Effi o Blaenau

I had only been to the movies recently; Neil and I had gone to Madfabulous. But shortly later, another film would hit the theatres: Effi o Blaenau. I saw the trailer and was immediately interested. A film about a girl living in dead-end Blaenau. Sounded up my street! Not so much Neil’s, so I thought I would go alone. 

The film was really well received by the critics, and got a lot of media attention, and that piqued Neil’s interest. So we went together after all. He had never been to a Welsh film, even with subtitles.

I was a bit taken aback by the title. Grammatically correct it would be “Effi o Flaenau”, but maybe the marketing department wanted to keep the town name intact for those who don’t speak Welsh and don't understand mutations. 

We went to Pontio this time, as they had the most convenient screening time. It wasn’t sold out, but quite busy! And they made us sit through half an hour of commercials and trailers. Then it finally began. 

Effi is a young girl who seems to not work or study but lives in a house with a friend. She has a grandma who cares, but she doesn’t appreciate that. She is rude to the lady living opposite. There is a bloke called Kev she has some sort of involvement with. And she gets wasted every weekend. That sort of seems to be her life.

Spoiler alert

One night she goes to a nightclub to get wasted and meets a handsome stranger, and has a one night stand with him. This time she is really smitten, and really hopes it will lead to something more. But he doesn't answer her texts. And, of course, soon she realises she is pregnant. She goes on a quest to make him acknowledge her, but she finds out he has a wife and a child and gives up. And feeling quite alone, she reaches out again to her grandmother. Who accepts her back in her life. Kev thinks the baby is his, and welcomes it. He is not well pleased when she tells him it's not his. 

With her grandmother on her side she decides to have the baby. And Kev gets over the fact that he's not the father, and is supportive as well. But disaster strikes again. At 28 weeks, she goes into labour. She phones 999, but they tell her it will take quite a while for an ambulance to get there. She just takes a taxi. And she is taken in, but the place is terribly understaffed. They also make a point of portraying the hospital as in a terrible state, with exposed wiring everywhere, and abandoned repair work, and whatnot. The hospital initially tells her that all is well, but when the evidence becomes undeniable that that's not true, they decide she has to go to a hospital that has a neonatal space available. There are two options: Birmingham and Aberystwyth. They send her in an ambulance to Aberystwyth, even though it is snowing, and the roads are a bit iffy.

Needless to say that on the icy road, the ambulance crashes, and the paramedics have to deliver the baby there and then. It's too young to survive in an ambulance, and dies.

Kev figures there might be an opportunity to sue the hospital and claim compensation. A local lawyer thinks their chances are good. Effi has a problem with financially benefiting from the death of her baby. Later, at a hospital check-up, she meets the midwife she thinks should have been there with her in the ambulance and saved her baby, and confronts her. The midwife tells her that the problem in the first place was not enough neonatal spaces, and that having to pay off a bereaved mother would only lead to fewer spaces and more deaths. Effi decides not to sue. But she is not at peace. 

At some point, the lady living opposite where she initially lived finds her passed out on the street, and in spite of everything, helps her out. To be honest, everyone who didn’t see coming that there would be some redemption here had their eyes closed. The next thing is that the grandmother does some babysitting for that lady. And encourages Effi to engage with the kid. Of course they soon have rapport, and go swimming together. And it ends with Effi stating that life in Blaenau is hard, but that the people there are resilient.

We both really enjoyed it! The acting was fab. I really enjoyed the scenery as well. They make a lot of the very empty landscape a bit east of Blaenau. I was trying to work out where the two houses are Effi lives in over the course of the film. I thought there was a bit of a thickly laid on moral, with the not suing the hospital story, but that is not a major thing. Aspects of the story were a bit predictable. Obviously, she would make amends with the lady across the street somewhere along the way. Also not a major gripe. We recognised the actor she has a one night stand with from Madfabulous. Wikipedia told me that even the lead actress had been in there, but I hadn't noticed that. Maybe the pool of Welsh actors isn't huge! And we wondered what Effi lives off. 

I supposed the film paints a bleak picture of Blaenau. They make sure to give it bleak weather at all times, and they emphasise boarded-up houses and fly tipping. Effi’s main calorie intake comes from vodka. The lady opposite can barely feed her kids, and doesn't dare go to the swimming pool because people treat her badly there. And I suppose all of that is real. But they do plant positives. The forgiving grandmother, who takes her in even though she has a badly paid job at the chippy, and a small house, and is willing to see past the abuse Effi has given her before. The kindness of the lady opposite the street. The friends who are there for each other. The young lad who seems to live a life quite like that of Effi, but who manages to buy her a pram for the child that isn't his. I suppose all of that is real as well. 

