Girls’ night in

I was really looking forward to my quiet Friday night. I needed it! I was tired from the first week of term, and I also had something on every night. On Monday it was only catching up with Monique on video, but on Tuesday it was a cave rescue committee meeting that lasted forever. Past my bedtime! On Wednesday it wasn't so bad with the public lecture. But the running and eating pizza got me home slightly too late again. But while I had been running I saw I had a message from Claire. And when I got home I checked what it was. It was an invitation! For the day after! She wanted to cook curry for a bunch of friends and then do some board games.

I was tired, but I texted back to say yes. It's important to have people around you! I can’t turn up my nose at an opportunity like that. So while I was in Bangor I bought a bottle of non-alcohol booze, and when dinner time approached I drove southwest. 

I was quite Dutch! I was quite punctual, but everybody else was at least 45 minutes late. At least that meant I could do some proper catching up with Claire. She had been a lecturer for a year, as a maternity cover, but she had now gone back to being a PhD student. 

Then the other women arrived. It was really nice! One of them I had never met before. And we dived into the non-alcoholic drinks. And even some real wine was drunk! Not everybody was driving. And when dinner was ready we tucked in. It was really good!

After dinner we did a game that one of the ladies had brought: cat chaos. There were quite some cat people in there, so the name resonated. And the fact that it indeed turned out to be quite chaotic appealed as well. And it is quite a simple game! But indeed also one with a lot of excitement and confusion and noise. A winner!

One of the ladies had also said that this was a night when you could see the planetary alignment. So when we had done a few rounds of cat chaos, I suggested we go outside and look at that. And we did. And given that Claire lives outside a tiny village, it was quite dark outside, and we could see the stars really well. And when we let our eyes accustom to the dark for a bit, we saw the Milky Way. And we did see Mars and Jupiter and probably a few more, but these were the two that were easily pointed out to everyone. We were all quite mesmerised!

When we went back in I said I was going to leave. I still had half an hour to drive, and I was knackered. So I gave everyone a hug and left. But it had been really good! We should do more gatherings like that. And my place can be one of the venues…

Walking back to my car at the end of the evening

Back on the hills - again

After my successful runs, such as the one on the Great Orme, I dared to join the Thursday Night Hill training again. And it would be a week with pizza!

I rocked up on the cold and bright night, slightly nervous. I hadn’t done 12k yet for months! And I seized the opportunity for something else as well. Someone had recommended to me to get a proper running coach. Maybe if I ran in a different way I wouldn't get all these injuries? That was absolutely worth a try! So I asked Dyfed, who organises this gig and probably knows everything there is to know about the local running community, if he knew of anyone who does running training. Then he thought a bit and then said "this bloke here". I didn't expect an answer like that! But I talked a bit with the bloke question, and he said he was happy to go running with me at some point, and see what he could detect. I hope this really happens and it will indeed lead to injury prevention.

When it was time we set off. And I started calm. I made it up to the first turning point without problems. That was great! And I was also glad to see I could still keep up. My fitness hadn’t suffered too much.

Looking back at Llanberis

There are four proper turning points, when we run up a hill, wait for each other at the highest point, and then run down again. The second one went well as well! I was feeling confident. I did start to feel it a little bit on the third and fourth uphill, but nothing too worrisome.

It was also just really nice to run with the crew again! I'm starting to know a fair number of names, and everyone is nice and inviting.

On the last downhill I noticed our Dutch twin, with a new dog. At least; new for me. It was a one year old spaniel, and she was trying to teach him how to behave while running with her. It was clear the dog still had a fair amount to learn! It was very sweet to see.

We then got back to the cars, and I drove to the pizza place, put on a dry shirt, and went in. We ended up with a men's table and a women’s table. Not quite sure why, but that's how it worked out. But it was nice to have a chat with the other women. And the pizza was good!

When I got home I went straight to bed. It was a tiring week in which I had had something on every night that week! And I knew that only the next day I would know for sure how my ankle was. I really hoped it would be okay…

Thriving in the Anthropocene

I spotted a public lecture that sounded interesting, so I registered. As the title of this post suggests, it was about thriving in the Anthropocene, and would be delivered by Mike Berners-Lee (yes, a relation; the brother of the more famous Tim). 

When I walked in I noticed it was very well attended. That surely isn't always the case! But this man filled almost all the seats. And I even spotted Tom and Siobhan, and joined them. 

He is clearly a very engaging speaker! And he started out with explaining what the problem was. And that made sense, but I know that bit quite well. I wanted to get to the ‘thriving’ bit. 

At the end of the ‘what is the problem’ section he asked the audience to raise their hands, if they thought he was either more or less correct in his evaluation of the severity of the situation; whether he was grossly overestimating it, or grossly underestimating it. The vast majority thought he had got it about right, but there were at least 10 people who thought the situation was worse than how he presented it. And there was only one person raising his hand to indicate he thought the man was exaggerating. That was a brave standpoint!

