Planning Ahead

Spent today planning lots of things that aren’t happening yet.

Been asked to make a wedding cake for July and because of the rest it’s all been a bit of a rush and things still aren’t really confirmed, as it all depends on how restrictions are lifted, they have no idea what kind of cake they want. I need to get some idea soon. Fruit or sponge? How many for? Buttercream or fondant? How many tiers? What colour scheme? What sort of decorations? Any many more questions spring to mind. The trouble is, they can’t really answer them yet as so much still hangs in the balance. But I need to get my thinking head on and design it, order whatever I need to order, maybe practice some elements of it, and give myself plenty of time not to panic over it.

After that, I started thinking about a meeting that I had later that evening. Who was due to attend? What do we need to think about? There are several things that are coming up in the #bellringing world that will require some PR work, and it would be good to have a team working on it, rather than just one person. It helps spread the coverage wider, and also helps different parts of the country and world chip in on how it affects (or not in some cases) them.

I’ve written several lists of things that we need to and could ring for, but it all depends on what restrictions are still in place at the time. Some have a much longer lead in time, and others are in the next few months, but need to have a co-ordinated plan.

Then, kicking off next week is the elongated Essex Ringing Course. I have arranged 2 talks and a Bellringers Question Time and opened them out to anyone to register to attend, not just Essex ringers. I need to contact the speakers again and check everything is ok. I need to make sure that everything is set up and ready. I am also helping in one of the groups and the practices are spread out over the coming 2 weeks, so I’ve got to get my brain in gear for ringing lots of Stedman and possibly some Cloisters.

Then at some point in the next day or so I need to make my breakfasts and lunches for work. Albeit only a 3 day working week, as Monday is Bank Holiday and being an office role at the hospital, I don’t need to work Bank Holidays, and of course, I don’t work Fridays as I cram it all in to a 4 day week normally.

And I need to get some housework done. Ah well, that can wait.

Bank Holiday Bells and Baking

There’s something that goes hand in hand with bells and baking really. Many a #bellringing meeting takes place after some actually bellringing, but more importantly what is known as a Bellringers Tea.

A bellringers tea consists of a mountain of sandwiches, savouries, the rare sighting of a salad, but the most important ingredient, and one that teas are often, silently judged on, is cake. Lots and lots of cake. Preferably homemade cake at that.

I’m not sure what came first for me, bellringing or baking? Probably baking actually. Watching my grandad bake and mum having a Sunday afternoon bake up. I do remember a sibling competition on who could make the best choux buns. I seem to remember winning that one!

Anyway, today I did a bit of both.

As usual for Friday mornings, I joined my sister’s group as we practiced some more Wells Surprise Minor and Cambridge Surprise Major, the methods of the month for my Thursday night sessions, that she wants some extra goes at.

As part of the BakedIn baking club, I sent off for the Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Bun kit, and they really had to be made today for the Easter weekend. They were quite straightforward to make, and I cheated by using the kneading hook on my Kenwood rather than busting a wrist trying to knead the dough. C and I decided to go whole hog and add the chocolate chips AND the raisins that were part of the kit as an alternative.

Whilst the buns were on their second prove, I attended a virtual bellringing meeting with the survival and recovery steering group. Lots of good things coming. During the middle of that I had to check on the buns, so before I muted my mic and video, I declared that the answer to everything whilst I was away was “no”, just in case they had any funny ideas about giving a load of actions whilst I wasn’t there to defend myself.

Buns were now in the oven and meeting resumed. Lots more good things discussed and planned. Then I had to rescue the buns from the oven and glaze them, so made another hasty disappearing act. I was quite disappointed that the buns had spread rather than risen too much. They looked ok. They smelled ok. And when we taste tested them, they tasted ok too.

Someone suggested toasting them and slathering butter all over them. That sounds quite disgusting, but then I don’t like butter, or similar, anyway.

I’ll get round to it eventually

Today I managed to tick something off my to do list that has been there since last September. It’s not anything urgent or that anyone else is dependent on, but one of those jobs that would take a lot of time and mental energy and I’d need to be in the right frame of mind to do it. Today was that day.

I’ve been doing a series of interviews with bellringers and posting them to a Youtube channel over the last year, I guess you could call it my lockdown project (despite the fact that I’ve not been restricted by lockdown at all). There was an interview I recorded in September that still needed to be edited and made ready for uploading. It’s not due to go out yet, as there are others ahead of it in the queue, but I kept putting off the editing as I just didn’t feel in the right frame of mind to do it.

Today though, annual report deliveries are much more local, so didn’t take that long to whizz round, so it provided a good opportunity to tick a few longstanding items off the list.

