Next kitchen cabinet gets makeover

I felt really good about having stripped and painted two of my kitchen cabinet doors, so my hands were itching to do it again. And the obvious next target would be the kitchen cabinet above the oven. Because of the heat of the oven, its veneer had suffered a bit. But my thinking had already evolved a bit from the initial attempt.

The first difference was the yellow paint. I had initially used some leftover paint I had used on the bathroom wall, and some wall/ceiling in the kitchen. But it was probably a good idea to use paint a bit more suited to this particular application. A bit more durable, and more easy to clean. I could still use the same colour.

The second difference was how I would go about it. I had painted the first two doors in situ. I had been a bit nervous about being able to hang them back afterwards. But Neil recommended I try it anyway. He figured it would be fine.

The third difference was the handle. I don't like the handles the kitchen came with. When I was at it anyway, I might just as well change them. I had a little Google and bought a few hand-wrought replacements. They were not the same size; I could only use one of the drill holes. I would have to drill an additional one, and fill up the redundant one. But that shouldn't be too much work.

With that in mind, my first step was to go back to B&Q, to have some paint mixed for the purpose. The next step was to take the cabinet out; I put it down in the conservatory. And this time I applied again two layers of primer, and three layers of white paint, but only one layer of the yellow paint. That would not be enough, but I figured I would wait with the second layer until I would replace the handle. Hopefully, painting the second coat over the filled-up hole would make that invisible.

My plan is to also put a layer of this new paint over the yellow paint of the first cabinets, but again I am going to wait until after I have fitted the new handles. I only bought three; I will see how I like them. I am painfully aware of the contrast between hand-wrought iron and MDF. They would undoubtedly look better on old oak! But it might work. I will have to see them fitted to know. If I am happy with my choice I will buy them for the remainder of the doors and drawers as well. 

If you don't stand too close to this last door you don't notice it is missing a coat of paint. It is helping making the kitchen look a lot better than it used to! I am quite excited about this whole project! Watch this space to see it develop...

Progress

No trace of damaged water pipe anymore

It has taken a long time, but the work is finished! I had already blogged about the electrician drilling into a water pipe, after which the whole pipe had to be extracted from the wall and replaced. That obviously left a big gaping hole in my wall. And the first step of doing something about that was packing it with wood. Then the work stalled. Then I filled the remaining depression up with filler. The next step was to sand the filler down, but it turned out the sandpaper I had wasn't up to it. But by now I have bought new (coarser) sandpaper, sanded it all down, touched up the paint, and then put the light switch back. And now you can't tell anymore that an emergency took place! You can still see a bit of a scar in the wall, but this wall is full of scars. It's just the nature of the wall. I'm happy with the result!

Watching football

Yes you read that correctly. I have been watching football. Why? I am not interested in football. I am also in a relationship with a man who is not interested in football. But. He actually is marginally interested in football, and he figured that now that his national team was in the World Cup semi-final, this would be the moment to watch. He also says that by the time it gets so spectacular that he watches again, England loses.

After our walk we went back to Llandudno and had some pasta. And then it was time to watch the game. I watched the first few minutes, and then I sneaked away to phone my mum. I was perfectly comfortable not watching everything. And when I came back, there still were no goals.

I am hardly a football expert, but the game struck me as not particularly pleasant to watch. It looked tense on the field. The players didn't look like they were enjoying any of it. It was a bit scrappy.

I wasn't too focussed on the game; I had a lot of water to drink, and I had Neil to my left and his cat to my right, so enough other things to deal with. But I was involved enough in the game to get quite some admiration for the English goalkeeper. If I remember correctly, the Argentinian goalkeeper didn't have an awful lot to do. The English one did! And I was very impressed with how he kept almost everything out. But almost everything is, of course, but not necessarily good enough to win a game. And they didn't.

When it finished, Neil wasn't overly disappointed. But he hadn't liked how the Argentinian had played, and he spontaneously became a Spain fan. And he had another data point in line with his expectation of England losing when he watches. In case you wonder: no he didn't watch the game against France. 

I remember having watched football when I was in Norway. That gives me an approximately once in 20 years frequency in which I watch football games. I'm sorted again for 20 years! Suits me fine…

Anniversary hike and swim

 In July last year I went on the first date with a guy called Neil. Two dates later he made his rather muted debut on the blog. And I suppose the rest is history. And now it is July again. I thought it would be good too do something to commemorate the anniversary of that first date. It has been in the middle of a heatwave, and we had gone for a walk, with a little swim in a lake to cool down. 

Last year, the lake in question had been Geirionnydd, but I prefer my lakes a bit less busy and polluted. I suggested  Cwm Lloer this time. Neil was up for it. And because of where it is, we could take the bus in. So Neil came to me first, and then we went to the bus stop together.

It was quite nice walking weather. Warm, but not scorching! And we walked quite leisurely up in the direction of the lake, along the stream. I was trying my hybrid shoes as hiking shoes. I was wondering if that would be more comfortable on my feet, while still being sturdy enough. 

By a stile Neil suggested we have a little break. He was a bit warm. I was up for that! We didn't intend a huge walk, so we had all the time in the world. And after a while, a lad appeared, and decided to have a little break there too. He was from Wolverhampton, and had fairly recently started to explore North Wales. We had a really nice chat.

Then we went on. Not a lot later, we came to the lake. There was one small cluster of people already there, but that wasn't very surprising. On a day like that! And the lake is big enough to accommodate two small clusters of people, and still give everyone a sense of privacy.