Then he got to the bit where he explains how he thinks we can improve the situation. He said that there is toxic interplay between media, business and politics, and we should not put up with that. He gave the example of BBC presenters who have been found groping people or things of that nature, whose career is then over. And he said that even the people of whom it is clear that they knew about this and stayed silent see their career end. He said that that should happen as well in politics. He said that if politicians are caught lying, they should never be forgiven for that, unless they somehow redeemed themselves. I don't think there will be many left! But I also do know that a mentality change is possible. There was a time when no one wore a seatbelt. Now practically everybody does.

It seemed a bit simple; hold your politicians to account. You only get an election every five years. And what about business and the media? He did tell us to vote with our wallets. Don't support media that encourage us to stay on this collision course with fate. (Go to Bluesky!) And he used the example of the one bloke who raised his hand to say he had been exaggerating. It is difficult to do that if everybody else doesn't agree with you, but it can be done. So we can be the people who raise our hands to say that society needs to fundamentally change. And we can be the change. And other people can see it. And then maybe be inspired. And if we have critical mass, people might start to feel embarrassed if they are not on the woke bandwagon with us.

He only had an hour, and it flew by. I wish he had had more time! I suppose I might have to read his book. He's got a new one out. In there he will have enough space to go into a bit more detail.

There was time for a few questions, which generally focused on politics. And then the lecture was closed, and we all streamed out of the lecture room. 

Some discussion afterwards indicated that Tom and Siobhan weren't impressed. Tom summed up his argument as "the world would be fine if everybody stopped lying". And I see his point, but I also think it is a bit fatalistic to dismiss it. We are clutching at straws here! And what this man offers might not be more than a straw, but it's all we have. I say kudos to him. Keep speeching. And I will do my flawed best to make a small difference. Keep going to the Netherlands by train or boat, even though it is a lot more expensive and time-consuming than flying. (but still flying to Finland for my sister's birthday.) And supporting Bluesky (but still being on Facebook because I can't let go of my racing habit). Doing my frequent baking vegan, but still eating cheese. Et cetera!

Blinds!

 I’ve had to do without blinds in my office for almost a year. I suppose that shows you the financial situation of the University. And it was fixed the cheap way; there is a designated contractor for the university, but they charge an arm and a leg. It was sorted by our own workshop technician. He just improvised an inexpensive off-the-shelf roller blind into position. 

I had discussed the options with the head technician. And Rob, who would do the work, showed up with his tool box just when I was leaving for main campus. And when I got back the next day it was done! And it works! It might not win beauty prizes but I’m happy! Even though Rob put the chain for raising or lowering it at Rob height rather than Margot height. 

The year of improvising with jackets, keffiyehs and blackout material on suction cups is over! I will be able to even see my screen on a bright afternoon…

Term starts

The exam period is over now! Lecturing has started again. The marking is still ongoing, but that’s normal. It started easy for me; the first day I only had to do two introductory lectures, in which I explained how the module in question would run. But it’s all going until late spring now. Wish me luck! 

Moving to Bluesky

You must have been hiding under a rock to not have noticed that the situation regarding social media has deteriorated in recent years. Musk bought Twitter and ran in into the ground. Facebook was iffy years ago already, but the getting rid of fact checkers moved things to a higher level of iffiness. I had had a nagging feeling I shouldn’t be on these platforms for years. But it’s one of those things that never makes it to the top of the to do list. 

Recently i decided I should just go and make myself a Bluesky account. So I did! However, that’s only the beginning. Social media works for reasons of connections. Now I needed to find people there! And other entities! And that wasn’t working too well. Most people and entities are not (yet) on there. 

My first contact was the local community chaplain Sara. I spoke with her at a community event. And the second was Dean. 

I quickly found out that the entities I follow on Facebook in order to find out about interesting events, like races and archaeological events, just aren’t on Bluesky. Bummer! So I should extend my Bluesky presence; it needs the people and the activity to make it a viable alternative to the other social media. But I would struggle to leave the others. Quite many races don’t seem to have a website; only a Facebook page, and these would be the charming non-commercial ones. The ThursdayNight Hill sessions also only have a Facebook presence. So I might be in an awkward box split for a while…

Bwlch Cwm Llan after all

We would have one glorious day between storm Eowyn and the next very blowy (and rainy) day, so I figured I needed to take advantage of that. And one way of doing that would be go to Bwlch Cwm Llan after all. 

There was a ‘Paned i’r Planed’ (cuppa for the planet) event in the community centre near me in the morning, so I went there first. I like supporting local initiatives having to do with climate and sustainability. So that meant I only had the afternoon, and although you can by now see where you're going at 5 pm, it still is only limited time. But to the pass is only 4 km, and the going is good, so that wasn't a problem.

As I had focused on speed the day before, I was going to take it easy this time and just enjoy the landscape. And that was very easy! It is so beautiful there. And I hadn't been in a long time.

I ran up in the low winter afternoon sun. I went to where you can look into, well, Cwm Llan. And then I turned back. By then the sun was behind the clouds, but that created dramatic skies for the way down. It was lovely! I might do it more often…

Running up under blue skies

Happy (winter) runner

The spoil heaps appear on the horizon 

Dramatic skies on the way back

Even more dramatic skies!