In the Netherlands: my mum

I was one hour delayed arriving in the Netherlands, but otherwise my travels went well. When I got to my mum’s, my aunt was still there. It was lovely to see her! But then I wanted to get to my mum. My aunt understood, so I barged into the bedroom. It was so good to see her! 

Reaching the Netherlands 

My mum looked so frail! I was glad to be there. But after the initial meeting I waved off my aunt. She had to get home. 

I took my usual place in the spare room. And I could fill my mum’s glass of water, help her get up to drink it, do shopping, make her an occasional sandwich, and things like that. I also popped to a local medical centre to see if there were any aids I could rent or borrow. And I had a set of keys cut for my other aunt (with my mum’s permission, of course). In the meantime, my sister was organising a trip over. 

The local medical centre

My mum appreciated the visits but didn’t understand the fuss. What was the problem; she could still get to the loo! What more did she need? That her going to the loo was very precarious, and bound to go catastrophically wrong sooner or later, was neither here nor there in her opinion. And that I struggled to imagine her successfully fetching her own glass of water didn’t strike her as relevant either. 

She clearly also couldn’t clean the house or do laundry or any of that anymore. She didn’t even know where her glasses were. But she claimed she was fine. My mum, stubborn? Surely not. 

This was going to be an interesting visit! But I was really glad I was there… 

Drop everything and plan to go to the Netherlands

I couldn’t get my mum on the phone. That had happened before. But this time, I then got a message from from my aunt Jose to say she had tried to visit, with an actual appointment, but that she found my mum unwell in bed. She didn’t want any fuss, or anything really, and my aunt had to leave. 

I was wondering whether earlier failed attempts to phone my mum had reflected a similar situation. Would she have felt rubbish and been in bed? Unable to walk to the phone? It would have been a fairly regular occurrence then. But she would never tell me.

At that initial visit, my aunt did what she could and then left. But she came back. And rallied my other aunt Len. Jose is 90 and lives on the other side of the country; Len is the youngest of the (originally 9) siblings and lives in the same town as my mum. Unsurprisingly, as it is their home town.

My mum was just about able to go to the loo, but that was it. So she needed help. And my aunts provided it. And my mum showed no sign of perking up again, and being able to make herself a sandwich, let alone going out to buy sandwich ingredients. Or even go to the door to accept a delivery. Not that she wanted anything to eat.

If you are 86, only lie in bed, and don’t eat, you get weak. It might finish you off. So I spoke with the aunts, and decided to book a flight and come over. Was that convenient with work? No, of course not. My week was chock full of its usual teaching, plus teaching that had had to be moved from my period of jury service. But I only have one mum! And she needed help. So I sent a message to my line manager, sent announcements to all students it affected, and to the people who were on the modules with me. And then I was ready to go. I wanted to see my mum! 

Own the night 2026

Last year I joined the Cybi Striders when they organised a run to draw attention to that many women sometimes feel unsafe when running alone in the dark. And they organised it again this year. And I had had a bit of a weird weekend, and could do with a few friendly faces around me. So I joined again. This time alone; last year Neil had joined me. 

The group was smaller and the weather better. We set off as usual towards Belgian Promenade. Last year we ran around Church Island, but not this time. And they organised it along the main road towards Llanfair, and then up the hill to run the high road back to Porth. Then we went down Penlon. 

Group pic

I caught up with lots of running friends: Emma, Katie, Lauren, Louise, Kevin… the latter was not in the best of health and I wasn’t sure he should be there. But it was good to see him. 

I am sure we did it quicker than last year. And that’s ok! And this time, nobody went to the pub afterwards. Which is also ok. It was nice to stretch my legs a bit, with lovely people, after a weekend with mainly indoorsiness! 

Additional medal rack

When I came home from the Abergele 5 & 10k I couldn’t put my medals on my medal rack anymore (I already have two). It was full! So it was time to add a third one. And it made sense to put it below the main one. 

I did that now. It’s a bit busy! But well, the new rack will have to go somewhere. So here it is now. Space for a fair few additional races! 

No Eryri Marathon

My plan for the Saturday was to support Marathon Eryri. Quite a lot of my fellow Harriers, including Chris, would run it, and I wanted to cheer them on. 

It was not to be. The day before, news reached me that the race had been cancelled. Storm Boelo was making it too tricky. 

Storm Boelo makes himself known 

Thinking about the race had woken up something in me. Should I try to run another marathon? And if yes, why not this one? It is on the road but beautiful, and nearby. What more would you want?

I had already decided I should register for next year. But with this year’s episode cancelled, all runners are transferred to next year. I suppose that means there will barely be any tickets available for other people. I am sure that not everyone who was going to run it this year still wants to do it next year, but probably the majority does.

Chris was disappointed. I can imagine! He had really been preparing for it. And anticipating. We will have to see how he feels about the race next year.

Maybe I get to support next year. And what about a marathon? There is also one in Chester. Not as close by, and not as beautiful, but still quite doable. I might give it a go! If I just make sure to have a few paracetamol at the start, maybe I can make it happen without problems with my IT bands. But I suppose I should go and run 35 km on the road before I register, to see how it feels! It it goes well I can probably do the remaining 7k on race vibes…

No more dissertation proposals

Finally it is done! For many years, I have encouraged our third year students to design their own dissertation topic. Initially, that didn't have an awful lot of uptake. The first four years I never had more than 11 students managing it. That doesn't mean that there were only 11 who tried; there is always a fair number who try but don't succeed. Then two years ago, there were too many tries, so I started the rule that they can only have three attempts. Sometimes students would have their proposal rejected, change one sentence, and then submit it again. And that was just taking up too much time. With the three-attempts rule they had an incentive to thoroughly incorporate all my comments.

