Brief catch up with old caving friend Lionel

 I was in the office when I received a text from my old friend Lionel, saying that he was on his way to North Wales, with the Plymouth Caving Group. Was I around?

It was a Friday and I had already been wondering how I would organise all the things I wanted to do with my weekend. On Sunday, I would be running the Caernarfon half marathon. After that, I wanted to see Neil. On Saturday I wanted to see Kate, who I hadn't seen in a while. I also wanted to run the last lap with Jacko. That Saturday was his last day! And on top of that; the Ring O Fire race, a 210 km ultra doing the entire Anglesey coastal path, was in progress. Two of my friends were running: Louise, Lionel from the track, and Tony, who is in the Eryri Harriers. I had hurt Louise mention that if people come to support her it really helps, so I wanted to go in cheer them on at some point as well. Altogether I had a lot on! And I still wanted to take it so easy on Saturday that I would be rested for my race on Sunday.

Long story short: we decided to go for dinner on the Friday. They were staying at Ty Powdwr, the hut of the Karabiner mountaineering club, as is the default. And I drove down to pick him up. 

It was good to see him! The first thing he did was say that I hadn't changed a bit. But who was talking? He hadn't either!

Back in the days, and I am talking 2010-2013, we quickly developed into the duo that you would contact if you had a slightly irresponsible caving adventure in mind. We were up to all sorts! And had loads of fun. He was also instrumental in getting me to join the cave rescue team. And he's been back up in Wales several times since. Nowadays we are more likely to do an hill walk together. That's fine too! And there is no time for any of that stuff, we at least try to get a coffee together in. 

When we got to town it was still quite early, so we first went for a pint in the Heights. After that we went to Pete’s Eats; it has the same name as before, but everything else seems to have changed, and I wanted to know what it was like now. It is absolutely totally different! But the food was fine. 

We caught up about all the things that had changed in our lives, and those that had stayed the same, since the previous time we saw each other. He is quite busy with his house and all the grounds around it, and the animals. I told him about my kitchen project. And we talked about the recovery of our mutual friend Rick, who had had an unfortunate incident on his motorbike. And we talked about running, and mines we had and hadn't been to, and things like that. Enough to discuss!

When we were done I brought him back to the hut. I don't know when I'll see him again, but I am confident I will!

World scientists’ warning to humanity

The first notice went out when I was still at school. It was quite brief. What sort of notice was this? It was an attempt of a group of scientist to write a peer-reviewed journal article that was actually addressed at the world population, and in order to try to give it weight, they tried to get as many scientists as possible to add their signature to it. Did it work? Clearly not!

The second notice was 25 years later. I was already working in Bangor by that time. A lot can happen in 25 years! And what happened to the notice? One thing that changed was that they shifted the focus away from the size of the world population. They figured it was not the polite thing to do to blame people for existing, or for having children. And there was 25 years more of data. And pretty much none of that data was encouraging.

As I actually was a scientist by that time, and I must have heard of it (although I don't quite remember how), I signed it. Is it likely to be particularly effective? No! But if someone takes an initiative like that, the least you can do support it. Signing might be largely ineffectual, but doing nothing is worse. Several of my colleagues, such as Stuart and Martyn, had signed as well.

They've clearly not waited another 25 years for the third notice. I received the email already. They are getting ready now for the third notice to be published 10 years after the second one. There is 10 more years of data, and as usual, that does not provide much inspiration for hope.

 

Top of the front page of the draft third notice

So will this third notice get noticed? Quite possibly not. Even though there are now ways attracting attention to something that didn't exist yet 10 years ago. That is not a guarantee of anything, though. Poor old Jacko was really straining to get attention for his Guinness world record. And this is just a text. A lot less sexy than a whole bunch of ultramarathons! But what can one do? If these things come to my attention I will keep signing them. 

I do think that maybe by now the effects of the climate apocalypse are so tangible that people are starting to pay attention. But paying attention is one thing, and changing society to avoid the worst is a different one entirely. I might still have a few decades to live, and I will find out the hard way how this issue pans out over that time…

 

Fruit and veg harvest

This year’s harvest started with beetroot. I figured they might not grow an awful lot more, and I might as well eat them. I ate the first batch. That was one meal. I think I can get another meal out of the next. That is it! Quite a lot of work for not much food. But I think the beetroot were suffering in the drought. And I didn't want to go and water them every day.

