Borders League Birkenhead

It was a close call between the Anglesey 10k and the Borders League in Birkenhead. I had decided that I was not going to drive on my own all the way to Birkenhead. I would only go there if there was car sharing involved. And then I got a message that Helen wanted to car share. And then Anna joined too. So that decided that. Birkenhead it would be!

The day before the race, it turned out that Anna had acquired a bug, and dropped out. That was a pity. But I didn't change my plan. If I'm so against showing up in a car with only one person in it, then I shouldn't be the reason for Helen doing that. So we went. 

Luckily, Helen had been there before, because I was losing all sense of direction when we hit the actual town. To my surprise, parking was easy. We decided to get our race numbers first. Yes, race numbers! Normally you don't have these in a Borders League, but it seemed that the organisation wanted to try out the system, in order to maybe implement it fully in the next season. 

When we were on our way we also saw Olivia, who I had last seen at the Nick Beer. She had told me she had joined a running club, and was thinking of doing Borders League races. And this one was totally in her neck of the wood! It was good to see her. I also ate a sandwich, as I didn't think it would be a good idea to run the whole race only on my breakfast.

When we had our numbers we had a little walk through the park to see where the start and the finish were. I had been told that this park had inspired the design of Central Park in New York! I could imagine it had. It was nice. Then we went back to get into our running kit. I left my jumper on; I figured it was too cold to prance around in only a vest and shorts. This was the first time this year I was running in less than a T-shirt and leggings!

The partner of one of the runners, who wasn't running herself, was so kind as to take my jumper at the start, so I would have it again at the finish. And then we went off! There was no chip reader at the start, so even though we had race numbers (with chip), starting at the back was still a disadvantage. I suppose it only makes things easier for the organisation.

I started a bit fast, but caught myself within tens of meters, I didn't want to exhaust myself in the beginning, and I settled into a pace I thought I could maintain.

We are off! 

We started on a very wide path, heading for an exit, but then making a U-turn and heading back in. That means you could see the runners come the other way, and get an idea of what was going on at the front. And shout encouragements at fellow club members. 

Soon after that switchback we turned into a much narrower path. Overtaking there was a bit more of an issue. But we would do three laps of this park, and the field would certainly thin out. 

The weather was nice and I was feeling good and the kilometres ticked away. And when I came past the start for the third time, I knew that there weren't any women within reach in front of me, nor were there behind me that still had a reasonable chance of overtaking me. So in a way, I could relax. But I did try to keep my speed up.

 

Almost at the finish

Even almoster

When I had finished I shouted at a few more Harriers, but between the second last and the last finishing (there weren’t many of us) I went to get my jumper. And a Welsh cake. Nia Meleri had baked them as it was St David’s day! 

After the race we tried a club picture, and several of us then went to race headquarters for a cup of tea. And then we went home again. And the results came in quite quickly! That is the advantage of chip timing.

I was happy with my result! 7.85 km in 33:55. And 24th woman. 

There seems to be a lot of trouble with authorities this season. This race should have been in Wrexham, but the council seems to have torpedoed that. It seems the Harriers also have issues with their usual Borders League location, for reasons of the council. And the next fixture later this month seems to be having similar problems, and the venue for that race has therefore not been announced yet. I hope it’ll be somewhere not too far away! 

Much tree progress

When the neighbour, who wanted more light in his garden, started cutting down a big tree on the boundary between his garden and mine, I thought I would have a lot of work on. The deal is that he drops all bits of tree in my garden, and that I get the firewood. And he has a chainsaw, so he cuts the big bits 2 size. He tends to leave what doesn't need a chainsaw for cutting.

After that first day I removed all the side branches from the wood I wanted to use as firewood, took the cut bits into the garage and stacked them, threw away what I considered too flimsy, and cut the thinner but still usable branches to size as well. And I expected him to create a new load for me pretty soon after.

It turned out he took a break. There was nothing new coming for a while! Until, at the very end of February, he had the spirit again. 

It turned out that this time, he meant business. I was just working on clearing the first batch when he already showed up to create a second. For a while we were both working on it. He cut two wedges out of trunk that stuck out into my garden, until it sagged with a "crack". I wondered if we should somehow get a rope around it and bring it down, but he had a more pragmatic approach. He went back into his own garden, from which he could kick the trunk. That immediately brought it down! Neatly into my berry shrub.

