Another BU IWD event - this time with Ukrainians

The week before, there had been an International Women's Day event at the university about women in sports. But there was another one, about resilience in wartime. I read the program. It was a bit of a hotchpotch! There would be a delegation from a Ukrainian university we seem to have some sort of connection with, and one of the guys in natural sciences would talk of having spent a week in Ukraine taking soil samples. And then things would turn Welsh, and there would be several speakers talking about a lady who had instigated a big petition for peace in Wales in the 1920s, and whose portrait would be revealed. And there would be Ukrainian refreshments.

I decided to go. I sat down in a room that wasn't very busy. After a while I saw a lady from the school of Computer Science and Engineering come in. I beckoned her and she sat with me. We know each other from lots of online meetings. I think this was the first time we spoke in person!

Then it started. Again, Morag opened the proceedings. And the first speaker was the VC of Khmelnytskyi University. He spoke in Ukrainian! And his colleague was translating. If he didn't speak English then I suppose this whole event must have been very dull for him. He just gave some facts about the university. The next speaker was the translating lady, who spoke about all sorts of things: what the state of the gender gap in higher education in Ukraine was like, what sort of EDI policies the government had issued, what the extent was of the damage to particular universities in the country, how various female VCs had dealt with this, and more. It was a whole lot! And it was very interesting. 

The VC of the Ukrainian university doing his thing

The next speaker was local: Christian Dunn, the bloke of the soil samples. He knows how to tell a story. And I was glad to hear that his preliminary conclusion was that the amount of pollution all the bombardments had caused was not so much you couldn't do agriculture there anymore. But he stressed he needs to do more work before he has robust findings.

Then we made the switch to Charlotte Price White. She was a leading suffragist, a local counsellor, and one of the members of the Women's Institute from the very beginning. And she was one of the people who organised the big peace petition by the women of Wales. They gathered almost 400,000 signatures, in 1923! The population wasn't even that much smaller back then, but it was a lot of work to get the signatures. The women gathering them generally would just walk from door to door.

The pro-VC spoke of his initiative to try to get more diversity in the university portraits, and there were several recent additions on display. And then Charlotte Price White was revealed. She looked good!

The new painting being revealed by the painter herself, watched by the pro-VC

There was also a short lecture in Welsh from a lady from the National archive in Aberystwyth about this peace petition. And then the event was over. There was 25 minutes to spare.

The peace petition talk

The next things should have been Welsh and Ukrainian refreshments, but these had been booked for the official end of the event, so we weren't there yet. I decided to leave. It had been a bit of a confusing event with 2.5 hours of talking without a break, and with wildly differing topics, although war was in all of them. So a bit weird, but well worth it!

Red Wharf Bay with new crew

We go to Red Wharf Bay every year. It is routine! But this year would be a bit different. Katrien had let me know she couldn’t make it this time, so I recruited Kate instead. Later, Lynda said she was unavailable as well. This was an exodus! But I managed to also recruit Finley. And we would have Mike, who is increasing his teaching load. It would only be Jaco and me as the regulars! 

The weather was sunny but cold. Good enough! And whether it was the cold or not, when our first coach arrived, the student s immediately started boarding it. Works for me! I had told everyone to be there 15 minutes beforehand, so when all were inside 5 minutes before scheduled departure, I thought we could go. In just one coach! The 72-seater fitted everyone. Then a flustered-looking student appeared by the door, and we let him in too. Then we were off! 

The coach didn’t bring us all the way, as it might not be able to turn in the cramped parking lot, but it’s not a far walk. By the sea front we met the staff that had travelled directly. And then we could divide into groups and go. 

I think it went well! I had a responsive group. And we got through the trip smoothly. So smoothly, even, that my group had a bit of time to spare. And there is a cafe in the bay. Five students joined me there for a hot chocolate. That was nice! 

Sunny beach

Then it was time to get everyone on the coach again, and go home. Finley travelled on the coach as well; all the others were using their own transport. So I didn't really get to do a debriefing with anybody other than her. She felt she had been thrown in the deep end but she had come out on top! And I think in general it had been a success. And the next week we were scheduled to do the other trip. I hope that goes equally well!

No job losses in SOS

Bangor university, like many universities, is in financial trouble, and I feared a rerun of the financial trouble caused by the pandemic. Then we had to fight to keep our jobs! But this time there wasn’t an invitation to an ominous meeting. The talk going around was less pessimistic. And then one day, The Dean of the College came over to present the situation to us with the Head of School.

