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Storm Bram Approaches…

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , on December 9, 2025 by telescoper

The weather is rather strange today, as a result of Storm Bram which is approaching from the South. The storm is bringing warm air with it, so the temperature is around 15°C which is very mild for December. The prevailing winds are usually westerly or south-westerly.

Heavy rain fell overnight, especially in the South. It’s clearer now and the winds are starting to pick up. Although Maynooth is relatively sheltered we’re still expecting gusts up to 100 km/h. As a precaution, the large tent which is usually situated outside the John Hume building has been dismantled to stop it blowing away.

Campus remains open and lectures are going ahead as normal.

At least mine are…

UPDATE: 4.25pm. I spoke to soon. I have a teaching session between 2pm and 4pm on Tuesdays; I usually take a break halfway through, as I did this afternoon. Chatting with some students in the interval we noted the wind was picking up and discussed the possibility of a power cut. We obviously tempted fate, as no sooner had we resumed for the second half when all the power went off. It came on intermittently a few times, but at 3.30pm I called off the lecture. It was too dark to see the blackboard and no other AV equipment was working. When I got back to the Physics Department, where the power was also off, as it appeared to be for the whole campus, a colleague who lives nearby told me that our area of Maynooth still had power. So I headed home, via Dunnes (which has a generator) to buy a few things. As I walked through Maynooth some lights were on, some were off. The worst affected area seemed to be to the north-west and around campus. Anyway, I’m home safely and can continue working here as long as the power stays on.

P.S. The storm is named after Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, who was born in Dublin.

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Calling all Irish weather and climate enthusiasts! 

Posted in The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , on October 16, 2025 by telescoper

Just a quick post to share an opportunity to get involved in a bit of Citizen Science. The inestimable Zooniverse has teamed up with Met Éireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, in a project called Irish Weather Rescue. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to help digitize historical weather records that currently only exist on paper. Currently only a few percent of the available records have been digitised.

The project aims to provide access to valuable data that will improve our understanding of how rainfall patterns have changed over longer timescales and provide context for the changes we see in our current climate and possible future climate. Met Éireann’s archive contains an extensive collection of historical weather observations that include meteorological registers, rainfall registers, climatological reports, weather diaries, monthly weather bulletins and maps. These handwritten paper records are at risk of being lost due to the vulnerability of the original paper documents. By creating a digital copy of these records and extracting the data contained in them we can use the data to monitor climate variability and change, support effective climate risk management and improve climate model projections.

To read more about the project and/or volunteer, see here.

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Operation Marking Garden

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth with tags , , on May 21, 2025 by telescoper

Posts will be a little thin for the next ten days or so here as I am preoccupied with correcting examinations and other assessments. I am spending most of the time doing that at home to avoid interruptions. I’ve also taken the opportunity afforded by this fine spell to do some laundry which I can peg out to dry outdoors. I think this is called multi-tasking. Fortunately (barring yesterday’s thunderstorms), the weather has been nice enough to do the marking outside, in my little garden.

Yesterday evening’s thunderstorms

A few years ago I posted an item about red valerian which grows in profusion around here on verges and embankments. Red valerian (aka spur valerian, kiss-me-quick, fox’s brush, devil’s beard & Jupiter’s beard among other names) is not to be confused with True Valerian, which has white (or very pale pink flowers). I mentioned in that post It’s red valerian (aka spur valerian, kiss-me-quick, fox’s brush, devil’s beard & Jupiter’s beard among other names). I mentioned in that post that I’d like to have some in my garden. Well, it seems that the seeds I planted have grown, perhaps spurred on by the rain yesterday evening:

red valerian

It’s not exactly a profusion, but it’s a start.

UPDATE: 31/05/25 On my way into Dublin by train I saw Red Valerian and True Valerian together by the railway tracks.

Anyway, I spent this morning marking until I remembered a couple of things I had to do on campus. That’s only 20 minutes’ walk for me so I went there at lunchtime, getting a haircut on the way. I stayed for lunch in Pugin Hall and then came back to continue with my correcting duties.