I think the film is quite a hit in Wales, and it might even be quite successful in England. The day after I happened listened to radio 6, and found Cerys Matthews interviewing the lead actress. It might even make it to the continent. Blaenau might become famous! In its Blaenau way…

Hanging out with Neil’s family

Neil is from a rather close family. To me it felt like they had visited only 10 minutes ago, but they were going to visit again. That's great! They are really lovely people and it is nice to hang out with them. And we had agreed that I would join them on the Thursday evening. We would go for a quick meal in town, and then do a guided walk over the Orme, looking at wild flowers. I was a little bit hesitant about the weather, as it was the hottest day of a heatwave, but at least it would be evening.

I drove up to leave my car in Neil’s street, and then walked down to the pub through the shadows. We had a nice meal, and then we said goodbye to Neil's mum and stepdad. They didn't fancy the walk. With his sister and brother-in-law we made our way to the Orme. When we approached the meeting point, we didn't really see the throng we expected. Neil checked his messages. About an hour earlier, it had been cancelled because of the weather! That was a bummer.

We decided to walk back with a detour, enjoying a bit more of the Orme. We went past Bishop’s Quarry, and saw some chuffs. And we had a cup of tea together before the others went back to their accommodation. 

I hadn’t intended to join them again night after, but they were so inviting I changed my plans. I did have to work on Friday, and look after the cat, and water some of my plants because of the weather, but aside from that I could just be away for another night. In this kind of weather, my cat doesn't sleep in my bed anyway, so I think she misses me less when I am away.

This time we only did dinner, and a cup of tea in the garden of the hotel where the others were staying. That was enough for me! I had had a good opportunity to get to know them a bit better, but I also hadn't been sleeping excessively well recently, and was tired.

Me, Neil’s sister, her husband, Neil’s stepdad, his mum, and Neil himself

The plan is a bit that in the not too distant future, Neil and I will go to Manchester to visit his mum and stepdad. I don't know when I will see his sister again. That might be Christmas. But it was great to see them! I am very happy to have been accepted into this family.

Bethel 5k 2026

A few weeks after the Llanrug 5k is the Bethel 5k. I seem to have a tradition of doing rubbish in Llanrug. Last year, I did better in Bethel. Maybe I could do that this year as well?

When the day approached I figured that the answer was probably going to be no. We were still in the heat wave. During the day, I had been ok, but running is a different kettle of fish. During the day I had barely done anything more than between buildings to have meetings in. 

I got to Bethel, parked up, and got my race number. I went for a little warmup with my fellow Eryri Harriers Mike and Tony (a track mate; not Welsh Castles Relay Tony). I kept a T-shirt on over my race vest, as I was trying to protect my vulnerable skin from the sun. I also made sure to really lather on the sun cream after I took the T-shirt off. In this case I was glad the Eryri Harriers vests don’t leave that much skin exposed. 

Team pic

We set off. It always takes a while for the field to settle. I ran along with my track mate Sion for a bit, but he pulled away from me. He was also faster than me in Llanrug. I didn’t think I would be able to catch up. And in this weather, I am not going to be ambitious. Then I found Tony (the track mate I had done the warm up with; other Tony is way too fast for me) behind me. He is an Eryri Harrier. Not that that matters; if Sion wants to hang behind me he is most welcome too. But it was good to have Tony back; he hasn’t been to track in ages. 

Sweatily running along with Tony

As it was so hot there were several water stations. The first was after one mile; I ignored it. The second one, two miles in, I accepted. I drank some, and threw the rest over my head and into my shirt. I was so hot! It was a bit of a shock to feel the cold water on my back but it was good. By that time, Tony had overtaken me. But he did not run away far. 

Water but no Tony

At 4 km, there was a man with a garden hose, spraying everyone who was up for it. I think that was everyone. And we were in for the last push. 

I overtook Tony again. Shortly before the finish I looked over my shoulder. Tony said “go for it”. I knew I was faster than in Llanrug, but slower than in Bethel last year. And then we finished, me a second before him. 