What I found on the Saturday afternoon 

Work for me to do

Then he brought this one down: more work

I helped him cut that trunk in two, but then I had to go and do other things. And the day after I wasn't going to be there. But when I came back I saw that he had also managed to take down the remaining two trunks. He has done it! An amateur with a battery-powered Aldi- bought mini chainsaw, and he got rid of the entire tree. So his work is now done. Mine sure isn't yet! But at the end of it, I'll have a lovely a load of firewood, and a little think back on these days in a year or two, snug by the fire…

Inspired visit to recycling centre

I mentioned before that Neil is a very tidy man, and that that is rubbing off on me. Together we cleaned my car and my kitchen extension. And I’m not messy for the sake of it; I just tend do have more important things to do than tidying and cleaning. And I find it difficult to throw things away. Maybe they could come in handy one day? But I do feel some background rumbles in my head about that several aspects of my house(hold) should be tidier and cleaner. 

Recently, thinking of Neil inspired me to do some long due tidying and cleaning in the living room. But last weekend I took a bigger step. I went to the recycling centre for the first time in years. Some of the things I got rid of were my old bread machine that had served me enough by now, and my old worn out foot pump, and a mirror Rose had left, and loads of old lightbulbs. I forgot to take a picture. 

It’s not Earth-shattering, but it might be one step in a greater shift towards a tidier house. I have also been thinking about things I can get rid of via other means: either the bin, or eBay. Would I manage to raise the general tidiness of my house on the longer timescale? 

Ominous Friday message

It was Friday and a bombshell landed in my inbox. It was a message about Windows 10. I first wondered if it was a phishing attempt, but it really was from our own IT helpdesk. It said that if your computer will still working on Windows 10, it would stop working by Monday. Right! Not sure if that is a good thing to announce on the Friday. They said that if you were one of those atavists, you should let them know so I quickly did.

They responded quickly they asked me where my office was, and they would send someone to fix the problem. I told him I was in Menai Bridge. That tends not to be met with a lot of enthusiasm by services on main campus. I then heard nothing for a while.

When I asked them if anything was going to happen they said that now that they knew I was a Windows 10 user, my computer wouldn't stop working on Monday. I hoped that would be true! But still, someone needed to come and sort it out.

In the meantime I had been wondering how this came falling out of the sky, and I remembered it didn't. There had been communication about this in January. They had booked me in for switch-over, but nobody had showed up. I had assumed that maybe they had done it while I was not in my office, I had forgotten about it. But now the matter was again in the forefront of my mind! 

I know that IT services has suffered in the latest financial restructuring, but I do think that is a false economy. We all depend on our computers, and if you get situations with computers spontaneously stopping working, that could be very disruptive. I hope in this case all turns out well. But I'd rather be sure!

 

Carneddau horseshoe

Neil is doing an epic hike in spring, and wants to get himself ready for it. Some good long hikes are in order. And I had suggested the Carneddau horseshoe. I am in that general area quite a lot, but I hadn't done the full horseshoe in years! And it's a walk you can just do from my front door. He thought it was a good idea.

The forecast was partially cloudy during the day, and rain in the later afternoon. Good enough. 

When we started walking up the ridge towards Carnedd Dafydd it was indeed cloudy, and I feared a bit we would end up with our face in the clouds. To a certain extent, that was true. Sometimes it lifted a little bit and you got some of the amazing views. And it also got quite windy. I know that wouldn't be getting any less until we would come down on the other side!

On Mynydd Du, with Carnedd Dafydd in the cloud in the distance 

Scaling Carnedd Dafydd

We reached the summit of Carnedd Dafydd quite abruptly. And by that point it was time for coffee and a snack. And a leak. I struggled to stay upright when I was heading for a rock to crouch behind. I wasn't sure if this ridge walk would really work in these conditions. But we would give it a go. You can always descend the flank of the hill if you want to bail. 

After coffee we went on, and it was ok. We were fully out of the cloud now, and the views were amazing. There were still some snow remnants. 

Hike selfie

Snow above the Black Ladders

Sunny views

When we got to the wind shelter on Carnedd Gwenllian  we sat down for lunch. It was snug in the shelter, and outside the wind was howling. We were joined by a fell runner. 

After lunch we continued our way. It was still very blowy! I sometimes had to stand still and brace myself so as to not be blown over. But the views were still great! They got a bit gloomier over time when the weather turned. But we could just leg it home now. And we did.

Clouds come in

In the end we had done 21 km and 1150 m of ascent, in some 7 hours. Not bad! And peanuts in comparison to his epic hike, but well, Im sure it helped a bit! 

Ceiling update

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

The three patched holes in the downstairs bedroom 

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

Faffing with the stove

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

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

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

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

Gluing the original rope back

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

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