Lake selfie

It is such a gorgeous area! You look right at the cliff of Pen yr Ole Wen. It is quite quiet. We put our bags down and decided to go for a swim first. And the other cluster of people was so far away, and there was no sign of any additional people, that I went in the nip. Neil was too British for that. It was lovely!

Our view (pic doesn’t do it justice)

We had our lunch there too. We took our time. And when we finally got onto our feet again we hadn’t decided yet we would do after reaching the summit of Prn yr Ole Wen. We would see.

When we go to the summit I figured I preferred to go straight down to the road, and catch the bus back, rather than walk all the way back home. I just didn't expect water to materialise anytime soon. And I didn't have a lot left. Neil was fine with that, so we accepted the descent. 

The top of the descent 

It is quite a steep descent, and some of it has a lot of loose rock. That is a bit trying, but the shoes did a fine job. I did wonder if the main issue here was that I was wearing them out a bit quickly. Might be worth it though, if it is better for my feet.

When we were right by a steep cliff I suddenly spotted a bag. A bag? There was no accompanying person anywhere in sight. We called out, but no one materialised. Sometimes finding a bag in the mountains is really bad news. It might mean that someone has come to a sticky end. But this was absolutely not a dangerous part of the route. What would have happened? 

We decided to leave it there, but make a note of its location, and take a picture. We could notify Mountain Rescue.

We continued our way down, and got to the road without issues. We still had a bit of time before the bus would come, so we checked if there was a water station by the visitor centre. There wasn't, but there was a National Trust warden's office there, with the door open. Neil stomped inside, and asked the person in there, a young man called Rhys, if they perhaps knew anything about someone missing a bag. Strangely enough, the answer was yes! 

We heard the whole story. A bloke had been in the mountains, and put his back down at some point. Unfortunately, it wasn't stable, and it started rolling, and fallen down a cliff. He had been looking for it, but never found it. That was a problem, as apparently, his wallet, phone and car keys had been in there. It turned out that he had had to have his car towed home. And that was quite some distance away. Rhys had his contact details. 

Where we had found the bag it wasn't conspicuous, simply because it was muted green, but it was on the main path. We wondered if someone else had found it and put it in a more obvious location. I suppose everybody is hesitant to remove a bag just in case the owner is coming back for it. But now we knew that the owner had gone home. We could safely remove it.

I thought it would be silly to leave it on the mountain knowing what we knew, so I created a quick plan. What if one of us would take the bus home, and the other one would go and retrieve the bag. We could bring the bag back to the National Trust office, and the person who had gone home by bus could pick the other one up by car. The bus only goes every two hours, and we didn't want to wait that long. And with Neil blocking me in, it had to be him who went home. He was OK with that. 

Rhys offered me some water, but he only had it in a water cooler, and that gave me a massive brain freeze. Neil let me drink some of his leftover water. That would have to do. I gave him my bag, as I didn't want to carry two of them, and went back up the hill.

It only took me some 25 minutes to get back to the bag. And a similar amount of time to come back down. When I came back to the road, Neil was already waiting for me. When he had got back with his car, he could see a little dot descending the mountain, and had come to welcome me. With a full bottle of water in his hand! He knows me a bit. This water wasn't brain freeze temperature.

We brought the bag back, had an additional little chat with Rhys, and then went home. I hope the owner of the bag is glad it has been retrieved. He might have some more adventures with it now. But I think he will be more selective where he puts it down.

I could tell I had done that last bit of the adventure with not enough water, but it has been worth it. Even if the bag never finds it way back to the owner, at least it is not confusing people in the mountains anymore. And if it would stay there for too long, it would become litter and that is not good either.

It hadn't panned out as I had expected, but it had been a worthy anniversary walk! Onward, to the next year with Neil!

Marshalling 18 youngsters

When I was at the Pentir fun run, Arwel approached me. He said he had a race that Sunday. He still needed people to help him out. Was I available? Neil was going to go into the mountains with a friend, so I said yes. It turned out that the race was the Junior mountain running championships in y Fron. I thought this was the same event as one I had marshalled with Neil the year before, but I wasn't sure, as that had been in September, and championships don't tend to move around the year too much.

It wouldn't be a big commitment! There were three races initially planned, but they had decided to combine two of them. So there was one race starting at 12:00 and one at 12:30, and neither of them would be more than 7 km long.

He had suggested I explore the course before it would start, but time moved faster then I could keep up with, so by the time I got to race HQ, it was too late for such shenanigans. Oh well. 

Ann teamed me up with a local lady called Sheila. When she appeared we headed into the hills together. Along the way we chatted a bit. She was almost 80 and a fell runner. She had been an Eryri Harrier in the past. Her partner would also be marshalling, but he would appear later.

We would be a bit spaced out as marshals. I suppose I would have preferred to have a three people where there was only me. There was some ambiguity in the route on both sides of me. I figured I would have to be a bit dynamic. Make sure I was in full sight of the runners when they started to run away from Sheila, so they knew they would have to run towards me. I also had my Siabod cowbell, which would help.  That would sort the ambiguity before they would get to me. But then I could run up a bit with them, and also point them the way just after my station. There was a steep hill and a sharp turn straight behind, so you couldn't really see what was ahead from my marshalling station. And once the first one was pointed in the right direction, the rest could just follow.

