First Snowdonian walk

Every day I see Snowdonia in the distance. It lies there, beckoning. I now live so close; I can now explore it! My first weekend was taken up by chores but the second weekend no such thing would stop me. It was time to venture in!

I had asked my office mate Stella if she wanted to join, but she still had too many chores to do herself. So it was just me! I picked a very modest first walk; no need to do the most spectacular bits too soon. And I was a bit tired after a busy week. I picked a walk that involved a minimum amount of driving.

I started (due to a closed road) rather low on the slope of the hill. And I walked up, along a road (the closed one) through woods. Up through some fields. And then finally into the national park! It was a demure landscape; as I said, I had chosen to start modestly. But it was nice! I noticed small lakes, and a small nearby slate quarry, and then a man scampering up a hill with markers in his bag. It turned out he was marking out a race! That sounded interesting. Maybe next year!

The fields outside Snowdonia. The pointy peak int he middle was my first goal.

I walked up a saddle, and then climbed to the nearest hilltop. Very nice! Then I decided to climb to the next one up the valley. This hill was a bit higher, and had its top in the clouds. That made for a very boring view. I figured all the hilltops further up would be even worse, so this was my cue for turning back. I chose a different route back, and enjoyed some views into other valleys. And then back to the car! It wasn't spectacular, but I suppose you need the very rare bright days to enjoy the peaks Maybe next cloudy day I pick a nice scenic valley!

 

The view from the peak in question

 

A dreadlocked horse!

 

And a rather cute pony

 

Nice view over the shoals 

Power issues

It is true, one tends to take electricity for granted. When I came home somewhat late one Tuesday I entered the garage to park my bike, and pushed the light switch. Nothing. Oh dear. I went into the house; the same thing. Nothing! I figured I had been cut off. The house had come with some cryptic electricity meter that allegedly required a card of sorts. The landlord and the letting agency didn't quite know how it worked either. And I had announced my tenancy to the provider, through its website, the first weekend, but I'd not heard anything. And now I was cut off. The fuses were innocent. Oh dear.

I phoned British Gas. That is not easy; you have to get through some options menu that doesn't give the option you need, and tries to redirect you to the website. Yes, a fat lot of good that website does! And after the menu you get the long queue. After a while I decided I had better first eat, and then try again. Fortunately, I cook on gas! And I have matches, which was good, as the automatic sparker didn't work without power.

After dinner I tried again. British Gas sent me to Scottish Power, which sent me back to British Gas, which sent me to the wrong number, and it was all very tiresome. Finally I got a lady on the phone. She talked sense! She immediately sent an engineer my way; it seemed that that was necessary. His ETA was 11PM. Not good for my bedtime, but hey, power comes in handy.

By 11 he was there, and he soon diagnosed that I needed a new meter. He said sometimes such things happen when a house stands empty for a while! And mine had. But in not much time he had put a shiny new specimen in position, and switched the power back on. Lovely! And he said that his report would sufficiently alert British Gas to my existence. I could now just sit, wait and enjoy electricity, and they would contact me...

My brand new electricity meter, which still looks a bit non-set-up, and on the right a main fuse as old as the house!

First Welsh run

I hadn't run in weeks! It was about time. But where to go?  I like to run out in nature, but on terrain that is so solid you can focus on the running instead of on not falling flat on your face. And that balance is not always easily found. I had seen some public footpaths on the map and from my car. It was time to try them out!

I ran due west, in the direction of the famous Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (or Llanfair PG as it's more colloquially known), on a path that shadowed the road. It had a path running straight north from it; I tried that. Soon it went over a stile and vanished into a muddy field. Eh, where to? I pottered around in the field for a bit until I gave up and went back. I ran back into town, where I'd seen another path signposted. The path went straight down to to lower road to Llanfair. And then what? I found a path that went all the way to the waterfront. Beautiful! Not really good for a run; very short, and rather uneven at the end. But the view was spiffing! I enjoyed it for a bit, and then headed back up. I'll have to keep looking, for this won't do in the long run. But exploring the environment on running shoes is quite fun in itself!

 

The stile that takes the path into the field - but where exactly?

View to Church Island

Inaugural dinner

When I moved to York, I went on a caving weekend after a week in town. This time I take things easier (am I getting old?) and after a week I just threw a very modest dinner party. I had invited my two nearest colleagues: James and Katrien, and also my office mates: Paul and Stella. Paul knew he couldn't make it, and James had to join that point of view later on, so it became a girl's night in. The day had been rainy, but the late afternoon was bright, so we started out with a few beers (Belgian! Thanks to Katrien) in the last rays of sun in the garden. And when the sun vanished, so did we. Dinner time!