Sad beetroot plant 

The next step was: apples. I don't know if it was something to do with my untalented tree husbandry, or the blisteringly hot and dry summer, but it's not been a good apple year. There are apples, and they are tasty, but just not very many. 

With this camera angle, it actually looks quite good

It is going to end with beans! I had never grown them before. They seem quite forgiving plants. And they must be! I have beautiful beans on my plants. I look forward to eating them. And I will certainly do this again! When I eat them I will also dig out some potatoes. I have loads of potato plants, but it seemed too early to harvest them. But I think the best thing with homegrown beans is homegrown potatoes.

Look at those beans!

I am wondering if I should do another round of planting crops. Would the autumn be long enough to yield something? I suppose I don't have an awful lot to lose! 

Yet another car update

I mentioned that my plan for getting myself an electric car was: go to a big car dealer in England soon after my trip to the Netherlands, and then just buy the EV they have that I like most. It sounded like such a simple plan!

I had already phoned them; they said you could reserve a car, and book a test drive, but only one. It is a long drive, and it seems stupid you can't just drive a few. If you can drive only one, then why would you even? You might as well just buy a car from a distance. Who would make a 5 hour round trip more than once to decide between a few possible cars? 

The good news is, of course, that Neil would come with me, so he could book a test drive as well. And then I could at least make a two car shortlist, and then just choose the best one.

With that plan I phoned them. I had already started a spreadsheet with interesting cars before I went to my trip; I had identified six. When I came back, two of these had been sold, and nothing had taken their place. And with only four left it shouldn't be too difficult to make a two-car shortlist. But when I phoned them, they said that the two cars I was most interested in were not available for test driving. They said they had to undergo some technical tests. I thought that was a bit annoying. Can't they mention that on the website? It is all very well to have all these cars on that site, but if you don't know which ones are actually available, that's of limited use. They said you can go in and switch the engine on, but I do think that there is value in actually driving around. Without that, you might (again) as well buy them from a distance. And then you still want to know which ones are actually available.

They took my details and the license plates of the cars I had hoped to test drive. They say they will let me know when they might be available. It could be weeks! By then, term has kicked off. Very inconvenient. I hope this will work out. Oh and at least, I got the money back I plaid for the Nissan Leaf…

The Bluest Eye

I still have an urge to read classic books. And after I had managed to get through the rather practical book about running and breathing, I started one again. The Bluest Eye. I figured I should really read a Morrison, and this one seemed a good one to start. 

Spoiler alerts!

The protagonist is a nine year-old poor Black girl. And she basically reveals the big plot twist on the first page: there is another girl in their social circle, who ends up being raped by her father and pregnant because of it. The protagonist has a real child's perspective on everything.

You don't really get the perspective of the other girl, but you do get the whole life stories of her parents. And given that they are American, poor and Black, these are not uplifting stories. 

Quite early on the book, the protagonist says that she doesn't understand why dolls are always depictions of pretty blonde white girls, and that she hates them. She understands the social pressure to love them.

It is the girl that ends up pregnant that is the one that explicitly asks for having blue eyes herself. Does this end well for her? I'll leave that to your imagination.

This is obviously not a cheerful book. It is full of racism, poverty, domestic violence and alcoholism. But who said that books should be uplifting? What I did like was the big background you get of many of the characters in it. It is one thing to introduce someone who does monstrous things. It is another thing to show the life that someone has had before they did it. And I think it is a good idea to read more or less realistic depictions of awful lives. People have those. And if you're lucky enough not to have one yourself, it is good for the soul to sometimes step into the shoes of people who do. Or did.

It's not a big book; I read it entirely during my trip to the Netherlands. I can really recommend it! For those that don’t mind a bit of a battering…

End to my Dutch trip

The main focus of my stay was family, but I would spend the last night with friends. I would go see Roelof after he would come back from work and at some point, Viking would join us. I would spend the night there, and then I could go straight to the Eurostar terminal the next morning.

On my way to Roelof

When I got there I first caught up with Roelof over a drink, on the balcony. Micha did the cooking. Spectacularly, as usual. And after dinner we returned to the balcony for more drinks. Viking was at a promotion party, so he came a bit later. Unfortunately, not before after bedtime. Oh well; I thought I would be able to cope.

