Task 9: Abseil down a vertical face

I'm delighted - at last! - to be able to give you an update on my abseil challenge. Did I face my fears?  Were friend Jenny and husband Andrew awesome abseil allies?   Read on.....

Four days ago, Abseil Sunday dawned. I woke up to find large butterflies partying madly in my stomach. Jenny and I exchanged supportive texts. She sounded much calmer than me. 

I opened my inbox to discover an email from the Action for Happiness Group. 'Today's the 4th United Nations International Day of Happiness' it announced. Surely that had to be a good omen? Then I decided to prepare myself by looking at the Hatt Adventures website, where there was a collection of photos of previous abseilees.  Bad idea Vivien. The abseil tower looked much higher and less forgiving than the image of it that I'd created in my mind.  I sent a group text to the family - 'It's been very nice knowing you all' I said rather bleakly.

At 2pm Andrew and I made our way to Blackland Farm near East Grinstead, where the abseil experience was taking place. The tower loomed above us, the height of a 4-storey building.  We met up with Jenny (still a good deal less fear-pumped than me) and her sister Fiona, who had very kindly agreed to be our official photographer.  Kyle our instructor arrived, together with a group of three men who were to join us for the abseiling experience. They had all been rock-climbing with Kyle in the morning and looked like old hands at dangling off ropes. Kyle exuded the perfect mix of confidence and authority. He went through safety procedures and showed us how to put on our helmets and harnesses (if you're especially sharp-eyed, you'll have spotted in the photo below that I'm wearing the running shoes that got me through the 10k - I thought they might bring me some luck).

In our little trio, Jenny volunteered to take on the tower first. Next thing, there she was heading downwards in full abseil mode, beaming from ear to ear and looking like a pro. Wow!!  She received a very well deserved round of applause from the group. What a gal......

Andrew went next. Another impeccable performance - more applause. Us sixty somethings were definitely holding our own with the younger guys. Oh but wait a minute, I hadn't done the descent yet. Was I about to let the side down? 

I stood at the top of the tower. Kyle deftly clipped me onto the abseiling rope. He started talking to me about the sixtyat60 challenge. 'What's your next task?' he asked me chattily. 'Can't remember a thing' I replied, mouth dry as a bone, heart pounding like crazy. I stood with my back to the drop. 'I can't do this' I said in a small voice.  Kyle was clearly used to dealing with understated histrionics and continued to talk me through the procedure in very reassuring tones. Next thing I found myself sitting back in my harness with nothing else but air beneath me and those running shoes of mine making the lightest of contact with the tower edge. I was on my way. I walked down the first section and then bounced off the abseil wall, as instructed, to the bottom. Wheee!

And then I'm proud to say that Jenny, Andrew and I all had a second turn at abseiling down the tower.  As I was collecting myself for Drop 2, Kyle said 'So you're going down blindfolded and one-handed this time Vivien?' 'Yeah right Kyle' I replied chirpily, thinking he was joking. Only he wasn't.

Here's a photo of us all at the end of the abseiling experience - it's interesting to see how quickly a group bonds when there's a shared sense of risk swirling around.   

Jenny, Andrew and I left Blackfield Farm feeling a million dollars. Fears were confronted, an adrenaline rush was savoured, we laughed loads and we hadn't a single broken fingernail between us (that probably matters more to Jenny and me than Andrew). I feel sure we fulfilled the UN International Day of Happiness criteria.

Our sincere thanks to Kyle at Hatt Adventures for a brilliant abseiling experience - it was far more enjoyable than I ever would have thought possible.   A huge thank you to Fiona for some much needed support and fine photography services.  Well done Lucy for booking up the experience for me as a Christmas present, thus ensuring that I couldn't avoid facing my fears. Congratulations to Andrew for confronting his own fear of heights so successfully. And 10 gold stars and a big hug to Jenny for being a wonderful and highly impressive abseiling companion (go Jenny - so proud of you!) Do you know something? I think us wrinklies rocked a little that afternoon.

