Duallt station with Miles

It had been about a year since I had last been on a little adventure with Miles. I was hoping that we could use the summer for another one. And Miles could fit me in.

On a sunny day we met at the café in Tanygrisiau and first had a nice cup of coffee or tea. While we were doing that we discussed what we might do next. Miles had an idea: the Ffestiniog railway comes past, and it famously has an altered route. The cafe is between the railway and the reservoir, and originally, the railway went over what is now the reservoir bottom. In order to gain enough height to make it to this higher route, a loop had to be added. This was largely done by volunteers. Near this rather amazing loop by Duallt station there is a viewpoint. Miles had never been, and suggested we visit it. I thought it was a wonderful idea.

We walked in the hot afternoon to the public footpath, which starts on asphalt, but soon we could veer off and walk on a cute little path. I had done some of that before, but by the time we go to the other side of the reservoir I was in unknown territory. It was beautiful! It was also noteworthy that there, you wouldn't be able to tell we were in a drought. Everything was lush and green! I suppose the mythical bad-weather status of Blaenau has its advantages. 

The reservoir 

Near the reservoir. What drought? 

It looks like this viewpoint is not very widely visited. We only bumped into two other walkers on the way there. And after a while we got to Duallt station. This is basically in the middle of the loop. And it is where you come off the through-route to get to the viewpoint.

Reaching the loop (and the station)

Ghost station

View on where the railway crosses itself

The viewpoint is nice, but I thought the station was more atmospheric. It looks like it is waiting for something. There is a little building on the platform, and a bigger one next to the track. There were some sheep having siesta there. That was it! Nothing stirred. Strange place. And the loop is quite something.

After we had seen both, and I had had a sandwich, we kept going for a bit; that allowed us to make the loop a bit bigger and not just walk the same route on the way back. It was still a very silent and beautiful landscape.

Slate plaque marking the viewpoint 

Viewpoint selfie

We could also catch up. Things had been going on with jobs and kids and partners and parents and pets and houses and cars and whatnot. And we do sometimes send each other a voice message update, but talking in person is different.

When we got back to the lake we walked back around the other side of it. And that brought us back to the car. Time to say goodbye again! It had been really good to catch up. Hopefully another adventure next year! 

More small steps towards tidy house

I would love my house to be tidy. It is just that I would like quite a lot of things, and a lot of them cost time. One has to pick one's battles, and this one isn't always picked. But now that I am taking some annual leave, there is time to make some progress on this. And I already had; some of it to do with repairing the damage caused by the installation of my infrared panels. Some of it to do with the inside of my kitchen cabinets. And some of it to do with their outside. Some of it just on the initiative of Neil.

There is more going on! One of the things I have recently done is empty out my wardrobe, going through everything that was in there, deciding what should not be in there, and put everything that should be back in an orderly fashion. That hadn't happened for a while. It feels good! And I will be ready to either give some clothes to a charity shop, or put them in one of those clothing containers. 

I don't think any of my efforts will ever live up to Neil's exacting standards, but I feel better about every little improvement. Onwards to the next part of the house!

Tidy! At least by my standards. 

Race the (Highland) train

Race the Train is so popular it sells out in minutes. But as I couldn't get in last year, and I had volunteered to marshal, I got a guaranteed spot. That was great! I could now try this iconic race myself. By the way; "Highland" distinguishes this race from a similar race further south.

I'm not sure if it is so popular because the steam train brings you to the start, or because it is downhill practically all the way. It only goes down 50m in total, but you notice. It makes the course very fast. And I don't accept a time on a downhill race as a personal best, but it's still nice run faster than you normally do. 

I arrived in good time and parked by the castle. One of the first people I know I saw there was Llio, the lady I had overtaken in Rhostryfan to take the bronze medal, but who had beat me many times since, in Llanrug and Bethel and Felinheli and Pentir. She is very strong on the short distance. And she had, like me, been running on the track the night before. She had said she was reassured by my presence because that meant she wasn't the only person doing both things in close succession. She had also said she was going to take it easy. That lasted about three seconds. She was flying around the track!

I also saw Richie, who was back from an injury. Sort of. He said he would just calmly jog the route. I wasn't sure if I should believe him.

We went to get our race numbers, and then we had to wait for the train to arrive. That is, except those who chose to jog to the start. A fair number of people do that. It's a good warming up! But I wanted the full experience. How often do you get the opportunity of being brought to the start line by a steam train?

When the train arrived I sat down in an open carriage near the front. That was a mistake. The engine is spewing out all sorts of dirt, and I didn't really mind getting it in my hair and on my skin, but I did mind getting it in my eyes. Wearing sunglasses wasn't good enough. But it was still nice to be dragged through the lovely landscape by this historic train. 