The first race, which was for 12 and 13-year-olds, only had six runners. Would parents have withdrawn their child because of the weather? We were still in the heat wave, even though this day it was quite breezy, so I wasn't overheating. My marshalling strategy worked. And the kids, who were in club shirts (not national shirts), looked as grumpy as last year. I have marshalled several junior races now, and you don't actually see a lot of smiles! I do look very happy than I'm racing. Probably because I am.

View from my station

Soon after these six were gone we got the second race. This one only had 12 runners. This was the combined race of the 14 and 15-year-olds, the 16 and 17-year-olds and 18 and 19-year-olds. I was a bit confused when I saw 13 people running. The 13th wasn't a junior, though. I understood from Sheila that this was a Welsh Athletics official who just got carried away cheering the kids on. And the kids were still in club shirts. So probably regional championships, unlike last year's national championships in September. And still few smiles.

With all the 18 runners of the championships having gone past we could take the markers down and return to headquarters. Unfortunately, we did have to walk past one of the runners who hadn't made it to finish. One of the youngsters had collapsed in the heat. By the time we got to him, he was surrounded by people looking after him, and we heard him say he was feeling ok again. I have faith he would be fine.

We put the markers and hi viz vests and whatnot in Ann’s car and that was us done. A nicely brief marshalling experience!

Trying to un-sag the kitchen cabinet doors

When I was working on the kitchen cabinets anyway, I decided I should really do something about the fact that several of them are sagging. I had tried to deal with it before, but with no success. But I had another look at a YouTube video about how to deal with a situation like that, and gave it another try. And this time I figure I made real improvements.

It is a bit of a dark art! But I am quite happy with how it has turned out. Maybe Neil will give me a hand making it even better. He is a perfectionist, after all. And more experienced with this sort of matter. But I am not in a hurry anymore. The way it is now something I can totally cope with!

Before

After

Giving two kitchen cabinets a new look

When I bought my house, the kitchen was in a relatively good shape. I turned most of the rest of the house into a building site. In the kitchen, I basically only did painting. It was not as if there was nothing else to do, but at least everything else functional. But I didn't like the fitted kitchen. The big gripe were the kitchen cabinet doors. They were basically made of MDF with a plastic liner over the top, in an ugly non-colour. And the handles were dull. And to make things worse; the plastic lining of the two cabinets underneath the sink had split. And there was minor damage to the lining of some other cabinets.

I have been dreaming of redoing the whole kitchen. But that is quite a thing! And I know that I don't have mainstream taste. I would really love to have it custom-made from reclaimed wood. Where do you find someone who can do that? And how expensive would it be? If I would try to do it myself, it would take forever.

I had also been dreaming of somehow getting the liner off, and then just painting what would come out from underneath. But I was worried that it would only be easy to remove the plastic where it was already coming off. And that you would end up with the edges refusing. A bit like trying to get a sticker off. It's hard to get the whole thing clean off! And if you don't, you've made the situation worse. 

The big change came when I saw online someone taking a heat gun to a cabinet just like that, and taking the plastic off without any effort. Would it really be that easy? It was worth finding out! It turned out that heat guns are actually quite inexpensive, and also not overly big. It was well worth trying.

After its inaugural task of getting my bicycle mirror fitted again, it was time to be deployed for what it was really bought for. I took off the handles cabinets to get ready.

The original state of the cabinets (except that I had already removed one handle)

It really was as easy as I had seen it online! Point that heat gun at the plastic and it comes off just like that. 

With the plastic off

I then had a rummage in the garage for some paint. I had thought about what colour I would do. The colours already there are white, yellow, and green. I first thought of green on the outside and yellow in the middle, but then I thought it might be a bit dark. Maybe yellow on the outside and white in the middle? But I first needed to put a coat of primer on anyway, so I had some time to think.

With primer

I had some indoor wood primer but it was old and quite lumpy. I put one layer on, which obviously wasn’t very tidy, and then I decided I probably should chuck that stuff away. And then improvised with some outdoor primer.

I had some white eggshell for the inside, but that turned out to have dried up. The yellow paint I had used elsewhere in the kitchen was still ok. So I painted the outsides, and bought some new white paint for the insides.

Finished! 

Two coats of yellow and three of white later, and the handles reinstated, and I could put my new design to the test. Would the paint be able to cope with the kitchen environment? If not, I might sand them down again, and buy some more hardy paint. Once I have decided I have something reasonably sustainable I might do all the other cabinet doors as well. I don't like any of them! I might even do a bit of green somewhere because I can. We'll see! But I am quite chuffed with that I don't have to look at these split sheets of plastic anymore. They were an eyesore!

Heat gun

I have a new toy! A heat gun, obviously. I bought it because I had seen a video of someone very easily stripping the plastic lining off the doors of cheap kitchen cabinets. And I have cheap, plastic-lined kitchen cabinets. And I had been thinking of getting the plastic off. But until I saw that video, I wasn't sure if that was feasible, and if so, how. 

New toy

The first task I made it do was not kitchen-related, though. Many months ago, Neil bought me a little present: a little rearview mirror for my bike. It is really handy! And it is mounted on some sort of ball-and-socket joint. So you can aim it precisely how you want it.

One day my bike fell over, onto the little mirror. It popped out of its joint. I didn't manage to push it back. And when I got home and tried it with less distraction, I still didn't manage. Neil couldn't do it either. I suppose the ball has to fit quite snugly into the socket for it all to work.

