Life!

Roving Ringers Reunion this year ( see separate post ) was based at the Best Western hotel in Tiverton, with the Sunday ringing at towers in Exeter, so it made sense to go down to Bovey for a week either side of the weekend and for Lee and Emma to look after Suki.  I drove down with Suki on Wednesday 20th. The car was stuffed full of baby things for Lee and Emma - both from her friends in London and from Amanda out of our loft.  The big things from Amanda I put in the boot of Mike's car to bring at the weekend. Peter had moved out the previous weekend and had left it very clean and tidy.  It was lovely to have the place to myself again.  The scanner, and fridge wine rack I had ordered from Amazon were waiting for me, and I was very pleased with both.  Each worked well in their own respective ways. I rang a QP of Kent Minor with Tim and Nellie (one of his "improvers") - we had several starts and I  learned that the tenors and 3-4 ring the same lines -...

Itinerary Mike turned up at midnight and we were able to have a good night's sleep as the first tower in the morning, Crediton, was only about 40 minutes away. There was a good turnout - unusual for the first tower - and Mike had a good ring.  I managed some Grandsire Cinques but declined any further ringing as my wrists were painful.  The lunchtime pub was very good - Mike and I both paced ourselves with a baguette rather than a proper meal. Peter took Mike around for the rest of the afternoon while I went off to the station to pick up the two Helens (Mark's sister and Helen Taylor).  We drove round together for the rest of the afternoon although I didn't go up to ring anywhere.  Helen T did the navigating. The hotel was very good and we had an enjoyable formal dinner with a nice wine.  Mike and I were part of the handbell band to ring three leads of Kent Royal in memory of those Rovers who had died in the year.  We rang some handbells after ...

I spent the next two months in London!  It seemed a long time to be away from Bovey and I missed being there, but it was also good to get things done back at home.  I got completely up to date with admin and paperwork and also made progress on some of my "projects", in particular in putting all the Barnes Quarter Peals on to Bell Board.  I even finally got round to putting up the picture of the mosquito I had brought back from Devon, and straightening out the Spitfire picture (that's been waiting 9 years!). I rather ditzily left my handbag in Bovey - at least I could confirm it was there with Peter.  So I had to manage without it for a couple of months.  The only thing I really missed was my Freedom Pass - I had to buy and Oyster card and pay for public transport!  Good for me because it made me walk more instead of jumping on the bus. It became quite liberating not having to carry a bag around - luckily my coat has big pockets!  I paid by credi...