Sometimes you are really ready for a handbell session:  you have done your homework, you managed somehow to leave work on time, you feel fed, relaxed and focused.  When does that ever happen?

Certainly not last night: one of those slightly crazed evenings where nothing quite went to plan, and the ringing was preceeded by a frenzied session of getting the children to bed a lot earlier than they wanted.  I closed the door on the waiting circle of chairs, realising that I had not spared a thought for ringing London.  This was going to be bad, and it would all be my fault.

We rang it.  And it wasn't bad.  No one swapped their pair, no one got irretrievably lost, and no one repeated a lead.   It was slow and a bit hesitant, and that wrong leading needs more practice - a lot more practice.  And, yours truly had a jolly good go of trying to lose it in the last lead (these habits can be hard to break), which was the most serious error of the evening.

It took a year, which encompassed quite a long break of not ringing it, but we are definitely winning:

Scottish Association
Glasgow
1 Albany Quadrant
Thursday 23 August 2012
1280 London Surprise Major
1-2   Angela H Deakin
3-4   Tina R Stoecklin
5-6   Jonathan S Frye
7-8   Simon J Gay (C)

Then we finished off the evening with a touch of 8-spliced.  Our first!  That definitely needs more practice, but tonight we all felt it was achievable.