Winter Walks

We needed to drop some documentation off to a friend for their signatures so decided to use it as an opportunity for our daily exercise walk. They live about 2 miles away, so it wasn’t going to be too hard to walk there and back. In fact we’ve done it several times, especially last year.

Having looked at the weather forecast for the week ahead it was declared that today would be the better day to do that.

We start by walking into town, then taking the footpath round the back of the University campus. This takes you northwards along the river and up through a park before joining the housing estate where our friends live.

As we’ve walked this route many times over the last 10 months we’ve seen the landscape change. We’ve seen it through spring and summer and autumn and now winter.

The river rises with the rain fall and floods the surrounding fields, then it recedes to reveal dried out earth in the heat of summer. The trees bud, leaf and become home to wildlife, then shed to reveal the abandoned birds nests.

The number of people we pass fluctuates with the seasons. Everyone and his mother was out in the summer. You ran the risk of being run over by errant cyclists who seem to think they own the footpath. Children who have no idea how to walk in straight lines don’t seem to get out of the way whichever side of the path you walk on. And dogs. Dogs on leads, dogs on the loose, dogs walking calmly, dogs getting hysterical at the thought the ball might get thrown any second now. Dogs that want to come and say hello, and dogs who look at you for help as this is the eleventybillionth walk they’ve been on today.

Only the die hards venture out in the winter time. Everyone wrapped up in hat, gloves and scarf. Breath visible in the cold nip of air. Hardly any birdsong. Everyone walking with more sense of urgency to get back home in the warm.

We get to our friends but of course we can’t go in. We weren’t even going to stop, just push an envelope with the documents to sign through the letterbox. They heard the rattle so popped their heads up at the window like meerkats on the lookout. Then came to the front door to say hello. We stood well back at the end of the garden path. We didn’t chat for long as didn’t want them standing on their doorstep, letting all their home’s warmth out. Then we trudged back home.

A slightly different route back for a change. Took us along the side of the railway line back into town. Didn’t see any trains go by. The footpaths were a bit mucky. By now it was getting a bit dark. I was getting a bit warm under all the wrappings. I was ready to get back home and have a nice cup of mint tea.

4.5 miles walked in an hour and a half (including chatting time). That’s my exercise for the day.

Why we do what we do

I have the next week off work as annual leave. I have no plans, and no real thoughts about what to do with my time. I have a couple of reports to write and could bake something but other than that, because we can’t go very far due to lockdown, no other real thoughts about what to do. That got me thinking about why we do what we do (or not).

You could take Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and work through that systematically, but does that cover it? Yes, there are some basic needs that ought to be addressed: the need for food, shelter, sleep, company etc. We need our elements of security around employment, health and some material belongings. There is certainly a need for friendship, family, love and a sense of connection. But then we get on to the things that you could argue we don’t NEED, we just WANT. Respect, recognition, strength, and then self-actualisation – to be the best we can be.

There’s another school of thought that suggests a different solution to why we do what we do.

A sense of obligation – to share experience and knowledge, the obligation to serve others. A sense of duty, and pride – perhaps via volunteerism, a call to action, pride in a job well done and our want to succeed. We should be wary of the vice like self intention, cunningly disguised as “being in our best interests”, which only really offer temporary pleasure. Acts of kindness and our altruistic love for the benefit of others. Passion for our favourite activity or cause, our desire to do something. The desire to “tick the box”, perhaps something off our bucket list, but could lead on to somewhere else. Our destiny may be coloured by family tradition, a hobby or particular calling that other family members before us have excelled in. Yes, there’s a need to have a sense of fulfilment to keep us energised and empowered through our self-actualisation. But maybe we do it for others, to have something to share or for the “greater good”.

Tony Robbins, an author and podcaster, as well as being a mutli-billion dollar entrepreneur, in his TED Talk and book, describes 6 human needs – certainty, significance, variety, love/connection, growth and contribution – and how each influences our thoughts, feelings, behaviours and actions. By understanding what drives us, we can understand how to meet those needs. The same for people around us, once we know what drives them, we can help them meet their needs too.

At a very fundamental level, I know I need to be safe, secure, independent and have a sense of purpose. The narcissist in me does need some form of appreciation every now and then, but I certainly need feedback to make sure that I’m at least heading in the right direction and to help me achieve some personal growth. I need to be educated. I need to understand things and learn from them. I try to encompass all of that in my working, social and family life and am conscious that I don’t always get it right.