Jenny, Andrew and I went over the edge in memory of a very special little girl, Thea Redford, to raise funds for Shooting Star Chase Children's Hospice Care, which provided Thea's parents Annabel and Rob with invaluable support, advice and specialist help during Thea's small but amazing life. If you'd like to read more about Shooting Star Chase and/or would like to make a donation, do please visit my JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/sixtyat60challenge/   

   

Task 17: Ringing the bells of Maresfield Church, East Sussex

Over the years, one of the simple pleasures of living on the outskirts of Maresfield has been to hear the sound of the church bells drifting down along the valley towards our house. I would especially love hearing the bells on a Monday evening as the bell-ringers at St Bartholomew's held their weekly practice. Whatever else was going on in the world - terrorist activity, floods, tsunami, financial crashes - the bells would continue to ring out, serving as a gentle yet powerful reminder that life goes on. 

Then a couple of years ago I noticed how quiet Monday evenings had become. The bells continued to call people to church on a Sunday morning and to celebrate weddings on a Saturday afternoon. But that regular reassuring quality of the Monday evening practice was missing. So when it came to compiling my sixtyat60 list, I decided to include ringing bells at Maresfield Church. At the very least, I thought, this task would nudge me into finding out what was afoot in our local bell-ringing community. 

Two weeks ago, I began my quest to complete Task 17. My starting point was to contact the vicar of Maresfield and Nutley, Nick Cornell, who to my delight instantly signposted me to John, the tower correspondent of the Maresfield bell-ringers. So the bell-ringer team was still operational - hurrah! However......John explained that the bell-ringing band has been reduced to just 4 regular ringers - and since at least six ringers are required for 'a meaningful practice', Monday evenings are mostly not a goer. Hence the silence of the bells. 

Between us John and I agreed a 2-stage plan of action, with the caveat that I would ring a bell only with a lot of help from one of the band. As John says, it isn't safe for the uninitiated to be let loose on a bell weighing several hundredweight! Any images I had of a Quasimodo-like experience were put firmly to one side.

Ten days ago, Andrew (my ever-stalwart companion) and I drove to Fairwarp, a small village just a couple of miles from Maresfield, and made our way through a dark and slightly eerie graveyard to the back of Fairwarp Church. We climbed a set of narrow winding steps to the bell-ringing nerve centre halfway up the tower, where  John and the 7-strong Fairwarp bellringer team (age range from 10 to six score years and 10) were about to start their Thursday evening practice.  We were given a warm welcome, after which we were taken up the tower to be introduced to the star players of this blog - the very splendid set of eight bells.

 

Back in the bell-ringing room, the band commenced their practice, starting with simple rounds (ringing the bells in order from the smallest to the biggest), and then moving onto call changes (where the order of ringing each bell is changed every round). Andrew and I stood watching them in absolute awe. We could see that the ringers were working together in complete unison. They were watching one another closely to ensure that the 'pulse' was nice and regular - but their demeanor seemed incredibly relaxed and calm throughout. If anyone made a mistake, I didn't spot it, either through bell sound or bell-ringer grimace.

Then it was over to Andrew and me to have a go. Forget rounds and changes, this was just about trying to grasp the basic technique of pulling the rope correctly. As you can tell, I was taking the whole thing very seriously indeed, whilst Andrew appeared more chilled in his approach.  It's certainly a good workout for the shoulder and upper arm muscles - farewell to bingo wings Vivien?  

 

The band completed their practice by ringing a set of methods (pre-planned sequences), which sounded wonderful.  Now that we had a better understanding of what it felt like to ring a bell, we were even more bowled over by their skill. Then the bells were put back in their resting position, we said our farewells and we all made our way back through the churchyard. Stage 1 was duly completed. 

