my boyfriend at the time just decided to go on holiday in the country where you could see it the best, which turned out to be Romania. We were right at the centre of the event, and there was a completely cloudless sky, while most of the rest of Europe was not that lucky. It was very impressive!

The eclipse in ‘99

Only two years later, while on a scientific cruise, I ended up seeing an unexpected partial eclipse. This happened just before sunset, so you could just look at the sun with your naked eyes.

The eclipse in ‘01

I only found out about a week and a half beforehand there was going to be an almost complete one here in the UK. Way too late to get eclipse glasses! But I figured I had already seen all there was to see. But I still wanted to get a bit of the experience.

On the day, I improvised an eclipse viewer from a little cardboard box and some tinfoil. And after it was reported to have started I left my house to go up the little mound nearby. From my house, you can’t really see the west. There are trees in the way.

My homemade viewer

My pinhole construction worked! I could see that the eclipse had indeed started. And the mound had a fair number of people on it, clearly there for the same purpose. Quite a lot of them were facing the other way and let the cameras of their phones do the work. With my phone, that didn't work, but I had my viewer.

Eclipse watchers on the parched mound

I texted Chris to say that we were quite some people watching the eclipse on this field, which is only a few minutes from my house, I was only a few seconds from his. He responded that he was watching it in the street. And I figured it is nicer to share experiences like that, so I decided to leave the mound to see him.

The first thing I saw was the tail of a black cat, and shortly afterwards Chris's head. That makes sense; he has got a black cat. But when I got closer I saw it wasn't his cat. This was an unidentified tiny specimen. 

Chris was trying to use a cheese grater as a pinhole camera, but that wasn't much of a success. My little cardboard box did a much better job, and he was appreciative of it. And the little cat was just appreciative of an additional person who could deliver snuggles.

The partially eclipsed sun, and me and my new friend 

We took turns with the viewer, and we slowly saw the world get a bit darker. It really felt dusky when the eclipse was at its maximum. I enjoyed the strange atmosphere. And in between the staring at the sun and snuggling the cat, we gossiped up on running and painting jobs and jury service and cars and whatnot.

When the eclipse was already waning, a lady came out of a nearby house. It turned out she had parked right in front of Chris's house, and was quite apologetic about that. Chris didn't mind at all. But she saw us with my viewer, and said that some more people about to come out of that same house had eclipse glasses, and if we fancied a look. We did! And we could still see the side bite out of the sun. With these glasses it was so much more impressive than it had been with the viewer. What a nice surprise!

After we had given the glasses back and the people disappeared it was mainly over. The day had its original brightness back, and I said goodbye to both Chris and the little cat and went home. I had just seen my third eclipse. I am a lucky bastard!

Called up for jury service

A few years ago, Jaco was called up for jury service. Until that time, I thought foreign nationals would not be eligible. Clearly, we are. And you could be called up any time.

One day I found some junk mail and a serious-looking envelope on the doormat. I had a look, saw the word ‘tribiwnlysoedd’ and realised what was happening. I was summoned for jury duty! I had a bit of a look at the documents inside. They were a mess; I had all the paperwork in both Welsh in English, but they were not sorted by language. And they had page numbers, but each set of documents started counting three times. I had six pages one! That is hardly practical. But the information was clear: unless I was incapable of understanding what was going on, I was expected to show up at the court in Caernarfon shortly after the start of term. The duration was supposed to be two weeks, but it could overrun. Postponing was an option, but I figured I might want to get it over with. There is no time in the year when this is convenient. My employer was expected to cooperate. And I had to respond quite quickly.

My summons

The first thing I did was have a look at my teaching in the designated two week period they had indicated. They said it could overrun, but I figured I might cross that bridge when I reached it. And I came up with a possible solution for everything that was timetabled in that period. There were two days in the field; these are really difficult to reschedule, so I hoped the people I normally go with could do it without me. And then there were lectures. I figured I could probably swap most of them with my colleagues who were timetabled later in the year. For two of them I didn't see that happen; I hoped Jaco was willing to deliver one, and I figured the other one might have to just be a recording.

I then sent a message to the Head of School to bring him the bad news, and tell him how I thought we could deal with it. He agreed and hoped I could make it happen.

So far the responses have been positive. It looks like this is going to go ahead. And I have also heard that it is possible you don't need to serve the full two weeks. I hope I will be lucky! But there is only one way to find out. In early October, I am going to see the British justice system from up close and personal!