Last year that worked well. This year I was just too popular. I had 41 students giving it a go. Altogether, I received 86 proposals. And I approved 25 proposals in the end.
There were 31 students who submitted the proposal before the last week in which I allowed that. Their approval rate was 77%. Ten more students left it until the last week. For them, the success rate was only 20%. They really are warned that it is not a good idea to leave it to the last minute. But what can you do?
 

I will have to reconsider how I do things. Having a look at 86 proposals for a dissertation is just too much. This year it was extra bad as I had to squeeze it in between everything else including jury duty. It is interesting to do; some student come up with really cool projects. But I am only one person, and there are only 24 hours in a day. There is some time to think about this, but something will have to give...

More than one proposal involved sea birds

 

Tutorial Welsh terminology

In the run-up to my jury duty some new commitments ended up in my timetable. I didn't really have time to think too much about them. It was two Welsh language tutorials in our marine fieldwork module, that I had rarely been involved with before. There were four students on the Welsh version of that module. And it would be our new PhD student James, who is a native speaker, and me, doing these. 

Beforehand I tried to figure out if there was anything in particular we needed to cover. No idea! There was quite some interesting vocabulary in the module information on the module website, but other than that, the site contained very little information. It mainly referred to the English language version. Which I didn’t have access to. 

I hoped maybe James knew more. But when he appeared, it turned out he wasn't quite sure about any particular requirements. We had to improvise! We asked if the students (we had three turn up) had requests. We checked they knew where to find technical terms in Welsh. James realised he had access to an old version of the Welsh language website, opened a lecture, and started going through it. Any terms people didn’t know in Welsh? 

 

He also asked the students to translate a few sentences from it into Welsh. And we answered some questions about the practicalities of doing assessments in Welsh.

I think it went ok! I learned the Welsh terms for things like filtration and suspended sediment and suchlike. And the others realised the Welsh word for relationship (be it personal or statistical) has no plural. The atmosphere was good. Maybe we weren’t perfectly prepared but it may not have mattered…

Sunny Llanddwyn trip

The first day after my two weeks of jury duty would actually be a field trip. This was the second one in the series; Dei and Jaco had done the first one without me while I was in court. Normally, the first trip is Llanddwyn, but there had been some logistic reason why they had gone somewhere else. So now the second trip would go there. And it's a lovely location.

There was a complication; timetabling had put a lecture to all MSc students in my diary, at 9 o'clock on the same day. Normally they won't double-book you, but this time they must have missed something. And they couldn't move it. It is difficult to get all MSc students together! So we reached a compromise: Dei would pick up the students on his own, and start without me. Straight after my lecture I would jump into my car and follow. I figured he wouldn't manage to get past the pillow lavas (the first outcrop) before I would appear.

It went as predicted. After my lecture I hot-tailed it to Newborough, parked up, and started walking. Once I got to the beach I could see a group of people in the distance, with one of them in a hi viz jacket. That must be them! They were indeed walking between clumps of pillow lava. And I caught up with them when they had only just started to look at one of them in detail.

Pillow lavas on the beach

Dei dealt with the pillow lavas and the nearby peperite.  Then we went to see some sedimentary rocks that had seen quite some stress; I dealt with these. We had lunch on the next beach along, where there were more heavily  altered rocks. I talked about a clump of limestone, and then we went to the pièce de résistance at the far end of the island: the type location for mélange. That is a spectacular site. 

Then we were done. And in the gorgeous weather, we walked back to the vehicles. Trip done! And it had been very pleasant. We had been lucky! 

Abergele 10k

I was a bit tired after the 5k! And I looked forward to a leisurely 10k. I wasn't going to be ambitious about this one, but, of course, I did hope for a category win. And the sun was a lot higher in the sky, which made it a lot less cold, but I was still a bit shivery by the start. A lady in a pink vest was next to me and was also cold. Richie was starting somewhere in front of me, as well as Anna, who I thought would win. Sion and Katie, Cybies like Richie, were also running, but I wasn't sure where they were. 

We started and I took it easy. That turned out to suit the lady in the pink vest totally fine! We ended up running together all the way to the turning around point. Before we got there I saw that Anna was indeed in the lead. She is like lightning! Richie and Sion and Katie were all in front of me.

Knowing that I was halfway there made me speed up a little bit. I only had to run back! And that made me overtake Katie and Sion. I managed to overtake a few more people. I like that even after a fast 5k, I can do that. Close to the finish line I started overtaking a lady in black, but she was not having that. She accelerated away. Then I finished a bit behind her. I managed to cross the line at exactly 45 minutes. Not a fast time for me, but still faster than the Felinheli 10k! Then I found Richie already having a sip of water. He had beaten me again, and it was about time.

Looking more relaxed coming over the finish this time

I stayed to cheer Katie and Sion on. Then it was time to go and get something to drink again. I also picked up my jumper. And then I went to ask how I had done. I had indeed managed another category win! By some four minutes. I was proud of that.

