Tag: #planahead

Bank Holiday Baking Bonanza with a bit of Bellringing

In ordinary times May Day Bank Holiday would be fully taken up with the #bellringing AGM.  We would need to be at the Cathedral by 9am, usually C would be running the pre-service #bellringing, then the service and then the meeting, following by a quick lunch somewhere and the afternoon towers to ring at in whichever district’s turn it was to host, and the epic bellringers tea.

As we are having our 2nd lockdown AGM over video conference, it meant none of the before meeting activities, no lunch out somewhere nice and no towers to ring at afterwards, although someone had organised a virtual #bellrinigng session for anyone that wanted to join.

This has however, afforded us time to do some other stuff.  Before the AGM started, I made a batch of lemon viennese whirl biscuits with homemade lemon curd (see yesterday’s blog entry) with white chocolate buttercream.  Utterly delicious.  I have also made some tuna scotch eggs that required eggs to be boiled, potatoes to be boiled and mashed, bread to be crumbed, and then all assembled before baking.  These will be for my lunches for the rest of the week, with some salad. 

In the meantime, C perpared and baked some bread rolls.  He put the ingredients in the bread machine first thing, and once mixed, rolled them, proved them then baked. 

The oven was well utilised.

After the meeting we adjourned to Ringing Room for some virtual #bellringing. We tried some rounds on 16 just for funzies, but it came a cropper, so stuck to 8 bell ringing after that with a plain course of Stedman Triples, just over half a course of Cambridge Surprise Major (didn’t quite get to the end), then a course of Bristol Surprise Major which was pretty good. I then ducked out as I still had some things to get done and other Central Council bits to get out of the way today. C said that they ran some Double Norwich Court Bob Majory after I’d left.

Without the afternoon ringing tour and tea, I had time to make Biscoff pancakes I do in advance ready for my breakfasts for the week ahead.  I ping them in the microwave at work for about 1 minute 30 seconds to warm up again. If I’m working from home, I add another dollop of Biscoff spread so it goes all runny and adds extra yumminess.

All in all a Bank Holiday baking bonanza, with a bit of #bellringing business thrown in for good measure. Quite an enjoyable day.

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.