Odyssey

Of course I was aware of a new film adaptation of the Odyssey. It was hard to avoid. I was a bit in two minds about it. On the one hand; I have a bit of a fascination with old texts. The Odyssey is a bronze age tale that has survived all the way into modernity. That is spectacular! 

On the other hand; it was clearly going to be a Hollywood blockbuster kind of film. Lots of crash, bang, wallop. I'm not keen on that.

In the end I figured I should check it out. We had seen the trailer when we went to see Effi (which is an entirely different film, obviously). To my surprise, Neil was interested in it too. In his case, not in spite of, but thanks to, the crash, bang, wallop.

We would go after my race. I thought it would be quite nice to sit on my arse for three hours after running my lungs out first. When I said that, Neil panicked a bit. I hadn't thought of telling him it was quite a long film. I didn't realise he didn't know. And he is quite sensitive to food issues. He made sure to have sufficient snacks on him! And we made sure to have a substantial lunch: we went for a nice post-race pizza. I managed to 3/4 of it.

We were really late, and there weren't many cinemas running it anymore. We went to Cineworld in Llandudno Junction, even though this is not anywhere near my favourite cinema. But it did the job.

We first had to sit through what seemed to be ages of commercials and trailers. I suppose that is your fate if you go to cinema like that. And then it finally started.

It starts inside Penelope's Palace. I did not know how close to archaeological evidence Christopher Nolan had stayed, but I did know he was keeping the film relatively close to reality, with as little green screen as possible. I wouldn't put past him that he had made sure to have a reasonable idea of what such palaces at that time looked like. I didn't have to pay too much attention to the story, because I was familiar with it, so I could look at this interpretation of this slice of the bronze age. And I noticed it was a bit of a testosterone version with lots of fistfights and pantomime baddies and whatnot. Unsurprisingly.

We then started to jump through the story of Odysseus’ travails, starting with the Trojan horse. I struggled a bit to imagine a bunch of starving soldiers on a beach could make a horse that is both so big and so sculptural, but hey ho. It is a myth. It doesn't have to be practical.

Suoon we were out at sea. I think the ships that they use to get around the Mediterranean are roughly historically correct. Imagine having to travel on those. That is enough adrenaline for me. 

My classical education stirred its head when we got to the scene with the cyclops. They really changed that, but I suppose if they would have stayed closer to the source text, the film would have been even longer than it already was. I don't know the rest of the text well enough to be able to judge how much liberties they took there.

What I liked best were the scenes with basically only Penelope and Telemachus. They don't want all these suitors in the palace, but they know they can’t boot them out without repercussions that are worse. Telemachus knows he can't really claim the throne unless he knows what happened to his father, but finding out is a perilous business too. And they love each other, but the stress is getting between them.

Then you get the fall of Troy and Scilla & Charybdis and the sirens and Hades and Circe and whatnot. You don't get a moment of rest! But they do make you feel that it is a complicated world to negotiate. If you end up in the cave of the cyclops, you risk being eaten by it. If you use violence to avoid that fate, you risk the wrath of the sea god, who is its father. You might be pitched between starvation or pissing off the sun god. If the gods have decided that you will be the only one who will survive your travels, you still get the blame for losing your men. 

Obviously, he makes it home. And then you get a surprising soliloquy in which Odysseus turns out to be absolutely wrecked by guilt about what he has done to Troy, and how these actions still reverberate through the known world. I don't remember that from the original text. I think this was a decidedly modern take on things. I liked it, though! You basically have a man who knows she has started a descent into chaos and the loss of civilisation. Very resonant with our times. 

I tired a bit of the extensive fighting scenes when Odysseus gets a bow in his hands again, people start realising what is going on, and there is a mighty punch-up. But then at least peace returned. And then it was done. 

We both enjoyed it! In our individual ways. And when we got back to Neil’s place, he had the remaining quarter pizza while I had a drink, and we were both good for bed. A successful night out! 

Having my garden shored up

When I saw that there were people working on my neighbours’ collapsed wall I went to have a look. I had a nice chat with a guy that seemed to be the leader of the pack. I was surprised that they seemed to be comfortable working on the riverbank, bringing all the cement they needed in a wheelbarrow over the uneven riverbank from just outside Alan’s house. I suppose for their work it was good that it was a dry month. There was a little threat of them getting their feet wet while doing that work. 

Neighbours’ wall rebuilt! 