The train bringing us to the start

When we got to Dinas station it was only 12 minutes to the start time. I did a rudimentary warmup. Then we lined up.

Everyone I had been talking to her told me that you need to leg it at the start. The terrain by the station is spacious, but with a little loop you make your way to the other side of the track, and then squeeze onto the bicycle path. There is a bollard there. It is narrow! If you're not somewhere near the front, you will end up in the queue there. It is a bit like the Pentir race I suppose. There are bottle necks there too, and you want to be near the front so there aren't too many people already in there when you get to them. 

When we started, there was indeed a bit of jostle. I found it scary! When people are shoving me from the side I am scared I will sprain a knee. It is so easy to do with my knees. But I took the advice to heart and started faster than I normally would have. Maybe it worked; when I reached the bicycle path there was no queue. 

By then the field stabilised a bit. A bloke in black and a lady in blue came storming passed, but otherwise people had more or less found their place in the pack. Any overtaking will now would be slow. I knew I was going fast, which is tricky so early on, but I decided to try to stick with it. 

I had seen that both my friend Louise, and Richie, were in front of me. I knew I was right not being quite convinced when the latter said he would take it easy! But I wondered if I could still make my way slowly to the front. 5 km is not much, but still enough for some manoeuvering.

Before I got anywhere near either of them I overtook the lady in the blue top. She had gone too fast in the beginning! And I slowly closed in on Louise. When she heard me behind her she said “ah, there you are”. I told her she could still beat me. She didn't think she could. But she was surely giving it a good go. When I overtook she came with me.

The race photographer didn't capture me, so here instead is a picture of Kevin, one of the Track Tuesday trainers, and the race organiser himself

Slowly but steadily we both overtook Richie. I hope he didn't aggravate his injury too much! Ideally, not at all, of course.

When the path had one of its little uphill bits, Louise overtook me. But she couldn't maintain it. I caught up with her again. And then overtook her again. We only had some 250 m to go. 

I tried to squeeze out some acceleration. I was tired, but I still managed. And then I thought there was a lady in black in front of me that was still within reach. I had a go at overtaking her, and I managed! And I could see I had just about managed to come in within 20 minutes. That is fast! This must have been the influence of the slope. I had been hoping for a time of 21 minutes! 

I gave Louise a hug, and then we cheered on other runners coming in. And we found friends who had finished before us. People seemed to generally be happy with how it had gone. Soon I (and supposedly everybody else) got a text message with the official results. I had come in at 19:59! Quite a time. And I had my expected category win, in the implausible F45-54 category. And thanks to my last minute overtaking of Louise and the other lady, I had come in as sixth woman! I was proud of that. WCR runner Huw had come 4th. After 3 Meirionnydd men. 

Not a very good picture of the train finally coming i 

After a while, the presentation happened. In spite of them giving prizes to the top three in every category, they managed to do with quite quickly. Prizes for Louise, Emma, Ian, and Arwel. And loads of other people. And there was even an M85+ category! Won by a 89-year old who had done it in 33:38. Impressive. 

Louise and her daughter and me (I had by then put my shorts back on, as they have pockets)

Then it was time to go home. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the castle against the evening sky. I couldn't resist last year either! It is quite an enticing view. This had been fun! I was hoping I could do it again next year... 

 

Yet another new toy: mini chainsaw

My firewood sawing has become a heck of a lot quicker since I got a mitre saw.  But there is a limit to what it can do. Firstly; it is mounted, and there is only a fixed thickness of wood you can fit underneath. Wood with sticky-outy bits is also a problem. And you can't so infinitely long bits of food, as the platform you put it on is only so wide. And of course you could hold it in position, but you also need hands to work the saw. With relatively short bits of wood that is ok, but if they become long, and thereby heavy and unwieldy, they might make you stray into the slightly risky territories.

Neil has a small battery-powered chainsaw for this purpose. He once bought one, and it had some functionality where it lubricates itself. That functionality didn't work. When he told the manufacturer, they sent him a new one. He still has the old one! And other than that you have to lubricate it by hand, there is nothing wrong with it. So he gave it to me.

The new toy

The garage when I started

I've now tried it! It is very small, but it can do miracles. I got rid of a lot of the firewood from the neighbour's tree, and my own willow. That is unseasoned wood, and it can be a pain to saw by hand. Your saw sticks in it. The chainsaw has enough power to rip itself free.

The bits that were still doable by hand I still did by hand, but it was great to have the chainsaw for the rest. It is small but it made easy work of the bigger trunks. 

There also are the two stringers (the big diagonal bits) of my old outside stairs. Too big for the mitre saw. I finished dealing with one, and I'm not far off dealing with the other. But by then, which took two days, I felt the chainsaw had lost its power. I figured I might have used it so much I had already blunted the chain. I decided to have a break and give it a new chain the test my hypothesis. 