I hung out with the Cybies until the presentation. Anna had indeed won! With the Second Lady also having come second in the 5k. Impressive! And Steffan had a category win (he had come 4th by only a few seconds!). And I had been the second fastest woman to run both. And when the presentation was over, it was time to go home. I had enjoyed that! But I now was tired and looking forward to lunch and a shower. Maybe next year again!

Hanging out with running friends (Katie far right)

 

Getting my second category win

Abergele 5k

Last year I had noticed there is such a thing as the Abergele double: a 5k and a 10k in close succession. I hadn’t registered then, maybe because I was busy, or felt guilty about racing so much and not seeing Neil so much. But this year I figured I should go for it. When do you get the chance to do two races on one morning? 

I also hoped that a cool morning 5k would be just what I would need for a PB. I was still on a mission to break as many of my PBs as I could. I had managed the 10 miles and the half marathon. The 5 mile and the 10k would be difficult as I had already done these very fast, but I thought I should be able to improve on my 5k. That was my anomalously slow PB, set at 4:18/km pace. My 10k PB was done at 4:15 pace...

I wanted to be there quite early so I could do a good warm-up, so after breakfast I headed straight for Abergele. I parked right by race HQ. I got my number, did a stretch, drank some and went for that warm-up. It was cold! And I was wearing my new belt. I love it! 

Pre-warmup chat with Sion

 

The photographer (who later said he struggled to imagine a Run Wales race without me) caught me warming up. Notice the belt!

There weren’t many Eryri Harriers. I saw Gruff, the 17-year-old lad, and a guy called John I didn’t know yet. Gruff’s dad took a club pic. Then Iolo, one of the WCR runners, suddenly appeared. Too late for the pic! We would almost start. 

Gruff, me and John. Pic by Jason

I wanted to run 4:19 outward and 4:16 back. But I was feeling good! Most of the time I was going considerably faster than that. I got to the turnaround point without issues, and then managed to run less than 4:10 on the way back. That PB was in the bag! I crossed the line in 20:35. My old PB had been 21:29. Success! My average pace had been 4:07. And I had a category win. By some five and a half minutes. 

Near the start

About to finish

 

I went to drink something, and chatted with fellow runners, and then attended the presentation. The bloke who had won it had also won the Bangor 10k. He is from the University athletics club. Iolo had come 10th, which is amazing, but he hadn't won anything. Gruff, John and I all had category wins! A good race for Eryri. And I, as the only one out of us four, could look forward to another one, an hour and ten minutes after finishing the first race of the day! 

Loot! Pic by Jason

Getting a gardener to visit

 

I have been trying to find a gardener for years! Without success. But then I marshalled in the Moel Siabod race, and met a gardener. She wasn't available to do anything with my garden, but she knew someone who might be. This person, Ruth, turned out to also be quite busy, and it was a bit difficult to pin her down. But at some point I got her to suggest a few dates, and one of them was at 17:30 on the last day of the period of my jury duty. And the court ends at about 16:30. I could make that!

In the end I ended up released from my duties the day before, so I was in work. And I had a meeting until 16:30, which made it a bit tight, but possible. I just made sure I could go home straight after the meeting, and I didn't hang around. Something went quite wrong with my bicycle along the way, but fortunately, I was only about 100 m from home by then. So I made it!

I just had time to feed the cat and then I heard a knock on the door. It was Ruth, with a colleague. I recognised her; she had been involved in a project to make our little Ocean Sciences campus look better, with big planters. Our workshop technician can build planters like the best of them, but for the next step, a gardener is more suitable. And I showed them my entire garden, and specifically the problematic raised beds.

They are now going to come up with a planting schedule. I look forward to that! And closer to the time I will have to decide whether I'm going to see if I can pay them to implement it, or whether I want to do it myself. They still sound quite busy, but they do say they are part of a larger community of gardeners, and could probably find someone else to do it if they can’t. 

I am excited. I hope this was the first step in the direction of  really making my garden look better. If you leave it to me unaided, it is never going to look really good. Or fairly good. My sister once had a good walk around, and she did give a lot of useful tips, but I found them difficult to implement. Someone who actually makes a schedule of what plant to put exactly where is something I can work with better. Let someone else do the thinking. I might do the digging!

One of my problem beds (not the worst)

More race loot (and a demo event)

A long time ago, I think it was when I lived in Plymouth, I bought myself a running belt. It has three pockets; one big enough for a key, one big enough for a modest wallet, and one designed to hold a small bottle. I have used it a lot over the years. I often have key, phone and water bottle in it. But it has some issues. The first one is: the wallet pocket will allow for a phone, but it's not very secure. The phone sticks out, and even if it didn't; the zip has broken. My phone has fallen out on several occasions.

Running with my old belt

 

The second thing is: because it has a water bottle- shaped compartment, it is a bit bulky. That matters for instance when you are travelling. And that's in spite of it not having much space. Apart from these three pockets, that is it!

Altogether I figured I wanted a better way of at least carrying my phone with me. This could be a safety issue! Remember the time I had to phone Mountain Rescue because Tim had broken his ankle. And I did have a running vest, but that is quite committing. I don't want to have to wear that if the only thing I really need is a phone and a key. It is great if you carry water, a head torch, an extra layer, and jelly babies, but most of the time, you don't need all of that.