I also spoke with this guy about the bit of my garden wall that is directly adjacent to the wall they are repairing. When I bought the house, it already looked very unstable. It still does. And who knows; it might still hold up for decades, but it could just as well collapse tomorrow. I feel a bit cautious when I'm in the corner of the garden above it.

Looks rickety

I hadn’t had a lot of faith that I would find anyone willing to take the job shoring that part of the wall up, given the difficulty with access. But these guys had already made this location their workshop. They were clearly ok with it!

I asked the guy to give me a quote. He did that, and I accepted. I don't know if he is going to do that straight after the work for the neighbours. It would be efficient. But either way; I am glad this is in the pipeline now. I have been feeling a lot better about the wall underneath my extension since that was made more stable, and I am sure I will feel a lot better about this situation as well, after that wall will look like it is actually resting on something!

Caernarfon 10k 2026

The 10k races were coming thick and fast! I had only done one a week ago when I got into my racing kit for the Caernarfon 10k. The previous race I had pushed it hard, run a good time, and been floored afterwards. How would it go this time? 

I wasn’t feeling the race adrenaline beforehand. I pottered a bit and did a slow warmup. After that I wanted a last drink, but we had come in Neil’s car, my drink was in there, it was locked, and I couldn’t find him. Oh dear! When I finally did it was time for a club picture and then the actual start. 

Club picture

We headed west, into the wind. It took me a while to find my speed but after some 1.5 km I had it. And I kept it up until the flat course headed inland and started getting slightly hilly. Then it became much harder to know what pace would be a good one to aim for, and I did it on feeling. It also got quite hot. We had lost our sea breeze! 

I was glad to see a water stop. I got a cup from Eryri Harrier Jen; the fact she was volunteering and not running meant I had a good chance of getting a category win. 

I plodded on. I was feeling ok, and didn’t see many women around me. That is always a good sign. There was one coming into view, though. In a black top with no club logo. And then, some 7.5 km in, I saw Tony by the route, taking pictures. He shouted I was third woman. That puzzled me. I had seen Llio and Elliw line up; they are faster than me. And then there was this woman in black. Surely I couldn't be better than fourth position? But it is easy to mis-count. I did take it to mean that I was doing well, though.

At about 8.5 km I was feeling a bit light in the head. I was hoping it would all turn out ok. It is, after all, not unheard of that runners get overheated and collapse. I hoped that wouldn't happen to me. But did I slow down? No!

At about 9 km I managed to overtake the lady in black. And I figured that as long as I could stay ahead of her, my position was pretty much fixed. I did try to keep my speed up as I had the feeling I might be on my way to a good time. I wasn't quite sure what time, though.

Almost at the finish 

I managed to go quite fast in the last several hundred metres, until turning back into the field where the finish was. The uphill finish is a bit of a sting in the tail! I gave it what I had, cheered on by Neil, and saw that I had managed my second fastest 10k ever at 43:21. Nowhere nowhere near my 42:37 PB, but still pretty good! I got my medal from Dyfed and water from one of the sisters, and pretty much collapsed. I needed to sit down for a bit.

I found out that I had come fourth. Llio had won, an unidentified Cybi Strider had come second, and Elliw was third. And then me! Not bad! 

I went to get my recovery drink and bottle of squash and that helped me feel better. And then it was time to do some post race gossiping with the other finishers, and with Neil. And cheering on some other runners.

After a while, Neil got bored, so I asked Dyfed what time the presentation would be. In half an hour, I thought he said. He might have said something else. Neil went off to do a little walk while I went back to the car to exchange my empty drink containers for more useful luggage. And then the presentation happened! A bit earlier than expected. Neil missed it. 

Given that the top three ladies were all in the 35-39 category, or even younger, I got my category win. Quite comfortably! I turned out to have been about 3.5 minutes faster than the next woman over 40. I was proud of that. I won a floppy bottle and a pair of running socks. 

With my loot

I then just sat down below the tree to wait for Neil. (And to ogle at the race stats, of course). The entire Edwards family joined me. They had just been on holiday and we were full of stories. But the first thing Ian said when he approached me was something along the lines of: are you aware that you're supposed to slow down with age? I told him I would surely get to that one day. Just not quite yet.

Then Neil appeared, and we all headed home. A nice race! And guess what distance my next race will be. Indeed, 10k! That one will be super flat. Would I have a chance of breaking my very difficult to beat PB on that distance?. It is not likely, but it is possible. Watch this space!