In order to not keep Micha awake, who wasn't 100% and had to stick to conservative bedtimes, we went to a nearby terrace. Viking soon joined us.

Viking had been on holiday, Roelof and Micha had been away twice and would go a third time, Roelof had done things on his house and had exciting events coming up. We had all read books and seen films and listened to music. And had thoughts about climate and AI and the nuclear apocalypse. Enough to talk about!

Then the pub closed, and we all went home. Then followed one of the less successful parts of my trip: the night. Roelof asked if I wanted to the balcony door open or closed. What was more important: get fresh air in, or keep mosquitoes out? And I am not used to having to think about mosquitoes at night, and I like fresh air, so I said open. And regretted it.

I woke up a bit sleepy the next morning. The mosquitoes had had a whale of a time! I counted 14 mosquito bites on my left leg alone. That makes me appreciate my rather mosquito-free time in Wales again.

Travelling back to the UK went smoothly. I had a direct train to London, which was great. Getting to Euston was fine too. When I was at the picnic benches awaiting news of my train, some lady waved at me. She came up to me and said she recognised me from the Eisteddfod. I had never expected to have a lively conversation in Welsh in the middle of London.

Soon after that, things turned for the worse. My train, which would get to Wales via Stafford, Crewe and Chester, was delayed. Initially only by 20 minutes, but soon the sign said that getting to Crewe would be faster by a train that would leave 41 minutes after the original departure time of my train. Shit! How bad would it get?

Delightful Euston

Then there was an announcement. My train was only 20 minutes late after all. And it duly trundled all the way to Bangor. Soon I was home. And I got to sleep in my own bed, next to my own cat. It had been good to be in the Netherlands, but it was good to be home as well!

In the Netherlands: my dad and sister

My dad was diagnosed with vascular dementia two years ago. And a condition like that can do a lot of destructive work in two years. He was still quite good during the family reunion in May; he needed his walker to get around, and had an afternoon nap, but otherwise he was pretty much fine. His handwriting is bad now, and he struggles with the practicalities of life, but he still had a perfectly mainstream perception of the world. 

When I was in the Netherlands I wanted to see him, and suggested to my sister we go together. She was up for that. And so was my dad. 

We agreed to meet at his place, have a coffee, and then whisk him off for a walk and lunch. I arrived first; Petra was a bit delayed, so we started with a coffee with the three of us. And I got a bit of an idea of what my dad’s situation was. And he is now living in a world of augmented reality. He still perceives the world we perceive too, but his head adds features. He sees, hears and feels things nobody else can detect. And nothing seems threatening, but  I could imagine this is a bellwether for worse things. And these perceptions keep him awake at night, or wake him up, and when he then interacts with them he wakes his wife up. She was starting to feel the lack of sleep. 

My sister knows all this, of course. She sees him more often. And when she appeared, we had another coffee (with cake!) and then we all left. Joke went swimming. 

We went to Staverden Estate, not far away. I hadn’t heard of it. It was lovely! And it had an interesting history. It had been founded in the deep Middle Ages, had acquired city rights, and had been a holiday venue where my father had been several times as a boy. 

We started with a walk. The estate had beautiful grounds! And my dad skilfully negotiated any tree roots or other obstacles with his walker. And the weather was gorgeous.

Not the best possible picture but it will do

When we had done the walk, my dad was ready to sit down for lunch, though. And we could sit outside. It's a rather glamorous place! And the food was good.

When we were done my dad was tired and we went home. We had a last cup of tea and then my sister and I left, so my dad could have a nap. 

I had the rest of the day with my sister and her family. It was a full house! You never know how many people are living there, with student kids boomeranging between (temporary) student accommodation their childhood home, and suchlike, but everyone was there at least part of the time. Except the cat; she had died earlier in summer.

We drank tea and made dinner and caught up. I heard what the current state was of the education of all the (adult) kids, and I heard some holiday stories, and talked a bit with my sister how she sees her future. We also did a nice walk on the moor. And I did a book exchange with her; she had given me a book by AS Byatt, and she had read a different one herself, and she wanted to talk with someone about that book, and read more Byatt, so I had brought mine and exchanged it for hers. I figured that the book I had brought for the train would get finished, potentially even before I would get on the Eurostar back.

