Where has the year gone?!

Well it's not over yet but it does feel like yesterday that I was in London for New Years!

So I've been back from Uni for like 9 days, and the house has been a bit manic! I came back to snow which was a pain, but a nice new bed was a very good surprise! The family have all been around for a few days; the grandparents have been staying here and go back tomorrow. It's nice to be back but at the same time the mothering is annoying as. Seeing lil miss Martin is goooood tho :)

Ringing wise since I've been back I've scored 4 peals, of which I conducted 3, and have lost one (in hand, rang a QP instead) and had an attepmt cancelled because of the snow. I've also been into the College Youths practice last Tues, which was good, but failed to wake up in time for service ringing this morning! Before I go back I have something like 7 peal attempts left, which if they are successful will include Tantun S Maximus, a new Alliance Major method and my first Spliced as Conductor.

So yeah, that'll do for now!

Whats up Exeterrrrr?!

Wow. A whole term is almost done. Doesn't feel like I've been here for anywhere near 12 weeks. Its been awesome, great flatmates etc and the course is wicked just shitloads of work!

Soooo its been almost 2 months since I've updated this thing. Since then not much has happened! Ringing wise (which is almost the most important (after Lizi)) I now regularly ring at Exeter Cathedral, although I did make a hash of it on Monday! Bristol Max is now standard and I'm working on Avon. The Uni ringing is going from strength to strength, been ringing Cambridge Major which is way above what I expected as the ringing at the beginning of term was, quite frankly, shit lol. We rang a good peal of Bob Triples a couple of weeks back which was nice. Lost a peal attempt of September, October, November and December yesterday and have got 7 Minor in about an hour, a friend of mine is coming down for it which will be wicked.

Guitar wise (second most important) still playing an wasting much of my time! I hope to get a proper amp over Christmas and I'm soooooo tempted to record on the of drum & bass tracks for Slither Ifound the other day. But that does mean bringing my main guitar back from Exeter.....

So yeh thats life! Hopefully Ill blog again soooooooooooooon,its fun!

Oh yeh, one last thing - DJ Ashba rocks my socks!!! lol.

Soo. I'm at Uni! And its been ages since I've updated this. I'm very bored atm. My flatmates are all on their course things/nerding away so I'm sat here checking my e-mails etc. The other people in my flat do it all the time but I feel really antisocial doing it! Ah well my door is at least open.

So yeah, Uni's good so far. Missing the woman but other than that its all dandy. Just got my timetable etc and it is insane in the membrane as some would say. That is so not cool. 40 hours a week including the private study. Literally ridiculous. But oh well, what can you do? lol. So yeahhhhh thats whats goin on. I haven't been ringing down here yet and similarly haven't done any other club shit. The reason being that well it hasn't started but when it does it all clashes with some stupid team building shit I've got to do on Thursday. Ah well. At least the rooms lush as my flatmate would say. So yeah, good times!

Ringing, ringing, ringing

Well since the last post I've scored the second of four peals in a week, which was a slightly sloppy peal of Morville D Major. A few of the band, myself included, performed worse than normal and there were few courses without a trip of some kind. In the evening we succeeded in failing to get the 1311 of Stedman Cinques we lost last month, which was annoying. Maybe if JAA had put the people who were wrong right rather than telling those who knew what they were doing, and were right, what to do we may have got it. I find these 12 bell QPs at Amersham increasingly frustrating.

I've spent the day composing. A 2048 block of Plain Bob Major came quickly which turned into my first peal composition; a 5072. I may call it in the Young Persons peal on August 25th, for which I now have a complete band. I'm struggling with a band for 2nd August at the minute for Minor, and also have two peal attempts to organise in Septemeber, which could go to three if we add a second on the 19th as planned.

About to go and attempt peal number three, Bristol S Major at Chalfont. It was supposed to be Heighinghton, but JAA decided he'd rather call Bristol with all that's been going on recently, and fair enough!

Off to the Ryoal International Air Tatoo at RAF Fairford on Sunday, am well looking forward to it. Only been once, in 2002, and last years, which we were due to attend, was cancelled cos of bad weather. So we must hope for sunshine this week!

Turbulent times!

So I'm back from an awesome hop to Paris with the woman. Had a good time even tho we were just there for like three days.