Bumblebees in the garden

I have had several instances of wasp nests in my garden. I'm not overly keen on that. That is a slightly too high concentration of a slightly too grumpy insect to my taste. But I do like it if my garden attracts what are traditionally seen as pollinators. And for some reason, it seems to attract more bumblebees than ‘normal’ bees.

One day I was just sitting in the garden and a bumblebee seemed to land on the grass, by a non-flowering plant. I didn't really see the point of that. Bumblebees tend to want flowers. I had a look. There was a little hole in the ground, and it had vanished into it. A bumblebee residence! And I kept watching for a bit; I saw quite some bees flying in and coming out.

Up until then, I had no idea where bumblebees might live. Now I have an example of one of their abodes in my own garden. I like sitting near it and watched them coming in and out. Call me a speciesist, but I prefer that over watching wasps coming into and out of my little garden shed! 

Two bumblebees by the nest entrance (to their right)

Work on the new module websites has started

When I went back to the office after my annual leave I first sorted out the last remains of the old academic year. I had to evaluate all my modules and decide what should be changed about them in the new year. And I had a last academic integrity meeting, about work submitted for Supplementary Assessment Week. (I don't think I mentioned Supplementary Assessment Week; for staff it means you have to set assignments and do marking work in the middle of July.) But soon after that it was time to actively start working on the upcoming academic year. 

Traditionally, the first module website that comes live is for my dissertation module, even though it is a second semester module. And this year is probably not going to be an exception. I populated the folders, only leaving out things like where the students upload their assignments, as the timetable for the second semester hasn't been made yet. The deadlines depend a bit on the timetable. I also added all the staff. The students will be centrally added.

I will have to get two more of these websites ready before the start of new academic year. One third is already out of the way!

Trentham 10k for Wales

I was just getting mentally ready for the Breakwater race when I saw I had an email from Paul, the man who organises teams to represent North Wales in inter-county championships. He had approached me in spring, to see if I could join the team for the Llandudno 10 mile race. I was deeply honoured! And this time he admitted he was only asking me because someone else had pulled out, so I wasn't on his first choice list, but I was still proud to be invited to wear that North Wales vest. The race would be all the way in Staffordshire, but I said yes.

Given that it was going to be far away I wanted to know if car sharing was an option. There was no publicly available start list for the racing question: the Trentham 10k. But you could search for names. I checked for some people I could think of: Emma, Rhodri, Steffan, Elliw… no success. But when I tried Llio it was a hit. She was running too! And I didn't have her contact details, but I know many people from her club, so I figured I could get these. Paul said that no one else lived in our neck of the woods. That sounded weird; surely we all come from North Wales?

At the Breakwater race, which is organised by the Cybi Striders of which Llio is one, I got her contact details. She was happy to car share. Great!

The race was somewhere just south of Stoke, which is about 2h20 away, and the start would be at 9:30, so we would have to have an early start. We met in Conwy at 6:15. Llio was ok to drive. 

We now had almost 2 hours to get to know each other a bit better. And we did most of that in Welsh, as she is a native speaker, and quite happy to let me practice. It was quite nice!

Unsurprisingly, the roads are quiet at that hour on a Sunday, and we reached Trentham without problems. We were quite early. We decided to get our numbers and go to the loo. Then I wanted to eat and drink something, and change into my running shoes. I had had breakfast at about 5:15 then I needed a bit more fuel for this race. After we got our numbers we bumped into Paul, who had also arrived. He asked us if we wanted the good or bad news. I said bad. He said that all the other women had withdrawn. It was only us! That meant we were only running for shits and giggles. Your team gets points assigned on the basis of the four fastest runners. If you only have two, you get so many penalty points that you could both run a world record, and you would still lose. I forgot what the good news was.

The men’s team, which was supposed to have six people, had also suffered losses. But they were still with four, so they were still in with a chance. Although everyone assumed Staffordshire would win; it tends to do that! Maybe they could still take on Cheshire? But we, the women, were doomed to come last. 

We made sure to have some pre-race snacks, and do some stretches and a warmup. And meet the men. They were two Buckley Runners, a Deestrider and a Hebog. And then it was time to get to the start for a team picture. And then we lined up.

Before the race

I knew this wasn't going to be a fast course. I had checked it and it had about 140 m of ascent. All of that would be gradual, but it was there. For comparison: the Bangor 10k only has 67 m, and the Caernarfon 10k 50 m. But I would see what I could do!

After the start the entire rest of the team shot off like an arrow. I kept it modest. There's no way I can maintain that sort of speed for 10 km. But I made sure not run too far below what I could do. I knew I would have to run about six kilometres uphill and then four downhill.

