Madfabulous

In North Wales, most people are aware of the legendary figure of the fifth Marquess of Anglesey. He lived around the turn of the century, and he is famous for being very flamboyant, and blowing the family fortune on costumes a jewels and whatnot. And dying young.

arguably the most famous picture of the Marquess

His life has now been turned into a film. As soon as I heard about that, I was interested in seeing it. It would be a colourful film! And when I ask Neil whether he wanted to see it too, he even said yes. So we headed for Caernarfon to see it in Galeri. 

It starts with the Marquess, 20 years old, arriving at Plas Newydd. His aunt and two cousins are already living there, by the grace of the marquess’ father, who is the Earl of Uxbridge. He makes a grand entrance in a dress previously worn by his late mother. And he is already coughing up blood. He is clearly suffering from consumption.

His aunt, (male) cousin and the butler kept a straight face, but it was clear they were not happy with this total disregardful for how one is perceived to have to behave as nobility. The female cousin seems intrigued. She doesn't seem to be overly keen on how one is supposed to behave as nobility herself.

How much is any of this close to reality? I don't think we know. One thing history does know is that later marquesses tried to erase his memory, and burnt all his papers. So there are no diaries, letters, or any of that. And I suppose that doesn't hold for everyone in this story, but I still think that that although the basic factors are known, such as when he went to Plas Newydd, information such as quite what reception he got, and what he was wearing, are just a guess.

Anyway. He clearly has no idea how to manage an estate. He does realise he's quite rich, and he loves that that means he can go into town and spend money like water. And he wants to have some fun with that. They also have him treat the servants as people. Is that conjecture? No idea! But Lily, his cousin, loves the fun. She's also scared that her future is to be married off. Nearby hated figure Lord Penrhyn is interested (this seems to be entirely made up; the guy had been married for some 20 years, to his second wife, at this point in time). She clearly sees her cousin as a way of escaping this. It is never specified, but suggested, he is gay, but that shouldn’t get in the way. They get married.

Given that he has consumption, he needs regular medical care. One physician (and I assume this is poetic license) is clearly aware he won't live long, and recommends he live his life to the max. There are some people to whom you probably shouldn't say things like that. 

It doesn't take long for things to go downhill. He invites a theatre troupe to live on the estate. His wife is not happy with that. She says they are taking advantage of him. And he is portrayed as someone it is quite easy to take advantage of. On the other hand; he starts an account with all the shops in the area that sell stuff he likes: cloth, jewellery, photography. And over time it is hinted at that he is not paying the bills. But he does distribute glamorous photographs of himself in exotic costumes, and he stages all sorts of exotic shows. That part is clearly true! But this does not come cheap.

In the meantime, he still misses his mum, and is still feeling the rejection of his dad. He is eternally hoping his dad will either visit him, or send an invitation to come to the estate in England where he lives. This is not happening.

The male cousin, in the meantime, does carry the approval of the dad (or uncle as it is for him.) As a male family member, he is clearly interested in a slice of the cake, and not happy with his cousin squandering said cake.

Finally, an invitation arrives, and the Marquess heads for England. But instead of meeting his dad, he there and then receives the title of Earl of Uxbridge. His father sent the invitation on his deathbed, and is dead now. 

Things go from bad to worse. His coping strategies are to spend money on more theatrical excesses. His wife is getting fed up. His male cousin, and other people, are plotting against him. Can they have him be declared insane, stripped of the title, so it can be given to somebody else? This bit is also quite believable.

The film then turns a bit slapstick. For some reason, Lord Penrhyn leads an initiative to seize him and have him dragged off to some lunatic asylum. But the locals, like the jeweller and the cloth merchant and the photographer, are still on his side. And they perform a big distraction manoeuvre where several of them don one of the costumes of the Marquess, so Lord Penrhyn doesn't know which figure to chase after. And the Marquess escapes by boat.

Before the credits roll, it is revealed that he lived out the rest of his very short life in southern France, on a modest allowance, and that his wife came to visit him on his deathbed. In the film, it is suggested she still loves him, but can't cope with how he is making a mess of everything. Again, I have no idea how much we know about her inner life, but it is made very believable.

I think this would have been a bit of a ridiculous film if most of it wouldn't have been true! It is a bit tragic that it largely is. And I thought the acting was impeccable. And it was nice to see this local history brought to life. Plas Newydd features (obviously), but only apparently from the outside; the inside shots seem to have been done elsewhere. Penrhyn Castle is also in there, pretending to be in England. I thought I recognised Vaynol Estate for some outside shots. 

We both enjoyed it! I don't think there will be loads of films we would both be interested in, but this was a great night out!

Trying to install Dragon

It was March that I got a new computer. The old one ran on Windows 10, and the University didn't support that anymore. But with my old computer went my voice recognition software, that I rely so much on. 

I did keep working. My phone, after all, take dictation. So if I needed to write feedback for a student assignment, or a form related to academic integrity issues, or any of that sort of things, I would just dictate to my phone, and then email it to myself. Except, of course, if I had to write an email; I would do that straight from my phone. But it is a lot of faff! I wanted my software back.