It came off

As the construction is made of plastic, I then tried heat. Surely that would make the plastic softer? (Yes I know, not all plastics work that way, but I suspected these would.) Maybe then I could fit the mirror over the ball socket? I dipped the little mirror in boiling water and then tried again. Still no success. 

But now I had a heat gun.

I laid the mirror reflective side down on my oven plate. And then aimed the heat gun at it. I had my oven glove nearby so I could pick the mirror up and try to whack it back over the ball socket when I thought it might be hot enough. Lo and behold, in two or three attempts I managed it! The mirror is back where it belongs! I already like this heat gun thing! And I barely got started…

No trail 10k

Last year it was hot when the trail 10k was run. So hot they cancelled the marathon and ultra that ran on the same day. And it looked like this year would be hot again. There had been emails about that way were required to carry a leader of water with us, and that they would do the race briefing under a roof.

I wasn’t worried about it. I'm happy to run with water, and after you finish, you can go straight into the lake. It's only 10 k! It might be different for the longer distances though. 

At 19:51 the night before an email came in. All the races are cancelled! It was a bit of a bummer. I was looking forward to it. And I personally was a bit sceptical. I didn't think the weather forecast had changed meaningfully for quite a while. If they now thought it was too hot to run, surely they knew that as well at 3 pm? Or noon? You wouldn't think they had been sitting there, waiting for the forecast to suddenly say something much cooler. I thought they left it a bit late. But well, they did what they did.

Social media announcement

 

I could easily imagine the race organisers will steer clear of the summer in the near future. I don't think it has been good for the financial situation of the organiser to have to cancel so many races in two consecutive years. Who is to say they will not have to do it again next year, if they stick to the same weekend? I have no idea if they have long-running contracts with the council or the timing company or anyone like that.

I also wonder if there will be a problem with the rest of my races this year. I have two more in the diary this month. One in the evening and one in the morning. And one in August. Only one way to find out! But I could imagine the ones to last longest are the small local races. Something like the Bethel 5k wouldn't lose so much if they have to cancel. Registration is only on the day so they wouldn't have to refund anyone. The timing is done by volunteers with stopwatches and clipboards, so there is no problem with having to pay TDL timing or someone like that, in spite of of not having a race. And these are actually really nice little races. So I think the summer will still be fun from a racing point of view. But things will clearly change!

First TNH with dip in lake

We are already in the third heatwave of the year. But I hadn’t gone for a dip yet. In my first year, I already ended up in the water on my third trip. It happened more often after that. I'm not even sure I ended up in the water at all last year.

This week we would have another demo event; this time of Nnormal shoes. I already have a pair, but that doesn't have to stop me. I got to the shop straight from graduation, and the people there immediately noticed I was already wearing one of the models that we could try. I could have worn something else, but I wanted to have the Nnormals in case graduation would make me late, I wouldn't have time to borrow shoes. The shop had three different models there, so I borrowed a pair that was a bit more hybrid than fell, in a size 5.5. Nnormal sizes are a bit small.

Off we were! Up the zigzags. And northwest, to Deiniolen. I wasn't feeling it at all. I had to drag myself along the route. That wasn't promising much for the race I would have, in the very same area, in two days’ time. But a lot can happen in two days. The shoes were fine, by the way. We were doing a route that really suited hybrids! 

A picture I nicked from the Strava of fellow runner Trevor

It was warm but quite doable! I did try to stand in the shade every time we were waiting for stragglers. Only after having run some 7 km did I start to vaguely feel like running. I wasn't the only one not feeling it that night; Trevor was really complaining when after these 7 km we still weren't done with going uphill. But we got back to the shop. And there were soft drinks there, and pizza.

What I feared would happen had indeed happened: my Nnormals had ended up lumped with the demonstration models. Luckily, the latter all have their size written in permanent marker on the back, so I just scouted for the only pair that didn't have that. And these were indeed mine! Success.

After some pizza one of the ladies suggested going to the lake and having a dip. I thought it was a brilliant idea! It was easily hot enough, and I hadn't been yet. I was the first one to get there. I took my top off and went in in the rest of my running clothes.

The other people were really prepared: they got into their actual swimming outfits, and had towels for afterwards. No such thing for me! We had a nice swim with five people and a dog (Tinka’s dog Moos quite likes swimming too). And when we got out I just put on a dry T-shirt, and put a plastic bag on the car seat. Good enough! It had been really refreshing…

Pentir Fun Run 2026

The race in Pentir is one of those I can just squeeze into my commute home. It is only 4.5 km, and I only have to make a 3.5 km detour on the bike to get to it.

This year, like last year, it was going to be a hot edition. Which I actually, in this case, prefer to the rain version we had two years ago. In a long race I travel to by car I would prefer the rain! But not here.

Race HQ

I got there and saw many friendly faces. And when I was parking my bike I was approached by Arwel. His business with me was twofold: firstly, he had a trophy for me. I had been the second fastest 45+ female (age at the start of the league counts) in the Borders League. Great! I had no idea. BL is very competitive. 

He also asked me if I could help him out that Sunday. He was organising the youth mountain running championships in y Fron again. Could I marshal? I could. 

I got my number, went to the loo, did a little warmup. I also introduced myself to a hiking friend of Neil’s that I knew would be running. And then I went to the start. 

The startline

In this race, it pays off to set off quite fast. There are many gates on the route! And if you end up in a queue you have to wait. So I wasn’t being conservative this time. 