Things were going ok. I was happy with my speed, but the rest of the team vanished from sight. I had other things to worry about. There were two women in my vicinity and I focused on these. One was a lady from the local Trentham running club, and we were leapfrogging each other a bit. And then there was a woman running for Cheshire, and she overtook me. I was hoping to be able to get her back. She wasn't too far ahead!

Less than 1k in. The lady in green would still be right behind me at the finish

I tried to keep my speed up and enjoy the route. Slowly the kilometres ticked away. And then I got to 6k. Now it would be downhill pretty much all the way. I accelerated. Everybody else did too, though.

Looking determined, 8k in

I did manage to shake off the local lady, but the woman from Cheshire was stronger than me and she increased the gap. I could see her black and yellow shirt thunder towards the finish. And then I got there too. Paul was there to take a picture. And I saw my time was 43:39. I figured that was pretty good considering the ascent! And I was seriously out of breath.

Almost at the finish 

Done! With the Trentham lady right behind

What I wanted now was a drink. Luckily I had brought four containers. And there was a building where I could refill them. And once I had my drink and my recovery shake I went to talk to the rest of the team. They hadn't waited to cheer me on. That was a bit disappointing. At the Borders League, you are pretty much guaranteed cheering Harriers when you finish. 

The others had been super fast and they were quite happy with their achievements. Llio had run a PB! On this course! She had dropped below 40 minutes. I don't think I will ever manage that. We were both registered for the Caernarfon 10k the week after; I'm wondering what sort of time she can run there. 

After the race

I emptied three of my drinks containers, and then the others said they wanted to do a cooldown run. Their idea was to first run to their car, and then do a bit of a loop. I did join them to the cars, but realised I was so full of drink I really didn't want to run further, so I just went back to the finish area, and had a look at the results which had come in. I had been 13th woman, and second in my category. The Cheshire lady I had been chasing had been first F50! 

After a while, the presentation took place. Llio had a category win! Well-deserved. And she was the only one in the team who managed that. Obviously, Staffordshire had won, both in the male and female competitions. And Cheshire had consistently come second. Our four men hadn’t managed to beat them. 

Then it was time to go home. I brought my last container into the car. Unfortunately, I had already finished it before we even set off. I should have made sure to refill some of them. By the time I got to my own car was seriously craving both food & drink.

The rest of the day I was knackered. And frankly, the day after as well. When I had a look at my Garmin stats I saw that it said I had run 71% of the race in zone 5, at maximum capacity (defined by Garmin as having a heart rate of 165 +; Strava uses a different threshold). For comparison: I had done the Breakwater race at that intensity only 3% of the time, Race the Train 56%, Pentir 54% and Felinheli 5%. I'm sure there is uncertainty in these measurements, but I do think they give an impression. And this time it surely matched my experience. I clearly gave it my all there! But I suppose I ran practically an identical time as I had done two years ago in Pwllheli, where I had won, on a course that was as flat as a pancake…

Kitchen progress

After my first experiments with making my kitchen look better, I had momentum. I wanted to keep going! But there was one impediment. I had decided I wanted new handles. I ordered a few, but then had to wait a while for them to arrive. I didn't really want to go and strip and paint more cabinet doors, as I figured the result is better if you fill the holes you're not using, and then paint over the filler, rather than paint them, then abandon one hole, and then fill that and try to make it look good afterwards. 

It took a while for me to get the message that my new handles had arrived. I was excited! But there was no sign of them. Not by the door. Not in the garden. Not at the neighbour's. They must have been mis-delivered. There was no proof of delivery, so I could not check if there was a picture of a door that most definitely was not my door. Bummer!

I decided to not try this again. It took too long. And being handmade they were quite expensive. And that is worth it, if you know it will be a success. But I decided to just Google some other options, and I came across some quite kitschy alternatives. These might suit what I was doing, and they were very affordable. I decided to buy 5 to try them out. And they arrived the next day. I was back on!

I first provisionally put the handles on the two doors I had painted first. I figured they combined well! I decided to stick with them. They are quite kitschy but it works! So I could put them on the other door I had already done, and now I could do two more doors, as I had handles for them. So I did. And I ordered more.

New handles

The second batch arrived quite early too. So I started working on the sixth door. After I strip them, the first thing I do is drill the new handle holes and fill the old ones. Only then did I realise that the new handles I had bought were the same type as the old ones, but a bigger model! Oh dear.