Almost at the finish

I got out of the sun again. It had been good! Too hot, but I clearly didn’t have heat stroke. And I didn’t know what my time was but I was happy with it. And after some socialising with Harriers and track mates and the combination thereof I decided it was time to go home. 

The next day I found out I had done it in 22 minutes sharp. In my world, a good time in that heat! And I had my category win. Only three women over fifty had competed, so it wasn’t the hardest-fought victory ever, but I was glad anyway. 

I am starting to accept that the shorter distances are not really my thing. I come into my own on the five mile onwards. But I still want to break my 5k record. I think I need a cool morning for it. There is a thought to go run the Newborough Parkrun with Chris one day. That is another chance! 

Heatwave

The weather is all over the place. We tend to have heat waves with cold, rainy weather in between. There was a heat wave I was in the Netherlands. It was cold and wet when I ran the Llanrug 5k, hot when I ran with Jacko and in Deganwy, cold and wet when I was marshalling the Tuesday race on Gyrn Wigau, et cetera. We are back to hot. And not just a bit!  The Met office has issued amber and red weather warnings, and they expect us to break the British record for the hottest June day ever recorded this week.

In the weekend, it wasn't very hot yet. On the Monday, I stayed at home and did cool things. Cool in the sense of not at high temperature, obviously. I kept a lot of curtains closed and (selected) windows open in order to keep the heat out. And I have been sleeping upstairs, behind the very thick walls of the old part of my house. Not in the extension, with its thin walls and south-facing windows.

My house in heatwave setting

On the Tuesday, I had a lot of meetings. That was a bit trying. In the morning I was in a meeting room that was too hot by everyone's standards, and in the afternoon I had all my meetings online in my office. These are all about academic integrity, and for privacy reasons, and in order not to be disturbed, I keep my door closed when I have them. That means my office doesn't ventilate. It gets unpleasantly stuffy.

On the Wednesday, I was back at meetings, but that day it was actually surprisingly cool in the morning. My office was quite bearable, and so were the rooms in which I had my meetings. This must have been a perk of North Wales, as in some of the rest of the country it must have been unbearable 

The Thursday would be the worst, with initially temperatures forecast of 35°. It was later adjusted to 33°. It really was super hot. In England, the record of the day before was easily broken already.

The Friday should be the last they where it was really too much. On the Saturday things should be ok again. I came through locate. The temperature in my living room went up to 25°, which is a lot more modest than what some other people were experiencing. Given that it is not term time, I can work from home if I want. I have double glazing, and a north facing office. I also have a standing fan. My office on campus is not that suitable and/or adaptable.

I didn't bike for the entire week. On Tuesday that wasn't a choice; I just suddenly thought at 8:45 that I had a meeting at 9. That was not true; that meeting was on Wednesday. But as I believed it was true I jumped into my car and went to campus. On Wednesday I would go to Bethel straight after work. On Thursday I worked from home. On Friday again I had to go places straight from campus. But anyway I was glad to not spend an additional 80 minutes or so in the unforgiving heat. And having got sunburnt on Sunday, I was quite happy to not expose my fragile skin to the sun, not even through clothes.

I also barely ran. I only did a race on Wednesday (blog post to come). My skin was not grateful. But I did enjoy it. I skipped the track for reasons of heat and sunburn, and I would have skipped the Thursday Hill run anyway for similar reasons, but I was also otherwise engaged. Not much exercise for me this week.

We will have to be ready for more of this! I suppose one thing I should change is be more careful and not get sunburnt. I might invest in a fan for my office. And I might try to think of something that is more efficient in keeping the heat out of my conservatory than the improvised curtain I have now. It is a conservatory, though, so although I am sure gains can be made, keeping it anywhere near bearable wouldn't be easy.

I'm sure there will be more times like these even this summer. I'll be OK! But I can't say I'm enjoying it…

Last exam board type meeting of the year

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

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

Welsh 3000s training

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

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

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

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

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

Neil on the Cannon Stone

Graded quartz nodules! 

Onwards

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

Will he? 

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

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

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

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

Crazy Glyderau landscape 

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

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

Second lunch

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

Atlantic Slabs

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

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

No underground trip

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

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

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

Trouble!

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

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

Organising the kitchen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dragon update

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Over the new bridge

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

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

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

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

 

Madfabulous

In North Wales, most people are aware of the legendary figure of the fifth Marquess of Anglesey. He lived around the turn of the century, and he is famous for being very flamboyant, and blowing the family fortune on costumes a jewels and whatnot. And dying young.

arguably the most famous picture of the Marquess

His life has now been turned into a film. As soon as I heard about that, I was interested in seeing it. It would be a colourful film! And when I ask Neil whether he wanted to see it too, he even said yes. So we headed for Caernarfon to see it in Galeri. 

