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...

I went back to Devon on Friday (5th Jan) so that I could go to Tim's handbell day the next day.   I arrived at 3 pm and had a quick chat with Malc before taking Suki out for a walk.  Peter had prepared bolognaise for supper and we had it with jacket potato. The handbell day was good fun although I didn't like leaving Suki for so long - I ended up being longer than intended because someone was ill and I had to cover for them.  I rang 3 QPs - Cambridge Royal , Yorkshire Major and Little Bob Royal - and over the day 7 QPs were rung which had been the target.  The Cambridge Royal was a real struggle and we had so many restarts that we ran out of time for the scheduled Yorkshire Royal, but then fitted in the Yorkshire Major to keep the total for the day on schedule. It was Suki's official birthday on Monday 8th Jan - I discovered birthday cake for dogs in the local pet shop (made primarily of lard I think) so of course I had to get it for her.  She didn't ...

Got up extra early on New Year's Eve so that I could go to 8 am communion at Barnes because there wasn't a service at Chiswick.  When I got there discovered it was Matins!  Monica was there - I hadn't been expecting her but she had come back early - so we went for a lovely breakfast of porridge at Gail's after the service.  Did the ringing circuit and then came home and worked my way through the pile of stuff I had dumped in the living room the day before.  Everything had been found a place and put away by the time Mike came in from playing the organ at the convent.  I had also filed all the music away again - for a fresh start in 2018!  We were still working our way through the cheese at mealtimes.  I made a start on my own paperwork - which I wanted to clear before setting forth on Mary's probate.  There were a huge number of Christmas cards to open and log and lots of letters to scan in. My new year's resolution is to keep an expense account ...

Christmas Newsletter 2017 On Friday I finally felt a bit Christmassy.  Mike went off to ring a peal with Bob in the morning and I put up a few Christmas decorations and picked up the meat I had ordered for Christmas lunch. We had a quiet Christmas together.  Peter went off to stay with his parents for a few days and we spent our time going for walks with Suki - mainly Stover or Parke - and relaxing at home. The weather was quite nice - positively spring like and warm on some days. Mike finished the 1500 piece jigsaw of Westminster Abbey (the inside) - with occasional help from Peter - and then did a 1000 piece one of Westminster Abbey from the air.  This appeared to be a brand new jigsaw but annoyingly had two pieces missing (we hunted high and low but were pretty sure eventually that they hadn't just been dropped somewhere). There were insufficient ringers to ring on Christmas Eve and if felt very odd being back home by 9 am on a Sunday morning....

We set off for Devon and became concerned by the gantries stating that there was a 3-hour delay at J 16 of the M4.  We kept going and the signs didn't change - so we used Google maps on my phone to find an alternative route.  It was really good - it didn't follow the official diversion (which was queuing from the motorway) but took us along roads which ran parallel to the motorway - bringing us back on at J18.  We only took about 40 mins longer and got to Bovey at 1.30 - giving us 15 mins for a cup of tea before our meeting with the vicar at 2.  The meeting didn't last long - everything for the funeral seemed to be in hand, even the refreshments which were being organised by the Mothers Union. Then we both took Suki for a walk in Stover before popping up to Tracey House for Mary's handbag and a few bits. The next day was a busy one.  We had a 9.30 appointment with the Registrar in Newton Abbot to register the death, then we went to the funeral directors an...