Day 1 with my sister

Around late October and early November, we have reading week. That means we have no contact hours with the students for an entire week. If you want to plan any time off, that is a good time for it! And in my case, I had a visit from my sister Petra (the eldest, who lives in the Netherlands) on the books. She had wanted to visit, and even though in early November the weather might be a bit unpleasant, she thought it would be nice to swing by. So she did!

I had made sure the house was ready for her, including it being heated. I did not want to force my Victorian lifestyle onto her. It did involve some frantic reconnecting the boiler with the thermostat…

She arrived in the early evening.  I basically took her home and fed her dinner! And then there was time for tea and catching up but then it was pretty much bedtime. The next day would be a bit more involved!

For that first day, she wanted to see the sea. I was thinking about the Anglesey Coastal Path. And then she said she had read on my blog about the amazing geology around here, and whether maybe we could combine that, so I thought: Llanddwyn! And that sounded good. We were not in a hurry and took our time with breakfast.

We drove up through quite some rain. It was supposed to stop! And when we parked up, it was indeed as good as dry. And the interesting thing was that when we turned into the parking lot, I recognised a face. It was Tom, the boyfriend of our former PhD student Meg! And Meg was there too. It was lovely to see them.

We then set off ourselves, over the beach. It was dry, but in the distance it was raining; the skies were spectacular. And it didn't take long before my sister spotted a live cockle. She immediately recognised it as a potential snack! I had never actually foraged cockles. Or any shellfish, really. But why not? I was sure we could google how you check them for freshness. And a recipe. So we gathered a fair few! And I know that at home, I had laverbread, so that would be a perfect combination.

Dramatic skies

Cobbles on the beach; flushed out of glacial till?

Sister selfie

When we were done foraging we walked on. Not much later, we came to the first clump of altered pillow lava. If I wouldn't have pointed out what it was, she would have walked straight past! As pretty much all non-geologists do, I suppose. And she didn't seem to be put off by my nerdy ramblings. 

We got onto the actual peninsula. And she said she had been there before! I must have recommended it to her the first time she was here, and not joined. But it is beautiful there, so she didn’t mind. We had apple pie by the cross. And then we went to the far end, where the mélange is. And then we went back.

When we were back on the beach we followed it further South east, towards Abermenai Point. And we walked back through the dunes. We still had the menacing skies in the background, but we did stay dry. And we had lunch in a dune pan. 

Couldn't resist the bleached wood as a photo prop

I had suggested that on the way back, we have a look at the old bridge. She was not going to see it closed for motorised traffic again, in all likelihood! And we could combine it with buying some supplies. We parked up at Waitrose, bought some things we needed for our cockle meal, and then walked over the bridge. It was raining by then, but it was still too good an opportunity to miss.

When we got home, we first had some wine and snacks! I have been looking forward to stuff like that. And we lit a fire. And after the wine we made our cockle dinner. Susan had her own thoughts about this; she works with shellfish in his very well aware of their dangerous. But there was no sewage alert near where we had found them, and I figured that we could check them for freshness. So we proceeded with it. It looked like we hadn't been entirely successful convincing them to spit out any sand they might have had in their shells, but a bit of sand couldn't spoil the fun. I was quite chuffed with our very Welsh and foraged meal!

Our loot

After dinner we managed to make a plan for the day after, in spite of the cat who always thinks that a map is a toy, and not something to let the humans have a calm look at. Petra wanted a route that wouldn't go excessively high, and wouldn't be particularly swampy. She had only brought one pair of shoes, and wasn't keen on spending the rest of a trip in soggy shoes. I thought of a loop SW of Llanberis, with Moel Eilio in it. She liked the idea! 

Disruptive presence

After some buckets of tea it was time to go to bed. First day done, and second day planned! This was going well. Bring on day two!

Comfortable rescue training

The Cave Rescue team had been functioning at a little less than 100% power. The climbing club was not the only organisation struggling a bit! We had had trouble with IT, and a few trainings had fallen through. We had done nothing since the AGM. But our email addresses were functioning again, and we were having another training! And this time we would do hauling training in Cwmorthin.

I know it wouldn't be very physically strenuous. We would focus on the technicalities of a particular kind of haul! But it is Cwmorthin, and hauling requires a fair amount of kit, so at least we would have to drag all of that up the hill. And the weather forecast was bad.

When I got to the parking lot I saw a small number of cars. I got out of the car and then was immediately ambushed by people who were glad to see me, but so glad they forgot to turn down their head torches, so I could not immediately see who they were. But it was a couple who find time for us next to their tasks in Llanberis Mountain rescue. They are lovely! And that they were there also meant I was not going to be the only woman present that evening. I always appreciate that.

I also said hello to Gethin, our training officer. He was due a medal! But then I needed to go and change.

While I was doing that there was a little bit of commotion; another vehicle appeared, and it turned out that that was Miles. And everybody knows that he has both a Land Rover and a key to the gate. So that meant that he could at least ferry all our kit up the hill!

