Borders League Birkenhead

It was a close call between the Anglesey 10k and the Borders League in Birkenhead. I had decided that I was not going to drive on my own all the way to Birkenhead. I would only go there if there was car sharing involved. And then I got a message that Helen wanted to car share. And then Anna joined too. So that decided that. Birkenhead it would be!

The day before the race, it turned out that Anna had acquired a bug, and dropped out. That was a pity. But I didn't change my plan. If I'm so against showing up in a car with only one person in it, then I shouldn't be the reason for Helen doing that. So we went. 

Luckily, Helen had been there before, because I was losing all sense of direction when we hit the actual town. To my surprise, parking was easy. We decided to get our race numbers first. Yes, race numbers! Normally you don't have these in a Borders League, but it seemed that the organisation wanted to try out the system, in order to maybe implement it fully in the next season. 

When we were on our way we also saw Olivia, who I had last seen at the Nick Beer. She had told me she had joined a running club, and was thinking of doing Borders League races. And this one was totally in her neck of the wood! It was good to see her. I also ate a sandwich, as I didn't think it would be a good idea to run the whole race only on my breakfast.

When we had our numbers we had a little walk through the park to see where the start and the finish were. I had been told that this park had inspired the design of Central Park in New York! I could imagine it had. It was nice. Then we went back to get into our running kit. I left my jumper on; I figured it was too cold to prance around in only a vest and shorts. This was the first time this year I was running in less than a T-shirt and leggings!

The partner of one of the runners, who wasn't running herself, was so kind as to take my jumper at the start, so I would have it again at the finish. And then we went off! There was no chip reader at the start, so even though we had race numbers (with chip), starting at the back was still a disadvantage. I suppose it only makes things easier for the organisation.

I started a bit fast, but caught myself within tens of meters, I didn't want to exhaust myself in the beginning, and I settled into a pace I thought I could maintain.

We are off! 

We started on a very wide path, heading for an exit, but then making a U-turn and heading back in. That means you could see the runners come the other way, and get an idea of what was going on at the front. And shout encouragements at fellow club members. 

Soon after that switchback we turned into a much narrower path. Overtaking there was a bit more of an issue. But we would do three laps of this park, and the field would certainly thin out. 

The weather was nice and I was feeling good and the kilometres ticked away. And when I came past the start for the third time, I knew that there weren't any women within reach in front of me, nor were there behind me that still had a reasonable chance of overtaking me. So in a way, I could relax. But I did try to keep my speed up.

 

Almost at the finish

Even almoster

When I had finished I shouted at a few more Harriers, but between the second last and the last finishing (there weren’t many of us) I went to get my jumper. And a Welsh cake. Nia Meleri had baked them as it was St David’s day! 

After the race we tried a club picture, and several of us then went to race headquarters for a cup of tea. And then we went home again. And the results came in quite quickly! That is the advantage of chip timing.

I was happy with my result! 7.85 km in 33:55. And 24th woman. 

There seems to be a lot of trouble with authorities this season. This race should have been in Wrexham, but the council seems to have torpedoed that. It seems the Harriers also have issues with their usual Borders League location, for reasons of the council. And the next fixture later this month seems to be having similar problems, and the venue for that race has therefore not been announced yet. I hope it’ll be somewhere not too far away! 

Much tree progress

When the neighbour, who wanted more light in his garden, started cutting down a big tree on the boundary between his garden and mine, I thought I would have a lot of work on. The deal is that he drops all bits of tree in my garden, and that I get the firewood. And he has a chainsaw, so he cuts the big bits 2 size. He tends to leave what doesn't need a chainsaw for cutting.

After that first day I removed all the side branches from the wood I wanted to use as firewood, took the cut bits into the garage and stacked them, threw away what I considered too flimsy, and cut the thinner but still usable branches to size as well. And I expected him to create a new load for me pretty soon after.

It turned out he took a break. There was nothing new coming for a while! Until, at the very end of February, he had the spirit again. 

It turned out that this time, he meant business. I was just working on clearing the first batch when he already showed up to create a second. For a while we were both working on it. He cut two wedges out of trunk that stuck out into my garden, until it sagged with a "crack". I wondered if we should somehow get a rope around it and bring it down, but he had a more pragmatic approach. He went back into his own garden, from which he could kick the trunk. That immediately brought it down! Neatly into my berry shrub.