After some thought, I decided to use the small handles for the smaller doors and the drawers, and the big ones for big doors. That meant leaving two where they were and moving three. It wasn’t much work really. And then I could continue with the stripping and painting business. 

5 doors done! 

With every cabinet door painted, my kitchen looks better. I'm glad! And the weather makes it a relatively quick job! These coats of paint dry fast in such a hot dry summer...

 

Clean the car in anticipation

I had decided to buy a new car, and as soon as I would have it, sell the old one. I suppose selling anything works better if it looks remotely good. I would have to wash my infamously dirty old car. Outside and inside! Neil was a bit upset at that; he had wanted to wash it as long as he knew me, and I never let him. And now, for some anonymous unidentified person, I would? And I saw his point, but I also saw mine; I went ahead and washed it.

Before

It wasn't even that much work! And I made sure to keep the best bits. I washed all the algae off, and all the mud and dust and seagull poo, but not the lichen or the moss. I like these! And the biodiversity isn't what it used to be, what with some issues with droughts or enthusiastic dogs, but I still like that my car is an ecosystem. 

After

It’s still not the cleanest car out there. I think that is ok. What I'm looking for is someone who just wants a dirty cheap car. I don't think they will be picky. If it will be someone who can weld, they can keep this car going for years to come.

Now I only need to actually get my hands on my own new car! This seems not to be trivial. And then I can advertise this unusually shiny Corsa. I hope that when it finally comes to that, it will sell soon. I don't want to own two cars!

Club run for runner with cancer

Before the start of the Felinheli race I bumped into a guy called Ian. He is a Cybi Strider I first became aware of him at the 2025 Rhostryfan race; I overtook him shortly before the finish. He was there in Bethel too; Chris knew him from the track. Around that time I started track running myself, and I saw him more often. I remember him early on claiming he was the oldest person there. When I asked if he had asked everybody else their age he said he didn't need to; he knew. Then I asked him how old I was. And he knew what age category I ran in! Because of the Rhostryfan race. And it wasn’t unusual to run in the same group on the track. And I saw him at loads of races too. 

Lately he had been complaining he seemed to have lost his mojo. He just couldn’t run like before. And then, in Felinheli, he told me he had been diagnosed with a particularly unpleasant cancer, and needed to undergo particularly unpleasant treatment. Oh dear! 

A bit later, at the Pentir race, other Cybi striders told me the club wanted to wish him the best with his treatment. They had initially considered flowers or something, but then figured that was a rubbish idea. This was Ian; what suited him was a run. They wanted that to be open for everyone. So I made a mental note of the date. 

On a Wednesday evening I drove to Benllech where we all would gather. I was early, but there already were quite some Cybis. I parked up, wrestled with the parking app, and lined up. There were many familiar faces! Louise, Emma, Llio, Mel, Sion, Richie… a lot of my favourite track and race Cybis. And Ian, of course. 

I had an idea of how busy these club runs normally are; there often is a group pic appearing on social media. Recently it has been quite constant at about 15 participants. But this time there were at least 50. I think there were more! 

Group pic before the run. Ian kneeling in a dark blue T-shirt. 

Before we set off, Emma went through some H&S pointers. Then Kevin pulled Ian to the front and explained once more what the run was for. And Ian took the floor and said it wasn’t about him; it was about stressing that if something is off with you, you should have it checked out. He had very vague symptoms with which it is easy to just not go to your GP. But he had gone, and it turned out it was something very serious.

Then we started running. It was cloudy but dry. We headed west on a sizeable road, followed by a smaller road. Occasionally we stopped to let everyone catch up. There was a lot of talk about races past and present, and yesterday’s track session that I had missed as I had been  camping in the drizzle. 

We also dived into a public footpath. This was getting Thursday Night Hill! And it started raining. We then headed for Red Wharf Bay. On the beach we did a very rainy group picture. Where was that drought? 

Beach pic

We weren’t far from the starting point now; we just had to run back up the hill. All sorts of people appeared, of various ages, and accompanied by dogs. Ian’s family and non-running friends! And there were loads more on the car park. They all looked like drowned rats. The heavens had opened! 

The non-running people had brought water and cake for everyone. And we socialised a bit. Everyone wished Ian the best. But people were getting cold in their flimsy running tops in the pouring rain. 