When I was done changing I found out he actually managed to fit the entire team (as far as it had shown up) and all the kit in his car. So we set off!

What we were going to practice was setting up a haul with everything in duplicate. In the olden days, we would have a hauling line and a safety line, but Mountain rescue had been doing some experiments finding out what happens if your hauling line somehow gives. And they found out that the safety line, which is not under tension, then has so much give in it it is totally dangerous. So we wanted two lines, both under tension. If one of them then gives, the consequences are a lot less severe.

We went to a very awkward pitch head (only strange giants with orang utan arms can reach the anchors) and started rigging. And then we hauled one of our members out of that pitch. It went okay!

Then we swapped places; everybody did something else on the second attempt. And we make sure we had a barrel boy. And the rig involved two releasable rebelays. And when we were ready to release them, we found out that Gethin had purposefully botched one of them. So we were actually practising with two lines, one of which was temporarily unusable! Very clever of him. And none of us had spotted it beforehand.

By that time, Miles had gone, as he couldn't stay the whole evening. He had shown up because he knew it would be appreciated if he would just give all of us a lift up the hill. But we derigged (which was even harder than the rigging, with these hard-to-reach anchors) and had the much more comfortable job of carrying everything down the hill again. And the weather wasn't anywhere near as bad as predicted!

It had been a very civilised evening. But I think we learned something! And we might be back in business. I expect our regular trainings to actually happen in the coming months… 

Climbing club calibration

I don't go climbing very often. I am quite keen on outdoor climbing, but the season can be a bit short. And life is just too busy to go indoor climbing. So I am still a member of the climbing club, but this last season that has only lead to a handful of climbs. I still like to be a member of the club, though! 

Then there came a message that we would have our AGM. I was available, so I said I would go. Let's see what the situation of the club is!

Six of us gathered in Beacon. And it turned out that that was a good turnout; the club is in a bit of a doldrums  situation, and we currently only have seven members.

It wasn't difficult to get through the agenda with such a small group. And the most important thing has been sorted: we have a regular club evening again. For the time being it will be indoors, of course, but maybe once in a while I will actually join. If only for reasons of being sociable while exercising! And if we have a regular evening again, maybe we can start recruiting more members.

I will soon pay my membership for 2023. Let's drag this club through this somewhat difficult time, and make it work!

A snag with my SEG

 I had applied for a SEG; this is a sort of scheme in which you get money back for the electricity you generate and feed back into the grid. And I got a response quite soon! Unfortunately, it was not the response I hoped for. They said that the form I had sent to Scottish Power was lacking, and therefore they couldn't help me. But I had sent it in! I had handed over the acknowledgement of receipt! What more could I do? I emailed back to point out I had actually included the acknowledgement of receipt, so they could see with their own eyes that the form had been sent in. No response was forthcoming.

I decided to contact Scottish Power to try to ask them to remediate the situation. That is not easy! I first tried a phone number from their website. I got an automatic message that said they were too busy to communicate with anyone by phone. I tried the chat; that asks for your account number, and I have none. I tried the phone number in the confirmation email I had got. That also only gave me options that were not applicable, and no option to stay on the line and speak to someone. This was starting to get tedious!

I did email them to ask for clarification, and I hope I will get a useful response to that. But if not I need to start doing things such as finding out what the email address of their CEO is. Or finding them on Facebook and publicly complaining; that tends to constitute bad publicity and get companies’ attention. I don't like how this is all working; it shouldn't be that they can just deny the existence of a form I had sent them, and thereby block any attempt of me to get a little bit of financial compensation for the energy I'm generating! They do have a monopoly. I can't go somewhere else. 

I also need to step up my attempt to contact the energy company I wanted the SEG with. As I said; they have the acknowledgement of receipt of the form in question. Why is that not enough? They blame Scottish Power, but maybe that is not actually the culprit. Either way; this is a right pain in the arse, but I am determined to find a way to make those involved listen.  And to in the end get my SEG…

Lovely afternoon in the local woods

Last year I had celebrated Halloween by a campfire in the local woods. That had been nice! And then I saw that a similar event was going to be organised this year. This time it would be in the afternoon. And I asked Charlotte if she wanted to come. She did! Even better. She walked up to my house in the pouring rain. Oh dear! I got away lightly; when we walked the rest together it was not raining very much. And while walking up the path in the woods we bumped into Harri; one of the organisers, and the one through whom I had known about these two events. He looked a bit unusual; he was in a black suit with a black hat and his face was painted like a skull. But it was Halloween, after all!

Charlotte and I sat down by the fire. The weather had already improved enables actually quite lovely! And reach us jet at the bit with the others there. The local community is not so big so a lot of people know each other already.

Not much later a little quest for children started, and Charlotte and I just decided to join. We just did our own thing; she is quite the naturalist so she was staring at mushrooms a lot. We found really beautiful ones! And there also was a beautiful double rainbow. The kids were being entertained by adults in costumes who either wanted something from them, gave something to them, or let them do something fun like walking a slackline. Harri was manning the slackline; hence the costume.

