No Thursday trip

I had got away once. It would not happen twice! When I was driving to and from Scotland, many signs along the roads warned of forecast heavy wind. Luckily, that was forecast for the Wednesday, when I would already be back. I had an uneventful trip!

Then it was Thursday. There was another weather warning issued by the Met Office; this time for snow on the hills. Snow on a Thursday isn't pleasant; we drive back from a remote area in the dead of night. If it is slippery and snowy that can be unpleasant! Even getting to the meeting point in unfortunate weather can be difficult. But I didn't worry too much; the worst seemed to be further south.

David's car had broken down in the old year (this had prevented him from going underground on New Year's Day) so he depended on his rather slow Landrover. That meant that we would have to go with my car to our underground venue. That didn't help; David's car is better at, well, everything except containing large volumes of whatever. And David was less optimistic.

 From the Met Office website

We would go and dig, but a lot of people had pulled out, for various reasons; I was starting to suspect it would be only David and me going. Which is fine! We can get a lot of work done with only the two of us. I went home from work ealry and got my kit ready. Then I waited for Davidto show up. Then my phone buzzed.

It was David. He had decided to pull out! He had kept an eye on the detailed weather forecasts and figured we might very well get there, but then not manage to come back home. Getting stuck in snow on a very cold night after having got cold, wet and tired underground is not a very attractive prospect. And without him I didn't want to go either! Firstly because well, risking snowy roads in a bit of a summery car with a man with 29 more years of driving experience is one thing, and even getting stuck for the whole night with a trusted friend is one thing, but risking it on my own didn't sound so pleasant. And going into the digs on my own didn't sound good either. The one dig is not a one person place; it still needs securing. The other one clearly is, as Miles is in there on his own on a regular basis; he would actually be in there until just before we'd arrive (bad timing). However, we're not all Miles (I might go so far as saying only Miles is Miles), and I would probably only have risky things to do, given I'd be without equipment. So I pulled out too! And that was the end of the Thursday Night trip. It must have been a bloody long time ago that we last cancelled!

Sitting on the sofa on a Thursday Night felt weird. It got worse when Miles appeared on the underground forum, fresh from the dig, and commented on our lack of tenacity. But what can one do? I decided to make the most of it. I had been quite tired the whole day; probably as a result from my mad dash to Edinburgh. Now I could have an early night! But it was only 5PM, so that would have to wait. I started by having some dinner and reading a bit of newspaper, but soon I went down to business. I faffed a bit with some caving equipment I had bought, repaired my tripod, got the bins ready for rubbish collection day, did my Welsh homework, gave myself a haircut, did some admin, and blogged (this!). I did lots of chores that otherwise would have had to wait for the weekend! Maybe during the weekend there will be another opportunity for going to the digs... I don't have many chores to do anymore!

Last trip to the BGS?

The end is nigh! The end of my career as a researcher. At least until July. The BRITICE project is coming to an end; that is, except the ice sheet modelling which will continue for a fair while. But the data gathering will soon stop. I will make one last dash at it and then I will get ready for a few months as a lecturer. And with the data gathering almost done, the cores have to go back to where they live. And that is Edinburgh. So I needed to load up a rental vehicle with the 59 sections we still had in store. I was glad to get the car on Friday; that meant I could load it up then and get it over with. And it was a normal car! I prefer these over vans. They are easier to park, and they catch less wind. It can be quite windy on thre British roads in the UK!

You can just see the boot is full of cores. The back seats are down and on them are more. It just fits without blocking too much view!

On Monday I started driving at 11AM. No need to get there too early! The trip went well and around 6PM I parked at the inn where I would stay. I was so early I decided to go for a short walk before dinner; it was raining a bit, but the moon managed to stay away from the clouds most of the time, and I wanted to get some fresh air. It was nice!

 

The Currie Kirk, opposite my accommodation

The next day I got up, left the inn, and went to the new site of the BGS. I had not been before. I parked up and got me a door pass. They remembered me! The location has changed, but the people haven't. Then I went to the core storage building and found my host Michael. Together we unloaded the car, and pulled out the core sections I wanted to sub-sample. I could start!