It starts with the Marquess, 20 years old, arriving at Plas Newydd. His aunt and two cousins are already living there, by the grace of the marquess’ father, who is the Earl of Uxbridge. He makes a grand entrance in a dress previously worn by his late mother. And he is already coughing up blood. He is clearly suffering from consumption.

His aunt, (male) cousin and the butler kept a straight face, but it was clear they were not happy with this total disregardful for how one is perceived to have to behave as nobility. The female cousin seems intrigued. She doesn't seem to be overly keen on how one is supposed to behave as nobility herself.

How much is any of this close to reality? I don't think we know. One thing history does know is that later marquesses tried to erase his memory, and burnt all his papers. So there are no diaries, letters, or any of that. And I suppose that doesn't hold for everyone in this story, but I still think that that although the basic factors are known, such as when he went to Plas Newydd, information such as quite what reception he got, and what he was wearing, are just a guess.

Anyway. He clearly has no idea how to manage an estate. He does realise he's quite rich, and he loves that that means he can go into town and spend money like water. And he wants to have some fun with that. They also have him treat the servants as people. Is that conjecture? No idea! But Lily, his cousin, loves the fun. She's also scared that her future is to be married off. Nearby hated figure Lord Penrhyn is interested (this seems to be entirely made up; the guy had been married for some 20 years, to his second wife, at this point in time). She clearly sees her cousin as a way of escaping this. It is never specified, but suggested, he is gay, but that shouldn’t get in the way. They get married.

Given that he has consumption, he needs regular medical care. One physician (and I assume this is poetic license) is clearly aware he won't live long, and recommends he live his life to the max. There are some people to whom you probably shouldn't say things like that. 

It doesn't take long for things to go downhill. He invites a theatre troupe to live on the estate. His wife is not happy with that. She says they are taking advantage of him. And he is portrayed as someone it is quite easy to take advantage of. On the other hand; he starts an account with all the shops in the area that sell stuff he likes: cloth, jewellery, photography. And over time it is hinted at that he is not paying the bills. But he does distribute glamorous photographs of himself in exotic costumes, and he stages all sorts of exotic shows. That part is clearly true! But this does not come cheap.

In the meantime, he still misses his mum, and is still feeling the rejection of his dad. He is eternally hoping his dad will either visit him, or send an invitation to come to the estate in England where he lives. This is not happening.

The male cousin, in the meantime, does carry the approval of the dad (or uncle as it is for him.) As a male family member, he is clearly interested in a slice of the cake, and not happy with his cousin squandering said cake.

Finally, an invitation arrives, and the Marquess heads for England. But instead of meeting his dad, he there and then receives the title of Earl of Uxbridge. His father sent the invitation on his deathbed, and is dead now. 

Things go from bad to worse. His coping strategies are to spend money on more theatrical excesses. His wife is getting fed up. His male cousin, and other people, are plotting against him. Can they have him be declared insane, stripped of the title, so it can be given to somebody else? This bit is also quite believable.

The film then turns a bit slapstick. For some reason, Lord Penrhyn leads an initiative to seize him and have him dragged off to some lunatic asylum. But the locals, like the jeweller and the cloth merchant and the photographer, are still on his side. And they perform a big distraction manoeuvre where several of them don one of the costumes of the Marquess, so Lord Penrhyn doesn't know which figure to chase after. And the Marquess escapes by boat.

Before the credits roll, it is revealed that he lived out the rest of his very short life in southern France, on a modest allowance, and that his wife came to visit him on his deathbed. In the film, it is suggested she still loves him, but can't cope with how he is making a mess of everything. Again, I have no idea how much we know about her inner life, but it is made very believable.

I think this would have been a bit of a ridiculous film if most of it wouldn't have been true! It is a bit tragic that it largely is. And I thought the acting was impeccable. And it was nice to see this local history brought to life. Plas Newydd features (obviously), but only apparently from the outside; the inside shots seem to have been done elsewhere. Penrhyn Castle is also in there, pretending to be in England. I thought I recognised Vaynol Estate for some outside shots. 

We both enjoyed it! I don't think there will be loads of films we would both be interested in, but this was a great night out!

