Travel to the Netherlands: friends

When going to the Netherlands, seeing family is not the only objective. It’s nice to see some friends. I always try to see Roelof and Monique, and I often also try to fit in some more swamp hikers, like Erik and Viking and Henco and Maaike. 

This time, Monique was the first I visited. We caught up. She reads this blog quite religiously, so already knows much. But there is always more to discuss. And we went for a lovely walk! 

View on our walk

I also popped by at Henco and Maaike’s. We could update each other on issues discussed on Anglesey. And we pondered swamp hikes.

I also, on the last night, went to visit Viking, and Roelof and Erik joined in. And the entire family was home. Including the cat! We had a lovely night eating vegan Bolognese, catching up, putting the world to right, and trying to sort out the next swamp hike. We didn’t quite manage the latter, but we made progress. It was a good night! And it got a bit later and more alcoholic than strictly recommended, but it was worth it. More of this next time! 

When Roelof and Erik had left, Simba saw his chance

In the Netherlands: family

My main aim when I go to the Netherlands is always family. I almost always make a bee line to my mum when I reach the country. This time was no exception. And the day after my arrival I would have lunch with my sister and two cousins. And I would go and visit my dad. 

Visiting my mum worked out as intended. We had a nice time catching up over a cup of coffee or a glass of port. And I can use her place as a starting point for runs, which I did. 

Having lunch with my cousins was not such a success. Both of them cancelled on the day. That was sad! I had been looking forward to seeing them. But then I just had lunch with my sister. That’s nice too. And then we went to her place together, and I also got to see her husband and two of the children (who are not children). And the cat. 

Sister lunch

I also visited my dad. He was not entirely well! He had intended to pick me up from the railway station, but that hadn’t worked. His body just wasn’t having it. But he recovered, and with the three of us we could later successfully go for some ice cream. And we did a bit of practicing with modern means of communication. 

Late summer ice cream

Altogether not a spectacular story, but nice to see everyone again. And yes my parents are noticing their age. But that is to be expected. It was good to see them! 

Travel to the Netherlands

Travelling to the Netherlands by train is a bit of a gamble. It can go smoothly! But you can have frustrating delays as well. I was hoping that this time, all would be well. Obviously.

It started well! The direct train to London wasn’t cancelled, and just ran on time. I toot the opportunity to have lunch on the courtyard of the National Library. After a 3:20 hr train journey I wanted some fresh air! And I found out the Eurostar terminal has a water bottle filling tap. And I had a nice chat with a fellow passenger.

My lunch view

The trains to Brussels and Amsterdam were fine. I had decided to get out in Schiphol; that’s quicker. But then the next train to Amersfoort was cancelled. Bugger! But I just took the next one to Utrecht, and that worked out too, with not too much delay. I was at my mum’s so early I drank a beer with her before going to bed. That means something! I had got up at 5am. A successful trip! 

This should have been my train to Amersfoort. The doors did not open. 

Solar panel trouble

‘They are not producing’. The IR installer had his head in the cupboard where my consumer unit is. My solar panels are connected to that. I assumed it was too late in the day to generate electricity.

When I had bought a new phone I had struggled to get access to my apps, including the one having to do with my solar panels and my battery. I used to open them with my fingerprint, but that didn’t work with a new phone, and I didn’t find it straightforward to get that functionality back. And I really dislike that sort of faff. I prioritised the battery app as that gives information about both the panels and the battery. It made it to the top of the to do list and one weekend I sorted it out.

In the beginning, I had been looking at the graphs on the panels app a lot, to see how much I was generating, but first the novelty wore off. Then it became less relevant when I got the battery. Suddenly it didn’t matter anymore if I boil the kettle when the sun is shining or after it has gone down! And then that malarkey with the new phone. I just didn’t check anymore.

The remark of the IR installer did remind me I should have a look at this. And I did. I really wasn’t generating. And hadn’t for a while. Shit! 

I felt really grumpy about that. It’s summer! If your panels are not working and you don’t do anything about it, the best of the season is lost. Why am I not more disciplined? 