The edit took about 2 hours, cutting out the “ums” and “ahs” and silent thinking pauses, the repetitions and waffle. Its important that each interview covers the main questions and puts both the interviewee and #bellrinigng in a good light. Any references to anything slightly odd needs to come out. I’ve also been taking references to the Covid restrictions out, so that they make the conversations more timeless.

I did also get around to uploading the next interview in the sequence and sharing that, so hopefully people will get to see it over the next few days. The last one I uploaded was 2 months ago, so it was a while overdue. With the one that I’ve just finished editing, I still have 4 interviews to upload in this series. Then there’s the Bellringers Question Time and 2 talks associated with the Ringing Course that will be uploaded. Plenty of content over the coming months.

By the time the last interview has been uploaded, we should be back into some semblance of #bellringing and there might be opportunity to actually record some ringing to showcase what we’ve been talking about in these interviews all this time.

So, 2 longstanding items ticked off the to do list. Only another 3 to go, plus all the stuff that comes in regularly anyway. A good day at the (home) office.

You could get a ring of 8 in there!

Annual Report delivery day #3 took us to the NE of the County and to the home of the NE District Secretary to delivery the reports for the NE District members. One the way back we stopped off at Brightlingsea for our picnic lunch. Neither of us has ever been to Brightlingsea before, and to be honest, are not likely to ever go there again.

However, as you go into the town, there a large church, All Saints, at the top of the hill. We know that there are no bells in there (not for full circle ringing anyway) however the structure of the church and tower could easily take a decent set of 8 bells or event a set of 10. It pinged up on our Sat Nav which is loaded with the Doves Guide points of interest, so it must have a bell in there.

When we eventually got a signal, we checked the new and improved Doves Guide but Brightlingsea wasn’t listed at all. C did a google search and according to the church guide “the most striking external feature is the embattled tower, built of local flint in the last years of the 15th century. The tower stands 97 feet high, in three stages, with a minstrel gallery built into the lowest stage. The tower really is quite remarkable; with one of the finest examples of diagonal buttress bracing in East Anglia” https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/essex/churches/brightlingsea.htm

“Said to be 2 bells, one by William Dawe circa 1400, inscribed Dulcis Sisto Melis Vocor Campana Michaelis. Sanctus uninscribed.” https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1337182

“the ringing chamber presents some curious features; in the belfry are frames for 5 or 6 bells, but only one of the ancient peal, dating from about A.D. 1450, now remains; there is also a small sanctus bell unhung: in 1889 a peal of 10 tubular bells was presented by M. Bayard Brown esq. an American gentleman visiting Brightlingsea in his steam yacht “Valfreyia:” https://ukga.org/churches.php?pageid=4444

Our route back home took us to drop off reports for Inworth (6 bells), Tollesbury (10 bells), Tolleshunt D’Arcy (6 bells), Great Totham (6 bells), Goldhanger (8 bells), Maldon St Mary (6 bells) and Maldon All Saints (8 bells).

So many bells and we didn’t even ring one of them.

Can’t be in 2 places at once

Last night had a clash of #bellringing diaries. I should have been at an advanced district practice but also needed to be at a Central Council exec meeting.

This clash now happens very month. Last year it wasn’t a problem because we weren’t running the advanced practices. However we decided to put them back on the virtual agenda this year and try them out. Last month was the first one and as I set up the Zoom I kinda needed to be there so sent my apologies to the CC meeting.

This month though I needed to be at the CC meeting as I was on the Agenda. I did set up the advanced practice zoom session but needed to hand it over to someone else to run.

It was an interesting experiment. C attended the advanced practice on the PC next to me on my laptop attending the CC meeting. We both glanced over at the other several times and at one point were both talking to our respective meetings at the same time.

I missed out on practicing Little Bob Major and Yorkshire Surprise Major and the fact that they finished soon after 9pm. My meeting went on until 10:20pm.

Next month I’ll probably go to the advanced practice and give apologies to the CC meeting. I’ll probably end up alternating.

Actions speak louder than words

Apparently this term was first coined in its current form by US President Abraham Lincoln during his Cooper Union Address in February 1860, but it may have been first voiced in the English Civil War by John Pym and recorded in Hansard in 1628 as “A word spoken in season is like an Apple of Gold set in Picture of Silver”, meaning that actions are more precious than words.

Today marked the first anniversary of the first UK lockdown of the Covid pandemic and organisations and people came together at 12noon to remember all of those who have died as a result of the virus, and to reflect on the tremendous work that the NHS and other front line services have done.

The Church of England partnered with Marie Curie to mark the first anniversary of the first lockdown in the UK with a national day of reflection to reflect on our collective loss due to Covid-19, support those who have been bereaved, and hope for a brighter future. Bellringers were invited by the Church to participate in this day by marking the end of the one minute silent reflection at 12 noon by tolling a bell.

