Birthday Neil

Neil had his birthday! And he likes hiking. So that is what we had planned. With the intention of dining out afterwards. And he came up with the idea of walking a generous loop around Cwm Eigiau. Sounded good!

The evening before we had been for dinner at Susan and Dean’s place. That had been lovely! But we got home quite late. It hit midnight before we had managed to get to bed. So I could congratulate him as soon as his birthday officially started! 

The next morning we were up quite early for our hike. We were a bit groggy! We’re too old to cope well with late nights. But I presented him with a birthday cake, part of which we then packed for our hike. We had breakfast and got our bags ready, and were off. 

5 candles for 55 years

There was plenty of parking space. And it was cloudy but lovely. I like the place. It is at the end of a tiny road with several gates on. It feels very remote. 

Cwm Eigiau

I had brought a lot of water as we would spend a lot of time on the ridge. Neil was a bit worried about the share weight of my backpack, and volunteered to carry one flask for me. That was kind! I wondered if that would mean I could finally keep up with him. 

We headed into the valley, and had a little look at one of the small slate quarries there. I hadn't been to this one before! And it looked like indeed; this time I could actually keep up with Neil. That is unusual. He is a bit of a Duracell bunny. I am hardly terribly unfit, but he tends to run ahead like a gazelle.

Small quarry

Beyond the quarry we headed up the ridge, where we had a cake break. Then we continued our way to the summit of Pen Llithrig y Wrach. The views were lovely! And from there we did the down-and-back-up to Pen yr Helgi Du. By then we were hungry again, and sat down for lunch. We could see a few climbers in the cleft! 

Pen Llithrig y Wrach

Next up was Carnedd Llewelyn. And from there we soon left the path. We intended to bushwhack in between reservoirs below us (Dulyn and Melynllyn). Level with these we could pick the path back up.

Summit selfie

The off-piste bit was gorgeous! I should go there more often. And take more pictures. We sat on a rock for more lunch. We had made sure to not eat everything the first time around.

We got down without difficulties. It’s a rather birthday-ish path; we had used it to for Kate's 40th and my 50th! On my birthday, the weather was so rubbish we didn't get far. Today we didn't have that problem. But we were almost there now. Just a trudge back to the car.

When we got back to mine we first had a shower and a hot drink. And I gave him my present. Then we trudged to the pizza van by the cheese shop. We didn't linger; not because we were so hungry, but because we were scared we otherwise would fall asleep! We were both very tired. We blamed it on the late night the day before. And Neil’s cat howling us awake at 6 am. And Neil blamed some on the extra weight from the flask.

The pizza man got wind of it being Neil’s birthday and gave him a very good brownie for free. That was kind. We had it all at a picnic table right by the pizza van.

We agreed it had been a good birthday! He is lucky with a spring date. Much better chance of nice hiking weather. Let's hope that this is the first of a lot of adventurous together in his 56th year! 

Ready to bring on the dissertation presentations

This year, the dissertation presentations would be on a Monday and Tuesday. And I didn't want to work during the weekend. So I would have to make sure that at least for Monday, everything would be ready by Friday.

On Thursday I got quite a lot done, but it did mean I left the office so late I missed Thursday Night Hill training. And when I got to my bike I realised I had a flat tire. That made me get home even later!

On Friday I managed to get everything done for the Monday. For Tuesday, quite a lot was done. I had finished 6 out of 8 conference booklets. I could finish the rest on Monday morning. And I had printed quite a lot of marking sheets and feedback sheets. That would at least get me through the Tuesday morning.

I would have to do a bit of downloading presentation slides, and putting them in the right folders on OneDrive. But that's a rather quick process. That would also fit on Monday morning. I didn't have to actually attend any presentations until Monday afternoon. And on Tuesday I didn't have to attend any of them.

I was hoping to finish the day with an ice cream with my Italian colleagues, but these ended up stuck in a meeting. So I just went home. And I had faith it was going to be ok!

I would have to be there quite early on the Monday. I would have liked to get all the rooms ready on Friday, but unfortunately, there would be an open day during the weekend, and that used several of the same rooms. So I couldn't get the paperwork ready. But plonking some piles of printouts in some rooms isn’t a big job, and after that I think everything will be on a roll. I will find out!