 The new core storage building

Work in progress

I had seven core sectiosn to get through. Tom had submitted a wish list of 11 cores, but three of these we happened to have in Bangor so they were already done, and one had already been sampled a long way back, so only a short list was left for sampling in Scotland. By about 10.30 I had done four sections. That was the moment my colleague Tom appeared. He was just in time to sample one core while I did the other two. Before noon we were done and could start to tidy up! It had been a bit of a hit-and-run mission but my time is running out; when I started driving I only had 55 hours left on my contract, and by the time I would be back it would have dwindled to 38! And there are only so many samples you can prcess and analyse in that much time. 

I tried to keep the amount of faffing to a minimum when we were done; I had to drive a very long way back, and the earlier I started the better. So I said goodbye to Tom and Michael and was on my way. I would just be back in time for Welsh class. The next day the sample processing would start. The very last batch! 

 

More truancy in the dig

I had only been in the dig two days before, but that was hardly a reason to not go back. On Thursday the others chose to go to Pen-y-Ffridd to sit at a campfire and eat bacon baps, but that didn't attract me very much. I went off to the dig instead. Much more interesting!

Miles would already be there. I drove to an empty parking lot, changed, and started up. There was a half moon out so I didn't need my light to walk up!

I came to a silent dig. Slightly disconcerting! But well, it's not always noisy in there. The generator had run out of fuel and Miles wasn't drilling or doing other noisy things; he was screwing in another scaff bar in the far end passage. The original one was a bit too impeding. The previous time I had come through but Miles had found the passage a bit too tight, and moving that bar would help. He had also placed some charges which should get rid of some pesky in-the-way rocks and some wall that should recede. The resin had already set so we were ready to blast. Exciting start of the evening!

We drank some tea while the dust settled. Then we went back in; the results were lovely. Time to clear out the rubble!

When that was done we had another look. There were two rocks that really needed to come out next. One turned out to be loose; we shoved it out. Miles also managed to crowbar some blocks out of the wall. The next rock on proved harder; we had run out of battery power for the drill, so we wouldn't be able to blast that one this time. But progress had been made! It was time for Miles to come through.

I went first. With slight difficulty, Miles followed (I tend to overestimate how big passages are). After four months, he got to the other side of the dig! On the 29th of August he had reached the front of this dig; we got to see it three days later (and I posted it up five more days later than that). Four months for, what would it be; twenty meters?

 Miles in the level

We had a look at the collapsed next chamber. We saw two possible ways on; we are not yet decided which one to take. But the level is a bit featureless and after a while we went back. Time to pack up and go out! It was only about 10PM when I was back at my car. Nice and early!

Miles thinks we might be through the next chamber by Easter. Would we manage? Watch this space!

Try to work for money

I already lost quite some time I perhaps should have spent on doing my Sheffield work to teaching. I hope things would get better soon after that! But then the first week of January all went a bit pear-shaped. On Monday I expected the heating to be still off, so I did not manage to motivate myself to get my arse into the lab until 11AM. On Tuesday I skedaddled. And on Wednesday I first did some marking work for James, then went to the dentist, and then spent the rest of the day working on what is known as internal REF. For thsose unfamiliar with REF: it is some strange way in which the British government tries to reward universities for good research output. It makes all universities submit what they think are their best manuscripts, and their best case studies of research impact, and these are then evaluated by a committee and graded. If you get a higher overall grade you get more money. The system has, in my eyes, a fair number of disadvantages; first, it can be a runaway system: more money means more good people and more equipment etc etc so gets you better research. If you don't do so well it may be hard to break out of that. And another problem is: the committees are not experts in the field of everything they need to judge. It's hard to have a good idea of the originality, robustness and impact of a scientific article in a field you are not in! And it takes a lot of time as well. A small effect of it is British scientists catering to REF; it can pay off to make your research seem more global and original and important than it is (by, for instance, giving a regional paper a rather global title). The non-expert committee members might buy into it!