In the meeting, they explained that we as a School were doing so well we should have more staff, not less. And the university wasn't going to salami-slice all the schools this time. The big cuts were going to fall elsewhere, for instance in the School of Psychology and Sports Science. That is really bad news for them, but it really looks like this time, SOS is escaping the guillotine. So quite unexpectedly, I am not fearing for my job.

It is difficult to see where this is going in a larger context. Not a day goes by or another university is in the news, announcing job cuts. And the government doesn't have any money either, so they won't support us. This could be quite a pivotal time for universities in the UK! We'll see what the situation is 10 years for now. But probably, Ocean Sciences will still exist…

Colwyn Bay 10 mile

10 Miles used to be my favourite distance! Back in the days. It's long enough to really give you an idea you've done something, but it's not quite as demanding as a half marathon. So when there was a 10 mile race on offer, I registered for it. And I was lucky; this should have been the Rhyl 10 mile, but there seems to be a problem with the route in Rhyl so the race has moved to Colwyn Bay, which is nicer, and also closer by.

I also thought it would be a nice way of testing out my knees! Normally it is either the 10k, which my knees don't have a problem with, or the half marathon, which has led to me desperately needing knee supports at my last two attempts last year. So a 16k route might be an excellent way of testing the water. Could the physiotherapy I still do, plus the advice from my impromptu running coach, keep me going this time?

Marjan would come and support me, so slightly too early we met up so we could drive to the venue together. There was still be plenty of parking space! And plenty of time to go to the loo, and then get my race number. And then go to the loo again. And some 10 minutes before the start I made sure to be somewhere near the front. There were three distances: 5, 10 and 20 miles, and everybody started at the same time. Some 600 runners in all!

At the start. Pic by Run Wales

It was an absolutely gorgeous day! It was sunny, and there wasn't much wind. We would run East from the start, so I made sure to wear my sunglasses. I was wearing a T-shirt under my club shirt. And I had two knee supports in my running vest. I was hoping I would not need them! 

At the start I made sure to run at a decent base, but not too fast. I wasn't chasing anything. This was guaranteed to be a PB on the distance, given that I hadn't done a 10 miler since 2012, and these had been off-road. And it was a big race; I didn't expect to have a chance of having a podium position anyway. So I could just run in ways that I thought it would be good for my knees.

The route was straightforward: just follow the coastline until the turnaround point, and then follow the coastline back. And it was nice! People were in a good mood. I had a nice chat with several other competitors along the way.

I fairly soon realised I was wearing a bit much. Maybe these people in tank tops were on to something! But too late now.

My knees were feeling OK. I was trying to do everything my coach had suggested today. And it seemed to work! When I hit 10k, I knew there was only 6k left, and these knee problems arise slowly. No sign of them yet! And 11k was still good, as was 12 and 13. It was going to be fine!

When I knew there was only 5k left to go I wondered if I could still overtake any women, but I didn't see any that seemed within reach. But in the last mile I spotted one. I thought I could take her on! I had no idea if she was running the 10 mile or 20 miles; those doing the latter were just doing the course of the former twice. But it was worth a try. And I managed! I still had fuel in the tank and got past her. And from the colour of her race number I saw she was indeed also doing 10 miles.

My estimate for my time had been 75 minutes (well, rounded off from 79). I wasn't far off! I was just over 76. Well within the error margin. And behind the finish I spotted Marjan again. 

At the finish. Pic by Marjan

Afterwards

I drank some water, got my medal and T-shirt, and asked how I had done. I had come second in my category. So no additional medals. Fair enough! The winning lady in my category had only needed 69 minutes. Not something I could do. 

I should stick with my coach’s advice as it seems to pay off, so Marjan and I went back to the car, where I drank my recovery shake. And then we went for a coffee at the seafront. A nice way of finishing things off!

In the end it became clear I had done it in 1:16:13 and come in as 7th woman (of 101), 36th person overall (of 206). Excellent results! And what was more important: I had faith I might be able to do a half marathon again…

Dual chairs

I like comfortable chairs. Who doesn’t? The cat does too. But I especially like comfortable chairs that fit through my narrow doors. 

I had imagined a comfortable chair in the upstairs bedroom. And one day, Neuadd Ogwen was chucking away some chairs, that looked both fairly comfortable and fairly small. I thought ‘this is a sign from providence’ and nicked one. And I temporarily put it in the conservatory. And as things happen, then I didn’t get around to moving it. 