I saw Emma, who won it last year, get ahead of me. and Llio, another Cybi who is faster than me on the short distance. And a while later, too young-looking ladies were coming past. I wondered if they might be setting off too fast. Maybe I could overtake them later on? 

We ran over the road, into the first field. By the time we reached the first gate I could check if my start had been good enough. It hadn't! I actually was in a little queue. That cost time. We did several more gates, and that spread the field out a bit, and then we got onto the terrain of Moel y Ci farm. No gates for a while!

Two things happened. One was that I realised that Louise was right behind me. The other was that one of the young ladies was in sight. I overtook her. The other ladies were so far ahead I never saw them.

I think Louise is absolutely lovely but I still wanted to finish before her! So I kept my speed up. And it must have been good enough because she didn't come past. I seemed to even increase the gap. These gates provide a good opportunity to have a look at what’s behind you. 

The last 500m. Spot the very vague Louise behind me.

A quick look at my watch revealed that I might or might not manage to beat my time of the year before. I tried to keep my speed up and then I finished. I was quite out of breath! And then I saw Louise finish.

We went to get a drink and a piece of cake. The cake is a Pentir fun run tradition. Louise's daughter, who had not run, was also welcome to participate. She appreciated that.

The cakes

After some general catching up in the finish area we went back to the village square where the results were displayed, and where the presentation would be. As I thought, I had come forth, behind Emma, Llio, and the young girl. And I had a category win! And surprisingly, I had run it in the exact same time as last year: 21:36. 

The young girl turned out to be running in the under 16s category. She is fast! She may very well be an elite runner in a few years.

I won a little bag with biscuits and sweets in. After last week’s Toblerone I was really stocking up on sugary foods! 

Presentation. Pic by Louise.

After the presentation everyone went home. And biking home was not onerous at all. Next week there wouldn't actually be a Wednesday evening race. Almost an exception at this time of year! 

Summer graduation 2026

Summer means graduation. And I practically always go. I would want other people to make my graduation day special, so I want to do it for other people as well! So I got to main campus in my smart outfit and went to do room where the grounds are handed out. I happened to get there at the same time as Stuart, our newfangled Head of School. He was looking very smart for the occasion. And he promptly got into the wrong queue. I beckoned him to the correct one, and said he should get his gown before me; as the head of School, he has all sorts of responsibilities that I don't have on a day like this. 

There were not many people doing the handing out of gowns, and we had to wait a bit. And as soon as a person appeared, who else appeared but Dei, who smoothly swanned in and requested his gown. It was so smooth he didn't even realise what was going on. When he realised he had jumped the queue in front of the Head of School he was a bit embarrassed. But we all got our gowns. Mine was lovely: blue with orange, and no hood. I think this gown is supposed to have a hood, but I wasn't going to insist. They are not practical and only make the outfit warmer.

When we have our gowns, we go to the Council Chamber to socialise a bit until the we are called to the corridor to line up. There was a bit of a cluster around the big fan there! This wasn't really weather to wear an elaborate gown over your smart clothes. But that is normal during summer graduation. We and all the students would have to put up with it! 

We were called to the corridor, but then, for unclear reasons, we didn't start the procession. No one knew why there was a delay. But we were about 15 minutes late. And then finally we made our way in. I ended up on the front row. 

In the corridor

By far most of the students graduating were ours. There were a few in Forestry and suchlike. But it’s a lot more fun if you know them. If they are doing a degree you teach a lot on, if they were your personal tutees, if they were your dissertation students, it is the best to see them on that stage.

It was also a special award for my colleague Martyn. It is well deserved! He is a very inspiring lecturer. 

Martyn getting back to his chair after being honoured 

When we had to stand up and sing the national anthem I was lucky to have the other Martyn to the left of me, and Dei next to him. They are both north Welsh so they can sing, and they know the song. I could hold onto that a bit. I had a strong impression, though, that they were singing it in a way that is supposed to be polyphonic, and doing either the tenor or baritone parts. I would sometimes go a different way. 

We then had to deal with the traditional photograph on the University courtyard. It takes a while for the photographer to line us up, and we were standing in the blazing heat. We were glad when the pictures were taken. I'm still not so sure of this tradition. They always put the staff at the front, and it is not their day. Why not the new bachelors, masters and PhDs? And why everyone in one go? Don't you want do a picture of the ocean sciences cohort, and the forestry cohort, separately? But I suppose that's not my call.

We then went to the public courtyard and mingled. It was nice to be able to congratulate some of our new graduates. Like Ellen, who had been senior student rep, and April, who had a love for palaeoclimate. And then we gave the gowns back and headed for the reception, elsewhere on campus.

New BSc Ellen with Katrien and me

I still had to drive and run, so I did not drink any alcohol. But there was cold sparkling water. Lovely! And there were some scones with cream and strawberries for calories.

Soon, our new head of school Stuart gathered everyone because he had some prizes to hand out. I knew from the exam board meetings who the recipients were. I knew two of them. They were very worthy winners. Of the other two, I didn’t know much of one of them, but the other one I may not have known but was familiar with; I had approved her own dissertation topic, and she had clearly run with it. She had an amazing grade for her dissertation.

The prize for the best sedimentological dissertation went to a lady I know quite well, but she was abroad somewhere at a festival. I hope she is very happy with the prize. The other one was for the best physical dissertation. This lady, Stana, hadn't been on the field trip, unlike the other lady, so I didn’t know her as well, but she had impressed in the other modules. She had, for instance, had to do her presentation on the applied marine geology module separately from the others, due to travels, and she had absolutely nailed it. I wasn't surprised she had written a banger of dissertation. Also on a topic she had designed herself.