Last Sunday I moved into Stage 2 of the task in which I visited St Bartholomew's to observe the 4-strong band of Maresfield bell-ringers in action before the morning service.  John was there to greet me (now a familiar friendly face of course) together with Angela and Tony, and their tower captain Mike. I was immediately struck by the difference in bell-ringing settings between Fairwarp and Maresfield churches. There's no climbing up the bell tower at St Bartholomew's - as you can see, the team accesses the bell ropes at the end of the nave of the church, just a stone's throw from the congregation. 

   
The team prepared to ring the first round.....and off they went.

A set of fine-sounding changes later, interspersed with a couple of breather breaks (the St Bartholomew's bells are a long way up!), the Maresfield bell-ringers' session was over - and for me, Task 48 was in the can.  As we left the church we all agreed how brilliant it would be if the team were to recruit a little coterie of newbie bell-ringers, so that all eight bells could begin to ring out together again.  

So the million dollar question - did I find bell-ringing appealing? Sorry - I really must stop those irritating puns. Put it another way, will I be tempted to do further bell-ringing with the Maresfield band? Well, what Andrew and I have learnt is that bell-ringing is a very creative, skillful and satisfying team activity (I'm not surprised there's a push to make it an Olympic sport). For now I'm going to pause for thought whilst I focus attention on completing the rest of my sixtyat60 tasks.  But in the meantime I want to help raise awareness of the joys of bell-ringing and the lack of available ringers.  I've offered to submit a short article to our local parish magazine about my bell-ringing experience in the hope of encouraging new ringers to step forward and join the band. And if you're kind enough to be reading this latest post of mine, I'm letting you know too!

My thanks to Nick Cornell for his enthusiastic and warm response to my initial inquiry and to the Fairwarp and Maresfield bands for giving Andrew and me a great taster session in bell-ringing. And a very special thanks to John for his support of Task 17 - if his helpful and cheerful approach is representative of the bell-ringer community, then I think they're a fine group of people to pull ropes with!    



I'm doing the sixtyat60challenge to raise funds for Shooting Star Chase children's hospice care in memory of a special little girl called Thea Redford. 

For further information or to make a donation please visit my JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/sixtyat60challenge/

If you would like to follow this blog click here for information on how to do so  

Task 9: Abseil down a vertical face - heads up.....

I'm not good with heights. It's that 'going over the edge' moment. From time to time I have dreams - no, delete that, I mean nightmares - of finding myself balancing precariously on a tiny platform with a huge drop below (a Jungian analyst would have a field day). I'm always very relieved to wake up.  But if you've been reading my blog for a few months,you'll probably have realised that one important aspect to my sixtyat60 challenge is facing fears. Hence the inclusion of Task 9.

And now there's no escaping it - this coming Sunday, 20th March, at 2.30pm, I'm going to have an 'Abseiling Experience' (thank you Lucy for giving me such a memorable Christmas present!), accompanied by my amazing and very brave friend Jenny. Yes, there we'll be, two sixty somethings, dangling from ropes on an abseil tower near East Grinstead. I can't believe I'm even writing that, let alone actually doing it.

But what Jenny and I keep reminding ourselves is that we're going over the edge in memory of a very special little girl, Thea Redford, to raise funds for a wonderful cause - Shooting Star Chase Children's Hospice Care. If you'd like to read more about Shooting Star Chase and/or would like to make a donation, do please visit my JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/sixtyat60challenge/   

Task 21: Do a beginners’ course in Spanish

I'm delighted to say that Task 36, one of my slow burners, is now completed! So let me begin this blog by saying:

Why did I include a beginner's course in Spanish on my sixtyat60 list? Well, over the years Andrew and I have taken a number of trips to Spain.  We've had buzzy weekend breaks in Madrid, Barcelona and beautiful Seville and more extended chillaxes in the Balearics and the Costa Del Sol region. We've been culture vultures, tapas tasters, sun-soakers and vino-quaffers. But whatever the activity, to my abiding shame, we've never managed to strike up a conversation in Spanish beyond the most basic hola, adios, gracias and 'la cuenta por favor' (backed up with that universal scribble gesture of course).  I've lost count of the times I've said to Andrew, 'I really must have some Spanish lessons before we visit Spain again.' 