Then we had some stunning spring days. The cat considered the conservatory again. She loves snoozing in the sun on the resident chair there! And then I realised that maybe, the new chair is exactly where it should be. She can have the original comfy chair, and then I can have the other one, and stroke her while doing whatever else it is I want to do there. Drink coffee and read the newspaper, for instance. Perfect! That chair stays…

Tiny road closure

One day the neighbour approached me, saying that a man from Scottish Power had been in our street, and told him there was some work outside the little electricity building in our street that needed doing. That means they would have to close the road. Later he told me when it would start. I didn't receive any communications from them myself. It wouldn't have been difficult to throw a note through the letterbox! But thanks to my neighbour I was informed anyway. And I made sure my car was parked elsewhere when the work was about to start.

They didn't dig up the entire road; not even half of it. That was fortunate for the owner of a black car that has been parked on the wrong side of the road closure when it started. We didn't know who it belong to. But it could clearly get out. And also back in.

Small black car blocked in? No! 

You would almost think that the roadworks were without consequence, but then you would have not taken other humans into consideration. Soon there was a big van parked right next to the hole in the tarmac! So that meant that anyone parked on our street could not get out. Aren't people lovely. They could just have parked the van beyond the hole in the road.

Small black car blocked in? Now it is…

Later a big HGV appeared, to fill the hole back in. The work was done! I had just been for a little run and had to squeeze past. But the men working it were polite and not only let me through, but also let me through in the other direction with my bike. And when I got home the road was impeccable again!

Altogether a very unspectacular story. But it was nice that they got the work done quickly. And let's not pretend inconsiderate parking is unusual in our neck of the woods! And is also emphasises the benefits of having a good neighbour…

Film: Hard Truths

I like film! But I rarely go. Neuadd Ogwen doesn’t show many, and Pontio has a rather limited offer. Additionally, it’s not just a cinema but also a work venue. It’s ok going there for a 17:30 screening, but I’m not overly attracted to going there on my day off. Sometimes I do, obviously, but I really must like the film. 

The Thursday before my race I didn't want to do the Thursday run, as it seems better to give your body rest in the days before a race. But that meant I had this Thursday evening free. And I had recently both read glowing reviews in the newspaper about the film Hard Truths, and also heard an interview with the director, Mike Leigh. He is a veritable veteran, by the way, but I had never seen any of his films. I figured this was my chance. And I asked my date if he wanted to come with me. He did!

It starts with the family life of Pansy, a thoroughly unpleasant women in a sterile house with a brow-beaten husband and adult son. Later she ventures into the world, insulting people as she goes along. Claiming at home, of course, that it is other people who are harassing her. It was a bit much! I would have preferred it if they wouldn’t have laid it on so thick. 

Later you get similar everyday shots of Chantelle, her sister, who lives with her two adult daughters in a small but snug flat full of plants and laughter. Again; the contrast was a bit hammered home. 

The anniversary of the death of their mother is coming up, and Chantelle wants Pansy to come with her to the cemetery to pay their respects. And then come back to her place, with husband and son, for some food. She begrudgingly agrees. And by her mother’s grave she confesses to being scared and lonely and traumatised. The film never does anything like flashbacks to explain any of that. Chantelle just tries to comfort her, and offer some of her family warmth. It is well meant, but too little too late. It doesn't get through.

Later, Pansy’s husband does his back in at work. His colleague delivers him back at home, and alerts her to the situation. She is clearly overwhelmed by it, and sinks down into a chair, still upstairs. The husband is downstairs, in another chair, hoping she'll come down. And then the screen goes black. From there, you have to imagine how things progress yourself.

So what did I think? I had hoped it would be a little bit more subtle. But it was still worth it. I need to discuss about. Both my date and me recognised aspects of Pansy in people we knew. Fortunately, we also know Chantelles. 

After the film we went to a little Italian restaurant I had only realised existed the day before. That was a great find! So quite a good way of spending a Thursday evening! 

Women in sport

This year, the University’s International Women’s Day events were split in two. Maybe because of the actual day falling in the weekend. The first one was about women in sport, focussing on leadership. It would be a panel discussion, chaired by former Welsh football international Laura McAllister. The panellists were Kate Hannon (Cymru Women’s Sport Board), Hannah Powell (weightlifting), Tricia Sterling (gymnastics, netball, etc), and Sophie Harrison (sports science). I went.

When I walked in I spotted Ross and Geoff from Sports Science, who also run the Thursday Night Hills. I joined them. They were mainly there for their colleague Sophie. I was glad to see attendance was better than it had been the year before.

After pro-VC Morag had opened the event, Laura McAllister started it off. She gave some statistics about how many sports government bodies have no women at all in their boards. And she said it was detrimental if all decisions about a sport are made by men only. Very true! But she also emphasised that the grass roots of sport are also important. She wanted more women doing sport in a mediocre way. Because that’s important too! 

