March Catch Up

On 1^st went to Carolyn’s for a roast dinner for her birthday.  Went for a walk afterwards and got soaking wet.  Ollie shouted “come on Michael” to Mike as he ran down the road and we were all a bit taken aback that he should address his Uncle Mike in this way, until he explained that Mike was Michelangelo and he was Donatella (ninja turtles). Mike played lots of board games with Ollie when we got back – including Chess which was pretty impressive.

Lunching with Bishops!  On 2^nd went to the service of inauguration of Sister Jennifer as Mother Superior at the convent.  Mike played the organ for some of the service.  There was lunch afterwards and the one of the Bishops came and joined us at our table and even went to the buffet to get Mike some dessert. Sister Barbara gave me a huge box of threads, material and framecraft pieces, and also said I could keep the frame she had given me with the Snow Wolf I am finishing for her.  She has given up all cross stitch now because of her hands.

On 4^th had lunch with Diane – hadn’t seen her for several years.  We met up at Sagar in King Street and then went up to Bond Street together for her to buy buttons.  It was a lovely afternoon and great to catch up with her after all these years.

During the month also had supper with Caroline and Pru and lunch with Liz, Joyce and Derek, and Mike and I went to CJs for lunch with Susie. 

Purchased a Dolce Gusto coffee machine and several different types of coffee capsules.  Really pleased with it and enjoying the coffee.

As well as several handbell peal attempts I also did some ringing with Steve and Mary – I go over for about an hour and we ring Kent with Mary on 5-6.

Went walking with Maryanne and Mary – Water and Woods walk at Little Marlow.  Turned out to be not very long, so we lengthened it by adding another walk to it, and by avoiding the road back to the pub (Spade Oak).

Went to Just a Song on 7^th.  Somewhat different feel to it, with the first half being quite serious.  They did those awful Cries of London by Chilcott!

Mike and I went up to Guy's to ring minor on handbells with Caroline - and she dropped the bombshell that she will be working from home from 1 April so handbells at Guy's will have to stop.  The end of an era.  Her husband has Parkinson's and can no longer be left on his own at home.  So I am trying to find a way of keeping the attempts going at other venues - two or three of the ringers have offered to host, but I needed to work out how to organise it all.  It was easy when Caroline gave me her dates and then I just tried to get 3 more to make up bands on those dates.  I decided to carry on using the master plan, and stick with Mondays, Wednesday and Thursdays, and once I had bands in place then work out a venue. Caroline has retained an office at Guy’s, so when she is available we are able to ring in the office next to hers.

I found a great bit of software (from an item in my magazine) which finds duplicate files - comparing them byte for byte not just by name - so I have started a project to get all my photos, music and other backed up files organised into one place with just one iteration of each.  I haven't spent much time on it so far but I am very impressed with it - you can see a preview of the file by hovering the mouse over the link - and I have already freed up 20 GB of space on my external hard drive.

It is the time of year when I have to bring the membership database for Middlesex up to date and prepare the pages for James for the report and that kept me pretty busy all month.  I decided that by next year I will have streamlined the database and got rid of extraneous queries etc, and will also make it more attractive and user friendly in case I ever have to pass it over.  I also need to get it to prepare pages the way James has them in the Report – they are still coming out in the font and format that the previous editor, Tom, liked them.  (I think I had the same aim last year!). I also issued 25 new member packs.

Cross stitched a 50^th birthday card for Jayne and sent it with a parcel. I included the German gingerbread biscuits I had bought from the market on Reunion weekend – they were iced with happy birthday on them – but apparently they did not survive and were crumbs by the time the parcel arrived.

On 14^th Mike and I went to Singing Workshop with Justin Lavender for the Chiswick Choir based on B Minor Mass.  It was very good and I began to feel I knew some of it.  I spent the whole term listening to the rehearsal CD on my phone while out walking, and I practised and practised at home with the CD and the music.  By the time it got to the concert I was quietly confident – but what with the extra rehearsal and the singing workshop all in the week leading up to it I woke up on Friday and found I had lost my voice.  I was distraught after all that work.  However I drank lots of hot water with honey and lemon, and took some in a flask for the rehearsal and the performance, and this did the trick and I was at least able to sing it all.  I had an excellent seat at the front of the first raised row with an unobstructed view of Alistair, and next to Linda Evans and other good first altos so able to sing confidently.  I really enjoyed it and felt happy that I knew the music – by sharp contrast to the first time I did it with Chiswick Choir where I got to the concert and realised I didn’t know any of it!!

