06 May 2021

Social weekend in spite of extension and exam

My main task for the weekend had been to finish painting the extension. I wanted the round that off! And I also was aware of my upcoming Welsh exam. The Tuesday after, I was supposed to finally do the written part of my Welsh qualification, of which I had done the oral part before the pandemic. And preparation had been severely hampered by the problems with the Welsh dictation software. I wasn't particularly prepared! But I still had the weekend.

One would assume that that would be enough to fill the weekend, but I also wanted to do at least something social. Then it became more than I had expected. And it was great! On Saturday, I spent the morning walking with Dani. We didn't go far, but even nearby, the environment is amazing. And it was good to see her. On Sunday, I went walking with Kate; we scampered up Ro Wen from Dolwyddelan. That was great too! The Ogwen Valley was packed, but where we were we didn't see a soul until we were pretty much back in the village. And in the afternoon I popped by Martin and Fran again. We did another round of drinking tea in the sun! And I brought cake. And the weather was so good even the cat came out to join us.

Image from my walk with Dani


View on Moel Siabod

On my way to Ro Wen with Kate


 the top


Dolwyddelan looking good from above

So what about painting and Welsh? Well; I did manage to finish the painting. On Sunday I finished everything except the slat above the window. And on Monday morning 7 AM I finished that! It was still just about dry then, and the rest of the day it would be hammering down. I figured it was okay to paint it as it was well protected underneath the edge of the roof. So that's sorted now! Now I need to wait for another spell of dry weather, and some free time, to caulk the edges. And then I can put my rope back into the garage and admire my work from a distance! And rest easily for a few years as I think that will be it regarding maintenance for such an amount of time.

And the Welsh? I made sure I had read the documentation of the exam, and had done some old papers. Or at least; partially done them. When it came to the writing exercises I figured I should mainly wing it. If you want to prepare for that, you need to revise ALL your Welsh, and there was no time for that. I had also done the hardware check under a pseudonym. Everything seemed to work! Now let's hope it would also work on the actual day…

So in the end I hope I will look back on it as a good balance between chores and being social! I think I will…

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