The garage when I took a break (remainder of stringer still on the saw horse)

Changing the chain worked, and I finished the job a day later. It feels really good to have dealt with so much of the firewood that had piled up over the months. Everything that is left now can also be done by the mitre saw. Or by hand. The natural wood will have to rest for a year or two, but these two stair stringers will, in addition to what I still had lying around from last winter, probably get me through the coming one!

Plas Newydd and Baron Hill

Neil was doing another Welsh 3000s training day on the Saturday, so he was quite up for a quieter day on Sunday. And he had a suggestion: there is a locally famous ruined mansion near Beaumaris he wanted to see. I had never been either. And I saw an opportunity: I also wanted to see Plas Newydd (from the inside), inspired by the Madfabulous film. We decided to combine these.

We did Plas Newydd first. I had been on the grounds before; they are lovely. Now we actually went in. None of the film was shot in here, but it was easy to imagine the story playing out in this setting. Glamorous rooms everywhere! And the recent addition: costumes from the film. Just a handful of them, but still very nice to see. I think the costumes department of the film company had a whale of a time with this. 

The house behind a flower border

Glamorous interior

Glamorous Bedroom 

The recreation of the most famous costume for the film

The lawn outside

We had lunch on the lawn, with the lovely views that come with that. And then we headed for Beaumaris. We parked up, hopped into the copse next to the road, and headed in the general direction of the mansion. We immediately found built-up structures. I thought they were parts of landscaped gardens. Lots of rather decorative low walls. When we found some remains of greenhouses my suspicion was confirmed. And we came across the first modest buildings.

After a while we came to sizeable building, covered in big trellises. We figured that must be it. It was quite impressive! We walked in and explored. It was extensive, and sometimes had rather industrial details. There were a bits of engine and line shaft and scoop wheel. And big slate water troughs and features we didn’t recognise. Why does a mansion have that?

It seemed to go on forever. It was much bigger than either of us could have imagined. But after what seemed like forever we saw some highly decorated window frames and an entrance with columns. I was convinced that this was the actual entrance of the mansion. Where we had entered must have been auxiliary buildings. That would explain the machinery. But crikey this was extensive!

Frankly, this part of the mansion was the most impressive. We were both quite chuffed we had finally made it there.

The trellised building we saw first

Unusual structures

This part of the building still had part of a staircase

When we had seen the main mansion he had seen it all. We made our way back and we decided to have a little ice cream stop on the way home. For parking reasons we did that in Menai Bridge and not in Beaumaris. When we were there anyway, we did a little walk around Church Island. Because we could! But then it was time to go home and eat some food. It had been a lovely day!

Finally doing 'the' bike loop, and supporting fellow runners

When I moved to Bethesda, I sort of figured straight away that there was a bike ride that was begging to be explored. The main two valleys here are the Ogwen valley, and the next one along to the south, with Llanberis in it. The whole loop is 50 km, with 730m of ascent. That's decent but quite doable!

I ended up never doing it. The thing is: if it is rubbish weather, I'm not keen on it. If it is nice weather I might want to get off the road; do a nice hike or a nice run on the trails, rather than spending 50 km almost exclusively on asphalt. So the years went by and I still didn't do it.

The International Snowdon race appeared on the horizon. This is really right up the street of the Eryri Harriers. Just not me! Racing down yr Wyddfa scares the shit out of me. But there would be many people there that I know, also from other clubs. Maybe I should go? And I could bike! I decided to go for it.

I made my sandwiches and set off a bit more than two hours before the start. I wanted to be there before it all kicked off so I could socialise a bit with the runners. Google Maps said it would take me 2:12 hours, but they thought I would take a really ludicrous route to the local bicycle path. 

I started off on what is one of my classic running routes. It is not perfectly comfortable for a bike as it is on slate chippings, and some bits are very steep, but that is ok. It's a very beautiful path. But it was nice to reach the asphalt. And it was weird to ride under the clouds again. We hadn't seen those in a while! I suppose I had been in one while marshalling the Siabod race but that had been it for weeks. 

On the running route 

Having reached asphalt 

When I reached Ogwen cottage I got back on the main road. That's alright; at no point did I feel unsafe, even though it was a summer Saturday in quite good weather. Sometimes people drive like nutters there, but everything went well.

It was about 50 minutes to Capel Curig. This was as far as I had ever biked that way. Now I would turn right and head for Pen y Gwrid. 

Shortly after Plas y Brenin I got off the road to take a picture. Two road cyclists overtook me, and they kindly checked if I was ok. A stopping cyclist might mean a cyclist in some sort of distress, but I was just being a tourist. I did appreciate the gesture! 