I had the impression Ian really appreciated all goodwill shown. Good! I don’t know how much we will see of him in the coming months. Maybe he’ll jog some races to feel better? Do half a track training? I wouldn’t put it past him. But maybe he will be too poorly. Either way; I hope he will be back to his full mojo after the treatment. And then he can go and overtake me in the last tens of meters of the Rhostryfan race. Or any other race, really… 

Wet camping trip in between droughts

We were starting to take the drought for granted. In the weekend, Neil suggested he take two days off and we go on a little camping adventure. I had already taken the week off as I was desperately trying to use my annual leave of the academic year just gone by. We didn't even check the forecast until we were committed. It was actually quite cloudy! And there was even a chance of rain. We decided to go anyway. It had been a long, long time since our first trip with a tent. 

I wanted to take Neil to Llyn Glas, on the flanks of yr Wyddfa, where I had camped on my own a few years before. It was the most beautiful place I had done that. 

We decided to park in Rhyd Ddu, and walk up a public footpath that crosses the slate quarry there, and then veer off to the right on a gravel track. That goes into the general direction of the Ranger path, but in order to end up in the valley I wanted to go to you have to turn right before you get there. 

We walked up in light rain and drizzle. I was trying to keep my socks dry. I wasn't in my clunkiest boots as I was trying to keep my feet comfortable. The path was gorgeous! I don't think I had done it before. And the most spectacular bit was going through the quarry. In there we also met a bunch of friendly DofE kids, who interviewed us for their project. And we walked through a cattle herd. 

Path under the clouds

I failed to take any pictures that do the quarry justice

When we go to the gravel track, navigation was less easy than normal because visibility was quite rubbish. And we kept following it for a bit too long. We had walked all the way to Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas. So be it! And I suggested we might want to actually camp there, as the higher valley would be in the cloud, by the look of things. But we didn't really see an obvious camping spot. We decided to go to my initial destination after all. 

By then my phone was almost empty. I found out later it had been taking about 100 pictures of the inside of my trouser pocket. So frustrating.

It was less sheltered in the little cwm with Llyn Glas and Llyn Coch than I had hoped. I did show Neil the spot where I had stayed the previous time. He acknowledged it was beautiful, but there was not enough space for a bigger tent. 

In the end we decided to head down the hill again. We were just looking for shelter. And in the end we found a spot on a little river island at the bottom of the slope into the cwm. It was sheltered enough! Obviously, there was plenty of water. By that time I was hungry. We pitched the tent and I sat down to cook spaghetti. Neil put on his long trousers. I didn't expect him to wear these at all, the entire month.

My tent with in the background the ridge with Ranger Path on it

After dinner I had a quick wash. I wanted to put on trousers as well. And dry socks. My attempts at keeping the original pair dry had failed spectacularly! Neil thought it was too cold for a bath. And after my bath we boiled some water for coffee and tea. And we had brought the last two beers of the team prize of the breakwater race. We drank them. 

Our spot had beautiful little carnivorous plants 

It started raining a bit, so we went indoors. We were both actually quite tired. When the rain stopped we went out to brush our teeth, have a last leak and then call it a day.

I slept alright, but I had to go to the loo in the middle of the night. I had been drinking too close to bedtime. Neil never noticed, but he spent other parts of the night awake.  

When we woke up, the weather was pretty much the same. I woke up first, and went out to boil water for coffee and breakfast. After breakfast we packed up. We decided to follow the fence nearby (the only explicit sign of human activity in the far surroundings) back to the gravel road. That showed us some new terrain, and some of it was quite pretty, but also, it wasn't very well travelled, and some bits were a bit trying, with soggy and/or very uneven ground. But we got to the gravel road. 

On our way back

From there it was straightforward to get back to the car. We both were keen to get out of our soaking socks and into our crocs. 

Back on the gravel track, heading for the quarry

Leaving the quarry

It was a bit weird to have such a damp camping trip in the month that probably will turn out to be the driest one in Wales on record. Bad timing! But given that the drought is expected to return, maybe we could do another one this summer? One that is dry? And that has excellent visibility? Stay tuned! 

Paying for a new car

My little Corsa had to go up for its MOT. It's 19 years old, and I'm not the best with car maintenance, so anything could happen. It served me well for 7 years and it doesn't owe me anything! This time, there was good news and bad news. The good news was: it had just passed. The bad news was: there was a lot in the pipeline that probably would need addressing by the next MOT check. It looks like by then, it will need new brake discs, a new tyre and new axle swivel pins and bushes (whatever they are). And, most importantly: the body structure has started corroding. The garage told me that last year, I had a little hole in it. This year, it was a bigger hole. They said the structural integrity was still ok, but by next year, it would probably need work. And that would get expensive. 

