Back in the days of ringing with Roger Bailey at Imperial College in the early 1990s, it frequently happened that handbell ringers visiting London would contact Roger and ask whether he could organise a peal for them. He was always happy to oblige. I have had it in mind for several years that it would be fun to invite myself (or myself and Tina) to visit some of the regular handbell peal bands that we see on BellBoard. An obvious example is the band in Macclesfield, which is within easy range of my dad's house in Keele, but we have not so far managed to think about it at the right time to coordinate with one of our Christmas visits.
An opportunity came up recently because of a planned trip to London later in November, for an academic event on a Wednesday evening (at Imperial College, as it happens). I contacted Graham John and then Jack Page, who does the organising, to ask whether I could extend my trip and ring a Thursday evening peal in Reading. They work on a system of monthly planning, with a large pool of people who provide their availability each month and then Jack puts everyone into bands. The answer was that he would try to fit me in. Knowing that they usually ring maximus, I said I thought I would be able to ring something like Bristol or Zanussi or Phobos or Ariel, probably on the tenors. When the November schedule was produced, there was a very good band for my Thursday (I am by far the least experienced person) and Jack mentioned a composition of 4-spliced that they have rung before. OK - some practice in Handbell Stadium will be needed!
That's a good plan for the Thursday evening, but it left me with the question of how to occupy myself during the day. A mundane possibility would be to install myself somewhere and spend the day working. But I have some spare holiday to use, so how about taking the day off and trying to fit in some more handbell ringing? When you get to my age, a feature of having friends who are a little older is that some of them are retired and might be available for daytime ringing. I contacted Steve Mitchell, who Tina and I used to ring with regularly when we lived in Middlesex, to ask whether anyone in his circle might be available. He lives near Twickenham, which is ideal for the train to Reading - it all fits together. He recruited Peter and Muffie King, and we're going to ring a quarter of Bristol.