Yr Wyddfa appears on the horizon 

This part of the road is quite flat, but I had a noteworthy headwind. It took about 25 minutes to get to Pen y Gwrid. There I had to turn right and climb up to Pen y Pass. That I had done before, in the only duathlon I have ever done, and I knew it wasn't strenuous. Then I got to the top and knew that it was now going to be one long downhill to Llanberis. 

Down from Pen y Pass

Bike selfie

When it comes to road safety, this might be the scary bit, as there tend to be low walls on either side of the road. On the A5 you can generally just steer into the verge if you want to avoid some sort of disaster, but here you would have to throw yourself over the wall. That is a bit more committed. But all went well.

The sound of the race hit me abruptly when I came around a corner. I felt close now! And I got to the event terrain. The first person I saw was Arwel. The first of many to ask me if I was running today. No I wasn't! I think the whole club knows I love running uphill, and there is plenty of that going in this race. Maybe some of them are not aware I really don't like running down again. And that was the reason I was only supporting today.

On the event terrain I saw plenty of Harriers. That was nice! I was getting race buzz. And I took some pictures at the start, until one of the official photographers recognised me and said I should join the team. I was a Harrier after all. I obliged.

Club pic

When everyone actually lined up at the start I saw my friend Katie, and shouted at her, but she didn't notice me. She was wearing headphones. I decided to move a bit away from the start so I see the runners a bit more spread out. And I could shout at many of my club mates. And I managed to shout so loudly at Katie that she heard me and realised I was supporting her. Success!

With the race now underway it would take about an hour for anyone to finish. That was fine; it could be a nice lunch break for me. I was hungry by now. But I first wanted to go to the loo. And with the runners gone, they wouldn't be any queues anymore. Unfortunately there was more not there anymore: none of them had paper. I figured I might go to the public loos a bit further up the road, but I bumped into a track runner who said that the next door community centre was open and had loos. That was a good idea. I went there. And then sat down for my lunch. 

While I was sitting there our soon to start PhD student James appeared. It was nice to see him! He said we were bumping into each other at every event, referring to the open day at Bryn Celli Ddu. 

The next people I saw were Tony and Lesley. They were about to queue up for a hot drink, and I joined them. It was nice to see them! And I am generally positive about hot drinks. And while we were in the queue the announcer mention that the first runner was now nearby, so as soon as we had our drinks went to the finish line to cheer them on.

The first three runners were young Italian men. That seems to be a tradition. Good for them! And they were so fast; imagine running from a field in the middle of the town to the top of Snowdon, and back, in one hour and four minutes. That's what the winner did, and it wasn't even a course record. 

There was a bit more geographical variability in the first three ladies; they were from Scotland, England, and Italy respectively, the winner coming in just under 1:17. The first Welsh Runner was a Cybi Strider in 16th position. The fastest Harrier came in 25th, running for Wales. The fastest one in club kit was one of our Welsh Castles Relay runners in 35th position. Our own Ian was 50th. The fastest female Harrier was a 21-year-old. I think her twin sister was running as well! A very strong running family, that. 

I suppose, though, that the fun of supporting is not necessarily cheering on the fastest runners, but the ones you know the best. It was great to see Thursday Night Hill runners and track runners finish. No matter what time they did! 

You could also tell it was a bit of a demanding race; the top of the mountain had been in the clouds for quite some of the day, and I suppose it had been a bit wet there. Quite unlike anywhere else. There were many runners with big smears of mud on their shorts, so they must have wiped out. There were quite a number with bloody knees or elbows. But these were the ones who made it to the finish. There were eight runners who didn't manage. Half of these were Harriers! I hope they're ok. 

I also went to behind the finish to talk to some runners. Harrier Dylan was wondering exasperatedly why on earth one puts oneself through this. Iolo was hanging out with his mum. Katie was happy she had done it under two hours, and handed her soggy race vest to her birthday-having partner. Some of the Harrier women were socialising so hard they hadn't even made it outside the finish area. 

I was aware of my bike ride home, so I didn't wait for absolutely everybody to finish. I put my helmet back on and biked off.

The obvious route home is over Fachwen Road; this is quite a direct route but it is brutally steep in places. This road, however, is currently closed. And that meant I had to do a more gentle, but less scenic, route. I started on the bicycle path, ended up at the end of the lake, and biked back to the main road past The Caban. From there I took the route I normally take my car. None of that was punishingly steep.

Bethesda in sight again

In about 50 minutes I was home. I had done the entire loop! And it hadn't been particularly gruelling. And I had got some race vibes in the middle of the ride. Altogether a good day! And something taken off my wish list…

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…