25th and 26th May 2012 – Annual UEGCR Dinner Day

The University of Edinburgh Guild of Change Ringers celebrated our 32nd Annual Dinner Weekend over 25th-26th May, with glorious weather helping us make the most of the occasion! Events began on the Friday with a spectacular walk up Scald Law in the Pentland Hills, organised by Dan Smith. In an extreme bout of enthusiasm, Dan also carried up six of the UEGCR handbells so that we could ring courses of Plain Hunt and Plain Bob Minor at the summit! Some of the walkers foolishly neglected to bring sun protection, leaving a few of us with lobster-coloured faces over the rest of the weekend.

On the Friday evening our webmaster Hannah Burton hosted a splendid cocktails party (a UEGCR tradition for the night before the dinner). Hannah also introduced some excellent party games which exposed high levels of competitiveness even between the normally more docile among us, and Dan brought his Twister mat along, which (as usual) resulted in both hilarity and intense pain.

Readers may have noticed that one significant activity was so far lacking: actual ringing (handbells doesn’t really count)! This was put to rights on the Saturday morning when we made the short trip out to Haddington, enjoying an hour on the eight bells at this grand church. Following this we took advantage of the superb weather by driving down to North Berwick to spend some time on the beach. Despite the blazing sunshine, the North Sea was as freezing as usual; however, three of the hardier members were not to be deterred and spent a few cold minutes in the sea while the southern softies of the society sunbathed on the sand.

The Saturday evening saw the highlight of the weekend – the Annual Dinner! Our outgoing secretary, Fiona North, had done a fantastic job organising the dinner, which was held at Brown’s Restaurant on George Street. Twelve current members were joined by five guests, and we all enjoyed a delicious three-course meal. After the dinner a few of us made our way across the road to the pub, just in time to watch Engelbert Humperdinck come second-last in the Eurovision. An entertaining end to a thoroughly enjoyable weekend!