I figured I needed to buy another car before it came to the next MOT. I had come to terms with that I would have to let go of it in the not too distant future. This message from the garage told me about what time scales that would involve. 

Given that I live in North Wales and that public transport isn't all that here, and not everything is doable by bike, I need a car. Going to see Neil, which by car costs half an hour, costs at least two hours without one. So I decided to start looking.

Neil had an idea. His elderly neighbour had just given up driving, and wanted to get rid of his car. Maybe that was an option? But by the time he inquired, the neighbour had already sold it.

I had been saying for years that my next car should be electric. I figured I should take the jump. I feel guilty every time I see my fuel meter crawl towards lower values. I am burning fossil fuels there and then! And second-hand electric vehicles are currently a lot more expensive than the older end of used petrol/diesel cars, but one should put one’s money where one’s mouth is.

It didn't look like in my area, there were loads of used and affordable EVs. I spotted two Nissan Leafs (I don't think it should be Nissan Leaves) on Anglesey; one from 2012 at £3000, and one from 2016 at £5000. Everything else was a lot more expensive. And if you are willing to go very far away, I am sure you can find more choice, but then you also have the problem of having to go and check out the car very far away, and getting it home.

I figured that the car from 2016 would be a better bet. A 10 year-old battery sounds old enough as it is! And I decided to pursue this. If this wasn't the sort of car I wanted, what was it? What would the better offer even look like? So on Saturday, I decided to drive to Anglesey, and check out this Nissan.

I checked the opening times of the garage online: at 10 am it would open. So shortly after 10 I was there. Standing by a closed gate. By coincidence, the Nissan was the car closest to the gate, so at least I got a good view on the outside. It looked fine.

Soon some bloke appeared who was similarly puzzled. I decided to give the garage a ring. A man answered, and he said he would be there at 11. You can't always believe what you read online.

I decided to do my food shopping while waiting for him. I knew Llangefni, where I was, has at least one supermarket. I popped to the nearest one. They had what I needed, except my Saturday paper. The next supermarket didn't either. I decided to head for a corner shop on the High Street. That worked! And by then, it was time to check if the garage was open now. And it was.

I told the garage holder I was interested in the Leaf. And what I wanted first was a view on the battery capacity. You would expect it to be somewhere between 80 and 90% by now. That would be good. But of course it could be worse. The man had no idea how to check this, but I googled it. He gave me the keys and let me work it out. I dived into the car and had a good look at the instruction manual. I don't have much experience with electric cars! Only the shared car of my town. The car seemed to still have 80% of its battery power. Enough for me. The cable and the charging point looked fine to my untrained eyes. 

I asked the garage holder if we could take it for a spin, and he complied. It worked fine! But it only had 21 miles left to go on the remaining battery charge. Oh dear.

I said I needed to think about it I would go home. If I wanted to buy it, I couldn't do it over my phone anyway. So I had to get home and make a decision.

At home I also did what I should have done before: check the MOT status of the car. It would run out in about a week and a half. That's not good! You don't want to buy a car and need to have to go through the faff of having it get an MOT test, only to potentially end up with a bill for things that might be wrong with it. I mulled it over for a bit and I decided to ask the seller if he would be OK with me buying it on the condition he would get it MOT’d. He agreed. And that was it! I had committed to buying a new car. The most expensive one ever for me.

I transferred the money to the garage's bank account and hoped for him to sort out the MOT. I also asked for him to make sure there would be at least enough charge to get me home. I hoped that would be sorted quickly.

A week went by and it wasn't. When I phoned the man he said he struggled to charge it. There was a charging station at one of the nearby supermarkets, but he couldn't get the app to work. That was also charging at nearby M-Sparc, but these were rapid chargers, and if you charge a battery too aggressively it won't last. Modern Teslas are built for it, but 2016 Leafs aren’t. And I could check the MOT status online; that didn't change.

It's a bit frustrating! I have paid thousands of pounds for a car but I can't use it, and I have no control over what happens to it. I regret I paid the full amount. I should have paid only half, only to pay the second half upon pick-up. But that's Captain Hindsight talking. 

I hope it will all turn out ok. I want to try out my new car! And sell the old one. I know it is the 19-year-old piece of rust, but I bet there are people who are interested in buying a quite reliable piece of rust if it's cheap and it has 11 months of MOT left. I'm in limbo! Keep your fingers crossed that this will turn out ok in the near future…