I had a second key reason for deciding to include Spanish lessons on my list - I read about a recently conducted large study showing that learning a language helps promote brain growth, even later in life. That did it.  Time to learn Spanish courtesy of Task 21 - and rapido. 

The first step was to track down a Spanish tutor in the Uckfield area. Oh the joys of the internet. It took me just 20 minutes to find a specialist tutor, and within 24 hours, my first lesson was booked with Ines, a Spanish tutor who was born and brought up in San Sebastian, although she's lived in the UK for many years. Here she is in Lesson 1, handouts and notebook at the ready.

  
I had six weekly lessons with Ines, during which we moved swiftly from friendly greetings to learning numbers right up to a million and beyond (try saying 5, 555, 555 in Spanish - it's a minefield), telling the time/date, describing the weather, visiting cafes for breakfast (not literally) and much more. I conjugated verbs and began to construct simple sentences. I discovered that Spanish is a really lovely language to learn, as the grammar is quite straightforward and pronunciation isn't too scary - you just have to get rolling those 'rs'. Ines balanced endless patience, warmth and good humour with attention to detail, which was the perfect approach for me.

My biggest challenge has been learning vocabulary. But as I've memorised lists of words between lessons (see photo), I've felt my brain cells slowly and grumpily coming back to life.  I've relied hugely on visualisation and association techniques. It's best that I don't give you any examples because you'd think I'm quite bonkers (yes, I know). But as a result of using the techniques, I've managed to store and retrieve the vocab as required, which I'm ridiculously chuffed about. I do hope my brain has grown accordingly.

I attended for my sixth and final lesson last week. I said adios and hasta luego to Ines. Andrew and I have now booked a long weekend in Valencia in mid-June to celebrate the end of my sixtyat60 challenge (12 weeks to go, 40 tasks completed so far....) We're going to find ourselves a nice little cafe in the old part of the city, and I shall say to the waiter in my very best Spanish 'Hola! Como estas? Puedes darme un zumo de naranja, una cerveza y dos bocadillos de jamon por favor?'*  I shall resist the urge to ask the waiter when their birthday is or how many children they have.

Muchas gracias to Ines for giving me a wonderful and surprisingly painless introduction to Spanish. I shall be returning to see her for a refresher lesson before we go to Valencia. Until then I've promised to learn 3 new Spanish words a day. At this rate by the time we get to Valencia I'll be able to have in-depth chats with local residents about anything from the EU referendum to Gary Neville's management of Valencia FC (hmm, perhaps not).  

And now all that's left to say is...

I'm doing the sixtyat60challenge to raise funds for Shooting Star Chase children's hospice care in memory of a special little girl called Thea Redford. 

For further information or to make a donation please visit my JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/sixtyat60challenge/

If you would like to follow this blog click here for information on how to do so  


* Hello! How are you? Please could you get me an orange juice, a beer and two ham baguettes?' (You knew that already didn't you!)   

Task 24: A night at the opera at Glyndebourne, East Sussex

As with the other 'Culture clubbing' tasks, the reason for choosing Task 24 was to address a yawning crevice in my cultural education. After dithering for weeks over whether I had more of a yearning to visit Glyndebourne or the Royal Opera House in London (such a first world problem), I decided to keep my options open.

I quickly encountered two major obstacles to the successful completion of Task 19 - a) ticket availability and b) ticket cost.  Carmen at Glyndebourne sounded wonderful, but the only remaining tickets were an eye-watering £250 each!!   La Traviata at Royal Opera House sounded equally splendid, but tickets had been snapped up within hours by the great and good operatic in-crowd.  Back to the drawing board...... 