What I found on the Saturday afternoon 

Work for me to do

Then he brought this one down: more work

I helped him cut that trunk in two, but then I had to go and do other things. And the day after I wasn't going to be there. But when I came back I saw that he had also managed to take down the remaining two trunks. He has done it! An amateur with a battery-powered Aldi- bought mini chainsaw, and he got rid of the entire tree. So his work is now done. Mine sure isn't yet! But at the end of it, I'll have a lovely a load of firewood, and a little think back on these days in a year or two, snug by the fire…

Inspired visit to recycling centre

I mentioned before that Neil is a very tidy man, and that that is rubbing off on me. Together we cleaned my car and my kitchen extension. And I’m not messy for the sake of it; I just tend do have more important things to do than tidying and cleaning. And I find it difficult to throw things away. Maybe they could come in handy one day? But I do feel some background rumbles in my head about that several aspects of my house(hold) should be tidier and cleaner. 

Recently, thinking of Neil inspired me to do some long due tidying and cleaning in the living room. But last weekend I took a bigger step. I went to the recycling centre for the first time in years. Some of the things I got rid of were my old bread machine that had served me enough by now, and my old worn out foot pump, and a mirror Rose had left, and loads of old lightbulbs. I forgot to take a picture. 

It’s not Earth-shattering, but it might be one step in a greater shift towards a tidier house. I have also been thinking about things I can get rid of via other means: either the bin, or eBay. Would I manage to raise the general tidiness of my house on the longer timescale? 

Ominous Friday message

It was Friday and a bombshell landed in my inbox. It was a message about Windows 10. I first wondered if it was a phishing attempt, but it really was from our own IT helpdesk. It said that if your computer will still working on Windows 10, it would stop working by Monday. Right! Not sure if that is a good thing to announce on the Friday. They said that if you were one of those atavists, you should let them know so I quickly did.

They responded quickly they asked me where my office was, and they would send someone to fix the problem. I told him I was in Menai Bridge. That tends not to be met with a lot of enthusiasm by services on main campus. I then heard nothing for a while.

When I asked them if anything was going to happen they said that now that they knew I was a Windows 10 user, my computer wouldn't stop working on Monday. I hoped that would be true! But still, someone needed to come and sort it out.

In the meantime I had been wondering how this came falling out of the sky, and I remembered it didn't. There had been communication about this in January. They had booked me in for switch-over, but nobody had showed up. I had assumed that maybe they had done it while I was not in my office, I had forgotten about it. But now the matter was again in the forefront of my mind! 

I know that IT services has suffered in the latest financial restructuring, but I do think that is a false economy. We all depend on our computers, and if you get situations with computers spontaneously stopping working, that could be very disruptive. I hope in this case all turns out well. But I'd rather be sure!

 

Carneddau horseshoe

Neil is doing an epic hike in spring, and wants to get himself ready for it. Some good long hikes are in order. And I had suggested the Carneddau horseshoe. I am in that general area quite a lot, but I hadn't done the full horseshoe in years! And it's a walk you can just do from my front door. He thought it was a good idea.

The forecast was partially cloudy during the day, and rain in the later afternoon. Good enough. 

When we started walking up the ridge towards Carnedd Dafydd it was indeed cloudy, and I feared a bit we would end up with our face in the clouds. To a certain extent, that was true. Sometimes it lifted a little bit and you got some of the amazing views. And it also got quite windy. I know that wouldn't be getting any less until we would come down on the other side!

On Mynydd Du, with Carnedd Dafydd in the cloud in the distance 

Scaling Carnedd Dafydd

We reached the summit of Carnedd Dafydd quite abruptly. And by that point it was time for coffee and a snack. And a leak. I struggled to stay upright when I was heading for a rock to crouch behind. I wasn't sure if this ridge walk would really work in these conditions. But we would give it a go. You can always descend the flank of the hill if you want to bail. 

After coffee we went on, and it was ok. We were fully out of the cloud now, and the views were amazing. There were still some snow remnants. 

Hike selfie

Snow above the Black Ladders

Sunny views

When we got to the wind shelter on Carnedd Gwenllian  we sat down for lunch. It was snug in the shelter, and outside the wind was howling. We were joined by a fell runner. 

After lunch we continued our way. It was still very blowy! I sometimes had to stand still and brace myself so as to not be blown over. But the views were still great! They got a bit gloomier over time when the weather turned. But we could just leg it home now. And we did.

Clouds come in

In the end we had done 21 km and 1150 m of ascent, in some 7 hours. Not bad! And peanuts in comparison to his epic hike, but well, Im sure it helped a bit! 

Ceiling update

It’s more work than I thought! But my ceilings are slowly improving. After the very hesitant start of putting some backboards in, several holes have now been filled with a custom-made patch. Once all holes have one, I can start applying filler. I think that will make a huge difference! But I think it’s best to do the first stage first. I try to cut the patches quite precisely to size, which makes it time-consuming. But I expect the final result will be the better for it! 