Ringing wise all hell is breaking loose at Amersham since one of the ringers voiced dissaprovement, again. I've been urged to voice my opinion to her which I shal gladly do! Got a peal of a brand new method yesterday at Maidstone and got peals tomorrow of Morville (second ever in the method) and Bristol at Chalfont on Friday. And then back to Kent next Tuesday for another brand new method!

Got quite a few good pics in Paris and am heading to an airshow on Sunday with pops so hop to get some good pics especially of XH588 and the Reds

Been playing a fair bit of tar, same as always. Black or Whites my song of the moment. So that's that!

So not much

Yeah well not much is happening. Just chilling, working and playing guitar same as normal lol. Pretty damn happy that Federer won yesterday, that was cool.

Ringing wise joint conducted a QP with JAA on Thursday of minor which has started the organisation of a peal attempt for Minor on the first Sunday in August. Going to ring at least six methods, may have a 1440 of Cam then 720s of DOx, Plain, Little, OTB and maybe SOx. Possibly chuck Norwich in there as well.

So yeah that's about it. Still can't believe MJ went and died! Hope I can watch the funeral thing but I'll be in Paris so doubt it... Chat soon....

A few losses

Well, Rutland was a step too far on Thursday. We completely destroyed it three times, before opting for a shaky quarter of Yorkshire. After that me and a mate busted up to the pub and then on the way back, heard about MJ. Tragic loss! It's a shame really that people couldn't appreciate him while he was alive.





We lost a peal two leads after the first part end on Saturday. It's my first in a while that's just fallen apart like that. It's a while until my next peal but then I enter a massive run of two or three a week, I'm aiming for at least 35 this year which should be easily achievable.

Zurich

Not been doing much toady, just sitting around and hence the blogging. Had a good night last night with a mate back from uni, good to see him even if he did look retro as.

Just been spending a bit of time deciding what composition to call on Sat and proving JAA's suggestion (which turned out to have repeats in so maybe not that one!!) and will go with a simple three part. DAC's back in business for the peal so we have a strength eight, as it were.

Seeing as my hands are buggered I'm going to ring the 7, so my challenge now is to call it and keep the coursing order right from the 7th, remembering that a middle will be when the 7ths at the home position but the coursing order will be affected like a middle. Not too much of an issue (I've done it before quite a few times) but it does worry me a little!

Such a (June) Delight!

I'm funny

Had a much, much better last two days ringing wise. Scored two peals, one of June Delight at Chalfont (my 3rd on the 5th and 17th in the tower) and Yorkshire at Amersham, which I rang the tenor for (3rd on the bell, 27th in the tower), taking 2hrs 52 and therefore getting my average on the bell to a respectable 2hr 53.

The Chalfont peal saw me equal NJB, the other Amersham "youngster", in peal figures and overtake him in towerbell figures, and the Amersham peal was my 50th with JAA which is an achievement seeing as I've only rang 56 lol.

We had tower tours up the tower after the peal yesterday (and a JAA tyre blowout) which meant for a hectic day with work afterwards. That's it really lol.

Injury, and tiredness...

Did a 5am start today, and its now 10pm and I'm shattered. And the painting at tesco was shit as it was the wrong colour paint, so there are grey splodges everywhere. Yay.

Ringing wise, however, things are good. Sadly, DAC has injured his shoulder and therefore is pulling out of at least 3 peals this week. But every cloud has a silver lining, and this one is that as Roy Woodruff is the replacement for the Saturday peal, we're now ringing something simple, Yorkshire, rather than Heighington, which is a nice change, adn I am now not in line to ring the tenor (which is good in this case) as Roy is capable. It's just fingers crossed that David can recover prior to the peal on the 27th at Amersham, or I'll be stuck with the tenor for that one...

Back from the heat

Been back from Cyrpus for almost a week now, had an awesome time with the woman. Since I've been back we've just been chilling loads and I've played a ridiculous amount of guitar which has been awesome lol.

As I was off work on Saturday and the rest of the so called Amersham A Team was available we entered the branch six bell competition for only the second time in my 8 and a bit years ringing here, although myself and VJS have rung in a joint Chalfont/Amersham band a couple of times. We came second last year to regular winners High Wycombe, but this year, on the awful bells at Fulmer, beat them by 11.5 faults or thereabouts and therefore we're representing the branch at the final, in the Vale of White Horse branch, in October, which will necessitate a return from University only a week in. Myself and Nick Balderson, I think the two only under 30's in the competition, rang the badly struck 2nd & 3rd and that, according to JAA, is what won the competition. I remember thinking while ringing that we were handling them well.