Trying to install Dragon

It was March that I got a new computer. The old one ran on Windows 10, and the University didn't support that anymore. But with my old computer went my voice recognition software, that I rely so much on. 

I did keep working. My phone, after all, take dictation. So if I needed to write feedback for a student assignment, or a form related to academic integrity issues, or any of that sort of things, I would just dictate to my phone, and then email it to myself. Except, of course, if I had to write an email; I would do that straight from my phone. But it is a lot of faff! I wanted my software back.

It's not just efficiency. It's also health. If I, for instance, would have to fill out an academic integrity form, I would make sure to dictate the body of the text on my phone, and copy and paste that in. But you have to fill out smaller amounts of text as well; the name of the student, their student number, the name of their academic tutor, et cetera. You're not going to email these to yourself, so then it is tempting to just type it. So then I would be typing more than I should. And my RSI got worse again.

I did get permission to order a new license. The conditions of the old license were such that I couldn't install the software on any new machines. And I figured that would be straightforward. You just buy a new license, and then you get to download it straight from the company website, right? It's software; there is no shipping or manufacturing or any of that. Just a download.

It didn't work that way. It seemed to have worked that way before, the company had been brought up by some behemoth, and all procedures had changed. And not for the better. I kept chasing and chasing the IT people. 

Somewhere along the line I developed a golf elbow. By now I think it was just RSI. And I got stricter with myself. No typing of names or student numbers! Have discipline, and make sure to copy and paste everything. It's still mouse and keyboard work, but less than typing everything out. Some of these students have rather long names.

Finally, IT said it was sorted. I could download the software. I just had to fill out my details, and the license number. I thought that that would be the end of it. I loved watching that progress bar move slowly to the right.

A new dawn?

The download wouldn't work. My computer claimed network issues. The rest of the network seemed to work fine. I downloaded it for me, I put it in a folder they gave me access to. This time I could download it. Success! But then, of course, you have to install it. I ran the .exe file. That as well asks for the license number. I gave that. The software said it was wrong. How could it be wrong? It did allow me to download the software in the first place. How could it now be wrong? 

I didn't know how much longer this would take! I was glad something was happening, but I won't be fully happy until it is just running, and lets me talk through my computer once again…

Finally planting the vegetables out

I planted beans, kale and beetroot in late April. By early May, I had sizeable seedlings. And then life happened. 

The idea was to let them get so big that I figured they could survive in the garden. And then, obviously, put them in the garden. But I never found the time. And then I went to the Netherlands. Accidentally, that was during a heat wave. The catsitter did say she was watering my seedlings, but the conservatory in a heatwave is quite a hostile environment. When I got back, most of the beetroot plants were still alive, but fewer than half of the bean plants, and none of the kale. 

Now I finally have found the time put them outside! That's four bean plants and quite a lot of beetroot. I hope they will do well. There are many enemies; drought, a cat who thinks this vegetable patch is a cat toilet, and a squirrel who thinks it is a squirrel larder. And potentially slugs and caterpillars. I never had problems with these before when I grew beetroot, nor when I grew peas (and I assume that for a slug, pea plants and bean plants are quite similar). But you never know.

Finally outside! 

Veg enemy #1

I have planted a few more beans now. I don't think it's too late for that yet. And I think I have enough beetroot plants for a while. I might plant some potatoes.

So far the vegetable year has not been very productive, but it might still improve!

Bryn Celli Ddu Open Day

Sometimes, social media actually does something good. Keeping an eye on things I had seen that both GeoMôn and James Dilly, the experimental archaeologist, would attend an open day at Bryn Celli Ddu, arguably the most famous Neolithic monument in North Wales. That sounded fun! And Neil is borderline obsessed with the sort of work that James Dilly does, so he didn't need any encouragement to go there.

We arrived at the normal parking lot, to the west of the actual monument. We were early enough to be able to park there. When we got to location, we saw Dei getting his stall ready. Other people were already active. I could see James in the distance, and there were clearly more experimental people; next to Dei was a bloke making swirly decorations in stone, like what you could see on a standing just outside the actual burial mound. We could see that today, you could actually park on the other side. 

Dei with his GeoMôn stand

Swirly pattern man

We had a nice chat with Dei, and then had a look at the man with the swirly patterns. He had also brought several axes. Neil was mesmerised. 