She knew this was coming, of course; the students are informed beforehand. But she still seemed to struggle to believe it. Her mother was there as well, and she was waving a Seychelles flag around (that's where they're from), and had got quite emotional. Stana said he didn't want to go near her because she knew she would cry as well. I said I wasn't sure why that was a bad thing, but she referred to her make-up. Needless to say that the mother won, and got to her daughter. Who then indeed also got emotional. It was quite sweet.

Not long after that I needed to go to get to Llanberis for our Thursday Night Hill training. That would be quite a transition!

New sunglasses

The first 30-something years of my life, I didn't have prescription sunglasses. But when I learned to drive I wanted to change that. I went to the optician and got me a pair. And that pair has been serving me until now. That's quite impressive! My prescription didn't change very much over the years. And I never lost them or broke them. Until in the end, I did. They fell off my head and I accidentally stood on them. They broke. But they owed me nothing. They had served me for 17 years! 

The old (broken) pair

It was time to buy a new pair. So when teaching came to an end and I was less rushed, I went to Specsavers. And a week later, I could pick the new pair up.

They're quite comfortable! I hope this pair will also serve me for 17 years or so. It would be great if my prescription isn’t meaningfully different after that time. And I again manage to be careful with them for many years. One way to find out!

Prescription 

In the same week I went to Halfords, because I was running out of puncture patches. And when I was there anyway and I saw a comfortable pair of biking sunglasses for a reasonable price, I bought these too. It is very useful to also have a pair that is not prescription. In the past I have been running with sunglasses on, and then I can't read my watch! As they are distance glasses. And I have a pair but it has had too many repairs by now. So now I'm sorted, whether I want to see in the distance or close-up! 

Non prescription

Dragon, finally

It is done! The day after I had Deiniol in my office, and Deiniol having Dragon themselves on the line,  all of which to no avail, it got sorted.  I was at home, given that I had absolutely no reason to be in the office, when I got a message from Deiniol  saying he had had a response from Dragon. They sent a new download link. I thought it was worth the try, so I drove to the office and gave it a go. I would only be there for a short time, so I didn't want to bike.

I tried the download, and it looked identical to the previous download, but when I ran the .exe file it just worked. I could activate it with the new license key. That was how simple it should have been from the beginning. But now I was finally in business again! And I was hoping I could start again with making my RSI less bad. With this period of several months without Dragon in my office, things had got worse again. And I figured it had also been the cause of my elbow problems. If this gets better now, my hunch will be confirmed. I really hope it does!

It is back on my desktop!

Cake competition final (belated)

It was already a while ago! The cake competition finals, between marine biologist Craig and marine renewable energy expert Simon. (I was out in the first round). Craig had won it before. He has form. I suppose Simon was the dark horse.

They had come out with ‘ultimate éclaires’ and ‘orange and pomegranate cake’. We all figured the former was done by Craig. And that was true. I thought it was better than the pomegranate cake, and more people agreed than disagreed with me. Craig won again! 

Craig with the winning éclairs

The tradition is that the winner organises the next competition. But that tradition is shaky! When Craig won two years ago, he didn’t manage it, and Susan (the winner the year before) stepped in. Last year, the winner wasn’t employed by us anymore. Susan stepped in! But she is fed up now. I hope there will be a competition in the new year, though! 

And why am I only telling you this now? I didn’t take pictures, and the School only published the ‘official’ pictures on social media now…

Still no Dragon

I tried to download and activate my voice recognition software on June 16. I hoped it would be sorted that day. It sure wasn’t. It still wasn’t sorted when we sailed into July. 

Deiniol of the Helpdesk had told me to exhaust the trial period, try again, and if that wouldn’t work, let him know so he would come to my office in person. And so I did. This took longer than expected as we both had days off over that period. I also sometimes worked from home to escape the heat. We made an appointment for Monday the 6th to sort it. Once and for all? 

Once in my office on that Monday, he tried everything he could think of, but no avail. So he phoned the software company. They wanted to know all sorts of difficult to retrieve information. I had asked IT to buy it, and IT had asked the financial people to buy it, and the financial people had bought it from a distributor, and the distributor had it from the actual provider. Information can get lost along the way. But in the end, the lady on the other side of the line got all the information she said she needed. And after a bit of to and fro she said that she couldn't immediately help; she was going to mail Deiniol either that day or the day after. Right. This was not going so well. Deiniol was wondering if he should just pick up the desktop and take it to helpdesk HQ and try things there.

Later the software lady emailed something about proxy settings, but that seemed to not be helpful; my settings were already what they should have been. 

I'm not keen on going into the office if there is only a computer there I can't really use. I'm better off at home with my laptop. Deiniol can take my computer when I am not there. 

I'm not sure how this will end! It is very frustrating. I just want to be able to do my work, and not hurt myself while doing it. That seems to be a big ask. I really hope I can bring good news some time soon! 

Meeting Neil’s dad

It didn't take long for me to meet Neil’s sister, mother and stepfather. And even his niece. They seem to come over and visit him a lot. And his father had at some point also been in the neighbourhood, but for some reason that has not resulted in us actually meeting. Neil and I have now been hanging out for practically a year, and finally an opportunity presented itself.

