Move desk

When Paul left I was the last one in the office. It was a bit lonely! I liked having Paul, Stella and Juan around. And now there was nobody but me. The upside of it was, though, that I had been ogling Paul's desk since forever; his was close to a window with a nice view, and you could open it while standing on the ground. It was also next to the radiator; the only one in the four person office.

In summer my desk isn't so bad, although it is a bit of a nuisance that only the skylight opens, and I have to climb onto my desk to open it. The other window near me is fixed and single pane and is, for some reason, at floor level. No, me neither. In winter, it is awful; cold air comes out of the floor-level window behind my old desk, flows past me (brrr) towards Paul's old desk, and there rises (past Paul) because of the radiator there. I'm at exactly the wrong place!

Paul was gone for a week, and nobody hads claimed muy  office, so I decide to move. And I did! The oly disadvantage so far is that the high window causes glare; that was something I never had at the old desk. But otherwise I'm enjoying it!

The old situation; my proximal desk, and Paul's empty-ish desk further away

The new situation: I'm now close to window and radiator! 

The view from the window

The old desk, now empty, with its funny low window with a view onto the parking lot

Camera dead - again

When I was taking pictures of the working end of the dig, I took a picture of the extreme end. Then the camera refused. It demanded I set the time, but the 'menu' key did not respond anymore. Oh dear. But I wasn't upset! This was the camera I had revived in May. It had served me for 2.5 months more. And in the meantime it had refused once more, but that had only been due to an empty battery. Now it died with a full battery! But it still served me longer than I could have expected! Will it revive once again? Nothing seems impossible with this camera!

This is the setting you can't seem to get out of anymore

Along the ceiling in the dig

We were digging again! I was keen. That route along the ceiling was very enticing. But I knew I should limit the amount of time I would spend in the space below the ceiling; Miles could not follow me there, and if anything would go wrong I would have a problem. So I anticipated me carefully exploring along, while Miles would have the drill and make the access route wider.

We started out like that. I started out having a better look at the situation; the previous time I had not had much time to explore. The route onward looked difficult but not impossible. I also had a look at a possible route sideways for in case the route onward would not work. I found one that was not passable yet but could be easily made to be. Good! We already had a plan B.

Follow that ceiling!

I went back to see how Miles got on. Not very well! He had already exhausted the drill battery. And he had only brought one. The previous session we had drilled our derrieres off without exhausting even one! He must have drilled hard. And he had started rather low. The bottlenecks were higher up! But that's how he works. Start at the beginning and work your way to the end. I am more for working on the worst bit until it's not the worst anymore. Then I move on to what's the worst then! But we are all different.

As the cordless drill was empty I suggested we go get the other drill; the one powered by the generator. Miles thought it was a good idea and went to get it. I seized the opportunity to chuck some big rocks down, knowing he was well out of the way! Then I took a few pics. As Miles could not get here yet, pictures would be the best thing I had for showing him what the situation was. I also went on to clear a pile of big rocks that were in the way at the far end. They weren't easy as they were very big and heavy, and on a slope towards me. One had to proceed carefully! But I did. It went rather well!

After a while I heard the drill again. Miles was back! With the drill! Good. I came down again to have a look. He was almost ready to charge the shot holes! I should be on the correct side of that. It took a while to connect it all up; Miles had used every last charge.

We had some food and drink while we waited for the resin to dry. Then we tried to blast. It didn't work! It turned out that the detonation wire was damaged; probably because of the big rocks I had thrown down. From where I had been I had not been able to see where they landed. We fixed it and tried again. Success!

We had a small look. Miles had blasted a big hole! We had a lot of tidying up to do the next time. But then we noticed a big slab of the ceiling had almost come off. Oh dear! That really had to come down altogether. Without us underneath it. We had to leave it for now. Hopefully it will have come down on its own accord next time we get down there! If not, we have to sort that out first...

Practice casualty care

Paramedics get several years of education to prepare them for administering pre-hospital care. If you are in Mountain Rescue, you have to pretty much deliver the same kind of care (albeit with more limited means) in more trying circumstances. And typically, you only get one solid weekend of training for it. Eek! Luckily, the course I had done came with additional sessions later on. And after half a day at the Eisteddfod, and a few hours in the office, I reported at the Owgen Valley Mountain Rescue Base for an evening of additional training. In the time between the original course and this evening, I had acquired a printable copy of the book that forms the basis of the qualification, and managed to make my way through half of it.

I was early and there was nobody there yet, so I started by admiring the view. Then a lady, Gill, appeared; she didn't have a key. Then more people appeared; Stefan, another person coming for training; Jamie, a qualified doctor (with his charming dog) who would help train us; and Chris, who wasn't involved in the training but who had a key. He was there not only for us; there was also a call-out. A man had a lower leg injury on a nearby hill.