Start as you mean to go on

New Years Day morning. A new year ahead that hasn’t been written yet. C made a cooked brunch. I could get used to that 😋.

This year will mark a significant birthday for me. The day this blog is uploaded will mark 50 days until I turn 50. I don’t have any issues with turning 50, it is but a number after all.

The 12 months before I turned 40 I kept a daily diary. I did think of doing something similar for the year that I turned 50 but somehow never got round to it. I guess you could say that I’ve used this blog as a sort of diary, although there’s lots that I haven’t written in a blog that I would have written in a diary.

Starting a new year and a new decade of life gives me the opportunity to start afresh and start as I mean to go on. I could get used to C cooking me breakfast every day but thats not practical or too good for my health. I could take this opportunity to establish some new habits. Start or do more of the things that I ought to do better and drop things that I should not, do less of or that self sabotage.

I read somewhere on line recently that it can take from 18 to 254 days to form a new habit and an average of 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic. Now, I’m not one for New Years resolutions, but I have 50 days to do 50 things that will have a positive habit forming effect on my life to take me into my 50s.

Where to start? Drop me some suggestions 👇

2020 Review of the Year

OK, so let’s join the band wagon of a review of the last year. After all, its been a very different kind of year. Every aspect of every part of life has been impacted one way or another.

Career – started the year thinking it was going to be another year of same old, same old. For the first 3 months that’s exactly how it was. When covid hit it put a lot of things into perspective and I made a decision that, to be honest, had been brewing a while. An opportunity came along to get back into project management, albeit on a secondment. I had to take it for my own sanity. Even though I didn’t start in the new role until December, the thought of it being there was enough to see me through some really horrible months.

Ringing – various ups and downs along the way. Normal routine of Sunday service, monthly quarter peals and weekly practices turned into nothing at all, then maybe 5 people of a Sunday but no practices, then down to just the 2 of us. It looked like we could have gone back up to 5 again for Christmas Day but at the last minute it was not to be. At first I didn’t want to embrace the virtual world of #bellringing. It just didn’t seem worth it. But by May I was running my own weekly practice for family and friends, joining in the odd other online practice and starting to run a monthly district practice and organise a monthly 10 bell practice. Taking full advantage of ringing methods that I wouldn’t normally get to ring in a tower.

Home life – I suppose this is where its hit hardest. We haven’t been able to gather as a family for all the usual events. Mum’s 80th birthday, the May “counting”, R’s birthday, Dad’s birthday. No holiday, no ringing weekends. No visits to North Lincolnshire or Hemel Hempstead or Nottingham. No Cake International Show. We did manage to get a couple of day trips to see R when we were all allowed to mix in small groups again but towards the end of the year it became impossible again. We did set up a regular fortnightly family Skype so we could all keep in touch and at least see each other on a screen if not in person.And of course Christmas was very different. No car boot present swap, no drinking Baileys with R. Just a low key day with C, and chatting with family on Skype.

Cakes – as we haven’t had the usual gathering I’ve not needed to bake as many cakes. I did make a small one for mum’s 80th, a friends 60th and Dad’s birthday, but they only needed to be small ones. I have tried some other bakes instead and been mostly up to date with my BakedIn boxes. I’ve tried a few other recipes too, and did manage to get to a socially distanced class with my favourite teacher at @thecupcakeoven to learn how to make cakecicles and heart gems. I didn’t need to make a Christmas cake as we’re not massive fans of it and we got so much food in the hampers that people sent us. I’m hoping that there’ll be more opportunity for cake in 2021.

I suppose I’m quite fortunately really in that I’ve still been able to go to work and keep some semblance of routine. I’m reasonably tech savvy so have been able to embrace video conferencing and Ringing Room. And of course, the most important bit is that I have managed to stay healthy, as has the rest of the family.

Nothing is going to dramatically change as the clock strikes midnight and a new year starts. But there is hope on the horizon. My colleagues are going through an incredibly tough time and are on their knees trying to keep everyone else healthy but with little support and those idiots that flout the rules and put everyone else at risk. But I do have a sense that we will come out of this the other side. Things will be different and we won’t go back to the way things were, or at least I hope not. We have proven that we can work and play differently.

Models and Metrics

One of my current tasks is to write a strategy for data quality across our Trust. I’m needing to find out a lot about it and have been reading around the subject a fair bit to get some background information together.