You can buy running shorts with built-in phone pockets. I don't own any of them. There also is a new generation of running belts on the market. I had seen one lady during a Thursday Night Hill run wear one. I know she works in a local outdoor shop. And I also knew I still had a voucher for that shop, that I had won in the Felinheli 10k. 

In the second week of my jury duty, there would be another demo event at that very outdoor shop. And as I had been released from my duties in the afternoon, I figured I could make that. And I decided to show up quite early so I had time to do a bit of shopping.

I didn't see any running shorts, but I did see some running belts. Jude, the lady who I had seen wear one of them, was there, and she let me try a few. One of them really did the job. It is all soft fabric, and the pockets are such that you would put your phone horizontally in one of them, close to your skin. Not in some rigid pocket it can bounce out of. And even if you buy a bigger model of phone, it would still fit. And you would have the other pocket for putting your keys in, and potentially some gels, or even an extra layer if you want to. It has pockets all around.

I bought it. Thanks to my voucher, it only cost me a few quid. I didn't quite wear it on that very run, as I had already prepared my running vest.

New belt! 

The demo event went fine! We were wearing Inov8 Trailfly pros. They were lovely! They fall a bit large, so I was running in a size 4.5. And we were running in the woods above Llyn Padarn. It was a big group.

The shoes

I also had a reason to remember it for something other than the shoes; at some point I wanted to sneak off for a convenience break. It was raining, and I was wearing a hat with a cap. That means you can't look above you. And after I had done what I need to do, I hurried back to the group, watching my feet, and I managed to walk straight into an overhanging branch. It got me straight in the nose! It immediately swelled up. My right eye had to look past a sizeable bump. But as nobody else quite has that perspective, other people didn't even notice anything was wrong. Good.

My temporarily asymmetric nose

When we got back, there was Dr Pepper, and chips, and a raffle. And then it was time to go home. With my new treasure! And a sore nose… 

Second day of second case

We were due in at 10 am again. I picked up my usual passenger, and by 10 almost all 12 of us were gathered. By 10:30 we were called into the courtroom, and we could continue on our case. We had two more witnesses to hear the testimony of. And one of them came with a bunch of photographs that had been taken at the location of the incident this was all about. It didn't take very long. Well before lunchtime, the judge sent us on our way to deliberate.

This time we had to come to a verdict on three different charges. And after some discussion, we decided we were convinced beyond reasonable doubt the defendant being guilty of two of them. Of the third one, we could not say that. So that had to be a ‘not guilty’. 

We let the bailiff know, and soon we were back in the courtroom to deliver our verdict. And then we were free to go! The end of this jury service for all of us. The next Monday, a whole new crowd would start queueing up at that back door.

Before I could leave, I needed to get a little key hanger torch back, that I hadn't been allowed to take into the building. I have no idea what sort of harm they thought I would do with that. The week before no one had objected to it. They had also taken my utili key, but I wasn't going to get that one back. I would have to write a letter to court to request it back in writing. Sounds a bit archaic, but well, if that is what it takes. The previous week, nobody had minded that had been on my keychain, where it lives. Or made an issue of the torch.

My other set of keys also has a utili key (on the left)

I dropped my passenger off, went home, I had lunch, and then went upstairs get as much work done as I could before going running. Given that I did not have to come to court on Friday, I allowed myself that luxury.

It was interesting to see how this all works, but I do hope that I don't have to do this again. It is quite disruptive! And it does involve a frustrating amount of waiting around. And even when you come into action you sometimes get frustrated, because one of the sides doesn't call a witness, doesn't provide a particular piece of evidence, or doesn't ask a particular question when you really think they should have. Oh well. I’ve done my duty! Now I can refuse if they call me back within two years. But if they call me back after that, I will just have to show up again!

Back in court

We managed an entire court case in three days in my first week of jury duty. I knew they could make us do another one in the second week. But on Monday, we didn’t have to come in. On Tuesday, we didn’t have to come in. I was starting to think the chances they would actually call me back in at all were looking slim. But then, on Tuesday afternoon, I got the dreaded email after all. I had to be back on Wednesday morning. 

I picked up my nearby fellow juror again, and we went through the by now very familiar security check. And we were back in the jury room, surrounded by familiar faces. We heard there were two cases scheduled for the day. They had called up thirty people for two juries. 

After a while, we were given the eligibility questionnaire for the first case. I recognised a name on the list of relevant people, so I figured I was out for that one. And I was glad, as that case was expected to take up Monday as well. I was timetabled from 9 to 5 that day. 

Then nothing happened until close to noon. Then the usher came in and called a number of names. These could go now, but would have to come in the next day. These had been put on that first case. She said she would find out if the rest of us would be put on the other one. But somehow, there were only 12 of us left. No room to manoeuvre! If any of us knew anyone on the list, they wouldn't have a jury. Had they sent too many people away? But this was not ours to figure out.

The usher came back and told us we were dismissed until 2 pm. Not enough time to go anywhere. I went to my car where my lunch was, and had that. I had brought some reading so I decided to do that.

Back at 2 pm, we were asked to fill out the questionnaire for the second case. They thought it would take some three days. Somehow, there were 16 of us now. It turned out that a court employee had phoned the people who were not on the other jury but who had been sent away anyway, and were already on their way home, whether they could possibly come back.

I declared that I really didn't want to be on a case that could run into Monday. And at about 3:15, another court official pulled some names out of a hat. My name was among them. I was back on a case. Oh no. And immediately afterwards, we went into the courtroom to start it.

