Trip to Cambridge, on go the exams & first tower grab
During the holiday I was taken to Cambridge by my grandfather to take a look at the city. He has a big thing about it and its university (which takes up most of it, it seems) in thinking that they are dramatically different from every other place and by comparison with Oxford which he believes is just like any other city. I would like to go to Oxbridge if they’ll have me (it’s worth a try) and right now Cambridge sounds like a better choice than the other. Plus they have a lot of ringing going on there. It’ll also be a chance to debate lots (although Oxford is a bigger place for that from what I can tell) and also cross verbal blades with the so-called upper classes, a term which I ignore the presence of as often as I can. In these ways, it would be nice to go.
On the trip we did a lot of wandering around although we couldn’t go in a lot of the colleges as they were shut off for exams. The most impressive bits were those that could be contrasted with Sheffield, and I realise how backwater it has become up here, namely the Botanical Gardens, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the general atmosphere on the streets. The excellent bookshop (although libraries are better, they wouldn’t let us in the library proper) Heffers stocked the Guardian at a significantly reduced price, making it even more worthwhile to go.
The darker side is of course the elitism and the like, which is a considerable argument I seem to face regularly. However, it’s a challenge: let them come and fall at my sword. I’m not saying I’d automatically win but I’m not bad at debate in general, despite the fact they may well have practice from private schools. The other issue is the money. It’s huge and is only going to get bigger when the cap on tuition fees comes off. However, I do not believe that it is unreasonable to take advantage of upbringing and parents in this way because the good one can do with a better education from one of these universities outweighs the capitalist nature of modern higher education. Please do get in touch if you disagree here.
On return I got straight back into revision, which as of this week has got a lot easier because the exams are a lot lighter in the second of the two main weeks. After Friday I only have two others with about six days to revise for them, which is great. So far they have been going generally quite well, the only real issue being History and perhaps English as I’m not sure I planned my time that well. However, it’s great to know that Biology and English are over forever! On the flipside, I’m very dissapointed with Maths. For the first I was expecting a challenge and (yes, I’m sad, but that’s okay) was really excited the night before. However, it was as I put it insultingly easy. Rosie made the astute observation that the difference between A* and A is how many silly mistakes you make rather than the true mathematical skill which can usually be shown on the last few questions. I was told by Maths teachers and others that when the first paper is easy then the second is usually much more of a challenge, but again I was dissapointed today with only the odd question where I had to think with any depth, and even then it wasn’t anything very exciting.
I keep being asked when I intend to do with the very long summer holiday that I have stretching ahead of me now, and one thing that I aim to do is push ringing hard. This is because my bell handling needs a lot of work and if I can solve this with simply lots of ringing very regularly I can make better use of limited weekly practices back during term time. My mother says I’ll get bored of it but other ringers say it’s definately a good idea as learning at the Cathedral has the disadvantage of not getting many turns, with the advantage being that you have an advanced band of strong ringers to help you. By going to other places I aim to make better use of being at the Cathedral.
So, tonight I went to the tower I have planned for Monday (I have options for every night of the week, Cathedral and possibly Walkley on a Sunday and possibly weddings at the Cathedral on Saturday) which is Walkley, recently hung for ringing and with a lot of Cathedral ringers up there; I was introduced as “a[nother] Cathedral ringer” to the others that I didn’t know. It’s a nice downhill walk from Crookes but a bit of a slog back. This was my first tower grab or ringing visit, something integral to the ringing culture it seems. It went quite well but the bells had some major differences from the Cathedral. They were much deeper set which means to pull off requires a lot more strength than at the Cathedral. Indeed, when trying the 5th (I rung 4th 5th 2nd and treble in that order to simple call changes) I could barely pull it off at all :S
The other thing I did that wasn’t so great (I got used to the bells after a while) was ring the treble badly and therefore mess up leading (which I only learnt last week but which I can do reasonably well). At one point in those call changes all the bells were sounding at once which I think was at least partially my fault. Ah well.
The place itself is a nice enough church, and as I say I knew most of the people there. It’s a lot smaller and while at the Cathedral because there are twelve bells altogether ringing on six requires a virtual straight line whereas at Walkley you can very easily see everyone. I’m told it should be easier to ring on six because the Cathedral is tweaked and lined up etc. for twelve primarily, whereas Walkley will only ring on six (or possibly five). In terms of sound, it’s no where near as nice as the Cathedral. So, I will push my ringing this summer by going to lots of different towers.