Then there were some central questions for the panel, such as what their greatest frustrations were. And these indeed ranged from grass roots to international level. From a lady with no love for netball, but with a daughter who wanted to play it, who then took on a coaching role as nobody else seemed to want to do it. Netball is seen as a girls’ sport, so not very glamorous. And a 4’8” (1.42) tall weightlifter who tended to have to represent her country in kit of which the size was a man’s S, which she obviously drowned in. And the sports scientist said that as an undergraduate, you'll have to memorise the average stats of male athletes. Not of females, of course!

Obviously, menstruation also came up. It was only when I started weighing myself in the lockdown period that I realised I have a 3 kg weight cycle associated with my menstrual cycle. If I didn't know that until I was in my 40s, I'm sure many men also don't know about it. And for me it doesn't matter much, but if you are competing in a sport with weight categories, it matters an awful lot!

For the last half hour they gave the floor to the audience. I asked about how women's sport is often equated to weight loss. Did they think that got in the way of women having a healthy relationship with sport, and did they see this change in the future? 

When the last question was answered there was an opportunity for networking in the foyer, but I wanted to go home. I still had a fair bike ride to do. And I would be home relatively late the day after, and the day after that, as well. So I left the networking to others.

The week after, there will be another event, this time about resilient women in a time of war, in association with a Ukrainian university. Stay tuned!

 

Using eBay to tidy up a bit

When I decided I was happy with my new fitness tracker watch, I obviously had a now redundant old one lying around. It is absolutely no use to anyone if it lies around in my house. So I disconnected it from my phone, erased all the data, and put it on eBay. I did specify that the battery life is very short, but even so. Someone will have use for it! And that was clearly true. People were bidding on it.

That inspired me to be a bit more proactive. I have a bit of a policy that I can't increase the amount of shelf space for my books. If you move house, books are a menace! And how many of the books you have will you re-read? So I for instance put Memorial up. I didn't intend to read that again. I'm sure someone else will like it.

It's not as if I have made enormous amounts of space in my house now, but I think I have set something in motion. I think I want to keep listing things that are no longer of use to me. Let's see if they can have a new life somewhere else…

Running training going awry

I was trying to pay heed to what Dafydd (the running coach) had said. I was bringing recovery shakes to the Thursday Night Hill (TNH) sessions. I tried to mind my gait. I sometimes had rest days. Sometimes it didn’t go so well; TNH doesn’t lend itself so well to gait change, for reasons of being very steep. I did a run in such rubbish weather I was too busy staying upright to mind my gait. But one tries!

I intended to do a long flat road run in the weekend in preparation for my upcoming 10 mile race, and then ‘taper’ (basically, take it easy) in the week before the race. The second half will happen! The first half didn’t. I woke up with a cold on the Friday, so after TNH. I suspect a causal relationship; it was a lot colder than I had anticipated. I was snotty all weekend, and only did a slow plod. 

A TNH pic

Slow plod pic

That 10 miler will be my longest race since the Caernarfon half marathon ended up with both my knees in knee supports. I really hope it will go ok! But if not, the knee supports will come out again. It’s 5k shorter than a half, so it would be 5km less in supports. We’ll see! 

Well-travelled cycling maps

Last year there was another episode of the Swamphike, which involves my Dutch hiking friends coming to the UK for an off-season hike. And this year two of them will come here for a big UK tour on bike. And they will come visit! That will be fab. But while they were preparing for their adventure they realised that they couldn't get the bicycle maps they wanted to use directly delivered to their house. The company wasn’t delivering to the EU. So would I be okay to have them sent to me, so I could send them on? Of course I was.

When they arrived I basically just sent them on as they had reached me: in a little box. They had ordered quite many! And there was no way they would all fit through the letterbox.

When the maps got to their house my friends, of course, weren't home. And apparently, no note was left, so by the time they checked where their maps were they were already on their way back to me. Bummer! Fortunately, they safely arrived again, in spite of the tracking app saying they had ended up in ‘Amersfoort, UK’. I then packed them up in two separate envelopes. Each envelope should fit through the letterbox! So this time, they should just get to the intrepid cyclists. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed! It's the humans that should be well-travelled, not so much the maps, at least not unaccompanied …

New perspective on a bridge

Almost every day I bike over an old railway bridge. It’s pretty! But bridges are never the prettiest seen from above. You need to be next to them to properly appreciate them. And I had decided several weeks ago that I should one day get off my bike and check this one out. 