At work, for the NHS, we had a virtual gathering that embraced the moment of silent reflection, and then words from our CEO and Chair. Later in the afternoon, I happened to be in the queue for a coffee and the CEO was in front of me. We exchanged smiles, and I said that I’d logged on and listened to the “broadcast”. She immediately described how they’d tried something new with the technology and that it hadn’t really worked how they’d wanted it to, so it wasn’t as slick as usual. I told her that that didn’t matter. What mattered is that we took a moment, and in a large acute NHS Trust, believe me that’s not easy, to stop, remember not just those patients we’ve lost, but also a number of colleagues and friends, to give thanks for the effort that the whole organisation has put in to help fight this virus. We were able to take a moment to think about others, and the impact that has had on ourselves, our friends and families, and our colleagues.

The action spoke louder than the words.

Correspondence

This morning C and I went #bellringing as usual. Just the 2 of us keeping things going during lockdown, making a noise and making sure the community doesn’t forget the church is there and the church doesn’t forget the bellringers are there.

When we arrived, we signed in as usual and there was an A4 enveloped waiting for us address to the Cathedral Bellringers, with a stamp on, so we know if wasn’t from the office. They’d usually email or phone me anyway.

First thoughts turn to it being a complaint. But about what? We’re only #bellringing for about 15 minutes, only 2 bells and only on a Sunday morning.

This particular letter had a covering letter and a covering, covering letter. It turns out that there’s someone from Berkshire who has severe autism, has written to us asking us to ring a full peal when lockdown ends. From the covering covering letter, which is from their parents, it seems that this person has been researching #bellringing, listening to #bellringing at churches that are local to them, and has even been looking around complib, the compositions library to find something suitable. Presumably the mathematics of it appeals to them.

The request is well worded and uses the correct terminology, although there are several things wrong with what they are actually asking us to do e.g., ring a full peal, un-muffled (both correct terminology), and the composition requested is 5040 Grandsire Triples composed by Alan S Burbidge (correct). Apparently, Burbidge’s composition is one of the trickier ones. The request has asked us to ring it on bells 2-9 of our 12 which would sound horrid. Not least to say that to ring a full peal will take some time to build up to, given that ringers haven’t been active for a year, we’ll need to build up some muscle tone and calluses again.

From the look of the letters, they appear to be photocopies, and given that its not from a local address, I’m assuming that other towers would have received something similar. It must have cost a small fortune in postage stamps.

Whilst there are many things that we cannot accommodate with the request, I have to say, that it was a lovely surprise receiving a request, in writing, the good old-fashioned way, asking for bells to be rung, rather than silenced.

I wonder how many other towers received a copy of the same letter?

Being in the Zone

I’ve just watched a 2 minute excerpt from a TED talk given by learning expert Eduardo Briceno on what he considers to be the key to high performance. https://www.ted.com/talks/eduardo_briceno_how_to_get_better_at_the_things_you_care_about?utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social&utm_content=2021-3-18-cutdown

We all go through life trying to do the best we can, and equating that to #bellringing, we all turn up at practice night, or Sunday service ringing, or for a wedding or special practice, or quarter or peal attempt or, at the moment virtual practice, with full intention to do the best we can. To ring the method accurately. To strike our bell in the right place. But at a practice night we’re there to try to learn new things as well and extend our repertoire (if we want to).

Briceno offers that sometimes, despite our best intentions we might not always get any better at the things we want to achieve, despite working hard at them. What he learned from his research is that we should deliberately alternate between two different zones.

Learning Zone: here the goal is to improve. So we undertake activities that help that improvement. This could be attending a training day, reading around the subject, watching YouTube videos, asking others for advice, standing behind someone while they ring, asking for feedback and so on. Here, we spend time concentrating on what we haven’t mastered yet, and expect to make mistakes along the way knowing that we will learn from them.

Performance Zone: is where the goal is to do something as best as we can, to execute it. Where we concentrate on what we already have mastered and try to minimise the mistakes. This might be ringing for a special event or a peal attempt, or a striking competition.

Briceno suggests that we should be deliberately alternating between the two zones to purposefully build our skills in the learning zone in order to apply them in the performance zone. Being clear about when we want to be in each of these zones, with what goal, focus and execution in mind helps us better perform and improve. The performance zone maximises our immediate performance, whilst our learning zone maximises our growth and future performance. The more time we spend in the learning zone the more we will improve in the performance zone.

To be able to spend more time in the learning zone we need to believe that we can improve, we must want to improve that particular skill, we must have an idea about what we can do to improve. Just performing the same method over and over again doesn’t necessarily help us improve. Without the process of practice, making mistakes, getting feedback and revision we will tend to stagnate in our current “safe” zone; methods that are familiar and easy, that we won’t feel like we’d be ridiculed for if we go wrong. My favourite is “if in doubt, ring the Treble”, that way I’ll stand a better change of not going wrong, or mucking it up for everyone else. The trouble with that is, I don’t progress myself.

