Seachain an duine a bhíonn ina thost

Hallo,

We're posting from a hotel on the Playa Ancon because there's a big powercut in Trinidad. Bit like Castleconnell, really. We spent yesterday evening sitting in a restaurant chosen because they had a generator, being sung to by a lady with the most wonderful voice. We've bought a CD and everything.

Playa Ancon is beautiful -- all white sand and turquoise water just like you'd expect from a Carribean beach. It was quite cloudy and windy when we were here yesterday, but today it's very very hot. We managed to get sunburnt in the clouds yesterday, so we're going to have to be very careful today.

I like Trinidad. It's pretty with lots of pastel-coloured houses. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is nice for a town. It's got lots of tourists around the place which helps because although there are still lots of people hustling, if you say no they just move on to the next set of tourists.

Tomorrow we're going to Viñales, a village in the Pinar del Rio. It's quite a long journey there but we've managed to find a bus which will take us there in six hours instead of the nine it would take on the standard bus network. We'll probably spend Monday touring the area, then go back to Havana on Tuesday and fly home on Thursday.

I'll have to type up the diary I've been keeping when I get back -- it's much more detailed. Hasta luego!

.. or Treasure Island as we like to call it. It was the inspiration for Treasure Island, and you could see why on the ferry journey on the way over -- lots of little islands with caves and creepers and bays and all sorts of lovely piratey things. There are palm trees, coconuts and deeeeelicious bananas. But, guess what? It´s cloudy right now! I feel swizzed.

Today we went to the beach, taken there by a lovely taximan in an ancient American car. We were rather worried about getting into it, but in fact it was really lovely (if a little tatty) inside, with big comfy leather seats. I think he thought we were a little weird wanting to go to the beach in winter, but we went nonetheless.

We also went to the Presidio Modelo, the awful awful prison where Castro was incarcerated for two years (1953-1955). Lucky old Castro got quite a nice room, but there were these massive big round buildings which were absolutely awful. It´s difficult to describe them, so I´ll have to post photos here when I get a chance. Our taxi driver acted as a guide which was superb because I don´t think we´d have fully appreciated how awful it was without him explaining how it used to work. We got by with his broken English and our smattering of Spanish.

Havana is rather hectic really, with everyone trying to get money from you all the time. I found that pretty exhausting, so was quite relieved to get to this nice peaceful island instead. We´re going back to Havana next week, but I think that by then we´ll have got the hang of Cuba a little more so it´ll be easier. My camera was stolen on Sunday so you poor sabbs have been saved the misery of looking through my 1066 photos. However, the good news is that my mum´s camera will take several hundred photos.

Communism is a funny thing, but maybe I should wait until I´m not using a Cuban internet connection to talk about it.

I´m keeping a very thorough diary which I may turn into a blog when I get back, although it´d probably be so long that no-one would bother reading it.

Off to Cuba today. Well, tomorrow. Dublin today. I'm excited and a little nervous and more than a little stressed about all the things that need doing before I leave. Agh.

The Registrar has just written to all staff asking for our opinions on the proposed name change [looks like I'm going to win the bet: The preferred name would be “Bangor University” – a name by which we have been known colloquially for many years.].

I feel so valued.

Very exciting news, can't believe Sam hasn't already blogged about it. The University of Wales, Bangor has been granted degree-awarding powers.

There were all sorts of assessors lurking around the University last year, attending meetings, interviewing students, that kind of thing. During handover, we were invited to a meeting with the DAP assessors, so I like to think we had a bit of a part to play in getting the degree-awarding powers.

So Bangor doesn't need to be part of the University of Wales anymore. As far as I'm aware, no decision to leave the University of Wales has been made, but I know there was quite a lengthy discussion at University Council over what to call the University if it did become independent. I've got a fiver on Bangor University, but you never know.

At least now they've chosen the Option 5 Estates Strategy there's no chance of it being Rhyl University.

I'm devastated. Hargreaves have decided not to sell me those lovely Sugar boots.

They're pretty rubbish actually. They didn't send me a confirmation email, didn't debit my account, and the boots didn't arrive, so I emailed them to ask what was going on. They didn't reply. So I rang them, and was told that the boots were out of stock (despite the website telling me they were in stock), and so they'd cancelled my order. Again, hadn't contacted me to say so. They say they sent me emails, and that they must have been filtered out by my mail server. Rubbish, I think, and what's the point in providing a contact phone number if they don't use it for things like telling me my order has been cancelled?

Anyway, I can't find the boots anywhere else in the UK so I'm feeling a bit sad now.

Hilariously, someone has begun quoting Sam's manifesto on the University debate board.

Mr Morris has instructed me to blog before he gets home so he has something to read. I think this is very naughty of him since he has a fascinating essay to write on the Reformation. But nonetheless, here I am, pandering to his every whim.

In fact, I'm going to try drag Frodo to the cathedral this evening to indulge in a bit of choral evensong. Mr Morris will hopefully be robed and taking part in the ceremony. A bit of culture once in a while never did anyone any harm, and (can you believe it?) Frodo's never been into Bangor Cathedral.

Did you know that a chapter is a group which assists the bishop with running the diocese? I didn't. And I needed to know for the crossword I was doing on the ferry last week. Anyway, Mr Morris kindly filled me in today.

I have bought *gasp* four pairs of shoes in four days.



These beautiful boots are fleecy on the inside and will allow me to continue wearing skirts through the winter. I may even buy some tights someday. What a concept.












I already had a pair of these, but Dad threw them in the bin on Saturday because they'd fallen apart so much. He was right, they were unwearable, but I was devasted because they're such terrific shoes, so I bought a new pair. I'm wearing them right now, even though they clash with my red shirt.




Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the pink shoes I bought from New Look on Saturday simply so I could continue to walk around town (that's how much my shoes were falling apart).

I also bought a new pair of runners/trainers/shoes for wearing during sport. My old pair were very ancient and good foot support is important when exercising. Yes indeed, I bought a practical pair of shoes. Very exciting, I know.

Anyway, my poor bank balance is weeping silent tears, but never mind, I'll live off bread and butter for the next few weeks.

Sam will be delighted to hear that I've booked an appointment to get my roots (or 'regrowth' as they say in hairdresser land) dyed.

Back in Bangor after a luverly weekend at home. Got to spend time with my family and my dogs, and even saw both The Boys (in Limerick) and The Girls (in Dublin). I ate a lot of fantastic food, and I've brought some lovely cheese and meat back with me (including white pudding).

But I had to get up at 6:15 this morning to make it to the ferry on time. That was bad.

I don't think I've ever carved a pumpkin before, so Frodo decided to teach me how. Because he is A Boy Who Likes Science, we had to do it the complicated way. We printed off a selection of templates from tinternet, then went to Tesco to buy a pumpkin.

Unfortunately, Tesco didn't have any pumpkins left, so we had to make do with a melon.

Frodo tells me it was actually much better to carve than a pumpkin. Firmer.

Anyway, back to carving pumpkins/melons the scientific way. We stuck the template onto the melon with sellotape, then used a sort of poking tool from his dissection kit to poke the outline into the melon. Then we took the paper template thing off and used the scalpel to carve out the shape. Admittedly we also used old-fashioned scooping devices (spoons) to clear out the centre, and a normal knife to take the lid off.

Anyway, a fine first carving I think.