Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

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.

I free soloed the Little Sugar Loaf. Technically, there is no climbing involved and you just walk up. Also, some would say a hill that is 342 metres high isn’t much of an achievement. Especially when the car park is like half way up. But I wouldn’ be great with heights and this one just turns into a scramble at the top.

I didn’t actually fancy the scramble. There are a few false summits that way and by the second one I decided there was too much scrambling. So I went around the other way and took the more gentle path. You get a lovely view from the top.

You might be surprised to learn that it is fairly near the Great Sugar Loaf.

The viva is an oral examination also known as a thesis defence. In Latin it means “living voice” with the idea that you give voice to your research while being examined by a panel made up of an internal examiner from the university, an external examiner from another university, and a chair who is there to ensure smooth running of the examination.

I completed mine last week for my research on mental health in ultra-endurance athletes. I am delighted to say that I passed with minor corrections!

Lovely zoo. The habits looked large and well-designed but we still got to see plenty. We got lucky with the elephants and the tiger was huge. The hippo was hiding, unfortunately. They also have rhinos, giraffes, zebras, chimps, sea lions and loads more. But the highlight might have been the wolves. There was a pack of them running around. The gorillas were also brilliant.

Wild Encounters is located just outside Newcastle West. They have a range of birds, reptiles, meerkats and farm animals. Also, a tanuki, which was both cool and very timely given how popular Animal Crossing currently is in our house. There was plenty to keep us entetained in terms of talks, a hands-on petting of the rabbits and guinea pigs, and ferret racing in which Venla and her team mate Polly took first place!