This week is my return to peal ringing after a month off, with a peal of Pitmans 4 at Totternhoe on Thurs (followed by a QP of Stedman Cinques), then June Delight at Chalfont on Friday and Highington at Amersham on Saturday. A week later, on 27th, I'm calling a peal of Zurich S Major, again at Amersham.

Five outta five!

I've been working a lot recently so have not had much time for ringing, but yesterday (after a cheeky drinking session down the pub with a mate) I successfully called a QP of 5 spliced. This was on top of the peal on Tuesday which I ended up ringing so all was going well.

Today I successfully scored all four QP's (3 as C) on a QP amble around Great Missenden, Bledlow, Haddenham and Cuddington. The highlight was without a doubt some very good ringing at Haddenham in a fast (and bloody hard work) 41m 1280 of Johannesburg. The QP was my 150th, which I called from the tenor, which goes like its 25cwt despite being only 17. So 41minutes really was a noble effort I think!

Heading to London tomorrow, ringing at Cornhill, Jewry and St Seps before coming back, the tour also goes to Bow but I'll have to give that one a miss due to, wait for it, work.

At the minute I'm also compiling a recruitment leaflet based on the one by the CCCBR, which should get done before I go away on Weds.

Decisions!

Had a tough choice today, whether to ring a peal at Aston Clinton on Tuesday or go to Gloucestershire to take pictures... So I left it up to the gods of fate and said I'd ring if needed. We'll see what happens. It annoys me that I'm working on Sunday - I wasn't meant to be and I could have done both then! Ah well.

Not done much recently, been in Tesco more than twice as much as I normally am the past two weeks, and I'm doing the same next week.

At this exact minute I'm bored, it seems to be boredness that promts blogging, and I may go mess around with some guitars in a minute. My Les Pauls still waiting to have its neck glued back together where I cracked it, and I've just noticed a crack in the body of my mockingbird! Ah well I'll just have to buy some more.

The quarter peal day on Friday took a bit of a turn the other day when we were told we could no longer ring at Long Crendon. This is a bit of a pain so Hal's trying to get Cuddington at the minute. I have the band sorted now so it's just a question of the last tower and then picking a method.

Clapton IS god

Had an amazing night last night. Aside from discovering the "pub" we were in was a strip bar, which was actually pretty funny, it was amazing. I had my normal approach of low expectations and Arc Angels, who opened for Clap, didn't do much to change my mind. But at half eight the place suddenly filled and when Clapton came on it went fucking mental. Amazing performances, I didn't know all of the songs (I've been listening to EC solidly for like five weeks and theres still massive tunes I haven't heard) but the solos on Old Love and Sheriff, and the extended Cocaine, were literally the best thing ever. The acoustic set was a bit of a let down in its way, I wanted to see Layla electric, but the solos were out of the top drawer on Somewhere over the rainbow, and Badge, which resumed the electric stuff, was the performance of the night for me. Awesome.

Well good to see Richie, or as he's now know dickie, too.

So yeah, it was amazing. Gonna persuade the woman to go with me if I get tickets for the 31st.

Not much ringing going on, or photography. Tar wise just been learning solos tbh. First solo from Forever Man atm. I'm gonna sell my amp, acoustic and the first guitar I got and buy a better acoustic and bigger amp methinks.

Jo'berg!

Well not alot has happened recently. Went to thorpe park which was wicked with the woman but it's not ringing! Been sorting out the bands and towers for the 29th, promises to be another good day. Also been asked to call 5 spliced on the 28th so my 150th will be on the 29th if we get four out of the five.

Sort of half heartedly thinking about putting together something on June 2nd, possibly 5056 of Minor using a bob course of LB after 7 true extents of Cambridge and Plain Bob.

No peals before then though, and if that doesn't come off it's likely that my next will be on the 18th June (also got peals on the 19th and 20th).

Got a peal I'm organising on June 27th, looking forward to it - hoping to ring Johannesburg which is a simple Lincolnshire variation.

Another quarter down

Another quarter down, a nice early start today of 6.30 which was a change from the 8pm normality. We rang 1311 Stedman Cinques with some very nice striking at points. I rang the 11th which is a novelty for me, although I ring that bell and the tenor lots on major it's the first time I've rung it to a QP on 12. Thats now 146 down so I should hit 150 (and 30 as C) by the end of the month, sadly I doubt they'll be together unless I number juggle as it looks like my 150th will be my 32nd as C.