When I took a break for tea I suddenly remembered (for some reason) that the debit card on my UK bank account was about to expire and I hadn’t updated the address since I sold my house in Cardiff. Strangely, I couldn’t update my details online but instead had to use the telephone banking service. One can change to another address in the UK using the online banking app, but can’t do that if you’re moving abroad. Although it took longer to do than I had anticipated it might, the person I spoke to was very helpful. Fortunately they hadn’t yet despatched a replacement card and/or PIN so all was well.

So there you are. Another exciting day in the life of an academic has passed.

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Good Friday Morning

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth with tags , , , on April 18, 2025 by telescoper

Good Friday has a slightly strange status in Ireland. It is a Bank Holiday, meaning that the banks are shut, but it’s not a statutory public holiday so many people still go to work. This differs from the UK and Northern Ireland for which it is a public holiday, which seems strange when you think about the Republic’s Catholic traditions.

Schools in Ireland are closed today, but that’s because they are on an Easter break anyway. In contrast, Easter Monday (21st April) is both a Bank Holiday and public holiday. Maynooth University is closed today, so I miss a Particle Physics lecture, and next week is the Easter break (including Easter Monday). We return on Monday 28th April for the remaining two weeks of teaching, apart from Monday 5th May which is a Bank Holiday and a public holiday. The last day of teaching is Friday 9th May, which also happens to be the day on which I’m giving a colloquium at Maynooth, and examinations start a week later, on 16th May.

The weather so far is consistent with today being a Bank Holiday:

Bank Holiday weather

I think I’ll wait for a gap in the rain before going out.

Oh.

It looks be spending most of the day indoors! It seems a good day to make a start on my reading list.

It’s been a very busy week, not only because of the very enjoyable visit by Brian Schmidt, but also because I wanted to clear my coursework grading before the Easter break. I managed to do the last of that yesterday, so I don’t have to do any of that either this weekend or during the Easter break. There are some more assignments due, but I will deal with them when we return after Easter.

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Twelfth Night – Louis MacNeice

Posted in Maynooth, Poetry with tags , , , on January 6, 2025 by telescoper 
Snow-happy hicks of a boy’s world –
O crunch of bull’s-eyes in the mouth,
O crunch of frost beneath the foot –
If time would only remain furled
In white, and thaw were not for certain
And snow would but stay put, stay put!

When the pillar-box wore a white bonnet –
O harmony of roof and hedge,
O parity of sight and thought –
And each flake had your number on it
And lives were round for not a number
But equalled nought, but equalled nought!

But now the sphinx must change her shape –
O track that reappears through slush,
O broken riddle, burst grenade –
And lives must be pulled out like tape
To measure something not themselves,
Things not given but made, but made.

For now the time of gifts is gone –
O boys that grow, O snows that melt,
O bathos that the years must fill –
Here is dull earth to build upon
Undecorated; we have reached
Twelfth Night or what you will … you will.

by Louis MacNeice (1907-1963)

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Maynooth University Library Cat Update

Posted in Maynooth with tags , , on November 18, 2024 by telescoper

It has been an unusually mild November until today, when it has suddenly turned colder and wetter. This alteration does not seem to have pleased Maynooth University Library Cat.

Picture Credit: Joost Slingerland

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Something in the Air..

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical with tags , , , on May 26, 2024 by telescoper

It’s been a warm and rather humid weekend in Barcelona. Yesterday was particularly stifling, with the heat and lack of breeze making things rather uncomfortable. The Air Quality indicator  reached “Poor” largely due to high levels of NO2, no doubt from vehicle exhaust fumes. It surprises me that so many people sit out at the pavement tables outside  restaurants having meals when it’s hot and the air is thick with nasty stuff. Al Fresco is supposed to mean “in the fresh air”! I much prefer to dine indoors, unless it’s very late at night.

Today was a little better except that there was resurfacing work going on  outside my flat on RambladeCatalunya. I knew it was coming, as they’ve been doing other nearby roads over the past few weekends. It was a little noisy, even on the 6th floor, but that didn’t bother me as much as the tar fumes!