Neil and I would meet on Sunday, and we hadn't decided what to do, when it turned out his dad was back camping on Anglesey. I made the decision of what to do easy! Their plan was to go to a weekly car boot sale on the Anglesey Showground, so we joined.

We met them there. It was lovely to finally meet them. Neil was clearly made from his father's blueprint. He is just younger and taller. Liz, Neil’s stepmom, is the one who really likes car boot sales.

It was lovely weather for it: sunny, but not too hot. And a car boot sale is actually quite a relaxed environment to get to know people. You’re just browsing a bit, sometimes al together, sometimes in pairs, and sometimes entirely dispersed. There's no pressure.

We also actually bought things. The first thing I saw was a pair of sickles. I know Jenny uses them, and she had recently complained to me that you can't buy them anywhere anymore. So I bought them for her! And I bought a little basket for myself. Neil's parents got some stuff as well. Only Neil himself was not convinced by anything he saw. 

After the car boot sale we went to a nearby garden centre, where we had a browse and a coffee. Then we went to the caravan. It was pitched in a farmer’s field. It was very quiet there! And the view was lovely. We just had a chat and a cup of tea and a scone. 

I had heard so much about them! It was great to finally meet them. And they were very welcoming, just like the rest of the family had done. I am lucky. 

Group pic with caravan

Marshalling Siabod again

After having marshalled the Moel Siabod race last year, I was quite happy to do it again. And when the organisation sprung back into the action, I saw that they had put me one marshalling point higher up the hill this year. And the weather forecast was fine.

When I arrived I saw that I was the only returning marshal. Not a good sign! And one marshal had pulled out, so we were all moved up a post. But the new faces looked lovely, and after the briefing we set off, with our hi viz vests, radios, cow bells, and clipboards with lists. We had a nice chat along the way.  

It is quite a walk to the top, where a lady called Julie was stationed: almost 5km, and 700m ascent. I was only some 500m away, and 60m lower. We dropped off the ladies on the lower stations along the way. They had views! By the time we came to my station, we were in clouds, although they periodically lifted. And the race had already started. 

I made sure to quickly go to the loo before the first runner would arrive. And I hadn't had lunch yet, and it was past 2 pm, so that was urgent too. I managed two sandwiches, and then I heard on the radios that the first runners had already reached the previous checkpoint. Time to put the lunchbox away and get my clipboard ready!

At my station

Sometimes the cloud lifted and there was a view

We were expected to have made a list of all race numbers, which could only be done when registration closed, and then tick off all these numbers on both the way up and down. Last year it had been fairly straightforward; there was a little lull between the runners coming up and coming down, and they had to climb over a style, which gave me the opportunity to note their numbers down. This time it was different. It started fairly easy when the runners were only coming up, although there was no style, and after many hundreds of metres of ascent, quite a lot of them were quite bent over, which obscured their number. The wind wasn't helping; this pulled on my list. But it was quite doable.

It was when the runners were also coming back down it got hectic. You have to look both ways, and the ones descending were moving really fast. Sometimes it rained, which didn't help, obviously. At some point they were coming from both ways and one of my pens stopped working. I was glad I had brought two! But sometimes I just frantically jotted the numbers in the open space of the paper, putting the tick marks where they belonged only when I had a little breathing space. 

In the marshal instructions we were asked to report back to HQ every time 10 more runners had passed us, but that was just not feasible.

Things got calmer when all runners had come up. Now I only had to look in one direction! And then the last runner came down. My job was done! I drank a bit more as I was thirsty, and then decided to start making my way down, collecting route markers along the way. I figured Julie would overtake me soon enough. Practically everybody is faster than me on the descent. And she of course could have set off before me.

By one route marker that actually helped at an ambiguity along the way I stopped. I didn't want to remove this flag before Julie would have caught up with me. But then she phoned me. She was lost! There was heavy fog at the summit, and she didn't know in which direction to descend. So I said I would come to get her.

I made my way back up. And after a while, I saw a figure in the fog. It was her! She was descending in exactly the right direction. Excellent. So now we could together make our way down to checkpoint 5. The marshal there was waiting for us. And so was the one at checkpoint 4. That was kind. And we walked back to HQ all together.

It turned out that Julie was a gardener, and I have struggled to find someone to help me with my garden. I asked her if she had any suggestions, given that she probably had lots of connections. She said she did. Maybe something will come of this! Watch this space.

When we got back to HQ there was only James there, the organiser. That was great, as that meant he had managed to do the presentation not too long after the race. Last year that had gone quite wrong, and hardly any winner had still been around to receive their prize. So we could just hand in our hi viz vests and radios and suchlike and head home. I think it was a successful race! And I am happy to come back next year. That will be an anniversary edition! 

Running festival TNH

The Eryri Harriers had planned a summer festival. The idea was that there would be something running-related going on every day. People could pick and choose which activities they would participate in. The Monday had its usual Monday training, but I was otherwise engaged. The Tuesday activity was a Tuesday Evening race, but I don't do these, so I was on the track (briefly). The Felinheli race was part of it. I did that! And then on Thursday, there always is Thursday Night Hill, and Dyfed had been asked to keep it accessible this week, so that also people who don't normally do this can participate. Dyfed, however, has strange ideas of what ‘accessible’ means, or ‘suitable for people recovering from a  knee injury (I had asked!)’, or any of that sort of concepts. 

We gathered, and there clearly were some new faces. I also spoke with a lady who had been before, but who hadn’t been for a while for reasons of tendon problems. Her name was Lena, or something you pronounce like that but spell differently. 