Pealwise a very dry patch comin up, not got one until late June. Damn holidays. Got three in a week but who knows what may come up before then....

My pictures from Yorkshire seem to have gone down well; just done some Copyright decleration stuff for the A1 trust.

Back from oop north

Been back from Yorkshire since Friday now. Had a good week, got a fair amount of good quality pics which have received favourable comments so far. These are at http://jonpotterphotos.fotopic.net/c1694561.html and all but one are railway related.

Ringing wise scored the Cambridge Major on the 30th (the day before we went away), I rang the tenor and took 2hr49 which is a respectable pace, the tenor being over 19cwt. Scored another peal (possibly my only one in May - shock horror!) on Saturday, a particularly boring attempt for Grandsire Caters, which took my 2009 total to 16 which is my maximum for a year previously so one more to go! That may have to wait until the 18th June though with holidays etc.....

Right that'll do for now, off to work in a few. Should be alright I guess, subject to the customers, as always.......

Yorkshire

Off to Yorkshire with my dad tomorrow (my mum and sis staying here) for a week so won't be updating here. Going to see the NYMR really, hope to get some killer shots in like last time but the weather may not be up to much, we'll see. Got 7 days to get it right!

Today I'm just milling about packin and playing guitar tbh. Still bloody love EC, keep finding wicked tunes, my faves Change the World at the min.

Ringing wise got a peal tonoight of Cambridge Major at Amersham, should get it hopefully. Shall try and ring at the Whitby service and practice night while away. Got a peal of Grandsire Caters on the day of my return as well but not much else booked - yet - for May, so I'll have to try and sort that out!

That's about it really. See ya in a week blog

A good practice

Only seven tonight but had lots of fun, with no JAA I felt more at home putting people right - I normally don't bother with him there. Also called Cambridge, Plain and Little spliced by making up course blocks around 3W, was good fun!

A day of chillin

Not done anything today other than chilled. My acoustic guitar arrived, good for the cash but I'll get a better one when funds allow! Ringing later, Amersham's practice night, looking forward to it for once. I think I'll walk down as it's sunny!

Tomorrow I think I'll go take some pics as my dad's workin from home, so for the first time I'll bung some images up ere!

Aint got much else to say so thats all for today!

Stats

Got the peal today on the uninspiring eight at Tring, nice ringing for the most part though and an interesting composition which always helps with Bristol!

Just been compiling stats following this. In my 51 peals to date, I have rung 26 methods, for 5 associations, with 9 conductors, and with 83 ringers in total. JAA is my leading ringer with 46 peals together - he's also my leading conductor with 34. Amersham is my leading tower (24) and the Amersham Guild my leading association (27). My leading method is Bristol S Major (6), although accross all stages is tied with Cambridge (3 Major, 2 royal and 1 maximus). Got a minimum of 14 peals to go to complete the Alphabet with Surprise Major - too much overlapping! Including Royal its only 13 though... lol. Thought that may be of interest!

I'm told I'm ringing the tenor at Amersham to a peal of Cambridge Major on Thursday which I look forward to - I've only pealed it to Plain Bob before. That will make Cambridge my leading method...

27th

Yo. Just got back from working at Tesco. Had a good day chilling with the gf. She's hot. Sooo excited about going to see Clapton now, I'm like 175 pages into his book and everytime I hear referance to a song I check it out, and I'm amazed by the guy. Legend.

Got a peal tomorrow morning at Tring, of Bristol Major, nothing to sweat about really. Looking forward to it, I like ringing what are now methods easily in my repitoire and getting very good striking with a strong band around me. The other day I was in a peal with 5 ringers with over 3600 peals, and the others all had over 1600 other than me!

Got a young ringers thing going down on facebook which is pretty exciting. There's alot of talent out there that I didn't realise for sure! Hopefully a peal or QP will be got by a young band from that group soon.

Not much other news. Would take some pictures but its bloody raining always. Not a problem really for the photos I just dont wanna get wet! Been playing loads of guitar the last few days, generally learning like two tracks a day or so. Gonna go acoustic later this week which should be cool!

Another loss

Not having the best week, 2 peals out of four (one cancelled) and 3 quarters out of 5. Lost Grandsire Caters this morning after about 1hr50, which just collapsed sadly. This was an attempt to be rung in memory of one of the local ringers who sadly passed away earlier this year. We haven't served him well, losing two QP's on Easter Monday and now the peal, but getting a QP of Cambridge Max. We have one final attempt on Thursday for a peal which I hope we get.