One of the things I came across today was The Model Hospital. Its a digital information platform that helps with productivity, quality and efficiency. You can use it to benchmark against other NHS Trusts on all manner of things. It’s got some key metrics that trigger notification where there has been new information added. It churns out some fab looking charts. I might be spending a while rummaging around this gathering data.

I am a bit of a data nerd and love a good spreadsheet or set of facts to chew through.

Recording multiple metrics shows whether our processes are good enough for our service users and plots us against our peers and across the whole NHS Acute Trust sector.

This will be handy in identifying what is system related, operational or corruption data from elsewhere.

I can feel my nerdity peaking. I shall spend the day tomorrow fully immersed.

And to go with it, a special delivery arrived today from a #bellringing friend as a thank you gift, which I’m absolutely loving 👇

Wonder what else we could measure and benchmark in our everyday lives?

Have your cake and eat it

Today there was much talk of cake, of all different sorts.

A family conversation recently discussed the merits of an After Eight Mint cake that one sibling had seen on social media, and the challenge to bake one was issued. I had actually made After Eight mint cupcakes a few years back, so shared the photo (above).

We were due to socially distance visit some friends this weekend but our area has been placed in Tier 3 so that’s now not happening. Before the deadline arrived, our friends popped round to deliver Christmas cards instead and, from the safety of staying in their car, also delivered some yummy cupcakes.

Then, the anticipation of delivery of the monthly BakedIn box. Mine hadn’t arrived yet, but the video had been released so I had a sneak peek. OMG, sounds delicious. My box did arrive later that same morning, so not really a spoiler. I will save that one up for Christmas week.

Then sibling tagged me in a post for a no bake Terry’s chocolate orange cheesecake. I LOVE cheesecake. I printed the recipe off and C picked it up off the printer and declared that I’m making it for Christmas Day dessert. OK then.

And I’ve been formulating an idea for a cake for a special delivery next week. Got an idea in my mind. 🤫

As Marie Antoinette apparently said “let them eat cake”. I shall do my best.

Training, learning, sharing

The Association training day was held on Saturday. In a parallel universe we would have been meeting together and physically ringing, with pub lunches and some great camaraderie.

With lockdown we’ve moved it to a digital format instead. Whilst we’re not all meeting together, or physically #bellringing, or having a lovely pub lunch, we have been able to meet in small virtual groups using Zoom, we were able to ring using RingingRoom and were able to offer both a lunchtime talk and an evening talk. We may not have been able to do that in the real world.

Considering that only a few months back we were feeling bereft about not being able to ring, the organisers were able to put a great programme together thanks to a few people’s efforts. Yes we’re not meeting face to face but there doesn’t seem to be anything that we can’t do online.

When we are able to get back to the tower together, our learning, experience sharing and skills will have helped us and will put us on a great place to move forward.

When we look at the survival and recovery of #bellringing there are some fantastic resources to support a safe return to the tower and much more to come.

There were 2 fabulous talks during the day, the first on the Association of Ringing Teachers and Central Council of Church Bellringers collaboration on survival and recovery. The second was about the Birmingham School of Bellringing and how it teaches from bell handling up to method ringing. I recorded and uploaded both to our Youtube channel.

An excellent way to spend the day training, learning and sharing.

Bells, bakes and business

Such a busy day.

Gave C the option of cake or cookies for today’s baking experience. He opted for cookies. I had a quick gander through the cookie bookie then decided on ginger as the key ingredient. Googled gingernut biscuits but found an alternative recipe. Bashed out ginger cookies, with extra stem ginger for heat. Had a batch of them done first thing.

That was before bells. Assisting my sister in her Ringing Room session whilst she’s consolidating Ipswich, Primrose and Norwich at the moment. The great thing about Ringing Room is that you can put out a request for assistance and the wonderful #bellringing community responds. A regular group of 8 from across the UK, who have never met in person (obviously I’ve met my sister!), gather, ring and offer support and advice.

It was a bit chilly this morning so I needed to do something to warm up and decided that there were Christmas presents ready for wrapping, so cracked on with that. This is the most advanced I’ve been with Christmas preparations in, forever! Had a need for something warm for lunch and attacked cheese on toast. 😋 Simple, yet effective.

A #bellringing meeting followed with lots of good things discussed, agreed and actions assigned. It was noted again, that C was on cuppa and snack duty. Something that he doesn’t require prompting to do.

