Bad time for mortgages

The five years fixed period of my mortgage was coming up. I had read up on things, and from that I had concluded that I might as well do nothing. Several reliable-looking sources said that if the amount outstanding wasn’t large, you may as well go flexible. And what I still have to pay off is quite small compared to your average mortgage. So I didn’t plan any interventions. 

Then I got a phone call from my mortgage provider. Did I want a chat with an advisor? I did. And she convinced me it was probably a better idea to go fixed again. God knows what the market will do! But I was a bit sluggish and I didn't immediately respond to the proposal she sent me. I am like that; I often have to let things sink in a bit.

And then came the mini budget. And the following complete mayhem. By not answering her quickly I had probably financially punched myself in the face a bit! But that will teach me. By the time I got back to her, the best offer a she could give me was indeed not as good as the initial one had been. But I will still be fine. The radio was full of people who were in deep trouble because of that collapse of the pound, but I am not one of them. I suppose I was just a combination of mildly unlucky and insufficiently on the ball! But my running time has gone up by years. And given that the initial runtime was quite short, that makes a huge relative difference. That's life I suppose! I will have to redo my calculations of how many of my rooms I actually already own. I think I might have lost a big one…

Lonely cat

The first time I took the cat to the vet was when she had a little wound on her tail, and she had been licking it so much she had a bald patch. I suspected that the initial wound had just resulted from an encounter with her nemesis: the neighbour’s cat. And when I got to the vet, he said that the little wound was not really anything to worry about. He was more worried about her being fat and having a broken tooth!

Recently I noticed she had another bald patch. Maybe Nemesis again? But this time I saw no scratch. And then she had more. She was still her happy cheerful self, but something was clearly not right. So I phoned the vet again. And I was advised to bring her in.

The cat looking characteristically cool, calm and collected; bald patches indicated

She really hates being brought in! She caught sight of the travelling basket and hid behind the sofa. That didn't work; I got her anyway. And drove her to Caernarfon. She was meowing pitifully all the way! And was still doing that in the waiting room. The receptionists turned to custard. I thought they would have seen and heard it all, but they were quite susceptible to her mournful sound.

The vet lifted her out of her basket and put her on the scales. She was 4.3 kg. And then she seemed to decide that she was scared but that the scales were the least scary place to be. So he just examined her on there. She still didn't look very happy, but she started purring! She seemed to like this vet. I decided to scratch her head a bit to distract her. She almost went in full petting mode, upside down. And given she also had a bald patch on her chest, he had to lift her up all lion king to get a good look. She didn't protest.

He also listened to her heart and lungs. He said there was absolutely no sign of anything being wrong with her! Nor of any parasites. He asked if anything had changed in her life. Her food was still the same, and Nemesis was also not a new development. And then I wondered if it had anything to do with me having returned to the office. Did she just miss me? The vet seemed to think that was likely. Oh dear! I am making my cat lonely.

The vet said he would probably just get used to it. But I wanted to make the transition easy for her. I stayed home the rest of the day. But after that, things didn't go so well in that respect! Two days later I didn't have to teach in the morning, so in theory I could just spend  the first hour or two working at home, and only then go into the office. But the weather forecast was: dry until 9 am, and then an absolute wash-out! Then I chose my own well-being over that of the cat. I made sure I was in the office by 9 am… and the weather then indeed turned absolutely atrocious.

That weekend I would be away. But I would really try to sometimes leave for the office a bit later in the week after that, so I could spend a bit of quality time with the little cat! And then I just hope her hair will gradually grow back…

Wall done - or not

The builders had made good progress with my wall. The left side of it looked totally sturdy now! And it was quite a change toward it had been; when they had to remove the wall, it became clear that what is behind it is just lose slate rubble. Quite scary! I was really glad I had given them the task of making this a bit more solid before it would come crashing down in an uncontrolled manner. 