So what was I doing with it? Universities tend to have their staff assess each other's publications, and I was asked to do that with four articles of three colleagues. Two were in my field; the other two weren't. I think many people had more than four to assess! All that takes another large amount of time. I think it may be easier to just collect very simple data of how many articles one has published in journal with what impact factor, and how many citations these got corrected for how long ago they were published. And then add the amount of research money raised. That data is collected in minutes and probably more reliable than the whole REF thing. Oh well! The ball is rolling now, it won't stop for me. And I wasn't overly keen spending half a day on helping a university that wasn't paying me with a system I don't like and which I have already assisted by bringing in publications, but I was swayed by the argument that me having submitted publications at the university's explicit request (way back when I was still employed here), other people were spending time on mine, so it would be churlish not to spend time on theirs. There I went.

By Thursday morning I had only done six hours of paid work that week. Oh dear! At least that day would not have any major distractions, but on Thursday I always leave early-ish for underground reasons. Friday I knew I would be able to stay long. And next week I will start making lots of hours as I have to visit the BGS again, and this time the offices in Edinburgh. That will add some hours to my spreadsheet!

Truant breaks through

The idea was that with only 185 hours of work to do in December and January I should have time for other things. But Christmas comes in the way, and teaching obligations, and meetings, and whatnot, and time flew by. I still hoped to get some freewheeling done. When Miles mentioned he might go work on the dig in January 3rd, I decided to join. I came into the lab and the office on the second, so as to not feel too bad about shirking the next day. I came in in Arctic gear as I expected the heating to have been off for almost two weeks, but to my great relief, the heating was already on. It was comfy there! And not lonely either; Paul was in the office and Juan popped in in the lab.

With both some paid work and some work on my PGCertHE done I felt OK about running away the next day, the first official day. I was in the lab for two hours and then I drove off. When I got to the parking lot Miles was already there. Up we went!

I admired the supporting work he had done at the dig entrance. But that wasn't all; I went in, and I admired even more the supporting work he had done at the working end. There was loose rubble perched high above us there; a bit disconcerting. Now it was safely behind scaff! That meant we could start on the opening; there was a sub-vertical rock in there, and we wanted to get past it on the right. The plan was to wedge a small bottle-jack in between, to stop the rock from keeling over in that direction. Then we would remove (as is: blow up) the rocks in between, that so far might have had that job. We then might place a scaff pole for more permanent keeping-in-place of the subvertical rock.

The first thing we did was remove a rock that was loose. Miles had intended to blow it up, but it was small enough to get it out without such drastic measures. We did break it up with the breaker before lugging it out. Then we drilled a hole and placed a charge. Time for a cup of tea...

After tea we blew the rock straight out. The subvertical rock hadn't moved! Time to take a measurement for a scaff pole. While Miles cut it to size I started gently removing rocks from our intended opening; the good news was that it worked, but the bad news is that the bottle jack fell out, bouncing offf my helmet and landing on my hand. Ouch! But no damage done.

Soon we had the scaff as good and bad as it went in place. It was one of those jobs that actually requires three hands but I managed. And then it was all ready for the big moment!

I thought I might first change my batteries as they were rather flat, and it's frustrating being in new ground and not being able to see it. But I was impatient; I went through. It opened up nicely! Miles went to fetch my camera and spare batteries, and just past the new passage I used some of the latter. I could see! Miles had a small attempt in going through as well but he soon decided the opening wasn't big enough yet.

I went on. I could see the passage form where I sat. I slid in. It was a pristine level! Intact ceiling, hob-nail boot prints on the floor... I took some pictures and went to the other side. A collapse! Unfortunately. But not unexpected.

I had a look at the collapse; it was rather permeable. Not as bad as what we had been facing so far! Then it was time to report back. Miles asked about graffiti; I hadn't seen any, but I went back to have a closer look. Nope! None. Time to go back.

The hard-won level! 

Old rails with shapely rusticles on, and hobnail boot prints 

I showed Miles the pictures. By then it was about time to head out! I wanted to have a look in our other dig too. We had spent a long day opening it up again after a collapse; would it still be open? I scampered in while Miles gathered all his stuff. It looked exactly the same! Good! That was ending the day with two high points. Lovely! And with a bit of luck we would be back only two days later!

Starting the new year underground

A good way to start the new year is to go underground. This year it was all organised in advance; Mick had asked us to help him get some youngsters underground and give them some practice with rope work. On the last Thursday night trip (for me, that is; others had been underground on the 29th but I was in the Netherlands then) of the old year, we had got the venue ready. All we had to do now was rock up!