Then three months ago I received an email from Glyndebourne promoting their annual Youth Opera. I instantly experienced a powerful flashback to a dank and dreary February morning in 1997. Lucy had just received her 11 plus results in the post, and the news wasn't good. It turned out that her good friend Alistair (see below Ali and Lucy at their, er, circus-themed joint 7th birthday party) had received a similar letter.  As chance would have it, Linda, Ali's mother (and yes, my Graham Norton fixer friend!), had just been given 4 tickets for the Glyndebourne Youth Opera for that evening's performance. We decided to take Ali and Lucy as a form of distraction therapy and it worked a treat - 11 plus woes were instantly forgotten by all of us. 

 
The flashback got me thinking. Perhaps there was a way of having a very special sixtyat60 night at the opera without breaking the bank. My cunning plan? To re-create that '11-plus' Youth Opera evening. A few phone calls/emails later, four tickets were duly booked for the premiere performance of 'Nothing', a production based on a novel for young adults by the Danish author Janne Teller. 

      
Last Thursday evening Linda, Ali, Lucy and I arrived at Glyndebourne for our Youth Opera Grand Reunion. The night was dry, still and freeeezing cold. As a predominantly summer venue Glyndebourne is designed to be open to the elements, which is a lovely idea - but maybe not in February.  Added to which Ali and Lucy, now busy young professionals in London, had both had very stressful days at work. There was only one thing for it - make a dash to the Long Bar for a glass of champagne/Sauvignon Blanc to soothe the mind and insulate the body. 

The curtain went up and 'Nothing' began.  At first, it all seemed jolly and upbeat, as a class of cheerful Danish teenagers returned to school after the summer break. Then the existential nihilism began to creep in. One boy, Pierre, announced that nothing had any meaning and climbed into a plum tree. His classmates tried to prove he was wrong through creating a massive pile of meaningful items that they planned to burn. Things went from bad to worse. A dog corpse was dug up, a finger was cut off and a rape was inferred. Pierre emerged from his plum tree, clambered up the 'meaning' pile, the class laid into him (elements of Lord of the Flies there), and he appeared to be burnt alive. Blimey, talk about Scandi-noir. What would Sarah Lund have made of it? The curtain came down. There was a brief stunned silence as the audience gathered their thoughts, followed by rapturous applause. Ali and Lucy felt it made their own work stresses seem relatively insignificant. I was a little relieved that we hadn't seen Nothing when they were 11 years old.

The quality of the production was stunning - the small team of young professionals were brilliant and the group of young singers and musicians, all from local schools, didn't put a foot wrong. At just £15 a ticket, it represented fantastic value.  And I'm glad to say that it was relatively warm in the auditorium, although my coat remained firmly buttoned up throughout the performance. 

Before heading back to the railway station, Ali and Lucy decided to formally mark the occasion by replicating a second photo I'd brought along, this one taken at their joint 6th birthday party (probably just as well they didn't attempt the clown one.....)   

 

I'm very touched by Ali and Lucy's willingness to be two of my companions on Task 19, especially as it meant having to travel to the outer reaches of East Sussex at the end of a long day's work. As Linda and I looked over at the two of them, heads together in full catch-up mode, we thought back to 1997 and agreed that they still know how to behave themselves, that they're a pleasure to spend time with - and that they seem to have done pretty well for themselves in life, 11 plus or no 11 plus!    A huge thank you and bravo to Linda for her inspired idea of taking our two downcast 11 year olds to Glyndebourne 19 years ago.  And I'm still determined to see an opera at the Royal Opera House one day.....   

I'm doing the sixtyat60challenge to raise funds for Shooting Star Chase children's hospice care in memory of a gorgeous little girl called Thea Redford. 

For further information or to make a donation please visit my JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/sixtyat60challenge/

If you would like to follow this blog click here for information on how to do so