Chiswick Ringers lunch the following day at Monica’s – not very well attended this time.  Only about 7 people there so I was glad I had stayed for it although I was itching to get down to Devon. The food was good and of course there was a lot of it. As soon as I got home I packed the car and drove down to Devon (for Easter) and arrived in the early evening which worked well and I managed to stay awake.  Now that I have cleaners coming in it is a real delight to walk in to a clean fresh house.  However I did find there was evidence of mice in one of the food cupboards - so the next day I cleaned it all out and bought lots more plastic storage boxes to keep everything in.  I also set traps but they didn’t catch anything.  They came back several times that week – attacking food boxes which they hadn’t touched before so I hadn’t put them in containers.  By the time we left they had stopped coming, and I had got everything into containers.  I put bait down in the cupboard when we left – I had some good bait from Sainsbury which stays in the plastic bag so very easy to use.  It must be the time of year as we had a mouse in the kitchen in London too - I eventually got rid of them with the same bait.

Before

I spent a lot of time that fortnight sorting all the threads Sister Barbara had given me on to bobbins and labelling them with equivalent DMC numbers and cataloguing them.  It was a huge job, and had to be continued the following month when I went down to Devon, but eventually I had them all done and in an Excel spreadsheet and sorted into the same order as the colour chart.  I am going to sort my own threads into the same order at some point and then merge the two sets.  I had to buy 6 new thread boxes.

After

Went to the North Devon Handbell Rally with the Moretonhampstead ringers.  It was a good afternoon although once again I felt it went on too long.  There were no massed pieces but we did our three solos quite well.  I joined the Guild while I was there too.  It was a long way away and I was a bit worried about leaving Suki all that time – but I took her for a three hour walk both the day before (Shaptor woods and back by Lustleigh and Parke) and on Saturday morning and she was fine when I got back.

Mike came down by train on Palm Sunday and we rang minor on handbells with Tim that evening, and then again on Tuesday evening trying for a peal of 41 minor.  We didn’t even get close, but we had a lot of good practice and we are confident we will get it one day. 

We did some handbell ringing with Lisa, Bob, Jen and Rob at Lisa’s house on the Wednesday.  Lots of wine was consumed!  Finished the evening with lapping Stedman caters – which seemed to go really well after all that wine.

Click HERE for video

Rang with Moretonhampstead Ringers in a concert at Exmouth Chapel on Maundy Thursday – same as last year.  Mike didn’t come this time and stayed in to keep Suki company.

Had Mary to the house for lunch on Easter Sunday – roast chicken etc with raspberry pavlova and fresh raspberries for dessert.

Persuaded Mike to leave it until Tuesday for going home – and had a busy Monday!  Another go at the peal of minor with Tim in the morning, then he and Mike went off to ring QPs with Bob, then when Mike got back Peter came round for some handbells, before we all went off to the Bovey ringers social at The Bell.

Listened to the audible book about the Everest expedition of 1952 on the way home. I have a new gizmo which plays stuff from my phone through the car radio when plugged in to the power socket.  It’s excellent and means I can have it loud enough to hear when driving without having to wear headphones – or when there is someone else in the car.  It means I can’t use the satnav at the same time, and there is a bit of a hiss but this becomes unnoticeable after a while.  When we got home discovered Mike’s car had been rifled through – it must have been unlocked (it unlocks itself sometimes when Mike bends down wearing the bum bag in the house).  They didn’t take anything of value – except possibly a few coins and the blue badge clock.  Luckily we had the blue badge itself with us in Devon which is the valuable bit.

The Clematis in the back garden flowered properly this year!  First time since planting it about 15 years ago!!