Then we made our way to James’ setup. I let them chat away while I admired everything that was going on in the tent. Axes, spears, swords (he does both the Neolithic and the Bronze Age), jewellery, buckets, bellows, antlers, whatnot. I loved it! 

A bit later he would do a demonstration, but now we left him to it. There was more to see! Next door were two ladies in Neolithic outfits doing textile work. One was making a net. We talked about flax and nettles and how you make thread with that. One of them was wearing a nettle dress. Fascinating! 

We also went into the mound itself. Neil had never been! And then the demo started. This was all about making a stone hand axe. We had seen that before! But it was still impressive to see how he starts with a big lump of rock, and within 20 minutes has a usable axe. And he talked about why you would want to polish them. Not just for good looks! And gave a lot of background information. He knows his stuff.

Knapping

When he was done we looked at the other things going on; there was a potter there, and another textile lady who was working with wool. 

There would be another demo; this one about casting bronze. We make sure we had had some food and drink before that, and put our warmest clothes on, as it was windy. And we said hello to another James; this was one of our students who will graduate this summer. After summer he will start a Welsh language PhD in our school. It will be great to keep him for a few more years.

The bronze casting was exciting as well! Neil had seen it all before; he had even done it himself. But he was quite happy to see it again. 

Casting the bronze

When that demo was over we were almost Neolithically saturated. We admired a bloke we had seen at the Vikings talk blow a Bronze Age horn, said goodbye to Dei, and made our way back.

Bronze Age horn blowing

As we were on Anglesey anyway, we decided to tag on a little visit to Lleiniog beach, to see the amazing sediments we are dragging the students to every year. So we did! And it turned out that Neil had been before, but he had never really paid attention to the sediments. He agreed that they were spectacular. And then it was time for us to go home. It had been a good day all around!

First general UCET trip

I had been underground with the UCET ladies quite many times now. I had never done a conventional trip, which is open to all. But that was set to change when there was a western trip for everyone. It is a mine I like, and I thought it would be nice to show my face to the men of the club as well.

I showed up to a somewhat midge-infested meeting place. It was not a big trip; only eight of us would be there. And when we had all got kitted up we were keen to get in, leaving the midges behind.

The plan had been to split into two groups. There was a pitch down and, a bit further along, a pitch up. I was happy to be on the group that went up, with Gw.yneth, whom I know, and two of the blokes: Oggy and Greg. Never having been on a standard club trip I obviously didn't know them yet. And after going up we could later swap around and go down the other pitch.

It's a nice little pitch, and there is a bit of a level to explore when you get up it. Of our little group, I was the only one who had done it before. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it! And then we went down. Oggy went first. Me second. But then something unfortunate happened. I accidentally nudged a stemple with my shoulder. And  dislodged it.

Greg coming up 

Greg and Gwyneth on a traverse

You always try to leave a mine as you found it! It is industrial heritage, after all. I had a good go at wedging it back in, but I just couldn't make it work. And I was scared that if I would manage, it wouldn't be very secure, and it would come down a next time. Maybe with someone underneath it. I decided I had to send it down now, as I could control if there would be anyone underneath. I shouted really loud at Oggy to get out of the way, and then I dropped it down the pitch. I felt really bad about that. But I would have felt worse if later down the line, someone would have got hurt.

When we were all down, we had a look what the others were up to. It didn't look like they were imminently coming up, so we headed further into the level. We got to a beautiful stope with a lovely ladder in it. From there you can keep going, but it is quite wet. Nobody seemed to fancy it! So after some dawdling we went back. By then, the others were coming up. There had been a bit of a kit mishap and they hadn't got down all the way to the bottom.

Gwyneth in a high stope

Two ladies who had come up were keen on going even further up, so they headed for the pitch we had just vacated. Mary figured she had done enough SRT. Greg and Oggy went down. I wasn't all too. bothered about it; I had been there many times, and if people wanted to get out I didn't want to keep them. And when everyone had seen what they wanted to see we indeed went out again.

Outside we took a group picture, and then we went back to the cars. The midges and mosquitoes had beaten us to it! We thought they had been out in force before we went in. We hadn't seen nothing yet. I changed back into my civilian kit, and decided to then say goodbye and leave. The others were going to the pub afterwards, but their choice of pub was in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go, so I left them to it. 

Group picture

It had been a modest trip! But quite enjoyable. Very successful as my first trip with the general UCET crew! 