This case did not have a defendant present. The judge explained what the situation was, and the barrister for the prosecution set out what the case was. Immediately afterwards, she started questioning the main witness. But as it was already quite late in the day, when she and the barrister for the defence had no more questions for the main witness, we adjourned for the day and could go home.

By then I did have faith that we would manage to round this case off before the week would be over. Phew! managing to somehow juggle court and work had been difficult. It would get a lot worse if our case would bleed into the totally crammed week after…

There was a walnut tree next to the court building! I foraged some snacks...

Not in court; in the field

I knew I might not know before Monday 5 pm whether or not I would be going on the annual field trip to Llyn Llydaw in Eryri. I had made sure my colleague Lynda was well-prepared to do it without me. And I had organised a demonstrator. And given all necessary documents to Drew, the technician who would join as a first aider. 

By 5 pm on Monday, there had been no message from the court, so I could go myself. And all preparations had been done! I only had to rock up. 

I went to campus, where a coach would pick us up. There were about five trips going from the same location at the same time. The last coach to arrive, and squeeze itself a place, was for our trip. 

We got to Pen y Pass, divided the students into groups, handed them the necessary materials, gave them (and us) an opportunity to go to the loo, and set off. We did the usual thing of passing all sorts of rocks along the way, with which the students could practice their skill in recognising striations. And the we got to the lake. It was a gorgeous day! We were very lucky. 

Look at the little student groups dotted around 

Picture with fewer students but more sun

After a bit more talk they went on their way, looking for, and then measuring, glacial striations. And that meant that Lynda, Kate the demonstrator, and me had to walk around and check all groups were indeed measuring striations. And that paid off, as not all were. The vast majority was, though. 

At some point I sat down with Drew and had my lunch. I had brought my stocky solid food flask, which had been part of race loot. It was Tuesday, so I didn’t want to have my main meal in the early evening, as that would interfere with track training. 

When the students were done I got them all together for a debrief. Everyone was confident in their results, and in what to do with them. We could go back to the road. 

I thought it had been a success. It had been great weather, nothing went wrong, we had a great group of people, there were no indications the data wouldn’t be fine. Couldn’t wish for more! 

Back at work

On the Friday of my first week of jury service, we were done in the early afternoon. And by 5 pm, there had been no email to say that we had to return on Monday. I was thankful of that. I had plenty of work to do!

That Monday I biked into the office again. And I had to try to tackle the backlog. Lots of students who were trying to have their proposals for their own dissertation projects approved, reminders that I needed to update this semester's exams so they could be scrutinised by internal and external reviewers, doing the preparation for the field trip… there was enough to do!

A dinoflagellate (pic by Tintinnidguy); there was plankton in one of the proposals

I also went to have an external coffee with Susan, as I was sad and she was providing some support. That was kind.

I didn't get as much done as I hoped I would, but at least a fair bit. And by the end of the day, I noticed I didn't have an email, again, to summon me back to court. I could work on Tuesday too! 

Goodbye Neil

It has happened. On this blog, it will look like it pretty much came out of the blue. In reality, it didn't. In reality, there were things going wrong quite early on. And we tried to make things work, but we have failed. So Neil and I have split up. 

I am sad. When we had good times, we had really good times. But if we had bad times, they were pretty bad. And in the end, there was just too much of that. But I will miss our adventures and the laughs we shared and all those things.

At least we split amicably. That matters. And we both understand what happened. 

I will just throw myself into running now. And work (not that I have a choice). And then in time, probably dust off my profile on the dating sites…

Having another try at the stove

I had left the repair of my stove unfinished months ago. But I was having another weekend without Neil (no things aren’t going well), and the fire season had started, so I figured this was a great opportunity to pick this work back up again. I had already, some weeks ago, taken the old and too-thin fire rope out, and chiselled the dried glue out of the groove. So basically, everything was set to start.

The first thing I needed to do was unclog the pot of glue. I suppose that it's just one of those things with glue. But then I could put a good ribbon of glue in the groove, put the next iteration of fire rope in it, and cut it to size.

New rope in position 

The size seems ok

You set the glue with heat, so I prepared a fire in the stove, hung the door back in (and put the other door back on the other stove) and lit the fire.

What is the verdict for now? I think this size of rope might do the job. You need to use a bit of force to close the door now, but I suppose that means that when you do, it does seal. Now let's hope it all stays put for a bit. I think the stove will be in regular use in the coming months. I will find out!

Fifth day in court

We all came to court with heavy hearts. We held the fate of several people in our hands. We knew we may have to come to a verdict that day. 

We went through security, and headed straight to the deliberation room. We handed in our phones (I had made sure not to wear my smart watch) and got settled. We had to go into the court room for the bailiff (so far referred to as the usher; I think they wear these separate hats depending on circumstance) to be sworn in, and then we could start in ernest. 

What we discussed there has to, obviously, stay private. I think I can say we didn’t find it an easy task. There even were tears. We needed some two hours to reach a verdict. And we found one of us willing to be the foreperson and tell the judge what the verdict was. 

The procedure is that you basically ring for the bailiff, and they then come to the room. Without asking what the verdict is, they go tell the judge. I had no idea in advance that the whole courtroom stays put, waiting for the verdict. I assumed everybody gets on with their business, and only when the jury has reached the verdict do they try to organise that everyone comes back to the courtroom, but no. They just sit there. It can take a long time! At least the judge and the barristers can have their laptops there. Maybe everyone except the defendant can have their laptop there. The defendant is probably forced to just be bored out of their skull.