It's not just efficiency. It's also health. If I, for instance, would have to fill out an academic integrity form, I would make sure to dictate the body of the text on my phone, and copy and paste that in. But you have to fill out smaller amounts of text as well; the name of the student, their student number, the name of their academic tutor, et cetera. You're not going to email these to yourself, so then it is tempting to just type it. So then I would be typing more than I should. And my RSI got worse again.

I did get permission to order a new license. The conditions of the old license were such that I couldn't install the software on any new machines. And I figured that would be straightforward. You just buy a new license, and then you get to download it straight from the company website, right? It's software; there is no shipping or manufacturing or any of that. Just a download.

It didn't work that way. It seemed to have worked that way before, the company had been brought up by some behemoth, and all procedures had changed. And not for the better. I kept chasing and chasing the IT people. 

Somewhere along the line I developed a golf elbow. By now I think it was just RSI. And I got stricter with myself. No typing of names or student numbers! Have discipline, and make sure to copy and paste everything. It's still mouse and keyboard work, but less than typing everything out. Some of these students have rather long names.

Finally, IT said it was sorted. I could download the software. I just had to fill out my details, and the license number. I thought that that would be the end of it. I loved watching that progress bar move slowly to the right.

A new dawn?

The download wouldn't work. My computer claimed network issues. The rest of the network seemed to work fine. I downloaded it for me, I put it in a folder they gave me access to. This time I could download it. Success! But then, of course, you have to install it. I ran the .exe file. That as well asks for the license number. I gave that. The software said it was wrong. How could it be wrong? It did allow me to download the software in the first place. How could it now be wrong? 

I didn't know how much longer this would take! I was glad something was happening, but I won't be fully happy until it is just running, and lets me talk through my computer once again…

Finally planting the vegetables out

I planted beans, kale and beetroot in late April. By early May, I had sizeable seedlings. And then life happened. 

The idea was to let them get so big that I figured they could survive in the garden. And then, obviously, put them in the garden. But I never found the time. And then I went to the Netherlands. Accidentally, that was during a heat wave. The catsitter did say she was watering my seedlings, but the conservatory in a heatwave is quite a hostile environment. When I got back, most of the beetroot plants were still alive, but fewer than half of the bean plants, and none of the kale. 

Now I finally have found the time put them outside! That's four bean plants and quite a lot of beetroot. I hope they will do well. There are many enemies; drought, a cat who thinks this vegetable patch is a cat toilet, and a squirrel who thinks it is a squirrel larder. And potentially slugs and caterpillars. I never had problems with these before when I grew beetroot, nor when I grew peas (and I assume that for a slug, pea plants and bean plants are quite similar). But you never know.

Finally outside! 

Veg enemy #1

I have planted a few more beans now. I don't think it's too late for that yet. And I think I have enough beetroot plants for a while. I might plant some potatoes.

So far the vegetable year has not been very productive, but it might still improve!

Bryn Celli Ddu Open Day

Sometimes, social media actually does something good. Keeping an eye on things I had seen that both GeoMôn and James Dilly, the experimental archaeologist, would attend an open day at Bryn Celli Ddu, arguably the most famous Neolithic monument in North Wales. That sounded fun! And Neil is borderline obsessed with the sort of work that James Dilly does, so he didn't need any encouragement to go there.

We arrived at the normal parking lot, to the west of the actual monument. We were early enough to be able to park there. When we got to location, we saw Dei getting his stall ready. Other people were already active. I could see James in the distance, and there were clearly more experimental people; next to Dei was a bloke making swirly decorations in stone, like what you could see on a standing just outside the actual burial mound. We could see that today, you could actually park on the other side. 

Dei with his GeoMôn stand

Swirly pattern man

We had a nice chat with Dei, and then had a look at the man with the swirly patterns. He had also brought several axes. Neil was mesmerised. 

Then we made our way to James’ setup. I let them chat away while I admired everything that was going on in the tent. Axes, spears, swords (he does both the Neolithic and the Bronze Age), jewellery, buckets, bellows, antlers, whatnot. I loved it! 

A bit later he would do a demonstration, but now we left him to it. There was more to see! Next door were two ladies in Neolithic outfits doing textile work. One was making a net. We talked about flax and nettles and how you make thread with that. One of them was wearing a nettle dress. Fascinating! 

We also went into the mound itself. Neil had never been! And then the demo started. This was all about making a stone hand axe. We had seen that before! But it was still impressive to see how he starts with a big lump of rock, and within 20 minutes has a usable axe. And he talked about why you would want to polish them. Not just for good looks! And gave a lot of background information. He knows his stuff.

Knapping

When he was done we looked at the other things going on; there was a potter there, and another textile lady who was working with wool. 

There would be another demo; this one about casting bronze. We make sure we had had some food and drink before that, and put our warmest clothes on, as it was windy. And we said hello to another James; this was one of our students who will graduate this summer. After summer he will start a Welsh language PhD in our school. It will be great to keep him for a few more years.

The bronze casting was exciting as well! Neil had seen it all before; he had even done it himself. But he was quite happy to see it again. 

