Recent round-up

We've done a lot of ringing in the last two weeks, a lot of it on handbells, and I've rung with an unusually large number of people. I had a visit to the Edinburgh handbell band, which included losing a quarter of Bristol and practising some other surprise major methods. We had two sessions of Stedman Triples in Ringing Room; the first time we lost a quarter when it mysteriously came round at handstroke after a couple of parts, and the second time we rang a quarter. We now want to ring some longer practice pieces before getting together for an in-person peal attempt.

Last Saturday I went to the SACR AGM and striking competition, which went very badly in some ways - I arrived too late to ring for the Glasgow band in the competition, because of difficulty finding somewhere to charge my car in Aberdeen - but did give me, Angela and Peter the chance to ring with some of the handbell ringers from Aberdeen, Inverness and Tulloch.

We had a useful Kent Minor practice session with Jessica, so we should be ready to ring a quarter with her soon. The next session with the learners will be on Monday with Jessica again and Zoé. We also had an attempt at a quarter of London Royal, which fell apart after about a course. More practice needed.

The technical highlight was a quarter of Cambridge Maximus, which felt much more stable than our previous quarter in October. So much so that we've pencilled in a date for a peal attempt in August.

I've also had my reconnaissance visit to 66 Hillhead Street. It was more difficult than expected to find a room that's definitely in the original number 66. The terrace from 62 to 68 has been extensively remodelled and there's little evidence on the inside of the original structure. We managed in the end by going outside and back in through the door of number 66, which is not the main entrance but was open because builders were working inside. The original wall-tiled close is still there - quite attractive. Anyway, there's a suitable room with plenty of space and some nice chairs, so everything is ready to go on 12th June.