In our #bellringing context this could be the difference between learning the theory of a new method and practicing it on a practice night on using an ringing simulator, in order to perform it to the best of our ability of a Sunday morning, or during a striking competition, or a quarter peal or peal. I also know that I’m really bad at this too. Often I might turn up to a practice having not put enough effort into the learning part, and then hash my way through it, or do enough to just get by without making too much of a pigs ear, but I haven’t learned it properly and will immediately forget it because I’ve not gone back over the bits I find difficult, or asked for help.

My latest thing is to try to learn to ring handbells. I don’t particularly want to ring handbells quarters or peals, but I want to be able to hold my own if I were asked if I could ring something simple. It’s been nearly 40 years since I learnt to ring a tower bell so going back to the beginning to ring handbells, to unlearn some of the things I’ve learned on tower bells and learn them in a different way, has been, so far, really quite difficult. However, I must persevere if I am to reach a decent performance zone. I must make that effort and spend that time in the learning zone, read, watch, listen, practice, make mistakes, get feedback, try again and eventually I will improve.

Day of Rest

Sundays are described in various parts as a day of rest. I wish. I usually have just as much to do on a Sunday as any other day of the week. And just because it was Mothering Sunday, that didn’t make any difference.

C and I are currently ringing 2 bells on a Sunday morning at the Cathedral, just to keep the bells sounding and the world outside knowing that the church is still there and what day of the week it is for all those for whom it seems a bit samey. When we come home its time for a vat of coffee and we’ve taken to having a lump of garlic and herb focaccia from the bread stall in town, usually warmed up in the microwave.

Sundays in this house is also the day of ironing. Ironing only gets done on a Sunday and if we’re not home for any reason it doesn’t get done and has to wait until the next Sunday. C has caught up with all the washing so there were about 3 loads that needed ironing. I don’t like doing the ironing (or any housework really come to that) but cannot abide wearing things that haven’t been ironed. It was an agreement we came to when we first got together. I’d do the ironing or cook Sunday lunch, not both. I think I lost out on that one.

Ironing is so mind numbingly boring though, so I have to watch something on TV to keep me at it. However, that can’t be anything that requires too much attention otherwise I’ll burn the shirts! I usually watch some mindless nonsense on Netflix. This week’s trash of choice was the final view episodes of Fate, the Winx Saga. A teen who finds out that she’s a fire fairy attends a magical school only to find out that she’s probably the most powerful fairy ever. Lots of teenage angst, love, hate, rebellion etc. Far too many Harry Potter derivatives. Its not great, but it passes the time.

By the time ironing mountain has been cleared, lunch is ready. Todays was roast beef, followed by chocolate pudding.

Only then do I get to sit down. However, not to rest. To sit down means to go through emails. To produce posters for things that need advertising this week. To set up Doodlepolls for various meetings of various workgroups that I organise. Oh, and I needed to make my breakfasts and lunches for the working week ahead. Biscoff pancakes for brekkie and chickpea pilaf rice for lunches. Oh, and whack out a cake because it’s our wedding anniversary tomorrow and I’ve got some buttercream to use up.

Then it’s time for the 10 bell Ringing Room #bellringing practice.

Only when all of that is done, can I then sit down and do nothing. A nibble of some cheese and crackers with a sniff of something to drink it our usual Sunday evening wind down. Now I can stop, and rest a while.

And it all starts again tomorrow.

Budding growth

As Public Relations Officer for both my local #bellringing Association and for the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers I’m always on the lookout for ways to get our messages out there and increase awareness of what we do.

I was reading an article online the other day about growing followership and there were two amazingly simple tips that could make a world of difference.

Include a sign-up link in your email signature. So, my emails signatures for both now carry not only a link to our website, but also to our social media pages, and for the Central Council a link to our mailing list sign up page. That was easy. My signature is now quite large, but I hope it will draw people I correspond with to find out more about us.
Include a “forward to a friend” link on each page/article on the website. As it happened, we had a local Association Comms team meeting last night and I mentioned it. I have no idea how complicated it is to set up or not, but before the evening was out, our Webmaster had added a link in the footer of our website and emailed me to test it. I clicked on the link, up popped a blank email with a link to the relevant page ready for me to forward to anyone I might think would be interested. I’ve also sent a request for a similar link on the Central Council website. Hopefully, it will be just as easy.

Two simple tips that have potential to increase awareness, get more engagement with our social media and spread the word.

It was also quite good fun having a look at some of the analytics from our website for quarter 1, again appealing to my inner nerd. There needs to be a bit more work on extracting relevant ones and interpreting them into meaningful data, but given that we only set it running recently, it will be great to track hits to the website during promotional campaigns. I can get the analytics from our social media sites and its all encouraging.