We went in and Gill produced some tea and bara brith. Soon physicians Glynne (an orthopaedic surgeon) and Lisa (an anaesthetist) appeared. They spent quite some time pondering what we would do. In the meantime there was a lot of running around going on related to the call-out. There seemed to be a call-out as well of the Llanberis team; some climber had fallen out of a route. And there was a lot of reconnecting with Jamie; he had been a member of the Ogwen team for years, but had been away for years since too. He was back!

About half an hour after we got in we actually started. Gill, Stefan and me were taken upstairs by Lisa. Glynne had joined the call-out. And upstairs there was a very advanced dummy. Not your average CPR dummy; no, this dummy could also breathe, and had a pulse, and could scream and gargle and cough and wheeze and whatnot. In theory, that is. It seemed that operating it was no sinecure! Initially they only managed to give him asthma. And before he was willing to noticeably breathe his lungs had to be inflated with a pump. But stubborn insistence got Lisa and Jamie to get the dummy to do most things they wanted. Although there still were some blips; while I was taking the pulse of my patient the rate changed so strongly and abruptly I don't think a living patient would have managed that.

We all three did a scenario. Gill had someone with a serious allergic reaction to peanuts; Stephan had someone with a seizure and I had a person with a heart attack. That was OK! I think we all did fine. Of course we were flawed; it took us ages to find the adrenaline for the anaphylactic patient, Stefan missed a medical bracelet, and I forgot that the threshold for giving oxygen to a patient is not the same for a heart attack case as for most other cases. But I think we did alright! And there is another session coming up.

By then Glynne was back, and he helped me get a lot of my logbook almost filled. We need to have 28 items signed off before we can do the exam! We could have a serious session now, as I had nothing else planned that evening. And Glynne had to stay anyway until the next rescue party was back; there had been yet another call-out in the meantime. Something with someone lost in woods. So we worked steadily on; either with Glynne demonstrating things to me, or him interrogating me on theoretical knowledge and signing off when my answers were satisfactory. At the end I had eight more items ticked off. I'm at 27 now! Not bad.

By then everybody else seemed gone. Time to go! I had to first get one of the men to move the car of one of the chaps on call-out; he had blocked my car with his. But they are prepared for this (their parking lot encourages, if not necessitates, such parking) and these mountain rescuers tend to leave their car keys behind. Off I was! Homewards, where the other half of that book on casualty care was waiting...

Eisteddfod

Soon after I moved to Wales I came across the term "Eisteddfod". I looked it up in my Welsh-English dictionary. It said this word meant "Eisteddfod". Thanks! That helped.

You can't live in Wales very long, though, before you learn more about it. The Eisteddfod is a yearly cultural event, where the Welsh (or rather, the Welsh-speakers) get together and compete in all kinds of cultural ways. Singing, poetry, prose, band music; you name it. The main prizes are a crown for the best 'free' poetry and a chair for the best 'cynghanedd'; some form of rather strictly defined Welsh poetry. And of course there is a lot of stuff around that: it's a whole festival with food and drink and stands selling nick-knacks and whatnot. In the olden days, there wasn't only a national one, but also countless many local ones; even the mine I frequent had one back in the days. Miles managed to buy the chair of one of those.

I had never been. The previous Eisteddfodau, held when I was already living in Wales, were between rather far (2015, mid-Wales) and very far (2014 and 2016, south Wales) away. Now it was on Anglesey the pressure was on. Elwyn, my Welsh teacher, encouraged all of us in his class to volunteer. So I did! I offered one morning (9AM-1PM) to the organisation.

This year it had started difficult; the weather in the first weekend was atrocious, and the terrain became a puddle of mud. But I volunteered on Wednesday, and by then the weather was lovely! Parking was still elsewhere, though; they did not want to have cars getting stuck in the mud on the terrain itself. The Mona Showground, with its parking on concrete, now functioned as the parking lot. Shuttle buses brought one to and fro. I got to the terrain without problems. The person next to me was one of my former Welsh teachers! That was nice. We caught up in the shuttle bus.

Upon arrival I found the steward to sign in, and the tent which holds all activities for Welsh learners ('Maes D'). My shift could begin! It wasn't busy yet; at 9AM it is still very quiet. But one can start by having a cup of coffee with fellow volunteers. One of them I knew; she was married to one of our (mature) PhD students! That was nice. And the place was bristling with Welsh teachers. Including Jenny and Elwyn. And Sian, with whom I had travelled up.