After dinner we had some wine in the lounge. Both ladies were impressed with how soon I had got my house in order. I must say, I'm quite pleased with it myself! But then I mentioned the garden, and the fire bowl I had bought before even getting to the house. They liked the sound of that! So we adjourned to the back of the house, and with combined talents assembled the brand new bowl. And soon had a fire going! I brought the whisky out too. And all the while the stars overhead got brighter. It was a lovely way of baptizing my new abode! And I think I'll soon do it again, this time with James and Paul!

Bike issues

I was just biking past the Ouse with Rich, back in York, when the rear wheel of the bike he was riding fell out. What the...? But we were on our way to the bike repair shop anyway, so we just asked them to sort this out. And they sort of did. The wheel was back in the frame, with a new bolt (the old one had gone missing). But in the following weeks, the wheel kept falling out, however forcefully we tightened the bolt. So when I couldn't do more than about two metres on the bike I admitted defeat and brought it to Halfords. Whose employees said that two days later, the bike would be fixed. It wasn't. I then came back the next day. The wheel was in place, but they had forgotten to put the brakes back on. It took them some half hour to fix that. I took it for a test ride. And after some two minutes, the wheel was decidedly inclined again! I figured I wouldn't get far on that, so I gave it back again. Upon trying to properly fix it they decided they just couldn't. So on Sunday afternoon, I took it home.

I'm not giving up on that bike; I'll look for someone who can weld, and who can perhaps make small but relevant changes to the frame, where the rear wheel is attached! I have asked the local garage owner; he wanted to see the bike before he made a judgement. I'll have to get that bike down one day (one of those days that allows walking to work) and I do hope he then comes up with a positive message! He was repairing several old timer cars; he might be able to do miracles on an old timer bike too... And if not I don't know who to ask, but I have a garage, so I can afford to keep the bike there until I have thought of something. The last word is not yet said about this issue!

The poor, temporarily defeated bike in the back of the car

First after-work pint

And what a pint it was! I saw the pub we went to served Doombar and Tribute; I find it a bit weird to drink that here in North Wales. It was more suitably consumed in its native Cornwall. They also served Hoegaarden white beer (better on summery days), some lagers, and Leffe. Well, Leffe then! My Flemish colleague Katrien was buying the round, but she couldn't watch as the landlady poured me a pint, English ale-style. In a straight pint glass, with no head! But it tasted good.

 A pint of Leffe, Anglesey style!

We started out with four, but over time more and more School of Ocean Sciences people came pottering in. It was nice to have a pint with all these people I only just met this week. A good start of a social life at work!

House as good as finished!

One needs a lair from which to venture out. My first priority upon getting to Wales was sorting my house out. As soon as it would be done, I would have a cosy home, I would have a place to invite new friends, and I could aim my energy in other, equally important directions, like my exciting new job. So after pretty much no time at all I was already at the second-hand furniture shop. And from then on, the house decoration didn't end anywhere soon. The first weekend saw the bulk of the work done. It was a hard work, but  it was satisfying.

After that initial weekend, pretty much all that needed doing was hanging up pictures. But that was a delicate subject! The new house had pristine walls. Would one dare hammer a nail into them? But the other options are using command strips, or not hanging things up at all. The latter doesn't please me very much, and in my previous house I'd used the former, which hadn't pleased my landlord very much. They are sold as ideal solutions that allow you to hang up things without consequence, but that's what they would say, isn't it. In reality I had already had some fall off the wall, taking some paint with them, and the ones that held had left discoloured patches. So what to do?

I asked the landlord, which I had met on the Saturday, what to do. He said it was OK if I would put up some pictures, as long as I was careful and used small nails. So I bought the smallest the big B&Q sold, and set to work. But it's not a small job! I really try to do as little damage to the walls as I can. But by the next Saturday, the job was done good enough for the time being (one tends to keep changing such things). And good enough for pictures for the blog! So I can finally reveal the looks of my new house! I hope it pleases people so much I get many visitors. It's a nice house, in a nice neighbourhood, in a lovely corner of Britain!

 

The inhabited house! Pretty much only the plants and the netting show the difference...

 

The lounge 

The other side of the lounge

 

The entrance

 

The corridor

 

The guest room

 

The bathroom

 

The kitchen

 

The master bedroom

 

The other side of the master bedroom