When we were done we quickly went back, because one of the other costumed people was in reality quite interested in mushrooms, and wanted to see one of the species we had found. It was a pretty purple one, known as the Amethyst deceiver. What a name!

We then returned to the campfire where by that time the soup was hot. And there was warm apple juice. And children were making bread on sticks above the fire. It was quite lovely! Some people did stories. One lady sang a song. Another lady asked us to reflect on the meaning of Halloween/Samhain. 

At some point Charlotte had to go, and I went with her. We had realised that there was a much more beautiful way back. It was a bit of a detour for me but I didn't mind; if it is that beautiful it is always a good idea! It had been good to spend the afternoon out there among the trees, with likeminded people. With funky mushrooms, too! 

Officially teaching in Welsh

It is official! I am now teaching on a Welsh language module. I had my first two contact hours. This should have happened earlier, but the pandemic got a bit in the way. Teaching tends to involve writing, and I need voice recognition software for that. And there is such software in Welsh, but obviously it is not as well developed as that for English. If you have clanging RSI you had better avoid teaching in any minor language. But I have improved quite a lot, and last year it was decided that this academic year I would make my debut. I had already been making materials for the module website. But now I was actually timetabled on it.

I was basically just there to trail along a bit. A lady from the School of Natural Sciences, Paula, was doing the hard work. She had a PowerPoint ready, so she would first take about an hour to go through it, and then the students would bring her teaching into practice.

The module only has four students. Paula can certainly do this on her own. But it is quite hard work to produce materials in the language you're still learning, so I was quite glad to have the opportunity to ease myself into it.

As it so happened, one student was unwell so only three showed up. A really small group! And it was nice to see Paula do her thing. There was quite a lot of overlap between what she was doing there and the PowerPoint presentation I had made. So I was already familiar with most of the material. And I had watched her presentation beforehand to be prepared. And that meant I had had time to quickly memorise the terms I didn't know yet.

The second half of that slot, the students brought her teaching into practice using Excel. I have used Excel a lot so I was quite comfortable helping the students out. And of course I didn't know all the words, but neither do the Welsh. It is quite normal to just throw some English terms into any sentence. So I think it went okay! And it wasn't really more intensive than the ad hoc teaching in Welsh I have done before, but it does feel different if it is official and undeniable.

I am happy to not lead any of this yet, but I would be comfortable to do so next year. Next year we will also have our new Welsh medium lecturer in marine biology! Things are moving forward. Excellent stuff!

New Vice-chancellor

We only had had our previous Vice Chancellor for a few years when he announced he was retiring. So we were going to get another one! Under my first Vice chancellor I had to go through my first financial restructuring; under the next one, I had to weather the second. So what would my third incarnation bring me? I was sceptical.

He started in September, and he would go and visit all the schools. And in October it was our turn. I didn't expect much of his visit; I thought he would just get us together, and talk some marketing lingo at us for a while. About how he wanted to make sure the University was world-leading in research and teaching and student experience. And while we were at it, why not just add world peace.

When he started speaking, it wasn't like that at all! He just briefly introduced himself, and then opened the floor for questions. And questions we had! And he seemed genuinely listen. He didn't quite have an answer to everything; he had only been in the job in September, after all. But he was clearly paying attention, and as well; the answers he did have were all very reasonable. So I had to come there expecting to get nothing out of this, but I walked away with a lot of optimism!

So what was I thought optimistic about? I had asked two questions, neither of which was specific to the School. My first one was about peer guiding. We ask students to volunteer to guide the new students through their first week at university. And we are recruiting a lot of students, so they have to guide a lot of students. And these days can be long! I remember my own welcome week. A fair amount of beer and late nights were involved. Things must have changed a bit in the 30 years in between, but still; it is quite full on! And the freshers have become a bit more overwhelmed in the meantime. I think it is really important that we make a concerted effort to make sure they are well looked after in their first week at university, but we rely entirely on volunteers. We don't pay the students anything! And yes if you are a good peer guide it looks good on your CV, but hey, you can spend an entire week on other things that are also good for your CV if you don't become a peer guide. We have been struggling to recruit enough peer guides, and there are other schools where it is much worse than with us. So I was wondering if he had any thoughts on that?

He sure had. He said that the Universities he had worked before had just paid their peer guides. He figured that was just the thing to do! So he totally wanted to change the system. I was so glad to hear that! In my years of organising the peer guides, I had found it hard to ask the students to do for no reward whatsoever things I wouldn't want to do under these circumstances. It just felt wrong! So hopefully, things will change now.

My other question related to the chemistry tower that will be demolished. (I don’t seem to have blogged about this yet.) I am not disputing that it would be a good idea to demolish it, but I was scared that they would put some glossy new building in its place. The previous time the University tore a building down and build something in its place it placed an enormous financial burden on the University, and that had been the reason for the first financial restructuring. Would we now get the third? But he said that the university had enough buildings. There was quite some empty space he said! And I take his word for it. So I was quite reassured. And the other people I spoke with afterwards we are quite impressed too. We might have got a good one! That is hardly something you can take for granted…