The awfulness my conservatory is built on

They didn't want to take the right side down and build it up again; they had suggested just re-pointing that. I thought that must make it sturdier than just being a pile of stacked slates so I was okay with that.

One day I came home and it was all beautifully tidy. The builder said they were done, and suggested I pay the bill. But they hadn't repointed yet! I questioned that, but soon I heard a knock on the door, and it was the main builder. And he showed me that in the messages we had exchanged he had specified that the quote he had given me was indeed only for that part of the wall that they were going to pull down and rebuild. And that he was going to give me a separate quote for the repointing. Crap! How often do I tell the students to read the documentation? Now I had fallen into that trap myself. I had clearly agreed to paying the entire amount for just the left part of the wall. And I want to be as good as my word. So I swallowed a bit, and then paid the bill! And then told the builders to proceed with the re-pointing. I won't feel entirely reassured until that is done. And re-pointing is less work, so considerably less expensive. My bank account will take another hit but I am sure it will recover! Well I just hope it also means I never have to worry about that wall again. That will be worth the total amount of money!

Much better!

Return to Welsh class

With the start of the new term, it is also the start of new Welsh classes! In summer, I had had a look at what  was on offer. And I picked a course that looked like it had a fair amount of grammar in it. I was noticing my skills were sliding towards the abyss a bit! The course I had done last year I was more conversational. But I sometimes just need to practice the grammatical idiosyncrasies of Welsh.

This course was organised by Northeast Wales. It felt a bit like cheating! But luckily, the big language differences in Wales run north-south, not east-west. And the class would be online, so I didn't have to actually travel to the east. 

It was a big class! And there were some familiar faces. And we did indeed delve into some grammar. We started out with the passive tense. I could really do with brushing that up a bit! So from week one, I was learning things. That first session was difficult though; it was during our field work, and on one of those days where I had had to get up at five in order to be in the field for the early low tide. The second week was the funeral of the Queen so there was no class. I was a bit more awake in the third week!

I think I made the right call with this course! But I sort of expect courses to become face-to-face again in the next academic year. And I actually do look forward to that. It does mean an entire evening away from home, but so be it! 

Unavoidable topic, also in Welsh class

First week of term

After Welcome Week, things kick off properly! I was lecturing from the first day. And I must admit, I was a bit out of practice! And so was the IT system. We always record our lectures, but I just didn't manage to get the usual software to do the job. I did find a workaround, so it was okay, but I was glad I had 10 minutes to get ready. It later turned out that lots of people had had the same problem. It wasn't me!

That first week I gave three lectures in which I explained how the module they were part of were working. Outlining what the assessments were, and how we will deliver the lectures, et cetera. I didn't talk on awful lot of actual science that first week! And I didn't yet get to see my tutees. For some reason, they want us to start that in the second week.

The first week is now over. The second week will be relatively busy! Much more science, and also a full day field trip. And, of course, the first official session with my tutees. It's rolling now! And it won't stop rolling until Christmas…

Marchlyn Mawr with Lionel

The PCG was in the country, and we had done a lovely trip in the Great Orme on the Saturday. On the Sunday, they would do Milwr tunnel. I figured that would be a bit much on the day before the start of term. Lionel thought it would be a bit much to go underground three days in a row. So we decided we would go for a walk!

I suggested a loop around the Marchlyn Mawr reservoir, and he was okay with that. It was a bit cloudy, but we figured it would still be a lovely route. And it was!

When we got to the top of Elidir Fach, where I needed a coffee break, we did see the clouds descend to pretty much our level, but they also received it again, so by the time we were at the top of Elidir Fawr we didn't have our heads entirely in the cloud. And it stayed dry all the way!

View from our coffee break

Top of Elidir Fawr

It cleared up later

Happy hikers

On the eastern flank

Marchlyn Bach in the sun

It is not unusually long walk, but I was okay with that. I still had a lot of things to sort out before term would start the next day. And Lionel wanted to go to Canarvan to visit a pub he had been visiting for decades.