Undergraduate finalists board meeting

At the end of the academic year, there are many meetings taking place. We need to evaluate all modules. Did anything go awry? Do we need to moderate any marks? And we have to go through all students. Will they pass to the next year? Will they graduate? 

Some of these meetings are done with all staff present; for instance, meetings in which we decide if all the modules ran properly, and we can accept all the grades. But the meetings where we discuss the individual students always happened out of my sight.. 

You might imagine that as all grades are digitally recorded, the progression is processed automatically. It is not. We look at all students. And when I say “we”, I mean the Director of Teaching and Learning, the Senior Tutor, the Assessment Officer, and some members of Student Administration. Or rather; that’s what it used to be like. But this year, they asked me to be there too, as the Academic Integrity officer. 

I didn’t have much to do! The thing is; I had sent an overview of all the Academic Integrity cases. I also was up-to-date with the admin. So there wasn't really much need for me to be there. I suppose the only time I snapped into action is when I spotted that a student had been penalised, but the mark this meeting had access to had not been amended yet. (Student administration can sometimes take a while to respond to information.) So I mentioned that, and they amended it there and then.

I might raise that I was in a meeting between nine and three, and only was useful once. I might suggest that next year, we do this differently. Maybe a brief half hour pre-meeting of one administrator with me, where we check all changes have been implemented. And then the six hour meeting without me. And if needs be, I can just be in my office, one phone call away, in case they have any questions after all. 

It was interesting to see this process in action! But I think that once is enough. We'll see if the powers that be agree with me…

New bridge opened!

It is finished! The new foot- and bike bridge over the Ogwen has been opened. And with it, the bicycle paths around it. We can use the full route again. Great! 

It took a bit longer than I thought but it’s there now. And I have to admit; it looks good. And now I have faith there won’t be any work on this stretch of the bike route for a fair while! 

Opening (pic taken from social media)

The new bridge, with the approach to the old one festooned with a picnic table 

Welsh Castles Relay day 2

My alarm went off at 5:45. It was day two of the Welsh Castles Relay, and I would actually get to run. I put on some clothes and got my stove out. I wasn't going to start the day without coffee! And it turned out that the leisure centre next door had a coffee vending machine, but the coffee seemed to be quite rubbish. I was glad I had my own supply. And while the water was boiling I packed my stuff and took my tent down.

Early morning on the sports field 

I had my breakfast in the minibus, and then I was ready to roll. We cheered on our first runner, who had had to come from North Wales that morning. She must have had such an early start! But she looked cheerful.

Start of the first race. Notice Russell, one of the Track Tuesday trainers, with nr 24

Then the whole circus started again, dropping off runners, and occasionally seeing them finish. And sometimes supporting runners that were using their own transport. And I was in unfamiliar terrain now. We went to Llanbadarn Mynydd and Crossgates and Builth Wells. And Drovers Arms and Epynt. And by now, the permanent crew of the minibus was finally starting to run. Nia kicked it off in Crossgates. And we could even see her finish. She was looking quite fanatic!

Nia taking it seriously 

Two stages later it was my turn. I got to do leg 16 from Brecon to Torpantau (in the middle of the Bannau Brycheiniog). It would be 20 km; 10 of them quite flat, and then the second 10 up the hill. They dropped me off at the start, which was in a quite scenic location, and then tried to find a place to park. I registered, and found my track mate Elfyn. He had considered coming on the minibus, in spite of not being a Harrier, but had decided against. I thought it was great we were doing the same leg! 

Me at the scenic start location. Elfyn took the pic

Time flew to the start. The support crew had arrived on time to cheer me on. And then we set off along a canal. The route was beautiful! But at some point we left the canal. The marshal standing by the junction said "enjoy the hill". That surprised me a bit; the actual hill was much later. But it sure was a considerable hill if you compare it to these kilometres along the canal.

By the time we got to that point, the field had spread out a bit. I was aware of a bloke in blue behind me, and I could see a lady in black-and-white in front of me. And we plodded on. I was hoping to catch the lady. I'm sure the bloke is blue was hoping to catch me. But these chase scenes in long distance runs take forever. 

While we were on the road, some vehicles came past. Some of them cheered me on. The Buckley runners’ vehicle did, for instance! That was nice. But at some point, we took a turn and ran over the dam of the Tal-y-Bont reservoir, and at the end of that, we started the almost 10 km climb. 

