All At Twos and Threes

And so it came to pass that the penny dropped, as pennies usually do, when I realised that the two events that had been arranged in parallel email conversations involving an almost identical group of people, were rather closer together than I anticipated. Allow me to explain how this happened.

About a month ago, I was asked if DH and I could help out by taking part in a couple of Quarter Peals at a nearby tower. For the uninitiated Quarter peals are set lengths of bellringing of around 40 minutes, that comply with certain rules.

Unfortunately, we had to decline the invitation to ring in the first, as it was on Good Friday when we were away. This was a real pity, as it was on eight bells and we rarely get the opportunity to ring Quarter Peals on this many bells.

The other Quarter Peal was being arranged for the second Saturday in April. Due to a ringing event already being scheduled at that tower on that particular day, this was subsequently rearranged to be rung at our home tower.

We normally ring for evening service on the 1st and 3rd Sundays, and recently we have tried to ring a one Quarter Peal per month.  I had arranged for April's attempt to be rung on the third Sunday of the month, as we were away on Easter Sunday, April 1st.

However, it was only this week that I realised that the second Saturday was 14th April and the third Sunday was the 15th - adjacent days! Arghhh! What is the chance of that happening? Is it one in seven, or are the odds against this happening far greater?

DH was apprehensive as to how his arms would cope with all this stretching, and that was before he remembered that we were also signed up for ringing training on Saturday afternoon!

It came to pass that for a variety of reasons Saturday morning's ringing was rescheduled for later in the month, thus we were saved by the bell.

Meanwhile, I resolve to pay closer attention to the calendar in future!