Great Orme with the PCG

I knew the Great Orme had a mine in it before I even moved to North Wales. And I knew it had a caving club associated with it. When I moved from Yorkshire to Wales, I had started emailing potential future clubs in advance so I would be able to hit the ground running. The Great Orme Exploration Society (GOES) did answer my email, but they were a bit snooty and suggested I wasn't good enough for them. That meant I then ignored them for years. In these years, though, several people told me that that was an atypical response; they seemed to normally be quite welcoming. I must've got the wrong person at the wrong time!

Through Cave Rescue I did meet some people from GOES, and they were indeed quite nice. I even ended up a few tens of meters inside their mind during a rescue training. I had missed a bigger training years ago because the date has been moved at the last minute. I was already registered for a race around the Great Orme on the new date, so even though I was quite nearby, I wasn't involved in the training.

On the eve of the North Wales trip of the Plymouth Caving Group, Lionel had contacted me about this mine. He hadn't been, and was curious! I sent him the link to the GOES website, and he took it from there. So on the Saturday of the visit of the PCG, that is where we would go! I was keen. We would only go with a small group as large groups are unwieldy and slow. Some of this group were PCG stalwarts, some I had occasionally gone underground with before, and two I had never met before. 

Lionel came to pick me up. He also had Tara, who I knew a bit, and Michael, who I had never met, in the car. We met the others by the entrance of mine; that included our guide for the day: Dave. He gave us a small briefing about the place, festooned with maps and surveys. But that never gives you a clear idea. He also explained how you get in; it is first 150 m through a concrete tube, and then 800m through an adit that goes from knickers-deep water to ankle deep water. Or maybe both add up to 800 m; I forgot that level of detail. And the recommended way of negotiating these is: the concrete tube on a little dolly, and the adit in a boat. But the group was so big we couldn't all use these. But I helped myself to a dolly; I thought the best time to use these was at the start rather than at the end. And I was the first one in! It was quite comfortable, but also a bit trippy, to lie on the bed of the dolly and seeing the sections of the tunnel roll by.

Given that I had done the tube in comfort, I did the adit in discomfort; I waded to the junction where we would all gather. And there I drank my coffee, and took a few pictures, until we were all there. And then it really started!

The entrance tunnel

Dave lead us into the complete the maze that this mine was. There would be absolutely no way we would have found our own way! But it was quite beautiful. And soon Craig, the other bloke I had never met before, took his camera out, and sent people around with slave flashes and such. I had done a lot of that with Big Dave back in the day! It was a trip down memory lane. And I also knew that this would result in very beautiful pictures. Quite unlike what I was quickly improvising with my headlight and automatic little camera!

Strange spiral staircase-like bit of the route, with a Laura for scale. Pic by Craig

It's a veritable maze! Pic by Craig

Stempeled shaft seen from below

Pristine artefacts

Dave took us everywhere and anywhere. Some of it was just civilised walking, but there were also strange scrambles, traverses with a hand line, squeezes and whatnot. And some small descents. I was wearing my harness with just cowstails and a figure of eight, and I was glad I did. The drops were big enough to be uncomfortable on only a belay belt! 

One of the descents. Pic by Craig

The only known wagon in there. Pic by Craig

Cave pearls

The place is a total maze, and without Dave we would have got hopelessly lost. But we were not without Dave, so he brought us safely back to the gathering point. And I set off towards the exit with Lionel. When we got to the boat I suggest we take it, but he pointed out that there were 3 people behind us, so in total there were more people than would fit in. He said we should leave it for the others, and I thought that was fair. We walked.

As I had had a dolly on the way in, I did without on the way out. It was a fair old crawl! I was glad when I reached daylight.

What it looks like when someone gets to the exit on a dolly

I suppose the pictures have done most of the work in conveying what it is like down there! It is difficult explaining in words what it’s like. But it’s a special place, and I hope to be back!