I had been with Jaco and Marjan, and their son Arthur, the day before, but I had gone home well before midnight. I had had quite a bad cold in recent days, followed by two late nights in a row (dinner in den Bosch with friends, and landing in Manchester at 10PM), and I know late nights make me susceptible to more colds and I didn't want any. I kept my distance from Marjan who was in a terrible shape herself. A pity! It was a lovely night otherwise, with excellent food and men called Baas beating me at scrabble. Marjan couldn't eat the dessert, and vanished to bed before the scrabble started. It was a nice last evening of the year but not for her!

The next day it became clear this lurgy had affected more people, and even inanimate objects. We were supposed to be quite a group, but many bailed out; Phil didn't bring his family because they were all under the weather; Don, Simon and Briony weren't well; Edwyn had to look after a coughing water treatment plant or something and David's car had lost some vital organs. Mick was in a terrible state too: he had bronchitis, but he didn't want to give up.

We met up and got changed. It was cold, but a beautiful day! We walked up the hill to the entrance; Mick needed to take his time as he struggled breathing. We got there, though. And when we got in the hard work for him was over; we rigged the pitches and the youngsters (Zen and her boyfriend Drew) were ready to go. I suggested we go all the way down using the handlines and the short pitch at the bottom, and then back up to the intermediate level, from which the youngsters would prussick up. It started well; we got to the bottom without problems. Drew flew up the bottom pitch; Zen struggled a bit but made it. Then we went up to the big pitch and got Zen into the rope. She went up a few strokes but wasn't feeling it at all. She bailed out! Too bad; this was an excellent opportunity, but one shouldn't do what one doesn't feel good about. We got her out of the rope and rigged Drew up. He did well!

Starting up the hill

 Phil and Milly staring boldly into the wide expanse of the Welsh landscape

We went up and had a sandwich. Then Phil and Paul vanished to look at a mine further up the valley, and to give the dog (who was in better health than Phil's family) some exercise. Zen had had enough of ropes but Drew was up for dropping down the rope he had come up on, and then coming up the other pitch. And so he did! I followed and then we were done with ropes. We de-rigged, assumed Phil and Paul would understand what we'd be up to, and went back to the cars.

Chris took a pic of me with my new caving hat, which I got at the Thursdaynighter Christmas dinner

Walking back to the cars

After a short while Phil appeared. That was Mick's cue for going home; he had to prepare dinner. We waited for Paul and followed. Then followed a nice evening at Mick's with tea and lots of food and lots of cat-fondling (his newest arrival, a veritable panther of a cat, was quite keen on attention). Maybe next time Zen will feel better and get up a rope after all! And let's hope that any next time Mick will feel a lot better too...

Annual Dutch Christmas visit

It was that time of the year again. Time to get to the Netherlands for the Christmas trip. It was good again! Of course my mother provided my basecamp and from there I travelled hither and thither. I was happy the travelling wasn't hectic; the day before I'd fly I suddenly felt a cold come up. It took me days to shake it off! My mother soon cut an old pillow cover up as my handkerchief just wasn't coping on its own. But if there ever is a time for taking it easy, drinking tea and blowing one's nose it is late December. I even managed to read one of my mother's books while I was there.

I visited my father and my sister, and their respective entourages, too. More drinking tea and taking it easy! On Christmas Day I was still poorly, so I went to bed rather early. I ended up going at the same time as my niece with whom I would share a room. She always gets masses of family kissing her goodnight; I scored a few too this time! A happy by-product of faltering health.

I saw some friends too; Roelof, of course, and I visited my old MSc supervisor. I hadn't seen him in three years! But we just pick up again where we left off. I also went for a few beers and dinner in den Bosch (of all places) with six of my old PhD mates. We still pretty much all look the same but the number of wedding rings and children is growing!

No chasing of wedding rings for me, but I did go for dinner with Floor, the man who broke up with me in 2008 and whom I have been able to meet up with with dry eyes since only about a year and a half. Time takes the sharp edges off anything!

Altogether it was nice but not many unexpected things happened. But I got back feeling a whole lot better than when I arrived! Bring on 2017!

With my sister on the foggy moor

Leiden at its dreamiest

 Den Bosch, also in the fog

The book I read. It's very gripping!