I then finished reading the fabulous Troy by Stephen Fry. I’ve read all 3 books in the series in a short space of time because they are so easy to read and such fun too. I’m slightly bereft that I’ve finished them. Have nothing to read now.

Only then did I allow myself half an hour to do nothing. I snuggled under my sofa blanket and shut my eyes for a while. I didn’t quite get to nap as C and I were chatting about all sorts of things, especially plans for the Association Training Day, but it was nice just to relax for a bit.

Dinner and a glass (or 2) of wine, followed by giant chocolate orange buttons and televisual viewing sorted for the evening.

Tomorrow’s going to be another busy day 😁

Remembrance Ringing

#bellringing traditions run deep. From Christmas morning, New Years Eve, weddings, funerals, but especially Remembrance Sunday.

In 2018 I was the project coordinator for the #Ringingremembers campaign, an initiative to recruit at least 1400 new bellringers to symbolically replace those that were lost during WW1, on the 100th anniversaryof the Armistice. The project was a massive success due to the community spirit in wanting a way to remember those who had died, as well as the hard work put in by the #bellringing community, who recruited and taught new ringers in the months leading up to the anniversary. So successful was the campaign that we recruited over double the original target.

Fast forward 2 years and it was a very different story this Remembrance Sunday. Due to lockdown restrictions #bellringing has been severly curtailed since March, and there hasn’t been a full return to ringing since the first lockdown yet.

Therefore #bellringing this Remembrance Sunday featured the lone tolling of one bell to mark the Nation’s tribute to the fallen. For many ringers this has been one of the most painful days of not being able to ring.

What is worrying is that all the efforts put in 2 years plus ago, might be undone, as we’re nowhere near a return yet. And when we do return, how many of our number won’t? Whether age, infirmities or loss of interest, those who can’t or who have found other things take up their time, I’m sure the number of ringers will have diminished.

The Central Council of Church Bellringers is working hard to keep things going and formulating plans for a return to ringing, but there may not be another hook for us to regain a recruitment campaign in quite the same manner.

As with most #bellringing activities the rewards are commensurate with the amount of effort put in. In the coming months and years we are going to need to put in a huge effort to reap the rewards.

Time to get the thinking caps on and start planning.

We did a thing

When lockdown #1 began back in March, #bellringing, like so many other things was put on hold. Fortunately, some very clever people thought up RingingRoom, an online virtual belfry that enabled groups of people, from anywhere in the world, to join together to practice.

For a while I wasn’t particularly interested in it, thinking it was a bit too techy for me to get the hang of. But as time went on, and there seemed to be no return to the usual rhythm of practice nights, meetings, quarter peals and peals, I decided to have a closer look.

From some time in May, I invited a small group of my siblings (the ones that ring), my hubby, and some friends, to a regular Thursday evening virtual #bellringing session. Each week we’d try to get the hang of ringing using a keyboard instead of a rope, and learn a different set of visual clues.

One of my siblings has always had it in her head that should could never get the hang of ringing Cambridge Surprise Minor. She had, in the dim and distant past, rung it and even scored a quarter peal of it, but it had never stuck and she rarely had the opportunity to try. I therefore made it an early mission of this group to get her to be ringing it without fuss.

We took a circuitous route, using different methods to introduce different parts of the work and build up gradually. In the meantime, she had also put out a request for anyone else to help her, during her own organised sessions, with extra practice during the daytime.

With this additional help, it wasn’t long before she’d got a plain course sorted and was trying touches. Then someone suggested going for a quarter peal attempt. There were a couple of failed attempts, either technology failures, or brain failures. She eventually changed her day time sessions to a Friday so that I could join in too on my day off.

On our Thursday evening sessions, we have moved on from Cambridge to Ipswich, Primrose and now Norwich. From someone who didn’t think she could ring Surprise Minor methods, she’s now got several under her belt.

It so happened that her hubby had the week off work and it was his birthday on Friday so the suggestion was to try for a quarter peal of Cambridge again. With some trepidation 6 of us gathered, from the comfort of our respective homes and started ringing. It was going very well. Only a few clips here and there but nothing o worry about. There was quite a hiccup quite near the end, but we all stuck with it and managed to come out of it in the right order.

After 49 minutes, a very reasonable quarter peal of Cambridge Surprise Minor was scored. As you might imagine she was really chuffed. Everyone was really pleased to have scored it, especially as a birthday compliment to her hubby too.

Another #bellringing milestone ticked.