Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

For years, I’ve watched people get lucky with autumn and winter graduations. Cold but clear days make for excellent conditions when you’re wrapped up in robes. Alas, for us doctoral candidates, the long wait ended in a day a rain. A full day. It never stopped raining the whole day.

That could only slightly dampen, and not extinguish, our spirits, though. Professor Neville Cox gave a fantastic speech, touching on the hardships so many of us had overcome to be here, the responsibility we now had to make a positive contribution, and the importance of standing up to to the anti-knowledge sentiment that society is currently wrestling with.

Then came the formal bit. It is all done in Latin. There was a lot of smiling and nodding. My parchment is also in Latin.

This was followed by a reception in the Great Hall.

I’ve been in psychology for 12 years now, and it is a long journey from initial qualification to chartership. It doesn’t really finish here: I’ve already had an email from the BPS telling me about the fellowship track. But this is a wonderful milestone to reach. Thank you to everyone who has supported me on this journey, especially Elina, Venla and my parents. Like Formula One, it’s a team effort where one person takes all of the glory.

Good views guaranteed.

Lovely little museum. Security was so lax that they let an Englishman inside.

Bohernabreena Reservoir offers an 8.5 km loop, which includes an initial out-and-back section. It has some nice views and is relatively accessible. There isn’t much in the way of hills so not very strenuous.

We wanted to hide Tonelagee. But when we drove into the hills, it looked like this:

So we diverted to Bray instead. Even Bray Head was in the clouds when we arrived, but after a snack break the mist cleared and we were able to get good views. We walked was far as Bray Head Hill which is the highest point between Bray and Greystones.

The moisture had left all of the spiders webs visible.

Djouce is a mountain in County Wicklow. Ireland sometimes has a generous definition of mountain, but at 725 metres high, it is starting to feeling like a proper hill. It is a 7-8k round trip that takes around two hours to complete, a lot of which is on boarded paths.

It forms part of the Wicklow Way which was created by J. B. Malone. Malone was a Leeds lad, so we’re claiming the Wicklow Way and hill-walking as a Leeds invention now.

Our building recently held a cheese and wine night for residents. We’ve been trying to work out what these is. ChatGPT thinks it is a Spanish-style cheese coated with paprika such as a Pimentón Ibérico or Idiazabal, but when I searched for those, they did not look that similar.

Last week we hiked up Tibradden Cairn via Three Rock and Two Rock. It is about 10k there and back from Ticknock. Two Rock is the highest point in the Dublin Mountains at 536m, although the Dublin Mountains are part of the Wicklow mountains which go higher (they’re just the other side of the county border).

I’m excited to share that I’m now a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society.

I’ve been in psychology for many years, and chartership is something we work towards over the course of our careers. It’s nice to hit that milestone. Of course, I’m still the same person I was yesterday – just now with a few extra letters and a slightly longer email signature.

The Yorkshire Museum is located in York and has several galleries on dinosaurs, Star Carr, Roman York and the Vikings. They have a sensory corner with some handmade creastures and a virtual reality feed a dinosaur interactive exhibit that Venla had a go at. We also tried the fossil dig. Everything was in good working order so it is a well kept museum. Worth a visit if you are in York.