We set off in the direction of Dinorwic. Up the zigzags! I expected the big incline later. I was wrong. We went up the stairs, to the saw mill, and then over the spoil heap to its end. And at the end, we just clambered down the slate. This has absolutely nothing to do with running! And maybe not the most inviting thing to do to newcomers? 

In Dinorwic Quarry

Up the stairs

End of the spoil heap

Clambering down. Pic by Kasia

At the bottom we ended in some boggy terrain. Not my favourite. Maybe not good for tendon issues either. A good thing was that we crossed a little stream, so I could drink. It was warm and I was rapidly going through my supplies.

By the time we were back on a decent track again, it was already quite late. But at least from then on, Dyfed didn't do anymore Dyfed antics. We just ran a rather sensible route back to Llanberis. Lena’s tendon seemed to hold up, but how it would feel the next day would be more important. And by then, 2.5 hours after setting off, I was quite hungry and thirsty. I had sandwiches and water in the car, and thought I might consume these while doing a bit of after-run chat with the other runners, but the midges made me change my mind. Off home! And the next day I would be knackered…

Felinheli 10k 2026

I like racing! But on the day of the Felinheli 10k, I wasn’t feeling it at all. I felt decidedly sluggish. I even had an after-lunch lie down. I never do that! I wasn’t sure what was going on. But I hoped race jitters would perk me up. 

One thing that did perk me up was the weather. After the disappointing sunshine of the day before, it was now reliably cloudy. I had brought both my racing T-shirt and vest, and I felt confident to go in the vest. I did put sunscreen on just to be sure, though.

It was nice to see loads of running friends around! I ended up not doing much of a warmup as I got carried away chatting to people. But when I was in the crowd at the start line I was fully psyched up. I love a race buzz! 

Team picture

It is a bit of a jostle at the start. I made sure to not start too fast. I saw a lot of people in front of me that I expected to overtake later on. And there was one in particular that caught my eye: fellow Harrier Megan, who is practically the exact same age as me, so I knew that if I wanted to get a category win I would have to overtake her. And let's face it; I always like a category win. And this is not one of those races (like Borders League races) in which that is not doable.

Busy near the start

After the start on Beach Road, the race goes onto a housing estate, crosses the marina to end up in another estate, and then dives through the gate in the wall onto the coastal path. That is an unpaved road. I had made sure to wear my hybrid shoes for that. And it is quite pretty there! We also saw Plas Newydd on the other shore, which made me think of Madfabulous. 

 

Running past the marina, where the field is still not very spread out yet

That part of the route is a steady ascent. That is where my strength lies. So I was slowly overtaking people. And at some point I overtook a whole bunch in one go, including Megan, and my track mate Katie. I knew that last year, I had overtaken Megan only at kilometre 7 and now we were only at about 3 or 4. That bode well.

We were trundling on and all as well. Inevitably, we ended up between the buildings of Vaynol Estate. From there, the route is temporarily not very pretty as you get to Parc Menai. That is aesthetically just a different kettle of fish. But it is where you make a loop and start coming back. And on the road between the two, I saw the first runners coming the other way. At the front were an unknown guy, and a runner of Meirionnydd I see on the track. It's not unusual there is one of those at the front. They are a very ambitious club. I think in Bethel, they had the first 7 positions. 

In position 5 or so, I saw Steffan, and a bit behind that our own Ian and Nic. There were no women yet in sight. I was feeling good.

Between Vaynol and Parc Menai; notice the runners going both ways

Where we turned left on the main Parc Menai Road was  Louise cheering. That really lifted me up! I'm sure it made me faster. And soon after that I got to the water station. Last year that had been grossly inadequate, but this year the weather wasn't particularly thirst-inducing,  it was ok this time. Of the cup-full of water I think about half ended up in my mouth. 

Shortly afterwards I got to Louise again, which provided another boost. And then it was me who was running past the people still on their way up. 

After a while I saw Adam the NWRRC runner. He claims I always overtake him in the same stage of a race. His comment was ‘ah, there you are. I knew you would be here somewhere’. 

When I hit the little asphalt road over the estate the wind hit me. It was nice and cool but a bit of a brake on the system! But that’s ok. 

Soon after, I got to the downhill bit. That’s very fast! Just gentle enough for me to not be scared. And then you suddenly arrive at the gate through which you’re back on the housing estate. And then it’s not far anymore. I kept my pace up without running myself empty. 

Meaning business on the housing estate

I ran back over the bridge and through the other houses, and then to the sign ‘200m to the finish’ . That is when you can start legging it if you haven’t already done so. And I turned out to have something left in the bag so I ran away from the black-clad man behind me and thundered over the finish. I saw my time: 45:19. Slower than last year. But I was feeling better. 

Feeling good

Done!

My car wasn’t far, but I wanted water NOW so I accepted a bottle. And some fruit. And had a chat with the other finishers. And when Katie finished we went to my car; she had put her jacket in it as there seemed to not be a bag drop. I wanted some more clothes too. And my recovery drink. Then we went back to the finish. It was getting colder and wetter there. 

Not too much time later, the last runner came in, and they could do the presentation. The female winner was our own Elliw Haf! And I had my category win. I got a Crib Goch voucher and a big Toblerone. And I had come in as 6th woman. I was happy with that. And by then there weren’t many people left on the field. After the presentation, I left too. A really nice race! Hopefully, next year again…

Proud category winner