Last exam board type meeting of the year

It is done! We have come to the end of the exam board meetings and all associated meetings. We know now which students will progress to the next year, which ones will graduate, and which ones might suffer a less happy fate such as having to do supplementary assessment or repeat the year. We have gone through all the modules, and we know which aspects of which ones need changing. 

The idea is after the last one of these meetings, you can start taking your annual leave. There isn't much timetabled anymore. Im looking forward to it after the rather frantic marking period. It's not going so well! Things keep cropping up on the days I would like to take off, such as meetings about the future of our "physical" teaching (as opposed to the teaching of the biologists). But this is a big change. I'll try to enjoy it while it lasts! 

Welsh 3000s training

Neil got it into his head to do the Welsh 3000s; this is some challenge where people walk or run over all the hills that are more than 3000 foot high. The people who walk do it in three days, or within 24 hours. I personally think that doing it in three days is something you can do without having to think too much about it. The real deal, though, is doing it in one go, within 24 hours. And that is what he wants to do. I don't want to join him. I think that after a full day’s worth of walking, my feet would be totally fed up, and the rest would be torture.

It is quite a slog, so he wants to train for it. He had already been training for it in spring, as originally he would do it in spring, but he got an injury, and had to postpone until September. And now he is training again.

We would do the Glyderau range; start on the A5, then climb Tryfan, take the detour to Glyder Fach and then Glyder Fawr, and then just follow the ridge all the way to Penrhyn Quarry, descend it, and walk home. It's a sizeable walk! Only 20km, but with its 1340m ascent and 1500m descent, and bits that are either scrambly, crumbly or bushwhacky, quite trying. 

We got the bus into the valley. We soon got off the road onto a path that would lead to the base of Tryfan. And then the scrambling could begin. 

I had only done this mountain once before. It had been a while ago! And the weather conditions had been quite different. I like a bit of a scramble, so I enjoyed this bit. Not too far from the summit we came across a little guided group; father, daughter and guide. The guide was talking about jumping between Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve are big rocks on top of the mountain, and the tradition is that you jump from one to the other, and only then have you really done the mountain. I am not a particularly big fan of jumping from one thing onto another, so I have never done this. Neither has Neil, who has done the mountain several times. 

Neil on the Cannon Stone

Graded quartz nodules! 

Onwards

Without much further ado we came to the summit, and so did the guided group. Neil still didn't want to do the jump, but he did say he wanted to stand on one of the rocks, so he climbed up. And then he stood there. And then I saw a flicker in his eyes! Would he jump after all? He didn't in the end, but he admitted he had been very close. I didn't even climb onto either of them. The mountain guide showed just how easy it can look. Such a little hop. I still didn't want to do it.

Will he? 

We started to make our way down. The most direct way to the Glyderau is over Bristly Ridge, but neither of us was comfortable doing that without a guide. So we took the long road. And there were streams crossing it! Neil had fresh memories of his birthday, when he had taken me on another ridge walk, and I had brought so much water he had offered to carry some of it for me, and worn himself out. He had been thinking about refills from the beginning.

Once on Glyder Fach we had a nice chat with a solo hiker lady, and then went to the cantilever, to have lunch. We took lots of pictures of hikers on top of it after having eaten our sandwiches. And then we went on.

It was a warm day, but not scarily hot. That was good! There has been weather warnings out all over Europe. We would not escape the heat ourselves. That day, though, it wouldn't quite reach us.

The landscape in that area is amazing. So much bare rock with spectacular formations. But we had further to go, so we kept moving and soon hit more grassy ground. But that wouldn't last; we knew it would give way to the moon-like landscape of the descent to Devil's Kitchen. That is nobody's favourite part of the hike! But it is there. The rock is very crumbly and steep. At the bottom of it, I refilled my water bladder for the last time. And then we went up on the other side, to y Garn.

Crazy Glyderau landscape 

On that summit we bumped into a bunch of men who were doing the Welsh 3000s in three days. This was their second day. They had planned it months ago, and been very lucky with the weather! I did say that the next day they would get a bit boiled, but that didn't discourage them. 

We went on, and decided to have a second lunch on Mynydd Perfedd (intestine mountain; maybe not the most obvious choice for a lunch break). Before we got there I needed an emergency glute stretch. My bum wasn’t feeling it. But the stretch helped. And we made it to our second lunch spot.

Second lunch

From there it was a gentle walk until we would leave the main path and head for the quarry. Along the way, we (again) admired the Atlantic Slabs. We still want to do them in the not too distant future. 

Atlantic Slabs

I wasn't a big fan of the last part; the path is minute, and it is difficult to see where you put your feet. And at some point it almost vanishes. The going is bad; it is unpleasant to the feet, and to lower legs which get attacked by the hostile vegetation. By that point, I was pretty tired and had sore feet, but I was obviously committed. I was glad when we finally hit the path in the quarry, because then the going gets easy. 

Because it was quite late by now, we stopped by the pizza van in the village to have a quick evening meal. All in all, we had done quite a large part of the route Neil will have to do in one go in September. And it had been a beautiful day! I had enjoyed it. It was lovely to be on a hike with Neil, and it was nice to meet all sorts of people along the way. But now I just wanted to put my feet up. So that's pretty much what I did for the remainder of the day…

No underground trip

There was another ladies’ underground trip in the diary, on a Monday. Then things got complicated. There were two! One during the day, and another in the evening. I wasn’t sure why, but there was an Eryri Harriers committee meeting scheduled in the evening, so I was committed to the daytime. I took the day off. 

