On Saturday we had another successful Scottish Handbell Day, which Tina will write about soon. On Sunday we had a session of trying to make progress with our 8-spliced project. As we have been out of practice over the summer, rather than going for a peal we decided to ring a quarter. We can usually succeed with a 5-part, tenors together composition (I normally call LY-RPN-SC-B-) so this time we decided to try a 7-part all-the-work composition, which we have lost once before: B-PL-NYS-CR-.

We settled into a good speed and rhythm straight away, and the ringing was much less trippy than we sometimes manage. But...after a couple of parts we blew up in either London or Bristol. Trying again produced the same result. We decided that we need more practice at changing into London and Bristol, so we tried ringing London, single, Bristol, single as a 7-part touch. This was really difficult! We haven't rung singles in London before, so that was something extra to think about. Also the intense repetition of two tricky methods, with no easier methods to relax in, was very challenging. So challenging that after a few attempts we didn't get this short touch round, before we ran out of time.

Things to work on:

• Ringing the current method all the way to the lead end, before starting the new method; not being distracted by the thought of what's coming up next.
• Knowing the methods thoroughly enough to be able to make a clean start at every change of method.
• Not being distracted by dwelling on past mistakes; every lead end is a fresh start and another chance to ring a perfect lead.