I finally did it! One day riding back home I decided to stop. And it is indeed a gorgeous bridge! The field I ended up in (via a public footpath) was very soggy in the lower parts, so I didn’t go there, but that left enough opportunity for admiration. And I figured I’d have to come back one day in the morning. Then the sun would be behind me, which would make things even better. And I’m sure spring will hold many sunny mornings! 

The bridge as you see it coming over

Eastern end of the bridge

Majestic oak obscuring the view 

Backlit arches

Car light issues

Someone alerted me to the fact that one of my car headlights wasn’t working. That’s not a good thing, so I booked myself in at Halfords, to have a new bulb put in. And I figured I might as well have both of them replaced. If one fails, the other one might be a bit old. And I had checked a YouTube video of the process of changing a bulb in my model of car, and it looks complicated. So I figured I'd let someone else do that.

On an absolutely rubbish morning I got to the shop, parked up, and walked in. A friendly bloke asked me to park under the canopy that is there for cars that have been booked in for a procedure like that. And I tried to comply, but some entitled person just beat me to it, and parked his big BMW in the middle of the two parking spaces under the canopy. And it turned out he wasn't even there for having something fitted. I managed to sort of park at least partly under the canopy.

The friendly guy changed the bulbs, somewhat buffeted by the weather. He took an easier approach than I had seen on YouTube! But I didn't regret having him do the work.

That night I was going to properly try out my new bulbs. And it wasn't an improvement at all! At the gas station I checked whether they were even on. They were, but I felt like I saw less than when I still had one bulb. And when I got home I noticed the light of the beams hit my house suspiciously high up. That probably was the problem; the beams were aiming up at the sky rather than down at the road! That's not very helpful. I had probably been blinding all the people who came the other way.

When I mentioned it over lunch (where fortunately Martin was present; he knows his car stuff) people told me you can adjust that yourself. So that was me going back to YouTube! And indeed, there are some adjustments screws (not literally screws). But I had the impression they were for fine-tuning, and my beam was way off. Also; you need a very long allen key to properly get to them, and mine wasn’t long enough. So I decided to go back to Halfords and make them sort it. They had caused it in the first place!

Aiming too high 

On a Thursday, when I regularly drive anyway for TNH reasons, I went back. And a different man (who had sorted my bike seat problem) had a look. I didn’t even need to open the bonnet for him to spot the problem. The bulbs were not fixed in position. The adjustment screws wouldn't have changed a thing. He immediately wanted to know who had done that. And he put it right.

If you know what you’re looking for you can see the bulb is not fixed

Problem being solved 

It only took a few minutes, and then I was off to work. I couldn't really judge the improvement straight away as it was a bright day. But that night, driving back from the running session, I was really glad to see my beams pointed at the road again. Much, much better!

Knee update

When I had gone to my GP to have the lump on my knee checked out, she was very dismissive. But she did refer me for an x-ray. And when I was confident the results would be in, I phoned back. The receptionist told me that the result was "normal". I asked what that meant. The question had been: What was the lump on my knee? Not: Is my knee normal? She said the note said no fractures or bone lesions. And she didn't know anything more. And of course I couldn't ask more from the receptionist. She works with the information she has!

I'm now fairly certain I was fobbed off. So she didn't refer me for an x-ray because that was an efficient way of finding out what was wrong. That was probably just the cheapest possible investigation. And I don't think she cared that you can't clearly see any non-bone tissues on them. She is seen to have done something, and she probably is convinced I made the whole lump up anyway. But I didn't. When I encountered Dean while in running gear he spotted it from across the room.

My non-existent lump

What I think I'll do is let it grow a little bit bigger so it is even more conspicuous than it already is, and then ask for a second opinion from a different GP in my local surgery. I suppose the first GP just wasted some NHS time and money by sending me for useless scan. Let's hope a second one can do better!

Triple stats practical

Every year, we run a statistics practical for the dissertation students. It used to be run by a lady from the Study Skills team, but she left, and there wasn’t anybody else in that unit who could take over. Fortunately, I managed to rope my colleague Marianna in. 

She was immediately in for a heavy ride: the cohort was so big that not only didn’t it fit in one computer room; it didn’t even half fit in. We had to run the session three times. Three times three hours! And attendance isn’t great. It would have fit in two sessions. But we have to timetable for all the students; not just those who show up. 

Towards the end, when many had already left

She had kept the essence of the practical the same. And it went as well as could be expected! Some students were not keen to engage, some didn’t really need it and could just use the time to get on with their projects.but then there were some in between that benefited from us being there. 

It’s done now for the year. And let’s see if we’ll make the next year!