Eclipse

I suppose I have been lucky with solar eclipses. I got the best possible experience in 1999, when part of Europe had a full eclipse. Me and my boyfriend at the time just decided to go on holiday in the country where you could see it the best, which turned out to be Romania. We were right at the centre of the event, and there was a completely cloudless sky, while most of the rest of Europe was not that lucky. It was very impressive!

The eclipse in ‘99

Only two years later, while on a scientific cruise, I ended up seeing an unexpected partial eclipse. This happened just before sunset, so you could just look at the sun with your naked eyes.

The eclipse in ‘01

I only found out about a week and a half beforehand there was going to be an almost complete one here in the UK. Way too late to get eclipse glasses! But I figured I had already seen all there was to see. But I still wanted to get a bit of the experience.

On the day, I improvised an eclipse viewer from a little cardboard box and some tinfoil. And after it was reported to have started I left my house to go up the little mound nearby. From my house, you can’t really see the west. There are trees in the way.

My homemade viewer

My pinhole construction worked! I could see that the eclipse had indeed started. And the mound had a fair number of people on it, clearly there for the same purpose. Quite a lot of them were facing the other way and let the cameras of their phones do the work. With my phone, that didn't work, but I had my viewer.

Eclipse watchers on the parched mound

I texted Chris to say that we were quite some people watching the eclipse on this field, which is only a few minutes from my house, I was only a few seconds from his. He responded that he was watching it in the street. And I figured it is nicer to share experiences like that, so I decided to leave the mound to see him.

The first thing I saw was the tail of a black cat, and shortly afterwards Chris's head. That makes sense; he has got a black cat. But when I got closer I saw it wasn't his cat. This was an unidentified tiny specimen. 

Chris was trying to use a cheese grater as a pinhole camera, but that wasn't much of a success. My little cardboard box did a much better job, and he was appreciative of it. And the little cat was just appreciative of an additional person who could deliver snuggles.

The partially eclipsed sun, and me and my new friend 

We took turns with the viewer, and we slowly saw the world get a bit darker. It really felt dusky when the eclipse was at its maximum. I enjoyed the strange atmosphere. And in between the staring at the sun and snuggling the cat, we gossiped up on running and painting jobs and jury service and cars and whatnot.

When the eclipse was already waning, a lady came out of a nearby house. It turned out she had parked right in front of Chris's house, and was quite apologetic about that. Chris didn't mind at all. But she saw us with my viewer, and said that some more people about to come out of that same house had eclipse glasses, and if we fancied a look. We did! And we could still see the side bite out of the sun. With these glasses it was so much more impressive than it had been with the viewer. What a nice surprise!

After we had given the glasses back and the people disappeared it was mainly over. The day had its original brightness back, and I said goodbye to both Chris and the little cat and went home. I had just seen my third eclipse. I am a lucky bastard!

Called up for jury service

A few years ago, Jaco was called up for jury service. Until that time, I thought foreign nationals would not be eligible. Clearly, we are. And you could be called up any time.

One day I found some junk mail and a serious-looking envelope on the doormat. I had a look, saw the word ‘tribiwnlysoedd’ and realised what was happening. I was summoned for jury duty! I had a bit of a look at the documents inside. They were a mess; I had all the paperwork in both Welsh in English, but they were not sorted by language. And they had page numbers, but each set of documents started counting three times. I had six pages one! That is hardly practical. But the information was clear: unless I was incapable of understanding what was going on, I was expected to show up at the court in Caernarfon shortly after the start of term. The duration was supposed to be two weeks, but it could overrun. Postponing was an option, but I figured I might want to get it over with. There is no time in the year when this is convenient. My employer was expected to cooperate. And I had to respond quite quickly.

My summons

The first thing I did was have a look at my teaching in the designated two week period they had indicated. They said it could overrun, but I figured I might cross that bridge when I reached it. And I came up with a possible solution for everything that was timetabled in that period. There were two days in the field; these are really difficult to reschedule, so I hoped the people I normally go with could do it without me. And then there were lectures. I figured I could probably swap most of them with my colleagues who were timetabled later in the year. For two of them I didn't see that happen; I hoped Jaco was willing to deliver one, and I figured the other one might have to just be a recording.

I then sent a message to the Head of School to bring him the bad news, and tell him how I thought we could deal with it. He agreed and hoped I could make it happen.

So far the responses have been positive. It looks like this is going to go ahead. And I have also heard that it is possible you don't need to serve the full two weeks. I hope I will be lucky! But there is only one way to find out. In early October, I am going to see the British justice system from up close and personal!

Odyssey

Of course I was aware of a new film adaptation of the Odyssey. It was hard to avoid. I was a bit in two minds about it. On the one hand; I have a bit of a fascination with old texts. The Odyssey is a bronze age tale that has survived all the way into modernity. That is spectacular! 

On the other hand; it was clearly going to be a Hollywood blockbuster kind of film. Lots of crash, bang, wallop. I'm not keen on that.