I figured initially I should get the company that installed the whole setup to sort me out. But they were very uncommunicative, and also, I hadn’t thought of Neil. He is an electrical engineer and immediately wanted to do something about it. The next time we would see each other would be at my place anyway, and his hands were itching to get to my inverter. 

While he was crouching in my attic space, I sorted out my access to the app again. Which turned out to be a lot easier than doing the same with the battery app. And the app did give some information. Neil decided some of the electronics needed to be reconfigured. That sounded complicated to me, but less so to him. Soon after that session, though, I would travel abroad, so any interventions would have to wait. 

Oh dear

When I’m back I guess we will be back at this. I hope Neil can sort it! I’m useless with this sort of technology. And if not I’ll get a professional in. I didn’t spend that much money on the panels and the battery for the whole shebang to do precisely nothing! 

Cleaning for the cat sitter

I would be visiting the Netherlands again, and that means cleaning the house. I got me a house-sitter again. And I want to make sure these feel comfortable in my house, even if they have higher hygiene standards than me. Which is far from rare. 

There was a lot of dusting, and cobweb removing, and sweeping, and hoovering, and soaping, and unclogging. And laundry. And window cleaning. I was satisfied with the result. I hope the cat sitter is too. 

There were some last minute issues; the cat was chasing a mouse through my bedroom at 4:15 on the morning of my departure, and I don’t know what happened to it. There were no signs of it having been eaten. It might still be around!

I also evicted a very large spider from the kitchen sink before I left. Not everyone would be pleased finding it. I didn’t discuss views on spiders with the cat sitter. She does know my cat hunts and is ok with that. 

Generally, you get your house back even cleaner than you left it, so I expect to come back to a still impeccable house. It’s dull doing the cleaning beforehand, but I seem to need the external motivation. My thoughts on maybe keeping my house at pre-cat-sitter-standards that I formulated last time didn’t result in that actually happening. Oh well!

Not sure it’s obvious but there is a conspicuously low amount of cobwebs (indoor) and dirt (on outside of window) in this picture

The Orme for biking and geology

It was a bank holiday! So we had the Monday off. You might have guessed it: I decided to spend it with Neil. And we decided to focus on two activities we both like but have a completely different approach to: biking and staring at rocks.

I love my bike commute, but I very rarely use my bicycle for exercise. Road biking is his main sport. I thought we might see if we are vaguely compatible, so I brought my bike in when I visited. And after some coffee and cake we got on our bikes. We would do just a simple loop around the Orme. It's not really far! But it would be far enough to get an idea of whether we might want to do this at longer distances in the future.

Neil lives a bit more than halfway up the Orme, and we decided to go up first. That first bit is quite steep! I couldn't keep up with Neil. And on the downhill, past St Tudno’s church, I obviously couldn't either because whether I'm on a bike or on my feet; downhill I'm not very fast. But the difference wasn't painful. And I was on a relatively heavy commuter bike, while he was on a featherlight carbon bike, and clipped in. 

It was nice to bike this road for a change! I had once driven around, and run around several times. And we had a little break for a sip of water at a point with very good views. 

We biked up by the church as well, as that is less steep than going the way I had driven. It was fine! But we didn’t take any pictures. 

Neil thinks he’s only faster because of his superior kit. I don’t know if that’s true. But we both enjoyed it so we will go and find out. I’d say this won’t have been the last time we do this.

There was still time so we did a little geology trip too. Neil wanted to know more about the Orme, and I love swotting up on things like that, so I had done a little search, and found a field guide. We could fit in one or two locations! And we did. We mostly looked at a sandy freshwater member, but also looked for Brachiopods in a limestone formation. 

We finished it all off with a beer with his neighbour. A good day! I think all of it will be followed up…

The sandy member with a sheep on top

On the way back

First module website launched!

I was just working on my Personal Development Review documentation when I decided to check if the students had been enrolled on the module website of the dissertation module. And they had! And that meant I could open it to the students. So I did! I like to have this site available asap. It’s good to have a repository of information. Some students are already thinking about their project. 

I had to add the staff myself. A pain, but doable. So now it’s open, and it feels like that brought the new academic year a bit closer…