The three patched holes in the downstairs bedroom 

And one by the front door. I accidentally initially put the glue on the wrong side! I hope filler holds on it…

Faffing with the stove

I hoped I had it sorted! After lots of frustrating gluing back of the fire rope that is supposed to seal the door and keep the fumes in, I bought a fire rope in a different shape and size. I glued it in position and hoped that it would stay put for a while. The original rope seemed a real mismatch! 

The new rope undeniably fit like a glove in the little gully on the inside of the door. But after using it a few times, it became clear it didn’t stick out enough. It wasn’t sealing! 

For the time being, I just swapped the doors of the two stoves around. The other stove had been sparingly used, and its original fire rope might stick for a bit. In the meantime, Neil (who has similar issues) bought some other sizes. Hopefully, one of them would fit! 

The first (and bigger) size was clearly too big. And by the time I found that out, the door with the original rope  started peeling. I had to glue it back to keep it going for a bit. 

Gluing the original rope back

The other door, with the too-thin rope in position, and the too-thick stuff for comparison…

The next step will be to try the smaller size. I hope that will do the job! Otherwise we might have to rip out the door and take it to a shop that sells all sizes to make sure we get it right. These doors are heavy! Or otherwise; just get used to doing a LOT of gluing…

Bridge is tidal again

There has been trouble with the old bridge over the Menai Strait for years now. Recently, it had just been open in both direction for quite a while. There was clearly some work going on; there were vans of a rope access company parked near it all the time, and there were tripods from which people were hoisted up and down on the pavement. I'm not entirely sure what they were doing. But for a while, it only meant that one of the pavements was closed.

Then one day I was biking home and I noticed that the whole bridge was closed in the direction I was travelling. We had gone tidal again! In the morning, you are only allowed to drive from the island to the mainland, and in the afternoon, you can only drive the other way. So all the traffic in one of the directions has to go over the new bridge (which is an entire 16 years younger than the old one), and that causes traffic jams. This had happened before. It didn't affect me very much; I can go over the pavement with my bike. But it can be a right nuisance for car travel. 

When Dei and I tried to get back from Anglesey to main campus after our trip to Parys Mountain, It took a lot longer than normal, as we were travelling in the wrong direction at the wrong time. 

I hope it doesn't stay like this for a long time! Even though I can travel in any direction by becoming a pedestrian, it does add to your travel time if you have to walk over the bridge. And if there is no one else on the bridge I will just bike, but if there are pedestrians I do get off my bike. I don't think I'll soon have a reason to drive to work, but if I do, I am obviously going in the wrong direction. That would be annoying! But I suppose a 200-year-old bridge needs some maintenance once in a while. This is a lot better than it falling into ruin…

Being inventive with sealant

I made some progress on the ceilings. I put two more backboards in. And the next step is to glue the repair patches into position. And that, obviously, requires an adhesive.

I had been wondering if I should buy something. But I've bought things like that before. I knew I had several tubes in stock; some of them already partially used up. So I decided I should just try to use them again. But it had been a while since I had used them. Would they have dried out by now? And they are tubes; the adhesive comes out of the nozzle, but the nozzle, of course, gets clogged up quite quickly after use.

I first looked at the material I had used for repairing my render. The nozzle was surely clogged up, but there was a complication: this nozzle didn't look removable. And you can always cut it off, but that is a bit drastic. I had a look at the other tube of which I wasn't quite sure what I had used it for; maybe making the conservatory waterproof? Or for (re-)sticking antislip to my garden stairs? 

That nozzle was also clogged up. I took it off, and pushed something through the bung underneath it. There was clearly some material underneath it that wasn't dried out yet. But I didn't see a way of pushing it out. And then I decided to just cut off the entire top. It was either taking drastic measures or having to throw all of it away! And I got rid of the bung. 

I used a little spatula to get to the usable material. I think it worked! I'm glad I could save this compromise tube of sealant. I had nothing to lose! I always like salvaging things through slightly unorthodox methods. And so far it looks like it worked.. 

Only half a Parys field trip

Parys Mountain is a bit of an inhospitable place! It is very exposed. And if you have a habit of going there on a field trip in February, you might hit some atrocious weather. Last year I ended my blog post about the trip like this: 'It was a bit touch and go (because of the weather) this year, but I think we pulled it off! Let's hope that our next trip will have nicer weather…'

Well! I suppose the title of this blog post already provides a bit of a hint how things when this year. I think I meant the next trip in the series when I wrote that, but I allow myself to relate it to this year’s version of that same trip. The forecast had already revealed that the weather wasn't going to be great! We decided to play it by ear.

We drove up, parked up, and went to the viewing point, where we always start. It was foggy, but the fog wasn't very dense, and we could still see the pit for the most part. And it wasn't very cold, and even the wind wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We were fine! And when you descend into the pit you are a bit sheltered from the wind. And we only had a little bit of rain. I got through talking about the geology without issues.