Got an averagely busy week this week with two peals and no QP's. Trying to put together bands now for another QP amble around four churches in May and also for two peal attempts, should hopefully get that sorted this week.

Also going to record a couple of guitar tracks here hopefully, just as something to do to fill time. I worked up a couple of covers a while ago which need reworking as well if I can be bothered!

Three out of four

Had a good day today all in all. Set off earlyish to get to Wingrave by 10am for the first of four QP's, the plan being for Cambridge Major. Following a mix up in the second course we stood up and, as one of the ringers had to leave for an appointment and time was an issue, we opted for Cambridge Minor, called by DAC. Fast ringing, about 41mins ish with a 15cwt tenor. http://www.campanophile.co.uk/show.aspx?Code=82193

Next stop was Wing, and as we;d just rung Cambridge Minor we hanged the method to Bob Minor with some doubles methods at the end. Sadly this was miscalled and lost after about 20 minutes; very nice bells though and we got to the pub for lunch earlier so that was fine!

After lunch we travelled to Long Crendon and sadly we only had enough to ring 8 - so I called Yorkshire S Major off the tenor which was very enjoyable. Long Crendon's where my parents met so it's nice to have rung a QP there. This was probably the best ringing of the day, taking 47mins - http://www.campanophile.co.uk/show.aspx?Code=82194

Next was Quainton where we could only ring on the back 6, again due to lack of personnel. I suggested Double Oxford after leaving Long Crendon so I called that for a 720 with a 576 of Cambridge to take it to the length. A nice QP, tenor well handled I thought. Around 43mins I think, didn't time accurately but we weren't particurly hanging around - http://www.campanophile.co.uk/show.aspx?Code=82195

A good day all in all, got some dates booked for repeats and peals etc etc.

After getting back I'd been told to ring a ringer back about a couple peals, sadly I couldn't do either of them - I hate turning down peals!

Anyway now the choice is whether to go to the pub or ringing. I think I may have done enough ringing for today. Plus the practice starts in ten minutes and I'm wasting time on here! And I've got a peal tomorrow so I ought to do something other than ringing for a change!

Unlucky St George

Well not a particularly successful evening at all. Lost the quarter of Grandsire due to a miscall - I'm having bad luck since completely knocking my confidence with conducting Grandsire in the last two weeks. So we set off for Plain Bob which is much simpler, and I regret both not placing the band and not commenting on the striking. I guess it's because back when ringing was something I did and didn't enjoy at all I used to hate conductors who criticised my striking, although now I fully realise it's necessary.

So with those losses I'm going to try for simpler things tomorrow - Wing Bob Doubles has been completely scrapped - just Cambridge and Grandsire for Wing, Cambridge for Wingrave with DAC calling, and probably Yorkshire or Rutland and 3-spliced for the last two towers.

May take my camera and take some photos tomorrow - it's been far too long since I took any serious photos. Got a week of photography in Yorkshire coming up in a couple of weeks, that should be good.

Got a decision to make about a holiday with some mates too... Hopefully Tesco will give me some time off...

Anyway the inbetweeners is about to come on e4 so I'll stop blogging now lol

23rd April

Hmm. A bit bored so I thought I'd start a blog. Doubt anyone will follow but who cares.

About to go call a QP of Grandsire. Probs the standard 1288 by R William Willans as I haven't left much time to learn a brand new one. Not the strongest of bands but achievable nonetheless. Got four QP's on a bit of a tour I've put together with a mate of mine tomorrow, should hopefully get at least 3, standard methods.

After not being able to go to Maidstone this week to ring a new Alliance Royal at the last minute I got invited back to ring London No. 3 in May, but I'm going to see Clapton instead, which I'm pretty excited about. Hopefully will get off to Maidstone one more time before I go to Exeter Uni in Sept, really enjoyed it last time.

Just rang my 50th peal on Monday, on the tenor at Hughenden for Superlative, taking 2h51 which I think is quite respectable although I could have done a bit better I feel. Left my hands in shreds though whih is the first time I've got blisters in ages, despite 13 peals (and 17 QP's) so far this year. Number chasing wise I'm almost on 150 QP's and just passed 25 as C.

Anyway must go ring, lets see if we get it. Just have to decide which one to call it from...