Anyway, all this has made me decide not to attempt to extend my stay here beyond my current lease, which expires at the end of June. I’ll take the last two months of my sabbatical somewhere a bit cooler!

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Weather Conditions

Posted in Biographical, LGBTQ+, Maynooth with tags , , , , on March 2, 2024 by telescoper

This is my last full day in Sydney and – by sheer coincidence – it happens to be Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras! I will probably go out later to watch some of the fun, although it seems it’s very likely to rain on the Parade; it’s very overcast this morning, although the temperature is still 24°C.

Talking of the weather, I noticed on social media that yesterday it snowed in Maynooth (and elsewhere in Ireland). The contrast with what I’ve been experiencing in Sydney will be rather extreme:

St Patrick’s House, Maynooth
St Sydney’s Opera House

I was a bit concerned that the snow might cause problems with my return flight and/or onward transport, but I’m told that it was soon washed away by rain.

I’ll only be making a brief stop in Maynooth before travelling to (different) warmer climes, of which more in due course.

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Sydney, Ten Days in

Posted in Biographical with tags , , on February 14, 2024 by telescoper

Taking a few moments over breakfast to post about life in Sydney. This morning is cooler than it has been for a while and it’s all a bit rainy. It was very warm (by my standards) earlier in the week (up to 31°C) and very humid, culminating in thunderstorms but those were some way off in the distance so didn’t affect us greatly. Since then it’s been in the mid-20s with a mixture of clouds, light rain, and sunshine. You have to be careful here, though, as it is perfectly possible to get sunburn when it’s cloudy. I’m definitely glad I brought my hat.

Preparing for Fresher’s Fair
Fresher’s Fair

Other than the weather, the main thing at the University is that it’s Orientation Week, when the new students arrive. Campus has been much busier this week than it was last week, as you can see from the pictures above; I wanted to stand in the same spot for the second picture but there were too many people. Lectures start next week, for both new and returning students, so it should get even busier.

I’ve managed to book tickets for two different performances at the Opera, The Magic Flute and La Traviata. These weren’t cheap but I couldn’t resist seeing the Sydney Opera House from the inside. I’m also planning a trip to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, were there is a special exhibition of art by Wassily Kandinsky which I must see. I’m also going to travel around a bit to give a few talks in the Sydney area.

My diary is filling up, so the second half of this visit will be rather busier than the first, but it should all be interesting!

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Two weeks to go..

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical, Maynooth with tags , on December 10, 2023 by telescoper

It’s Sunday 10th December, which means I am about to embark on the penultimate week of this stint in Barcelona. I’ve got quite a few things to finish in the next fortnight, and the inevitable glut of telecons to get through, but I also plan to take a little time off to visit a couple of cultural attractions I haven’t got round to yet. I’ll be spending Christmas and New Year elsewhere and returning to Barcelona in 2024 but these will be the last two weeks I spend this nice apartment. For various reasons I don’t yet know precisely when I’ll be coming back after the break so I’ll have to find another place to live when I do. That will be during off season though so I’m not worried. I toyed with the idea of keeping this place on, but thought better of it. It is quite expensive, and I can’t really afford to pay weeks in rent to keep an empty apartment. Since I will be returning, I can leave some of my things with friends here, which leaves plenty of space in my luggage for goodies to be consumed during the holiday.

The entrance to La Rambla from La Plaza de Cataluña

The weather here has changed a bit recently, getting much warmer. It feels a bit strange to be going round in shirt sleeves on 10th December but it was warm enough for that. It’s done my arthritis a power of good anyway. I picked up a bit of a cold last week which has now vanished too. It wasn’t anything serious but generated enough brain fog to make concentration difficult for a couple of days. The unusually warm spell is of course worrying for other reasons, as is the fact that there has been virtually no rain in Barcelona all the time I’ve been here. Drought restrictions are still in place. It seems the weather is a very different story in Ireland!

Here in Barcelona teaching carries on until Thursday 21st December, which is the end of term. Back in Maynooth, teaching term officially continues until Friday 22nd, though I don’t think there will be many students in classes on that day, just three days before Christmas, which also happens to be the day I fly out from Barcelona…

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