By that time it was lunchtime. We decided to go back to our minibus, and have lunch inside it. And we kept an eye on the rain radar.

When we all had more or less eaten our lunches, the rain was hammering on the windscreen. And it looked like it would still rain for another hour! Should we go back? The rest of the trip is only in industrial archaeology, basically. Not really anything we really need to teach the students. This is just bonus!

We asked the students what they preferred. They didn't have to think about that for very long. Go back to campus! And so we did. It was a bit of a pity to miss out on the amazing industrial remains, but I have seen them many times before, and the students were clearly not too bothered. So I would still put this down as a successful trip!

Teaching ramps up: climate module

In the second semester, my teaching tends to start quite subtly. The dissertation module starts straight away, with me being involved in all of it, and the first year tutorial module does its normal thing. The field trip module has three trips, but I don't normally do all three. And there is a module between the first year tutorial model and the dissertation module, but the module organiser kicks that off, and the tutorials start a little bit later.

Then I have my own module, but the teaching on it is actually started by Katrien and Jaco, and I'm only the third to take the stage. And then there is the climate module, but I am doing palaeoclimate, so it makes sense to first have the physicists teach the students about how climate works, and then I come in and place all of that on a long timescale. 

I am still teaching frantically on my own module, but this is the time that the climate module kicks off as well. And I must admit I have been struggling with it a bit for the last few years. It is taught to 3rd and 4th year students, and it is about climate. I think discussion is an important part of it. But for years I have been struggling to get the students to engage. If you have them in the room, you can ask them questions, but the risk is that the only thing they do is desperately trying to avoid eye contact. And if you ask them to contribute, by preparing something and reporting back, they generally don't. It's been a bit like pulling teeth!

I'm not giving up. This year might be the one in which I get some lively discussion going. If students of that level, doing marine science, and a particular degree that involves climate science, are not able to stand up and have their voice heard about climate, then who is? This is one of the great challenges of our time, and it needs a societal discussion. I do think it is my duty try to get the students into this. Our little classroom is a safe space where you can get a bit of practice without the risk of being torn down by the public. Or bots. Wish me luck!

NWRAC meeting

When you accept a position in a steering committee, it tends to come with some unexpected tasks. Being the newfangled secretary of the Eryri Harriers, I was busy sending emails to all sorts of people, taking minutes of the one in person meeting I had attended, and the one online one that I didn't mention on the blog. But then there was an invitation to a Welsh Athletics meeting. To be more precise; it was an online meeting of the north Wales Regional Athletics Council (NWRAC). It seemed I might not be fully needed there; the club should be represented, but Arwel often went. However; I was curious, and I also didn't mind having to skip a Thursday training. For some reason, I had come back from the track training that week absolutely exhausted, and I was still knackered the day after. And I also knew that the morning after the meeting (or alternatively, the hill training) I would have to go into the field with the students; that is quite knackering, and I would have to top that off with a lecture from 5 to 6 pm. That is not something you want to do if you are exhausted to start with. So this week I preferred a 7 to 8 online meeting to  running the rainy hills until 8pm! 

I recognised several of the faces on the screen. Two of them seem deeply involved in race organisation, and Welsh Athletics championships, so you see them a lot at starts and finishes and when WA hands out medals. They were doing both at the Twin Piers race. Kevin, one of the two track trainers, and also a prolific race organiser, was there, and our own Arwel. And then some people I didn’t recognise. 

The meeting’s highlight was a presentation by a lady of WA who spoke of all that’s going on in their corner. One thing she mentioned was the Track and Field rater.  everyone who uses an athletics track was invited to provide feedback on it. 

Aside from that, the meeting was mainly dealing with ongoing issues in the local athletics scene. Had all clubs paid their contributions to this, that, and the other? Were new competition rules fair? Had prize winners received their awards? Were all volunteer positions filled? 

It only overran for some 10 minutes. It was nice to get a look behind the scenes! I don’t know if I will be back next time; I’m sure Arwel can manage without me. But if he is not available, and I am, I should be there. And it is interesting to get to look under the bonnet! 

Cyrdle: goal achieved

I started Cyrdle a while ago. It was just a nice challenge and good for my Welsh. Initially it was quite a challenge, but practice makes perfect, so it got easier. and I found myself having a 98% success rate after some 200 attempts. 

Then Goodhart’s law kicked in. I wondered if I could get that number to 99%. I had had a good streak of correct answers! And if I had 98% at 200, I would manage it if I would not fail once in the next 200 attempts. And getting one was not much of a challenge, but doing it 200 times in a row still was. Was this still good for my Welsh? Or was I just chasing a metric? The latter, to be honest. But I figured it was an innocent case of chasing the measurements rather than the actual gain. 

