The birth of the goal. A mission, which I have kept to myself till now. About 300 yards from our Victorian mid-terrace, is the 6 bell StPeters, Wilburton, Cambridgeshire, infrequently rung. We grew up abroad so the novel sound nearby one day during the big shutdown had us listening and naively thinking, aah, that can't be too hard to do? My better-half jumped onto google and a while later we started learning, 5 miles away at Stretham StJames, which is a REC (Ringing Education Centre). It's been over a year now, learning a skill is much slower at age 50, and I have finally passed my ART level 1. Frustratingly slow and sometimes I think that not being either musical or mathematical have slowed me down too. But that first lesson turned the lockdown hobby into a mission. To ring my own church bells myself. Every time I hear ringing, I run down the road and sneak in to watch for a bit. Just this week was our district AGM, so we are now guild members too, in fact my smart wife has got a place on the district committee already.
So I'm now attached to my training tower officially, 5 miles away, which does not have a full band yet. Last Sunday we only rang the middle 4 there for example, so I'm still a very long way off from achieving my mission of ringing my local tower with the band I belong to. But for me that mission, even though I'm unlikely to ever be skilled enough to ring a full peal like the wonderful visiting band that first got me curious did, is much nearer now.
And I'm super excited about that, perhaps because learning has energised me personally. I'm a bit ringing crazy people tell me, and I don't mind. I'm pretty sure it has been good for my back pain and keeping me mobile. In fact I have started another ringing "mission" already, because just having a goal has been so positive for me. More on that mission which involves microphones, some other time.
by Conrad Braam, married to Rowan Braam
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