New family contact

In 2024, one of my cousins on my mother’s side, Jennifer,  got in touch with my sister. And through my sister, she got in touch with me. We even met up!

Since then, things have trundled along. Several other cousins have now joined in. When I saw my sister over Christmas, she told me of a concert several of them will be attending. It is very logistically difficult for me to join in with any of that, but I like the fact that this is going on.

Jennifer also has good contact with two of our aunts. And recently, I got the request, through her and my sister, if I will be happy to have a chat with one of them. Of course I was! And soon we did have a phone call.

The last time I met this lady, José, in person (any Latin readers might be surprised at me having an aunt with that name but there we are) what was when I was a child. By now I wouldn't recognise her if I bumped into her. And unless she has seen recent pictures of me, I'm sure that is mutual. But it was lovely to talk to such a voice from the past. And now she is a voice from the present again. Quite unexpectedly! 

Ragnarok

Yes, the apocalypse of the Norse mythology. But also: no, not that Ragnarok. I this case, I am referring to the book by A.S. Byatt. This book, however, is named after the apocalypse of the Norse mythology. But it is set in WWII Britain. My sister liked the writer, and knows I like Nordic mythology, so she figured it would be a great birthday present. And it was!

One imagines the book to be partly autobiographical. The protagonist is a child that is evacuated during the war, and when it ends, goes back to Sheffield, where she came from. That seems to match with the life of the writer. And this child loves to read. That also seems to match with the life of the writer. And this girl reads a translation of the Norse story of the end of the world. Even though it isn't, really. It's a bit of a biblical flood kind of story; everything that was gets destroyed, but afterwards there is a new start.

The protagonist isn't keen on that new start. Is she keen on returning to Sheffield? Not necessarily.

I like to reading the thoughts of this child. She is quite pensive for her age. And does ponder function of myths, and contrasts paganism with christianity. And think about the critical notes in her own Ragnarok book, where the translator comments on that not all parts might be of the same age, and might have been created in effectively different worlds.

I'm burning through books this week! They say you should start as you intend to go on. I don't think I'll keep this up! But I'll try to not slow down too much…

Local library

It's always fun to blog about triumphs! But sometimes when you blog, you end up broadcasting your failures. This is one of those posts I find a bit difficult.

I moved to North Wales yonks ago. And as you guessed from the title, I only joined the library now. I feel a bit bad about it! If you don’t use these facilities, they vanish. And borrowing books instead of buying them is more environmentally friendly, and doesn’t lead to your house cluttering up. Only advantages! 

Why didn’t I? I suppose it never made it to the top of the to do list. I don’t read much. I can borrow anything from the University library, which is a lot bigger. When I tried in Plymouth, I was a bit disappointed by the range of books available (I seem not to have blogged about that). It tends to take me longer than the borrowing period to read a book. 

What got me to snap into action? Welsh class! We will be reading a book for it. I had a look in the local Welsh books shop, but they didn’t have it. The University library seemed to only have it in digital form. So then I got my skates on and became a member of the library in my town. It’s free to join, and really close by! And they had the book. 

Now I'm a member! I intend to visit fairly regularly from now on. But I should get my teeth into that book for Welsh class first!

Cam i’r gorffennol

It took me about a year but I finished it! And I've had this book for years. I bought it from the author himself; he is a local celebrity, as he had been in the most famous punk band in Wales ever, but is also an archaeologist. And I like archaeology. And I've been on two guided tours with him. Through the media of Welsh. And at the end of one of them, he sold this book. I obviously bought one! “Cam i’r gorffennol”, or a step into the past. 

I don't think that book was actually meant for being read cover to cover. It is basically a list of interesting archaeological locations, and a description of what you can find there, and what is known about them. But I read it cover to cover anyway. Initially I took it with me to the Netherlands; then I got sidetracked by other books, but I recently finished it.

Quite a number of these places I have already visited. Bryn Celli Ddu, Tre’r Ceiri, Din Lligwy, Tomen y Mur… but it's nice to read a bit more about them anyway. And there are several I haven't visited yet, and want to now, like Dinas Emrys and Bryn Cader Faner. I'll try to visit some of these in the new year! That's a nice thing about an archaeology book: it's double enjoyment. Once when you read it, and once when it takes you places you otherwise wouldn't have visited. And I'm sure Neil will be up for things like that too!

Back to work

When I went back to work this year, I only went up the stairs, because of snow. Only on the Wednesday did I go back to campus. 

The worst bit of the road to work; this bit is only used by cyclists and pedestrians 

Traditionally, the year starts with exam preparation, and marking work from the previous term, and this year was no exception. And with marking, of course also comes academic integrity work.

Even though I spent more days working at home than on campus that week, it felt I was back in a routine in no time. In the first week I finished my marking. Then I could go and prepare a talk about EDI I have to give, and finish the rubrics for the dissertation module. And deal with more academic integrity cases. And prepare for lecturing again. I need to think about the upcoming climate module! 

More snow

When I opened the curtains on the morning after my snowy hike with Neil, I didn’t know what I saw. A thick blanket of snow in the garden! It was beautiful. Not logistically practical, but beautiful! 

 

I had been on a proper hike the day before, so I took this as a mainly indoor day. Plenty to do there! And I figured the snow drifts in the mountains would be unfathomably deep by now. 

The eerie light of an early snowy morning

View onto the street

What it looked like a bit later

The river once the thaw had set in

It was largely still there the day after; the first day back at work. The University sent a message (at 8:37, so I’m sure a bit late for some!) to tell people to stay home if possible. I heeded that. Seemed reasonable! 

The next day, the roads still didn't look attractive for either biking or driving. And I live on such a small road that the council doesn't bother with it. It doesn't get cleared or gritted. And I have some grit in the garage, but I thought I might as well just stay home again. I don’t like biking to work nervous about wiping out! 

That night, track training was cancelled. I decided to do some hill reps on a local road that happened to be snow-free. And over the course of the day, rain removed a lot of the snow. The day after, things looked fairly normal again! 

Race prep with technology

When Neil's niece Lois came over to do the Conwy Half Marathon, she taught oldies Neil and me how to share our location with each other. But she didn't stop there! She also told me you can upload a race route into your Garmin app, and then have it give you a strategy for running the race. You give it a desired finishing time, and then it tells you at what place you have to run every individual kilometre (or mile). Very handy! 

Km splits

Also given as a list

If you don’t want to know for every kilometre what your pace should be, but just want to know about the various uphill, flat, and downhill bits, you can ask it to cut the route into segments with particular gradients (you can choose how many) and give you target speeds for these. 

Split pace vs gradient

The app needs a gpx file for that, and you can make these yourself, even on your phone, in the app itself. So even for tiny club races I should be able to use this, if I want. This might help me with my aim to break all my PBs! Now I only need to be able to run as fast as the app suggests…