Of course I was sad that there was no cat. But when we had been sitting outside in the garden in the evening, a hedgehog had trundled past…

Then it was time to go to bed. I could sleep in David's room; he went back to this student digs in Amsterdam. And the next morning my sister had to get to work quite early, so I had breakfast with Aernoud, and then I went back to Amersfoort. I was lucky to have seen everyone! I hope they will all be well in this new academic year…

In the Netherlands: my mum

As usual, my main destination in the Netherlands was my mum. It would be great to see her, but also sad, as old age firmly has its claws in her. She is still living independently, but it’s not clear how long that can continue. And the same holds for my dad, but given that he lives with a spouse, that’s different. 

We needed to have some conversations about health and suchlike. But we also just sat in the garden in the gorgeous weather, having a cup of tea or a glass of port. And after I had seen my dad and my sister, I could give her an update. 

I also did some of the standard Amersfoort things to do: go for a run (twice), and pop into town to go to the cheese shop. And enjoyed the medieval town while doing that. 

Neither of my parents (or anyone else for that matter) is going to get any younger. But at least I got another visit in! 

Sunny forest run

One of the very many amazing buildings in town

Travelling to the Netherlands

The house was spotless! At least, by my standards. And my luggage was ready to be completed. I was ready to get up early and start the long journey to Amersfoort. 

The first thing I did when the alarm went off was to check if my 7:16 train would actually run. It would! So I had my breakfast, packed the last things, said goodbye to the cat, and left. The travel to London went fine. I had a book and a newspaper and a phone. And a flask. 

In London I had some time, so I did what I do more often: sit on a bench by the British Library, and have some lunch. It’s so quiet there! In the middle of London. 

View from my lunch bench

When I was in the Eurostar terminal there was an announcement that my train had a technical issue. Oh dear! But only minutes later we could board anyway. And we departed on time. 

I already had an email saying that my Eurostar from Brussels was delayed. And then I got another. I wondered if I should wander into Brussels for a hot drink or something. The transfer time had been generous to start with! Adding delays would make it really tedious. 

I also heard an announcement that there was a train to Amsterdam leaving quite soon. Should I just jump ship and take that one? How much money was it worth to me to not have to spend two hours and fifteen minutes (at least) on Brussels South? I decided to choose the time over the money. And I got into a not very busy Dutch train onwards. 

Before my Eurostar would even leave I was in Rotterdam. And then, before I knew it, at Amsterdam South. The train to Amersfoort was a bit delayed, but I still was at my mum’s at a good time! My visit could start. Not a bad trip at all! 

Pwllheli 10k 2026

When I saw this race advertised I was really keen to register. Even more than average. Pwllheli was the place I had run my first ever gold medal. Also in a 10k. That gave me strong positive associations. 

I also knew it would probably be a very flat course. Maybe an opportunity for a 10k PB? Even though I had given blood less than two weeks earlier? And also, it would be the day before me going to the Netherlands. That meant it would be a good day to run myself empty and be still knackered the day after. I would only have to sit in a train all day! 

The race I had done (and won) in 2024 had not been run since. This race had a different (first time) organising team. And a different route. But the same HQ. 

I drove down and parked without issues. But it was a lot hotter than I had expected on the basis of the forecast. Not ideal! But not a big problem. I was glad I had brought my sun visor. 

I was feeling the race jitters. Quite unlike in Caernarfon, two weeks prior. I made sure to go to the loo, do my breathing warmup, do a ‘normal’ warmup, and drink enough. And I socialised with some people I knew, especially three lads from the track. There were also a few Eryri Harriers. 

At some point we lined up. And we were off! And the first kilometre, it is generally quite chaotic. The field is dense and some people struggle to find a sustainable pace. I tried to keep an eye on any women in front of me. Soon, I figured there were only two. Interesting! Maybe I could get a podium place again. Maybe even gold. 

Race buzz at HQ

Lining up at the start. Notice Steffan on the front row.

Fairly soon I overtook one of them. And I made sure to keep an eye on the other, who was in a Caerphilly Runners top. Very slowly I gained ground on her. And about 3 km in I overtook her. 

Was I on track for a PB? Questionable! But not impossible.  

I tried to keep a good but feasible speed up. And I sometimes looked behind me. It looked like the Caerphilly woman couldn’t keep up. Good! 

I was feeling the strain. Some 6 km in I noticed I was starting to wheeze. A bad sign! I really tried to calm my breathing. And tried to relax, and use some nearby blokes as pacers. It sort of worked. 