It started fine. I often didn’t need all allowed attempts to get them! And I started to notice repetitions. So the average challenge faded a bit. But there still was the occasional adrenaline situation that I did only get the word in the last attempt. 

And then the 400th attempt came up. It wasn’t very difficult! And I got it in three goes. The answer was ‘arogl’; odour. And that had indeed brought my score to 99%! 

I will now stop. I have my metric, and I have experienced diminishing returns. But I’m glad I managed this! Nerd points duly scored…

Nick Beer 2026

I like the Nick Beer 10k! 80% of the route is going around the Orme, which is beautiful. And I got a category win last time. I won’t deny it; I like winning things. So when you could register for the 2026 edition I did.

In autumn, I ran the Conwy Half Marathon with Neil’s niece. She really wanted him to register for that race in the new year. He was hesitant. He had never run a race! And half marathons can be a bit daunting. So I suggested he try the Nick Beer. It's half the distance, and you cut out the dull bit through Deganwy. He agreed, and registered.

Now did the day approach we would for the first time run a race together! We would go together from his place. We could just walk from his house to the start; that was only 15 minutes. No parking stress!

We got our race numbers, went one last time to the loo, dropped our bags at the bag drop, and were ready to go. I lined up near the 45 minute pacer. I didn't know they would have pacers; this one was no one other than Tinka, very fast Dutch lady who had won it last year. Neil lined up a lot further towards the back. He aimed to do it within the hour.

I knew doing it in 45 minutes would give me a good chance of getting a category win. I didn't know if I could do it; after all, I was only six days after a blood donation. I also knew I wanted to beat Richie. I had done the previous time, but there was no reason why I should not try to do it again! After all; before that, he had beaten me twice in a row.

When I was lining up at the start I was beckoned by Harrier Tony, who wasn't running himself as he had a cold. He wanted to do a club picture. I couldn't really hear what he said because of the loudspeakers, but he gestured in some direction. I headed there and couldn't find him. I had gone to the wrong place! And even though in total there were some 20 Eryri Harriers running, he had to make do with one picture of two Harriers at the correct location, and then another picture with me and Dylan (who I had accidentally found) in the wrong location. Oh well! 

Attempt at club picture, with Dylan

I went back to the start and found myself between Richie, who said he was also aiming for 45 minutes, and Olivia, who had kept me off the podium at the Snowdonia Trail 10k in summer. That had been the race we had been kept waiting for hours; I spent most of that time talking with her, or dancing with (among others) her. I knew she would run away from us quite soon! But it was really lovely to see her.

When we started I saw not only Olivia, but also Richie run away from me. But I kept the possibility open that he had started too quickly. I might catch up with him later on!

It didn't take me long to also lose Tinka. Oh well! Going too fast in the beginning never benefited anyone. I trundled on. She didn't get too far away from me; at least not initially. And around the 3 km marker I overtook Richie. A good sign, but it ain't over until it's over. And I made my way to the highest point by the café. And there I expected to speed up.

The wind had other plans. The forecast has been southerly winds, rounding the tip of the Orme gets you in their zone of influence. And boy did the wind make itself known! I don't think anyone was speeding up. Everyone was battling against the wind. But after a while, the route goes down, and then the wind doesn't matter much anymore. I was unusually comfortable on the downhill. But even so, I did see Tinka increase the distance between us.

At the bottom of the hill I mainly just consolidate my position. I didn't see any women near me that looked 50+ so whatever position I was in with respect to the other people in my category, this was probably going to be it. And Richie wasn’t in sight. 

Some 1.5k to go

There was a young woman near me, and when we together came past the 9 km marker, where there was an actual chicken among the supporters, a spectator shouted at us that they thought we were 7th and 8th woman. Another spectator nearby thought we were 5th and 6th. We didn't know which one of them (or either) was right, but I at least had faith we were in the top 10. That was pretty good!

The young lady ran away from me and I didn't have a problem with that. I just tried to keep going at my place to finish. I could see I was finishing a few seconds after 46 minutes; fine with me! Slower than last year (45:22) but I was happy with it. I needed a breather now. And after the finish I saw Olivia and Tinka. Olivia had come second!

Finish! 

I tried to look on my phone where Neil was; we were sharing location. I didn't have signal! I went to the finish to see if I could spot him, and then I suddenly had signal. He was still some distance away, so I went to get my bag. I was keen to put on a warm jumper. Then I went back to the finish, where I didn't have signal again. I just kept my eye out! And then I saw him.

He looked a bit tired, but he smiled when I shouted my encouragements at him. And when he had come past I went looking for him behind the finish. Location sharing was useless there, but I found him. He was satisfied with his performance! Well within the hour. I was glad. I had been wondering if maybe I had inadvertently pressured him into registering for something he wasn't keen on. But I think he didn't regret it. 

