To complete the renewal, the wooden panelling has been restained and book shelves have been made for what used to be a very untidy corner by our wonderful Jim McDowell with help from Eve Munns. We are very pleased with our new tower and were proud to show it off to all our visitors over the NAG AGM weekend.
The simulator is a great success. There are some who could happily do without it, but for those with bell handling problems it is a boon to be able to hear your uneven ringing against the perfect ‘ringing’ of the other bells It also provides an opportunity to ring methods that only one or two members of the tower are able to ring. Ander Holroyd has been impressing us all by ringing Bristol Maximus using the simulator!
Summer is the time for weddings, and this year, we had a particularly large number. Once we rang for two or three during one week and three more on the Saturday. It was very hard to find sufficient ringers but we managed.
As is usual in the summer, there have been lots of comings and goings. We have had over 30 visitors this summer, mostly from the UK, plus two touring peal bands: always a great help when the locals go away on holiday. Several people tried their hand at ringing and decided that it was not for them but we do have one new learner, Rhonda, who is very keen. Celia Chan spent a few weeks in the UK as did Anne Hutton, Rebecca and Ander. Ander rang a peal of Kent and Bastow 16 in hand, whilst he was there.
Omer Angel has left Vancouver and moved to Toronto. He will now be on faculty at U of T. Lucky Toronto! We shall miss him a great deal. He started to handle a bell at Holy Rosary about three years ago and learnt so much so quickly that most of us will never catch up with him! Rebecca Woodgate, always up for a challenge and in hot competition, called her first quarter a couple of months ago, and has Bristol Surprise Major down cold, thanks to the AGM. I believe that they are now neck and neck!
Unfortunately for us Dick Waterman had to choose between his daughter Beth’s wedding and attending the AGM! We missed him but send warm congratulations to him and his family. Jim, Pam and Alan, stayed close to home this summer. They were the primary organizers of our AGM. We are proud of them; they did such a good job!
Ruth continues to bring gourmet snacks and tea to our Saturday practice. Ruth’s husband Jack, was very impressed by the wonderful people at the NAG AGM, (and the food and wine) He is tempted to come up and learn soon. Last week was a good week, Jim McDowell covered on the 8 for a quarter of triples; he is now our new tenor man, and we managed to ring London Minor, our newest method, almost perfectly. It’s taken a while, maybe two years, but we made it! Eve and Peter Munns have rung 100 quarters together.
Jeff White, who spent years flying Jumbo Jets for CP Air put his emergency training skills into action one morning during rush hour last month, Whilst popping up the tower to check on a few things, he heard a mighty crash, saw smoke and flames pouring from out of the hood of one of the smashed cars in front of the Cathedral, rushed up the tower, grabbed our fire extinguisher and put out the fire. All this in front of 3 carloads of Vancouver’s finest, and an Ambulance load of Paramedics, none of whom had an extinguisher! They were all very impressed, but Jeff didn’t get the medal he deserved and we did not get our fire extinguisher replaced. Oh well!
Mae Ellis retired from her job at Safeway last week and they gave her a huge goodbye party. All the children were there! We hope that she will be able to come up to the tower more often now.
Much of the last three months was taken up with all the excitement of planning for the AGM. Now, as things return to normal, we can sit back, take a breath, think of the good ringing that we did, the new friends that we made, and the laughs that we had. Thanks to all of you who came to share the good times with us.