Then I hit the last km. I was knackered! I just couldn’t keep my speed up. I did the best I could, and it seemed enough to not let Caerphilly lady come near. I would have gold! Would there be a ribbon? Last time there hadn’t been a ribbon, but maybe this time would be different. I would love a ribbon! 

When I got so close I could see the finish, I saw no ribbon. A bit of a disappointment! I also noticed I was about to run pretty much the same time as I had done in Caernarfon. I gave it a last desperate push to try to be faster than then. And then I finished. 

Approaching the finish

Eyes on the clock

It's tense

Done it

I was stupidly out of breath. Luckily I found a wheely bin to lean on while panting like crazy. And I drank some water. 

Then I saw Caerphilly lady finish, about 30 seconds after I had come in. And, almost immediately after, bronze lady. Caerphilly lady looked like she was about to throw up. I know that feeling! For me, water helps. So I grabbed a bottle and handed it to her. And we congratulated each other. 

I then socialised a bit with other finishers, like the three track lads who had all managed to run their target time. The bloke who normally paces their group, Niall, had paced them here too. Successfully! And he, unlike the others, had managed a sprint finish, which made him come in a bit before the other two. 

I had my recovery drink and some more water, and then cheered on some other runners. And checked the results: I had done 43:18, so marginally faster than in Caernarfon, but still some 40 seconds slower than my PB. And I waited for the presentation. I couldn’t miss that! 

The presentation was decidedly weird. There were only three age categories! <20, open, >60. Of the 88 women running, 84 were in the open category. And the prizes were cash. Steffan took the male silver. As the female winner I got £100. I will obviously find a destination for that, but to be honest, I would have preferred it if they would just have used the money to buy gold, silver, bronze, and category winner medals, and handed out more of them. And maybe added some chocolate or something. You can get a medal for as little as a quid (undoubtedly a bit more if it states the race and the category) so they could easily have afforded that if they hadn’t spent £360 on cash prizes for the male and female top three. And maybe a ribbon? 

With my cash prize

At home I saw that Garmin had been of the opinion I had spent 88% of the race in zone 5. Maybe a new record after all? Just not speed? 

We will see if these organisers will stage this race again next year. If so, I would like to do it again! And maybe they will be more conventional a next time around, with more age categories and more symbolic prizes. And for now I will just do a bit of gloating! 

Breathing book finished

I thought I would fly through this book! I bought it in March, at the Eryri Harriers presentation night. And it’s accessibly written. But there is a but. As it is about improving your breathing in order to improvey your running, it has practical components. It contains a fair number of tests and exercises. Tests as in: how flexible are your hips? How flaring are your ribs? What is the maximum speed you can run at while breathing through your nose? And exercises to loosen up your ribs, align your spine and all that comes with it, and train your CO2 tolerance. 

Firstly; if you read it in bed, you regularly have to stop as you’re not in the position to do these tests and exercises. And sometimes, when you’re reading elsewhere, you might be a bit taken aback by instructions to do some exercises from chapter X, then do an exercise from the current chapter, and then do the exercises from chapter X again to see how much of a difference that makes. 

I’ve finished it now, though. And made a little summary in my phone. I can now put it all into practice! And I started doing that right after the presentation night, slowing my breathing during runs, which I really liked and which probably improved my performance. And I started nose breathing on my commute. But now I can put the entire book into practice. 

I already did a warm-up for my ribs before the Trentham race. Did that work? No idea! But I ran a good time. 

So what now? I should keep going with the nose breathing and the breathing warmups. And try to slot in some CO2 tolerance exercises, like hill sprints while holding my breath. And just hope I manage to book steady progress with it. 

I haven’t set a new distance PB since the (easy) one in March. It suggests I have so far not quite made as much progress as I hoped. But if I keep going, maybe that will change! And I don’t think there are any negative side effects to learning to breathe more efficiently…

Preparing for cat sitters

I’m travelling again, and that means a cat sitter. And a cat sitter means getting the house ready. And ready means clean and tidy. 

This fits perfectly with my recent initiatives, partially inspired by Neil, to get the house tidier. It is super dull to be cleaning so much, but maybe it is worth it to put some good effort in. It will be easier to maintain it at a higher standard if beforehand I've done one big push to reset that standard. I hope it will work out this way!

Clean!