We headed for the George hotel where prize ceremony would be held. And somewhere along the way I had enough signal to check if I was going to get one. I was! I had my category win. With a time of 46:06; almost 3 minutes faster than the next one up. And faster than the 40+ and 45+ winners. And I was 8th woman. This year had just been slower than last year, probably because of the wind. And the ceremony would start quite soon.

In there, Olivia found me, and we discussed how it has gone. And then the ceremony started. I took pictures of her, and Neil took pictures of me, and everyone was happy. The bloke who had won in the 60+ category was called Nick Beare! Everyone enjoyed that. And the bloke who had won in the 65+ category was none other than Eryri Harrier Dylan. We category winners got one of those runner packs with sports drink tablets and gels and a water bottle and suchlike. I had won one before. 

Top 3 ladies

The 50-55 category winners

When that was done we went back to Neil's place. We were both hungry by now! And I was glad we were both happy with our results. I'm not sure if he’ll ever race again but he might! The Conwy Half though? He sounded highly unsure of that. But who knows. And I was high on two category wins in the two (non-Borders League) races of the year so far. I hope to get more! 

More cat developments

Cats like sharpening their claws, and mine is no exception. She has a scratch post in the downstairs bedroom, which I have already had to refurbish several times. And in the living room, I just wrapped rope around the banister of the stairs: instant scratch post! She really likes both. And I had never refurbished the one in the living room (quite unlike the other one). But I decided it was time.

Before

It's actually made up of two bits of rope; the lower and initial one, which is sisal as I know it, and the upper one, which is a later addition, which I think is jute. I tried to have both the same, but the shop just didn't have sisal in stock. 

It is almost exclusively the lower rope she uses. So when that was pretty much worn through, I decided I might just as well move the other one down. So I did.

After

I hope she likes this rope as much as she did the other one. She has already used it! And it might be a bit more hard-wearing. If she doesn't like it, I might have to just find an alternative use for this rope, and get some sisal when I can get it. Time will tell! 

Race confusion

The Borders League fixture after Pensby would be in Wrexham, on March 1st. But then it wouldn’t. Wrexham council was going to be difficult and maybe the race would be cancelled. And then it was sure it would be cancelled. And then it was actually on; just not in Wrexham. It got moved to Birkenhead. 

In the meantime, I had noticed the Anglesey 10k/ half marathon were on that day too. That was tempting! I hadn’t run it in a while, but there was a new route. Maybe give it a go? 

And when I was already registered for both other races I suddenly saw the Sbrint ‘Stiniog race announced. On the same day! I had really enjoyed that race the year before. But this date was getting crowded now…

What am I going to do? Well, I think Sbrint ‘Stiniog is out. It's a great race, but I have my club allegiance to drag me to the Borders League, and the fact that I've paid full price to drag me to Anglesey. We'll see which of these two forces is stronger! One thing I know; if the Eryri Harriers would not be willing to car share too Birkenhead, I am not going. Then it will be Anglesey! I am not going to drive for three hours on my own for a 35 minutes race, and not make the tiniest difference to the club ranking anyway! The club ladies have never fielded enough athletes this entire season, so we absolutely have penalty points coming out of our ears. It is already not recoverable anymore. But if they would be willing to share transport then I'm not sure… time will tell! 

Cat quirks

Three years ago, I bought my cat a heated mat. My house isn't kept at a particularly high temperature, and cats like their comforts. So if she would just have her own mat, she could always be nice and snug and warm. And she liked it! The instructions say cats shouldn’t lie directly on top, so I keep a towel on top of it.

Of course there are times when she boycotts it. She is a cat, after all. But that never lasts long.

Then came the fateful day that the electrician drilled into the water pipe. When water started gushing out of the wall, he quickly looked around, saw the towel, and asked if we could use that. I figured we could. I have more towels. Surely it’s the heat that is crucial, not the towel. 

When the electrician was gone I put a different towel on her mat. But she didn't want it lie on it now. Oh dear! Cats can be so particular about things.

After I'd washed the original towel, I put it back. Maybe this would placate her? A towel that at least looked (actually was) the same as the original one, be it that undoubtedly, it now smelled differently? But she still wasn't having any of it.

The pipe incident was in December. It is now mid-February. And she has now finally accepted the towel! I am glad. Cats… 

More running after blood donation

Since I became a proper running nerd, I have been very conscious of the effects of blood donation. For two weeks afterwards, I just can’t get up hills. I still go, though; blood donations save lives and running up hills tends not to. 