We lined up again, now in altered order, as the foreperson has to sit in the position of juror number 1. And soon we walked into the courtroom, for the last time. We got a little speech from the judge; he acknowledged that it is a difficult task, and that jury duty always comes at an inconvenient time, but it might be an interesting experience. He thanked us. And then an official asked us if we had reached a verdict, and our foreperson said yes. She asked what the verdict was, and he said "not guilty”. And then the judge thanked us and we were off.

Back in the deliberation room, the bailiff started chucking all our paperwork into a bin for confidential paper material, and told us to keep an eye on our mailboxes; we were booked for another week, but it wasn't clear yet if there would be another case they could put us on. If they needed us, they would let us know by email. If you haven't been told by 5 pm that you're needed the next working day, you're not needed the next working day.

I hope this was the end of my jury service, but I won’t know until I either get another email to call me up, or until the next Thursday, 5 pm, if I don't. Fingers crossed. The judge was right that this isn't interesting experience, but that doesn't mean I want to repeat it…

Fire season has started

It has been autumnal for a while. I was starting to long for lighting a fire again. Fires are so snug! But there is little point in lighting a fire if you won't be in the room to enjoy it for long. 

During my fourth day in court I was looking forward to go running in the evening. I knew the weather forecast was a bit rubbish, but after all that sitting in court, listening to difficult testimonies, I wanted to run off all that stress. And I was glad I went. Yes it was wet, yes it was windy, but it was a nice group and I enjoyed the running. And this was a run with the option of pizza afterwards, so no time was wasted. We were done quite early. And quite many of us went to the pizza place, but I went home.

After my shower I decided there was still enough time left for a fire. It was great! Outside the weather was awful, but I was snug, now in my dry clothes, and with a cup of tea, by the fire. This season has been opened!

Fourth day in court

Coming to court is different if you have good reason to believe you will actually be expected to do something. And I also came in company this time. I picked my fellow juror up, and we arrived fairly early. I got me a coffee and did a little bit of work before we were called in. 

This day, the main thing was questioning the defendant. And going through some juror documents, prepared by the prosecution and the defence. That took us all the way to the lunch break. In spite of what the weather forecast had said, it was another sunny afternoon, and this time I found a little bench not too far away. It was nice to have lunch there. And then I did a little walk through town. Caernarfon is quite beautiful! 

My lunch spot

After lunch, the only things that were still scheduled for in the courtroom were closing statements of the two barristers, and juror instructions from the judge. These were case specific. It all took longer than I thought. I expected us to be sent home when all of that was done, but that was not how it went. We were sent into a deliberation room to start, well, the deliberation. The usher took our smart watches and telephones away, and any other communication devices. 

We weren't quite sure where to start. But we started somewhere. And made some progress until the usher came in to tell us it was time to stop, and go home.

He told us to really really not forget to bring a packed lunch the next day. We would go straight into the deliberation room, and were basically not supposed to come out until we had our verdict. Mind that these deliberation rooms do come with toilets, and coffee/tea facilities.

We all went home. I figured we all felt the responsibility on our shoulders to come to a sound judgement the next day. Stay tuned to hear how this will  end!

Third day in court: getting started

I had faith that on the Wednesday, we would actually start the court case we were assigned. But before we got to that, I noticed a significant change. The stuffy room wasn’t stuffy anymore! The air conditioner was clearly working again. This really made a difference. 

And I was right. We, that is to say, 19 of us, had to be there at ten, and at about 10:30, 12 of us had our names called out. They basically made a new jury, but there was quite an overlap between the old one and the new one, including me. 

Soon we went into the courtroom, and were sworn in again. And then everything went into higher gear. We heard a more detailed description of the charge, and soon we were watching the police interview of the claimant on video. (I don't think "claimant" is the proper term, but I mean the person who had gone to the police to report a crime against themselves.) The alleged offence had taken place years earlier. 

After the interview we had a little convenience break. When we got back, the actual claimant was called in, to be questioned by the defence. I didn’t like that process at all. Their job is to tear chunks out of the other side. And they do. And the prosecution would tear chunks out of the defendant. I suppose that just is how this works, but it hurts to see it. 

We had lunch in the middle of the process. It was gorgeous weather, and I found a bit of grass with a low wall to sit in the sun and eat my sandwiches. I was contemplating a little walk too, but I was aware I would have to get through security again, which takes time, so I didn’t. 

After lunch, the process continued. When both sides had asked the claimant all they wanted to ask, we quite rapidly went through a whole lot more witnesses. One showed up in person, and of the other ones, the statements they had provided were read out. And then, suddenly, we were done for the day. Free to go! Things had really sped up. I figured the day after would probably equally speedy. 

I had found out another juror lived in my town, and was coming in by bus, which takes hours, so I gave her a lift home. And the next morning I would pick her up to do it all again…

Sorting out dissertation proposals in between court business

I tell the students in spring they can propose their own dissertation topic, and I add that it is a bit of work. I recommend them to start early if they want to take up this offer. Once term starts, they get busy with other things.

I never have much uptake before term starts. But as soon as it does start, the tidal wave comes crashing down. I got the first one in August this year, and a few more came in before the fieldwork started. I had five students giving it a go; two of them of students on the field trip. 