I also know that no matter how much effort I put in, it will never be impeccable. I suppose the house doesn't really lend itself to that. With its way too many rough edges where dust can pile up, and too much access for spiders and slugs and whatnot, and because it is subdivided into so many little rooms, there are so many surfaces. But I'll see what I can do! At least there is an end to this. As soon as I go to bed the night before I travel, that's it. The next morning I have an early train, so no more cleaning then.

House-sitters tend to leave the house clean as well, so I can enjoy the fruits of my (and their) work when I come back!

Making progress on my application

When I was done with my rubrics I could, or should I say, ran out of excuses not to, get on with my application for Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Last year I had made a good start, after only having a good look at the process in 2023, but a start is not enough. The whole thing needs finishing.

I struggled to get going. You have to write about how fab you are! And that’s not something that comes naturally to me. But the application contains two case studies, and these have to be backed up by literature. And when I got to the point where I needed to consult said literature, I perked up. And I finally hit my stride. Now I actually enjoy it! And there is still a lot  (a LOT!) of work to be done, but at least I am now making progress…

Jacko has his world record!

Back in late May I went for a little run with Jacko, The breathing coach who had done a session for the Eryri Harriers, and who is also the brother of one of my former colleagues. He had just started his world record attempt at doing the most consecutive ultramarathons for a man. He wanted to do 80 km every day for 100 days. It didn't quite work out that way. He got injured after some two weeks, and had to tone it down to 50 km. That still counts as ultramarathons! So that would still result in a world record, if he would manage to keep it up for more than 80 days. He only aimed for 100 because he could, I suppose.

The most consecutive ultramarathons for a person, by the way, is in the hands of a lady called Candice Burt, who did 200. He won't go anywhere near that. 

He has now reached that threshold of 80 consecutive ultramarathons, which until then had been the male world record. And that got some publicity. Neil saw an item about it on ITV. I couldn't find anything on mainstream media, but hey, if he reached Neil on TV he must have reached more. That's great! He is doing it all for two brain injury charities, and with the breaking of the record he got national attention, and hopefully, that attention will lead to more donations. He had tried to raise a million, but before reaching the world record stage I think he had only raised some £20,000.

He is now doing the last few weeks. I’m sure he’ll get to 100 ultramarathons. What crazy challenge will he think of next? I don’t think he will be going into a 9 to 5, with some sensible running on the side, now… 

From Facebook

In early September, he will be back in North Wales to finish his 100 days. It will be triumphant! And when I ran with him, he said that the world record was only a bonus and the important thing was basically challenging himself, and raising money for charity, but I still think the world record matters. The amount of donations coming in after he reached it will be the judge of that, I suppose! 

Upcoming conference in Bangor being with the times

In September, the Challenger conference will take place in Bangor. I will be involved in that; there will be field excursions, and I'm leading one of them. But this post is about something else.

I got an email from Tom, who is in charge of the whole thing, and he said that as is standard at the conference, people will be wearing badges with their name and affiliation. You normally get a card holder and a card at the beginning of the conference, generally on a lanyard. Some people have bucket-loads of these in their office, from all the conferences they have been to. And Tom and the rest of the organisation thought they could use that to the benefit of the environment. Why not reuse them? So he put out a call to the whole school to ask if people would be willing to donate their old badge holders. I think that is an amazing idea! I rummaged in my stuff and unearthed two of them. Not many, but two that don't have to be made from virgin plastic! Or even recycled plastic. 

I hope they manage to get enough of these for the whole conference. I think this is the future! Reduce, reuse, recycle. And I got some satisfaction from not having thrown these away, and even knowing where I had put them. This is the sort of thing I hope will happen if I save something like that!

First own topic

It took a few months, but I have received the first student proposal for a self-designed dissertation topic! I told the students in May that they could take this opportunity. Some tumbleweed followed. But now I have had the first student give it a go. It is possible that this is the beginning of a surge. Inevitably, this surge will be at its peak just before the deadline. It tends to be like that. Not everyone will succeed. 
This first student didn't have their proposal approved straight away. I had some questions that needed answering about the exact research question, and the data. But there is plenty of time to sort that out.
I hope this year will have a lovely balance between number of students that will get their own topic over the line, the amount of time I have to spend on it, and the amount of satisfaction the students get from this. One way to find out!

There was sea ice in this proposal

 

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!