This February I had a Monday morning session booked. I came in, did the questionnaire and all that, and soon was called into the booth where they check your iron levels. They start with a finger prick. When the lady measured my iron level she said it was a bit low. There were two things they could do now: one was to send me home, and the other one was to take some blood from my arm to do a more precise measurement. Maybe I was still above the threshold!

I won't lie; part of me hoped I would just be below it. Then I could keep all my blood. And that would definitely yield a better result in the upcoming race! But as I said; blood donations save lives. Running races does not. So they took blood from my arm, and lo and behold, I was just above the threshold. They could take a donation.

In a way, that was quite a bad outcome. If they are going to take blood anyway, it's better if your initial iron levels are very high. I figured I would be extra lethargic after losing half a litre from such a weak  starting point. But let's have it!

When they stuck the needle into my arm, the blood wasn't flowing as it normally is. I tend to be done in five minutes. This time they struggled to get a full donation out of me in 15 minutes. But they just made it.

The next day was track training. I told the people in my group I was going to be a bit slower than the previous week, for reasons of the blood donation. The week before I had gone for 4:20 per km; now I would aim for 4:25. For people who don't do track running; this seems so trivial, but believe me: there is a noticeable difference. People were okay with that. Many of them! When I started pacing on the track I tended to have four or five people behind me. This time I had line behind me that was at least 100 m long. Crazy!

The track session actually went perfectly fine. That was nice. But of course there are no hills on the track. The proof of the pudding would be the Thursday Night Hill session.

When I have donated blood I make sure to not run first part of the route, which is in a way a warming up, on the flat. I headed straight for the hill. This is an accepted practice; that first leg is never done by everybody. And when I got to the top of the first hill, I started making my way down before the main group did. And then from the second hill, I just did what everybody else did. And it went fine! Strava said afterwards that I had even done two of the sections unusually fast. These were not the big hills, though. But it was a good sign nonetheless!

At the top of the first hill

I don't know how this all works. How can I be so unaffected by a blood donation if my initial iron levels were so rubbish? I have no idea! But I'm not complaining. I might not even do too badly in the upcoming race, less than a week after donation!

Lots of academic integrity meetings

Well! As I write this I have done the last meeting about academic integrity with students in my diary. I had 16 of them this calendar year so far. That’s a lot! And I’m sure it’s not over yet; people are still marking, so new cases may still come in. But at least I have now dealt with everything that has been raised with me so far. 

It’s a bit bleak; only one student was totally exonerated. Two got a warning. Two got a penalty of <100%. And the rest all got 0% for the assignment in question. And this means I only penalised about 2% of undergraduates, but still. A lot more than I hoped! And of these 13 penalties, 11 were for inappropriate use of AI. And I don’t know, of course, how many I don't catch. This is quite a big thing! 

I have also done the second sitting of the University panel. They even asked me to chair. Why not! We have clear guidelines you can follow. And they've already asked me about my availability for March. I think it is fair to say the University also has quite a lot of work with this academic integrity business, and so far it looks like quite a lot of that is also associated with AI…

Goodbye John

It's February; we have a new Head of School. John has handed over to Stuart. And given that he has been in the school since the eighties, and had been HoS for six years, there was a goodbye do. I didn’t expect much, but I trusted he would get a present (there had been a collection) and would say some words. And I gathered some collaborators would say something too. 

Was I sad or keen to see him go? Well, a bit of both. He was the man who tried to make me redundant. But he was also the man who (after initial discouragement) supported my promotion to Senior Lecturer. He was in the EDI committee, but there his role seems to mostly have been to push back. He saw no point, for instance, in the students being allowed the option of giving their pronouns on their University profile. So a bit of a mixed bag! 

We piled into the room. There were some faces from the past there! Several people who had retired before him had come back for the occasion. Several of these were actually former heads of school.

There was tea and coffee and lots of cake, and it all started with a bit of mingling. John, who normally is wearing a smart jacket, was this time in a fleece. He has already adjusted to the change in circumstance! He just mingled in my direction when some colleagues were going to have a little presentation. John said he was nervous. The first page of the presentation just had his official profile picture on. Nothing embarrassing about that! But he said he was nervous about but would come after that. I doubted anyone would have any compromising pictures of such a straight-laced man. But maybe I was wrong!

I was wrong. It started with quite old pictures of a rather casually dressed John, still with his dark hair, when they were discussing his early career. Not that there is anything wrong with having our car and being casually dressed. This was just a side of most of us didn't know. Sometimes the speakers interrupted their presentation to read the message of old colleagues of John’s from that time. 

The pictures got wilder than I thought. There was one that even had to be censored! This clearly featured John straight out of the shower on fieldwork with a towel only covering his front. One would hope that this day and age, people wouldn't take such pictures anymore. But this looked like the 80s and things were different then.