In the end I figured I should check it out. We had seen the trailer when we went to see Effi (which is an entirely different film, obviously). To my surprise, Neil was interested in it too. In his case, not in spite of, but thanks to, the crash, bang, wallop.

We would go after my race. I thought it would be quite nice to sit on my arse for three hours after running my lungs out first. When I said that, Neil panicked a bit. I hadn't thought of telling him it was quite a long film. I didn't realise he didn't know. And he is quite sensitive to food issues. He made sure to have sufficient snacks on him! And we made sure to have a substantial lunch: we went for a nice post-race pizza. I managed to 3/4 of it.

We were really late, and there weren't many cinemas running it anymore. We went to Cineworld in Llandudno Junction, even though this is not anywhere near my favourite cinema. But it did the job.

We first had to sit through what seemed to be ages of commercials and trailers. I suppose that is your fate if you go to cinema like that. And then it finally started.

It starts inside Penelope's Palace. I did not know how close to archaeological evidence Christopher Nolan had stayed, but I did know he was keeping the film relatively close to reality, with as little green screen as possible. I wouldn't put past him that he had made sure to have a reasonable idea of what such palaces at that time looked like. I didn't have to pay too much attention to the story, because I was familiar with it, so I could look at this interpretation of this slice of the bronze age. And I noticed it was a bit of a testosterone version with lots of fistfights and pantomime baddies and whatnot. Unsurprisingly.

We then started to jump through the story of Odysseus’ travails, starting with the Trojan horse. I struggled a bit to imagine a bunch of starving soldiers on a beach could make a horse that is both so big and so sculptural, but hey ho. It is a myth. It doesn't have to be practical.

Suoon we were out at sea. I think the ships that they use to get around the Mediterranean are roughly historically correct. Imagine having to travel on those. That is enough adrenaline for me. 

My classical education stirred its head when we got to the scene with the cyclops. They really changed that, but I suppose if they would have stayed closer to the source text, the film would have been even longer than it already was. I don't know the rest of the text well enough to be able to judge how much liberties they took there.

What I liked best were the scenes with basically only Penelope and Telemachus. They don't want all these suitors in the palace, but they know they can’t boot them out without repercussions that are worse. Telemachus knows he can't really claim the throne unless he knows what happened to his father, but finding out is a perilous business too. And they love each other, but the stress is getting between them.

Then you get the fall of Troy and Scilla & Charybdis and the sirens and Hades and Circe and whatnot. You don't get a moment of rest! But they do make you feel that it is a complicated world to negotiate. If you end up in the cave of the cyclops, you risk being eaten by it. If you use violence to avoid that fate, you risk the wrath of the sea god, who is its father. You might be pitched between starvation or pissing off the sun god. If the gods have decided that you will be the only one who will survive your travels, you still get the blame for losing your men. 

Obviously, he makes it home. And then you get a surprising soliloquy in which Odysseus turns out to be absolutely wrecked by guilt about what he has done to Troy, and how these actions still reverberate through the known world. I don't remember that from the original text. I think this was a decidedly modern take on things. I liked it, though! You basically have a man who knows she has started a descent into chaos and the loss of civilisation. Very resonant with our times. 

I tired a bit of the extensive fighting scenes when Odysseus gets a bow in his hands again, people start realising what is going on, and there is a mighty punch-up. But then at least peace returned. And then it was done. 

We both enjoyed it! In our individual ways. And when we got back to Neil’s place, he had the remaining quarter pizza while I had a drink, and we were both good for bed. A successful night out! 

Having my garden shored up

When I saw that there were people working on my neighbours’ collapsed wall I went to have a look. I had a nice chat with a guy that seemed to be the leader of the pack. I was surprised that they seemed to be comfortable working on the riverbank, bringing all the cement they needed in a wheelbarrow over the uneven riverbank from just outside Alan’s house. I suppose for their work it was good that it was a dry month. There was a little threat of them getting their feet wet while doing that work. 

Neighbours’ wall rebuilt! 

I also spoke with this guy about the bit of my garden wall that is directly adjacent to the wall they are repairing. When I bought the house, it already looked very unstable. It still does. And who knows; it might still hold up for decades, but it could just as well collapse tomorrow. I feel a bit cautious when I'm in the corner of the garden above it.

Looks rickety

I hadn’t had a lot of faith that I would find anyone willing to take the job shoring that part of the wall up, given the difficulty with access. But these guys had already made this location their workshop. They were clearly ok with it!

I asked the guy to give me a quote. He did that, and I accepted. I don't know if he is going to do that straight after the work for the neighbours. It would be efficient. But either way; I am glad this is in the pipeline now. I have been feeling a lot better about the wall underneath my extension since that was made more stable, and I am sure I will feel a lot better about this situation as well, after that wall will look like it is actually resting on something!

Caernarfon 10k 2026

The 10k races were coming thick and fast! I had only done one a week ago when I got into my racing kit for the Caernarfon 10k. The previous race I had pushed it hard, run a good time, and been floored afterwards. How would it go this time? 