By now I had gained on the black-and-white lady, who turned out to be in the Pontypridd Roadents ladies team, and right at the start of the ascent I overtook her. Excellent! And that gave me a new target; another runner had come to view. In the meantime, the blue runner, from TROTs (St Clears), was approaching. I figured he was going to get me. And he did. 

He was too fast for me, but I did manage to overtake a runner from the Cheshire Dragons and one from Caerphilly. I was quite chuffed with that. I figured I was doing well! Maybe not by the standard of this race, but certainly by my own standards, and these are the important ones. And my IT bands were holding up. 

Then I could hear the faint sounds of a finish. And then the path got steeper. That was tiring, but knowing I was close gave me energy. And when I approached the actual finish I saw Lesley. I knew she was going to be the one to pick me up. She was cheering me on and taking pictures. I was really glad to see her. I gave it a last push, and then I was in.

At the finish

I had done it in 1:36:16. And that was 20.1 km and 350m ascent. I was perfectly happy with that! But now I was tired. When the timekeeper scanned the barcode on my race number I had to hold onto his jacket. And I could see I had come 54th of 65. Good enough for me!

I had been handed a bottle of water, and I quite needed that by now. I drank it while Lesley and I walked back to the car. I knew Iolo, one of the lads from the minibus, was still running. We would have no time to get to his finish. They had started his leg only 45 minutes after mine. We would head directly for the finish of the runner after that: Ian, also a minibus person. 

As we are now in the middle of nowhere the runners could take a much more direct route than cars. It would take us a while to get there! And then we finally did, it turned out Ian had almost jumped into the vehicle of another team, but now he came with us. He had done really well! I might have been 54th, but he had been 8th. That is impressive.

There was no point in going to the next finish, so we headed straight to the final one, in Cardiff. Our other young lad, Huw, would take that leg. We got there before the first runner was even approaching, so we could catch up a bit. The runner of the previous leg, Mike, joined us there, as did Tony and Nia and Iolo. Ian got me some more water as all I had with me was what I had carried during my race. And a jumper I had given to Lesley to put in the car, waiting for me. That wasn't much!

Then the announcer said the first one was not far. And he came storming in. He was so fast! He barely managed to make the bend into the field. And then some other, slightly less inhumanly speedy, runners followed. Quite soon, our own Huw appeared. When he had finished I went to look for him. He had come 14th! I thought that was massively impressive, but he didn't think so. It was sad he wasn't happy with his achievement.

By the finish: Ian Mike Huw Iolo Tony Lesley me Nia

The organisation hoped that everyone would stay until the very end, but we didn't. We were hungry. I hadn't had a meal since 6:30, and it was now about 16:00. We also had to drive all the way back to North Wales after the food.

Nia, who is our chair, bought us all a drink. And we ordered food. I really really appreciated it. I must admit I didn't care much what it was! It really hit the spot. And then we set off to go home. We first dropped off Mike at his car, and then we could go back to Caernarfon. 

In the pub

It is a long drive! But we managed to spend quite some time just gossiping about the race and how everyone had done. Our star runner has clearly been Mike! I have never met him before, but he is clearly impressive. In this tremendously competitive field, he had managed to come 7th. He is 63. Not many others had managed to stay in the top 10. Only Ian. 

Three of our runners ended up 63th. It was clear we weren't in with a chance of winning. We had prioritised having a good time. And I think these three runners did. I myself had a negative influence on our results. I dropped us by two places. But nobody minded. And the last three runners: Mike, Ian and Huw, had really done miracles to our ranking. We had started well, with Tony and Jen, but then we had a bit of a fallow period that lasted 15 legs. I think on day at some point we were 55th. After my run, we were 50th. And then Iolo started running! And Ian and Mike and Huw. When they were done, we were 37th. That was quite amazing! Oh and Salford had won. 

We also wondered about next year. Should we try to have more than one team? Maybe a ladies team? Or veterans team? In addition to the open team? Or a competitive team and leisurely team? We will have to see. How much interest would there be?

In the meantime, time went by. Garfield chose to drive over the A5. That meant that I would be the first to be dropped off. He would come to Bethesda, and a few kilometres beyond would get to my car, on the way to Caernarfon. But when we were approaching, it was already past 11 pm. I wanted to go to bed. I suggested he just drop me off at home. I could get my car the next day. And that's what he did. I just shoved my bags into a corner, fed the cat, brushed my teeth, had a shower (I really needed that!), and went to bed. I got in before midnight. Success! And the next day I would still be buzzing with Welsh Castles Relay adrenaline…