We got some insight into John’s diving habits as well. By training, he is an anemone and tropical coral specialist, and his research involves of a lot of diving. He is also very prone to sea sickness, and under the illusion that you can communicate with other divers underwater by talking.

Ronan presenting slides

I thought it was a good balance of paying tribute and taking a little bit of the base. And then the tables turned. Now it was John’s turn. 

John focussed on his successor. He conjured up a big cardboard box that said Head of School survival kit, and he started to unpack it. He warned Stuart you need quite a lot of attributes to be a successful Head of school. He started with his sartorial choices; he said you really need to look smart as a HoS. Stuart got a crisp shirt, a Bangor University-branded tie, and a tweed jacket. He also gave him a pan and brush; a HoS needs a tidy office. And pompous books in the book cupboard. And a big notebook. And thick skin. And more. It was actually very well done! And Stuart was a good sport. 

John also got presents: among other things, a bottle of Pimm’s in a personalised box, and framed images of his allegedly favourite invertebrates from his various study sites (which he had to identify at species level). He was chuffed.

The man who had actually hired John back in the eighties had the last word. And then bottles of bubbly (both with and without alcohol) were opened. 

Five Heads of School in one picture! 

I left quite soon; I had Welsh class to attend. But a fair number of people went to the pub. One assumes John’s wife was driving back! I think he had a good goodbye. And I am curious to see how the first all-staff meeting chaired by Stuart will be…

Starting on ceiling repair

When the workmen started to put in the second round of panels in August, they had to put the wires somewhere. The logical place is in the ceiling, but that means having to get into it. This involves a lot of making holes in the plasterboard. Some small ones, where they just made a hole and left it; or big ones, where they basically cut a part of the ceiling into bits, and sort of stuck them back in more or less the same position when they were done. Both is not very pretty, and needs to be sorted.

Now that they are done it is up to me to sort out the damage. I have never really dealt with this before! I started out with a little instruction video on YouTube. The obvious place to start! And it spoke of backboards and joint tape and all sorts of things. I was learning.

I have now tentatively started. I ordered some repair patches. Plasterboard normally comes in enormous sheets, but of course there are people who take leftovers and sell them on eBay. Suits me fine.

I just started by tracing the outlines of the holes on paper, so I would be able to transpose that onto the plasterboard, and cut out (sub-)patches of the right shape and size. I also started to think about the backboards. The idea is that if you have a hole in your plasterboard, you make sure that you fix something above the hole, and you stick the repair patch to that. That's the backboard. That might be substantial if the hole is big. With small holes you might not need it; maybe the filler you need for putting it in place will just hold it in position.

I didn’t take chances. I screwed some small pieces of wood into the first small holes, and cut a beam to size for a big hole. I didn’t have screws long enough to put it there, though. I will need to buy these. 

I didn’t get very far. But there is a start! That is always the hardest part. It will take a while, but I have faith I will get there. I don’t know how seamless (or otherwise) it will look in the end, but I’m sure I’ll manage to improve it from what it is now! 

Preparatory artwork

Two small holes in the bedroom

Mini backboards fitted

A big hole that needs a big backboard

Adjusting to my 50+ hair

As hair maintenance I tie bits of string around the base of my dreadlocks. It keeps them together, and it makes new hairs join a dreadlock. You don’t want them to grow freely in between! And the idea is that your maintenance is so good to that when you put a new bit of string in, you take the previous one out. But sometimes I'm a bit late, and I choose to keep the old one in. My hair is not naturally inclined to be configured into dreadlocks, so if I have left it a bit long I might have a little interval of normal hair between the bits of string. Quite a lot of my dreads have more than one bit of string in.

I have traditionally used black thread. Not that my hair is black, but it’s dark enough to make the thread blend into the background. But that is changing.

On New Year's Day, Dean pointed out that I should probably be moving to grey. I figured he had a point. My hair is grey! So the next time I went to buy strong thread, I indeed went for that colour.

I first used up all the black I still had. But then I made the switch. It indeed blends in! And hopefully, one day I will move to white thread. But that is still quite some time away!

Symbols of time moving on

I suppose you can’t see the difference in this pic! But the lowest piece of string is grey…

Holyhead mountain and breakwater

Sometimes scampering off to Anglesey can keep you out of the rain. And there was quite some rain forecast further inland. So Neil and I decided to go to Holy Island. We first had a look at the brickworks, which have been turned into a sort of educational garden. Then we did a walk over the flanks of Holyhead Mountain, to North Stack. And then we walked the breakwater; I had only been on it once, during a race. It was nice to take some time to enjoy it. And we stayed largely dry! Success… 

The brickworks 

Artefacts

Glassless sash window

From the old railroad that took the building materials to the breakwater

View from North Stack to South Stack

View back to land from the far end of the breakwater