On the first day of term, I deliver an introductory lecture to the dissertation students, and then it really kicks off. I am getting so many proposals now. Twenty two students have added themselves to the initial five. And that is a big burden! Especially if you have to be in court all the time.

I try to get through some of them before I set off in the morning, and I brought a stack of proposals to my first court days. I often send some emails out in the lunch break, or even the short coffee breaks. And then I do a bit more after I get home. And I also have to deal with other work. Write a lecture I have to deliver Monday morning 9AM on the morning after my jury period. Get the exams ready. Prepare tutorials. And more stuff like that. 

A thresher shark (pic by Pierre Pericard), which features in one of the proposals 

I do like seeing what the students come up with, and seeing several projects making their way to approval is satisfying, but given the circumstances (what with the jury duty) I wish this option was less popular. And the students still have a week to come up with new proposals, and an additional week to get them over the line. I will be glad when that threshold is reached! 

Second day in court

Surely, something would happen? Probably after three hours of waiting in a stuffy room, and then an hour of lunch break, but after that, surely we would actually be reviewing some evidence in the case we were assigned to?

Caernarfon city scape, near where I parked

I appeared at 10AM, glad to see not much of a queue for security. I was through quite quickly, and could take my place in the stuffy room. I was mentally ready for being there for a few hours. I had some work I could do off-line, and got started. And I had a coffee.

The stuffy room was just as stuffy as the day before. I really don't like it. But at least the usher had mercy on us, and after a while he asked if anyone wanted to come with him to get some fresh air on the courtyard. I didn't need much encouragement! It was lovely to just pootle around for a bit.

I got into a routine. More work, more coffee, and then a second opportunity to go outside with the usher. And around 12:30, we were told we were to go into a court room again. Only for a brief while.

We found a different judge. He explained that the judge of the day before seemed to not quite have finished off a case she was expected to have finished off fine now, so she couldn't take this one on. This new judge had hoped to be available now, because there was a defendant who was expected to change their plea to guilt. That would cut their case short considerably! And free up this judge. But it hadn't quite happened yet.

Again; the defendant was present. This is very frustrating for us, but it must be a lot more frustrating for them. I know that they are accused of a crime, and that they might be guilty, and that being guilty of a crime is supposed to come with discomfort, but this seemed pointless and unnecessary. I am starting to think it might not be an exception to be dragged to a courtroom multiple times, only for precisely nothing to happen. And think as well of the victims of crime. They don’t like this hokey-kokey either.

We were marched back to the stuffy room, and after about half an hour we were let go. We were told to be back the next day at 10am again. Hopefully, something would finally happen! 

I gave a fellow juror a lift to the railway station, and then I went back to the office. I could get a bit more work done, but this time in comfort!

First day at Caernarfon Crown Court

Well! My first day at court has come and gone. It was a bit trying (pun intended).

I had to be there at 9:30, and when I got there a few minutes beforehand, there already was a queue. It was standing outside. I was glad it wasn't raining. That's not something you can take for granted in Caernarfon. There was a whole line of jurors, they all had to go through the security check which was right behind the front door. Couldn't they have organised that a bit better? At least have a little roof or something. While we were there, it actually did start raining.

After the extensive security check (they don't seem to have x-ray, so they have to do it all by hand) we were told to go up the stairs where an usher asked to see our identity document and summons letter. And then we were told to sit in a little room. It was packed. There were windows, albeit seeing into another room and not directly outside, but all the chairs facing them were already taken, so I had to take one that only looked out on walls. There were no tables or anything. It was a bit like international travel; a waiting area by a gate or something.

The usher then made us watch a little video, in English, about the process and our responsibilities and suchlike. When the Welsh version that came after was halfway, he asked if anyone actually wanted to see this. Nobody did, so he switched it off. Good. 

After a while he brought us case questionnaires. He said there were four trials planned for that day, which seems to be a lot, and he needed to check if any of us was unsuitable to be in any particular one. There basically are two ways of being unsuitable: one is, knowing anyone involved in it. So we got a list of names we needed to check for the first case. As this is Wales, and people have notoriously few names, there were instructions on what to do if the list contains a familiar but common name, like John Williams or something. You then indicate the age of the person by that name that you know, and how you know them. That way they can check if you know this particular one. I knew no one. 

The other way of being unsuitable is if the trial is longer than you can sacrifice your time. The first case was expected to last 4 to 5 weeks. I can't stay that long! They would have to cancel my teaching. The students would probably not be amused. They also gave us a questionnaire for a trial that they thought would last three or four days. Again; I didn't know any of the people on the list.

Then nothing happened for a long time. Within 10 minutes, it felt like we had used up all the oxygen in the room. It was really stuffy. The usher said that the room technically had air conditioning, but it was currently broken. That wasn't helping.

I expected questionnaires for the other two cases as well, but they never came.. I had brought an article to read, and a book, and the newspaper, and my phone. More than enough to keep me busy. But I was struggling with the oppressive atmosphere in the room. I felt a headache come up. 

After what seemed like an eternity, a whole bunch of people had their name called out, and they were lead away. After a while, a handful came back. It turned out that the people who hadn't come back were now the jury for the very long trial. I had escaped that fate! 