I wasn’t feeling the race adrenaline beforehand. I pottered a bit and did a slow warmup. After that I wanted a last drink, but we had come in Neil’s car, my drink was in there, it was locked, and I couldn’t find him. Oh dear! When I finally did it was time for a club picture and then the actual start. 

Club picture

We headed west, into the wind. It took me a while to find my speed but after some 1.5 km I had it. And I kept it up until the flat course headed inland and started getting slightly hilly. Then it became much harder to know what pace would be a good one to aim for, and I did it on feeling. It also got quite hot. We had lost our sea breeze! 

I was glad to see a water stop. I got a cup from Eryri Harrier Jen; the fact she was volunteering and not running meant I had a good chance of getting a category win. 

I plodded on. I was feeling ok, and didn’t see many women around me. That is always a good sign. There was one coming into view, though. In a black top with no club logo. And then, some 7.5 km in, I saw Tony by the route, taking pictures. He shouted I was third woman. That puzzled me. I had seen Llio and Elliw line up; they are faster than me. And then there was this woman in black. Surely I couldn't be better than fourth position? But it is easy to mis-count. I did take it to mean that I was doing well, though.

At about 8.5 km I was feeling a bit light in the head. I was hoping it would all turn out ok. It is, after all, not unheard of that runners get overheated and collapse. I hoped that wouldn't happen to me. But did I slow down? No!

At about 9 km I managed to overtake the lady in black. And I figured that as long as I could stay ahead of her, my position was pretty much fixed. I did try to keep my speed up as I had the feeling I might be on my way to a good time. I wasn't quite sure what time, though.

Almost at the finish 

I managed to go quite fast in the last several hundred metres, until turning back into the field where the finish was. The uphill finish is a bit of a sting in the tail! I gave it what I had, cheered on by Neil, and saw that I had managed my second fastest 10k ever at 43:21. Nowhere nowhere near my 42:37 PB, but still pretty good! I got my medal from Dyfed and water from one of the sisters, and pretty much collapsed. I needed to sit down for a bit.

I found out that I had come fourth. Llio had won, an unidentified Cybi Strider had come second, and Elliw was third. And then me! Not bad! 

I went to get my recovery drink and bottle of squash and that helped me feel better. And then it was time to do some post race gossiping with the other finishers, and with Neil. And cheering on some other runners.

After a while, Neil got bored, so I asked Dyfed what time the presentation would be. In half an hour, I thought he said. He might have said something else. Neil went off to do a little walk while I went back to the car to exchange my empty drink containers for more useful luggage. And then the presentation happened! A bit earlier than expected. Neil missed it. 

Given that the top three ladies were all in the 35-39 category, or even younger, I got my category win. Quite comfortably! I turned out to have been about 3.5 minutes faster than the next woman over 40. I was proud of that. I won a floppy bottle and a pair of running socks. 

With my loot

I then just sat down below the tree to wait for Neil. (And to ogle at the race stats, of course). The entire Edwards family joined me. They had just been on holiday and we were full of stories. But the first thing Ian said when he approached me was something along the lines of: are you aware that you're supposed to slow down with age? I told him I would surely get to that one day. Just not quite yet.

Then Neil appeared, and we all headed home. A nice race! And guess what distance my next race will be. Indeed, 10k! That one will be super flat. Would I have a chance of breaking my very difficult to beat PB on that distance?. It is not likely, but it is possible. Watch this space!

Bumblebees in the garden

I have had several instances of wasp nests in my garden. I'm not overly keen on that. That is a slightly too high concentration of a slightly too grumpy insect to my taste. But I do like it if my garden attracts what are traditionally seen as pollinators. And for some reason, it seems to attract more bumblebees than ‘normal’ bees.

One day I was just sitting in the garden and a bumblebee seemed to land on the grass, by a non-flowering plant. I didn't really see the point of that. Bumblebees tend to want flowers. I had a look. There was a little hole in the ground, and it had vanished into it. A bumblebee residence! And I kept watching for a bit; I saw quite some bees flying in and coming out.

Up until then, I had no idea where bumblebees might live. Now I have an example of one of their abodes in my own garden. I like sitting near it and watched them coming in and out. Call me a speciesist, but I prefer that over watching wasps coming into and out of my little garden shed! 

Two bumblebees by the nest entrance (to their right)

Work on the new module websites has started

When I went back to the office after my annual leave I first sorted out the last remains of the old academic year. I had to evaluate all my modules and decide what should be changed about them in the new year. And I had a last academic integrity meeting, about work submitted for Supplementary Assessment Week. (I don't think I mentioned Supplementary Assessment Week; for staff it means you have to set assignments and do marking work in the middle of July.) But soon after that it was time to actively start working on the upcoming academic year. 

Traditionally, the first module website that comes live is for my dissertation module, even though it is a second semester module. And this year is probably not going to be an exception. I populated the folders, only leaving out things like where the students upload their assignments, as the timetable for the second semester hasn't been made yet. The deadlines depend a bit on the timetable. I also added all the staff. The students will be centrally added.

I will have to get two more of these websites ready before the start of new academic year. One third is already out of the way!