Fighting water wastage

There was water coming out of the asphalt of a little street around the corner. That's not good! This was happening on a dry day, so it didn't look like sewage seeping through. I suspected it was drinking water. So I contacted Welsh Water. Nothing happened for a while, but then I got a text. It thanked me for my message, and warned about that doing something about it might take a long time. It warned, for instance, that if a road closure would be necessary, it could take twelve weeks to obtain permission for that. I could imagine one was indeed needed.

Almost two weeks later I got another text. I was warned about potential low water pressure. I was sure it was related. And indeed: the next time I went to work I saw the road had been closed. (No months of permission seeking going on here!) Someone was already warning people about it. It's a tiny road, but it does lead to a school, so I can imagine closing it significantly affects the school run. People would have to approach that school from the other side.

And something was indeed happening! When I got home later that day there was a hole in the road surface. It looked like I had been right! And it had been a leaking water mains. I was glad I had contributed to stopping that.

The next day I left for work there was activity there, and when I got home the hole in the surface had already been filled. There had been nothing happening these few weeks in the beginning, but after that, the water company seemed to have been very much on the ball! That is great. For a country with so much rainfall we seem to have surprisingly many water shortages. And I think one should never take Drinkwater for granted. Letting it just leak through the road is not a good idea!

A leak?

Road closed, hole dug

The hole

Race loot, a year later

Last year I had a category win in the Trawsfynydd race. It is a charity race, and the prizes are donated by local businesses. The year before I had walked home with local honey. But this time I had spotted a £50 voucher for outdoor kit! That would come in handy. Nobody else had claimed it when my name was called, so I nabbed it. 

In the year that went by since I did not pass through Betws, where the shop is, very often, and the times I did I either forgot the voucher or had no time to stop. So in the end I banked it on the day of the next race along! The shop was on route. 

I knew one thing I definitely wanted to buy with it: a new flask for hiking. I missed the one that had given up the ghost. If I went out now, I tend to go with the whole collection of smaller flasks, and that is not very practical. And I had already seen on their website that they also did wide-necked flasks for hot meals. I'm sure that will sometimes come in handy! 

I added some little safety lights, great for making sure you can be seen from behind when you go for a run in the dark, and a little dry bag, to get to the amount of the voucher. The little lights will probably not come in handy for a few months, but that's OK! I'm sure the dry bag will see some action in summer. 

I know I've just blogged about getting rid of stuff, but that did not involve flasks! I can use an almost infinite number of flasks. And rear lights. I’m not feeling any clutter-anxiety with this loot. 

The bloke at the till had a bit of a problem with the voucher as it had a code, which was handwritten. It wasn't necessarily clear which letters were uppercase and which were lowercase. The software would only accept it if he got everything right! It took a while. And then I could go home with my treasure.

This might be the best prize I've ever won in a race! Which is a bit weird, given that this was only a category win, and I have managed everything up to gold in the past. But so be it! I will enjoy this for many years to come…

 

Ras Llyn Trawsfynydd 2026

I really like this race! It strikes a lovely balance between beautiful landscapes and even terrain. At 14 km it is also a nice distance. And the proceeds go to a good cause: the South Snowdonia Search and Rescue Team. What's not like? And I suppose it helped that the first time I ran it, I ended up on the podium. So when the 2026 edition approached I was really looking forward to it. 

The weather was lovely. I got my race number and did a bit of a warmup, on my lovely hybrid shoes which are really good for a race like this. And then I lined up at the start. 

At the start

In the beginning I took it easy. I wanted to do the course faster than last year, but the way to do that is not by burning out. And after not too much time, there is a fair amount of going up and down, and that is something I tend to do on feeling. But I was feeling relatively confident. 

Steffan, who would win, already looking pained a few kms in

Me looking happier. The lady right behind me would still be in that position at the finish! 

When I ended up flat part of the race on the southwestern side of the lake, I could try again. I was thinking of my breathing, and try to do it slow. And while doing so, run reasonably fast. I was enjoying it!

About halfway, there was a lady with a dog along the course. She shouted at me that I was in fourth position, and that the lady in third position was only just in front of me. That was very interesting. I could try to overtake her! I could see a cluster of people in front of me, and none of them looked particularly feminine to me, but they were so far I couldn't be sure. I just tried to get closer. 

By the time we ran into the village, I had overtaken the closest one of the clump of people. And all the others I was now close to also looked like men. Where was this cryptic third lady? Maybe she had accelerated away. And in the meantime I kept an eye on whether anyone was approaching from behind. I might be chasing someone, but someone might be chasing me at the same time!