Casting the bronze

When that demo was over we were almost Neolithically saturated. We admired a bloke we had seen at the Vikings talk blow a Bronze Age horn, said goodbye to Dei, and made our way back.

Bronze Age horn blowing

As we were on Anglesey anyway, we decided to tag on a little visit to Lleiniog beach, to see the amazing sediments we are dragging the students to every year. So we did! And it turned out that Neil had been before, but he had never really paid attention to the sediments. He agreed that they were spectacular. And then it was time for us to go home. It had been a good day all around!

First general UCET trip

I had been underground with the UCET ladies quite many times now. I had never done a conventional trip, which is open to all. But that was set to change when there was a western trip for everyone. It is a mine I like, and I thought it would be nice to show my face to the men of the club as well.

I showed up to a somewhat midge-infested meeting place. It was not a big trip; only eight of us would be there. And when we had all got kitted up we were keen to get in, leaving the midges behind.

The plan had been to split into two groups. There was a pitch down and, a bit further along, a pitch up. I was happy to be on the group that went up, with Gw.yneth, whom I know, and two of the blokes: Oggy and Greg. Never having been on a standard club trip I obviously didn't know them yet. And after going up we could later swap around and go down the other pitch.

It's a nice little pitch, and there is a bit of a level to explore when you get up it. Of our little group, I was the only one who had done it before. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it! And then we went down. Oggy went first. Me second. But then something unfortunate happened. I accidentally nudged a stemple with my shoulder. And  dislodged it.

Greg coming up 

Greg and Gwyneth on a traverse

You always try to leave a mine as you found it! It is industrial heritage, after all. I had a good go at wedging it back in, but I just couldn't make it work. And I was scared that if I would manage, it wouldn't be very secure, and it would come down a next time. Maybe with someone underneath it. I decided I had to send it down now, as I could control if there would be anyone underneath. I shouted really loud at Oggy to get out of the way, and then I dropped it down the pitch. I felt really bad about that. But I would have felt worse if later down the line, someone would have got hurt.

When we were all down, we had a look what the others were up to. It didn't look like they were imminently coming up, so we headed further into the level. We got to a beautiful stope with a lovely ladder in it. From there you can keep going, but it is quite wet. Nobody seemed to fancy it! So after some dawdling we went back. By then, the others were coming up. There had been a bit of a kit mishap and they hadn't got down all the way to the bottom.

Gwyneth in a high stope

Two ladies who had come up were keen on going even further up, so they headed for the pitch we had just vacated. Mary figured she had done enough SRT. Greg and Oggy went down. I wasn't all too. bothered about it; I had been there many times, and if people wanted to get out I didn't want to keep them. And when everyone had seen what they wanted to see we indeed went out again.

Outside we took a group picture, and then we went back to the cars. The midges and mosquitoes had beaten us to it! We thought they had been out in force before we went in. We hadn't seen nothing yet. I changed back into my civilian kit, and decided to then say goodbye and leave. The others were going to the pub afterwards, but their choice of pub was in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go, so I left them to it. 

Group picture

It had been a modest trip! But quite enjoyable. Very successful as my first trip with the general UCET crew! 

Undergraduate finalists board meeting

At the end of the academic year, there are many meetings taking place. We need to evaluate all modules. Did anything go awry? Do we need to moderate any marks? And we have to go through all students. Will they pass to the next year? Will they graduate? 

Some of these meetings are done with all staff present; for instance, meetings in which we decide if all the modules ran properly, and we can accept all the grades. But the meetings where we discuss the individual students always happened out of my sight.. 

You might imagine that as all grades are digitally recorded, the progression is processed automatically. It is not. We look at all students. And when I say “we”, I mean the Director of Teaching and Learning, the Senior Tutor, the Assessment Officer, and some members of Student Administration. Or rather; that’s what it used to be like. But this year, they asked me to be there too, as the Academic Integrity officer. 

I didn’t have much to do! The thing is; I had sent an overview of all the Academic Integrity cases. I also was up-to-date with the admin. So there wasn't really much need for me to be there. I suppose the only time I snapped into action is when I spotted that a student had been penalised, but the mark this meeting had access to had not been amended yet. (Student administration can sometimes take a while to respond to information.) So I mentioned that, and they amended it there and then.

I might raise that I was in a meeting between nine and three, and only was useful once. I might suggest that next year, we do this differently. Maybe a brief half hour pre-meeting of one administrator with me, where we check all changes have been implemented. And then the six hour meeting without me. And if needs be, I can just be in my office, one phone call away, in case they have any questions after all. 

It was interesting to see this process in action! But I think that once is enough. We'll see if the powers that be agree with me…

New bridge opened!

It is finished! The new foot- and bike bridge over the Ogwen has been opened. And with it, the bicycle paths around it. We can use the full route again. Great! 

It took a bit longer than I thought but it’s there now. And I have to admit; it looks good. And now I have faith there won’t be any work on this stretch of the bike route for a fair while! 

Opening (pic taken from social media)

The new bridge, with the approach to the old one festooned with a picnic table