It was a hot day. And I was particularly non-heat-resistant. I had been careless in the mountains the day before, and got sunburnt. So I set off in long trousers and a long-sleeved shirt to keep my skin out of the sun. 

I drove to the Gwydyr Forest without issue. But when I got to the junction to the actual mine, I found a ‘road closed’ sign. Oh no! How to get to it then? I decided to drive on a bit, to get myself out of the way, and have a think. There was a parking lot nearby. And it turned out that everyone else had done the same. I parked up and joined the others (in the shade). 

Trouble!

We considered our options. Maybe we could drive around? That is quite the detour. And would complicate the planned pub lunch between the underground trips. Another option was to just go to a different mine, but that wasn't really popular either. The last option was to just suck it up and walk from the parking lot we were on. That was the most popular option, but not with me. I couldn't expose my skin to the sun yet, so I would have had to at least wear my furry suit. In that kind of weather. I did not fancy that at all.

In the end, the group stuck with that decision. And I decided to just go home. I had done that mine many times before! Never with this splendid group of ladies, but for me, the circumstances were just not right. And I had plenty to do at home. Better luck next time!

Organising the kitchen

When I moved house, I think I at some point ran a bit out of steam. In the kitchen, I had one drawer that was basically all sorts of stuff that didn't belong anywhere else, just chucked in. And I had another one that was mainly full of a cutlery tray where all the cutlery (in the wider sense of the word; is also includes tin openers and corkscrews et cetera) that I have but not use very often, just sits. It mildly irked me over the years.

Now I had three things coming together that made me finally do something about it. The first thing was: having Neil, who is very tidy. The second was: Alan, the neighbour, who told me he had become a bit intolerant to gluten, and he decided to stop making bread. He gave me his supply of flour, yeast and bread improver. The third was: a Saturday with nothing otherwise planned.

I didn't really have anywhere to put Alan’s supplies! Bread paraphernalia had been in the esoteric cutlery tray drawer, and there wasn't any space left there. And I had wanted to do a big declutter and tidy of my house for a while, and this was made stronger by Neil. So I decided to use my Saturday to rethink this situation.

I started with the arbitrary drawer. I took everything out, cleaned it, threw away some of the stuff in there, and then put everything that was left back in a more or less organised manner. Success! 

Next up was the drawer with the esoteric cutlery tray. I decided that some of the esoteric cutlery could live next to actual cutlery tray in the top drawer. Three matching utensils could hang from the wall. I made a note to buy me some suction cup hooks. And I decided to make a special box for the rest.

I made the box. It was a lot smaller than the original tray, that went in the bin. And that created a lot of space. I first cleaned out this drawer as well, and then put the cutlery box in, and lots of stuff associated with baking bread. Everything fit in!

This won't look organised in other people’s eyes! But in mine, it is.

I was quite chuffed with the result! And I want to do several kitchen cupboards as well. It will take a long long time before I get through the whole house, but there is progress, and that is great. Neil was impressed too! I think I will manage to keep some momentum going until I have made serious improvement. Watch this space!

Dragon update

I was so close to getting my voice recognition software (called Dragon) back. But when would I reach the finish?

When I had managed to download the software, but not installed it, I contacted IT. A man called Deiniol was looking after this case. After a bit of faff he told me that the software company had admitted there was a problem with the license key, and they provided a new one. And that did indeed let me install the software. But installing software and activating it are not the same thing.

Trying to activate the software, I was told that my license key was not correct. Again? What is this? With this allegedly incorrect license key, I could access a trial version, but not activate the full product. I contacted Deiniol again. He advised me to try again the next day, and if that wouldn't work, try activating it off-line. The instructions were on the manufacturer’s website.

 

The next day I tried again. It didn't work. And I decided to record what I was doing, and send the video to Deiniol so he knew exactly what the problem was. And he asked me to give him a call.

On a video call, sharing my screen, we still failed to make it work. Not even when Deiniol took control of my computer, and manipulated it directly.

In the end, the only advice he could give me was to exhaust the trial version (I would have five days of trialling), and then try again. If it would not work, Deiniol would come to my office and try it there and then. I suspect it will have to come that far. But if he then makes it work it will all have been worth it!

Over the new bridge

When I use my standard route to the office, I don't come over the new bridge. But I can! And I was curious so I did it. It is only a tiny detour. 

Once you come over the bridge, this situation used to be that you can go up quite a solid path, that starts very steep, and later has a kissing date. And there was a little gate to the right, that took you to a rather muddy path, first through vegetation, and then (after a kissing gate) between crawiau (typical North Welsh fences made of what basically are vertical planks of slate), to a farm track. That was all very scenic. And it isn't anymore. But it is a lot more bike-friendly now. It's still not as bike-friendly I thought it would be. You might want to do this route on a road bike, but the farm track still has a surface composed of slate chips, and road bikers don’t like that very much!

The path on the other side of the river, wide enough to drive a car on

They restored the crawiau! But they are a lot wider apart now

 

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!