I spent the rest of the route battling it out with the remainder of the clump. Some I got ahead of, and some I didn't. It didn't really matter, they were all men, and I'm not directly competing with those. I never saw the lady I was chasing. But I could tell from my watch that I had a good chance of indeed improving on my time of last year. And then the finish was nearby and I thundered over it. In exactly 1:02! That was just over 3 minutes faster than last year. A few seconds would have been enough! But I will take the minutes. 

I had a little chat with other finishers by the finish line, then I decided to go to my car to get my recovery drink, more drinks, and my phone. I was a bit thirsty, and I was keen to let Neil know how I had got on. And when I got my phone, I saw I had indeed been fourth woman, and the fastest woman over 50. Great! And that also meant waiting for the presentation. 

With my backpack I went back to the finish line, cheered on more runners, chatted with more finishers, and drank several beverages. As time moved on it got quieter. They won't do the presentation until everyone has finished, and many people won't await that. I got chatting with a lady who turned out to be Steffan Sayer’s mother. Steffan had won! And not only that; he had taken about a minute off the course record. I was very impressed. And also; he runs in the 40+ category. It is never trivial to run a minute faster than anybody else has ever done in a race, but I find it even cooler for  veteran runners! 

When the presentation happened I went nostalgic and chose the same prize I had one two years ago: Mawddach honey. Other options were Purple Moose beer, a box with things such as bara brith in, and envelopes with vouchers. I had had a look at the prize table beforehand, and of the edibles the honey really was my favourite, but the envelopes hadn't been out yet. Or I hadn't seen them. But I had made my choice. It looked like the vouchers were things such as breakfast for two. Sounds romantic! But this is quite a southern race. The local businesses who are providing the prizes are generally also quite southern. I could imagine it would be a bit of a logistic nightmare to use these vouchers. I stuck with my honey. Steffan’s mum volunteered to take pictures of me. That was really sweet of her.

Presentation 

Then a man approached Steffan and me. He had noticed our identical-sounding last names. He was from the local newspaper, and he was wondering if he could get a picture. We explained that we weren't related and our names weren’t spelled the same, but he liked the idea of people winning prizes with such similar names. We're going to be famous!

Then everybody went home. When I got there I realised I was quite tired. I had clearly given it quite a lot! But well, you have to pay for that 3 minutes faster time somehow. Well worth it! 

http://mmmmargot.blogspot.com/2025/04/ras-llyn-trawsfynydd-2025.html

https://mmmmargot.blogspot.com/2025/05/back-to-parkrun.html

 

Cutting back the willow

I have a sizeable willow in the garden. I have felt the need before to cut it down to size a bit. It gives a lot of shadow in quite a large part of the garden, and the plants in the raised bed underneath that don't like that. I had been thinking about taking some of the trunks out. And one Saturday Neil and I tackled it. 

Starting 

It went super fast! We managed to cut several trunks out without dropping them on our heads. And we barely dropped them on vulnerable plants. We could cut off all the branches in no time as Neil had brought powerful loppers. And we cut the trunks in two if otherwise they wouldn’t fit in the garage. They will be firewood! 

We worked until we got hungry and wanted lunch. We had only started after 11! I suppose we weren’t at it more than an hour. Afterwards we went for a nice walk.  But we really changed the light availability in the garden. And that after the work the neighbour did. It’s a different garden now! I hope the plants that get more light now will thrive. Time will tell! 

Finished

Getting rid of things

I have made a start doing a bit of a cull of my stuff. I had been wanting to do that for quite a while already, but I never really got around to it. I suppose the fact that I'm actually making some progress at least partially because of Neil's inspiration. 

Some of what I get rid of is going into the bin. But some of it might be of use to other people. I already got rid of my hiking snow shovel. I haven't done a winter hike in many years! That's the only time you need it. That one I actually sold to a student who was about to have a winter adventure in the Alps.

The snow shovel

I also got rid of a kitchen appliance I wasn't actually using. And an item of which I didn't even know what it was. I should've got rid of it years ago! I've been on the verge of throwing it away twice. But this time, I just asked on Facebook if anyone wanted it, and there were a lot of reactions. It has a new home now!

The unidentified thing

This is only a start. I hope to keep going with this. It would be nice to do a bit of decluttering. Surely I don't need everything I own. And some of it should really get a new lease of life!