 

Obligatory selfie with the 'Eisteddfod' letters

 Maes D from the outside

 

Maes D on the inside

I was mainly on chatting duty. Many Welsh learners pop in to just talk a bit with other learners. At 11AM I was put on an unexpected duty; there was a yoga session scheduled, but it looked like there weren't many participants. I was sent in to fill some space! I am not into yoga at all. Oh well, I was happy to show my good intentions. But after the start of the session people kept coming in and at the end the room was full!

After the yoga session I did an hour of cafe duty. Then time was up! I was free to go now, but on the one hand I wanted to see more of the Eisteddfod, and on the other hand; I wanted to stick around until 2PM when there was a session in the 'Welsh learner of the year' competition; two of my classmates were in the finals! Exciting. I had a little wander; saw the stands, heard some choir singing (obligatory too!) and saw some art. The hour passed quickly! Then I was back for the Welsh Learner of the Year. I said hello to Richard and Dani, from my Welsh class, and saw their introductions. But when I found out the winner would not be announced until the evening I left. I had more to do!

A lovely day for it

 

A male choir; very (north) Welsh 

Very festivally

 

Dani is presented by Elwyn as a finalist in the Welsh Learner of the Year competition

This year, by the way, there is a slight sadness to the celebrations; it is 100 years ago since the infamous Eisteddfod with the 'Black Chair'. This was a chair awarded to the poet Hedd Wyn (bards are supposed to use a bardic name, not the one in their passport; 'Hedd Wyn' means something along the line of 'Blessed Peace'). When his name was announced, nobody came forward. It turned out he had just been killed in the battle of Passchendaele. It was the only chair ever awarded posthumously, as far as I am aware. It was draped in black cloth to mourn the bard's death.

After this grave paragraph I am a bit hesitant to announce that the winner of the 'Welsh learner of the year' competition was not one of the people from my class! It seems so frivolous. But congratulations Emma Chappell!

Taking Americans to the beach

There were Americans in town; they sought James to take them to Red Wharf Bay. They got Colin and me. They asked me first; when you have Colin, you don't need me anymore. But once they knew Colin was coming they did not retract their request.

The Americans would be in the lab in my building during the day. I popped in to make sure I would at least recognise the people I would be liaising with in the afternoon. They were a nice bunch! Only four students, with three members of staff. A nice staff-student ratio.

In the afternoon we set off; they had rented a people carrier that could contain all of us.

We got to the beach and pretty much did the usual excursion with them. Colin and I took turns giving a bit of a spiel at interesting locations. And we got up close to the carboniferous limestone rock! With our own students, we did not do that anymore; we take many tens of students onto the beach, and the path to the cliff has eroded away. One has to clamber a bit to get to it now. But with only four students (and five staff!) this can be done.

Colin gesturing at the Carboniferous limestone

We shared the talking, but when Colin talked I learned. He's been in science since before my parents ever met; he is a treasure trove of knowledge. I will actually not do the Red Wharf Bay excursion we do with our students again either, but learning things is always useful!

We also showed them the sandy plugs in the karst depressions that made this beach a geological celebrity. And we showed them the overlying glacial deposits.

That was the excursion! By now it was pub time. Part of the deal was that the Americans would take us out for dinner afterwards! And the Ship Inn looked lovely; I was glad to visit it. And having a nice meal with nice people is always nice. I won't be here anymore next time the Americans visit but it was nice to have done this with them once!

The Ship Inn

Climb Rhoscolyn

The days are shortening, the season for outsdoor climbing (in the evening, at least) is drawing to a close! So we should get some climbs in while we can. After a complete wash-out of a Sunday we got out on Monday. We would try Rhoscolyn again! We had been there twice but I clearly hadn't considered the scond visit worth a blogpost.

We gathered and walked to the crag. We picked two locations from which we could rig two pitches each. There would be eight of us (three coming a bit later) so that was a good number! And rigging pitches is always a bit of work. At Rhoscolyn, though, it is work with a very nice view. So it's OK!

Where to put the gear to rig the pitches?

Faffing with a view

After a while we had some routes, and we could start climbing. The routes were very simple but well, that's us outdoors. We're not a very die-hard club! And I'm not a very hardcore climber. I managed to climb all four routes; that is not a feat of climbing, but of timing. And I did my share of belaying too. And shot a few pics! The last route I did I admit I started a meter from the ground; the tide was coming in and what should have been the ground was getting flooded...

Glyn on an arete

Me on the same arete a bit later. Pic by Glyn

Eifion belaying, Glyn photographing, and Heli looking on in the sunset

Having a look in the book at what we just climbed

Group pic!

And the sun sets

There was a bit of a panic at the end of the night as a phone seemed missing, but, of course, it was safely in  a backpack. Good! How many more nights do we have? One way to find out!