In the meantime, the rest of us were watching the clock move closer and closer to 1 pm, which we had been told would be when the whole court breaks up for lunch. There wouldn't be any time to do any meaningful legal work before that time. But just before we got to lunchtime, they read out 12 more names. That would be the jury for the shorter trial. This time they didn't do that ‘selecting more than 12 and sending some back’ thing. Maybe this was a less complicated case? Maybe the other case had complications that didn't feature in the questionnaire? Maybe something with gruesome evidence or something, and they wanted to check individual people how they felt about that? I have no idea. But this was just 12 people and they would be the jury; full stop. I was nr 12.

We were taken to a courtroom, where the judge was very apologetic about the delay. A court official told us what the charge was against the defendant, who was present, and then we were sworn in. I noticed that quite many jurors were swearing the oath on the Bible. And most took the oath in English. Immediately afterwards, we were dismissed. The judge told us to be back the next day, at 2 pm.

I was desperate for fresh air and hoped we could just leave, but we were brought back to the room we had been waiting in. We were not kept waiting long, but long enough for the usher to tell us we shouldn't be back the next day at 2 pm, but at 10 am. The judge had really clearly said the case wouldn't start until 2 pm, so that would mean sitting for three hours in the same terribly stuffy room. Everyone was really disappointed about that. No one had enjoyed it! But if that's what the usher says, then that is what you need to do.

At least then we could pack up our stuff and walk out of the building. That was such a relief! I hoped the next day would be less unpleasant. One way to find out…

 

Pic from the BBC website

 

Bangor 10k 2026

It was the day of the Bangor 10k and I figured a PB was not going to happen. But a category win very well might. I tend to do well in this race! Hence that I have been doing it so long. But maybe I should swap it for the half marathon. But more on that later. 

I decided to drive. I am not keen on my bike commute during a weekend. I did park on a University car park. I was a bit disappointed it had the barrier down; how badly does a university need its car park on a Sunday? My Corsa stood in seas of space with on the other side of the bollards, people struggling to find a spot. 

I went to get my number, and did a little warm-up on the hill. Maybe not the most efficient choice given my road shoes, but it’s beautiful there. 

Forested warm-up

By the start I saw some running friends. Katie was there; she was going to try to run a PB on the Half Marathon with a pacer. Richie was there, and I figured he could finally beat me again, after a string of injuries. Soon we lined up. Batala, the local drum band that festoons more races, was there too. They are fab! 

Batala in action

I didn’t want to strain as much as I had done in Pwllheli and Trentham, and even Caernarfon. I started at a fairly relaxed pace. We got to the pier, and then back off it, and to the bicycle track. I tend to feel it doesn’t really start until you reach the part of the bike track you also run in the opposite direction, but in reality, by then you have already done some 4k. And I was feeling good. First I overtook Richie. He clearly needs to come back from his injuries a bit more! And there were two young ladies ahead of me, and I managed to overtake them. One was in the uni club. 

After the first 1k or so

I knew the interesting bit would be when the first runners would come the other way; then you can see how many women there are ahead of you in the 10k. Some women in front of you will be running the half marathon, but these don’t turn around until much later, obviously. First came several men. Then one woman, closely followed by another. And then only some more men. I was in third position! And I could see the two young ladies were a bit of a distance behind me by now. I was confident I could take bronze. 

I ran on, now myself running against the oncoming traffic. I got a lot of cheers! Until the route split again. We came off the bike path. I knew the ladies wouldn't catch me anymore. I trundled the second last km, and then knew I could throw it all out in the last. And because of my relaxed approach, there really still was something in the bag. I stormed over the finish! Done. Bronze. 

Done it

 

I chatted a bit with volunteers behind the finish line (I knew three out of four), and got my medal and T-shirt. I also got my bag, and drank my recovery shake. Then I found Rick (from track) and together we went back to the course to cheer others on. Initially only 10k runners, but only some 1:15 after the start, the first half marathon finisher came flying past. And then they kept coming. 

I also saw one of our recently graduated students, and our new PhD James, who is her partner. It was good to see them! And I saw the female winner of the half marathon; she said she had seen me running and decided she could use me as a pacer. That obviously hadn’t worked. But she still had had a great race! And I was flattered. 

We then had the presentation. It looked like it would clash with Katie coming in. A pity! But I indeed had bronze, with a time of 43:50. Only just in my top 10 of 10k times. But that is fine. Still 50 seconds faster than 4th woman. And some five minutes faster than the next F50 along (but frankly, there weren’t many in this race).  The first two ladies had come in really close together, some 2.5 minutes before me. A great time for two superfast youngsters! One was under 20 and the other one didn’t look an awful lot older. 

When the presentation was over, Katie found me. She had indeed broken her PB, and by several minutes! Amazing result. She said it had been hard. I think she'll be very satisfied with how it has gone. 

Then it was time to go home and have lunch. And a shower! 

Attempt at autumn beetroot crop

The seed package says you should sow beetroot between April and July. And I did. But in late September I figured I had nothing to lose by sowing some more, and seeing where it would lead. I had little to lose!

The seedlings came up soon, and grew as normal. So far so good. I have now put them in their individual pots. I suppose the dangerous stage will be after I plant them out. It may be too cold for them to thrive. But well, this summer it was too hot and dry for them to thrive. I got a a few meals out of them anyway! So who knows, I may eat some homegrown roast beetroot in November…

Autumn beetroot seedlings